Here’s a little photo essay about my family’s bicycles. I’m proud to say that we use our bikes a lot. Each bike is tailored to its user: I drive a cargo bike capable of carrying passengers and cargo long distances; my wife drives a slower and lighter but more stylish bike; my 11-year-old daughter Thea and her friend JJ drive bikes tailored to their 2-mile drive to school. (My son Jasper, aged 15, resists having a bike. He pretty much walks wherever he needs to go.) Ithaca is hilly, so it’s important for a utility bike to have an electric motor. I’ve spent a lot of time over the last couple of years experimenting with electric bike motors and other accessories. Maybe you can benefit from my discoveries.
From left to right my bike, my wife’s bike, Thea’s bike, and JJ’s bike in front of our bike stable.
My bike is a Surly Big Dummy Xtracycle with Stokemonkey motor, described in detail elsewhere. I named it “The Spirit of Ithaca”. I’ve changed so many parts it’s hard to give it a value, but you could probably get a comparable electric cargo bike for $3,000. Bicyclists may notice that my bike has an unusually large chainring. Last year I doubled the voltage of the motor from 36 to 72v, making my bike much more powerful—it can carry two adults up the steepest hills in Ithaca. Since by design the Stokemonkey motor moves the pedals, the increased power increased the speed of the pedals and it became necessary to increase the size of the chainrings to slow down the pedals.
My bike is powered by two 36v10ah LiFePo4 batteries in series. They give my bike an enormous range of about 70 miles at 12mph or 35 miles at 20mph. However, each battery weighs 15 pounds and they are expensive at $600 each.
My bike sports a DIY headlight I made out of about $50 in parts available at SparkFun.com. The headlight is powered by Grin Technology’s 12v voltage regulator which can take any ebike battery input from 24 to 72v and output the 12v required by the headlight. I’ve also used the 12v output to recharge my phone on long trips. The advantage of this centralized electrical system over a “regular” bike’s discrete lights is that I just have one switch to turn on all my lights and accessories, and I only have one battery and that battery is rechargeable.
My DIY headlight has a homemade look that you just can’t buy at stores :-). I keep it on both night and day. It’s bright enough that I keep it pointed down and I run it at half power to avoid annoying people.
Turns out my DIY headlight’s big heat sink is not necessary with the lower-power LED driver I’m using. I’m planning an updated version that uses the handlebars as a heat sink.
My wife’s bike is a Sanyo Eneloop we purchased used for $1,500. She named it “Zippy”. The previous owner purchased it for over $2,000 from NYCE Wheels. (At 350 miles away, NYCE Wheels is the closest ebike store that I know of.) Zippy is a highly reliable bike compared to my bikes, which are constantly breaking down and in flux as I experiment with them. Besides the reliability, the most important feature for her is the chain guard which is necessary because she bikes to work in her nice work clothes.
She has a rear rack but rarely uses it in favor of the faux-wicker front basket. The hub motor is in the front wheel and the rear human-powered hub has three speeds.
Sanyo is a battery manufacturer and built the bike around their NiMH battery. The bike is surprisingly powerful and has a range of five to 10 miles. It’s not fast but it is so stately that you don’t feel like going fast when you are riding it.
In practice bicycling can be a hassle because of all the little business you have to do when you get on and off your bike: put on your reflective bike jacket, put on your helmet, tuck in your pants cuffs, turn on the lights, unlock the bike, put up the kickstand, etc. That’s a lot to remember and it creates an unconscious impediment to biking, especially when you know that driving a car just requires opening the door, turning the key, and going. I got my wife this nice AXA wheel lock from Clever Cycles to reduce some of the hassle. Basically you press a lever and take out the key to lock the bike, and insert the key to go. No more fumbling with a cable or u-lock.
Thea (left) and our neighbor JJ (right) used to walk a few blocks to elementary school but this fall they started at a middle school about 2 miles away. They were discouraged to find that the school bus takes 45 hot and stuffy minutes to get to school. The city bus only takes 15 minutes but costs $.75 and requires a 10-minute walk downtown. Biking, on the other hand, only takes 10 minutes! Thea already had an electric bike, and we equipped JJ’s bike with a motor too so she could keep up. I escorted them for the first few months and helped them work out a safe route.
Thea has a nice lightweight mountain bike equipped for utility with a rack, kickstand, fenders, lights, and a front hub motor. It’s a kids bike with 24″ wheels, but I often ride it myself—it’s kinda sporty! The motor is powerful enough that I don’t need to pedal. In retrospect I should have installed a rear hub motor instead of a front hub motor. The front wheel spins out on hills. In general I’ve concluded that front hub motors are not suitable for Ithaca.
I added Marathon Winter studded snows tires to Thea’s bike so that we can ride together safely this winter. I unequivocally insist than anyone who rides in the winter should use these tires.
Thea’s motor is a Nine Continents direct drive hub kit from E-BikeKit.com for about $500. There are a lot of ebike kits out there but E-BikeKit is especially dedicated to excellent service. You’ll notice that I had to file off the “lawyer lips” around the dropouts in order to get the hub motor axle nuts to seat properly. Grin Cyclery’s excellent troubleshooting page tell s how omitting this step may lead to front fork failure.
