I made a bike in 9 days

[iamsofunny]

Pretty good job, pat myself on the back, handshake and applause
6061 frame
ping battery
interesting components of various styles and colors

[liveforphysics]

Right on! I love when folks make their own stuff!

Congrats on doing something that only a tiny tiny fraction of cyclists will ever know the joys of doing.

[StudEbiker]

It's not going to win any beauty contests, but you built it yourself, and that's cool.

[tjason]

NICE.

[el_walto]

Nice bike, next time try turning your camera flash off when taking picture?

[Jason27]

I like the bike you used. The birds nest for battery wiring though

[bzhwindtalker]

Looks nice! You should consider protecting the battery if you plan on using this bike offroad a lot! I like the overall shape and the rear drop-outs look up to the task. Good job! Any pictures of the building process?

[dogman]

Crusty kind of guy I am, I actually like the crude but functional looks. Bet it rides real nice, yet nobody is going to steal it.

Best of both worlds. Rock on!

[iamsofunny]

I made the frame completely to fit around the battery and shock. I purposely leave the wires hanging out so people know it's electric.
It looks really cool in real life though and I guarantee you it draws more heads than any bike where the batteries are hidden.

[Icewrench]

I like the wires in the wind approach, like you say it gets noticed more.
Some folks might see a different way to get around.
Only young mothers have asked if my headway pack is a bomb..... ( can I say that on the internet anymore ?? )

[The fingers]

If you spell it b!!b!

[iamsofunny]

My average conversation with people:

Man: Is that an electric bike?
Me: No, it's nuk-ya-lur.
Man: ... ReallY?
Me. No.
Man: Is it electric?
Me: Yes.
Man: Where's the motor?
Me: Let's play a game. You point and I'll let you know if you're right.
Man: #points to the battery.
Me: COLD
Man: #points to the handlebar
Me: COLDER
Man: I give up.
Me: Think rear wheel.
Man: Oh, the wheel. I never thought about it.
Me: It's direct drive.
Man: Does it charge as you pedal?
Me: No.
Man: If you hook the motor to the battery it will charge itself.
Me: No.
Man: Surely there's a way.
Me: Google, 'charging efficiency'
Man: #confused look. #walks away.
Me: I must purchase a used cloaking device from a Klingon surplus outlet store.
Man: #from a distance 'you can get those? where?'

[amberwolf]

That sounds just about right.

The bit about charging when you pedal, or even worse, charging as you ride while using only the motor by putting another motor on as a generator, are the most common suggestions I get. (and since the bike is right outside the door where I work, and I end up at the register a lot, I get a LOT of very short conversations about it...far too short to discuss anything more than "go to the website (ES) that's on the sticker on the big box".)

[John in CR]

Nice one with the cloaking device. I get alot of "Is it solar powered" down here. For a while I said yes, but indirectly. That lead to too many involved encounters that left them lost. Now I keep it short and sweet. "It's electric". "That's the motor". "I charge the batteries with a special charger in about an hour at home" (so the less temptation to steal). "I've had it up past 100kph on the highway, but I don't like going that fast" and "With this battery I can go from here to the airport and back 2 times on 1 charge." The next question is "How much?" to which I've started replying "Compared to a motor or good scooter, it's free after 3-4 years and there's almost nothing to break."

I wish I had the capacity to weld aluminum. Maybe I should just get a few tubes of Doc's special epoxy and glue an AL bike together.

John

[liveforphysics]

I like the bike you used. The birds nest for battery wiring though

I'm very curious what bike you think he used. Everything you see there (aside from components like seat post, seat, handle bars, crank, sprockets, wheels etc) is bits of aluminum pipe and box tubing and plate cut up and welded together by this guy.

[GMUseless]

Indeed, he mostly just used his own asskickery. When I first saw it, I was curious about the head tube and the bottom bracket. But I'm not convinced those aren't home brewed as well.

And that arche to expand the area below the top tube would only be made by a dude trying to stuff that triangle with the biggest of loads.

To me the most amazing thing is the disc brake mounted to the diy swing arm. Anyone who's ever taken an adjustable creacent wrench to a rotor knows we're talking about the sub-milimeter clearances there. Good show indeed.

[Kurt]

Man: Does it charge as you pedal?
Me: No.
Man: If you hook the motor to the battery it will charge itself.
Me: No.
Man: Surely there's a way.
Me: Google, 'charging efficiency'
Man: #confused look. #walks away.

Isn't funny how ignorant people are when it comes to understanding how the energy balance or power consumed to do particular tasks works. A lot of people have no idea how much energy it takes to perform particular tasks. It's not until they have to power things from something other than fossil fuel .

A couple that come to mind.

Ignorant person looks at Picture of futuristic electric concept car with a solar panel on top the size of a sun roof - moon roof. Ignorant person ..WOW it charges its self as you drive WOW you could drive all day . hmm(80w solar panel )

Ignorant Person visits off grid home WOW if the system powers that big 40' led tv why would you be concerned about your child using that little blow heater her bedroom. hmmm (60w vs 2400w)

The list goes on .....

Some people just don't get the physics of a lot of things. Most likely don't care to learn.

Kurt

[bzhwindtalker]

80% of the people I met on my human powered velomobile trip last summer though that my 10w solar panels were powering the whole trike :s people have no idea of physics indeed...