A2B Metro chronicles...

[pdarnett]

Finally got a chain wheel guard to for a 52T! And the grey colour is a good match for the decals.

 

[pdarnett]

New brakes bedded in!
They obviously don't teach road safety in schools any more, the Green Cross Code Man would be furious. Not to mention Alvin Stardust!

You must be out of your tiny minds!

 

[pdarnett]

Well more repairs today. Got hit by a motorist today. He was very impatient joining the main road from a side street and seemed furious that he had to wait for me to pass before pulling out, so pulled out when I'd almost passed. Caught the back of the bike and snapped the rear mudguard and light and pushed the back end of the bike out. Luckily I stayed upright but couldn't get a reg number as he'd gone off at speed. I was bit shaken but managed to cable tie the mudguard out of the way in order to get home.

Looks like I need another sj4000 on the back of the bike as well!

Both halves of the mudguard now glued and steel wired back together (glue alone wasn't enough so holes drilled and thin steel wired "sewed" through) and light fixed ready to do battle tomorrow.

 

[pdarnett]

What I've realised since the knock was that my dérailleur hanger was bent and the mudguard supports damaged so more work for me to fix. Next task is I'm building a proper dashboard for this bike so I don't have a load of clutter on the handlebars.

 

[halfer]

Well more repairs today. Got hit by a motorist today. He was very impatient joining the main road from a side street and seemed furious that he had to wait for me to pass before pulling out, so pulled out when I'd almost passed.

Sorry to hear about the accident, and at least you are around to tell the tale! It's frustrating when one suspects a motorist knows an accident has happened but they pretend not to be aware so they can drive off.

I was knocked off a couple of months ago, but thankfully the driver was honest. Not only did he stop but he took immediate responsibility too, quite correctly. He even gave me a lift to my destination!

 

[pdarnett]

No such luck here in Bradford, we have the highest level of uninsured drivers in the UK, the highest amount of banned drivers and the most amount of drivers with 11 points or more. So imagine a little of Mad Max, with a large portion of grand theft auto!!!

 

[pdarnett]

Haven't done too much to the bike since the first flurry of excitement but as the dark nights creep in I decided to do a bit more modification.
New pannier bags as the Aldi ones had started to come apart, plus some new cork grips.
And not wanting to add more headlights/tail lights, thought I'd come up with a solution that was a bit more subtle!

 

[pdarnett]

My other project is to build a dashboard for this thing, something that will show, battery, speed, assist level and temp. I've just learned how to program Arduino boards, these things are pence and very easy to program. Here's my first attempt.

 

[TinKitten]

I like your lights. It looks a bit like 'neons' that some people fit to motorbikes. Anything that's shiny or glowy attracts me lol.

 

[pdarnett]

Did some more dashboard programming tonight, these little arduino boards can do so much, plus there's a ton of add ons. GPS modules, cameras, temp, humidity etc etc. Should have some more info by the weekend. Just got to get a 36v to 5v regulator!!

 

[pdarnett]

1st prototype, not sure I like the case but it all works, detects the pedal sensor fine puts out the appropriate throttle voltages as is pretty accurate on the speed and the battery. Won't stop me working on mark 2 & 3 & 4 etc..!

 

[patpatbut]

U got Orpland too. It is the best bike horn ever.

 

[martin@onbike]

Really cool Paul !

 

[pdarnett]

Was an early adopter of the Orp horn! Best thing about the display controlling pedal assist is that I could tailor each level, my other bikes have quite big gaps between the levels which ends up with the lower levels never being used. Not with this, I've set the levels of assist to what is actually needed!

Next project will be a chain tension torque sensor, arduino powered of course!

 

[pdarnett]

Never did build the torque sensor, but am working on a clearer to read dashboard using some cool display technology from 4D systems. The current OLED display is unreadable in sunlight, so i'm prototyping something else. here's a quick demo of day/night mode and the speedo.