Originally I built a 15-pound lead-acid battery (described in a previous post) for Thea’s bike. This fall I began experimenting with lithium polymer (“lipo”) batteries, the same type of battery used by Radio Control enthusiasts. Not only are lipo batteries lightweight and inexpensive compared to my LiFePo4 and lead-acid batteries, they have a much higher discharge rate. This makes it possible to have a very small battery that can output enough amps to propel an ebike. So on Thea’s bike I replaced the three heavy 12v 10ah lead-acid batteries in series (a 36v battery) with two lightweight 18.5v 3ah lipos in series (for a 37v battery). Here’s the score: the lead-acid battery is 15 pounds, $100, 360wh, with a 36 mile range. The lipo battery is 2 pounds, $50, 108wh, with a 10 mile range. Which is better? It depends. My bike needs more range and weight is not a problem, so lipos are not a good option for me. But for Thea’s bike the lipo’s low weight is very appealing and their short range is not a problem.
Thea’s controller and battery fit nicely in her trunk with room to spare for lunch.
Thea and JJ’s bikes both use two 18.5v lipo batteries connected in series for a 37v battery pack. The RC charger, however, needs to charge them in parallel at 18.5v. I made special connectors to switch the batteries between serial and parallel, similar to the lead-acid battery connectors described in a previous post. In this photo the parallel connector is on the top connected to the battery and the serial is on the bottom in my hand. In addition to the power output connectors, lipo batteries have “balance” connectors to enable the charger to manage each cell individually. This photo shows a parallel balance connector I made so that I can charge a 37v battery from one charging port.
Lipo batteries can be dangerous. I came across a post on one RC forum listing everyone on the forum who had had a house fire of some kind caused by lipo batteries. There were dozens of people on the list. That said, I haven’t had any problems with them myself. I try to be careful. I always balance charge my lipos. I make sure not to drain them below their limit. I charge them in a fire-proof bag as shown. That’s the charger on the left, capable of charging four batteries at a time.
On a couple of occasions I’ve had the pleasure of driving JJ’s bike a few miles even though the seat barely comes up to my kneecaps. As with Thea’s bike, it’s a perfectly plausible form of transportation for an adult since I don’t have to actually pedal. The small wheels and the hub’s internal gearing give it incredible torque. And the small frame makes it fine for riding unobtrusively on the sidewalk, nobody minds. I once rode it a mile up State St. in Ithaca and it was sort of like going up the hill in an electric wheelchair.
JJ’s battery and controller fit into a tiny seat pack. Can you believe it?
I bought this high-end mountain bike (code-named “Black Beauty”) used for $400 with the intention of building it up as a replacement for my Big Dummy. So far I’ve added a hub motor and perhaps I’ll add an Xtracycle longtail extension in the spring.
Black Beauty has very nice components, including hydraulic disc brakes and fully adjustable shock absorbers. I wasn’t looking for these but both of these features turned about to be important as described next.
A couple of weeks ago I bought a $600 Crystalyte HS 3540 conversion kit from Grin Tech. I paired this state-of-the-art hub motor with a controller capable of handling almost 3kw (72 volts at 40 amps). (For comparison my Big Dummy typically runs at 1kw.) After a few technical difficulties I was able to put Black Beauty to the test. I found a quiet level stretch of road, pulled back the throttle, and let her unwind. She accelerated quickly to 40mph. At first it was frightening. Then it was exhilarating. But in the final analysis it’s embarrassing how fast this bike can go, since elsewhere I’ve blogged about the evils of speed. My main interest in building a high-powered bike is to make it capable of carrying adult passengers. Being able to go fast is an annoying side effect.
Black Beauty sports a Cycle Analyst and an LED headlight, both from Grin Tech.
For now I have Black Beauty’s battery and controller stuffed in a pannier. As you can see I’ve also outfitted Black Beauty for carrying vegetables.
Another secret to Black Beauty’s performance is the 72v battery pack I put together out of four 18.5v 5ah lipo batteries. This battery pack cost me about $200, weighs about six pounds and has 360wh of power. That’s enough power to go about 10 miles at 25mph. I could probably go farther at a lower speed but it’s hard to go slower than that.
The Clarkbergs have two nice his and hers road bikes in the basement. One reason they are in the basement is that they are so light it’s easy to carry them up and down the basement stairs. Another reason they are in the basement is that they are recreation-only vehicles that my wife and I rarely use. I think we only took them out once last summer. I drive my cargo bike so often for utilitarian purposes that the thought of riding my road bike for recreation doesn’t appeal to me. I mean, how often do you drive around your car for recreation?
A couple of years ago I commandeered our garage for housing our bikes. I added a nice sliding door for easy access.
Our car. As a family we’re not so fanatical about bicycling that we’re willing to give up a car altogether. When we recently bought this new car I think some of my friends were surprised we got a Mini instead of a Prius, the environmentalists’ vehicle of choice. As I’ll describe in an upcoming post, I think it’s much more important to our communities and to the environment that a car be small and slow rather than use less gasoline. Large fast cars contribute to a transportation infrastructure that is inhospitable to the rest of us not driving a car. My friends take some pride in their mpg, but their lower mpg doesn’t make me feel any safer biking. Also mpg-pride seems misplaced if someone is using their large four-seat hybrid car for personal transportation. I’m not against technology, but I believe in appropriate use of technology. I only use our car by myself when I have something heavy to carry or when I have to go beyond the range of my bike. Otherwise I drive my bike.
