Some E-Bike Observations

I've not even been on the Nakto lately (busy and always worn out, it feels like), but I try to keep track of what's up in e-bike world.

I especially follow new projects at Indiegogo, because I'm on their email list anyway.

I'm not out to slam this project specifically -- in fact, there are several things I like about it -- but it does highlight some of the caution signals I'm always getting.

Freetech eBike: 175-Mile Range, 15-Min Charge

First thing first: What it doesn't say.

I had to dig into the "discussion" tab to find this: "Almost pulled the trigger, but no throttle option. :("

In the main body of the pitch, it just mentions three modes (eco, comfort, and sport) with descending range claims (175, 140, and 100 miles). No mention that it's 100% "pedal assist."

Then there are those range claims.

What's the maximum range of an e-bike? The battery life PLUS that of a regular bicycle: It will go as far as you are willing and able to pedal it once the battery runs out.

So let's just say I'm skeptical of the range claims I'm seeing. Even on bikes that do come with a "just use the motor" option, I never see a range specified for that. It's always just rosy claims that don't really explain how much of the work you'll be doing to get x miles out of the bike.

I happen to have tested that range on the Nakto, and know that I've got, IIRC, a little over 11 miles of travel if I don't want to do any pedaling. For any new bike I consider, I'll want an idea of how that compares.

New Bike Review, Part 1: Assembly of the @CriticalCycles Harper Single-Speed/Fixie

The new bike arrived today -- a couple of hours after we got home from the hospital where Tamara had hernia surgery this morning. Kudos to Walmart -- it arrived a day ahead of the initial promise, and in good shape. I probably shouldn't have assembled it today since I had other stuff to be doing, but what the heck. Looks like it's going to be a pretty sweet bike. Looks like, because I can't ride it yet and won't be able to until Thursday. But I'll get to that.

PROs of the assembly: It was easy. The hardest part, to be honest, was stripping all the packing material away.

The bike advertises as arriving 85% assembled. All I had to do was mount the seat, attach the pedals to the crank set, stick the handlebars in their place, mount the front tire, adjust the brakes, tighten the rear reflector and remove the front one (I'll be mounting a light and cell phone holder on the handlebars, the reflector would use up needed space and be redundant).

Call the assembly half an hour at a leisurely pace. Easy and simple. Oh, and that includes transferring my tire pump and water bottle holder from the old Trek to the new bike (which, unlike last year's $80 bike experiment, has mounting points for that stuff). It comes set up for "freewheel" riding. If I wanted it to be a "fixie" I'd have spent a few more minutes flipping the rear tire over.

CONs of the assembly: There were two, one exceedingly minor, one that's annoying and means it will be at least 48 hours before I can ride the bike.

The exceedingly minor con: Critical Cycles advertises their bikes as "Includes all the tools you need for building and maintaining your own bicycle" (Amazon) and "All the tools you need to build and maintain your own bicycle including three metric Allen wrenches and a flat wrench" (the Critical site). But right on the box it mentions you need a Philips screwdriver, and in the accompanying manual it also calls for scissors and a 15mm wrench or crescent wrench. I needed the first two of those other three things, haven't found any place where I'd need the third (the "multi-tool" has several wrench sizes built into it). Just a nitpick: It either comes with all the required tools or it doesn't. If it doesn't, don't say it does.

The annoying con that delays my actual use of the bike: The bike's tubes have Presta valves rather than Schrader valves. If you don't know the difference, the Schrader valve is the valve you know, the one used to put air in "virtually every motor vehicle in the world today," as well as every bike I've ever had until this one. The Presta valve is, in other words, pretty rare. The justification for it seems to be that it's smaller and that the hole for it to poke through the rim doesn't weaken very thin racing-type bike tire rims as much.

It just so happens that my little hand air pump can accommodate a Presta valve. But my tire gauge can't, nor can I air a Presta valve up at a gas station. Which means that I can't even tell how much air is in the tires right now, even if I air them up. So I've ordered a couple of Schrader adapters, which will be here Thursday. THEN I will be able to air up the tires, ride the bike and tell you how that went.

Guess God's Gonna Cut Me Down

[G]o and tell that midnight rider ...
You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God'll cut you down

I guess it's more like "two in the morning rider."

Realized a little while ago that I hadn't been on the bike in the last 24 hours other than a short utility jaunt yesterday morning (hunting up one of the kids). I'm determined not to go a day without riding unless the weather makes it completely impossible, even if I just put in a couple of miles. I'm in much better shape than I was a month ago, and don't plan to slack off. I'm looking forward to weighing 165-175 pounds again, and most of that muscle.

No weather problem tonight. No traffic either; I saw a grand total of one moving car. Nice and cool, just enough light hitting the streets to let me avoid running into parked vehicles and so forth. I took a lazy ride around our little town: Gently uphill about half a mile on the main street, around a long side street loop (half downhill, half back up), back down the main drag a bit, a shorter loop terminating at the corner nearest the house.

I could get used to this night-riding thing for a lot of reasons -- more comfortable temperature, less traffic to worry about, a nice feeling of solitude -- but if so I guess I'll need to invest in some reflective clothing or something so I don't get run down like a dog by some random stranger in a hurry to get home from second shift at Taco Hell.

I haven't really started using the bike as "regular transportation" yet, other than "kid patrol" and one run to a nearby convenience store with Liam, just to say we did it. That's coming, though. Next time I have to be somewhere downtown or in the Central West End or whatever, I'll take it (the local buses have bike racks, and you can roll'em right onto and off of the trains).

Alrightythen ... the rules of the game dictate that if there are lyrics hanging on the wall at the beginning of the first act, a YouTube video must be fired by the end of the second. Enjoy: