Fat and Happy

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karl dykstra
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Last seen: 14 years 10 months ago
Joined: Sunday, March 29, 2009 - 18:56
Points: 4
Fat and Happy

I received my Ampedbike 500 watt front hub conversion kit about a week and a half ago, and I am really happy with it. I spent most of last weekend fabricating the battery rack, and have what seems to be a great working system now. I went with dual battery banks, so I will have a whole bank in reserve. I am using 10 or 12 amp SLAs salvaged from working UPS units that were to be disposed of. I have switches that allow for parallel operation, and also single battery bank one or the other. A lot of weight, but I want to be sure to get to work on this thing. I am way overweight, 280, and the bike is a basic Trek mountain bike. I took it out to test the range yesterday, and managed 9 miles on a 3 day old charge. That means that even though I hadn't riden the bike, it was charged 3 days previously, and taken off charge after charging overnite. So the charge was old, and I would expect a couple more miles than what I have already gotten. I could have gone further at a lower throttle....I am judging the range based on a little low voltage cutout action when hitting it with full throttle. The best part of this test of mileage was, while I was doing it, I saw a group of Spandex riders on the road near my house, and decided to see how I would fare against them. There is a small rise in the road, and they were geared down and working to get over the rise. One bike was a tandem, and the other was a standard road bike. Granted, these people weren't the racer types, but I was able to catch them and over take them with the minimum of pedaling help. It was a funny contrast....them in their bicycle pants and helmets, and me in my work around the yard sweats and T-shirt with flip-flops. It seems to me that even for someone as out of shape as me, the opportunity to exercise, and still get somewhere is a good thing. I did a solid 9 miles on the bike, and I pedaled some to keep speed up over the rises, but I did find I could leave my bike in top gear, since that was the only gear that would keep up. There was a fair workout in what I did. Also, I pushed it pretty hard on this test, and if I have the time, I could settle for a slightly lower speed, and get extra range. My thumb actually got tired from holding it wide open for so much of the test. I also raised alot of eyebrows in the neighborhood as I circled through several times on my "course". I may have drummed up interest locally. Anyway, there will be improvements in the future....low resistance tires, maybe even lighter but more powerful batteries. Stay tuned.

Karl

turok
turok's picture
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Last seen: 4 years 10 months ago
Joined: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 - 00:27
Points: 338
Re: Fat and Happy

nice to see your enthousiasm!
keep going karl, you might loose a few pounds while you're at it ;-)

"doing nothin = doing nothing wrong" is invalid when the subject is environment

karl dykstra
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Last seen: 14 years 10 months ago
Joined: Sunday, March 29, 2009 - 18:56
Points: 4
Re: Fat and Happy

Well, I am taking it with me on a business trip, cause there are extensive bike and walking paths that go right by the hotel I will be at, so I loaded it in my truck, and that was a challenge, but when I tried to unload it for a test, that thing is heavy enough that it threw me on my ass. So after I got up, I headed down to Harbor Freight and got some ramps. They are the heavy ones, heavier than I wanted, but they will work. I will only need one of them. I haven't weighed the bike, but it can obviously get away from me. So if I can get a couple of rides in, and I get a bottom floor room, so I can charge in the room, it will be cool. I'll report back.

JCalhoun
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Last seen: 14 years 9 months ago
Joined: Monday, June 1, 2009 - 14:54
Points: 4
Re: Fat and Happy

Your ebike sounds awesome. I'm putting together my first ebike as well (waiting for parts to arrive) and I'm excited by your post.

You should keep on improving your bike though. It sounds like the thumb throttle gets fatiguing ... perhaps get a twist throttle and try that. You mentioned the weight of the bike ... if you have deep pockets go for a more modern Lithium-type battery. All these things should improve your ride.

karl dykstra
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Last seen: 14 years 10 months ago
Joined: Sunday, March 29, 2009 - 18:56
Points: 4
Re: Fat and Happy

Well, I did my first ride to work and back yesterday, and it was great with the exception that I got soaked by a thunderstorm for the last 2 miles of the ride home.
I have my bike the way I want it now, and it seems to be working well. I ended up fabricating a 2 wheeled trailer from an old jogging stroller, on which I have mounted 2 battery boxes containing 6(each) 7.5 Ah SLAs in series/parallel to make 2 15 Ah banks, with switches that allow running them in parallel or separate. By running off of one, I have the other one in reserve to get home.
I can charge at work during the day, and after the 11 miles to get there, my LEDs still indicated full charge, and the same when I got home, since I charged while at work.
The trailer with batteries probably weighs 60 to 70 pounds, so it is good to have that weight on it's own wheels.
slipping thru town to get to work is a blast, like the videos on Youtube of the guy in England that rides into town, except my trip is longer than what he does. I do get some exercise from helping to maintain speed over small hills, and helping out on starts.
My 11 mile trip to work took 40 minutes, which I think comes out to a 16.5 MPH average.
I bought a helmet today, and a high intensity LED taillight. I know these are a good ideas, but I got them mostly to make other interested parties happy. I do have some rural areas to cover here before I get into town, and the extra safety in town is OK also, I guess. I won't be buying any latex bloomers, like the hardcore riders....I put my foot down on that.
A statement I feel compelled to make: I ride on roads that almost all have a bike lane on the side, and I ride as close to the pavement edge as I safely can, rather than clear out on the white line. I ride alone, so I am always single file, but my trailer is a little wider than a normal bike. My point is that I make every effort to stay out of the way of the autos on the road, and I am hoping that will bode well for my riding career. These 3 modes of operation are routinely violated here in this area, and not only is it rude to the car drivers, but it is dangerous for the bike riders. Seems I heard of one just today that was killed in a car/bike accident. Just my opinion.
P.S. One important lesson I learned in the makeup of the bike was that the "sensing" leads to read battery voltage for the controller really need to be their own lead all the way back to the battery terminal. If not, you could experience premature cutoff due to low voltage, due to the high current that the other battery leads carry. So on my setup, I have one negative and 2 positive leads going back to the batteries.
Oh, and here is a link to video of me on my bike:
http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=8d3ae6f11d73c877a767cf&skin_id=1602&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url
Enjoy....

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