09.28.08
Posted in Miscellanea, Velomobiles & HPVs at 10:48 am by smalghan
Last Sunday the Jones Falls Watershed Association held its annual Rally for the River to draw attention to the health of the river that runs right through the middle of Baltimore City.
The Jones Falls powered Baltimore’s early industrial beginnings and as a consequence became a dumping grounds for all kinds of waste, both industrial and human, resulting in Baltimore leading the country in typhoid cases around the turn of the century.
The solution? Bury the river! In a prime example of employing the most elaborate and expensive solution to avoid solving a root problem, three tunnels were dug starting at what was then the northern end of town and chanelled the river underground until it empties into the harbor. They typhoid problem did subside, but then the river remained just as polluted as it emerged into the Chesapeake Bay.
The river is actually hard to spot as it winds its way through the deep valley that’s shadowed by the shuttered mills and factories built more than a century ago, a strange development for a waterway that was so pivotal to the city’s beginnings. The flip side is that following the river reveals some very quiet and secluded areas that make it hard to believe you’re still in the city.
This year the festivities included the closing of the northbound section of I-83, the freeway built on top of the tunnels that channels the river. This affords a great opportunity to notice things that usually pass by too quickly when travelling by car.
In addition, that same day cyclocross races were being held in Druid Hill Park. It was the first time I got to see a cyclocross event in person and it looked a lot more interesting and fun than roadracing. Now I’m looking at adding yet another bike to the fleet.
Below are pictures from the day in chronological order. Enjoy!
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09.23.08
Posted in Miscellanea at 6:49 am by smalghan
One of the most informative and aesthetically pleasing websites covering human powered transportation matters is Alan Barnard’s ecovelo blog. For the past few weeks he’s been profiling personal rides and the result is a fascinating compilation of interesting machines.
Amazingly, The Beater made the cut. Previously only shown in part, the Frankenstein like creation is now revealed to the world in all it’s stone-chipped, Vanilla Ice-era paintjob glory. The page-specific link is here.
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09.16.08
Posted in EVs at 7:44 pm by smalghan
Now that’s it’s all fixed, I don’t mind looking at pictures of the scorched components inside the inverter. It would be more informative if I could explain exactly what went wrong but since I haven’t been told what that is, the pictures only serve to satisfy those with a morbid fascination with charred electronic components.
Four components needed to be replaced:
- DC-DC converter board
- High voltage DC input filter
- High voltage input fuse for dc/dc converter
- Internal power supply board
The show starts with burn marks on the inverter casing, the first sign that this wasn’t going to be a simple repair. The other sign was the perfectly fine fuse right next to the blown components, meaning that this wasn’t an amp overload event but something not even foreseen.
It’s hard to tell what exactly went first. When I find out I’ll post.
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09.10.08
Posted in EVs, Velomobiles & HPVs at 8:53 pm by smalghan
A trio of 451mm wheels and several piles of folded sheet metal and machined parts have accumulated in piles around the place as I anxiously await the frame to arrive. I’ve been hesitant to release too many details as the design evolved since it seemed to only encourage more confusion than clarity (have you ever tried to explain what a velomobile is to the unfamiliar in the first place?) but since the prototype is being built up this is a good time for a summary.
But first, here’s a picture of the chassis CAD model.
The structure is made from a bamboo plywood/balsa core sandwich structure which, once hot-press laminated, is cut out by a CNC router. No tooling, no welding, no coping of strangely angled tubes.
All three wheels are independently suspended, which sounds like a great idea until it comes time to buy three mountain bike shocks at retail price that, pound for pound, must be more expensive than Formula 1 Konis. They don’t cost nearly that much to OEMs, which I’ll take advantage of next round.
One of the features I’m most proud of is the tilting mechanism. The front shocks are connected to a linkage that allows the rider to control the tilt of the vehicle independently of steering angle. Steering is reacted trhough the rear wheel, freeing up room at the front of the vehicle and allowing a much tighter turning circle than if the front wheels turned.
Since the electronic transmission idea got shelved (a story for another time) I looked for a system that would allow a wide speed range, could be shifted at rest and had enough speeds that the desired cadence could be dialed in perfectly. The closest mechanical analog turned out to be a NuVinci CVT combined with a Shlumpf MountainDrive, which give an overall gear range of more than 6.
In other news, Smokey the inverter has been nursed back to health and will be heading stateside in only a few days!
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