On the weekend of March 3-4, the Electrom made an appearance at the Vancouver Bike Show. The show was very well attended and the exposure for the Electrom was very good. As an ironic twist, the booth I was given was right next to the Trials demo area. Boy did that take me back a few years. Thanks Elisha Burrows for the photos
Made the trip out to The Camosun Technology Access Centre (CTAC) http://camosun.ca/innovates/ on Monday. What a great experience! They are a technology start-up services provider that includes the Babcock Canada Interaction Lab. They will be able to help me with the plug’s and molds for the bodywork on the Electrom production vehicle. They have some very cool and usefull tech, such as a massive foam CNC machine for mold making.
I got my first article about the electrom published. It’s pretty well written by Ben Coxworth.
One of my criteria when I built the Electrom was that I wanted to be able to use it to get my mountain bike to our local off-road riding areas. I live in Victoria BC, and sadly, while we have some of the best off-road cyclists in Canada living and training here, our city has not seen fit to allow riding in any of the local parks. As a result we have to put our bikes in vehicles and drive half an hour to ride. I know that doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I just can’t get used to the idea of driving a car to ride my bike. I could get an electric MTB going I guess, but for some reason I still prefer legs-only power for off road.
So, enter the bike-tow system for my electric machine. I’ve fashioned a quick install mount that receives the front axle of my Norco Sight mtb. To install it I simply take out one of my tail-box mounting bolts and fasten the bike-tow with a slightly longer bolt. It takes only a minute to install. Then I can attach the front fork of the mtb, strap the front tire on, and go. It works really well.
you could make a similar system that could fasten to a rear-rack on an upright bike.
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.
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