Riding in the hood.

[Bikeguy Joe]

I'll ad that we had ice storms and then no power for three days (well, we have a generator I hooked into the breaker box here last fall), my work has shut down until at least Tues (from last Wed.) Ashtabula is in a state of emergency, and today/last night we got 18" of new snow and the road in front of my house is closed.

Man, do I need a bike ride.

 

[deacon]

It rained like the devil here today and I am just as antsy as the proverbial prostitute in the tent meeting.

 

[Ilikeabikea]

Would you believe I actually used to ride my bike in the snow when I was a kid. We would take bailing wire and spiral it around the tire and wheel. Made it have much more traction in the snow......................

 

[deacon]

These days id be afraid to ruin a tire.... But I think they used to make bike tire chains

 

[paul]

me to. i tried all sorts of things when younger. small scews in the tread, staples and everything else i could think of. needless to say i ruined alot of tires but back then mom and dad would buy me new ones lol

 

[deacon]

I don't know if I every explained about the bike trail near my home or not. Its about two blocks down hill on the main road where I live. Then it's a right turn onto a road with houses so close to the corner that you could reach out an touch them from the road. that is only a very slight exaggeration. Then it is four block downhill a very fun ride actually.

Then it is a sharp left turn onto the trail. a beautiful mile and a half ride over some specially built wooden bridges and through some underpass tunnels built just for walkers and bikes.

At the end of the mile and a half the trail winds back up to the busy road I live on. One can cross that and do another scenic mile and a half. The trail goes on for about twenty more miles,but I have never been that far.

The reason I mention that is because tomorrow I'm going to ride the new three speed Electric Teddy bike. I haven't been able to ride that mile and a half out to the busy road and back without stopping yet. I'm going to drop my battery pack and see if I can do it with the aid of the three speeds. Oh they work by the way.

If I can get back, I'll pick up my batteries for the long 5 or 6 block uphill ride home. I am looking forward to giving this a try.

For while now I have been running smooth pvc pipe as a drive wheel. Tomorrow I am going to take a try at covering it with a worn out piece of tire. I have had covers before an the work great but they don't last very long because I never figured a way to attach them. This time I'm going to wrap a piece of tire tread and run a couple of screws into the pvc pipe to hold the cover down. I have no idea if it will work of not, I have never tested it.

 

[deacon]

Well I test rode the electric teddy. After it threw me on my butt, I decided that it's back to the trailer batteries. The bike with that kind of weight is just too far off balance for me. Then I also decided that it needs a smaller crank. Probably one from a 20" or even a 16" bike will do.

The teddy is three speeds so it will give me an even lower 1st gear, a gear probably about like low is now, and a regular bike type gear. I just won't have that highest cruise gear. Since I don't think I'll be doing any cruising it should be fine.

I really need the smaller crank to get the pedals down lower. I am hitting the motor on the back pedal. A smaller crank has shorter pedals. I will probably go looking for a bike today.

 

[deacon]

Struck me this morning that I need to explain where "Ridin in the Hood" comes from. My wife comes home for lunch everyday. If she doesn't hear my voice calling out to her, she calls for me. If I don't answer she goes looking for me. Up the stairs and in every room then out back. You see my car is in the drive so where the heck am I.

She made me a sign that says "Ridin' in the Hood." on one side and "Ridin on the Trail" on the other side. That's so she knows where to tell the cops to look for the body if I'm not home when she get off work at five. It also keeps her from having to tour the plantation when I'm out ridin' in the hood.

So when I wanted to just ramble about riding my bike around town, I decided to call it "Riding in the hood." Now you know the rest of the story.

 

[Pablo]

Struck me this morning that I need to explain where "Ridin in the Hood" comes from......

And people wonder why I love this site so much.

My wife asks me where I go for rides when I take off.......yep...."Ridin in the Hood" is my answer!!

Almost forgot one time I was riding for awhile and came home the back way........so who did I spot? The wife, walking the dogs in the hood! She thought it was pretty cool to actually see the creation going from point a to point b!

 

[deacon]

You gotta good wife...

 

[deacon]

I noticed something on my ride today. Oh by the way, I was going to get a rattle can of flat black paint. I ran out working on my new Transylvania style chopper. Anyway, after the bike started I noticed small bubble in the gas line. Air was working its way up into the gas tank. I made a note to ask about that till a block later I ran slap out of gas. I tried several times to start the bike to no avail. I was about to curse and kick it again, when I realized the gas line was turned off. It started right up and off I went to the store.

Now I know what the little bubbles were lol. Air replacing the gas as it drained from the line of course. Duh..

