Joshua Goldberg
100 W
Monday in Toronto----Yeah right, will take one day just to ride across Toronto when you are sober and we were not planning on you being sober. Any preference to which brand of distilled or brewed liquid damnation you prefer?
Cross-Canada by Ebike
- Thread starter justin_le
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mikereidis
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knoxie said:
Ditto. After a hard day of ebiking perhaps, but not before. Don't wanna hear about Justin splashing into Lake Ontario...
Doctorbass said:Justin, you have used same energy from now then the entire Tesla Roadster 450kg lithium pack!!That's awsome!.. you did 15 times more distance than this exotic electric car with one on charge!
Hey wow, thanks for looking that up for us! One charge on an electric car will send an ebike from Vancouver almost to Toronto. That's putting things in perspective.
Yup, and I'm super thrilled that you are game to accompany me on a significant stretch of the ride. You know I'm gonna have to stop and charge up my 1.4kWh pack half way along that 170km stretch right? 432 cells and 2.21 kWh must be an ebike record for battery complexity.
Good observation, and that graph you made really illustrates it well. This is indeed exactly what has happened. The prevailing wisdome about travelling west->east for the sake of better tailwinds hasn't panned out in my case. By the end of Manitoba the amount of front and tail winds pretty much cancelled out, and since entering Ontario I've had nothing but powerful headwinds. Even when the road changes and turns from one direction to another here, the air is always blowing straight on. It's like the highway here is a corridor for the wind, and I'm heading down it the wrong way!
This has lead to some pretty bad efficiencies, approaching near 20 Wh/km in a lot of cases, and it's been forcing me to charge up every 60-70 km instead of every 100+ km. It also hurts my ears, the whistling sound of the turbulent air is so loud that I can barely hear myself think, and it makes the riding a lot less pleasurable. When you have a slight tailwind it's like you're moving along in a silent bubble and life is good. I miss that.
Justin
KoolKat
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Dang, never even thought of getting you a couple of tasty pastries for your journey toward Nipigon, especially our world famous Persians, created in Thunder Bay:
http://www.trifter.com/Practical-Travel/World-Cuisine/10-Popular-Canadian-Desserts.136996
Have some poutine and an elephant ear/beaver tail when you get to Ottawa!
Keep posting those pictures. This is the best way to learn about and appreciate this country. Much better than a textbook.
You can thank Lake Superior for the headwinds. It's a common observation by cyclists and motorists alike.
http://www.trifter.com/Practical-Travel/World-Cuisine/10-Popular-Canadian-Desserts.136996
Have some poutine and an elephant ear/beaver tail when you get to Ottawa!
Keep posting those pictures. This is the best way to learn about and appreciate this country. Much better than a textbook.
You can thank Lake Superior for the headwinds. It's a common observation by cyclists and motorists alike.
Ypedal
100 TW
Winds are worse than the hills in the Maritimes.. :lol:
Hey, what do you do when you reach the end of your journey ? bike back home ?
Hey, what do you do when you reach the end of your journey ? bike back home ?
TylerDurden
100 GW
Do the Canadians litter like the 'lower 48' do? (US roadways are like a huge ashtray & garbage dump.)
Zoot Katz
100 kW
KoolKat said:. . . Keep posting those pictures. This is the best way to learn about and appreciate this country. Much better than a textbook.
You can thank Lake Superior for the headwinds. It's a common observation by cyclists and motorists alike.
Bicycling empowers people.
Seeing the country on a bicycle, even at almost racing speeds, leaves lots of time to appreciate the sights, sounds and smells of the passing terrain. Along with local weather and culture you get to experience a sense of accomplishment that further bolsters your life's other endeavours.
Being on a bicycle connects you to your environment and inner self in ways that can't be explored topically in the context of this thread.
I'm a Zen wonk, of sorts.
RIDE ON, Justin!
A
Anonymous
Guest
justin_le said:
There are huge wind generators that would be really cool to see up close.
The turbines generate 1.8MW, almost enough to charge a doctor bass battery :lol:
http://climate.uvic.ca/climate-lab/front_page_pics/bruce_wind.html
Bruce Peninsula could "cut the umbilical cord" from the grid
http://biofuels.coop/windblog/?p=143
The Ferndale Wind Project
http://glen-ferndalewind.blogspot.com/
Now they have three vestas ... these are big'uns
http://www.amtelecom.net/~tboyle/wind/page03.htm
mikereidis
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TylerDurden said:
We have our junk, but not quite as much. Simple rule for comparing many things US to Canada: divide by 10 and subtract 10 years.
