Electric Elk Blog

  Are you looking for a unique and practical gift for a loved one this holiday season? Consider giving a cargo bike! Cargo bikes are a type of bicycle designed to carry large loads, often in the form of a box or basket attached to the front or rear of the bike. They are perfect for commuting, running errands, and transporting kids and pets. There are several reasons why a cargo bike makes the best Christmas present:   They are environmentally friendly. With the increasing concern about climate change, many people are looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint. A cargo bike allows your loved one to ditch their car for short trips, helping to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. They are good for your health. Biking is a great form of exercise that can help improve cardiovascular health, strengthen muscles, and boost mental well-being. Plus, it's a fun and enjoyable way to get around. They are convenient. A cargo bike allows your loved one to carry all of th...

 That stupid little key/horn/headlight/battery 'gauge', was really driving me up the wall. That goofy little thing- I get why they put it on though, it's cheap and easy. But Electric Elk seeks to be the Mercedes of Velomobiles so that was one of the first things that had to go.  This did take a bit of rewiring, but not much and all of the components you can buy on Amazon. I'm still trying to find some software to make a decent wiring diagram. As soon as I do, I'll make a post about fixing the wiring / installing headlights and front turn signals, etc.  But this post is about the new speedometer/battery gauge. There is a really good and in-depth thread on E ndless Sphere , but this guide will append some informaion and give parameter settings for the JX Cycle Pickup Trike. The guage is a pretty nice, water proof, all-purpose gauge. They cost about $110 on Amazon (at time of writing), and I would say a fairly good value for the money. The one caveat is, they are not ...

 In various places I've noted my first motivation for this little endeavor was so that I can bike year round with out getting cold and wet. I've been a lot more active on bike Twitter recenlty, and I get there are lots of clever jackets and other devices to keep you warm, dry, and visible, but I'm an engineer and I think I and we can do better.  So I'm working on bringing these trikes to market. The point of the three wheeled platform is that it will give me the opportunity to put a cab on my bike. I'm hoping to start that little project this weekend, and blog post will follow.  But there is another issue for 'winter ebiking' and that is battery protection.  Lithium Phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries are some of the best performing batteries in cold weather but they have their limits. And the biggest bummer is, those limits are far far before the abuse Chicago will put them through in the winter.  Specifically- LiFePO4 batteries will discharge at 70% of their rat...

Riot Fest was two weekends ago. I didn't even want to see anyone this year but it has become a time for friends to come in from out of town and other social fun, I wouldn't miss it for the world.  This year, my little brother and three of his friends were staying at my place (in Logan Square), in from Cincinnati. They brought me some Rhinegeist beer, Skyline Chill, and other Cincinnati delicacies, which was very kind.  But the only actual 'charge' for staying was they had to let me take them to Riot Fest in the PX50. They had to be the guinea pigs for my little experiment. I think Cincinatti has even less bike culture than Chicago, and they were skeptical.  But their skepticism was quelled once they all mounted up in the back of the Pickup Trike. The 500W motor in essence just shrugged at the (over)load. I believe the rated payload of the trike is 661 pounds (300 kilograms), but as I've stated in other posts, one should be skeptical of "specs" on product c...

Riot Fest was great fun, as it always is. This year I though I’d push the PX50 to it’s absolute limit and give 4 people a ride to and from Riot Fest each day (+me = total payload of five people). I’m not going to lie, it was a bit scary at a couple of points, but all-in-all the car drivers were pretty cool AND I unlocked a personal achievement: I got a taxi cab parked in the bike lane to move! (I pulled up behind him and kept laying on my phone until they took off). But there will be another post on the fun rides too and from Riot Fest. (I’m mainly waiting for the people I took to post/tag me in their photos.) So day two, we’re getting ready to take off in the morning and the PX50 is dead. Deader than cyclist on Lakeshore Drive. I kind of poke around, to short circuit (pun intended) a long meandering story, I’ll break down the bullet points:   Bikes / Trikes from China may come with cheap lead acid batteries. Note the italics on "may", because life is like ordering something...

   Intro So you’ve seen some e-bikes going down the road and they look like so much fun. OR you’ve been reading about how much better for the environment ebikes/trikes are and you want to jump on this band wagon. OR any one of a million other reasons, but the point is- you have fallen in love with electric bikes and you want to build your own. There’s a lot of reasons to build your own instead of buying an ebike off of Amazon. My big two reasons were I absolutely loathe the fat tires aesthetically, and in the case of my ebike, I wanted full suspension ( speed bumps at 30 mph one a fixed frame- you feel it in your spine). So while building my third ebike (actually a trike this time), I took some pictures an am writing a blog post. Also- at Electric Elk we strongly believe in safety, and I’ll also be putting a full electrical kit on it, but that will be a future post. This post will be about hooking up the motor, battery, and other components on a new model we will be calling th...