Wood bikes

I've always loved the idea of a bike made from wood. There are structural challenges involved using wood as a frame material, due to factors like the strength of the wood and the alignment of the grain. But such bikes have indeed been made, with some created from laminated wood, and others from bamboo.

Perhaps the best-known bamboo bike is a commercial one made by Calfee Design:


Then there's this one from Brano Meres Engineering and Design:


From the website of the American Bamboo Society:


The Bamboo Bike Project:


And of course one could always use a Bamboo bicycle trailer:


Next up, a page about wooden recumbents:


And a page just full of wood bike porn like this one (drool...):


And perhaps one of the coolest wood bikes, this tandem:


Do I hear project ideas gearing up at Mike's Blue Camembert woodworking shop? ;)

to tell the tooth, the whole tooth, and nothing but...

In an hour I have an appointment to get a tooth pulled. It chipped lightly a while back, then cracked badly, but fortunately has not hurt at all after the initial incident. I'm getting it pulled instead of fixed because a) I don't have a dental plan to cover any repair costs, and b) it's the last molar at the end of the row, so I'm not really going to miss it.

But it's still never fun getting dental work done, so with apologies to Al Gore it's been

(wait for it...)

An Inconvenient Tooth.

Gig alert

Fans of the Jivewires have a chance this weekend to catch the band, and the show is free! On Saturday night we'll be performing on the Sparks St. Mall from 7:00pm till 10:00pm. When we did this gig last year we had some folks swing-dancing on the Mall!

Oh, and the band finally got a promo video together. You can download it (in .wmv format) from the band's website, but I've also uploaded it to YouTube (of course!) and embedded that below.

"You are the leader pot smokers emulate"

Every now and then I stumble on one of those silly quizzes, and sometimes I take the bait. I liked the results of this one so much that I had to post it here! ;)

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

(with four blog posts today can you tell that I took a rest day from unpacking?)

even more moving photos!

When relocating it's not a common thing to have to take the "garage" with you. In my case, I had built a covered shed for the trike at the old place, and it of course had to come with me. It was fairly simply put together, so easy to take apart. When rebuilding I'll need to beef it up a fair bit, because at the new place I'm told the spot for it can receive a healthy build-up of ice in the winter from water dripping off the flat roof. But this rebuild will have the added benefit of diminishing my woodpile, which for the most part still resides at my old place with the owner's consent.

So here's how you move a wide load with the trike - just put the stuff across the box and hope it all weighs enough to keep it in place. With slow cycling it did. ;)

(note red safety flag)

The roof panels, acquired from a friend that was demolishing an outbuilding. They fit almost perfectly into the box, and I mean like with a 1/2" all around to spare! The only thing that prevented them from lying flat was the battery box for the electric assist (which is soon to be relocated under the trike in a semi-permanent installation). Most of the move was actually done without using the assist at all (battery pack not even in place), but I was getting tired at this point and needed the extra help.

My regular 2-wheel bikes were easy to fit, but not so the big beasts. In the above and below photos you can see the Rainbow Chopper, the CCM tandem. and the Infinity recumbent.


Gratuitous cat photo. In the new place, and Jett is mauling his catnip Teddybear, recovered from under a shelving unit while packing.

more move photos

Since the owners of my previous abode were not returning until mid-month I had time to move, which was good since I had to figure out how to fit everything in the new place! So instead of having the usual "do it all in one day" I did it in stages. For the big stuff Richard arrived with the organ trailer, and Greg came with his old Cannondale trailer. Between my trike and these machines we were able to move a fair bit in just two trips! What helped was there we were only going four and half blocks away...

(The cooler is full of small bits of drum hardware)

Since after unloading we had both machines empty, Richard said he wanted to find out how well my trike could be carried on his trailer. Given the layouts of each, it was a surprisingly good fit! Width-wise the trike just fit inside the railings, the rear wheels tucked in behind the rear trailer wheels, and the front wheel just nudged the front rail. Funnily enough, Juergen-- who did the welding for my trike--also helped Richard weld this trailer together, though they were done about a year apart.

post-move

It is truly amazing the amount of stuff one can accumulate over time. Now, it's understandable that I would have drum and music gear that can take up a lot of space, along with the various bikes. But when you keep hanging on to things like very obsolete computers then it's time for a sanity check!

