STEEM Cycle Update: Fixed a Flat Tire, Ideas for the Future
I had a near miss with a car the other day. They cut me off turning into a parking lot, and I had to brake extremely hard not to slam into them. The bike did that stomach churning wibble-wobble thing any two-wheeler does when you brake hard on it and it was a struggle not to fall. Crude MSPaint illustration here.
The result, besides scaring the shit out of me, was to fuck up my rear tube. Not an immediate flat, but a friction burn that made it lose air very slowly. I could fill it up, leave it sitting and it'd be flat again in about an hour. Possible to live with for short trips, but I am not about to tolerate that kind of shit on a bike I paid this much for.
I first called a local bike shop (above) to ask about the circumstances of the flat and how it could have been prevented. They told me I should've powdered the tube. I don't know anything about that. So rather than replace the tube myself I had them do it for a few bucks, and powder it as well.
It's a damn fine bicycle shop. But that's to be expected for Portland. They even carry electrics! However these look like conventional bicycles, have ~25 mile battery packs, yet cost nearly the same as mine. They're for people with a lot of money who don't want to go through all the hassle I have putting a bike together.
Just look at how beautifully and neatly integrated into the frame the battery pack and motor are. Yet the battery (a nice looking shark pack) is still easily removable! I can appreciate a sleek, sexy design like this. Mine is a big clunky, boxy lookin' beast by comparison. But mine is also even more modular than this, and easier to work on. Not to mention the fact that this one has no suspension.
Another bike, representative of what they carry. They favor mid drive, which I avoided due to comparative complexity even though it's more efficient than a hub motor. I wanted my bike to be easy to work on, and with such a monstrous battery, a difference in efficiency of a few percentage points wasn't gonna be noticeable.
They didn't have any tubes with double length schrader valves, so it'll be a bit tricky to top this one up. I've got an electric air compressor coming in the mail though, which has a very snub, short connector which should not have any trouble with this. More on that in a future article.
Now, for the phone mount. I am pretty happy with this thing as-is. However it seems like it could be improved. Using my phone as a GPS runs down the battery very fast, not only because of the constant 4G triangulation (it's not "real" gps) but also because the screen has to be on full brightness to be visible outdoors.
Solution? An inductive charging coil integrated into the mount, connected either to a passthru that uses power from the bike's battery pack (tricky) or a 4 cell 18650 power bank (easy but less elegant). This will ensure the phone stays at 100% while I'm using it to navigate on my bike.
Don't expect to see more about that for a little while, it's only in the planning stages atm. For the time being I'm just pleased to have the bike back on its feet...tires? So quickly. That's one of the benefits of an electric bike. My electric moped used to be out of action for months at a time while the only EV certified mechanic in town worked on it.
Dude, I know your posts are at least 60x better than @geetinstitute but please don't start flagging him. He's learning the ropes and I was the one who got him on board.
Let me know once you remove the flags and I'll return the favor.
Post quality isn't the issue: GEET is a scam. Specifically it looks to be a variant on the water engine/HHO injection "brown's gas" type nonsense. There was no conspiracy against Paul Pantone, no more than there ever was against Stan Meyer. Both were frauds and criminals. Now David looks to be following in his father's footsteps.
I'm sure my 1,252 followers would also be interested to hear about this matter. It would be nice if you'd unflag me, given that I am only trying to do what's right. But if not, diplomacy isn't my only recourse.
Please do.
May I ask why you're doing this? Do you believe GEET works as described? Is it because David is a close friend or something? In your shoes, I can't imagine defending something I know to be fraudulent for any reason. In my mind, that's part of being a good, honest person. Do you feel differently?
Yes.
Well, that explains why you'd come after me. But what if you're wrong? You'll be harming an innocent person who is standing up for truth.
Couldn't that also be you?
Yea it's not. Look at this situation objectively.
So to summarize, there is a high probability Alex is correct here, yet your vote weight far outpowers his. This is clear bullying and you are very much in the wrong here. I don't believe in vigilante justice, getting together a crew to downvote your posts because that's pretty childish. How about you just remove the flags because you are very clearly in the wrong here.
Only if water is a fuel.
I admittedly don't know much about the subject at hand but I do know @alexbeyman and have a deep personal relationship with him and trust that if he used his pretty much never used flag ability then there is validity to his claim of GEET being fraudulent/bogus science there is good reason. He really is all about diplomacy. He has a well-earned great reputation here for a reason.
He flagged b/c he ASSUMES it's a scam. And continues to call it a scam with ZERO evidence.