Caution: shop talk blog post intended for do-it-yourselfers. For my recent 240-mile journey I created what I call my “trip batteries”—batteries that I can attach to my bike to augment my regular batteries, but that I don’t intend to carry around on a daily basis. As such, the main design criteria for these batteries is that they be inexpensive. I don’t want to pay the big bucks for a battery that I only use once in a while. The obvious choice is SLA (sealed lead acid) batteries. These are the same kind of batteries used in cars, and the technology is almost 100 years old. E-bikers out there may poo-poo this choice of battery. After all, compared to my lithium batteries, my SLA batteries are heavy (20lbs vs. the lithium’s 15lbs), not quite as powerful (600wh vs. the lithium’s 720wh), don’t last as long (300 charge cycles vs. the lithium’s 1,500) and they are dumb (that is, they don’t have a battery management circuit board in them to prevent human error from damaging them, although most controllers provide the necessary protections). But they are cheap. I can put together a 10ah 36v battery for about $120 versus a 10ah 36v battery for $600.
Furthermore, there are many reasons to have some SLA batteries around. One is that their native voltage is 12v. I’ve created custom connectors for my batteries so that they operate at 36v when they are on my bike, but I charge them at 12v (see the images below). I find that 12v chargers are much more reliable than chargers made to output other voltages. I’ve had several 36v and 48v chargers self-destruct.
I can also power 12v appliances. 12 is a magic number in the appliance world. The boating, camping, and RV industries produce all kinds of 12v appliances. I have some small solar panels and those too output 12v. And I purchased an 800w inverter ($80) to power 110v household appliances. I recently used it to power my electric weed-wacker when I was at too great a distance for a power cord to reach the weeds. I do have a 12v converter for my lithium batteries, but it can only output about 240w.
How did I make the batteries? My bike operates at 72v, so I made two 36v 10ah batteries that I connect in series when they are on my bike, one battery on each side. Each 36v battery is made up of three 12v SLA batteries in series. As I mentioned, I can quickly convert the 36v 10ah battery to a 12v 30ah battery by switching from a series connector to a parallel connector. I used scooter batteries since I figure they are designed for a similar application. I connect the batteries with 10awg wire. Thick wire is essential since these puppies will be outputting plenty of juice. The wire has spade connectors on the battery side and Anderson connectors on the output side—Anderson connectors are an awesome tool for the hobbyist. They are the Lego of the connector world. I should probably put a fuse in my battery pack. I then wrap up my pack with a layer of duct tape.
I considered making a special battery box but I decided that the batteries are waterproof enough, and they are so ugly they are probably theft-proof too. So I simply strap the batteries to the “footsies” on my Xtracycle bike. Footsies are wooden platforms that my daughter rests her feet on when she is riding with me. This spring I did a test drive out to Sheldrake Point on Lake Cayuga, some 25 miles from my house. The trip batteries performed admirably and took me almost the full 25 miles at 20mph, drawing 600wh in the process. (Note that I probably could have gone 50 miles at 12mph.) Then I switched to my lithium batteries for the ride home. Yes to switch batteries I have to actually stop, get off my bike, physically disconnect the spent batteries and connect the fresh ones. Someday maybe I’ll connect my SLA and lithium batteries in parallel, but I understand it’s important to put some electronics between batteries using different chemistries.
Let me know how it goes making your own SLA battery packs!
Also visible: Stokemonkey electric motor.
Trip battery and footsie shelf.
Charging up with the parallelizing connector.
Three 12v batteries to 12v parallelizing connector.
Three 12v batteries to 36v output serializing connector.
This summer was one of the hottest summers on record. Several people have asked me how I managed to survive. My response: I didn’t notice. I didn’t notice it was unusually hot in spite of spending much of my time outdoors training for a marathon and doing my errands by bike. I didn’t notice precisely because, counter-intuitively, these activities caused me to sweat and my sweat kept me cool. How could this be?
For some reason our culture has an aversion to sweat. Our media keeps up a constant barrage of messages about how we must avoid sweating and that if we do somehow err by sweating we must hide it at all costs. Of course there is a place for personal hygiene and we must take care not to impose our old smelly sweat on our fellow citizens. But we sweat for a reason–to keep ourselves cool–and furthermore we are very good at sweating.
A recent Scientific American article described how one of the most basic ways our human ancestors gained an advantage over other predators is by our ability to sweat. No other animal sweats as well as we do. This ability enabled our ancestors to track large game until it fell over from heat exhaustion, a technique known as persistence hunting. Many other animals can outrun us for short distances. But we are the masters of long distance running on this planet. A human can run a marathon faster than a horse, because the horse will keel over from heat exhaustion before it gets to the finish line. And so how do we make use of this great ability of ours in modern times? Do we augment our ability to keep cool in some way as we have done with so many of our other abilities? No, instead we vilify anyone who sweats in public. It is outrageous to me that we subvert this great advantage we have for dealing with hot weather, then complain about the weather, then build big machines to make ourselves cooler, and finally watch complacently as these machines contribute to the very climate warming we were complaining about.
