The world of TV and movies is obsessed with the Apocalypse. It seems like the American appetite for disaster is pretty much insatiable. The one thing that few people saw coming was where we are now, which I would call the ‘boring apocalypse’. With millions not able to work and stuck at home everyone is sort of realizing how much their lives suck. Personally, if I wasn’t out riding every day on my X-1 or my carbon fiber pedal-powered mountain bike I would absolutely lose my mind. I’m not sure why the X-1 hasn’t gotten more attention from the mainstream, I feel like it’s the ebike I’ve been wait ..read more

Recently I’ve started writing articles for electricbike.com due to a whole variety of reasons. By no means am I abandoned this blog, I’ll still be trying to write one article every week or two here, but Eric has challenged me to write one non-crappy article every day for his blog electricbike.com . At first, this request seemed completely unreasonable, but the more I thought about it the less unreasonable it became so I am stepping up to the challenge. If you want to support me, there are a number of ways that you can do that. Here are just a few articles I have written in the last week, chec ..read more

Yesterday morning I woke up to my wife watching Elon smash the windows of his Cybertruck prototype while I was trying to mediate. I have to own that it was pretty hard to sit there and finish my 20 minutes of meditation without jumping up to join her. I’ve been awaiting the Tesla Cybertruck release for many years now, and I was not disappointed. I live in the heart of what I affectionally call ‘Trump Country’ and in the last 20 years I have had neighbors that have pulled shotguns on me, threaten to ‘bury me with their pigs’ and ‘break into my house and kill me’, as well as break into my barn a ..read more

For years I’ve been anxiously awaiting someone getting their act together and mass-produce a steel gear to replace the crappy nylon gear in the BBSHD. The mad scientists at Lunacycle have designed and machined a replacement steel gear and are selling it for $42 here. This gear is slightly smaller than the nylon gear it replaces and comes pre-lubed with the quietest lube they could find. This article is about all the reasons I hate nylon gears (they fail) and why this steel gear is a must-have option for anyone who is running their BBSHD at the limits of its ability. If you are rocking a Ludicr ..read more

I’ve ridden a bunch of lower power torque sensing ebikes from the likes of Bosch and Yamaha over the last several years. I’ve always found the power wanting, as most are designed for the Euro 250W market. Some of the newer torque sensing electric mountain bikes brag about 750W peak power, but with only 450W continuous. Bafang has released a new drive unit called the M600 which is designed for the US 750 Watt continuous market and the drive can get 1000W peak. Lunacycle took that drive and shunted the controller effectively almost doubling the peak power to 2000W for their new X-1 bike. I plunk ..read more

In the past several years I’ve owned several different kinds of plastic Chinese cased battery packs, including a 13.5Ah 52v NCRb ‘Shark pack’ (reviewed here in 2016), and two 13.5Ah 52v GA ‘Shark Packs’ (reviewed here). I think I’ve replaced a total of 3 BMS’s in all these packs and I’ve replaced the plastic Shark Pack cases for various issues at least 3 times. Lunacycle has been manufacturing a new style case called the ‘Wolf Pack’ right here in California and I’ve tested the v1 12Ah 52v 30Q Wolf as well as a v2 12Ah 52v naked 30Q Wolf pack. This article is about all the differences I can fin ..read more

Wow, it’s been too long since I’ve written an article. I’ve been working like mad to try to stage and plant 5000 fruit and nut trees in just one year and have been grossly neglecting my faithful readers. So far I’ve gotten over 1000 trees in the ground and about 2500 trees staged, but I’ve been shoveling manure and wood chips pretty much non-stop to get to this point. In my infinite wisdom (and cheapness) I’ve decided to undertake this project without using a tractor (hey the Amish do it, I can too). Last year I bought a Christini AWD Snowshoe 2XL fat bike to use exclusively in the winter (rev ..read more

The Chinese inverter and 60Ah 48V pack all wrapped up with a trash bag Some ebike bloggers spend their time writing about bikes they have never ridden. This is not that kind of blog, instead, I spend my time using batteries, motors, and inverters to do things that I really should not be doing. In the process, I try not to electrocute myself or cause any permanent injury (I cut off the end of my index finger last week because the sauerkraut gods demanded a sacrifice). One of the things I’ve been meaning to do for the last 2 years is buying a cheap AC inverter off Alibaba and run large high ampe ..read more

Last year I took a 3000W Cyclone mid drive ebike motor and mounted it on a wheelbarrow to make a high power machine that could easily move 500 lbs around the yard for about $450. I decided that it was pretty heavy and complicated and mused as to whether I could build a lighter duty wheelbarrow that was about 1/2 the price, 8 lbs lighter and that would use a geared hub motor for a lower power ebike. A few months later and some finagling and I finally got it built. Feel the power of a wheelbarrow that even your grandmother would love. The blocks of wood make it look a little ghetto, but a geared ..read more

Well, it’s been almost 50 years since we first set foot on the moon with Apollo 11. Growing up I have always been fascinated by the history of manned space travel, so the Apollo missions hold a very special place in my heart. Whenever I feel frustrated with technology I just remember that a bunch of guys went to the moon using calculations done on slide rules with a flight computer that was less powerful than a modern calculator. Luna has been refining the Apollo for almost 2 years now. Finally, they are releasing what they consider to be the finest ebike they have ever sold. This article is a ..read more