Total regular bike mileage since July 10, 2006: 48.5
Gas savings this week: 3 gallons
Gallons saved since July 10, 2006: 33.7
Price of gas today: $2.75
Gas savings since July 10, 2006: $104.29
Notes: This week I used the regular road bike more than the e-bike. Why? Because I felt like it.
It was a low-mileage week because I had to use the car for several errands, like pulling a trailer full of brush to the dump.
****
I completed two minor bicycle-related improvement projects.
The first involved a small bike bag for carrying tools. I considered purchasing one and did some online research. I found some really sweet looking bags at www.rivendellbicycles.com.
The problem is that the bag I like the most cost $88. Add in tax, shipping and handling, and the little bag would wipe out most of my gas savings since starting this blog.
Then it occurred to me that the bag looked slightly similar to an old purse that CP (my better half) used to carry around. It is a small, square, green canvas purse with a big buckle on the front.
So for the first time in my life, I asked a woman if I could have her purse. If the governor was present, he would have called me a girlie man.
I grabbed the scissors, some dental floss (strong thread) and a needle and went to work on the purse. Within 15 minutes it was transformed into a small tool bag which mounts under the rear seat on the road bike. There’s enough room for the tools, patch kit, spare tube, a salami sandwich and a Snickers Bar.
It’s actually nicer than my old Cannondale bike bag. And, no, it doesn’t look girlie. It looks like a bike bag.
****
Transforming a purse into a bike bag got me thinking about how you could turn all sorts of bags and luggage into bike bags. I saw a small gym bag at the thrift store today that would make a nice “rack bag” with the addition of a few buckles or velcro straps. It would probably be a little better than what you could purchase at a bike shop.
I’ll keep this in mind when it comes to any future bikes in need of such accessories.
*****
The next project involved removing the finger ends from a pair of wool gloves. There’s enough wool still intact to keep my hands warm, but my finger tips are free for changing gears, etc. That was five minutes well spent.
****
It’s getting a little colder. The forecast calls for some weekend drizzle and the possibility of rain next week.
I suspect it won’t be long before my weekly updates include comments about puddles, plastic bags and rain pants.
****
Based on what I can tell, there aren’t a lot of people in McKinleyville who use their bikes for general transportation purposes. (The term I recently learned for this is “utility cycling.”)
On the weekend, the Lycra people come out in droves and enjoy the Hammond Trail. And after school I see some kids on bikes.
But when it comes to commuters and shoppers, they’re far and few between.
Total regular bike mileage since July 10, 2006: 25.5
Gas savings this week: 3.5 gallons
Gallons saved since July 10, 2006: 30.7
Price of gas today: $2.77
Gas savings since July 10, 2006: $96.04
Notes: As you can see by the numbers above, the non-electric bikes are getting more use. I’m particularly fond of the road bike now that it has new handlebars. It’s like a rocket.
I spent an hour this evening on some overdue bicycle maintenance.
The first order of business was tire pressure. I was surprised to discover that the tires on the electric mountain bike were registering a pathetic 40 psi. That’s just barely within the recommended range of 30 to 80. It is, admittedly, a soft, cushy ride. And I had noticed a nice, smooth bouncy feeling – especially in comparison to the “regular” commuter bike with its skinny 90 psi tires.
But when it comes to performance, that had to be slowing me down. The tires are now at 80 psi. My weekly “to do” list will now include checking the tire pressure.
This task makes me really appreciate the fancy Zefal floor pump my parents bought me for Christmas a few years ago.
I also emptied the panniers, washed and cleaned the bike and oiled the chain. Everything seems to be in working order.
Since I was outside with a bucket of soapy water and a tire pump, I dragged the old road bike out. That’s bike No. 3.
Just to keep things straight, I should clearly label the bikes. Here’s what I have:
1. The e-bike, aka electric bike, aka electric mountain bike. It’s a Specialized mountain bike with a Wilderness Energy Systems electric hub motor.
2. The regular bike, aka regular commuter bike, aka Peugeot. This was my dad’s commuter bike before he retired. It’s not a fancy bike and it only has 10 speeds, but it’s a sweet ride. Very solid and smooth.
3. The road bike, aka the $15 bike, aka “my high-performance bicycle.” This is a nice Panasonic road bike. I bought it at a garage sale for $15 and it was later fixed up and painted. It’s a stripped down 15 speed with standard drop handlebars and foot clips. Take off the kickstand and it could pass as a racing bike for all but the most snobbish cyclist.