I propose that instead of looking at sweat as the enemy we learn to harness it for its intended purpose: to cool us down. It is much more energy efficient to cool ourselves individually (perhaps with motion or fans) than to use big energy-intensive machines to cool down entire rooms and buildings. And it is the height of hypocrisy and inefficiency that our cars are designed to be basically greenhouses on wheels. As a result they must carry massive air conditioning equipment to keep their occupants cool. Instead, cars could make use of our natural abilities to cool ourselves by sweating and combine that with the built-in breeze of their forward motion.
Air conditioning will be one of the first superfluous accessories jettisoned by our lightweight/narrow/slow cars of the future. What will replace it? Think about the vents cars have now and how they could be improved. It seems that no one in our bone-headed auto industry has taken the time to reconsider the simple air vent. What are some ways it can better put a breeze where it’s needed? For that matter, where is the breeze needed? Sweating effectively requires having airflow over one’s back. Current cars place your back squarely in a cushy seat with no possibility of air flow. What if for starters cars had mesh seats? What if we had the vents blow directly from the seat onto our backs? Or better yet, what if we had ventilated clothing that clipped directly into the car’s cooling system? And we won’t need any kind of sophisticated automatic temperature control. Just provide a steady air flow and your body will sweat or not as necessary to keep itself comfortable.
You are probably wondering “What if I don’t have one of those lightweight/narrow/slow cars of the future? How can I keep cool by sweating while traveling?” If such is the case I propose that you make do with an electric cargo bike, which is the next best thing to a lightweight/narrow/slow car of the future. Here are my tips for sweating more effectively in hot weather:
Use an electric bike. Moving on an electric bike is especially nice since it can provide a breeze without so much exertion. And if you are on foot, my experience is that someone can actually stay cooler by running slowly and efficiently rather than walking. The faster airflow from running combined with sweating kept me cooler than the slower airflow (but less exertion) of walking. However, running efficiently takes practice. It probably also helps to be thin.
Don’t wear a backpack while biking. Backpacks block air flow. Get a cargo bike so you can carry your stuff off your body.
Wear sunscreen.
Go shirtless. Don’t be a prude dude. Let the sweat out. But carry a jacket for when you stop.
Carry twice as much water as you think you’ll need. You’ll need it.
Only stay in the sun if you are moving. The airflow will keep you from overheating.
Cool down in front of a fan after biking. You will notice a surge in body temperature after you stop biking, with a corresponding surge in sweat output. Don’t waste that sweat! Cool down with whatever breeze and fan and shade you can find. Only after the sweat has completely evaporated should you take a shower if circumstances require.
So this summer by following these simple tips I actually looked forward to biking and running as an opportunity to go outside and cool down. I did not let the weather reports dictate whether or not I could go outside. Don’t believe me? Try befriending your sweat!
The day began overcast. Not a good start for the Solar Xpedition. But by midday Mr. Sun broke through and the watt hours came rolling in. I ran with my solar panel connected to the working battery (rather than the spare). It was exciting to see the power drop as I went up a hill and then gradually be restored by the panel.
My power use went very well the first day. I didn’t even need to get out the spare battery. It’s hard to know how much of the 500 watt hours I used the first day was supplied by the panel since I don’t yet have a way to measure watt-hours output. But I estimate that the battery had 360 to start with, the solar panel added 70 and charging at a restaurant while eating dinner added 70.
Many things didn’t go well, in particular 7 flat tires and swarms of mosquitos at my campsite.
“Can the solar panel drive the electric motor directly?”
“Did you make it yourself?”
“What the…”
Allow me to explain. My vehicle of choice is a “stoked Xtracycle”. (For those of you not “in the know”, an Xtracycle is a type of cargo bike that has an extra long frame. And “stoked” means that my bike has a Stokemonkey electric motor that helps me out on the hills.) In general this summer I’ve been biking 10 to 20 miles a day and then recharging my battery overnight by simply plugging it into an outlet. However, next week I’m going on a 3-day 240-mile camping trip through the Adirondacks where I might not have access to an outlet. The solar panels will help extend the range of my bicycle. So to answer your questions:
“Why do you have solar panels on your bicycle?”
I use them to extend the range of my electric cargo bike for long trips (plus they were fun to make). I will carry two batteries on my trip, each giving my bike a range of 20 to 40 miles. On a sunny day the solar panels can recharge one of the batteries while I am riding, adding an additional 20 to 40 miles for a total range of 60 to 120 miles a day. I anticipate some hills and I’ll be carrying a load, so a 60-mile range is probably more accurate. I may need to pedal the last few miles on some days.
“What do you do when it’s cloudy or it rains?”
I plan to stay in a hotel some of the time and recharge my batteries there.
“Can the solar panel drive the electric motor directly?”
Not really. The solar panels don’t produce enough electricity instantaneously. For example the solar panels only produce about 40 watts of power at a given moment, whereas my bicycle needs about 400 watts of power to go up a hill. The main purpose of the solar panels is to charge the battery over time. Since charging happens slowly, 40 watts is enough to charge the battery. It takes roughly 10 hours of charging to store one to two hours’ worth of electrified riding time in the battery. And one to two hours of riding translates into 15 to 30 miles.
“Did you make it yourself?”
