Thats impressive Doug.

I had a buddy in HS that had a 4-cylinder 87 trooper that was the same body style as mine.

He was driving back from taking his last AP exam from school, to his parents place, and fell asleep at the wheel while doing 70 on I85 in Charlotte NC.

He crossed the grass median, can clipped the rear tires of an 18 wheeler tanker trailer, spun around, and got t-boned by another truck.

He was dazed and confused, the trooper was totaled, but he was in school the next day, with just a scrape on his knuckle.

As soon as the economy pulls together a bit and I have some spare cash I'm thinking about electrifying it with a kit from V-fiets.com


http://www.v-fiets.com/uk/


They have a 35 km/h version of the V-mini motor (180 Watt by 2.5 kg) and a li-ion battery (36v/9Ah by 2.4 kg).

So the complete package is under 5 kg where my Dingo is 18 kg ready to go (with mud guards and all).

Should make for a very nice hybrid vehicle. Even when peddle in a very relaxed way in order to not sweat I can then still do 35 km/h over 50 km with that upgrade. This range can be much extended if I peddling harder myself.

At 0.24 per kWh recharge cost (including all costs like taxes etc); it'll come out at 0.10 per recharge or at least 0.002 Euro per km. Compare that to about 0.08 Euro per km that a European fuel efficient car gets. (a factor 40 difference)

Wouter

Wouter, are you married, or at least already dating someone?

Because you'll never get laid driving that around :P

</tongueincheek>

Trey,

"Bad Braking Habits couldn't be the problem ????"


NO!!!!!! That's why I mentioned that "Mom" never had to replace rotors before. She got her driver's license in 45-46'. Owned Gm products her whole life, Chevies, Pontiacs, Oldsmobles and now a Chevy Impala. Now she has slowed down a little but her driving technic hasn't changed ... one foot for both the accelerator and brake. I remember the 63'Pontiac Station Wagon, drove the 70' olds Vista Criuser Station Wagon, the 77'Pontiac Lemans, the 86'Olds Cutlass Coupe, 98'Chevy Impala and none of these cars had their brake rotors replaced before 100k .... so what changed???? Same driver .... new car .....

Then there's my experience ... the crankshaft broke (in two) between the 4th and 5th cylinder of my 86'S-15 4x4 while driving down the road at 40MPH w/ 105K on the odometer. Since when do crankshaft's snap ???? GM's responce .... tough luck, can we sell you a new truck???? It turns out they had sourced the cranks and cams from Mexico or Brazil and the metal quality was poor and the crank was undersized. How do I know this .... I installed a new "crate" motor and the crank was beefed up significately .... Hmmmmmmmm It turns out that GM installed a car motor in the S15 trucks ... I bought/payed for a GMC truck, not a CAR!!!!!!

Now my friends always drove Ford Trucks .... 200k ... no problems ... no waterpumps, no rotors, no motors, ........

So for a trucks, buy a Ford .... for Cars, buy a Honda, Toyota, a Mazda, or a Subaru .....

Harry

Trey's bad braking habits caused his front door lock on his brand new Tahoe to break too :P

Thats how he knows these things

Remember this Top Gear test about how they couldnt destroy a Toyota truck?

There is a jerk who drives one of these down a busy county road every day when i go to work. He has a sign "keep your exhaust out of my face" on it (like we have any control where our exhaust pipe is) and last week he picked up a piece of trash (a 2x4) and threw it into traffic cause it was in the bike lane. I honked at him (as it almost hit my car) and kind of hoped it would scare him so much he fell off.

2 weeks ago i was making a right hand turn and almost hit him as he flew through the corner.... (and kind of hoped it would scare him so much he fell off.)....

I know its hard to prove, but its possible to get him in a fair amount of trouble for throwing an obstacle in the road.

The guy sounds like a meanie greenie... its fun to irritate them.

I live near two semi expensive liberal arts colleges, you can imagine the type of person that attends a school that cost $60k a year, and they get a degree in womens studies. We get an butt load of bicyclist out in the country on narrow paved roads with zero shoulder. I think I've actually managed to cut down on their traveling out of town in my direction. With everything cranked up in the diesel I can black out two lanes pretty easily. I don't think they care for me too much.

They don't realize that when forced to make the choice of greasing a bicyclist, or hitting a loaded milk truck head on, I'm gonna plow through the bicylists and save my own butt.

I considered calling the police on him... but as you said, i couldn't prove it.. and i was rushing to get to work ontime...

I understand (and even appreciate) the fact he wants to bike to work... its good on the gas bills and good exercise, but to have to drive down a 4 lane country road, and expect people to "get their exhaust out of his face" is rediculious... Also, i really don't expect him to be accident free for long... as his "I am a bike, get outta my way" attitude wont last...

Wouter,

those things take corners like jet fighters, if you have the balls and skills for it

This is my ride on the road. Electric kit would be nice if I was going to commute with it (30km one way, hilly..)

