Checked it this morning. Top. Finally it worked. Way better than a hookway. Right the first time now. And while I was watching it, I found this
Someone here did the same. That will be my next try before a final.
And something else. After houseprices, now energyprices exploded. Electr is from 5 ct to 15 ct. Consumers pay 36 ct instead of 23.
The same with natural gas. 1,36 euro / m3 consumerprice. Average usage is 1500-2000 m3. Some people are getting into trouble.
For me? I have to convince the chief to stop cooking. It is cheaper to go out. For the test we use neither gas or electr.
Bike is now rideable. No brake cables installed yet so I’m still using the Flintstones Brake System with my Dunlop rubber boots. Just going up and down my driveway right now.
There really isn’t a satisfying way to mount this battery I built in the tubes of the bike. I might take this apart and just build a super nice 12v battery out of them.
I really want to build a sidecar with a Ural-like trunk for storing batteries and tools. I’d need to upgrade from a 750w to a 1500w to make up for the weight gain I think or my legs would get pretty tired.
Goes uphill like a champ if I hold the throttle down and pedal like a madman. It’s a fixed gear using a 6 speed freewheel cog though, set to the smallest cog for chain alignment.
I am never satisfied with this motor and I think I should order one of the Cyclone motors that go into the bottom bracket itself and buy a Sturmey Archer 3 speed fat bike wheel. Leave underdrive and overdrive for just pedalling and run ebike on the 1:1 gear for strength.
This made me laugh. Brought back memories of my teen years. One of many crazy projects we did was to take a regular old electric golf cart and install a 650 Honda motorcycle engine in it with a tiny little old 70’s era rear wheel drive Toyota transmission. Cut and weld some cv axles and pillow block bearings etc…
To finish the project, the very last thing we did after stitching each other up with vodka and horse hair, was to start thinking about how to install some sort of braking system.
It just never came up before that. The game warden said we were doing 78 mph when we passed him.
Praise be to the Father that all of us survived those years. We sure didn’t deserve to.
I think for my own luck this bike tops out at 30 or 35mph. It’s one of the cheaper kits that I bought December 2019.
I might take this motor off and assemble it on a mountain bike and sell it. Change it out for a mid drive motor with a Sturmey Archer 3 speed internal gear hub.
I was given advice that the headway cells I’m using are the explodey kind and I should get different cells. Might buy a few of the cheap hoverboard batteries and daisy chain them in parallel to get some amphours I like. 39 dollars a pack and they already come with connectors and balance boards!
Yup Joep, and UK is about to be tied into the northern Europe grid, which will affect prices even more.
We don’t use natural gas up here. Most people use heat pumps and their electrical bill will soon be the same as before, when heating straight electric.
Are you still running your Atmos boiler? I have date in the basement with my mistress Bella right now.
Yes, me too. Shut off the air/water heatpump and back to wood again. Heatpump is also new to me and I dont think it will stay for long. Didnt cost me anything because it is subsidized. Government wants us all on the heatpump. Grazy, it will only work in winter if your house is really isolated and you can use low temp heating. Big bubble it is. Only a little nice in summer for sanitary water (COP is 2,5 and should be 4 according to salesmen). You all use the ground heat exchanger over there? I hope horizontal instead of vertical? The last one will mess up water resources and everyone gets poisened by drinkwater.
For me, only one last step to make, real woodgas and not playing around.
Level score I guess. From what I heard the ground hose is filled with alcohol.
However, the air/water type is becoming more popular with higher efficiency and the lower initial investment cost.
And of course plenty of air/air for those who don’t already have the plumbing.
I hope I don’t have to worry about artificial heat sourses anytime soon. A lot more convenient to stick to wood.
So I can’t get the camera to focus. Sorry guys. I just wanted to give you an idea of these little slips I hand out. The 1998 red Dakota with the tall gasifier attracts a lot of attention. Every time I am out in the truck I get two or three asking questions. I explain about woodgas and they act like they want to know more. Before Argos 2021 I made up a little hand out and print 4 to a sheet on goldenrod paper so they don’t get lost when a guy sticks it in his pocket.
I printed 50 sheets so there were 200 of these. I only have 19 left. I did this in a hurry so I could use some suggestions from you guys. I handed out 42 of these at the hit and miss engine show in Portland, IN. And I handed out 33 of these at two car shows. This is what it reads…
What’s in the back of the truck? It’s a wood gasifier!