I already had the stoked Xtracycle, which is described on my About This Bike page. As you can read there, an electric cargo bike can be had for $1000 to $3500. And I had already constructed the canopy frame for a previous project, the Bike Wagon Canopy ($150). I found the canopy was somewhat wobbly with the weight of the solar panels so I had to strengthen it with guy wires. It remained for me to add the solar panels and the electronics. I used maritime-grade solar panels that were designed to keep sailboat starter batteries charged up, so they are extra-sturdy and consequently somewhat expensive. I’ve since seen panels with almost twice the power at 3/4 the price. Cost of panels: $900 to $1200. I am using three 12-volt panels in series to produce the 36 volts required by my battery. I spent a lot of time researching what sorts of electronics I would need between the panels and the battery, and finally concluded that I can just plug the panels into the battery directly. (I plan to write more about this in a later post.)
Total cost for a solar bicycle: $2050 to $4850. Not bad for a vehicle that can get you both out of the car and off the grid.
In a previous post I described a canopy that Thea and I made for our Xtracycle to protect her from wind and rain. It looks sort of like a covered wagon on the back of our bike. It was easy to build without special tools or parts, did not require modifying our bike and cost us less than $150 for parts. It weighs about 2 lbs. and we can set it up in less than five minutes. Here’s how to make it.
Materials You Will Need
(1) Xtracycle
(1) 7/8″ x 48″ dowel
(4) 3/4″ long wood screws for the base
(4) #6 x 3/4″ machine screws and nuts
(12) 18″ x .340″ aluminum tent poles with inserts
(2) 18″ x .340″ aluminum tent poles without inserts
(4) 18″ x .626″ aluminum tent poles with inserts
(1) 18 x .625 aluminum tent pole without insert
(4) .340″ 145 degree tent pole elbows (ignore the holes)
3 yards by 60″ of silicon-coated rip-stop nylon cloth
25 feet of light cord
(4) grommets
(4) buckles and 25 ft. of 1/2″ webbing
Tools You Will Need
hand saw
drill (although use a drill press if you have one)
#1024 1.1 OZ SILNYLON 1STS , (Tan)…3 at $9.99 = $29.97
#4060 TENT POLE W/ INS .625 18 inch Black…4 at $4.95 = $19.80
#4061 TENT POLE W/O INS .625 18 inch Black…1 at $3.95 = $3.95
#4018 TENT POLE W/INS. .340 18 inch Black…12 at $2.60 = $31.20
#4019 TENT POLE W/O INS .340 18 inch Black…2 at $2.20 = $4.40
#4055 TENT POLE ARCH-145 DEGREE .340 BLACK…4 at $2.95 = $11.80
#2000 WEBBING- NYLON MED WT 1/2 inch Black..25 at $0.49 = $12.25
#3026 SIDE RELEASE BUCKLES – 1/2 inch…4 at $0.39 = $1.56
#4200 tubing cutter…$7.95
#3235 grommet tool (5/16″)…$10.99
#3231 (10) 5/16 grommets…10 at $0.18 = $1.80
purchase at a hardware store:
(1) 7/8″ x 48″ dowel…$3
(4) 3/4″ long wood screws…$1
(4) #6 x 3/4″ machine screws and nuts…$1
25 feet of light tie-down cord such as cotton clothes line…$5
TOTAL: $145.67
How to Make the Canopy Cover
The rectangular canopy cover fits over the canopy frame and is secured at the bottom with tie-down straps. The front and back of the cover can be cinched up with a drawstring like a covered wagon. If you like, the cover’s size can be adjusted, along with the frame’s pole lengths, for different sizes of passenger. The size I give here is appropriate for a large child or small adult.
1. Cut the cloth so that it is 108″ (3 yards) by 60″. The 60″ edges will be along the sides of the canopy, and the 108″ edges will be the front and back. Hem the 60″ side edges first, then the 108″ front and back edges. Make the hems about 1.5″.
2. Next make the drawstrings. Using a stiff wire as a big sewing needle, insert about 12 feet of cord into the front hem, then repeat for the back hem.
3. Next use the grommet tool to insert two grommets on each 108″ side, about 18″ from the front and back (the video below shows how to use a grommet tool). If you are using thin cloth, reinforce it first with an iron-on patch.
4. Cut four 20″ lengths of webbing for the tie-down straps. For each strap, sew one end of the webbing to the female buckle and thread the other end of the webbing into the male buckle. Thread the straps into each grommet hole.
How to Make the Canopy Frame
The canopy frame “base” consists of two 7/8″ x 24″ wooden dowels that are inserted into the Xtracycle h-rack (horizontal) tubes and secured with wood screws. Aluminum tent poles are then erected upon this base: a front hoop, a rear hoop, and two cross pieces.
1. Cut the 7/8″ x 48″ dowel in half so that you have two 24″ pieces.
2. Drill a 19/64″ hole 1/2″ from each end of each piece. Make the holes as vertical as possible and make them exactly parallel.
3. Insert a base pole into the Xtracycle h-rack, center it, and align the holes so that they are vertical. While holding the base pole in place, drill starter holes for the woodscrews where the h-rack tube has holes in its side.
4. Screw the base poles to the bike with the woodscrews. I just leave the base poles on my bike all the time. The front pole provides a nice footrest for passengers.
5. Next make the hoop poles. All you have to do for this step is cut four of the 18″ poles to 12″ (or a different length depending on your expected passenger size). The video below shows how to use a pipe cutter.
