Lots of bike work in the past couple of weeks. The new sprocket arrived AND… it’s not a plain sprocket, meaning it has a collar with a set screw. Worse yet, it doesn’t easily line up with the generator shaft. Doh! Ben kindly offered to use his CNC to cut the center out of the read more »

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. read more »

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 read more »

I successfully charged the batteries, one at a time, using the innard from an old APC UPS. I’m not sure how long it took. After two hours, one battery was only up to 12.5 volts (from about 12.2). So I left it overnight. In the morning the DMM read 13 volts even. After letting the read more »

Tonight I went to the hardware store and bought a new 20″ tire tube and a bag of nuts, bolts, and washers. All the bolts on the bike are 1/4″, and I bought a bunch of 1.5″ long and 4 or 5″ long bolts. I bolted the motor plate and motor to the frame. The read more »

I went to Halted in Santa Clara before the Sharks game to grab some cheap lead-acid batteries. Across the street is GreenEmotor, a company that sells electric scooters. I went in to see if they could sell me any batteries. Instead, the President, Allen Chen, and one of the other employees, John, gave me a read more »

After my not so fun and expensive experience with the previous bike and #25 chain, I decided to use #35 chain for the rear wheel. Since I am using a wheel with a coaster brake, I had the following options: No. 25 chain 8mm d-shaft sprockets are readily available 60/66 tooth sprockets are also available read more »

Introduction The LWB electric bike is great but… it weighs a ton, it’s ungodly long, and it steers like a pig. Plus, it’s quite complicated. This leads me to the requirements. Requirements This next bike must be exactly the opposite. Light and portable, so I can actually lift it and get it on the train. read more »