#30daysOfBiking carried partner and kid home from after-school errands on the xtracycle. Really should be taking the tandem+trailerbike as better able to carry them both but partner doesn't like the forced pedaling of being chained to my crank. 10yo kid prefers the supercargo, like an absolute princess, but I don't have a great rear seat (footrests) arrangement for partner on that. ๐ค Maybe there's a madsen with electric stoker treadles in my future. Or xtracycle the edgerunner...
Testing this flexible solar panel for the electric bakfiets roof, looking at 20-50W realistic rate with sub-optimal exposure and a lot of clouds, it's a 100W panel. With the 1.6lb box it's 5.2lb, probably 10-12lb by the time I have a stiff enough roof mounted, (articulated?) and charging the bike battery. What should I make the roof out of?
The bakfiets roof would be in front of me (and it already has an aluminum frame that might hold up the panel.) So, it wouldn't be as high and wobbly as this build ended up. Shade for me would be nice but I'm torn between it being a rain roof vs tilting to give better shade / get better solar.
if you're using a proprietary e-bike battery like bosch or shimano, you may have to use an AC charger and batch swap between two batteries, but you should expect to use more than you charge, so that's not as useful as a range extension when only collecting 10-50W.
@bobjonkman@MylesRyden@trevorflowers you might be amazed at how quickly technology would eliminate shitty jobs when people have to be convinced rather than coerced into doing them.
@esnyder I'm just volunteer tester for BikeLoud, who are passing this around and giving feedback to the makers, trying to get better design and maintenance policy from the transportation agencies here on the ground. The website seems okay afaict
"People keep dying in crashes on #Portlandโs streets, 15 so far this year. [#transportation] #Infrastructure isnโt the only reason for thatโbut itโs the factor thatโs most fully the cityโs responsibility, and most directly under the cityโs control, and we still arenโt doing as much as we can." #VisionZero#pdxBikes ๐ฏ @bikeloudpdx members putting it on the record every week