Scamwagon

These "exhaust pipes" will hold your panniers back AND give you 5 extra horsepower!  As many others seem to have (according to posts I've read in forums), I've been plagued by the issue of my pannier bags curling inward and getting hung up in the spokes.  This seriously almost drove me insane, slowly over the course of two seasons.  It would be fine until I hit a bump, and then it would be mayhem.  Eventually I followed the popular advice and got myself a different rack with a "dogleg", or put more simply, a sweeping member that extends far enough back and down that it holds the panniers away from the wheel. Well I was back to square one earlier this year when I installed the Blackburn EX-1 rear rack.  This is a very popular rear rack, but unfortunately is not compatible with my panniers.  The reason I am using this rack is that it is the only one compatible with the Copilot Limo  child bike seat. Copilot Limo Child seat, and test child In...

Early on a beautiful Sunday morning, I packed up and headed out on a 60 mile trip.  It was a personal range record.  I planned it carefully (perhaps more so than necessary), making sure I had calculated my energy budget and arranged for basic contingencies. Tools, Spare tube, charger, good nav, etc. I rode on the amazing Champlain Bikeway down to the Basin Harbor Club. View from Greenbush Road, looking east across Charlotte at Mt. Philo Although it was somewhat chilly when I left, by 10am it had warmed to the mid-70's, and continued to heat up throughout the day. Besides being a little overdressed,  everything worked perfectly.  I was maintaining a very steady 17 mph, and lightly pedaling about half the time.  This resulted in an average of about 18 watt-hours/per mile, which was very conservative.  At the halfway point, I had used about 40% of my ~1300 wh battery pack. At the 30 mile half-way point, the bike and I rested comfortably beach-side ...

Over the last few months I have significantly upgraded my E-bike.  Replaced the old battery (along with its horrible, self-sabotaging BMS ), and more recently, upgraded to an Infineon controller, and added a Cycle Analyst.  Sometime I will give a full rundown of the bike's configuration, etc., but that will be another post.  For now, here are the specs: EM3EV 48V triangle battery, 25AH, Samsung 29E Cells Infineon 4110 9 Fet Controller w/ regen Generic Direct-Drive Brushless Motor off eBay Cycle Analyst v2 E-Bike sitting high atop one of the Mt. Philo lookouts It was a good day for a ride, and I'd been planning to do this for a while.  Mt. Philo is located in Charlotte, VT and has a car road that is a 968 vertical climb to the top.  My father-in-law's place is right nearby, so I had a convenient way-point for recharging as well as s place to work on something if I had a failure. Track from my GPS as I rode up, and then down the Mt. Philo motor r...