Thursday, August 24, 2006

Ebike The Rainforest




Video Description:

A dirt Ebike ride to the rainforest and down to the Maui Ritz. A 11 mile round trip on electric bicycle(bike) on 6 ah of battery power



Video Description:
45 mph eBike. 3 miles in 4 minutes of a 20 mile video using a total of 6 amp hours of battery power on the whole trip.
Courtesy of EcycleMaui


Video Description:
Riding Ecycle in "Cycle To The Sun" bicycle race up Haleakala Volcano, Hawaii.
See the story on EV World.


Also, see video of "Blowout at 40 miles per hour on ebike, Coming down Haleakala Volcano, Hawaii"(Video Link)

Here is a very interesting story on his ebike(Source):

Solar-powered electric bikes
Clean, affordable energy for everyone
Randy Draper – inventor
By Jan Welda-Fleetham


Reliable, efficient, affordable – all these words could be used to describe longtime Napili resident Randy Draper’s new invention – a simple, long–lasting solar powered electric motor attached to an ordinary bike frame.

The bikes can go “up to 30 miles per hour, create no pollution, are totally silent, can go up any hill, are simple to repair, and the batteries can be recharged with energy from two things we have an abundance of here on Maui – sun and wind,” Randy explained.

I visited his workshop in his home in Napili recently, where he showed me the solar panels and windmill he had set up on his roof about sixteen years ago, and said he has saved over $200 a month on his electricity bill ever since then. At the time, it cost him about $3,000 to get the system fully operating, but he says “it would be cheaper now because some of the components cost less.”

He said he’s “always wanted to do something with electricity,” and in 1993 made an electric motor, which he had patented as an “electric submersible motor,” and used it on a fiberglass kayak that he sailed to Lana‘i and back.

It’s quite an experience just talking with Randy Draper; he leaps rapidly from one subject to the next with amazing speed. His workshop is filled with hundreds of projects, thousands of components, reminding me of descriptions of Thomas Edison’s, bursting with creative ideas and inventions.

Randy says he grew up playing with nuts and bolts; his father was an electronics engineer who made the first starter motors for Boeing’s jet aircraft engines; he later developed guidance systems for the aerospace program while working at Vandenburg Air Force Base in California.

His grandfather owned a bike shop in Salt Lake City, Utah, and later a washing machine and lawnmower repair shop in Provo, Utah; every summer the family would visit, where Randy developed his interest electronics and mechanics.

He says that when he was in seventh grade, he built an electric motor with thread, spools, magnets and wire, for a science fair that was held at his junior high school in Redondo Beach, California. The teacher was so impressed that he asked Randy if he could keep it, and used it for years after that to show to his other students.

Last month Randy had the opportunity to make a bicycle for Maui’s annual Cycle to the Sun, a race billed as the world’s steepest, climbing nonstop from sea level to the very top of Haleakala.

He started building the bike about a week before the race, in between his job as a boat captain on Hawai‘i Ocean Raftings’ snorkeling cruises to Lana‘i, and ferrying Navy personnel to and from their ship near Lahaina. He says “I didn’t sleep for the last 48 hours, didn’t even get a chance to try out the bike or the batteries, but it worked out perfect.”

You can visit www.evworld.com/databases/storybuilder.cfm?storyid=562 to read the article written about it for EV World Magazine.

This article generated an enormous amount of interest in his invention; he’s gotten email from people in Germany, China, New Zealand, etc., and has been corresponding with representatives of several major battery and bicycle manufacturers in the United States about mass producing these bikes for worldwide distribution.

A company called New Energy Electric, in particular, whose co–founders are Carroll Shelby and Lee Eastman, has offered their Lithium/Ion battery technology (as used in the electric Shelby Cobra automobile) is very interested in working with him on these innovative bicycles.

Randy says he could have “a million bikes manufactured in a year or so” if he had the orders for them.

“The ideal situation would be a series of juice stands or snack shops in various locations here on Maui that would be refueling stations with solar panels and windmills on top of the buildings, where you could rent, lease or buy an electric bike.

“You could go to one in, say, Hana, rent a bike and ride to ‘Ulupalakua, trade your battery for a fully charged one, ride to Pa‘ia, Kihei, Lahaina, wherever you wanted to go,” Randy continued.

