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October 5, 2022 at 12:15 AM in reply to: You folks that took out 30 year loans / refinances at 3% or lower…you’re banking now. #826765
Navydoc
ParticipantLove the pool noodle, no matter how ridiculous it looks. I have to admit, San Diegans are much better to bikers than other places I’ve lived. When I was at Walter Reed at least once a week someone would yell out their window “get on the sidewalk you F-ing A-hole!” They don’t realize that the data clearly shows that you’re almost twice as likely to be hit by a car when you’re riding on the sidewalk, and 4 times as likely when doing it against traffic. You are much safer on the road, since they at least see you to yell at you. In North Carolina I wouldn’t ride off-base. Did it a couple of times, WAY too many close calls with hyper-velocity pickup trucks. Fortunately at Lejeune I lived on-base.
The trike does have an auto horn, and it is LOUD. Scared the crap out of a runner (happens to be the ICU physician here) I was coming up behind. I installed a bell for pedestrians, and it is a lot better. Funny how people react to the trike, it gets a LOT of attention. I feel like I’m going to cause an accident from all the rubber-necking that drivers do.
ParticipantBy the way, wanted to go back to the safety aspect. My last year in San Diego I was riding from Stonebridge to Balboa on an ebike conversion I built myself (would probably meet your performance requirements scaredy). I was absolutely clobbered on Pomerado road, apparently near the light at Semillon. I have no memory of it. Woke up 2 1/2 hours later at Sharp Memorial. Those of you who know the road know there’s a generous bike lane. The person that hit me didn’t stop, and they never caught them. The police got 2 phone calls, one stating they just saw a car hit a bike, and the other said they just saw a biker flip over their handlebars (I think that might have been the person who hit me). I’ve always theorized that the reason they didn’t stop was because they may have thought they killed me. I’m sure I went down in a heap, and didn’t move.
The point is, I’m not sure that Pomerado could be made any safer for bicyclists, especially with inattentive and inconsiderate drivers. However, I can’t stop biking to work, I don’t feel like myself when I don’t do it. But the infrastructure we have is not bike friendly, and this is one of the MOST bike friendly cities in the country.
ParticipantTo be fair, I think the one I’m looking at is $569. Will properly time the Harbor Freight coupon……
ParticipantI think the MIG wire welders are easier. I actually know how to Oxy-Acetylene weld, which is supposed to be harder. Dates back to my early days in the mid 80s as a gunsmith.
(Wonder how many people can state gunsmith to OB/GYN/MFM as a career path).
Plan on buying a MIG package at good old Harbor Freight when I return. they have one that comes with the spool gun. I have many, many aluminum scraps to practice with.ParticipantScaredy, the classes for ebikes are more complicated than that.
Class I: No throttle, speed limit 20 MPH
Class II: Throttle ok, speed limit 20 MPH
Class III: No throttle, Speed limit 28 MPH
All above motors cannot exceed 750w
Class IV: Speed >28 MPH, motor >750w- these have to be registered as a moped.
Seriously convoluted, and I can assure you NO police officer understands these very well.My vehicle doesn’t fit into ANY of these categories except the class IV. I tried to get a Japanese plate on it, and City Hall here in Chatan was very accommodating. However, when I went to the vehicle registration office on base they refused to give me the necessary paperwork, stating “it has to comply with the manufacturer’s specifications”. I replied “I’m the manufacturer, it meets my specifications”. They didn’t want to hear that, so I’m riding it somewhat illegally, which is why I backed the power down. Japan puts the power max at 250w, but unless you put a tester on the battery I can just say it’s a 36v battery and a 10 amp controller. This will also apply to San Diego cops, as nobody knows enough about these things, and I can tell them whatever I want.
Xbox, there are no welds. One of the things I want to do when I get back to San Diego is learn to weld aluminum. It would make everything so much easier, and I can make NavyTrike Mk II much lighter and simpler. As for off the shelf parts, the wheels are for a Rubbermaid dump cart, just changed to Go-cart bearings, and the brakes are standard 160 mm mountain bike hydraulic brakes/rotors. Took a lot of modification to get the brake discs mounted on the wheels. Also it took me 6 different steering designs to get one I liked. The only machine tools I used to build this was a chop saw with an aluminum blade, and a bench top drill press (both from Harbor Freight). Larger machine tools would be nice, but I COULD have done the whole thing with a hacksaw and a hand drill.
For the design configuration it has a 72v battery which can deliver 60 amps, and a controller that can put out 100 amps. So the power is effectively 4320w. I have it powered down to about 1500w, and as long as I don’t get too crazy with the speed, I can fly under the radar.
My ultimate plan is to build a body around it and make a velomobile, but I don’t have anywhere in Okinawa I can work with the fiberglass. I also have a solar panel to incorporate into the hood, so it will charge itself. Works quite well. I too am very intrigued by minimalist electric vehicles. It’s just funny that something like this, which CAN effectively replace a car is totally illegal right now.
