Demographics?

[atom1025]

31, married. 16 years with one awesome woman. One six year old son. Always lived in the burbs.

Flooring for 14 years of my life. I now manage a crew at a sheetmetal shop for the past 2 years. We make lots of panels and fixtures for solar company among other various stuff like dvd burner cases etc. We have 3 amada NC turrets, two 90 ton press brake, 3 haeger hardware press, mill, lathe, welding etc.

Grew up next-door to a bmx track.moved out at 17yr old. Started building battlebots at 18yrs. Started RC planes when I was 22, commissioned over 50 custom builds for clients using a unique composite application that covered foam with glass mesh and glue resulting in a stiff yet bouncy skin that could often survive 100mph crashes and live to fly again.

The new job gave me the ability to bike. I instantly started looking for an ebike. Found my first on craigslist. A synergy with bunk Batts for $200. Souped it up soon after to 1500w. Frame made me nervous so I stepped up to a real FS frame and a hub motor. If funds allowed it my juiced riders odk would have some power on it. I'm an addict at this point.

Adam

 

[Dauntless]

I regret to say this is getting worse as I age, and I fear I run the risk of turning into a grumpy old git..................

Well I'm a grumpy slightly younger git so you're in good company.

Looks like I'm about average in terms of demographics.

Kind of feel like you've said it all for me at this point. The full range is covered, there is an example of ANYONE AND EVERYONE represented in the EV world.

I have my socalled career in television which seems to be on hold at the moment. Not married, scared to death of having yet ANOTHER bad girlfriend, but if I had kids I could be building things for them. Not that I'm rich, but I live in a house, have a new Mustang and a not that old Duramax Silverado so there's these woman downtown I don't even know that are trying to marry as well as they can. (Groan.) When I was a kid, I was the type to find library books such as 'The Boy Mechanic' and do the sort of things you find book such as: (I gave a bunch of these for 'Toys for Tots' last year.)

http://www.amazon.com/101-Things-Before-You-Grow/dp/1741845041/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1353907964&sr=8-3&keywords=101+things+to+do+before+you+grow+up

You know, I think I have plenty of time.

So I grew up to work in television, which might have been a mistake because it doesn't keep me busy. I find I miss things like rebuilding old bikes to sell in bike stores back in gradeschool, getting my smog mechanic license (NOT tester certificate) at age 16 and getting my first car and motorcycle for pocketchange shortly after, being told I'd never get them working, etc. But there's no going back, for one thing you don't really fix a car that doesn't pass smog anymore, plus people are convinced that their worn out, not quite complete old motorcycle are worth a small fortune. So I've found myself using the unwanted free time to go to school and learn more about building things. And EV's are just waiting to be built. Except we're in an age where 'Winging it' the way I did when I was a kid mostly doesn't cut it anymore.

If only I could catch up with so many people on this board. But, unlike my father, I was never an aerospace engineer in the military industrial complex, meaning there's no special knowledge that translates well here. I was always one of the handiest guys you found in the studio, whether I was making a mattebox out of duct tape or actually trying to gain setups at a high spec level, but I have a long way to go with this. . . .

Ah well, I bought the Atomic Zombie book, if only for reference. A thread on freewheels started in 2008 has someone asking a guy why he's looking at storebought when he could build his own. But people who build their own look at EVERYTHING for ideas. If you want to build a better mousetrap you've got to see what you're trying to be better than. Maybe if I get good at this I can have my own reality show. If not, it's just going to have to keep me busy.

 

[waynebergman]

wow I must be getting old, I just read on page 10 of this thread I have already posted hear.
...............wayne

 

[ipub]

I'm a new member here but thought i'd say hello and introduce myself properly. I'm a half italian / english lad from the north west of england but have lived in a couple of countries so locals can never place my accent.

I'm 31, about to get married in March to a wonderful girl and then jet set to the cancun coast of mexico for a few weeks.

Pic of the two of us : https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/400175_4824760067436_20707944_n.jpg

After which (when the snow buggers off) I hope to come back and build my first budget commuter ebike 20 + mile range and be able to reach speeds of 30mph. If kids don't hamper my plans, I hope to build a sportier model if this is a success.