The very first computer I bought back in 1990 was (don't laugh) an Atari. A 1040ST to be exact, with a whopping 1 meg of RAM. The reason I bought it was because not only was it cheaper than a Mac, it came with built-in MIDI ports for doing music work, something no other manufacturer offered. It's been said that musicians kept Atari alive long after the gamers had moved on to other platforms (my machine my have been one of the few that never had a game played on it), and I was one of them. ;) It cost me $1000 for the machine, and another $500(!!) for the MIDI software (Notator, which morphed into Logic, one of the current industry standards). I even used this beast to get on the Net back in '95, via National Capital FreeNet using the Lynx text browser!


And of course the ultra-ergonomic mouse...

(not that the PowerMac's original one was much better.)

When I bought my first Mac back in '99 I transferred most of the MIDI files over, though it was a bit of a pain because I was going to new software and it didn't recognize Notator's loop function. And since I didn't move all of the files (and because I had the shelf space) my Atari set-up stayed around. And it had grown over the years, due to people giving me the darn things, so I had two monitors and two hard drives, including the largest hard drive Atari ever made, the mighty Megafile 60 (a whopping 60 megs).

(and due to its fan noise it sounded like a small vacuum cleaner when you fired it up)

But then the move into smaller living quarters comes up and it was time for a purge. Funnily enough, someone bought all my Atari gear for $50, but my upgraded PowerMac 7500, which served me well with almost no grief from 1999 until June 2006, had to be given away.

raccoons!

In my previous place the cats had their own door for coming and going. Until earlier this year that is, when after the fourth visit from a raccoon I closed that door off and the cats had to put up with me letting them in and out the front door.

Now we're in the new place, which is one of three apartments in an old house. My kitchen and bathroom windows look out onto the flat roof of the unit below, and there's a fire escape to the side which the cats use to reach the ground. I leave the window open for them to do this, and last night I heard a noise and went into the kitchen and there's a raccoon about to come in! He sees me and runs back onto the roof, but then turns around, lies down and looks at me!


Cheeky little bugger...

He didn't come up the fire escape, but from the roof of the house to the left in the photo (you can see the flat roof and deck just past the sloped part). I fabricated a wooden barricade that should keep him away, and that will also keep Jett from exploring over there, which he has done a few times now (I don't mind him wandering around, but I'd rather he visit the neighbours on their porch and not through an open upstairs window).

UPDATE: it's a few hours later, I'm busy unpacking things and figuring that there's now no worry about leaving the kitchen screen window open so the cats can come and go, and a bat flies into the apartment! He fluttered about for a minute or so then flew out the open balcony door. After closing that I went into the kitchen to close the window and Kitty was there with eyes wiiiide open after seeing the flying mouse...

Busy like beaver...

I've been rather overwhelmed with moving house! 95% of the move was done by pedal power, though due to rainy weather last Wednesday I had to call on my brother Mike and his Volvo and trailer to move the mattress and frame.

Since I'm still up to my elbows in stuff right now I'll just post a photo of the trike, laden with as many drums as I could fit and some of their shelving strapped on top!

recent gigs

The Impressions in Jazz Orchestra just wrapped up its Spring series of concerts. We had three shows in three weeks, with around 60 pieces of music to learn in total. The first and third gigs were part of a series at the Billings Estate, with the orchestra playing 1920's music and 1940's respectively, and the middle gig was part of our own series of concerts at the Crowne Plaza (photos from these shows can be seen here). In amongst these gigs I of course had other shows to do, but these ones stood out.

The 1940's gig was especially fun for me, as not only my brother Mike and his wife came out (they have come to some of the other IJO gigs), but my mom and step-dad made the trip up from Kingston to see the show. Mom is 86, and does not get around as easily as she used to, so it was great that she was able to make it. Even more so because I was playing music that she grew up with, and I'd discovered on my own years later. As a kid I of course listened to the Beatles, since my older brothers had all the records, but when I discovered the famous Benny Goodman "Carnegie Hall Concert" in my parents' record collection at age six I was captivated by the swinging sounds and the extroverted drumming of Gene Krupa. Mom must have heard me bang along to "Sing Sing Sing" a few thousand times, so it was great to have her come to the show and see that it all paid off in the long run. ;)

This morning I had another interesting gig, playing jazz in an Anglican church! Yes, on Sunday mornings I'd normally be playing my regular gig at the Metropolitan with Steve's quartet, but we've been rained out so much on that gig (and don't get paid when that happens) that when bassist Tom got called for this one he took it and asked me to join in (we both sincerely hope that Steve got by just fine with our substitutes. hehe). The Reverend Dr. Tim Elliot was doing the sermon, and he is also a jazz pianist, so with the Jazz Festival currently running in Ottawa Tim thought having some of this music as part of his sermon would be a good thing, and it was!

