Fueled by burritos and solar power.
I ride out of Vancouver early on Sunday morning. The city belongs to groups of tai chi practitioners, surprisingly spry senior joggers, and one solar ebike putting along at 10 km/h (6 mph) because the battery is empty and the sky is overcast. I’m so slow that frail-looking octogenarians on cruiser bikes are passing me. …
Huge thanks to the whole team at Grin Tech for being such great hosts during my 36 hour layover in Vancouver. Your dedication and passion are an inspiration. Special thanks to Justin, Aaron and Robert for coming in on a Saturday to shoot a video and build me a new wheel with an updated version …
Continue reading "Day 2: Willy Wonka’s Magical Ebike Factory"
I set off at noon. The Sea to Sky Highway between Squamish and Horseshoe Bay has loud, heavy traffic requiring my full attention. The spectacular views of Beautiful British Columbia go mostly unappreciated. Surface streets take me to Grin Technologies headquarters in Vancouver. My bike is a rolling show-room for Grin: regenerative braking–capable All Axle …
Continue reading "Day 1: The Vancouver-to-Tijuana-via-Chicago Shakedown Cruise 2021"
Justin from Grin Tech posted a great introductory video on building a solar bike. This is a great starting point if you're new to solar bikes and want to get up to speed on the basics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14yliWlykfg
My previous post, How to Convert Your Ebike to a Solar Ebike, was an introduction to this topic. Please read that first, if you haven't already. This post will cover a range of recurring questions I've been answering over the years via email and in comments on YouTube, InstaGram, and ebike forums about the nitty …
Continue reading "Designing a safe and efficient solar ebike"
Solar panels aren't magic: a guide to understanding the ratings Let's start with the worst case scenario: you bought a 100 watt solar panel to charge your 500 watt-hour ebike battery with the expectation that it would charge your battery from empty to full in 5 hours. What could be simpler? 100 watts times 5 …
Continue reading "Why is my 100 watt solar panel only giving me 75 watts?"
This is a solar bike manifesto primer for anyone who has an ebike and is considering adding solar charging. It's difficult to write for all levels from novice to expert so this advice is most likely to be helpful to someone who has installed a DIY ebike conversion kit. If your experience is limited to …
Continue reading "How to convert your ebike to a solar ebike"
I started this site as a sort of repository for links to information about this project with the idea that I would have a place to occasionally post things that didn't fit elsewhere. The FAQ is freshly updated but most of the content I've been creating is where the eyeballs are: deep technical dives on …
Justin from Grin Technologies came down for Maker Faire back in May and shot a video for their YouTube channel. I think it turned out to be a better introduction for this project than anything I've produced. If this is your first visit here, I recommend starting with this video. Enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RGBBNctWNA
A brief history of my solar ebike... My first attempt at building a custom solar panel was instructive but the cells all cracked during the lamination process and the panel output was too low to be usable.
SOLAR ebike 