6. Next make the cross pieces from the .625″ poles. For each of the poles that have inserts drill a 11/32″ hole in the ends opposite the inserts, about 1/2″ from the end.
7. For each of the four cross piece ends insert an elbow piece. It may take some effort to get it in and you may have to hit it with a hammer.
8. Drill a 9/64″ hole that goes through the elbow that is in the crosspiece. Screw the elbows into place with the four machine screws.
9. Cut two 6″ pieces from the .625″ tent pole that *doesn’t* have an insert. These will serve as the center parts of the cross pieces.
How to Assemble the Canopy
CAUTION: do not leave your canopy frame uncovered. Without the cover it is only held together by friction. If jostled it could come loose and snap back with surprising force (and for example break a garage window as I learned from experience). DO NOT ride your bike with an uncovered frame (again as I learned from experience you don’t want to be picking up all 20 tent poles in traffic). If you want to use the frame for some purpose other than the Bike Wagon canopy, consider putting a shock cord within it or using external guy wires as I do for using it to support my solar panels.
Final step: do me the courtesy of sending me a photo of your finished canopy!
How to Cut an Aluminum Tent Pole with a Pipe Cutter
How to Add a Grommet to the Canopy Cover
How to Make a Canopy Sack
If you have enough cloth left over you can use it to make a canopy sack.
1. Cut the cloth to 27″ x 20″. Hem the 20″ side.
2. Fold the cloth in half and sew the edge, leaving an opening for the drawstring at the ends of the hem.
As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, there seems to be a need for a practical bike canopy. My first efforts have been to develop a passenger-only canopy for Xtracycles. [Instructions for the finished canopy are now online in a later post.] My design goals:
protects an adult or child passenger from wind and rain and temperatures above freezing while giving them some visibility
can be set up in less than a minute
fits any Xtracycle
costs less than $100 for parts
is easy to build without special tools or parts
is easy to enter and exit
adjusts for differently-sized passengers from baby to adult
adjusts for different weather conditions
provides a platform for flexible solar panels
should weigh less than 10 lbs.
does not require modifying the bike
not necessarily aerodynamic
retains the Xtracycle Freeloader cargo capacity
presents a snappy appearance
Last February Thea and I constructed and tested a rough prototype. I am pleased to announce that after trying out many design variations and solving several engineering challenges, we’ve created a very pleasing and useful design as shown. Later this spring I intend to post detailed instructions so that anyone can create their own canopy. A historian writing about conestoga wagons wrote the following, which I hope also applies to my Bike Wagon canopy:
All chronicles agree that a fully equipped Conestoga wagon in the days when those wagons were in their prime was a truly pleasing sight, giving one that sense of satisfaction which ever comes from the regard of any object, especially a piece of mechanism, which is perfectly fitted for the object it is designed to attain.
Solar Power
Solar-powered bike wagon.
I’m currently testing flexible solar panels mounted on top of the canopy. The solar panels should be able to double the range of my bike. And it may be possible that I can just park my bike outside and never have to connect it to an outlet again! A solar-powered stoked Xtracycle may very well be one of the most practical solar vehicles available, if you measure practical in terms of being relatively inexpensive, having spare parts readily available, and being street legal. It’s not speedy or futuristic-looking, but it’s here now.
My Next Canopy Project: The Micro Car
I plan a second canopy development effort in the fall. This second canopy design will be for both driver and rider. I intend for it to be mainly for winter use as a way to replace a car during that most difficult of biking seasons. I hope that people will think of it as a very small but practical car: a micro car if you will. As computer sizes fell from mainframe to mini to micro in the eighties, so I hope that car sizes will fall from the grossly gross SUV to full-size to mid-size to compact to mini to the delightful micro car. Here are my design criteria:
protects the driver from rain while giving full ventilation
protects the driver’s hands from wind and temperatures 10 degrees and above
gives the driver full visibility
insulated (perhaps with Aerogel batting) to keep an adult or child passenger comfortable at temperatures 10 degrees and above while giving them some visibility
only needs to be set up and removed at the beginning and end of the cold season
fits any Xtracycle
costs less than $1000 for parts
may require special tools (such as a welder) or special parts
is easy to enter and exit
adjusts for differently-sized passengers from baby to adult
can weigh up to 30 lbs.
may require modifying the bike
may have electrical features such as a sound system and lighting
may be somewhat aerodynamic
retains the Xtracycle Freeloader cargo capacity
presents an appearance that inspires confidence in the project
I’ve attached some sketches and photos of my Bike Wagon and Micro Car prototypes below, from past to present.
The original prototype from last February.
A Micro Car non-functional prototype using fiberglass poles. We subsequently chose aluminum tent poles because they are stiffer and stronger than fiberglass.
Side view of the Micro Car prototype showing the central block with spreaders.
It’s a tight squeeze without the spreaders.
Kinda pretty, like a biplane’s tail fin!
Three quarter view of the passenger section.
I made this prototype from pup tent parts.
The pup tent frame.
I considered many tent pole configurations.
Road tests to determine what’s better: side by side or front and back hoops?
The side-by-side frame.
The front and back hoops. We felt this geometry gave the best interior space.
Front and back hoops on the road! Also covers the driver a bit!
Road tests are fun.
Thea sewing the canopy cover out of lightweight rip-stop nylon. We chose a rectangular cover so that sewing it would be easy. Also a rectangular cover can adjust to different pole configurations and is most suitable for supporting solar panels.