Your recumbents look pretty neat. Here's my ride.

Actually, McTadicles, it was someone breaking into my car. Now go back to programming and get off CS!

And that is why I appreciate so much NOT being an American.

I heard these stories before from Tim Bohan. How they average yank doesn't know the difference between real life and grant theft auto or whatever !

Overhere, we have lot of special bike lanes and NO speed limit for human powered bicyles ! So doing 45 in a 30 zone is basically allowed when you are on a peddle bike. And what is best; everytime a biker and car are in a collision together then it is the car driver who is considered guilty by law BY DEFINITION !

Makes getting you car license a little bit harder though when you can't get one by not knocking over 3 pilons on some parking lot as the US seems to handle car license exams. Note, I have one of those EU car drivers license as well and I'm not complaining about the skill level required to get one. As far as I'm concerned, a car is a deadly wapon in the hands of a moron or a$$hole. I don't mind withholding a gun license from these fools as well.




Personally, when faced with such a situation when driving a car; I apply the breaks !

Wouter

I think you lost the sense of humor in all these posts.

Would we like to run over cyclists that are doing 15mph on a 55mph highway?

Sure we do.

But we don't, not just because its the law that we can't, but because its not something that human beings do to one another.

We joke about it because morbid humor is funny - and we've all been "that guy" behind the 'Critical Mass' groups that just needs to get to work on time.



Oh yeah forgot about that.

When I throw it into tight corners (on clean and dry roads !) I always think of Hamster and his commentary when testing the Carver.

"I want machine guns strapped to the side of this thing, ... , something that fires missiles maybe"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPOkeJCiw9A&feature=related

When riding in Karls neighbour I think I probably need these as well !


By the way Rolf, didn't you have a Trike ?

What brand and Type is that "normal" recumbent in the photo ?




They also have a special high torgue motor on offer for carrier-tricycles; intended to get you up inclined roads with such bicycles loading with goods. In your case I would fit one of those; 250 Watts + your own legs makes for 450 Watts. Enough for doing 20 km/h uphill against (average) 7% inclined roads and some additional weight like a small suitcase; just get a second battery (2.4 kg) to carry enough juice (36V/18Ah/4.8 kg = 650 Wh = 2 hours at full engine power). On your way down you'll do 80 km/h or more without assist or peddling. I will feel like you are peddling (unassisted) up a 1.5% incline or so.

Wouter

I appears that I didn't and you did.

I just upped you one in my reply.


Personally, I don't cycle on 55 mph ways but I do on 30 mph roads. I typically do 16-19 mph on these with significant head winds. With the winds from the rear I do 22 to 28 mph.

Actually driving a recumbent on 30 mph roads is actually not to bad as the speed of these is alot more comparable to the cars driving their. Normal bikes do go slower though.

Wouter

Your American-hatred is real, and not funny.

But you can have your one-up on me if it makes you feel better.

Wouter,

it is just a cheap recumbent made in Taiwan: http://www.twbents.com.tw/HTM/co.htm

I never had a trike, but you and I talked about how a trike would do as a commuter some time ago. I think it was the same thread where Luiz refused to believe the inclines our roads have

When I visited Wouter some years ago, I was amazed by the amount of bicycles over there. Everyone rides. So of course they have bike lanes on most roads, and bike lockers at the train stations, and you can take your bike on the train if you like.

America is just not set up for bikes, period. Sure, there are few towns here and there where they have a few bike lanes, but most places, forget it. You are taking your life in your hands (or more likely, putting you life into the hands of some of the worst drivers in the world) any time you go out to ride a bike on the road.

I cannot even count the number of times I've had stuff (bottles, cans) thrown at me, or been yelled at ("Get OFF the ROAD!") when I've been riding my bike on the roadways, vs. sidewalks. The average US auto driver doesn't own a bike and hates bikes riding out on the road, right in HIS way.

Our lower gas prices (or less taxed gasoline) over here for the past...50? years, has led to a mindset that the car (or Truck, or SUV) is the King of the Road, and all others (pedestrians, bikes, mom's pushing strollers) will get the HELL out of the way, or die.

As you can see right here Wouter, I wasn't kidding when I told you about cars vs. bikes over here. A couple years ago, the morning after winning the 12 Hours of Sebring American LeMans race down here, the winning European driver (sorry, I've forgotten his name and country) went for a bike ride, was hit and killed by some old geezer driving a Caddy. Did the geezer do jail time? No. Why not? Because the bike was on the road...

Years of racing cars but he was killed by another lousy American driver who couldn't figure out how to -go around- a bike on the road. That's why I ride on the sidewalk.

Oh, I forgot to mention my wife and I were nearly killed by a drunk driver who T-boned us while we were on my BMW motorcycle about 20 years ago. I haven't felt safe riding a mortorcycle on the road since. Helmets saved our lives. I wear a helmet when I ride my bicycle too.