New Car

Here's our Scion XB, that we got Tuesday. Looks kinda like those metal storage buildings they sell at Home Depot. It's already dirty from yesterday's rain. Just filled the tank for the first time; it got about 30 mpg on the first tank from the dealer. Very roomy inside, has a nice stereo, doesn't leak oil on the driveway, and I don't have to shift it into L at stoplights to get it going when the light turns green. Luxury!

Here are some pictures of the latest garage toy. The large hub on the front wheel is a 400 watt (½ horsepower) electric motor. The rectangular black thing on the rear rack contains three 12V batteries, connected for 36 volts. It goes about 17 mph without pedaling, with no wind and flat ground.

Today's experiment was adding a 4th battery to give 48 volts, to increase the speed a bit and try to reduce the need for pedaling up hills and into the wind. The 4th battery was placed in the bag hanging from the back of the seat. A voltmeter (the yellow thing) was tied to the handlebars to keep track of how the batteries were doing, and to give the bike even more of a mad-scientist appearance. The red thing is a speedometer. I rode about 10 miles in a very strong (15-20 mph) wind.

Worked great! Much better at climbing hills and going upwind.