Oh my... how time flies!

Haven't posted in 5 years!

I had even forgotten about this blog what with www.recumbentblog.com and all. No more bikes in my life at this time... airplanes seem to have taken over. Pics to follow.

And then two months later... the Electric EZ-3!!!
This was just supposed to be a little boost to Penny's delta trike, her EZ-3. Well, a little boost is the understatement of THIS month. This piece of wizardry comes from Electroportal in California, via their manager Sam Wonderly.(see details at http://www.electric-bikes.com/betterbikes/e-4.html).

Maybe this series of pictures explains it best..

This is the battery pack, packing two gel-sealed lead acid 12V batteries, and lashed to the seat supports by a clever 5 point system of Velcro straps. The bag/case contains a lockout keyed switch and a connector to attach to the battery trickle charger that also comes with the kit.




The 24V electric motor, complete with one drive gear and one ratched gear gets interposed about where the long-chain idler used to be. The long chain is split into a front chain going forward to the crankset, and a back chain going back to the rear cassette. It took me longer to figure out how to break and then rejoin a bike chain than it did to lash all of the other bits to the lower frame member of the EZ-3.

The motor is operated from a "thumb lever" that you goes on the right handle bar above the brake and the shifter. It has lights that indicate the level of charge the exists on the battery pack. In theory, the system should be able to propoel a 175 pound rider about 15 miles (25 or so kilometers) at a speed of about 20 miles per hour (about 30 kph), and that's if you don't pedal at all. With pedalling the range is obviously greater.

The whole rig is easy to install, pretty inconspicous on the bike, easy to recharge.... and goes like a bat out of you know what! I love seeing the look on people's faces the first time they hit the thumb lever... pure amazement every time.

This will make longer trips possible for Penny and me. She can now negotiate sharp hills with ease, railway crossings and major street crossing or anywhere else where time is of the essence are no concern. And we don't really have to worry about fatigue wrecking the end of a longer trip.

The other day we got caught about 4-5 kilometers from home and a windstorm came up... a real blast with about 50-60 kilometer winds and blinding dust to boot. I was having trouble fighting the cross-wind and staying on the highway. Penny was able to kick in the motor and was actully making better headway into the wind than I could. Had a tough time calling to her to ease up and let the old man catch up.

Just too much fun...

The Ultimate Recumbent Bike Carrier...

After much much thought and research we have found what we think is the best allround bike carrier for the EZ-3 and the Jett Creek.... it looks like this.


Obviously we needed a new vehicle too as our newest wheels were only 11 years old but we have been struggling with a way to keep the 'bents clean and safe while we travel and this sure fits both of those bills.


The length of the recumbents makes it hard to put them laterally behind a vehicle and the only way to put them "in-line" is essentially to have a separate trailer on a hitch. We don't really have any place to store a trailer and bikes exposed on a trailer are always at some level of risk of being stolen or damaged. The trick in this van is being able to get the 2nd and 3rd row of sets out of the way almost instantly. They fold into the floors! The Chrysler "Stow 'n Go" system works like this...

Both middle and back seats disappear into the floor and that leaves us a huge open area that is 50 - 66" wide and almost eight feet long... way more length than we need for the recumbents but also gives us tons of room for suitcases and Penny's Mary Kay Commando kit.



So now we can run into Red Deer or Calgary and bike on their excellent cycle trails, we can take the bikes to the Okanagan on a holiday, or we can leave the van as is and have a great way to travel with family and grandkids... got to love it!

Then there is the Do-Dah to end all Do-Dah's...

The Garmin Edge 305 is an amazing piece of GPS technology...about the size of a (small) cell-phone, operates from -20 to -60 degrees Celcius (which is about 35 degrees more than I do on the warm end for sure).

















And, it keeps track of about 32 separate factors (to wit: Cadence, Cadence - Average, Cadence - Lap, Calories, Distance, Distance - Lap, Distance - Last Lap, Distance - Paused, Elevation, GPS Accuracy, Grade, Heading, Heart Rate, Heart Rate - Average, Heart Rate - Lap, Heart Rate Zone, Laps, Speed, Speed - Average, Speed - Lap, Speed - Maximum, Speed Zone, Sunrise, Sunset, Time, Time - Average Lap, Time - Lap, Time -Last Lap, Time - Paused, Time of day, Total Ascent, Total Descent). It's enough to make a data-dweeb drool!

And then you get to upload all this treasure into your computer where you can analyse the pulp out of it at places like MotionBased.com.

Photos and videos to follow... this is almost as much fun as riding the 'bent!!!

Check out the units at www.garmin.com and the analysis software at www.motionbased.com or at http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/email/accept.mb?senderPk.pkValue=127236&unitSystemPkValue=1&episodePk.pkValue=2663802

Fairing pretty well thanks...
So, the Jett Creek is getting dressed up a bit more. Got the new Windwrap Fairing installed today and it looks like this:

No it's not solid black! It has a removable soft cover that is meant to keep it from getting scratched and/or pawed by curious fingers when you're stopped. The lucite is fabulously clear but it is also very scratchable so the cover seemed like a good idea.

When you pull the cover off it looks like this:

There are only four support points -- two at the ends of a moustache shaped spreader bar that is attached to the handle-bar column, and two at the bottom that attach to little angles that have been retro-fit onto the caliper brake fittings.

The idea of working off the brake caliper mounts works fine, "but", for my money it leaves the fairing a trifle pinched at the bottom. It looks fine but it does mean that the lower side edges come closer to the pedals as they rotate than I'd really like. When you're turning you simply cannot keep pedaling or you will stub your toes into the fairing edging... and neither the fairing nor that force-on edging are up to any significant abrasion.

The last new addition was the Axiom panniers. They are empty in this photo but must be 10-12 inches wide when they are fully packed... and there are all sorts of loops and elastic lacing so you can add stuff onto stuff if you want. I suspect that if you chose your camping gear carefully... especially the tent, you could pack everything you could possibly want for a three or four day cycle trip into this set. Of course me (210 lbs.), the bike (30-35 lbs.?), and your gear (40-50lbs.?) would be pushing 300 lbs. which would definitely work better downhill than uphill!

The next (and for now last) do-dah I'm considering is a Garmin GPS unit. Toying with either a Garmin 60CSX which is a bit more map oriented, and a Garmin Edge 305 which comes more from the athletic performance tracking world (heart-rate, cadence, etc.)

Then I may actually have to break down a ride the damned thing!

Which has led me to the Alberta Randonneur site and all of that exciting ride stuff to look forward to in 2007.

What -- No pictures?!?

No pictures on this post but they are only a click away. Came across two REALLY neat pieces of software for mapping rides.

The first is at www.webwalking.com/googlemap.htm. [Update: an even cooler version is at http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ that includes the ability to create an elevation profile -- the fun never stops].It allows you to find your part of the world, right down to street level, and to then mark a route you have travelled (however) and to see how long that trip was.

Then you can save that walk or ride and use a cute piece of software called "TinyURL" to store a web address (i.e. the URL) in way that isn't 4,328 characters long. The shorte version comes out like this: http://tinyurl.com/rw3bz instead of http://www.webwalking.com/googlemap.htm?zl=5&x=-114.08306121826172&y=51.79120499625462&path=cza{HbwowT?{aCpdW?{eWcAh@~cC

Then there's Google Earth... if it's not on your computer you are missing the coolest thing I've seen in years! Load it up and you can see anywhere on earth... like you were in a magic helicopter. Can't really describe it... you just have to try it.

Gotta love the Internet!