We played standards, so no rehearsal was needed aside from meeting up ahead of time to compare notes (pun intended). Being a church the acoustics were lively, and since a real piano was being used instead of an amplified digital one I played with brushes for the entire set, and it made for a nice, light feel. The parishioners seemed to enjoy this change in routine, and while we were in between tunes Tom and I sat back and enjoyed the three fine singers that subsituted for a full church choir (though as a professed agnostic and lapsed Unitarian I had to tune out the lyrics to a fair degree...).

I've been forgetting to take my camera with me on recent gigs, and one thing I wanted to capture today was a little bit of fun on the part of the church's builders. As I set up near the choir stalls I looked down to see a mouse! Well, it was a carved wooden mouse, sitting on the foot of the rearmost bench. I mentioned it to Tim and he said "Oh yes, and there's another one over here" pointing to the Bishop's Seat, and sure enough there was a similar one peeking out of the rear of that. It's nice to see some humour in what was otherwise probably a rather strict design criteria. ;)

Oh yes, of course I rode the trike. And the electric assist came in very handy for climbing back up Nanny Goat Hill (yes, that's the name of the escarpment where Bronson heads up to Laurier Ave.).

Longest trike ride yet!

This past Saturday night I had a gig out at the Nepean Sailing Club, which is about 12km west of my place downtown. Now, 12km is an easy ride on most bikes, but of course a heavy trike with at least 200 lbs. of gear in the back makes it a bit more of an effort!

Once again, this was really only practical due to the electric assist. I have pedaled out to Britannia Beach (10km), but that was with little weight and having a fun ride day with friends, so we could take our time. Saturday night meant not only a full load, but also a specific arrival time. And it was around 30C, so I was going to get a little sweaty no matter what. Fortunately it was a casual gig in the bar, not a formal event with the associated suit to put on (those gigs require me to get changed and wash up and try not to look dishevelled and sweaty for the clientele).

And it ended up being a really nice ride with no hassles whatsoever. And I stayed on city streets the entire route. While there is a nice riverside bike path all the way out there, the trike, while it does fit, is a bit bulky and I'd rather ride a more direct route. And besides, it's fun to get out there and take the whole lane, because I have no choice but to do so! ;)



I would normally have taken Gladstone Ave. for the first leg, but it was blocked by both a street party at one intersection and contruction a few blocks further on, so instead I took Somerset St. and then back up to Gladstone via Bayswater. From there I did the jump from Parkdale to Holland and then onto Byron. And Byron remains my fave westbound route. It's in pretty good shape, the single lane each way is quite wide, and all the main traffic is over on Richmond Road (which ends up running alongside Byron for its westernmost 2km). And once past Churchill there are maybe two stop signs and then it's open all the way to Woodroffe.

Byron continues for a bit past Woodroffe, but through traffic is blocked by a concrete divider, so at that point I got onto Richmond Road, a mostly 2-lane arterial. I followed that until turning onto Carling Ave. and then 2.5km to the Club. Carling Ave. is a major arterial, and I would not have really enjoyed that leg of the trip during a busy weekday, but at 6:30pm on a beautiful Saturday it was fine. Anyone coming up behind me just passed in the other lane, with a few vehicles giving light toots on the horn and waving or giving thumbs-up as they passed. I made the 12.5km trip in 35 minutes, with the assist being used to various degrees much of the time, just to see how quickly I could get there.

The gig was great, folks marvelled at the drummer showing up by bike, and then at 11:30 it was time to head home. I took Carling Ave. directly back to Woodroffe (being west-end suburbia there was almost no traffic at that time of night), and then after turning onto that street it narrowed to one skinny lane each way, so I turned off into the leafy residential area and angled my way NE to Byron, and then retraced the same route I took out. Along the way there were a few people out for stroll or walking their dog, and it was kind of fun to perhaps make their evening a bit more interesting as the lit-up cargo trike quietly glided past them... I was home by midnight, which meant that either the slight route change or the fact that I was going very slightly down-river shaved the time down to an even 30 minutes. That means a rough average a speed for the round-trip of 23 km per hour!

