Dogman Dans E bike burns his house.

Have a nice fairing on mine, but yeah my legs got wet riding through Ruidoso about a month ago. Already had to change the oil on it and I have put around 4,000 miles on it. Paid 2200 for it. :D
 
Only a couple months each year a ride in the mountains is wet anyway. Fairings are good, after about 200-300 miles of riding, you feel it in the back and arms if you have to fight that wind pressure all day. And anyway, you are 120 miles round trip closer to the mts than I am. I really liked the Ruidoso- Ft Stanton, Lincoln circle ride. But I've also been looking at getting some kind of enduro motorcycle. So much good dirt right at my driveway at home to ride.

Another couple days, you'll be able to flip a switch, and the lights go on in the house. New cabinets are in now, so we are very close to 100% complete on the inside. Outside, some more coats of stucco and soffit trim is all that is left.

Can't wait to go HOME! I'm so sick of driving through downtown to get to where I sleep. At first it was cool, walk distance to 9 kinds of fast food. Now, I'm just sick of the smell of sonic burgers filling the house. Shoulda got a place upwind of all that stink.
 
My 88 K100 was the best of both worlds for street riding. Fast, great seating position and had a great fairing for long rides. Also, it didn't rattle at all and got 60 mpg!
 
Getting so close I can taste it. Might get to move home next week.
 
Happy for you Dan! Enjoy, the new'ish digs....
 
Man, I can't believe how long it took to get the house finished, but it's done, and we turn over the rental house today.

It should have taken a week more by nov 1st, but instead it dragged on till thanksgiving instead. First it takes them two weeks to hang some cabinets and set counter tops. Same thing I used to do regularly in two days. (two workers)

Then more flunked inspections, on electrical. One item the electricians needed to fix was my furnace. It blew but would not get hot. They came back twice, claiming both times it was fine, but still no warm. Finally I turn off the breaker, and pop off the cover myself. The heater, electric, had three of the four big fat wires disconnected at the breakers. They tightened the lug, but the wire was not in the hole. They cut them too short. Fortunately there was a half inch of slack I could yank down from the attic.

Good thing there was a dumbass carpenter around to figure it out. :roll:

But now we are home, and the dogs so much happier. They can hang out in the yard all day, instead of 15 min at most at a time like the rental. Daisy would just hurt herself trying to get over the wall to kill the dog next door at the rental. All our stuff is back from the cleaners, but completely mixed up. When they took it, they photographed every single item, logging which room its from. Then when cleaning and boxing back up, they just mixed it up like it was a lottery drawing. Every single box has shit from 2-4 different rooms in it. One box had wine glasses on the bottom, then on top, two crock pots and two pressure cookers. Way to go guys. It's making packing back in 4 times harder. But its all squeaky clean, completely free of burning car tires smell. So that's better than dumping it for sure. But we still loath it that anybody touched our shit. We are happy to be home, but every box puts us back in a bad mood.

Loving all the house upgrades we paid for. Much better stove, fridge, and washer. The new kitchen has a much more efficient layout, and tons more light with the new door to the living/dining room. The new layout will allow most cooking, including clean up, to require very few steps back and forth, despite the large size kitchen. (used to be kitchen and dining) When we are in a walker later on, we'll still be able to cook a nice dinner, without much stumping around back and forth like the old kitchen design forced. The whole house is now geriatric ready for when we need it. We won't have to fix it all in a rush later when we find ourselves in a walker or chair. Handicap ready bathrooms are nice at any age.

Less cash left at the end than we thought, because of the many upgrades we have bought. but still some to put in savings. So wiping out our savings last year is at least replaced.
 
Congratulations!
Rebuilt and upgraded place sounds great.
Heck of a path to get there but a good outcome.

Surprising how few houses are geriatric ready.
Even if I don't need it today, going to in another few years (with luck,
always assuming I'm not pushing up daisies by then).
Starting to look at retirement years house. Not many are designed
with any thought about mobility.
 
