I went to this campground a few miles from my house today. They have tent and SUV, RV camping or whatever... It's about a hundred acres or so and many of those acres are Florida woods where you can ride ATVs. So I asked if you could ride your ATV for a daily fee without having to camp..... They said yes but it was $20 plus $11 for a wristband. Now this place is either one or two things depending on the season... If it's the dry season it's sugar sand... If it's the wet season it's mud. Well anyhow it turns out even if I wanted a pony up to 30 bucks.... I can't ride my motorbike there because it's considered a moped. So I asked her what about if I had a real dirt bike... You can't ride that either. Only four wheelers side by sides and golf carts. And get this... The speed limit everywhere is 9 and 1/2 mph.... Because everyone speedometer will tell you what a half mile an hour is .. So they want $30 and you can't even ride a real dirt bike and you can't go more than 10 miles an hour... I said I'll take a pass on that. About a decade ago when I moved here I used to ride my mountain bike up in there... And when the grumpy old man employees chased me on their golf carts I would hit some single track and haul ass on dat ass! So I told the girl that was telling me this well that's really lame and I turned around and walked out.... Kind of politely I didn't say it that way though..
Still like the silence of my powerful electric vehicle. Haven't given up my 'normal' bicycles, though. If anything, they are even quieter.
Talk about your real steampunk! I don't even think they have laws governing the use of such a vehicle on public streets.
I like e-bikes I like recumbents I like motorized bikes.... Pretty much if it has two wheels I'll ride it. I also like listening to a gas motor, listening to the varying RPMs is like the motor singing you a song
I liked being in the pits next to Cobras and 'Vettes in the sixties. Bird songs and silence are much sweeter now.
We still thresh the wheat using steam power every now and then. So much quieter than the old tractors but a bit smelly if it's burning coal.
In my fossil hunting adventures I have found big hunks of coal in the river ranging in size from a fist to a couple of fists. I can only surmise that it is left from the days of steam mining. Because to the best of my knowledge it certainly does not naturally occur in Florida.
My son has an ebicycle. Top speed is 27 mph. It has lots of torque. I'm 82 and I ride it -- slowly. It's a spill waiting to happen for me.
Yes, mine provides lots of pull, too. From a standing start, it takes off better than the 50cc scooters and such. It will top 45 kph.
$1260 is a chunk of change, but if your daily commute is 30 miles round trip in an average vehicle, it pays for itself in fuel economy in well less than a year, and then puts 1260 in your pocket every year thereafter. Buying that thing is literally like giving yourself a $100/mo raise. And it's probably more than that. I bought a new 2012 Ford Focus back in 2011 for the exact same reason, and it paid it's own car payment every month in fuel savings over the pickup truck I was driving. I'm still driving it today.
Just got home from work on it right now. It's a four mile trip one way so eight times five is a week's worth of mileage.... So 40 miles a week not on my vehicle.... And then running errands sometime. And I have friends that I visit often that live about a mile down the blacktop and then about 2 mi down a dirt road which is fun to ride on a dirt road. If I take my minivan I got to keep it under 10 mph. All of these considerations were half the justification for the purchase I'd like a little 4-cylinder pickup truck but good luck finding those anymore... Fortunately there's a gas station not too far away that sells ethanol free gas. It's really going to be hell on small engines if the moron in the White House mandates e15 for everyone.
That is one advantage of the electric motor is I believe, 100% of your available torque as soon as you hit the juice. Whereas an internal combustion engine has to get up into an optimal RPM range to develop its best torque. I may look into getting a e-bike wheel for my recumbent someday. But good quality batteries right now seem rather prohibitively expensive. And batteries whether it's an e-bike or anything else... Is certainly one area where you get what you pay for.
OK, making the assumption that fuel is about $5/gal and will stay there, and your V6 minivan gets about 18mpg, we can do some calculations. If you work 5 days a week, and take two weeks off per year, you work 250 days per year. Your commute is 8 miles per day, so 2,000 miles per year commuting. The fuel cost of your commute is $555 for your minivan, and $100 (assuming 100mpg) for your new bike. The difference is $455/yr, for a payback of 2.77 years in fuel savings alone, if you just use it to commute and nothing else. The picture only gets better if you factor in other savings associated with using the bike instead. For instance, you will be removing 5,000 miles of usage on the minivan over the payback period. Saves at least one oil change maybe two, extends life of tires, etc. You will use it in place of the minivan for other trips, further shortening payback. For the enviro-nazis, your co2 emissions are much better, earning you valuable tree-hugger points which can be redeemed later for a nice latte (after you pay a $5 handling fee and tip your barista). Your van will produce 4,488.84 kg of co2 per year, whereas your bike produces only 80.8kg of co2 during that same time frame. All things considered, it's very easy to justify the $1,260 expenditure, considering the ROI potential, assuming it's not junk that breaks down in 2 months. Plus, you can razz on your enviro-weenie friends about how bad their EV is for the environment!
But you forgot some important variables.... My minivan has the aftermarket modification where they cut the frame in the back and add a wheelchair fold up ramp to it so that adds a good deal of weight.... Plus I have a mystery dead cylinder that comes and goes probably reducing my fuel economy more like 14 miles a gallon. Even though it's a four-stroke, just for kicks and giggles I could always put some oil in the gas like two stroke motors just so it would make a little extra smoke for the enviro weenies to complain about
But it wouldn't come with that horrid two-stroke noise so people would just think you had a broken piston ring. What's this about ethanol and small engines? We're on E90 (10% ethanol) here and I drive a little 1000cc VW Polo.
Selling something has nothing to do with my posts. I would only point out that an 8 mile, 13 km commute is almost precisely what my 60 yr old wife has been doing the past couple of years on the electric-converted bike I built for her. She loves it. No noise, pollution (emitted for operation), and pennies per day. It isn't as powerful as the one mentioned above, but will do a good 32 kph (20 mph). "Just sayin..." It could be added that there are more charming trails and often safer routes available to what are still mostly velocipedes.
The ethanol draws moisture and it is very bad for fuel economy compared to regular gasoline. In addition to drawing moisture it also creates a varnish in the carburetor or fuel injectors if it's left stored for any length of time. Without stabilizers ethanol only has a shelf life of 3 months compared to 6 months for regular unleaded. We call the 10% blend e10 here. A lot of newer vehicles are made to handle it but older vehicles and small engines and boat motors do not handle it very well.
My car is 21 years old. When E90 came out they published a list of old cars that were either suitable or not and my 2001 Polo was on the OK list.
The 'world' might want to start diverting grain to feed people in the next little while and not "f" up most cars, boats and small engines with ethanol. Seems counter intuitive given the war in Ukraine. Ooops, my apologies, just realized I am off topic re the OP.
