parajared
10 kW
Parajared rides again!
Clearly confused about notions of what constitutes “fun” and “sanity” I decided it was time for another multi-day cycling camping adventure! Unlike last time where I relied on rogue power outlets all my charging was done by using the sun with my new fangling solar attachment.
I packed a change of clothes, tent, sleeping bag, jacket, inflatable sleeping pad, tools, a few hygiene items and a fully-automatic assault rifle to ward off commies from the campsite (well actually just a little pocket pistol). I figured it was high time to finally waterproof my stuff and ended up using a method I learned from a youtube video to get r’ done.
Day 1: Despite knowing about the weather forecast of rain I decided to head out anyway just to see what it was like now that I’m waterproofed and all. It turns out that cycling in the rain is every bit as fun as I was expecting it to be, as in, lets never do that again! The cloud cover was blocking the sun too but I managed to find a small sunny spot halfway through my ride. My new sheep friends seemed to like the sun too.
View attachment 5
Ultimately the clouds completely sealed up the sky ending the day after only a few hours at 61 miles. I set camp in the Coleman Lake area of Williams and spend the rest of the day hiking and playing disc golf. The batteries charged up nicely the next morning taking only about 1 ½ hours to get up to a full charge.
Day 2:
Lots of weird looks from motorists, it’s hard to bike down the road with a 450 watt solar panel strapped to your bike and not draw attention to yourself. I quickly learned that it was quite awful trying to bike down a bumpy road with a floppy solar panel attached to the trike. The stretch of shoulder between Williams and Flagstaff was in terrible condition and on one particularly hard thump the PVC flexed so much that my cargo managed to skid on the ground puncturing a hole in my inflatable sleeping pad.
I had the pleasure of chasing down a lycra clad carbon fiber race bicycler just to watch the look on his befuddled face as I zoomed past; well that was the plan anyway. The top speed on my solar trike is about 22mph and I let her rip. I would catch up to him on the uphills burning through a lot of energy to out-climb him but as soon as he hit the flats he must have been pushing a good 27mph or so. I chased him all the way from Flagstaff to Mormon lake overlook where he turned off (20 miles or so) and never could overtake the rascal. I didn’t catch the young fella’s name but “Demon Rider: the Mormon Lake anomaly” has a nice ring to it.
After a day of battling the dreaded road shoulder of Bellemont and chasing after a road biker like some kind of lunatic (I call dibs on the movie rights) I set up tent at Camp Verde’s Bull Pen Ranch now at 196 miles in or 135 miles for the day.
Day 3:
I plugged my batteries in ready for the day’s ride. To my dismay the magical smoke, the supernatural essence that makes all electronic equipment work escaped right out the vent holes of my solar charge controller! I jumped and grasped at the air in an effort to catch the mythical substance but alas my charge controller was without it’s life blood. Despite hearing dire warnings against said practice I decided that it was time to see what happens when I just connect the raw solar panel energy directly to the battery and well nothing exiting happened at all. It turns out that the battery voltage floats a little bit above it’s resting voltage, drops the panel voltage down to it’s level, and takes the amperage from the panels just fine. I was nearly fully charged from the prior day’s evening light so the panels were threatening to overcharge my battery (per my cycle computer: cycle analyst) but that was fixed easy enough by unplugging the battery as I finished packing up. I ran the trike hard for the first couple of miles to bring the voltage down a little to avoid overcharge but that probably wasn’t necessary. I ended up liking the results of not having a charge controller so much that I think this may be the way I do things from now on. Here’s a picture of my MacGyver job. I just chopped the wires then twisted them together.
The last 55 miles were a breeze, the roads were in good condition and although I didn't have anything to measure panel amperage it felt like my solar panels were charging better than ever. I really liked the camp and charge thing a whole heck of a lot better than trying to find power outlets along the way although the panels were large floppy encumbrances making it slightly harder to find a spot to park and lock the thing up, tougher to ride down bumpy roads.