Our master bath did not even have a decent place to put the tp hanger designed in, let alone handicap bars near the shitter. Just before the fire I had started remodeling that bath. By flipping the door to swing out, I could at least add a bar just in front of the toilet. Then with the taller, long bowl toilet, now you can scootch forward to where you can reach the bar, and hang on while standing up. Nobody handicapped here yet, but its amazing how quick you learn to use the bar to stand up. It's just easier, using the bar to help you up.

The last detail left is the master bath shower, which is now a tub. Insurance money from things that burned up in the garage will pay for replacing that with a regular shower, that will be better without the step over into the tub we have now.

After about a week in the upgraded house, I'm liking it more and more. Putting the dishes away from the dishwasher is so easy. Standing in one spot, I can put away 100% of the china and silver, only walking two steps to put away the plastic. Used to be nowhere to put anything away less than 6 steps from the dishwasher, because of the stupid location of the door to the garage. Whats even weirder, dishes are truly clean from the high dollar , very quiet, dishwasher. Similarly, the first load from the new washer. Similarly with the new front load washer that we got yesterday. First load, I was thinking somebody switched my socks. Where's my grey socks? they look brand new now.
 
Accessibility is great but hard to find on the housing market. Took three months to get this house which just has no steps. Taller, longer toilets and grab bars in the bathroom are great to add also, as are sliding pocket doors which make them wider to get a wheelchair through.
Now when I come in from my garage into the house I find myself constantly stepping onto thin air becaise of being used to having to go up to leave the garage at our old house.. :lol:
 
The fingers said:
Now when I come in from my garage into the house I find myself constantly stepping onto thin air becaise of being used to having to go up to leave the garage at our old house.. :lol:

I did that for a long while, too, after the post-fire rebuild. The back room used to have a several-inch-high step up from it into the kitchen, because it's slab was much lower than the house's. Sometimes I would fall because of it. Because it was not built to code (and teh slab was disintegrating anyway), the whole back room was torn down and rebuilt (even though that room was farthest from the fire with zero damage other than smoke on the cieling and walls).

A worse problem was that to meet code they added the absolute minimum sized "stoop" just outside the back door, so it is a huge tripping/falling hazard, coming up on it just before I go in the door it's bigger than a step would be, but smaller than a porch, and even now, 3.5 years later, I still sometimes trip on it and end up either on my face on teh floor in the back room (if the back door is open), or slamming into the back door (if it's closed) and bouncing off and landing on the concrete stoop.

As I've had time and energy (and been able to keep projects off the area) I've been working on digging up the old brick "porch" I'd built years ago. it was buried under a lot of dirt and concrete debris, etc., from when they tore out the old back room's slab. Then I'm taking those bricks and adding them around the "stoop" so it isn't quite so sudden a thing coming out or going in the back door, and also eventually to make it a ramp up, instead of 6"+ jump from teh ground to the top of the stoop.
 
Funny how even little changes mess with you after you live someplace a long time. Another thing we changed here is removing the glass shower door on the master bath tub. I rarely used that shower because I constantly scraped a new bald spot on my head on the top frame if I did. Now it has a curtain, with the bar a good foot above my head.

I still duck getting in and out, and likely will for a decade or so. :lol:

Starting to feel better here now, our art is on the walls, and things we use a lot can be found. Loving the new kitchen layout more and more. So few steps to do each task, in a very large kitchen. It used to be a lot of running back and forth, because they put a door in a shitty place. Moved that door 4 feet and it changed everything.

Advice to anybody else with a fire or flood, don't let the service pro guys take so much. Get more of your wardrobe out. Get more of your library out, and clean it yourself. Don't let them take your electronic stuff at all. We thought we'd be able to get into the box and get what we needed later when we got into a rental house, but that turned out to be more or less impossible, plus a 50 buck fee.
 
Think I'm going to make it a standard policy all flammable goods get put in the detached steel shed when I get things fully set up. To make the shed waterproof, I put a tarp over it. Still need to stake it down, it blows off, lol.
 
