I have 1400 miles on my non-regen bike which has burned through three sets of pads (1.5 mm currently left). I'm slowly trying better/harder pads which won't eat rotors and don't cost as much. $25 every 500-ish miles isn't great (10k miles is $500 in pads) . Suggestions are welcome!
I think a key difference is my neighborhood is quite hilly. I've never smoked and glazed a set of pads before moving in. That was a quick learning experience for me.
I agree it doesn't make sense to pick regen for extending range. Just buy a bigger battery if that's the biggest issue, say a rarely used bike but long ranged when needed.
To me it's the brake pads that add up. Replacing two pairs of pads every few hundred miles is way more expensive than the system and any additional battery wear. $500 isn't that many sets of pads.
Considering I don't charge my batteries much beyond 80%, yeah, there's plenty of room to put that extra energy early in the ride. I'd rather charge a battery than to grind pads into dust.
Whoops, you're right. I misremembered that for sure.
Totally agreed with the cost. Grin motors are pretty inexpensive, but not many companies have a complete system. Who knows what a licensing agreement would run.
It's not common, but it does make sense to do! No, not in charging the battery but in braking. Regen slows down the bike without wearing down your brake pads, which is extra important with a heavy bike. I cannot even manage 900 miles without changing my longtail's pads. I have yet to replace the pads on my regenerating e-trike.
The extra 20% range is nice but I'm more happy about the money and hassle I've saved in not replacing brake pads.
These disks were designed to self-destruct in the presence of oxygen. They literally rust away.
Oxygen and its O2 form does like to sneak into everything. Even sealed in the original packaging, there's a limited shelf life. Flexplay claimed stability of only one year, which isn't much given it comes sealed in a plastic bag.
You're probably decoding noise or in the middle of the bit stream.
What you're looking for is called "preamble." That's a sequence of bits used to synchronize the decoder (marks the start of data, useful in modulation schemes for clock recovery, and a few other things).
Looking at minimodem's manual, try using the sync-byte option. Prepend your tar stream with a string of bytes, like 0x01, before sending to minimodem for encoding. Then use the sync code option to mark the start of the tar bit stream. This is as simple as cat preamble.bin myfiles.tar | minimodem --tx ....
Other things to consider: start small with 300 baud BFSK before speeding up. Test with wav files before attempting physical tape or speakers and a microphone.
Hah! I said "thanks for helping me solve my N+1 problem" to the sales guy at my LBS after walking out the door with the folder. More bikes is always the right answer! ๐คฃ
Yeah, I can see you're trying to thread the needle here. It's going to be tough. Opening up your parameters is at least a decent start towards filling a spreadsheet of potential bikes.
95lbs is quite a bit of weight! I totally understand the desire to get something lighter and easier to deal with. It's one reason why I recently got an acoustic folder.
A significant amount of weight comes from the battery and motor. Reducing weight to <50lbs means going for a smaller battery and likely a smaller motor.
In other words, consider going to class 1 or 2. There are more road and commuter bikes in that class which meet that weight target. For example, Trek's FX+ 2 at just over 40lbs. Smaller batteries also mean less expense, so perhaps you'll keep your existing bike instead of selling it. Then you'll be able to choose the right bike for the day's plan. :)
I'll take note of that, especially for my throw around bikes. Platform pedals are my thing.
I don't get hot-foot like you and others, but I certainly do like mid foot riding. I'm just happy with big platform pedals, and I'm glad to support the niche industry for people who do suffer.
You'll definitely like the catalysts. Even the bearings in them are top notch.
I've got those same pedals on my trike recumbent. They feel great and incredibly grippy, which is important for avoiding "leg suck."
Don't wait on installing them! I'm sure you'll enjoy them.
Specifically 5, 10, and 15mhz AM. There are others, but you'll really hear NIST WWV/WWVH if you're in North America/Pacific.