ParticipantOk, if we’re going to hijack this thread into DIY projects, I’d like to share mine:
[img_assist|nid=27694|title=Trike pic 1|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=639|height=480]
[img_assist|nid=27695|title=Trike pic 2|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=639|height=480]Built this thing from scratch while I was at Camp Lejeune for 2 years. Had a lot of free time, not as busy as Balboa. It’s both fully electric, or fully pedal powered, but it’s so heavy you really don’t want to pedal it…
It has a 72v battery, and 100 amp controller. I have it depowered quite a bit, as I’m afraid the Okinawan police are going to arrest me, since max power for Japanese ebikes is 250w. And it has a throttle which also makes it illegal (also true for California). When fully unleashed it is capable of 47 MPH on level ground, with about a 50 mile range. Can’t wait to try this thing out in San Diego.
Tell me what you guys think. Been massively interested in ebikes the past three years, still riding the first one I built in San Diego in 2019. In San Diego they can be a real alternative to cars for commuting, but the current ebike laws are a bit too restrictive in my opinion.
ParticipantOh I know it’s about weeding, but do they have to pull weeds for FOUR YEARS? You know if you have what it takes to get through med school if you can do well (very well) in your freshman chemistry class. If I was going to wash out in the first year I could have used that time to change my education goals to something more achievable. In my case I could have saved 3 years of Penn State tuition. Guess it could have been worse, I could have gone to a place like Lehigh, Muhlenburg or Dickenson and paid 5 times more for the same education.
ParticipantWill they reimburse me for the debt I already paid back? Didn’t think so….
Education is such a scam. Why did I need three semesters of calculus to go to medical school? If you put a gun to my head and said “solve this integral!” I would say “go ahead and pull the trigger, because I don’t remember how to do it”. But I got my three semesters in! What a waste of my time. I could have learned everything I needed to do well in med school in 1 year, but I got my undergraduate degree! Couple that with the huge number of people who graduate with useless degrees and I really believe we need some sort of education reform. I understand the necessity to “learn to think”, and not all of my undergraduate courses were a waste, but we need to figure out how to do this more efficiently, and therefore less costly. That to me seems much more useful than loan forgiveness.
ParticipantPool is 7 feet deep (not supposed to go below 6, but nobody measured). 44,000 gallons, took 40 hrs to fill with 2 hoses. That was a no-joke water bill. Yeah it may be expensive but we’re having an absolute ball with it. This weekend has been an almost non-stop pool party. The fire refugees have been here since Thursday.
ParticipantThat’s making me want to buy a solar heating system for the pool. My pool builder said they were a waste of money, but your numbers would suggest otehrwise. Our pool was nice yesterday, but was only 77. Out of curiosity, is your pool dark? Mine is light and it seems the dark pools are warmer. Not sorry I went with the light bottom, I love the way the pool looks.
ParticipantYup, sunpower 270’s is what I have. I wonder how much heating the pool to 80 would cost? My guess is quite a bit….
Participant[quote=AN][quote=Navydoc]We just lit ours up last Thusday and it has become an obsession of mine to look at the inverter to see how much power we generated during the day, and to see how much my electric meter has run down since the install. When I threw the switch the meter said 594 Kwh, now it reads 570. Can’t wait for my next electric bill. Strange, isn’t it?[/quote]
Wow, how big is your system? Mine is a 3.8kWh system and peak summer months, it produces about 22-25 kWh per day. If your number is correct, that means your system is produce ~17.7MWh per month. Do you really use that much power?[/quote]The system is 6.2 Kwh, 23 panels, but the panels are a bit bigger than industry standard. I must have a micro since they told me I can add panels if I need to. Has been generating 39-41 Kwh/day.
We noticed a big difference in our electricity bill after completing the pool in Feb, bill went from about $350 to almost 600, so the solar was a no-brainer. The biggest offender seems to be the hot tub. When we use it the pool pump runs and there is another dedicated pump for the auxillary jets. When we use it a lot we see a big differnce in the bill. I know the solar won’t do much for the gas portion, but I’m hoping it will generate enough to offset the gas a bit.
By the way, when do pools get warm around here? After 3 days of almost 100 degrees I expected my pool to be warmer than 75. I actually like it, but my wife’s family finds it a bit cold. Their calling us “The Resort”, and are wondering when the water’s going to warm up.
ParticipantWe’ve been a refugee camp the last couple of days for all the relatives in 4S. I got a little scared biking home yesterday when I saw the smoke coming from Scripps Ranch. Lot of fuel over there, glad they got that one out quickly.
ParticipantWe just lit ours up last Thusday and it has become an obsession of mine to look at the inverter to see how much power we generated during the day, and to see how much my electric meter has run down since the install. When I threw the switch the meter said 594 Kwh, now it reads 570. Can’t wait for my next electric bill. Strange, isn’t it?
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