Paderolis
100 W
Very cool! Thanks for sharing with us! Stay safe!
Touring ebike build (and soon touring trip)
- Thread starter mlt34
- Start date
dogman dan
1 PW
Yep, that shot of the no shoulder road is pretty typical for here too. Here's a tip, look for side roads that closely parallel an interstate. Those trucks won't be so thick, just local traffic.
A route that has no better option, the trucks will be there using it as a shortcut to the interstate. One reason I never really want to ride the flat east side of the state. All the roads infested with oil rig trucks. Think about that when you get towards Louisiana. Maybe Google up where the wells are, and try to avoid it.
Not sure where you are headed. From your start, I'd head for the Smokies maybe.
A route that has no better option, the trucks will be there using it as a shortcut to the interstate. One reason I never really want to ride the flat east side of the state. All the roads infested with oil rig trucks. Think about that when you get towards Louisiana. Maybe Google up where the wells are, and try to avoid it.
Not sure where you are headed. From your start, I'd head for the Smokies maybe.
The fingers
10 TW
Wow, this is great, especially for an armchair adventurer like me. Eighteen miles with no shoulder and semis wooshing by. 
I pray that the wind will be at your back and those highway shoulders be smooth and w I d e .
Loved that shot with the ice machine outlet and the tow away sign. :lol:
I pray that the wind will be at your back and those highway shoulders be smooth and w I d e .
Loved that shot with the ice machine outlet and the tow away sign. :lol:
Mile 450:
I did about 85 miles today which was just a day trip, and it appears I'm going to be doing just day trips to finish up this journey. I'm only in the US for a few more days and I want to be able to spend the evenings with family, so it looks like it's going to be day trips from here on out. Still, 85 miles isn't too shabby for a day trip.
Plus, that was on one charge and I still had a good amount left in the tank. This would have been well over 100 miles if I had taken it to LVC.
Today's trip went out to Sanibel Island, which is a beautiful strip of land with a nasty law that forbids ebikes. So naturally I had to go.
It was also the first day that I got to test out my new dash cam. Unfortunately I can't show you any of the pretty pictures or video from the dash cam, because I hacked up the data cable to make an extra long power cable to run the camera off my ebike battery, and forgot that I'd need it later for getting the data off the card. It uses a TF card (ewww) and of course I don't have a TF card reader, so the pictures will have to wait until I can find a USB A to mini USB cable around somewhere.
The Island itself was awesome though. Coming up over the bridge from the mainland was just an awesome sight. Blue water, white sand beaches and bikes as far as the eye can see. The island prides itself on being very eco-sensitive, has no high rise buildings, and is all hippy dippy green and stuff, which is cool. They've got extensive bike trails but forbid motorized bikes for who-knows-why. Actually it's probably a safety issue with idiots riding ebikes into crowds of people and what-not.
Anyways, I took the island roads for much of the way but illegally rode on the trails as well, which was awesome. I slowed down to reasonable bike speeds for much of the trails, respected the other riders like a good American cyclist ("passing on your left") and was basically a good samaritan. No one said anything bad to me and fun was had by all. So much for the whole 'no ebikes' rule.
I rode all the way out to Captiva on the end of the island. I just kept riding until the road ran out. The cool thing about riding on the florida coasts is that when the road runs out it usually looks like this:
So there's that. Also, I thought this sign pretty much sums up the situation well. It might as well say "welcome to the Florida coasts - watch out for tourists on bikes and retirees on golf carts"
View attachment 1
After some more island cruising I decided it was time to head back. On the way home I started feeling something odd in the front brakes, then noticed my front battery was moving more than normal. I pulled over to check it out and found that both of the bolts that hold the front brake arms to the brake bosses were loose.
oops
Tightened those puppies up and we were back in business. I guess it was probably a combination of me having opened them to put the front rack on, plus the weight of that front rack. They had blue loctite on them but I guess I still didn't torque them down tight enough because 450 miles later here we are. Of course that's 450 miles where they were barely getting used at all. Moral of the story: retorque important bolts well when you remove them.
Well now I'm up to mile 450 in this fun adventure. I'm not sure if I can call this an XC anymore, as it has now turned into a series of long day trips since I'm not doing overnights anymore. It also looks like I won't get to attempt my 300 miler anymore, at least not on this setup. But I'm still riding longer and better than I ever have before, and I'd say this still counts as ebike touring. I've got a few more fun trips left in this bike and then I'm back to Israel. Let's see how much more fun we can eek out of this adventure.
Also this puts me at about 10% of Grindz145's record breaking trip. Wow, as much as I respected the guy before, I have a whole new appreciation for what he did.
That's a good idea. A little further north in Florida and it seems to work better, but down here by the everglades there's pretty much just one interstate and everything else is a highway at interstate speeds. At least until you get out to the coasts. But in the middle it's no man's land.