Simple version…
Scrap wood is burned in a closed container,
the smoke is cooled and filtered and then burned
in the engine. The truck can run on just woodgas
alone.
See on Youtube… enter in the search bar
Woodgas the buck stops here
Wood Gas (See thru Wood Gas Generator)
See some of my friends… We have a meet up in
Indiana search Youtube for Woodgas Argos.
For more info…Driveonwood.com
I put the Argos line in there because I wanted them to see all the different trucks we have at Argos. Help me come up with a better small handout. Sorry for the long post.
That’s a pretty good hand out. I hope you don’t if I make up some like that and hand some out too. I don’t get into to much detail. If they are really interested they will go to Driveonwood.com.
You might mention that they need to sign in as a free membership to have access.
Bob
Ordered 4 hoverboard batteries off of eBay. They’re 4.4ah each, I’m hooking them up in Parallel, so I’ll in theory have a little over 17ah so maybe 17 miles of distance at worst. It recharges when braking and coasting so some of that loss is made back up.
Also had to order an 8 foot long brake cable and housing for the rear brake. This bike is pretty dang long. Still need to get a front wheel that can mount a disc brake, my springer front end has hangers made for them.
I want to make a false Harley Split Tank to store the batteries, and a false oil tank to put my controller into. Dad’s gonna show me his old indian tricks for fiberglass making, he used to work on corvettes a lot. The old Confederate Corvette Club seemed to like his handiwork according to all the show trophies he collected.
Also getting more parts for the Honderson Dual Fuel bike.
Going for a V Belt primary and a chain secondary.
4" pulley to a 7" pulley on a jackshaft, which spins a 10 tooth 41# chain centrifugal clutch going to my 48 tooth sprocket on the wheel. Assuming engine plateaus at 6000 rpm that gives me a top speed of 55mph. More than fast enough! Gives me a very comfy cruising speed of probably 35 or 40mph.
The advantage of the v belt primary is I have a little bit of slip on takeoff and won’t overheat in high rpm like a chain primary could. Also means my drive shaft on the engine has room for a second pulley to drive an alternator.
Guy on the motorized bicycle forum has had good success running a similar Predator 212cc Hemi on a beefed up Schwinn Panther frame, and he lives in San Francisco so I know he can climb those hills. That also means the centrifugal clutch won’t be spinning right next to my leg and burn the bajesus out of me or grab my pants leg and pull me in, both have happened to me before on another bike I built using a chain primary.
Next I need to figure out what kind of charcoal gasifier I want to build for this bike. Do I want to take a page out of Mr Van Lookens book and go for a sidecar mounted unit, or try to do a semi faithful copy of the Swedish downdraft motorcycle reactor that I’ve linked before? I have an air compressor tank that I haven’t cut into yet so that would be the body. 10" ID pretty sturdy but not heavy.
If I went for the Swedish reactor I would just need a single nozzle going in the side and use a removable grate, run the gas over to the other side with some cooling pipes in parallel where my filter box would be. I’ve considered recycling my filter from the Mazda because it’s low profile and the flow would be great. Doubling as a drop box and sack filter. Nozzle would need to be very beefed up, I could do EGR or water drip but I want the security of knowing the nozzle wont burn up suddenly. I have those wrist pins and I could double over that using some worn out bevel gears to give a wide surface and heat sink.
The big faced back end of the bevel gear would be almost like a mini Pedrick plate, and give me indication of it being too hot in that area. I’ll weld in a plate opposite of the nozzle in case the jet blasts to the other side.
I’m going to be interested in how you do this, Cody. A 212 cc Preditor still takes a fair amount of gas so mounting a reactor with any amount of fuel storage will be a challenge. I’d definitely go simple fire. I wish the guy from India would update about his little motorcycle. That would be similar. Sidecar? Thumbs down on that. Better off building a trike.
Also wondering if you will still be able to peddle this. If so will you be able to peddle with the engine engaged enough to get the gasifier sucking air?
It won’t have pedals, it’s a light motorcycle. Getting it registered as one too. Also since it has a centrifugal clutch it wouldn’t be able to pull the engine. If I had gone for a single belt drive it could.
I’m just not a fan of trikes. I like the storage of a sidecar.
Edit: also forgot to mention the gasifier from Sweden was made for a 500cc single cylinder engine
I had been rushing all week to get in hay and try to beat the rain. Last night as I set the last roll in the barn it started raining and forecast is rain most of this next week.
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