I am of course loving my Optibike. As you called it, a monster electric bicycle, it eats these hills. I took a roller coaster type 17 mile each way route to my wife’s shop in below freezing weather a week ago and made it there and almost all the way back on only the touring battery. Considering 80% battery efficiency at that temperature and the nature of the vertical profile I was very satisfied to see it do precisely what I anticipated.
My radio cable has worked well. Routing it was a nonevent. The mini iPad appears to cover the “dashboard” in this photo but from where I sit that is not the case. The mini iPad is a great asset, being far easier to see than the tiny bicycle type navigation devices. Most of the neighborhoods around here are laid out in a random fashion and figuring out short cuts is not intuitive.
The antenna uses extremely light weight components so to not torque the touring battery or create off setting inertia to my balance when it moves.
Do you think this attracts attention when I park it in front of Starbucks in the morning?
If you have any customers who are ham radio operators these photos will drive them nuts.
The photo of the iPad that has a radio spectrum display is controlling radio equipment that I have on a 300 foot high tower on the coast of Maine. Doing that circumvents the inefficiency of a small antenna on the bike. I use a Bluetooth ear insert for audio.
You'll also receive a free download of The Electric Bike Book by Jim Turner.