And that would not have been remotely doable without the electric-assist. I imagine that it might have taken almost double the time to make the trip without it, if only because to maintain that speed I would've had to take a few breaks! :P And after an evening playing a show it's no fun to take an hour or so to get home by pedal power, so without the assist I would have arranged for a lift of borrowed a car for this gig. So the assist is a real benefit (I did bring the battery pack's charger along, as I thought it best to keep the pack topped up for the return trip), and the recent boost to 48V and the bigger batteries has greatly extended the trike's functionality - this recent trip really proved that to me.

Where I work #4 (or 5, or something...) (formerly ATWAS)

This past Thursday the quartet played at Stornoway, the residence of the Leader of the Official Opposition (currently it's Liberal Leader Stephane Dion). It was some sort of networking event for the Liberal Party, in the back yard under cover of one of those huge white tents (which was mainly open on the sides since it was beautiful day). There must have been over 200 people there, and we were in a corner just playing standards as usual. There were a lot of younger people, mainly in their 20s and 30s, all connected with the Party somehow. As I chatted with a few folks on my break it was fun to say "I used to vote Liberal, but have voted either Green or NDP for the past ten years". hehe

Stephane Dion arrived and I think shook the hand of everyone there. Even us, though it was a bit awkward since we were in the middle of a tune! The other guys can stop playing for a moment, but it's really noticeable when the drummer does this, so I just tucked a stick under my arm and kept playing with feet and one hand as he reached over the kit...

To do this gig the group had to sub out of our usual Thursday gig at the Metropolitan Restaurant (which is ironic given that so many of our Thursdays have been weathered out there) as the time slot was exactly the same (5-8). And when the gig ended Steve and I had to pack up and boot it over to an IJO rehearsal, so this was a day of travelling by van, not by cargo trike.

IJO - Such Sweet Thunder

The Impressions in Jazz Orchestra has another fabulous evening planned for this coming Tuesday. This time we'll be playing the music Duke Ellington wrote for the Stratford Festival (the first Canadian performance in 50 years!), and there's more than just the IJO involved. Full details at: http://www.impressionsinjazz.ca/CP-120607.html

Tuesday, June 12, 2007, 7:30 PM
International Ballroom
Crowne Plaza Ottawa Hotel

House move by pedal power - again!

Well, two weeks have passed, so it must be time for another pedal-powered move!

This time we helped Greg (Director of the Just Voices choir) move house. It was easy in terms of distance (four blocks) and aside from a 4-drawer filing cabinet that felt like it was made out of cast iron, also pretty easy in terms of items needing to be moved. And while we didn't have any appliances to deal with this time around, we did have Greg's musical instruments! And the best part was that the entire move was done by pedal power. And since we were travelling on flat ground I didn't even need to use the electric assist.

Oh, and speaking of musical instruments, I decided to play Greg's helicon (a predecessor of the sousaphone) while riding the trike. And of course we had to get that on video...





Richard loads my trike while his son Nico watches, and Stuart takes a rest break in the stoker seat of the Greenspeed tandem.

Since we're not going very far or very fast, Nico takes a ride in the trike's cargo box.

Greg inspects the final load (after 6 hours of moving) with Jason behind. I think at least 10 people helped out during the course of the move.

Richard also took a bunch of fabulous photos.

Oh, and Greg, thanks for letting me fool around with that nice old instrument. Hmm... perhaps a new twist to my music career, serenading the local citzenry while riding the trike? Hey, I could offer rides in the back, and THEN serenade them. I would make my money by letting them ride for free, but then they'd have to pay me to stop playing! ;)

cool music

Two recent YouTube finds, one being music I've heard before, and one not.

The first is a performance on the Tonight Show (Carson era) by the Bulgarian Women's Choir from their amazing 1990 album "Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares". I love the strength in their voices - one could not accuse them of sounding girlie! The time signature for this piece is 7/8, which adds an extra element. This type of "odd" time sig. is common in Eastern Europe (and elsewhere), but rarely heard in most Western music.



(All embedded YouTube clips can be seen directly at their YouTube page by double-clicking on the video.)

Next up is Imogen Heap. I hadn't heard of her before, but saw a link to this clip and found it to be very cool. She sings and accompanies herself live by looping the various vocal and percussive parts on the fly. Watch her sing the first background line, then as it plays back she adds the next one, and so on. Then she fades the backing parts in and out of the mix as she sings the melody. Talk about multi-tasking! She also has a remarkably pure voice, aided by excellent intonation and a very good sense of rhythm. Me likes...

Fan Mail #2

I got another email about a DIY trailer built using the plans at my site. This one is from Jeff in Elmira, Ontario (just north of Kitchener/Waterloo). He wrote (in part):

"I was looking around and found your bike trailer on the web. It inspired me to build one... It's based on your first trailer...the one with the big blue plastic storage box. As I drive a car to get to work, my wife does not have a license/car, and this trailer allows her to head to the grocery store on the bike and bring back a bunch of groceries. I've thought of adding some covers to the spokes/wheels so that a small child could sit in the bin, and not get their fingers in the
spokes. Thanks again for the inspiration."







Thanks Jeff!

even more trike fun

Yesterday was an almost non-stop day where the trike was needed every step of the way. It was the same schedule as last Tuesday, but with the added attraction of first heading westwards to MEC to pick up their donations to the re-Cycles Co-op. And like last week, once I got to the co-op I had to empty the trike of all the gear and bring it inside, and then put it back in again when leaving (perhaps I should into one of those plastic pick-up bed liners with a locking lid...).

So off to MEC at 2:00pm, then back home to pick up some drums and other gear for the evening's events:


Then to re-Cycles for 3:00, where I spent three hours doing my usual work there. I then grabbed some dinner, and headed off to the 7:00 dance class gig. From there I headed south again to another IJO rehearsal. I took almost the same route as last time, leaving Sandy Hill via Chapel and cycling over the 6-lane Queensway:


Taking the lane of course, because I have no choice! (It's easy to take photos while riding a multitrack vehicle.) Left turn signal is on as I approach the lane to turn into the parking lot of the former Algonquin College campus:


At one end of the parking lot is the bike path bridge over the Rideau River. The space on either side of that bollard is about 5' wide, and the trike is 4'4" wide, so I squeak through:


Then, instead of going straight through like last week and ending up on busy Riverside Drive, I took Loretta's advice and went around the TransitWay station. This added a few minutes and had me doubling back a bit, but it was much more relaxing! I normally do not take the trike on bike paths unless absolutely necessary, simply because it takes up a lot of space (though it just fits one lane width-wise). But I did not encounter a single cyclist on this section:


Just ahead of me is Riverside going across, with the bus lanes on my left with Industrial leading away from them. It was nice to just go straight to get onto Industrial and not get caught up in the busy 3-lane crossover like last week:


I only stay on this road for two blocks before cutting over to Coronation, and while that's a 2-lane it is wide and quiet (all the through traffic seems to stay on Industrial, but perhaps this is a busier route in the daytime). This scene remained the same for the rest of my ride to rehearsal, and I arrived with 5 minutes to spare.


Oh, and the trike's e-assist performed flawlessly (I guess last week it just didn't like getting left out in the rain). I did bring the battery charger along and recharged the pack once, but probably did not need to do so.

House move by pedal power

Richard and his family are moving to a new house a few kilometres away. They will be using a moving company for the bulk of their stuff, but he wanted to some sort of human power part to it. So the call went out on the HPVOoO list and a small team was assembled.

The organ trailer was going to be towed by the tandem trike, and I showed up with my trike, plus we had three regular bikes towing trailers. Richard needed to swap the fridges and stoves between his new and old abodes, and the new place also had a basement beer fridge that needed to be taken to an appliance recycler. For the trip to his new place I carried his stereo equipment, and on the return trip carried the beer fridge. After a stop at his old place for pizza I continued on to the recyclers to get rid of the thing.

Using my little Canon camera in video mode once again I got a few things on "tape", then assembled the various clips into one and put it on YouTube. I also took some photos, as did Richard, and Charles took both video and still shots.

Stereo stuff. Dead innertubes make great tie-downs!

Yes, the fridge would be carried upright (to keep its motor happy) if not destined for scrap. I don't take the tailgate off very often, but am glad it's removable when needed.

Greg (who took part in the moving day fun) accompanied me to the recyclers, and inspects the fridge for bodies before we drop it off.

The guy at the appliance place admitted that he did not get too many large appliances being delivered by pedal power...

e-assist trials and tribulations

So the new assist set-up (see next post below) got a workout on Tuesday. I had to go to the re-Cycles Co-op at 3:00 for some afternoon work, then to a 7:00pm DanceAbility class (I'm the accompanist), and then to a 9:00pm IJO rehearsal way out at St. Laurent and Smythe. So I had a bunch of stuff to haul, and had to make good time between the last two events...


Under that tarp is a bass drum, snare drum, cymbal bag, small synthesizer, folding stand for same, bag of drum hardware, battery box, and knapsack. All of which had to come out at each stop. Joy...

So things went well, and the assist helped greatly. The DanceAbility class for this session is at the Sandy Hill Community Centre, which is handily only about a kilometre from the co-op. But it's a fair bit further to the church basement where the IJO rehearses, and that southeasterly trip includes crossing the Rideau River. Now, if I was traveling by car the main route would be to go south to the Queensway (Hwy. 417) and on from there. The only other crossings of the Rideau are either by Cummings Bridge (Montreal Road) which is to the north of the Community centre, or going south but tracking a bit west to cross via Main Street.

Now, in a car going out of one's way by 5 0r 6 blocks is not a big deal, but when pedaling a cargo trike (even one with assist) one wants to go as direct as possible, especially when timing is tight. So I was not going to back or sidetrack to either bridge, and of course could not use the highway bridge. But I was able to use of a very handy part of our bike path network. I don't take the trike on the paths very often, as it overhangs its lane on the older ones, and just barely fits the new standard of 1.5 metres per lane. But the part I was using is rarely busy, especially on this unseasonaly cool (not to mention drizzly) night.

Back when train tracks covered many parts of Ottawa, there were four bridges over the Rideau at what was known as the "Hurdman Crossing". Three of the bridges were removed in the 1960's to make way for the Queensway, but somebody thankfully used their head and the southmost one was kept and converted into a cycling bridge, and it's a fabulous link. After I crossed over that I followed a side path that led to Riverside Drive - actually, the off-ramp from the highway onto it! So I had to wait until the coast was clear before launching onto that, and any drivers that ended up behind me must have wondered if I really did just come off the highway ahead of them. hehe

The tricky part was that just as I got myself onto the road the light changed and three lanes of cars came up from behind. In one long block I needed to get from the rightmost lane over to the left turn lane to get onto Industrial Blvd., and all this traffic was zooming past, and it was now dark. So I had the turn signal on, and the assist helped me keep a decent speed (it's a slight uphill there), and I got across those hectic lanes OK. Once on Industrial I easily made my way over to Coventry and from there it was an easy ride in very light traffic to the church hall.


The rehearsal let out at 11:00. It was raining lightly, but nothing terrible, and I looked forward to relaxing 7 km ride home. But I was dismayed to find out that the assist had stopped working! The assist only kicks in once a little speed is achieved (a bit of a safety measure that means if you accidently push the trottle when stopped you don't zoom off), and as I got going I pushed the lever and the motor made a little kick then died. I stopped to see if water had gotten in somewhere, but it was raining and I was tired and just wanted to get home. So the motor and heavy battery pack got a free ride while I got a good workout.

Oh well. At least it worked when it had to, getting me from the Centre to the church in good time, and for the ride home who cared how long it took? :P Testing the system the next day and again today showed the problem still exists, so Juergen is going to make a housecall and we'll sort it out (since my electrical decipering skills rate at about 2 out of 10). I'm hoping it's just something dopey and easily fixed, and not a cooked 36V controller that got zapped by more juice running through than it could handle...

UPDATE: Juergen came over on Friday and of course everything worked just fine, so it was simply a matter of water getting somewhere. Most times when I know the weather is going to be really crappy I borrow a friend's car just for the weather protection (both me and the cargo), so the trike's e-assist has not spent much time getting wet. I rode in on Tuesday even with the iffy forecast just to test it out on a busy day of moving things to different locations. Next time rain is forecast I'll just bring some bags along to cover things like the throttle and hope it doesn't shut down again...

The trike gets another boost

Last July the trike received an electric assist motor courtesy of my friend (and trike co-builder) Juergen. The power came from three 12 volt, 7 amp-hour batteries, a standard kit used for e-assist bicycles. It certainly helped with the hills and bridges, along with helping me clear intersections more quickly (and safely), as getting going from a dead stop with a full load was always an effort. But the power band was very narrow, since of course the kit was designed to help a 30 or so pound bicycle, not a 100 lb. cargo trike. So the motor helped, but not a lot...