After pumping up the tires on the road bike, washing it and oiling it, I felt compelled to test it out. So I took a short jaunt to the Mad River. The sun was setting and the bike doesn’t have lights, so I had to move fast.
It’s been a long time since I used toe clips. They take a little getting used to, but there’s a distinct advantage. The bike hauled ass!
I rocketed to the Hammond Trail Bridge and back.
I came across what I assume was a high school girl. She had blonde spiky punk rock hair and was sitting on the ground spray painting graffiti on the blacktop. If I was a couple decades younger and still in high school, I would have stopped and asked her to the prom, but I digress. She never saw me coming and when I passed by her at full speed, I apparently scared the crap out of her. She muttered something like “OH SHIT!” Her buddies were hanging off the bridge with spray cans.
It looked kind of dangerous, but I think they were on a mission to make an artistic statement. Normally I’d rush home and report vandalism, but I sensed they were trying to create something interesting. I hope I’m right. I’ll investigate at a later date.
The road bike performed beautifully. Still, I have mixed feelings about those drop handlebars. I’m thinking about replacing them with what Bike Nashbar calls Mustache Handlebars. They’re apparently a cross between drop bars and straight bars.
Why mess with the road bike? Because it’s a pleasure to ride and I’d like to include it in my transportation mix. I'm at the point where I'm considering a mix of e-biking and standard biking. But as a creature of comfort and convenience, I want the right transportation tools at my convenience.
Total regular bike mileage since July 10, 2006: 4.5
Gas savings this week: 3 gallons
Gallons saved since July 10, 2006: 27.2
Price of gas today: $2.85 (?)
Gas savings since July 10, 2006: $86.35
Notes: There’s a question mark near today’s gas price because I was in a rush and forgot to make a mental note of the price. But that’s pretty close.
I’m going about my business as I always have, just substituting my e-bike for an automobile. There’s no downside.
Do I really need the motor? Probably not. I’m pedaling enough as it is and could probably live just fine without it.
But there’s something very important to consider: the lazy factor.
When it comes to transportation, we all take the path of least resistance. We jump in our cars because they’re easy and convenient.
Some of us jump on our bikes and go for a spin after work, or on the weekends. But that’s just recreational riding for the purpose of fun and exercise. We ride for fun when we feel like it, and stay home when we don’t feel like it.
But the purpose of the e-bike – at least in my case – is to serve as a substitute for my vehicle as much as possible. Unless I have a load to carry that requires a car, or I have to travel a long distance, or travel with a passenger, I use the e-bike. I don’t just use the e-bike when I “feel like it.”
The engine is a tool that provides some extra speed, sweat reduction and basically eliminates the “lazy factor.” So far there hasn't been a single day in which I used the car when I could have used the e-bike, except for a couple times when I thought I needed the car to haul supplies from the hardware store. I later discovered that the bike can comfortably carry two one-gallon paint cans. They fit snuggly in the panniers.
But I’ve yet to battle the elements. The weather has been spectacular, although on Thursday it was extremely windy.
There was some light rain early this morning and I’ve noticed a slight chill in the air during some of my rides. Summer is slowly slipping away and I’ll have to adjust my riding gear accordingly.
A waterproof windbreaker and light gloves will soon become standard clothing.
I plan on packing my bike poncho into my old panniers for emergencies. I don’t recall when I obtained the bike poncho, but I do know that it was used extensively during my sophomore year in high school! That makes it “vintage,” or maybe "retro."
Wearing a poncho on a bike sounds like a bad idea, but I do recall that it was very handy last time I used it. There are leg straps to keep it properly positioned and prevent it from flapping around like a cape. In the front there are little thumb loops to keep it stretched out. It keeps you dry and there’s lots of ventilation to prevent sweat buildup.
It’s bright yellow and makes me look like a giant banana. If Bill the Chimp escapes from the Eureka Zoo again, it would be advisable to not wear the poncho unless I want to get gummed by an aging primate.
Today I shot some short video segments using my new “handlebar cam.”
The handlebar cam consist of my little $199 Canon digital camera, some string and masking tape. It’s very low quality, but I have to work with the technology on hand. My camera’s movie mode is so limited that this was shot during three separate trips, and even then I was only able to shoot small portions of the trip.
Over the weekend I accidently plowed through a fresh pile of broken glass which included some really wicked shards. I thought for sure my tires would be punctured, but they weren't.
I got lucky – this time.