I LOVE armchair adventuring. It's so much fun to follow the adventures of others. That's why I'm trying to document well, so that I can give back to a community that has given so much to me!
I did about 85 miles today which was just a day trip, and it appears I'm going to be doing just day trips to finish up this journey. I'm only in the US for a few more days and I want to be able to spend the evenings with family, so it looks like it's going to be day trips from here on out. Still, 85 miles isn't too shabby for a day trip.
Plus, that was on one charge and I still had a good amount left in the tank. This would have been well over 100 miles if I had taken it to LVC.
Today's trip went out to Sanibel Island, which is a beautiful strip of land with a nasty law that forbids ebikes. So naturally I had to go.
It was also the first day that I got to test out my new dash cam. Unfortunately I can't show you any of the pretty pictures or video from the dash cam, because I hacked up the data cable to make an extra long power cable to run the camera off my ebike battery, and forgot that I'd need it later for getting the data off the card. It uses a TF card (ewww) and of course I don't have a TF card reader, so the pictures will have to wait until I can find a USB A to mini USB cable around somewhere.
The Island itself was awesome though. Coming up over the bridge from the mainland was just an awesome sight. Blue water, white sand beaches and bikes as far as the eye can see. The island prides itself on being very eco-sensitive, has no high rise buildings, and is all hippy dippy green and stuff, which is cool. They've got extensive bike trails but forbid motorized bikes for who-knows-why. Actually it's probably a safety issue with idiots riding ebikes into crowds of people and what-not.
Anyways, I took the island roads for much of the way but illegally rode on the trails as well, which was awesome. I slowed down to reasonable bike speeds for much of the trails, respected the other riders like a good American cyclist ("passing on your left") and was basically a good samaritan. No one said anything bad to me and fun was had by all. So much for the whole 'no ebikes' rule.
I rode all the way out to Captiva on the end of the island. I just kept riding until the road ran out. The cool thing about riding on the florida coasts is that when the road runs out it usually looks like this:
So there's that. Also, I thought this sign pretty much sums up the situation well. It might as well say "welcome to the Florida coasts - watch out for tourists on bikes and retirees on golf carts"
View attachment 1
After some more island cruising I decided it was time to head back. On the way home I started feeling something odd in the front brakes, then noticed my front battery was moving more than normal. I pulled over to check it out and found that both of the bolts that hold the front brake arms to the brake bosses were loose.
oops
Tightened those puppies up and we were back in business. I guess it was probably a combination of me having opened them to put the front rack on, plus the weight of that front rack. They had blue loctite on them but I guess I still didn't torque them down tight enough because 450 miles later here we are. Of course that's 450 miles where they were barely getting used at all. Moral of the story: retorque important bolts well when you remove them.
Well now I'm up to mile 450 in this fun adventure. I'm not sure if I can call this an XC anymore, as it has now turned into a series of long day trips since I'm not doing overnights anymore. It also looks like I won't get to attempt my 300 miler anymore, at least not on this setup. But I'm still riding longer and better than I ever have before, and I'd say this still counts as ebike touring. I've got a few more fun trips left in this bike and then I'm back to Israel. Let's see how much more fun we can eek out of this adventure.
Also this puts me at about 10% of Grindz145's record breaking trip. Wow, as much as I respected the guy before, I have a whole new appreciation for what he did.
dogman dan said:
That's a good idea. A little further north in Florida and it seems to work better, but down here by the everglades there's pretty much just one interstate and everything else is a highway at interstate speeds. At least until you get out to the coasts. But in the middle it's no man's land.
The fingers said:
I LOVE armchair adventuring. It's so much fun to follow the adventures of others. That's why I'm trying to document well, so that I can give back to a community that has given so much to me!
danielrlee
10 kW
Yeah, that was quite a feat wasn't it and all in well under a month. Don't be too hard on yourself though. I'm actually quite impressed that you've managed to get THAT bike (no offence) as far as you have with next to no issues. Keep up the good work. I'm enjoying reading about your adventure, as I'm sure are others. Good luck!mlt34 said:
dogman dan
1 PW
Oh the bike will make it, solid steel, cheap but damn durable. What amazes me is how uncomfortable the ride would be on it, carrying a backpack.
Dude, you are definitely getting the tough guy prize. You need a bob trailer.
Dude, you are definitely getting the tough guy prize. You need a bob trailer.
It's been a fun trip and I really appreciate all the advice and feedback. I ran out of time to do more and I'm heading back home now. I've got to do a summary of all of my data for each trip leg. I'm curious to see how the numbers look. I think I was doing higher average speeds than Grindz and I was doing no pedaling, so the data should be an interesting comparison. Off the top of my head, I know most of my legs were between 60-80 miles and got about 35 wh/mi IIRC.
