I took the Electrom into Vancouver a few weeks ago and one of my main goals was to get a few people whose opinion I really value to ride it for an extended period of time. My Friend Robin and I took it out for a pretty decent ride (decent for him he was on the Electrom, I was busting my ass on an un-electrified bike). We adjusted the seat to accomodate his greater height and took off on the streets and bike paths of Vancouver. He had some several observations that I’m taking into consideration, but one of the big ones turned out to be easily solved. He found the throttle to be a little jerky.

Later in the trip I took the Electrom down to Grin where Robbie showed me the benefits of switching the throttle control mode on the CA V3 to Power instead of Speed. It completely smoothed out the throttle response and opened my eyes to a whole new world of possible adjustments in the CycleAnnalist. I feel so lucky to be close to the incredible resource that is Grin. I do miss being able to set the Cruise-Hold based on desired speed instead of desired power, but that only comes up on long trips and I can always switch back to speed mode for those.

I’ve done up a video that explains how the Electrom’s generator drive system works. Check it out if you’re curious

Happy Halloween everybody

I did some late-night experimenting with the Electrom on the seawall while I was in Vancouver. What a fun place to ride when there’s less pedestrian traffic. I was riding at about 11:00 pm on a Friday night so the few pedestrians I did encounter were pretty happy and very into the Electrom.

I made the trip over to Vancouver in the rain yesterday afternoon. It was raining pretty hard when I left Victoria, but the Electrom handled it beautifully.

heading over the skytrain bridge

one of the things I’ve observed while riding the Electrom on the side of highways is the general courtesy of the professional truck drivers. The majority of the drivers that operate big rigs seem to be very aware of the backwash that their trailers make and most of them will take the outside lane when passing me. It doesn’t actually make much of a difference to the Electom as it is heavy enough to not be knocked around much by wind.

I did have a bit of a stand-off with the BC ferries ticket agent who wanted to charge me as a motorbike (flattering but 20 bucks more). I had to send her to the ICBC website to look up the definition of an e-bike. In the end it worked out and I paid $2.50 for my bike. I try not to get too huffy in these situations as I am the one who chose to build the weird looking bike.

Alien bike in the big city

Once across the ferry the rip into Vancouver was uneventful. I did ride through the Massey Tunnel, which is always a bit nerve-wracking, but as the traffic was heavy and going pretty slow i was able to blend in.

I took the Electrom out for a pleasure cruise this weekend. I continue to be amazed at how well the generator drive works. I’m pedaling all the time and getting a ton of exercise even on the shortest rides.

It’s October 5, 2017 and I’ve had the Electrom LEV on the road since April of 2016. What a ride it’s been. In this time I’ve accumulated several thousand miles of saddle time, and learned much about the Electrom, my fellow road users, and myself. In this blog I’ll try to capture those experiences in writing. Stick around for the ride!

From back in June of this year:
I made my first long distance ride this weekend. I loaded up my spare batteries clothes and laptop and rode the Electrom out to the Mill bay ferry, took the ferry across and then continued up Vancouver Island to Nanaimo. I was hoping to get to French Creek but it was raining and almost 10:30 pm so I decided to stop for the night. That day I did 110 kilometers over four hours  but there was a wait for the ferry and I stopped to eat. What was great was that the next day my legs felt fine. I continued to French Creek, went fishing for the day, and then got back on the bike and headed back to Naniamo to take the ferry to Vancouver. After a day in Vancouver I then returned to Victoria. On the trip I rode the Electrom in heavy rain, at night and on the side of some major highways, including the Trans-Canada back to Vancouver. It was a snap, the Eectrom is very stable at speed, super comfortable and provides quite a bit of protection from the rain. I was wearing a scooter style helmet with a face shield with helped with the rain.