With two large piles of glass at two locations that I travel over repeatedly 6 days a week, it was time to take action.
So today when I made my trip I brought a small broom with a 2 1/2-foot-long handle, a plastic dust pan and two plastic bags.
The first cleanup was in a really bad location at the southeast corner of the Central Avenue and Sutter Road. The bottle was shattered where the southbound bicycle lane meets the crosswalk.
I took out my Oompa Loompa-sized broom and went to work. Within two minutes, the glass was bagged and ready to be dumped in the trash can behind my nearby office
After a few more business related chores, I travelled northbound to the intersection of Central Avenue and Hiller Road. Once again, a bottle had been broken in the crosswalk where it crosses the northbound bike lane. I’ve been dodging this mess for weeks.
Within a couple minutes, the glass was bagged and ready for disposal.
There was a definite dorkus malorkus quality to both of the cleanup scenes – a guy with a helmet wielding a tiny broom and furiously sweeping as cars whizzed by. Such is the life of a big-time newspaper publisher.
But I think that the four minutes spent on this little project was a good investment. It may save me from a flat tire.
I didn’t mind the work, and I plan to keep the broom and dust pan handy for future messes. But it raises a question: Shouldn’t the street sweeper machine visit McKinleyville more often? It’s been about two months.
Perhaps the county is waiting until the fall, when more leaves fill the streets and need to be cleaned up before the first rain. It’s my understanding that the real purpose behind those machines is to clean debris to prevent the storm drains from getting clogged. It's not about cleaning glass for bicycles.
This week I’ll call Public Works and find out what’s going on.
Total regular bike mileage since July 10, 2006: 4.5
Gas savings this week: 4 gallons
Gallons saved since July 10, 2006: 24.2
Price of gas today: $3.00
Gas savings since July 10, 2006: $77.80
Notes: On Thursday I racked up 19 miles – all of them business related. The mileage included four separate trips into town.
Being that I had a meeting to attend that evening, I pedaled a lot and conserved battery power. The strategy worked because I had gobs of power left over to get to the meeting and get back.
That evening Tim Hooven clocked me going 31 mph on a flat portion of Central Avenue. That’s just 4 mph under the speed limit. Don’t tell anyone, but there’s a good chance I broke the 35 mph speed limit on the downhill portion of Hiller Road. Yee-hah!
I saved four gallons of gas this week. That, by the way, is the maximum amount of gas I can save in a week given the vehicle requirements of my business.
That’s a 40 percent reduction in weekly fuel consumption compared to before I bought the e-bike.
Number notes: It’s probably a good idea to explain again what some of these numbers mean just in case there are new readers.
My “gas savings” calculation is the difference between the amount of gas I consume now compared to the average amount of gas I consumed before obtaining the e-bike on July 10. Before the e-bike, I consumed about 10 gallons of gas a week in my compact car. This week I consumed six gallons, giving me a savings of four gallons, or 40 percent.
The gas consumption is determined every Friday, which is when I visit the gas station. So, for clarification, I consumed 6 gallons of gas between Friday afternoon, Sept. 1, and Friday afternoon, Sept. 8.
While gas consumption is measured from Friday to Friday, bicycle mileage is measured from Sunday through Saturday. Being that I post my weekly wrap on Friday, I assume that on Saturday I’ll make a single trip to town. If that doesn’t happen, or if I use the bike more than anticipated, I would revise the weekly wrap accordingly. So far, that hasn’t been necessary.
The price of gas is from the Renner Cardlock station in McKinleyville. The price is generally lower than the other stations, sometimes by as much as 10 cents.
I would include the cost of charging the battery, but I don’t have a good way to determine this. I expected my electric bill to be higher since obtaining the e-bike, but it actually dropped slightly from the year before. I don’t know why.
This evening I was asked some questions about the bike that I couldn't answer. It reminded me that I should put some specs on the blog.