Retail price would be about $1,000, with an additional $200 a year for batteries. Randy says they would be ideal for ecotours, and that private ranches could purchase them for their employees to use; they could go places that most other vehicles wouldn’t have access to.

So, all in all, this seems like one of those ideas “whose time has come.” If you’d like to talk with Randy, you can call him at 669–7776, or email him at SolarCraft@webtv.net. You can also visit www.EV–Motors.com or www.pleiades–enterprises.com for more information.

“What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible.” – Theodore Roethke

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here are some videos you can embed if you like.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5305949999301107762
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8069609064092851413
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7114879618916032763
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9047051210592104411
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4798286533935376595
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2012839987489828179
So far I have the only ones that anyone knows of.
http://www.solarnavigator.net/electric_cycles.htm
http://cyclesantamonica.blogspot.com...ainforest.html
By the way the four 12 volt Evercel MB-40 batteries are rated at 33 Ah.

Hi Randy,

Well, here's my prediction as to how many AH you'll need to conquer that 10,000
ft mountain. Firstly, some of the key numbers that went into the simulation
program :-

Gross mass : 134kg
Chain reduction: 10:1
Course distance: 59km
Altitude gain: 3030m
Battery: 48 volts

I have broken the climb into 4 sections, of varying steepness, as below :-

15% grade for 6km @ 16km/hr needs 29.0A for 0.38hrs = 10.9AH
8% grade for 12km @ 18km/hr needs 16.3A for 0.67hrs = 10.9AH
4% grade for 29km @ 24km/hr needs 12.8A for 1.21hrs = 15.5AH
0% grade for 12km @ 30km/hr needs 5.4A for 0.39hrs = 2.1AH


Total time required is therefore 2.64 hours, for an average speed of 59/2.64 =
22.3 km/hr, or 14.0 mph.
Total AH required is 39.4 amp-hrs.

Collins computer program estimate was real close! I actually made it to the volcanos crator rim 1/8 mile from the summit in 2 hours and 40 minutes and the rested the batteries for almost 20 minutes while enjoying the view before proceeding to the top just after the first bicycle racers showed up, to cross finish line iwith my time of 3 hours and 3 minutes right behind them..
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/p.../message/14732

SUN CYCLES
Randy Draper, a longtime Napili, Maui resident and tour boat captain, has been experimenting with and inventing ways to harness solar energy for years. In the 1980’s Draper outfitted his house with solar panels and a small windmill; he hasn’t paid an electric utility bill since. Realizing the potential of the sun’s energy, Draper continued experimenting, at one point crossing the ten miles of ocean between Maui and Lanai on a catamaran powered only by solar energy. It is only fitting that his most recent achievement was climbing the 37 miles to the top of 10,000 foot Mt. Haleakala, which means “house of the Sun,” on a solar powered bike. Haleakala boasts the steepest road in the world based on vertical climb over distance. Draper chose the annual “Cycle to the Sun” race to test his bike. After starting at the rear of the “human powered” pack, he reached the top of Haleakala in little over three hours, at an average speed of 12 miles per hour. Draper, whose vision is millions of clean, efficient, and affordable solar bikes being used as transportation worldwide, is in the process of pitching his technology to prospective manufacturers and investors.

http://www.hightechmaui.com/htmnews/.../HTM_Spr04.pdf




If this is not a worlds record then tell me who has done better in a ev elevation climb.Who has even made a 6800 ft climb in a EV or on a electric bike? Possibably 2 worlds records here that are documented by a race staff and published. I also have Video documentation of these rides using a single set of batteries and a single charge that was done at my home from SOLAR Power only.. WITHOUT the use of lithium batteries.



Randy

Randy said...

Here is the same Ebike 8 years later after over 35,000 miles on it. The only modfications are 5 pounds of lithium batteries that give a 25 mile range.
http://www.youtube.com/user/LipoEbiker?feature=mhsn#p/a

Randy said...

http://www.youtube.com/user/LipoEbiker?feature=mhsn#p/a

Health News said...

Thank you for introducing me the wonderful information.And .....Totally boring.!

TaurenChieftain said...

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