TylerDurden said:
Actual trash levels aren't too bad, but one thing I've really noticed on this trip, and also remember quite well from road trips through the US, is just the STAGGERING number of blown tires and tire shreds all over the highway. If I was to stop and take a picture of every tire fragment I've come across on the road, I'd still be in BC or Alberta right now. Isn't this cause for concern? Do trucks just keep on hauling after their tires blow off? Isn't there a huge risk to any pedestrian / cyclist / other car on the road when this happens? I've never actually witnessed it in person, but given the quantity of rubber left behind it seems to occur on a pretty regular basis and I'm surprised that this isn't something that we hear more about, and I'm surprised something isn't done about it.
mikereidis
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justin_le said:
There was a spate of truck wheel "explosions" (If I recall correctly) several years ago in Ontario; there was media coverage because at least one person died. MTO stepped up inspections of trucks and got the worst offenders (cheap trucking companies) off the roads.
I don't recall any media hysteria about flying rubber, because it happens all the time, and I don't think anyone's been killed by flying rubber (and steel belt?) yet. I've seen pieces fly off of trucks. In most cases I think the driver just keeps going, and may not even be aware. When you have all those wheels and they are mostly doubled up, it's not like in a car where you must pull over immediately.
Flying stones and metal are a more serious concern. Someone here in Ottawa died a few months ago in a bizarre incident where a piece of metal went through their windshield and entered their head. Seriously, MANY more people die on the road every day from stupid decisions (and I've made a few myself) than random vehicle parts flying through the air.
nutsandvolts said:
Hey thanks for that tip. I'm actually quite interested to check out various energy/power generation systems en route since that's a bit of a theme of this trip.
One more fun surprise from Saskatchewan was walking into a small preserved 1-room schoolhouse museum and seeing the following 1940's math text, spread open on an old school desk to this exact page:
"What One Kilowatt Hour Means"
Lighting for an evening read, Correct time for three weeks, Two hours of easy ironing, Pumps all the water wanted for two days, Two thorough house cleanings, Runs sewing machine two months with average use, One large weekly wash, Preserves the average family's food for 15 hours; Grinds 100 lb. of grain, Cools 10 gallons of milk for one day, Hoist's two tons of hay, Light's 100 bird poultry house for six days, Milks one cow for 30 days, Grinds 48 axe heads or 8 mower blades, Cuts one ton of ensilage, Cuts one-half cord of wood...
And to add our 2008 addition: Propels an ebike for One Hundred Kilometers!
It was neat being able to see the the various tangible sources of energy that are quite visible. The prairie landscape is dotted with all these small derricks rythmically pumping oil out of the ground. This shot is just leaving Taber, AB, and in the background (faint but visible) is one of Canada's largest windfarms. I've been intending to look up just how much energy each pump of the rig and each turn of the windmill blades provide in the context of propelling an ebike:
ebinary
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justin_le said:
Retreads are very popular with truckers as they are much less exepensive than new tires. Sometimes a retread just seems to become unglued from the tire and the whole thing unrolls off. From what I understand, Its not really catastrophic when it happens, because there is normally a perfectly good (though nearly bald) tire underneath.
Can't recall the last time i've had a flat on a car in 15 years on 4 vehicles. My wife got one after driving over some welding wire pieces in our garage, and even then it was a slow leak.
retread
10 mW
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Someone call?
Back in the bad old days of tyre tech when I was but a wee-lad living in outback Australia, I recall losing two retreads on one 400 km trip. Apparently the road temperature (>50C) had something to do with helping the adhesives fail, and yep, many people died due to this type of failure both from flying truck-rubber striking their cars, usually when passing, or a direct failure on their own vehicle.
Back to my trip: One of the loops of rubber actually damaged the car quite badly when it came off. It dented the wheel well outwards, then flipped up and broke the windshield and tore off a wiper. Mind you, we were doing about 140 km/h (normal there) at the time.
Interestingly, on another trip along the same road we hit an absolutely massive goanna. It was so big that what we hit was its raised head with our front bumper, straddling its body under the car. The impact was quite damaging to the car, and needless to say, the goanna was a gonna.
Don't get me started on roos...
Back in the bad old days of tyre tech when I was but a wee-lad living in outback Australia, I recall losing two retreads on one 400 km trip. Apparently the road temperature (>50C) had something to do with helping the adhesives fail, and yep, many people died due to this type of failure both from flying truck-rubber striking their cars, usually when passing, or a direct failure on their own vehicle.
