It's here it's here it'shereitshereitshere!!!
Yay! I was all gonna go for a bicycle to the library and back before work, and on my way out the door, I spied the boxes!!! So I didn't bike to the library after all, 'cause I had to take it out of the box and admire it's shiny newness! Also, jeebus it's heavy.
I'm hoping that the engineer fairy will assemble it while I'm at work. It could happen. Cat is having much fun playing in the styrofoam peanuts that my shiny new motor and battery were packed in. Styrofoam peanuts are da bomb! They're almost fun enough to make up for the fact that mom is sitting at the kitchen table causing weird revving noises to happen and giggling maniacally.
Thus far, my only problem is that the installation directions well... aren't all that great. They consist of a picture. About the size of a postcard. Black and white, photocopied, a bit grainy. No explanatory text. On the other hand, it still looks pretty darn straightforward, so hopefully the engineer fairy won't have any problems with it. The battery comes in it's own bag made to mount nicely on the rear rack. It has a keyed on/off on the battery, so I can reduce the possibility of people fiddling with it when I'm not there (altho really, I'll probably be taking the battery off a good share of the time, to charge it up and stuff). Charger is fairly small, about the size of two paperback books, and about that heavy, so it won't be any trouble to port to and from work to charge the battery in between commutes.
Motor is fairly quiet, will probably be a little quieter when mounted on the bike and not on the kitchen table. Assembly will require splitting the bike chain and adding a few links, but Chris says he's got all the tools he needs for that (assuming he can find them, we have a particularly obnoxious tool monster that relocates things). Thumb throttle seems to have fairly easy action, will be able to tell better once it's actually mounted. It comes with brake levers, which plug into the throttle cable, and wil automatically cut power to the motor any times the brakes are applied, whether the thumb throttle is released or not. Seems like a reasonable safety feature.
That's all for now. Hopefully I'll be able to give a riding report tonight, and possibly even commute tomorrow, altho possibly not, I may want to get it checked for safety by Budget Bikes first, just in case. I has a new toy! Yayzors!
I'm hoping that the engineer fairy will assemble it while I'm at work. It could happen. Cat is having much fun playing in the styrofoam peanuts that my shiny new motor and battery were packed in. Styrofoam peanuts are da bomb! They're almost fun enough to make up for the fact that mom is sitting at the kitchen table causing weird revving noises to happen and giggling maniacally.
Thus far, my only problem is that the installation directions well... aren't all that great. They consist of a picture. About the size of a postcard. Black and white, photocopied, a bit grainy. No explanatory text. On the other hand, it still looks pretty darn straightforward, so hopefully the engineer fairy won't have any problems with it. The battery comes in it's own bag made to mount nicely on the rear rack. It has a keyed on/off on the battery, so I can reduce the possibility of people fiddling with it when I'm not there (altho really, I'll probably be taking the battery off a good share of the time, to charge it up and stuff). Charger is fairly small, about the size of two paperback books, and about that heavy, so it won't be any trouble to port to and from work to charge the battery in between commutes.
Motor is fairly quiet, will probably be a little quieter when mounted on the bike and not on the kitchen table. Assembly will require splitting the bike chain and adding a few links, but Chris says he's got all the tools he needs for that (assuming he can find them, we have a particularly obnoxious tool monster that relocates things). Thumb throttle seems to have fairly easy action, will be able to tell better once it's actually mounted. It comes with brake levers, which plug into the throttle cable, and wil automatically cut power to the motor any times the brakes are applied, whether the thumb throttle is released or not. Seems like a reasonable safety feature.
That's all for now. Hopefully I'll be able to give a riding report tonight, and possibly even commute tomorrow, altho possibly not, I may want to get it checked for safety by Budget Bikes first, just in case. I has a new toy! Yayzors!