For the cheap steel shed roof, you might try elastomeric paint combined with fabric reinforcing strip. Paint down the strip over all seams, and fasteners. then paint the whole roof with another coat. One gallon should easily do a 10x 10 shed.

My little tin shed sits on 4x4 landscape timbers, making it slightly taller once inside. Screwed to those, its not blowing away now. I let mine leak, since all there is in there is old bikes, and parts.
 
Bummer about the fire Dan, been away from ES for a while. Been focused on my van build the past 3 years. Glad things have worked out for you. I will take more precautions with the Tesla pack I'm using in the van. Fell into the same false sense of safety. 220ah would make a bad fire if gone wrong, and I'm sleeping next to it. Getting back into ebikes this summer, was also focused on kiteboarding, still am.
 
Nice, I never tried the kites, but loved a good 50-50-50 day on the windsurfer. 50 degree water, 50 degree air, 50 mph wind. The good wind always in the early spring storms, nice laminar wind for 700 miles inland if it was cold. 5 mm drysuit just to make the jibe nearly impossible. :lol: Waves would get 4 foot tall or so on a good one. Late spring is just confused wind, hard to surf even with a huge sail. Gusts knock you down, but have no power, full of thermals.

I doubt my surf shit will ever get wet again, unless I go to someplace very warm. I just make too little body heat for that kind of ride. Just down hauling and getting dressed in 5 mm rubber would exhaust me now.

But on the bright side, I just got my scooter replaced. Low effort, warm behind the fairing, and we have 70 degree weather tomorrow.

I had a Yamaha 400, and just got another 400 but this time the Suzuki burgman. 5000 miles on it, so ready for some long rides this summer. Planning to take off a bit this summer, since I'm not chained to the E bikekit chat anymore. Van and trailer, with e bike, scoot, and a kayak.

Enough of this bummer 2017, 2018 will be devoted to fun shit.
 
Wow!
Just saw that thread. I am sorry for you, but I am glad that eventually you are able to resolve the damages with not so much losses of money...
This thread gave me another reason to stick to my existing A123's, despite the tempting lightweight (but short life-cycle lived) modern cells.
I happened once to short-circuit few cells inside a A123 20Ah 10S prismatic block and the result was fire - but only because the metal got hot enough so it burned the goper-tape. The cells themselves didn't burn, smoke or occur any damage, and they are still fine.
This is why I trust this chemistry. It is heavy, but it will never put my life in danger.
I am now considering a non-A123 Li-Ion chemistry for range-extending a commuting road E-bike, and I guess the only safe option would be Justin's LiGo's. (they are expensive, but you get an R&D & manufactured non-Chinese production product you can trust)
 
You get what you paid for, and that battery that burned my house was cheap.

On the bright side, since the fire ruined my kitchen stove, I have a nice battery bunker outside the garage now. I used to use my fireplace in the house for that, but the remodel removed that fireplace.
 
Hey I just got a flier from Zoro 20-25% off and free shipping on flammable cabinets! $271 for a 12G cabinet, other great deals too.
MORE2SAVE is code. Free shipping on 100 lb cabinets!!!

$409.34 + $121.24 shipping on Amazon and other sellers are nearly as high.
 

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I looked at getting one of those, from the University auctioning off stuff site. Also looked at just metal file cabinets for the garage. Not for keeping batteries in, but more for keeping stuff I'd like to survive the next fire. :roll:

funny how your life experience gives you a new thing to worry about. I had tons of bike parts and bike tools in plastic drawer stacks. In the fire, they melted down into a big plastic lump with the stuff I wanted back inside. Tools in metal boxes came out still usable, but I'm thinking twice now about what goes into plastic storage boxes.
 
