Here we have one of the more expensive bicycle locks on the market. It is an anti-bump special, meaning it cannot be picked using the old method of twisting the tumblers. This lock lasted 12 days and now cannot be opened at all. I came out from the ATM and the correct combination would not work. Fred was kind enough to come by with a set of bolt cutters and we had cut the cable in less than two minutes. I later had five or six people try the combination to eliminate pilot error.
Thus, we learned two important things. First, all that a cable lock does is slow the thief down, although it takes two guys to make short work of the cut. Second, if you are respectably dressed, nobody questions two clean-shaven men cutting the lock on a $500 bicycle in broad daylight.The H-bridge, which is a miniature revelation of the million things wrong inside the brains of electrical design engineers. I’ve got it working again, but snorting 5 expensive Arduino volts to control 6 battery volts. I doubt robots will ever be efficient until all components are re-designed from the ground up. That’s not even considering the cost of code, which mercifully I don’t have to pay for, in cash anyway. Compared to coding, chess is an easy child’s game. Agt. M avoids even looking at my code printouts, and I’ve received countless compliments for particularly clean code.
In fact, see for yourself. Here is a copy of my code that looks to see if the pedestrian crosswalk button has been pushed. Most can’t understand it, yet this is some of the cleanest code you will ever see. If it sees a press, it asks if the button has been pressed more than once in the past 5 seconds, or 5,000 milliseconds. If not, it proceeds to call the subroutine that changes the walk lights, if so, it ignore the commands. If you still can’t read it, consult Patsie the Programmer from Kenora. I hear she’s a whiz. A real whiz.
int State = digitalRead(WalkButton);
if (State = = HIGH && (millis() - IntervalTimer) > 5000)
{
SubPedestrianWalk();
}
How about that deficit? It looks like up to 45% of federal employees may not get a paycheck soon. Too bad, they are sworn to work regardless and it serves them right. Always re-electing the people who pay them rather than showing a shred of financial responsibility. They may cut off pensions as well. I’m not retired but I have three months cash tucked away and an excellent backup plan. Those that don’t have a plan, well, two-thirds of them need to go on a diet anyway.
How about some stats on the electric bike? I’ve already got 80 miles on it, a cause for concern because it is not anywhere near as rugged a frame as the old Jamis. It cannot stand up to that much usage. I find I leave the eBike in top gear all the time, the lower gears are pretty useless and were obviously designed for regular usage, that is, not specially designed to take electric power. I’m averaging 9.9 mph, around 30% faster than I pedal. But it is the important 30% that makes all the difference.
The top speed is around 15 mph, though I’ve hit 16.9 mph according to speedometer memory. I use the electric motor as a boost to zip up to speed in full electric (TAG) mode, then flip the switch and use pedal-assist (PAS) mode to make top speed pedaling quite easy. Range is just over 22 miles with this method, though the last bit of battery power is slow to drain and arthritic.
I’ve also noticed a third mode while in PAS. The cycle seems to memorize how fast you were going and zooms you back up to that average speed without using the throttle. It is a gentle acceleration that cuts in around a second after you begin pedaling, and cuts off a half second after you stop. It has a sluggish feel of it.
The brakes are typical bicycle hand levers. They must regularly be applied harder and longer due to the increased speed, meaning they will wear out rapidly. One thing to be careful over is that traffic is not expecting the bike to accelerate fast and will often cut you off unexpectedly, especially after passing to make a right turn.
The scooter has not been mentioned here for a while, but it now looks like the problem may be the brand new starter. If the engine is bad, it is not covered by warranty. On several occasions, the motor has cut out at high speed, which I dutifully mentioned to the shop to ensure they knew about it. I’m hoping, but technically they are under no obligation to fix it. Goes to show you buying from China is not always a bargain.
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