Halfway

Yes, halfway through the Efudix solar keratosis treatment and still managing a ride or two. The helmet / treatment don’t go well together so riding is limited.

It’s a new year and I got to thinking about years passed, relating them to various trikes and various trike batteries. I was surprised when I realised I had been using my oldest battery for 4 years last December. Yes, it’s 4 years since I swapped out Bluey’s 750w motor for a legal 250w version. 

(As an aside – So, when did I start recumbent triking – um – well, 5 years come May. That’s a while back.)

My second oldest battery is approx 3 years old and both these batteries have been used often. Both batteries are 36v 16ah capacity and I usually charge them up to 39-40v with every 5th charge to the max to keep the cells balanced. When charged to Max they both charge up to 41.7 volts but I feel the oldest one doesn’t quite work like it used to when powering the trike along.

To test that out I decided to charge them both up to Max and see what power was left in them after riding the same ride.

Ride 1 – 4 year old battery.

I chose a 30k ride with a bit of climbing on a day with a westerly wind providing a headwind on the way out and a tailwind on the way back.

Ride 2 – 3 year old battery

The same 30k ride, same climbing and a headwind on the way out – wind may have been slightly lighter compared to Ride 1. This may be reflected in the slower Average Speed figure in Ride 1 (16.8kph v 17.7kph) plus the higher Max Speed (41.9 v 38.2 kph) caused by more tailwind down the hill.

Results

Battery level after the ride. 

• Ride 1:  4 yo battery – 36.6 volts
• Ride 2: 3 yo battery – 38.5 volts.

That’s quite a difference and reflects what I have been thinking while using both of them. 

Why does this matter? Well, last week I took the BikeE back to Ken. He gave it to me in late 2020 and since then I added a Schlumpf drive and a hub motor.

I rode the bike a lot in 2021/22 but after replacing the Magnum’s aging Nuvinci hub gear for a Rohloff, the trike has been so good to ride BikeE hasn’t seen much action. So when Ken mentioned he was scouring Gumtree for another BikeE I returned it – including the 13ah 36v battery.

This will have an impact as I have been using all 3 batteries on recent rides – especially when towing the camper trailer. Now I have to manage with just 2.

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Colin is also not riding while he recovers from some muscle damage in his leg. We expect to be riding again in February and both want to get away with the campers. Colin has floated the idea of a ride to Legana on the Tamar River. This would be a shorter ride and to a caravan park with powered sites so well within our range. It could be an ideal February ride when we both start riding seriously again.

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I am thinking about a solar blanket to charge batteries during the lunch stop and after arriving in camp. I was going to borrow one from Ken to test how they go. Unfortunately that blanket no longer works. There seems to be reliability issues with them but I will keep on researching for now. A decent sized fixed solar panel would work OK but, I feel, be awkward and add too much extra weight to the top of the trailer. Cost comes into it too as, once you move from eBay generic blankets, the cost rises quickly but the reviews often suggest value for money is tricky to determine. So, lots to think about.

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In the meantime I’m using some of the downtime to paint the camper trailer. After some research I hit on a way to paint corflute. It involves using a surface preparation which is applied using a green scratchy pad to key the prep into the plastic. Then acrylic paint can be used followed by a clear coat of varnish to help protect it.

The ESP Flood surface prep stuff smelt like kero or something similar. The wording on the tin reckons paint after an hour or two of drying but I left it 24 hours and it still stank like the fossil fuel oil based product it probably is. Apparently very flammable, I left all pads, pots etc used out on the gravel for the same 24 hours as spontaneous combustion of rags is not unknown.

Now to start the actual painting.

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Weekly Ride distances

I don’t expect to achieve the 77 kilometres for all weeks in January. A visit to southern Tasmania and restricted helmet time both conspired to keep totals down.

Week 1 was Good – Bluey 60k. Brompton 17 k. 77k – spot on.

Week 2 was poor – Bluey 34K. Brompton zero k

Week 3 was OK – Bluey 60k . Brompton zero k

Brompton figures are low as helmet bounces more on that bike, needs to be fitted tighter and my head gets sore. So I’m not riding it !!

Finally

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A number of Launceston track cycle clubs came to the Longford Velodrome in January. It was a good way to spend an afternoon sitting on Bluey under the canopy hitting the coffee cart and watching the racing.

’til next time ………………………..