dogman dan said:
I looked at getting one of those, from the University auctioning off stuff site. Also looked at just metal file cabinets for the garage. Not for keeping batteries in, but more for keeping stuff I'd like to survive the next fire. :roll:

funny how your life experience gives you a new thing to worry about. I had tons of bike parts and bike tools in plastic drawer stacks. In the fire, they melted down into a big plastic lump with the stuff I wanted back inside. Tools in metal boxes came out still usable, but I'm thinking twice now about what goes into plastic storage boxes.
Life experiences sure do form our responses. I looked at buying used cabinets but found the prices and shipping costs to be more than a Zoro sale. I bought with 25% off and already lower price than anyone else and free shipping. The final cost was half of what anyone else wanted and around what a used cabinet sold for. But the used were all pretty funky and to far away to be practical. I have your experience and this thread to thank for making better decisions on how I manage my dozen batteries. Actually looking back you've been a major mentor since my earliest posts. Hoping for you that a fire is something you never have to experience again!
All the best!
T
 
[strike]I had a Yamaha 400, and just got another 400 but this time the Suzuki burgman. 5000 miles on it, so ready for some long rides this summer. Planning to take off a bit this summer, since I'm not chained to the E bikekit chat anymore. Van and trailer, with e bike, scoot, and a kayak.[/strike]
Let me know if you get over to this side so we can ride!
 
Mostly the cold stopping that from happening right now. I've been riding a lot for winter, but prefer shorter rides even on the nice days. I take the one gallon cruise towards hatch along the river. About a 60 mile round trip with some nice curvy road. Or the long cut to Walmart, east to the organs, south till the road turns back to town, then hit the store on the way back north. Adds about 15 miles to the 10 mile trip to the store and back. :)

Once things warm up though, I have nothing better to do than ride, so I'll be wanting to cruise all the roads in the sacramento mts again. Assuming of course, its not a big fire up there this year. Drought is back on big time. Once it will be hitting 65 or so up in Ruidoso, I'll be on your doorstep with the scoot on the trailer. Your house makes a good starting point for a day trip to Lincoln, up to the ski area, and back down for dinner.

Re the fire cabinets, those auctions I was looking at were local so no shipping. We were thinking maybe going metal cabinets all over the garage. But good insurance is another effective way to protect your belongings. What we got paid for that junk in the garage was amazing, and allowed us to make all the upgrades we did inside the house on the rebuild. In the end, the garage got the old smoke damaged cabinets instead, after a paint job.

But one of the easier fire cabinets you can get free, is a dead kitchen stove. The oven is a pretty effective container for containing a small fire, and the top a good place to set a charger. If indoors, add a latch to keep the door closed if there is a fire, directing the hot gasses out the vent on top.
 
Well yeah a stove, that makes good sense, but the Mrs prefers a neat orderly basement without the rummage sale look. I know...weird...but then I polish shoes and iron handkerchiefs. So I forgive her. My system is getting massively over done compared to most, but that's OK. So are my bikes.

Thanks again. You've probably saved a few houses and likely some lives by this incredible discussion and share!
 
Thanks for the referral to this thread -- sad to read, but a good precautionary tale. Glad you both and the dogs were okay.

I do wonder about the relative failure rates of pack-integrated BMS vs external charger BMS. My assumption is that the limitations imposed by packaging and powering the pack-integrated BMS, and the thermal and shock loads imposed by on-bike installation, would bias pack-integrated BMS to a far higher failure rate.

A fundamental design philosophy in racing is to move complexity and/or equipment off the competition vehicle. Therefore, I had planned to run big series LiPo packs naked and balance charge them externally. I'm curious if anyone else follows this design philosophy.
 
Using packs without an integrated BMS is common with “non-professional” pack users.
Traditional hobbyists such as RC flyers rarely use anything other than a balance charger, and many Ebikers also consider a BMS to be unreliable, and use either balance chargers or “manual” pack management instead.
Obviously most large packs (5+kWh) have a value that is worth protecting with a quality BMS, but again in competition use , especially where ultimate performance and minimum weight is required ( drag racig ?) then again it is not uncommon to eliminate the complexity and fault risk , of an on board BMS.
 
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