Clearly confused about notions of what constitutes “fun” and “sanity” I decided it was time for another multi-day cycling camping adventure! Unlike last time where I relied on rogue power outlets all my charging was done by using the sun with my new fangling solar attachment.
I packed a change of clothes, tent, sleeping bag, jacket, inflatable sleeping pad, tools, a few hygiene items and a fully-automatic assault rifle to ward off commies from the campsite (well actually just a little pocket pistol). I figured it was high time to finally waterproof my stuff and ended up using a method I learned from a youtube video to get r’ done.
Day 1: Despite knowing about the weather forecast of rain I decided to head out anyway just to see what it was like now that I’m waterproofed and all. It turns out that cycling in the rain is every bit as fun as I was expecting it to be, as in, lets never do that again! The cloud cover was blocking the sun too but I managed to find a small sunny spot halfway through my ride. My new sheep friends seemed to like the sun too.
View attachment 5
Ultimately the clouds completely sealed up the sky ending the day after only a few hours at 61 miles. I set camp in the Coleman Lake area of Williams and spend the rest of the day hiking and playing disc golf. The batteries charged up nicely the next morning taking only about 1 ½ hours to get up to a full charge.
Day 2:
Lots of weird looks from motorists, it’s hard to bike down the road with a 450 watt solar panel strapped to your bike and not draw attention to yourself. I quickly learned that it was quite awful trying to bike down a bumpy road with a floppy solar panel attached to the trike. The stretch of shoulder between Williams and Flagstaff was in terrible condition and on one particularly hard thump the PVC flexed so much that my cargo managed to skid on the ground puncturing a hole in my inflatable sleeping pad.
I had the pleasure of chasing down a lycra clad carbon fiber race bicycler just to watch the look on his befuddled face as I zoomed past; well that was the plan anyway. The top speed on my solar trike is about 22mph and I let her rip. I would catch up to him on the uphills burning through a lot of energy to out-climb him but as soon as he hit the flats he must have been pushing a good 27mph or so. I chased him all the way from Flagstaff to Mormon lake overlook where he turned off (20 miles or so) and never could overtake the rascal. I didn’t catch the young fella’s name but “Demon Rider: the Mormon Lake anomaly” has a nice ring to it.
After a day of battling the dreaded road shoulder of Bellemont and chasing after a road biker like some kind of lunatic (I call dibs on the movie rights) I set up tent at Camp Verde’s Bull Pen Ranch now at 196 miles in or 135 miles for the day.
Day 3:
I plugged my batteries in ready for the day’s ride. To my dismay the magical smoke, the supernatural essence that makes all electronic equipment work escaped right out the vent holes of my solar charge controller! I jumped and grasped at the air in an effort to catch the mythical substance but alas my charge controller was without it’s life blood. Despite hearing dire warnings against said practice I decided that it was time to see what happens when I just connect the raw solar panel energy directly to the battery and well nothing exiting happened at all. It turns out that the battery voltage floats a little bit above it’s resting voltage, drops the panel voltage down to it’s level, and takes the amperage from the panels just fine. I was nearly fully charged from the prior day’s evening light so the panels were threatening to overcharge my battery (per my cycle computer: cycle analyst) but that was fixed easy enough by unplugging the battery as I finished packing up. I ran the trike hard for the first couple of miles to bring the voltage down a little to avoid overcharge but that probably wasn’t necessary. I ended up liking the results of not having a charge controller so much that I think this may be the way I do things from now on. Here’s a picture of my MacGyver job. I just chopped the wires then twisted them together.
The last 55 miles were a breeze, the roads were in good condition and although I didn't have anything to measure panel amperage it felt like my solar panels were charging better than ever. I really liked the camp and charge thing a whole heck of a lot better than trying to find power outlets along the way although the panels were large floppy encumbrances making it slightly harder to find a spot to park and lock the thing up, tougher to ride down bumpy roads.
. And since you're the controller, you tell the panels to stop charging when you want. -or whatever-