I attached the canopy to a garden cart for transportation of several young ladies at Thea’s Laura-Ingalls-themed 10th birthday party.
The penultimate prototype, front view.
The penultimate prototype, rear view.
The biggest design challenge was coming up with a strong three-way tent pole joint. This wooden version cracked…
…this plywood version was okay but ripped the cover…
…but this version, which has the hoop elbow embedded in a larger pole, performed well.
I like to sketch an idea before building it.
I used a 7/8″ dowel for the base. 3/4″ electrical metal tubing also works.
Winter biking can be excruciatingly uncomfortable in Ithaca. (It can also be dangerous—see Making Winter Biking Safer.) This winter I developed two bike accessories to combat the cold: electric bike gloves and a bike canopy (which is still in development).
If I bike an errand longer than a few miles and the temperature is in the teens, my fingers and toes tend to go numb. Numb is okay until I stop and warm up; I then become doubled over in pain as my extremities thaw. I’ve tried all kinds of gloves to no avail. And I discovered that if I wore several gloves at a time my fingers still got cold because their circulation was lessened. Finally I hit upon the idea of using electric socks and glove liners. Personal electric power is just one of the many design opportunities presented by electric bikes that have yet to be explored (while the transportation industry wastes their time with stupid technologies like hybrid cars and hydrogen power). The electric socks and glove liners I bought (from Brookstone) were powered by a total of 12 AA non-rechargeable batteries that you had to strap to your limbs (three batteries for each limb). I realized that with a little inventiveness I could power them all with the bike battery instead.
Using the bike battery required figuring out how to get the electricity from the battery to my extremities. First I lined my coat and some snow pants with wiring using safety pins, and then I added Anderson connectors and a central connection block. Anderson connectors are a wonderful kind of connector for inventing things. You can just crimp the wires on and then snap together as many connectors as you need.
I also needed some way to step down the voltage from the battery’s 36 volts to the electric clothing’s 4.5 volts. I found that ebikes.ca sells such a converter especially made for electric bikes. (These are the same folks that made my front and rear LED flashers.) A word of caution: I learned from experience that if you plug the converter in backwards sparks will shoot out of it. However, it still works! I marked all my 6-volt connections with purple tape.
Finally I wanted an easy way to connect my clothing to the battery as I got on and off the bike. I expected that some sort of slick magnetic breakaway connectors like the ones Macintosh computers have would be available. There was nothing. Two possibilities—the Belkin BreakFree or Replay breakaway headphone adapter advertised in 2007 and 2008—are nowhere to be found. I suspect that Apple has a patent on magnetic breakaway connectors that is preventing others from selling them. So I ended up just using my Anderson connectors.
The results: after some trial and error it worked. One problem was that the wires I used were old and they broke a few times. (Once my left foot suddenly grew uncomfortably warm while my hands suddenly became cold.) Also I was nervous that I might damage my expensive LiPoFe4 battery. It is true that LiPo batteries can be damaged by either too much charging voltage or dropping too low in voltage. However, most of them also have very sophisticated battery management systems built in to prevent this. Finally it was too inconvenient to attach and detach the wires all the time so I started using an old NiCd battery instead.
Next year maybe I’ll explore some alternatives such as handlebar muffs or windscreens or heated handlebars grips. I wonder if it’s possible to find flat wiring that you can sew into a garment. And here’s another design opportunity: one problem with biking in winter is that you are too hot on the uphills and too cold on the downhills. With electric garments you can control the heat. One way to do it is that you could have a clutch to spin the motor on downhills and switch on the garment connection. Or you could use the computer to sense your speed and switch on the garment connection when you are going over say 15mph. I’ll keep you posted.
After my bad fall last December I’ve been thinking a lot about how to make winter riding safer. The first step was to install studded snow tires for both wheels. My fall was caused by only having a snow tire on the back wheel; my front wheel slid out from under me when I was going downhill at 20mph with my daughter on the back of the bike (she was unhurt). There is no good reason not to wear snow tires during winter. My tires of choice are the Schwalbe Marathon Winters, which are designed for icy pavement rather than deep snow.
Another safety factor is simply learning to recognize danger. Some conditions are more dangerous than others. Just before my fall last December I had ridden five miles without incident. It was only when I turned onto a new road that things became dangerous. The new road was recently plowed and the shoulder had a thin layer of innocent-looking slush. Unbeknownst to me the slush hid a layer of ice that was my undoing. I’ve since learned to recognize this “killer slush” and avoid it.
Another danger to watch out for is of course the legendary “black ice” (see photo above) which is caused by melting snow forming puddles which then turn into patches of ice in unexpected places. Now when I ride in the winter I periodically set my foot down to test the slipperyness of the road. If it’s too slippery I either walk my bike or resort to “outrigger mode” (described in the last paragraph).
After my fall I imagined all sorts of technological fixes that would enable bikes to handle snow and ice better (see some of my sketches below, and see http://www.ktrakcycle.com/ for a seemingly successful commercial product). Could bikes have anti-lock brakes? Apparently motorcycles do, and electric bikes already have the electricity and the computing power that is required. Could bikes have roll bars? How about caterpillar treads?
