Unfortunately the bike took a lot of abuse in the past week. I took it to the San Jose EAA meeting on March 8th where it received a good deal of attention. I left the bike at work because this week I moved into a house in San Mateo and began setting up the garage. We rode the bike around at the office until a high speed run into a speed bump broke the handlebars off. A subsequent fall damaged the battery box on one side and bent the crank assembly at the end of the extention tube. Rather than fix the bike, I decided to build another bike with a full suspension and some meters so I can finally make good quantitative measurements.

Max speed achieved: 21mph

Max speed achieved in one “short” block: 19mph

Average speed: 13-15mph

I build a head mounting for my Canon HV20 using a bike helmet, two large washers, a 1/4″ bolt, and two 1/4″ nuts. I used a small bicycle lock to make sure that if the camera fell off anyway, it would not fall far. I then rode both bicycles around to record the experience. This SWB bike could do with some adjustments to feel more like the LWB bike. The lower handlebar and pedal heights especially improve comfort and visibility. The SWB bike handles turns far better however.