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• Introducing My Ebike

  Dustin • 05/15/2024 at 12:01 • 0 comments

  I've been obsessed with the idea of bicycle touring since 2017. I came out to find my truck broken one morning. I rode my old industrial delivery bike to work that day. It took me over an hour and was a very hard ride. Definitely the wrong bike. I ended up riding every day and didn't fix the truck for a very long time. One day I was riding to work and had an idea: What if I just DIDN'T make that turn to go to work? What if I just kept going until I found something interesting or got far away? What if all I ever had to worry about was pedaling and basic survival? Those thoughts would not go away. I finally discover the term "bicycle touring" and was hooked. 

  I tried to build a touring bicycle on a 1982 Schwinn Crosscut. It was pretty good. Low budget, but effective. When I went to ride 1,000 miles out to a new place to live, my old knee injury stopped me. That was in 2018. I was crushed and gave up on touring until 2022. That's when I bought my Trek FX3. $1,000. The most I'd ever spent on a bicycle. By a huge amount. I was thinking of touring when I bought it. It didn't take me long to order an ebike kit from Amazon and convert it. That first test ride was done without a chain as I didn't have the tool to move the rear gear cluster to the new ebike wheel. It was so exciting. I was hooked.

  After seeing just how powerful that motor was, and the freedom it provided me, I started working hard to build up a touring ebike and finally escape. In its current state, it's nearly ready to leave on an open ended tour in June this year. I need touring tires and a few odds and ends, but am just going to hit the road and make it work. It's a good bike and I trust it. 

  This project has been on my mind for a while, but I've been very busy and distracted. An email exchange with none other than Tom Allen kicked the old buns into gear and got me here to start this project page. There is so little super detailed info on touring ebikes that's I've been able to find. I plan to cover things like tire wear differences between touring bicycles and electric touring bicycles. Hint: it's significant. Battery heating in below freezing temperatures. The battery recall that was issued for my bike. The best rims I've found for a touring ebike(Velocity Cliffhanger). I'll be covering the electrical system, mechanical systems, and even the emotional aspects related to an electric touring bicycle. The information would also be useful for other heavy duty bicycles, such as tandems, cargo bikes, kid carriers, and bikes for heavy riders. This thing is going to take a hell of a beating. Wish us luck.
  

  Shout out to Tom Allen at https://tomsbiketrip.com/

  His book is what made it easy to get all of the key info in one place and get me ready to start a new life on the road. Cheers Tom!
  

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