Watch Dave Lose It

Down time for repairs

So I ordered the axle from my LBS (that is local bike shop for you non-bikers).  I should have it Wednesday.  But that means that it will be over a week between commutes.

So Jane very generously offered to drive me and my road bike to work today so I could ride home.  The weather has been amazing; dry, with a fall nip in the air.  In fact since I put the wiper on my bike there hasn't been a drop of rain.  It is like waxing your car in reverse.

I had a great ride home.  I am officially 6 weeks past my usual end of bike season.  And that is really the whole point.  So thanks Jane for getting up early to keep me on track.

On a side note.  It seems I have created a little stir over on Bike Forums. (this is the link to my thread about my winter bike).  One of the hard core bikers started a thread just to make fun of me.  In fact the first thread was removed by the moderators and I wasn't alerted until they started a second thread.  On the second thread a whole bunch of people have come to my defense.  I have really enjoyed it.  There really are a lot of great bikers out there.  I am glad some are happy to share the road with someone who will never quite fit in.  (heck I can't even fit in to my spandex bibs).  

Observations from the first commute

I wanted to leave Jane's post up top for a full day but I want to write down my observations while they are still fresh.  i am glad I changed out that 5W CFL (dim!) with the 20W halogen.  I used that bulb most of the time.  The 37W bulb is just flat out bright.  It really puts out a nice tight beam well down the road.  Between the two I probably have all the choices I need except a low power get home light. 

i started out with 13.2 Volts but of course as soon as I turned on one of the lights that dropped to about 12.7.  By the time I got to work almost 1.5 hours later, I still had about 11.5 volts.  Since I was getting a ride home I didn't recharge the battery but when I went back to the bike it was back up to 11.9V.   So there are some days when that would be plenty to get home since it isn't getting dark early yet.  But on the coming short days I have a second battery at work and a charger.  so i will have a fully charged battery both ways and the ride home is shorter.

One of the things you notice about the bike is that your speed perception changes.  You don't have the wind whipping in your ears so you don't feel like you are going as fast as you are.  It was so dark I couldn't read my speedo most of the time.  i felt like I was riding about 8 mph and then I would go under a street light and I was going 14.  Without the wind noise and with the adding sound reflecting surface of the fairing you hear a lot of things you usually don't.  A lot of noise from the chain and crank.

The bike feels like it has a "hull speed".  Like on a sail boat.  A natural efficient speed (about 15 mph) and to go faster than that requires a lot more work.  Although looking at the Garmin data I still went the same speed down some of the hills.

I had some issues with fogging.  It wasn't really raining yesterday but as usual there was some fog.  I wiped the windshield a few times.  Tonight I installed my windshield wiper.  (pictures soon).  So I will see how that does on the rain.  It may help with fog as well on the outside.  But I may still need a fog wiper on the inside.

I made it up Lowell hill.  It was no picnic, but did it.  That is always the intimidating part of the ride.  So I am glad to have achieved that goal.  My pedal came off before gravel pit hill so still have that challenge ahead of me.

The wiper is a manual unit that someone pointed out to me on Bike Forum.  I bought is from carparts.com.  Here it is installed.  It was super easy.

 

Maiden Voyage of the Rain Bike

I know that Dave will expound further on the first ride to work but I know he would want these pictures posted right away so I will lurk on his site for a minute and do that.

He very nearly made it but a pedal broke off about a mile from his destination but otherwise everthing went well.  You can see there is a little fogging issue becasue of his breath but his glasses remained dry on this day of light rain.

 

The offending pedal.

 

 

Tomorrow is the big day

After many hours in my evil lab the bike is ready for the road tomorrow.  I have done a few trail rides.  Light tests. etc.  But the real test is the commute tomorrow.  Right now it is raining hard outside and we even have a little thunder and lightning. 

Jane will be riding support (it is a little far for Olivia).  So watch this space for my write-up tomorrow.

Testing phase

I finally got the wiring done and was able to do a short test ride.  i did about 1.5 miles with Olivia running support.  I climbed the 9% grade "mailbox hill" without trouble and on the way back hit 27.7 mph.  Which is right in line with the speed without the fairing.  So the fairing didn't slow me down noticeably.  There was a pretty good wind.  It didn't make me unstable but it did slow me down.

There was a slight drizzle.  I am actually hoping for a little more rain tomorrow for more rain testing.

After dark I did a little light testing.  The 5W CFl is completly useless.  The 55W light is great, but the draw on the battery will limit using it.  The 37W GE 10 degree bulb was really great.  I took some pictures.  I now have better appreciation for those that have posted their light pictures.  The lights were really very bright but it is hard to capture that.

This is the 37W halogen.

  

More pictures of the fully functioning death star (Rain Bike)

OK I took a day of of the day job to finish up the bike.  For weeks I have been 2 hours from being done (even after an extra 20 hours of work).  So today I really hit it hard and at least got everything working.  I am the most excited boy genius in the neighborhood.  So here are a bunch of pictures.

This is the power, a 6AH 12V lead acid battery. That should run the 37 watt bulb for an hour for the commute.  Plus the benefit of having a 12V system is you can use car and motorcycle  stuff.  Like ....
 
This one claims to be "louder than you original horn".  i am not sure it is louder than the air horn I have but as long as I have power I have a nice loud horn.  and here is the horn button.  Located so i don't have to take my hands off the handle bars to toot.

Of course if you have a horn button, you need something to attach it too.  Like a complete dashboard.

The only thing missing from this picture is the Garmin GPS computer.  It attaches at the top.  I just didn't have it on in these pictures.  Below that is the voltmeter.  It also has a clock and outdoor/outdoor thermometer in it.

Below that are the turn signal switches.  The point of the voltmeter is to manage the power.  With 4 lights (and a total of 17 possible combinations).  Oops I almost forgot to post pictures of the turn signals.

Did I say 17 settings.  Well yes with all possible combinations.  But that would actaully drain the battery really fast.  The two center lights are fog lights.  so you might see a slight yellow tint.  They are 25 watts and 55 watts. 

It wasn't even dark yet and the lights seemed pretty bright.

 Add the hokey spokes and I am ready to be the boy in a bubble.   The Rain Biker on the Rain Bike.