So, the bike goes into the shop this week. I am getting the aforementioned freewheel modification done as well as getting a 48T chain ring installed at the front. I also have to get riding lights for it and now that I have a thumb throttle on the way I will need nice new soft hand grips too.
Rod from EV-Power has comp'ed me a thumb throttle when I ordered a second charger for charging at work. I am really looking forward to not lugging that 3.5 kg charger to and from everyday.
Putting the single speed freewheel on will also allow me to have the rear wheel properly centred. The only catch is that in order to space out the dropout they will have to put washers on the side where the wires come out of the axle. So I will have to disconnect the cables and remove the white plastic moulded plug from the wires so they can fit the washers over it, slide them down the wire and hence onto the axle. It will be nice to have rear brakes that work properly without rubbing on the wheel. I'll take some pics when I am doing this and post them tomorrow.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Breakage!
My twist throttle broke today. It must be psychic.
I was actually thinking at the time how dissatisfied I am with the twist throttle at the very moment that it gave up. A piece of plastic inside the collar broke and the handle detached from the electronic mechanism and the spring came out. Here is a picture of the breakage:
See the silver strip at the back of the curve? That is the magnet. It seems that the absence of the magnet causes the power to be always on. I'm not sure what the opposite side of the magnet entails, it must be more than a simple magnetic switch since it is not and on/off situation.
Actually on/off is what I want. I want to be able to just switch the power on and have a momentary, normally on switch to cut the power without applying the brakes so I can coast down hills without consuming power. Removing the crappy grips will allow me to put in something softer and make less strain on my wrists. I've asked Rod from EV Power to replace the twist throttle with a thumb throttle. I think this will allow me to dodgy something up that holds the power on without me having to use my hand and then put on some better hand grips.
On a different note, I had previously thought I was getting less power, but it turns out that the wheel was still not quite true and I had tightened the rear brake a little too much and it was rubbing on the rim for 1 third of each revolution. I have loosened this and the problem went away. This allowed me to reach a new record average speed on the way to work of 33.1 kph.
Now that the bike is off the road for a little while I will be taking it into the bike shop for a few more serious modifications, which I will detail in my next post.
I was actually thinking at the time how dissatisfied I am with the twist throttle at the very moment that it gave up. A piece of plastic inside the collar broke and the handle detached from the electronic mechanism and the spring came out. Here is a picture of the breakage:
See the silver strip at the back of the curve? That is the magnet. It seems that the absence of the magnet causes the power to be always on. I'm not sure what the opposite side of the magnet entails, it must be more than a simple magnetic switch since it is not and on/off situation.
Actually on/off is what I want. I want to be able to just switch the power on and have a momentary, normally on switch to cut the power without applying the brakes so I can coast down hills without consuming power. Removing the crappy grips will allow me to put in something softer and make less strain on my wrists. I've asked Rod from EV Power to replace the twist throttle with a thumb throttle. I think this will allow me to dodgy something up that holds the power on without me having to use my hand and then put on some better hand grips.
On a different note, I had previously thought I was getting less power, but it turns out that the wheel was still not quite true and I had tightened the rear brake a little too much and it was rubbing on the rim for 1 third of each revolution. I have loosened this and the problem went away. This allowed me to reach a new record average speed on the way to work of 33.1 kph.
Now that the bike is off the road for a little while I will be taking it into the bike shop for a few more serious modifications, which I will detail in my next post.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Riding in the rain
This post is inspired by a comment on a previous post wondering if I was going to ride in then rain. Well the answer is yes, but not deliberately.
It was a Monday morning and I was a bit disorganised and so did not pay much attention to the weather, nor did I check the weather RADAR before leaving home. About 5 minutes from home it started to rain. That is about the time I started thinking about checking the RADAR, better late than never. I thought for a minute about turning back, but then decided it would probably stop in a few minutes. It didn't. By the time I got to work I was completely soaked. Even my shoes were soaked right through as if I have been walking in the ocean.
A few thoughts about the experience are:
It was a Monday morning and I was a bit disorganised and so did not pay much attention to the weather, nor did I check the weather RADAR before leaving home. About 5 minutes from home it started to rain. That is about the time I started thinking about checking the RADAR, better late than never. I thought for a minute about turning back, but then decided it would probably stop in a few minutes. It didn't. By the time I got to work I was completely soaked. Even my shoes were soaked right through as if I have been walking in the ocean.
A few thoughts about the experience are:
- In the end I am glad that it didn't stop. I wasn't cold due to the fact that I kept up a fair amount of pedalling to keep warm. If it had stopped I would have got very cold.
- The worst thing about riding in the rain is the visibility. Water keeps getting in your eyes and as a result you have the tendency to keep looking down. I nearly had one crash because of this.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Something odd
I saw something odd on the way home yesterday. It didn't really blow my mind like the first time I saw this, but having observed this odd behaviour for the second time, I felt compelled to comment.
So what is this totally odd behaviour? Are you ready? I saw someone reading a book while riding their bike. This one was a school girl on her way home on a bike path, but the first one I saw was someone riding on an on-road cycle lane during peak hour traffic. In both cases they were weaving all over the place, much, much worse than someone talking on the phone while driving.
For those of you wondering what the latest developments are since my last post, here they are:
I have done a total of 340 km so far across the last 4 weeks. Between public holidays and driving in once a week, I have only ridden in 2 or 3 times a week. This week coming up will be my first full week since I got the bike on the road. The only problem is that I don't think that the rear free wheel will handle it.
It has been making clicking and clunking noises that have been getting worse and worse. I finally got to talk to the guy at the bike shop about it and he basically said that all free wheels do it and the cheaper ones do it the most. The problem is that because it has to ride stationary while the wheel turns that it isn't always perfectly square with the wheel depending on its relative position when it starts turning. I guess the one that ships with the motor is super-cheap and therefore crap.
The next problem is that in mountain bikes the screw-on free wheels, of which mine is the type, are the cheap ones. The better, more expensive ones slide on, so I don't even have an option of going to a more expensive free wheel. I'm sure I could find one better than this one, but the hassle will be finding one the same width as the 5 speed one I have now. I do have an alternative though....
Have I mentioned how little I change gears? In fact in my last 3 or 4 trips I haven't changed gears once. It just isn't necessary. Even on the biggest hill I don't feel compelled to change. The main time I would need the gears would be during some sort of malfunction or flat battery. But we don't include pedals on our cars in case we run out of petrol, so I think I should opt for optimal conditions during commuting and risk hard work in the case of malfunctions. This means I can go for a single gear on the back. Doing this means I can get a high-end rear free wheel which screws on. Why? Because they are made for high end BMX bikes and have the same fitting. Even a cheap one of these is only $10, so if I spend $40 I still think this is cheap.
This has an added side benefit of reducing the amount of space taken up on that side of the drop-out, which will mean I will have to put some spacers on the other side and this means that the rear wheel will be more centred again.
I'll let you know how it goes.
It has been making clicking and clunking noises that have been getting worse and worse. I finally got to talk to the guy at the bike shop about it and he basically said that all free wheels do it and the cheaper ones do it the most. The problem is that because it has to ride stationary while the wheel turns that it isn't always perfectly square with the wheel depending on its relative position when it starts turning. I guess the one that ships with the motor is super-cheap and therefore crap.
The next problem is that in mountain bikes the screw-on free wheels, of which mine is the type, are the cheap ones. The better, more expensive ones slide on, so I don't even have an option of going to a more expensive free wheel. I'm sure I could find one better than this one, but the hassle will be finding one the same width as the 5 speed one I have now. I do have an alternative though....
Have I mentioned how little I change gears? In fact in my last 3 or 4 trips I haven't changed gears once. It just isn't necessary. Even on the biggest hill I don't feel compelled to change. The main time I would need the gears would be during some sort of malfunction or flat battery. But we don't include pedals on our cars in case we run out of petrol, so I think I should opt for optimal conditions during commuting and risk hard work in the case of malfunctions. This means I can go for a single gear on the back. Doing this means I can get a high-end rear free wheel which screws on. Why? Because they are made for high end BMX bikes and have the same fitting. Even a cheap one of these is only $10, so if I spend $40 I still think this is cheap.
This has an added side benefit of reducing the amount of space taken up on that side of the drop-out, which will mean I will have to put some spacers on the other side and this means that the rear wheel will be more centred again.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Driving in
I was forced to drive in today by force beyond my control. It really made me appreciate riding in. The aggravation and frustration of being in queues of traffic really pissed me off today. The drive in was particularly bad. There must have been an accident somewhere and the arterial routes were clogged as were the off-shoots with people trying to bypass the jam. Tomorrow's ride will be blissful.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Stupid Mind
Well, despite the fact that I didn't feel up to in this morning I made it in record time.
Average Speed: 32.6
Time: 32:59
Distance: 18 km
Average Speed: 32.6
Time: 32:59
Distance: 18 km
The Crunch
Today is the first day my mind is playing tricks on me, coming up with excuses not to ride. We'll see what happens in 1 hour...
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