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    Welding e-bike frame from scratch. Questions about the swing arm.

    It's clear you haven't a clue about TIG. Or building bike frames. I've been making a living as a metal fabricator and TIG welder for half a century, I do know what I'm talking about. Most of the shops I've worked in had both types of machines, and did work that had to look good (...
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    Welding e-bike frame from scratch. Questions about the swing arm.

    As I pointed out earlier, comparing pipe or shipyard welding to bike frame or racecar welding is silly. The relative advantages and requirements are completely different. MIG is for laying down feet of bead per minute, where you have the machine dialed in for that particular situation...
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    Chimera”... Antique style E bike build, circa 1915...why and how

    Update: Weather has been nasty here, but I got the bike out for a few miles. I'll have to tweak the gearing, I spin out at about twenty MPH, and the sprung seat post probably needs to get swapped for a dropper post, my good pedaling height is much higher than comfy cruising seat height. Shorter...
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    Welding e-bike frame from scratch. Questions about the swing arm.

    You'll need to deal with scratch start if you do that, which is a bit of PITA, but doable. With real TIG machines (with hi freq start and pulse) so cheap now, scratch start is just another skill that can be frustrating to learn solo. I worked in a couple shops decades ago where the new welders...
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    Tesla owners in deep freeze discover the cold, hard truth about EVs

    It's a Shorai motorcycle battery rated for a one liter engine, what they had on the shelf at the local bike accessory shop when I went in. I'm starting a 1.8 liter engine off it, this was its fourth winter in service. The selling point for me was it cost only about $75 more than the...
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    Lithium battery fire risk and information.

    In conversations like this on various forums, I'm often surprised how many people afraid of EVs have no problem with the idea of carrying a pressurized container of hydrogen in their car.
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    Lithium battery fire risk and information.

    An ICE car that gets window deep in floodwater is a write off too, so "fawhoosh" was just the auto destruct feature intended to prevent shady sales of flood damaged cars...;-)
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    Lithium battery fire risk and information.

    This issue is just one of the reasons that yard tool battery packs are so attractive for e bikes. They have a robust, sophisticated BMS in each pack, and that's backed up by protective circuitry in the charger, and often have a fan built into the charger to keep charge temps down, and...
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    Tesla owners in deep freeze discover the cold, hard truth about EVs

    Funny, my Miata starter battery , a lithium motorcycle battery that weighs five pounds ( twenty pounds less than the tiny original lead acid) started the Miata right up after sitting three days at single digit temperatures. Single digit Fahrenheit, just to be clear. If I were running...
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    Wind and Solar vs Coal, Gasoline, Nuclear

    "Ask germany about doing it at scale !" Ask germany about basing your national energy budget on cheap foreign NG, that can get pulled anytime a dictator wants to threaten the world. Buy 80% of your energy from an ex KGB spy? What could possibly go wrong?
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    Wind and Solar vs Coal, Gasoline, Nuclear

    ROFLMAO! Solar, worldwide is cheaper than brown coal, cheaper than nukes, cheaper than NG. Solar is where all the smart investment money is going. Rooftop solar with local storage is cheaper than brown coal even if you include the storage costs. "BUT ,..you need approval from the local utility...
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    Wind and Solar vs Coal, Gasoline, Nuclear

    Evidently the smart system that comes with a VPP setup gets around that. Being able to power your house (and even neighbors ) during failures of the grid is considered a selling point. It's not a simple grid tie. Other advantages include being able to sell power that's already in your EV...
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    Wind and Solar vs Coal, Gasoline, Nuclear

    If they are well thought out and executed, "virtual power plants" (where leased home solar feeds leased home batteries (including the EV in the drive) with draw down with the power company to buffer the grid ) seem to be a workable solution. A few are up and running various places. It's...
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    65 Honda Dream conversion: thoughts and suggestions on a basic plan.

    No specific recommendations. I'd look at what the Surron hot rodders are using, and what other retrofit projects used. I'd use a motor with a reduction drive, to keep the rear sprocket size somewhat normal looking (and available easily)
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    Welding e-bike frame from scratch. Questions about the swing arm.

    Women do learn TIG faster than most guys...that's been my experience as a welding instructor as well. I've compared wire feed and TIG work in the shop many times over the decades. On routine stuff that you're familiar with, have the fixtures and machine dialed in, where appearance is...
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    Wind and Solar vs Coal, Gasoline, Nuclear

    You haven't shown any proof of your dribble in over five years and over three hundred pages...
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    65 Honda Dream conversion: thoughts and suggestions on a basic plan.

    Yep. In a retrofit of a powerful hub motor, securing the axle is not a trivial operation. Rims and spokes are in addition to the weight of a hub motor. Its easy to get fooled by the weight of a bare hub motor compared to a wheel minus tire...your drum brake alone isn't all that heavy. It's...
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    Welding e-bike frame from scratch. Questions about the swing arm.

    Which is where TIG shines compared to all other methods (well, maybe not plasma or laser welding ) I've Tigged railings in a new home "after" the carpet was down. It's that clean and controlled. I can TIG weld the aluminum foil in your kitchen....that doesn't mean it's a good idea, or...
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    65 Honda Dream conversion: thoughts and suggestions on a basic plan.

    Look ( and driveline priorities ) are a real individual thing. I'm old (Mike Hailwood was bringing Ducati back from the dead when I started riding ) sixties cafe racer is what bikes "should" look like, IMO. Or even older, like my "1915" replica.
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    Chimera”... Antique style E bike build, circa 1915...why and how

    I found a cheap little leather tool pouch that looks like it will cover the displays from the front angles. It's flat and rectangular, and hangs fairly high. I'll go with that unless the displays still stick out after I find a way to disappear the thumb throttle. Still waiting on the bell and...
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    65 Honda Dream conversion: thoughts and suggestions on a basic plan.

    The bike I've ordered (after looking for a year for a good donor for a DIY ) is this one... https://lyriccycles.com/products/voodoo 18 kw peak, 6kw sustained, and only 65 mph top speed, and briefly at that. It does have a thermal shutoff and metering. I picked this one over several others...
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    Welding e-bike frame from scratch. Questions about the swing arm.

    "Cheaper" is not a good criteria for choosing (justifying ? ) a welding process on a bike frame. I saw a basic TIG inverter welder (not a brand name, but set up with auto flow on the shield gas, DC maxed at 100a on 110v input , so a very basic machine, but it did have hi freq start ) for...
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    Some thoughts on the future of automotive EVs

    ...They aren't. Right now the price difference is less than $5K, and dropping. Some authorities claim that EV's are within $2000 of the cost of a similar ICE
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    Some thoughts on the future of automotive EVs

    ICE carmakers are eager to make the transition to EV's...half their supply chain will be losing their contracts in the next few years, as needs simplify. No sleeve bearings, no camshafts, no connecting rod bolts, no cam belts, no oil pumps, oil slingers or oil seals, no valves (or the shims...
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    Wind and Solar vs Coal, Gasoline, Nuclear

    You're the one we've proven irrelevant. How's that flat earth if yours doing?
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