Back to my trip: One of the loops of rubber actually damaged the car quite badly when it came off. It dented the wheel well outwards, then flipped up and broke the windshield and tore off a wiper. Mind you, we were doing about 140 km/h (normal there) at the time.
Interestingly, on another trip along the same road we hit an absolutely massive goanna. It was so big that what we hit was its raised head with our front bumper, straddling its body under the car. The impact was quite damaging to the car, and needless to say, the goanna was a gonna.
Don't get me started on roos...
retread said:
Glad we don't have those here. Retreads are bad enough.
After looking at the excel statistics, what do you think about the regenerative payback?
It looks like for most of the legs of the trip that weren't downhill you get only 3 or 4 percent back.
It averaged 2-3 percent.
How many extra km does this translate to?
I wonder if having regenerative capability in a controller is worth the extra circuitry?
It looks like for most of the legs of the trip that weren't downhill you get only 3 or 4 percent back.
It averaged 2-3 percent.
How many extra km does this translate to?
I wonder if having regenerative capability in a controller is worth the extra circuitry?
A
Anonymous
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TylerDurden said:
It depends on where you go in canada. In the capital region its amazingly clean, in winnipeg there is trash everywhere. Same is true of USA though, california is very clean compared to other places. It annoys the hell out of me when people toss their fast food garbage out the window. Nobody seems to do that here, but its very common in other cities.
wasp
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well i got to meet justin today
he came through my home town
and just left 30 min ago
great guy and glad i got to meet
and talk bikes(i even let him try mine)
here's a pic of us...
he really is a great guy and i look foward to dealing with him
this winter...
he is now on his way to the largest freshwater island on this planet
he came through my home town
and just left 30 min ago
great guy and glad i got to meet
and talk bikes(i even let him try mine)
here's a pic of us...
he really is a great guy and i look foward to dealing with him
this winter...
he is now on his way to the largest freshwater island on this planet
A
Anonymous
Guest
Manitoulin Island is very cool. So is the ferry to tobermory. As a long time scuba diver, I also have to mention that tobermory underwater park has many shipwrecks in a small area, wreck diving heaven. No comparison to northern queensland australia coral sea (great barrier reef) where I've dived several times, but as far as fresh water diving goes, this is choice.
http://www.seasabres.com/%5CDive%20Spots%5CTobermory%20Ontario.htm
Too bad he missed the powwows
http://www.ourmanitoulin.com/powwow.html
Circle Trail looks interesting
http://www.circletrail.com/
http://www.seasabres.com/%5CDive%20Spots%5CTobermory%20Ontario.htm
Too bad he missed the powwows
http://www.ourmanitoulin.com/powwow.html
Circle Trail looks interesting
http://www.circletrail.com/
wasp
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nutsandvolts said:
there are alot of choice dives here...listed and not listed...
i know where there is a train
he missed haweater weekend...lol
the bridge going onto the island is the last
working swing bridge(i think) they tore up the tracks but still swing it for the boats
mikereidis
1 kW
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- Jul 24, 2008
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velias said:
In a Prius, regen is supposed to give maybe 1-2% extra mileage. Not much, but it comes almost "free". Bigger advantage is VERY minimal wear on the mechanical brakes. I'm hoping my Prius never needs a brake job. On an e-bike, perhaps your pads would last almost forever, and wear and tear on wheel will be minimal.
I'd think it's worth it if you have lots of hills. Here, in Gatineau Park there are many very long and steep hills. The downhill is very "exciting". (Read "scary" to this 45yo guy on a kids bike.
)I'd be VERY interested to see how much I can increase my range with regen on those fun hills. Of course, I'd have to settle for lower downhill speeds, but I'm OK with that, and much power is lost in aero at speed anyway.
mikereidis
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nutsandvolts said:
Don't know if you've noticed but we have "street zambonis" to clean the gutters and impress the tourists with our sparkling clean streets. But there IS a psych effect; People are less likely to litter when streets are clean already. I think Toronto had a slogan "Toronto the Clean" or something. Clean streets is one things Americans tend to notice when they visit here; but yeah, just look within a few miles of Tim Hortons or McDonalds to see what too many people do with their empty bags. Is it really so hard to find a garbage can ? Heck, I try to dispose of cigarette butts responsibly too. More an eyesore than pollution, but it adds up.
In downtown Ottawa I once saw some jerk throw his empty cig pack out his window at a stop light ! What nerve ! I picked it up, winged it back in his car, past his face, and said "Hey buddy, you dropped something.".
Some people really get my goat.- Status