Currently I work in computer networking (enterprise routers and firewalls) and have never really been into biking. I discovered petrol add on engines and after seeing how obviously illegal these were I thought I'd give this a try.

I'm still in a very confused stage of research over models of motor / battery for my first model but currently leaning towards a direct drive front hub with some sort of 20 ah 48v lipo. We shall see.

Anyway, hello!

Rich

 

[winkinatcha]

Nice, Glad this thread got revived or I might have missed it... Awesome read...

My bit...

i am 46 going on 47 in Jan.

Born in south Oz (millicent) to an electrical engineer (father) and high school teacher (mother) I lived in various locations in Aus and NZ until the age of 11. At that stage (late 70s) my parents purty much figured there was gonna be some kinda societal breakdown, so moved out to a remote part of east gippsland (far north east victoria Australia), with me n my sister (two years my senior). Plan was to prepare for the starving hordes post apocalyptic societal breakdown, much the same as the current American phenomenon of preppers, and the the more longer term 'survivalists'.

We lived on 40 acres, grew our own food, built our own sheds n houses... I learnt about explosives and rifles and various ways to disable things and people... By the age of seventeen, I was a crack shot with a 303, could lie on a bullants nest for an hour without moving, (not naked tho ) and could rebuild just about anything mechanical...The concept of DIY was kinda laughable... like who the heck else was gonna do it if not yourself? at this stage my parents had broken up, and I and my dad were the last remaining on the "farm" 'til I was old enough to get my motorcycle licence (17 and 9 months to the day) and got the frock out of dodge on my trusty XT250 that I had rebuilt from the ground up... (third motorcycle at that stage, stripped my first engine at 12, rebuilt my first vehicle at 14). Down to the big smoke of Melbourne

Straight into a computer operator course and straight into my first job, working for Caterpillar (bulldozer n heavy machinery company) as a computer operator... Still using punced cards and other old skool things at the time... moved on to a major bank, still in the computer operations area and went on to network operator, then technical programmer where I was working with a bunch of newly graduated programmers and realised I knew squat, so off to Uni as a mature age student (ripe old age of 24) studied computer science and psychology (intentions of pursuing AI through bioPsych and neural networks) failed first year maths three years in a row, whilst studying way too many other subjects, pulled the plug after my third year, back to melbourne where I landed a job as a technical writer, and hung in that career for another 6 years, with the last two as an independant contractor making money hand over fist during the dotcom era.. after accumulating 50k in savings I emabarked on a round the world trip, but only made it as far as Ireland, where I stayed for four years (three of them illegal... doing unto the Irish as they do unto the rest of the world ), initially making jewellery, then went on to working as an apprentice bowmaker (musical instruments), dishpig, cook, restaraunt manager whilst starting and organising an Angry Young Men poet and spoken word group and embarking on some small time publishing...

Back to Aus, then back into the technical writing career, bought my first Harley, got taken out by a less than observant driver resulting in a vigourously smashed up left side..inherited a bit of cash from an Aunt in 'merica, went into full time financial market trading, received 5kg of marijuana from a friend who needed a loan and insisted on providing collateral, smoked my way through it in 2 months, went mad (psychotic episode, mental ward for a fortnight) lost most of the inheritence whilst incarcerated and recovering... Clean bill of mental health after a year... back into the workforce as a tech writer again... first for 4 years in one job, then 7 years in another.. made redundant... used the money to set myself up in an e-bike building and maintenance business... almost able to support myself from that 6 months later (though half my earnings are from pure pedal bicycles).

i have two cats.

Joe

 

[rscamp]

I have two cats.

 

[The fingers]

I'm a 1955 German Schwinn and write Bible songs for all ages and occasions. Beautiful wife of 25 years and 1 artist teenager. Day job civil servant 6 miles west and 1 mile northwest, night job part time retail 4 miles west and 6 miles north as the bike rides. Pet Russian attack tortoise, hibernates underground for half the year (count your toes as you leave during barefoot weather). MBI Schofield +3 graduate with ABSC 1992. Go to work 2x daily but don't and/or can't do much of anything anyway, so won't. Born-again Christian for over 25 years. Read the Bible every day, how 'bout you? :lol: