future bike

i love my bike. it's funny. i am approaching the end of my car payments, and now i'm getting into riding it again. i don't know, i find that funny. it seems right.

ok, let's see here. here is the story of my bike.

some time ago, i had a cheapie walmart mountain bike (yes, there was a time i shopped at walmart). i don't remember exactly, but i think it was a 15 speed. anyway, somewhere along the way it rained for a week, I gave up riding for a while even when the rain stopped. during this time my sister moved out and (permanently) borrowed my bike. so, i was left bikeless. i actually didn't mind because i wasn't getting much use out of it, and also i wanted to look into getting something a little faster.

i didn't exactly have a few thousand dollars to spend on a bike, so i started hunting around pawn shops. after only a few i came across what was to be my bike. it is a red 36v electric bicycle. the pawn shop had apparently had it for almost a year. the original asking price was something like $900. i found out later that these were about $1200 if purchased new from the factory. after several markdowns, they just couldn't seem to get rid of it. the advertised price when i went in to the shop was $400, but actually ended up getting it for less. it really did end up being a steal.

so for a while i was in heaven. ok, maybe not, but i did ride for a few months almost daily. eventually the winter came and then some more rain came and my bike sat unused. so, a note about sealed lead acid batteries. if you're not using them, keep them charged and inside! eventually i wanted to ride again only to find that the battery was no longer holding a charge. doh! here is where the problems began. as it turns out, 36 volt batteries are hard to come by, and even when you could find one they were not working as advertised. to make it worse, the manufacturer was out of business by this point, and it appears that the battery specific to these bikes was now extinct.

for the next few years i did without a battery. i'd go out cruising on this battery-less 7 speed ebike every so often, but eventually also ran into problems with one of the pedals falling off.  things were not looking so well. some screws came loose and eventually the battery compartment door started opening on its own whenever i'd hit a bump. not cool.

so, fast forward to 2008. my car now fills up with about $55 instead of the $18. the electric bike, while not super popular in the states, enjoys popularity in other parts of the world like China and India. Kits are now available to turn ordinary bikes into e-bikes. surely there was a solution! well,  i searched high and low and eventually ended up finding a shop in Austin that knew the ins and outs of these things. I could take it to them or chance it with some of these ebay sellers and try figuring out how to adapt it on my own. i chose to support the local bike shop.

the conversion did not go as smoothly as expected. i was told the bike would be ready in about 5 days, and ended up getting it a month later...and only because i told them i would rather just pick up the bike and figure it out on my own. it's amazing how quickly something can be ready...

so anyway, the new extended battery pack is supposed to have better mileage than the original pack, and when it comes time to replace the batteries it will be much easier to find the 3 12v batteries instead of the 36v single battery.

starting this week i have been taking it to work. it is about 9 miles each way, and for every week i ride i will save about $40 in gas. so, it will take a little while before the price of the batteries catches up with filling up with gas, but i'm fine with that. i really am sorry i didn't start doing this sooner! it's fun, it's fairly cheap, and the whole "being green" thing ain't so bad either.

so anyway, here are some pictures of my bike..."future bike" as it was dubbed by my moroccan friend at work when i was hunting for a 36v battery. i have had to make some changes and also made changes i didn't have to make.

The headlamp is powered from the battery packs. It works very well and i wouldn't trade it for any of those expensive systems out there unless i really had to.

Here is a sample of how it illuminates. The headlight is the only source of light in this picture, and it is really dark outside.

Originally the bike had a tail light too, however from when i bought it it was almost busted. eventually it did break. i lost the reflector cover, leaving the led lights exposed. this worked for a while but then a piece came loose and so the lights became unreliable. i eventually removed the original tail light and added 2 battery powered tail lights. this makes me legal to ride at night, but more importantly, i am now visible.

above: the original led light array. below: the piece that broke off. it's a shame. it was cool, it responded to the brakes like a car and would get brighter when you were braking.

A temporary solution before i removed the original lights and mounted the ones i have now...

The lights as they are now...the bottom one is way better.

Controls for the headlight (not the tail light anymore). Also a horn button and a cruise control button.

Also an added "computer" for speedometer, odometer, etc.

Also pictured are the controls to turn on the electric functions and the throttle to control it.

I added the Tire Writer by Schwinn for $13 from Target. I can write messages up to 10 characters long. I was going to type in gas prices, but it doesn't have symbols or numbers, so it just says "howdy". In the first pic you can see the writer, in the middle pic it is the writer at a standstill, and finally "howdy" (although it is not camera friendly)

This "electric powerbike" part has now been covered with reflective tape (as shown in the first pic). Also pictued is the electric motor. It has an economy mode and a power mode. In economy it will do about 13mph and in power about 18mph. All depends on rider weight and terrain.

I added a deftones sticker on each side. I'd had these from when i saw them in concert and i thought...why not? i hadn't used the stickers in all this time.

So yeah, this is my bike. i hope to keep making upgrades and improvements to it (camera mount?), and hopefully i will be using it a lot more.  i have ridden it to work twice, and my legs have been really sore these past days, but i know eventually it will be worth it.

Oh! and one last thing. Many people say i am cheating by using an electric bike. I would like to point out that it is heavier than a "normal" bike, and so when you are peddling instead of using the electric motor (it IS a bike after all), you are carrying around more weight. i think it balances out. i don't see it as a negative...but rather i see it akin to when people walk around with weight suits when working out.

if you ever get the chance to get one of these or to convert your bike to electric, i would definitely recommend it!

technorati tags:36v, ebike, e-bike, modifications