I don't "assume" an engine which is purported to run on any liquid (including water) is a scam. That's a fact. Water is not a fuel. It is an ash. My proof is in this article, under the section which addresses water powered cars.
You are taking much needed income away from an honest person who is trying to do the right thing.
@fulltimegeek
anyone describing themselves as "honest" person trying to do the "right" thing sounds like deceptive language,
also @alexbeyman water is a fluid,ash is a by-product of combusted fibrous material,
It's also what somebody says if they are just forthright about things. You can tell the difference between that person and a liar by investigating the details of their claims.
This is hardly the first "water powered engine" I've seen promoted online. All of them are eventually exposed by engineers (or in court, if it comes to that) as fraudulent.
Every one of them sought to make money from gullible investors, "technology classes" and licensing exclusive rights to the technology (which they knew was useless) in various international markets. Stan Meyer did this, Guy Negre did this, Paul Pantone did this, now David Pantone is doing it too.
That isn't what I meant. Ash is what's left following combustion. Water is what's left after Oxygen and Hydrogen are recombined, after being separated out of water.
The Hydrogen and Oxygen in water that proponents of "water fuel" point to as the energy their devices supposedly exploit are already bonded. The reaction by which the two produce energy has already taken place.
You can reverse that reaction with electrolysis, but it always takes more energy to separate the two than you get by recombining them. Otherwise you could put water in one end, get energy from it, then the waste product (still water) could be fed back into the fuel tank, and you'd have a perpetual motion machine, which violates the law of conservation.
@fulltimegeek @alexbeyman
technology is feasible Nature Journal might be a more accurate source to base your argument of than wikipedia.
isnt GEET a hybrid fluid engine not a "water" engine?
theres get rich scams, doesnt mean you cant get rich from a deal.
i will agree the fact his father was scamming is suspicious but with that could be less likely due to garnered attention.
i believe hes not selling anything giving plans for free and is gonna be reviewed by experts in that field in 2 weeks.
also this post screams fake story https://steemit.com/steemit/@alexbeyman/water-is-not-a-fuel-the-geet-engine-scam
Their PDF claims "any liquid" and promotional materials as well as quotes from Paul and David affirm that it can run purely on water or coffee as well as a water/gas mix that is 80% water.
You might want to watch the video in my article where his dad says that the version of his engine in the free plans is "the worst I've built in 25 years". Perhaps to explain why people who have independently built it did not get the results he claimed they would.
Oh so it can ride again! How fast can you ride on it?
I've heard people can get to 110 km/h with slipstreaming or something like that.
Eh, about 30mph.
Hey, sexy-ness and design are not everything. For everything else there's MasterCard.
You have some serious Ms paint skills. Also I gathered you have some sort of electric bike you've built. Do you have any build posts for it that you wouldn't mind linking?
Yeah, they're all on my Steemit account. I documented every step. I am unsure what to link, there's so many.
Nice I'm flipping through them now. That thing is pretty sweet how long do you get on a charge?
50 miles, conservatively.
Holy crap that is badass. How much did it cost to build all in all would you say?
$2,500 not including tools or extras. Close to $3,000 all told.
Little more than I thought lol. Better to build than buy still probably. It looks like you got a good number of sweet additions on it.
Sondors is a great entry level ebike with lithium batteries for $750-$1,000 depending on options (like front suspension, cycle computer, etc.) I recommend it to everyone who wants an ebike but isn't a fanatic like me.
Ahh this makes me want to get a monster bike like yours as well... I haven't had a bike for like 3 years now and I kinda miss waking up in the morning and driving around alone while everyone is still sleeping :)
Hell yeah. That eerie but mystical early morning feeling when you have the whole world to yourself. I used to walk up to the roof of a parking structure next to my apartment building and listen to music on mornings like that while I watched the city slowly coming to life.
Mystical indeed and the music can take you away to a whole different dimension. That's why I used to love my morning adventures, watching everything rising.
I can feel you with phone-gps
Nice! reminds of days when I used to ride a bike :) Miss those days and thinking to buy one now
If you don't mind me asking how much are these bikes?
Depends. Mine was $3,000 including the tools I needed to assemble it. But a good prebuilt ebike like the Sondors can be had for $750-$1,000 depending on options like front suspension, bike computer and so on.
The fork of this bike looks solid and is useful for almost any road
They look very natural. I want to get an ebike myself if I am ever in a situation where I don't have to commute. Sorry for the close call. Glad you are okay.