By the way, the bike is excellent for running errands. I mean it was fun to go to the store. What a novelty.

I have the new bike out back the paint is curing in the sun. At least I hope so.

 

[deacon]

I woke up and it was 41 degrees. I had some coffee touched up the paint on my new Echopper, Then took my T'ville chopper on an errand run. Okay I had to dream up the errands but I still did things I would have driven my car to do before.

I bought a gas inline filter.. There are available at advance auto parts for two bucks. They also have the gas line there, but I have to warn you, only a few of the clerks actually know what they are doing. I took in a piece of my gas line and he knew what I wanted. If you say lawnmower time gas line most of the clerks tune right out. They have out line and the trimmer gas line as well.

The car out there are maddening. They pull out in front of me all the time and today one almost ran over me. I was going to make a left turn on a back street so I move over to the middle of the road. When I got ready to make the turn I looked back just a little and damn there was a guy going around me on the left.

I have got to buy some turn signals. I don't know that it will help, these people can't stand to wait a few seconds.

 

[Ilikeabikea]

It seems like I have more problems with traffic on my Motorcycle than I do on my motorized bicycle. Or it could just be my imagination................

 

[Pablo]

DITTO - I have a bright red bike - I wear a funky bright blue jacket with a white-blue-black help....and the bike has an engine. People RARELY see me....always watch THEM.

 

[deacon]

Well I took off on my new electro po boy chopper just now. It was fun but not as much fun as the t'ville chopper. I need some exercise so the po boy chopper will be good for the bike trail. There is enough power to get me there and to cruise but still enough energy expended to make it worthwhile as exercise. It is much much more stable with the trailer instead of the batteries on the bike. It seems to do about eight to ten miles per hour on the flat. downhill coasting at about 15 mph. Got those batteries pushing it. Does about five to six uphill with me pedaling like heck.

there is a big hill between me and the trail. The others are pretty easy to navigate I just run out of breath. I did two miles on the batteries and they were still almost full charge. The four miles should be easy for them. I am using the 350 watt motor so it performs pretty darn good, but uses more energy. One of the 250 watts would do almost as well and use less energy but I'm not too worried about it at the moment.

I need another errand so I can crank the t'ville up.

 

[deacon]

Took the Echopper on the walking/bike trail today. I took it along with an old trailer with two lawn tractor batteries.

The total ride is about five miles and I came limping home. I have to build a trailer with bike tires. those lawn spreader wheels aren't doing it too much drag. that will be my tomorrow project. I have added a new twist to my pvc trailer plans.

To mount the bike tires just drill a hole in the end cap pieces you can buy at the hardware store. I think that will do it. Anyway the gas bicycle is calling me so I guess I will go prep it and ride baby ride

 

[deacon]

I rode the T'ville Gasoline poboy chopper twice today. The first time I was so worn out from lack of sleep and exhausted from the ride though the trail, that I was a danger so I came home. I took it back out.

when I rode this morning the bike had a lot of play in the throttle cable so I tightened it. When i started it this afternoon it raced. Every time I loosened it, it would race again. Finally it just wouldn't start. I went nuts with the choke the throttle cable everything I could think off.

You guessed it, I had run out of gas. That was part of the racing sound. Not all but part. I was exhausted again when I figure it out. I did remember that in my travel basket, I had a plastic bottle with 12oz of premix. I put it in and the bike started.

I was glad not to have to push the bike a block. I went home and put another quart of gas in the tank and replished my emergency bottle. Then of course it began to rain, so i took all that as a sign to get a good night sleep and try again tomorrow.

If nothing else I have a trailer to build tomorrow.

 

[deacon]

I swore I was going to let this thread die, but I rode the 'Delivery Chopper' to the home depot today. This is the worst trip I think I will have to make on it. At least it is as far as I can tell.

The real problem is making a left turn from a four lane (Two in each direction) road. I have to go from the legal right lane across a faster left lane and into a turn lane. Then I have to deal with the cars that have backed up behind me while I waited for the complicated light to get to my turn to go.

The other option is to forsake the back streets and go all heavy traffic roads so that I can make all right turns instead of a left. I expect that is the way to do it. I mention this only because it takes real planning to ride one of these safely in city traffic. Not so much for what you are going to do, but what the cars are going to do to you. It is my opinion that I should minimize the number of times I have to turn left or to get out of the right hand comfort zone lane.

 

[deacon]

speaks for itself.

 

[Pablo]

Nice ......weather was so nice yesterday and my POS won't run. not raining on your fun.... Hopefully one tweak or the new carb solves the issue....