Black Ice Skid Tests
Black Ice Skid Tests
studded snow tires are de rigueur
I also wondered whether a trike would be less likely to flop over when it encountered ice. I made a lot of sketches of trikes, and contemplated Xtracycle to trike conversions. I imagined outrigger wheels that could perhaps fit into the Xtracycle H-rack mounts and prevent a bike from falling over, kind of like giant training wheels for adults. However, someone I know who rides a trike says that in the same situation as my fall a trike would probably flip over rather than lay onto its side. I scuttled my plans for constructing outriggers until I was riding with my son Jasper last week in packed-snow conditions. The going was so difficult that he simply stuck out his legs, planted his feet on the road and let the motor move him along. It struck me that here are the outriggers I was looking for—our legs! They were right here all along at the end of our torsos. So for riding on packed snow I recommend lowering your seat, taking off your toe clips, letting some air out of your tires, taking your feet off the pedals, and taking off. This style of riding wouldn’t have been possible without the advent of electric motors for bikes. Now how about roller-shoes for pavement or ski-shoes for deep snow?
I’ve been doing a little research on bicycle canopies. There are surprisingly few examples out there. Here are a few that come up on the top of a web search.
(Update: check out my own canopy design and instructions for making it.)
The Environmentalist
Top of the list is the Bicycle Canopy Company. The name sounds promising but the product does not look much better than my prototype. Owner Jill Nerkowski writes “I joined my landscaping and gardening experience with bicycle mechanics and came up with my idea for a traveling greenhouse…This bicycle canopy can be constructed in your home, with ordinary household tools and easy to purchase materials.” You have to give her credit for her massive amounts of hutzpah. She looks like a lovable kook but hey, there but for the grace of God go I . http://jillnerkowski.weebly.com http://jillnerkowski.wordpress.com/about/
The Seeker
Farther down the list is someone who back in 2005 announced his search for any sort of bicycle canopy. He concluded that most of the work being done so far to create a weatherproof bike has been the creation of velomobiles: short bullet-shaped bicycles with a hard enclosure. Velomobiles don’t seem to be good car-replacement vehicles. The tend to emphasize speed, they are expensive and they weigh a lot. I can’t imagine them carrying cargo or a passenger. http://greenash.net.au/posts/thoughts/in-search-of-an-all-weather-bike
The Bent
I came across this guy Joe Kochanowski who has made over 50 recumbent (a.k.a bent) bicycles over the last twenty years, some of them enclosed like a velomobile. He writes “I am not married so I can do things like overhaul a car engine in my living room without anyone complaining.” I admit to a bit of envy. Go Joe. http://www.outsideconnection.com/gallant/hpv/joe/
The European
As usual the Europeans are way ahead of us in bicycle technology. The French have brought to market what appears to be the only commercially successful bike canopy I’ve seen. http://www.veltop.eu/index.php?en
I’m concluding that the bike canopy field is wide open. My design has many elements that I haven’t seen elsewhere: integration with the open-source Xtracycle standard; cold-weather insulation; use on an electric cargo bike; and the highly flexible conestoga design. What I’ve seen is canopies designed for either speed or light rain protection. I haven’t seen any designs that are a serious approach to car-replacement.
For some reason I haven’t seen any Xtracycle canopies. You’d think this would be a popular idea in rainy Portland Oregon which is a nexus of the bike movement. I think the Xtracycle is uniquely suitable for a canopy because both the driver and passenger are on the same bike. This allows one large canopy. The main protection needs to be for the passenger and cargo (perhaps using aerogel insulation which is extremely efficient, thin, and lightweight and may someday be available transparent). The driver, who will be hot from exertion, just needs to be protected from rain and wind. (In my experience I get quite hot biking even in the coldest weather. Maybe a very well insulated canopy could allow the driver’s excess body to warm the passenger.) I think a design that emphasizes covering a passenger will also be easier for the general public to accept. People have already seen plenty of bike trailers with such coverings. With an Xtracycle, it’s a small step to extend the passenger covering to the driver.
Another design opportunity is that the Xtracycle allows you to connect a canopy much farther forward and back than other bikes. The forward connection can even be to the sides of the pedals without interfering with the pedals. If you’ve ever carried lumber on an Xtracycle equipped with the Long Loader accessory you know what I mean.
Another design opportunity: the canopy provides a place to put your flexible thin-film solar panels.
Another design opportunity: the power of an electric bike makes it possible to have a heavier perhaps wooden “wagon” that you can just chuck stuff into or even lock it up. I can imagine a pick-up truck like bicycle. Maybe the bottom of the wagon should be curved like a Conestoga wagon so the cargo doesn’t fly out. Then you just attach a canopy when necessary.
I commend the brave souls noted in this post for the work they’ve done to advance the cause of making bicycles practical for year-round use. I am perplexed that this cause has been completely abandoned by industry, government, and yes, even bicycle manufacturers.
Top of the list is the Bicycle Canopy Company. The name sounds promising but the product does not look much better than my prototype. Owner Jill Nerkowski writes “I joined my landscaping and gardening experience with bicycle mechanics and came up with my idea for a traveling greenhouse…This bicycle canopy can be constructed in your home, with ordinary household tools and easy to purchase materials.” You have to give her credit for her massive amounts of hutzpah. She looks like a lovable kook but hey, there but for the grace of God go I 
.
