Intro
This blog is to show the prize I received for my stepper machines project in the Start a Movement Design Challenge and say thankyou to the sponsors. (Analog Devices)
The prize is a Wildeway electric bike. (Which was a substitute for the intended prize due to logistical issues)
Features
This bike has some great features:
- It is a folding bike, allowing it to be transported in a car. This is useful for many well documented applications, but one cool application is when dropping my car off at a service center to have some work done, I can use the bike to leave the car and come back later.
- It has a large battery capable of travelling 100 km without pedaling
- It has large sturdy baskets front and back capable of carrying lots of groceries or anything else
- It has a special button in the controller that runs the bike at a walking pace - very handy for manually pushing the bike up stairs for example
- It has 5 power levels that correspond to specific top speeds up to at least 46 km/hr.
- Its motor is about 1 horsepower so it can go up any hill you might attempt with a normal road bike or a horse.
Ottawa has 800 km of awesome bike paths. Many of these are very scenic, but Ottawa is a huge city, so getting to some of these scenic paths is a pretty long ride. Ottawa is more than twice as large as New York City, but it is relatively sparsely populated. The low population density means there is a lot of green space and the bike paths are not crowded. An e-bike is a great way to explore all the pathways. You cannot go on these paths with a motorcycle, so e-bikes are ideal. The city is easy to get around with a bicycle or e-bike. On my trip today I went through 6 bicycle tunnels that alleviated the need to fight with vehicle traffic.
Video
I haven't got the hang of shooting video while riding but here is a video showing several key locations and waterfalls along my trip.
Discussion
I really enjoyed the outing today - something completely new for me - 4 hours of exploring bicycle pathways near waterways. I have been living in this city for decades and I still discovered a whole bunch of new things today, including 6 tunnels I had never been through before.
The bike worked flawlessly and I am very happy with it, especially the range, the power, the speed and it is very quiet. It wasn't perfect though. The suspension is not much fun on a bumpy surface. It is no contest between this and my enduro motorcycle. The gearing on the manual pedals is not high enough to allow manual contribution above power level 1.
Would I change anything? I might add a rearview mirror. I might add pedal clips.
Overall this is a great prize. Thanks element14 and Analog Devices.
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rscasny
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