I took my 4WD L3-x for a massive 22km ride today. On Friday, I bought my wife an electric bike (Trek) that has a 70 km range.
She wants to ride it to work on the Ottawa bike paths so we tested the route out. I packed two extra batteries in her saddle bags and off we went. We followed the river heading down stream so gravity was on my side for most of the first 11km (before doubling back). But at the 10km mark, I ascended a slope that climbed from 45m above sea level to 85 feet above sea level (from the river shore up to the top of Parliament Hill). The 40m rise follows a path winds 150 up Parliament Hill for an average grade of 26%. But I swear, portions of the path were pretty close to 45 degrees (50% grade). The 4WD landwheel easily accelerated my 225 pound weight like the hill was not there (and like as if I was on a full battery). I wish I could have videotaped it but the twists, turns and pot holes needed my full attention.
Here is the base of the climb:
and a 3D view:
And here is the map my ride elevation chart.
The green circles are the base of the climb by the river. The red circle is the top of Parliament Hill. The Orange circle is the 14.94 kilometer mark where I stopped to change batteries.
So from the top of Parliament Hill/Supreme court plateau, (11km) we turned around and headed back the same path that got us there. I charged up my batteries a few dots on the way back down Parliament Hill. The braking on the steep slope was spectacular. I had complete control of my downhill speed. Then 4 more kilometers of minor hills until the battery swap.
The 4WD Landwheel is not perfect. It really needs a pair of battery balance wires to avoid draining one battery more than the other. I think my double remote union part allows the remote posts to shift off center during the ride. Then one remote becomes dominant and drain it’s drive faster. So without the battery balancing wires I need to watch the battery lights much more than I’d like to. And near the end of my range, I worry that one Landwheel is going to initiate the low battery braking curve. So I’m going to try to add the battery balancing wires (simple jumper cables) this week.
I’ve been riding with my tether. It’s just a dog leash tied to the back of the deck and a neoprene covered carabineer to improve the grip and comfort. I’ve added them to all of my boards.
It’s amazing. I have to do a video on this. The benefits are huge. Added balance. I can lean forward into acceleration and pull myself back for deceleration. Crossing roads, I can just hop off and pull the board behind me without having to stoop. When I’m crossing an intersection and the curb is too tall to rise over, I just hop off and let the board climb the curb without my weight. This dog leash thing is the greatest electric skateboarding invention ever I swear.
Speaking of dog leashes – not just one but two different dogs lunged at my groin on this trip. Once right in the middle of this narrow wooden pedestrian bridge.
The owner was walking towards me coming the other way with a leashed yellow lab and as I passed him he lunged. He missed my groin with his teeth by less than 4 inches. Then it happened again closer to home with a black lab on a residential street. It’s the kind of surprise that could easily make you lose your balance and hit the pavement. But my tether kept me upright while I pulled my midsection out of harm’s way. It’s hard to explain how the tether helps to anchor and re-center your body. Losing my balanceon that pedestrian bridge could have thrown me over the guard rail and into the river.
So to jump to the conclusion of this 22km trip, I arrived back home with ample battery on my second pair of batteries. The max range for 2 batteries seems to be 15km (30 km for 4 batteries). That might go up a bit with balancing wires. Also, there were a lot of hills and quite a bit of stop and go because the bike paths have a lot of pedestrians that walk in pairs and don’t seem too care much about the bi-directional bike traffic traveling at 20 -30 kph.
Oh and by the way, I combined a V4 battery with a V2 ESC and Hubs to implement what I call virtual suspension on a rigid kick tail deck.
It’s pretty cool. I can ride it over side walk expansion joints and float right over top of the cracks. I am planning on doing something similar to keep the 4WD landwheel from getting its wheels caught in some of the massive cracks that are so prevalent on Ottawa streets. The V2 did not work at all with its original 29 volt battery. But it’s surprisingly competent when powered by a 42 volt V4 battery. Its neat to have an E-board with a kick tail. I wish the pavement quality was better in my neighborhood though because a rigid deck combined with crappy heavily dimpled pavement is hard on the knees and ankles. I might add my 1/2 inch anti-vibration pads. Also I’m thinking of adding a second battery – though that might make the front end too heavy for tic-tacking around the corners.
And I did a few cool things with my Boosted board G2 plus. I mounted the extended range battery which came with taller risers. But I saw a big problem. The extended range battery is massive in height. I think it’s a half inch thicker and the risers only add a quarter inch. So I ditched the Boosted board risers and added my own half inch rubber risers.
The vibration reduction is impressive but the responsiveness of the steering has taken a big hit. The sharp drifting turns that I use to be able to do are not really available any more. So it’s a tough trade off. But the thickness of the extended range battery is a real issue. I estimated that even with the oversized risers, I’d be scrapping the battery almost constantly.
So before “hitting the road” I decided to make a stainless steel skid plate for it.
This took me a few hours of metal forming. It’s not a project for the light hearted. It was a 4 hour effort. It really works well. I actually do bottom out and scrape at least 2 - 3 times on a 5 kilometer run. The stainless steel skid plate takes all the abuse. It’s glued in place with a checker board application of foam tape, silicone and hot glue.
As I mentioned, I added the dog leash tether to the boosted board. The dimensions of the boosted board and the tether length make it so I can clip the carabineer to the front truck and the tether makes a perfect carrying strap. The G2 Plus is so comfortable to carry like this.
Tether ! Tether ! Tether ! Tether !
You gotta try it.
These dog leashes are $6.00 CDN at PrincessAuto.com The 7 inch padded Carabeeners are $7.00 CDN