A few months ago Juergen suggested adding a 6-volt to the set-up, or even a fourth 12-volt. The controller is only rated for 36-volt, so if I went right to 48V I was cautioned against using full throttle on a regular basis. Juergen also said get a 12 amp-hour battery, because if I decide to stay at 48V then batteries of larger capacity would be even more helpful, and he could get another 3-pack of that size. So that's what I did, and for a little while I had a larger 12V (bought at Alexander Battery here in Ottawa) added to the existing 36V pack. The only hassle was that I only had the 36V charger, so each time I used the assist had to join the batteries together, then when it came time for recharging them I had to separate the 12V and put it on its own charger (same 6V-12V charger I use for the trike's 12V lighting system). This got a little tedious, and I was concerned that the constant plugging and unplugging might wear out the connectors (I've been using the trike a lot since I got hit by that taxi, as my cargo trailer was destroyed in the collision and I have not yet built its replacement, so anything that needs to be moved requires the trike).

So the decision was made to go to a more permanent 48V set-up, and last Saturday I acquired a Soneil 48V charger from Darryl at Econogics. Then on Monday Juergen and I got together and he supplied a new 36V 12 amp-hour pack and wired my 12V into it, fitting it all into an old metal toolbox for now.


The results are great, with a noticeable boost being given. With the cargo box empty the trike boots along nicely (if I'm feeing lazy). But mainly I'm using it to get up to speed more quickly, and not slow down so much when climbing. There's at least enough power now that when I'm at cruising speed I can boost that a bit more (the old set-up did not add to my top speed), but I don't usually do so unless in a hurry. The next step is to figure out how to mount a battery box under the cargo box so I can leave it there, and not take the pack inside each time I park the thing. The assist has become an integral part of the trike's functionality, making it much more pleasant when hauling any kind of weight around, not to mention showing up for those dress-up gigs with a little less sweat...

Summer jazz

The quartet returns again this season to the Metropolitan Restaurant's plaza for Sunday Brunch (11:00 til 2:00). We'll be kicking things off this coming Sunday, and while the weather is forecasted to cool down a bit from the recent above-average temps, it should be sunny and hopefully folks will want to eat their food outside! See this previous post for a view of the place.

Also, we will also be playing Thursdays at the same venue from 5:oopm 'til 8:00pm. That was to have started yesterday, but was called off due to the storm warnings, so hopefully next week will see us there.

Oh, and next week also gets busy with IJO rehearsals for three different shows in June! We have about 60 pieces of music to learn from three different eras in jazz. Check the IJO website for complete details.

Collision

On the evening of April 17th, while riding my hybrid bike and towing my trailer, I got hit by a taxi. Details will be provided once the insurance claim is settled.

More "Bikes at work"

It looks like my "All the world's a stage" thing has been less about interesting gig situations and more about how I got there via pedal power! Here's the latest...

I've done quite a few gigs at the National Arts Centre, and this most recent one had me using Kyoto to get there, now that the snow is gone and road salt washed away. And this is the second time I've been able to park in inside the building! Stephane, the lighting tech for the 4th Stage, is also an avid cyclist, and at my last Fall show he said "hey, do you want to park it inside? There's space by the dressing rooms where we normally store the piano" (which had been moved onstage for our gig). So I took the gear out of the trike, we opened the double doors, and rolled it in!

Now, for both gigs I was there in the afternoon to get set up and do a soundcheck, but that only lasts until 5:00, and I don't have to be back for the show until 8:00. So I have two choices - bring the trike in (or leave it parked outside) while doing the afternoon thing, then ride it back home for dinner, then ride it back in the evening and drag it inside. Or, just bring it in the first time, leave it there, walk the 1.5 km back home and then back to the show, then trike home after the gig. Since I get more exercise by walking than triking (and had the time to do so) I chose the latter option. I'm all for multi-modal transport! ;)

Outside the Artist's Entrance on Elgin St., with NAC Manager Peter posing.


Inside that entrance.

Then through those double doors...

Then snugged into the room (along with Stephane's bike).

On its way back out of the building after the show (the waiting drums are piled just off to the right). We joked about using a plywood ramp next time so I could ride up the steps and right outside!

Gratuitous photo of my tiny jazz kit. Compare the size of the drums with the ones in my Big Band kit! (below in the IJO gig post) The small kit is 12, 10, 12, 16, and the large is 14, 13, 16, 24.