Bike Electrified Kit Specifications
Kit Models BD36 Brushed Motor Full-Package
Description Motor mounted in wheel, lighted thumb throttle, controller unit, battery pack, smart charger, bike rack. Hub Motor 600 Watt, 36 Volt DC Gearless, Brushed Throttle Type Variable Speed Throttle Key Switch Key Switch (located in controller) Battery Pack Sealed, 12 Volt DC, 12 Amp/Hour Lead-Acid Gel-Cell Batteries (x3)
Electronics Electronic Speed Controller Unit - 35 amp-limit Controller) Wheel Size 26 inch Front Wheel Drive Top Speed Top Speed: 25+ mph Range Average Range (Distance) per Charge: 12+ miles - (20+ with extended battery pack) Charger Automatic Smart Charger: 2 Amp@36vdc Average Recharging Time 4-6 hours Payload Payload Capacity: 300+ lbs. (U.S. Pounds) Weight Gross Weight of Kit: 48 lbs w/ext battery pack) Features Sturdy Brush-ED motor (brushes will last at least 8,000 hours before they need to be replaced - 3 + years even with heavy use.). Simpler electronics than the brushless sytem. This motor will start from 0 mph without pedaling. When run at 36 volts it is also stronger than the Brushless motor: more low-end torque and faster top-end speed. However, it's range is less than that of the Brushless system.
A fundamental question you ask when purchasing an e-bike is “How far can it go?”
The answer: It depends.
There are many factors that determine the bike’s range – the batteries, your weight, tire size and inflation, hills and inclines, wind and wind resistance, and your speed. Perhaps most important of all, your range is determined by how much you pedal and how much you use the motor.
Remember that it’s considered a “pedal assist” technology. You play a part in determining the performance.
My e-bike came with what Wilderness Energy Systems calls an “Extended Range Battery Pack,” which consists of three 12 amp/hr sealed lead acid batteries. They weigh about 30 lbs.
I once traveled 18 miles on a single charge. However, I pedaled a lot on the flat portions and didn’t use the motor very much. When it came to the small hills, I used the motor but also pedaled. By the end of the 18 miles I had enough battery power left to propel the bike forward at a speed similar to a slow jog.
But who wants to bicycle at a snail’s pace? When the available power drops this low, you basically pedal a lot more. That’s when you begin to question whether you’d be better off without 30 lbs. of lead strapped to your bicycle.
So the true “range” of the e-bike will be partially determined by what you consider an acceptable speed. If you don’t mind rolling along at walking speed, then you’re range will be much greater than a rider you wants to travel fast enough so he can feel the wind on his face.
Range, I guess you could say, is relative.
A more realistic range for my e-bike is about 13 miles. This requires significant pedaling on the flat portions, with occasional bursts of engine power to get the bike up to speed. Engine power is used on the hills along with leisurely pedaling. By the end of 13 miles, I have enough battery power left to move the bike forward in what could best be described as an extremely slow bike ride.
The ideal range for my e-bike is about 10 miles. That’s what I travelled yesterday. I went into town twice and made a couple side trips. I used pedal power for only a couple of miles, but used a pedal/motor combination the rest of the time. This allowed me to blast down the road at a nice speed, passing other cyclists and making good time. When I got home, I still had plenty of power left. I never had to slow down or make up for a lack of power because the batteries were drained. The bike performed perfectly from the beginning to end.
So, in short, 10 miles is the optimal range for the e-bike and 13 miles is a satisfactory range. Anything over that and performance is limited.
This is similar to my e-bike, except this guy went hog wild with the batteries, giving him higher speeds and a longer range. In time, I'll need to learn more about battery options.
Total regular bike mileage since July 10, 2006: 4.5
Gas savings this week: 3 gallons
Gallons saved since July 10, 2006: 20.2
Price of gas today: $3.16
Gas savings since July 10, 2006: $65.80
Notes: It’s been nearly two months since Public Works used the street sweeper on Central Avenue. The broken glass is piling up. There’s a particularly nasty pile of glass in the northbound bike lane at Central and Hiller. If it’s not cleaned up soon, I may have to do it myself.
I’m tired of dodging it and I fear that it’s only a matter of time before I forget and roll right through it. That could make for a very unhappy experience.
There’s also a large amount of broken windshield glass on the northbound bike lane in front of McKinleyville Middle School.
Early in the week I decided to use a “regular” bike to compare the experience. It’s a 10-speed road/commuter bike. Very nice, but not as nice as the e-bike. I guess I’m spoiled now.
That said, I’ll probably use the regular bike at least once on the weekend.
You may notice that I’ve added some different statistics for my “weekly wrap.” I needed to break out the regular bike mileage from the e-bike mileage. If something goes wrong the electric contraption, I want it clearly documented how many miles I put on it.
An on-line journal about one guy's experience commuting using both an electric bike and a regular bike in McKinleyville, Calif.. Blog started as "an evolving review of the Wilderness Energy Systems Electric Bicycle BD 36 Conversion Kit," but morphed into a blog about "utility cycling" in general. (Note: If you're new to this blog, you may want to explore the archives.)
