It's too bad their website doesn't state the number of links. For that matter, it's too bad it gives specs only on latest models.

When I count links, I measure the inches to check my count. Each inch is two links.

If it really were longer than Rad said, I'd put it back on the bike, around the biggest rear sprocket, and see if it would pull together with 120 links.

The problem is so common among modern bikes that I've seen videos where experts say you need to practice taking one hand off the bar on a deserted road so that if you need to take your hand off the bar to signal or for some other reason, you wouldn't crash.

It was so severe with my Radrunner 1 that until I modified it, I had tennis elbow from trying to control it when I had to take one hand off the bar to signal. The biggest problem was the seat position. The pavement around here is rough, so I needed to stabilize my upper body. With only one hand on the bars, it took tremendous torsion on my elbow to brace myself while keeping the bar straight. It wasn't safe.

Moving the seat back several inches fixed that. Now I could brace with my feet against the pedals, making control with one hand easy and safer. I could even ride with no hands, but I didn't like it. There were other problems.

When a bike tips, the contact patch tire of the tire moves to that side of the tire's centerline, and that pulls the bars to that side. With no hands, that could cause a crash if it pulled the handlebars too far. Trail counteracts that tendency. My Radrunner has 6 cm of trail. That would be fine for a tire an inch wide, the Radrunner tires are 3.3 inches wide. I think more trail would make it safer.

Then there's head angle, the angle of the steering axis from horizontal. The farther it is from 90 degrees, the more turning the handlebars moves the contact patch in that direction, with respect to the rider more than with respect to the tire's centerline. Leaning with no hands can cause the contact patch to move just far enough to bring the bike vertical and return the steering to it's original direction. It's a sort of autopilot.

My Radrunner 1 has a 70 degree steering head angle. There's not much autopilot effect, and if it started to turn sharply I'd need to grab the bars fast, not only to steer but to stabilize myself. For some reason, steering heads these days are often even steeper.

I grew up with English bikes having a 66-degree head angle. Turning required a bit of countersteering to get the contact patches out from under me so I could lean. On the way back from the municipal pool I'd come down a side street with a grade of about 20%. On a bicycle, that seemed a bit like freefall. The stop sign at the bottom required heavy use of the brakes. They were rim calipers, so cooling was excellent. It would have been dangerous with a coaster brake.

I used to spare my brakes by grabbing two corners of my towel with each hand and holding it behind my head like the parachute on a dragster. When it opened at that speed, it would jerk me. The bike would continue straight until I provided handlebar input. It was a far more effective air brake than initially expected. I needed only a little use of the calipers as I approached the stop sign.

I think head angle is the most import factor in hands-free riding, but changing forks would not have changed your head angle. Your front tire may look well inflated, but I think its pressure is lower than when you used to ride hands free. With less pressure, the contact patch on that fat tire would move farther from side to side as the bike tipped, and that would pull the handlebars in that direction. As you say, squirrely.

Quote from: Radio Runner on September 27, 2023, 11:00:25 AM
Should also be said that the best rust protection is a properly maintained chain. Lube it every 2 weeks in the winter and once a month in the summer ?1 drop of quality chain lube per link , then wipe off the side plates.

Do not use motor oil, or anything from the kitchen or sewing machine.

I use a 30cc squeeze bottle with a 20-gauge needle to apply Finish Line. A dab of yellow acrylic paint marks a starting point, stays indefinitely, and with dry lube, stays clean. A couple of zip ties mark a section so I can be sure not to miss any joints. The orange zip tie is at the painted starting point. When the joints between are lubed, I'll pull the orange, roll the chain back, put the orange perhaps ten inches to the right of the yellow tie, and lube the joints between. I wear a magnifier to see for sure that I got a drop on each joint. A chain takes 5 or 10 ml, so I can get 10 or 20 jobs from a 100 ml bottle.

Afterwards, I squirt the rest from my dispenser back into the retail bottle. I put soapy water in the dispenser and squirt it through the needle so it won't end up clogged with teflon. I use a soft paper towel to wipe the sides, top, and bottom of the chain.

Finish Line is said to be obsolete. The manufacturer says it lasts up to 100 miles. Some users say your chain will start clattering after 2 hours of riding. Others say water will was away the teflon immediately.

My experience has been quite different. I first applied it because the OEM lube on my Radrunner was grimy, which wasn't good for the chain or my pants. I think I cleaned it with WD-40 first. The Radrunner chain felt and sounded better than I remembered when it was new. I applied it to my Radmission chain within the first 50 miles and found that it ran more smoothly and quietly than new.

Because my chains have kept running well, I tend to forget lubrication for months at a time and probably more than a thousand miles, winter and summer, on wet pavement and dry. When I remember to relube, I like to think there's an improvement, but it's too small to be sure. What's more, I've seen spots of rust on only three or four rails and no joints.

Finish Line is essentially teflon dissolved in heptane; I'll bet there's something else for corrosion resistance and to help the teflon stick. Heptane is less viscous than water. That helps it wick into cracks, but if there's enough to drip, what's on the chain will be wicked to the forming drip, leaving only a very thin film and whatever additives are in that film. By not applying enough to drip, I think I leave a thicker film, containing more teflon and corrosion inhibitor, and I don't wash away the existing protection. Heptane has a higher vapor pressure than water, so it dries faster. I give it a couple of minutes to dry before wiping off any "soot" that the application brought to the surface. (Maybe in the future I'll wait at least an hour to wipe.)

In 2021 I removed my skid plate to install a 35-amp controller. I didn't find it in my parts box.

I read somewhere that the skid plate protects the OEM controller from water. I haven't had any trouble since I sealed my aftermarket controller with RTV.

Yes, it's the orange connector. At Amazon, it looks tricky to buy one that will work for sure. Maybe there's a better source.

https://amzn.to/3T9jAvV

I think this might work. It has 120 links and has been certified against salt corrosion.

The bike came with KMC z7, which is the standard size for 6, 7, and 8 speeds. The rails on this chain seem to be of a thicker gauge steel. They call it KMC 6/7, which seems to mean it might be too wide for 8 speeds. They say it's fine for 7.

Quote from: JimInPT on September 26, 2023, 11:18:07 AM

Anyway, everything was fine until my lantern guy was run down by a locomotive sneaking up from behind.  Nailed the lantern too, so I'm scrooed.

Ride around the golf course and chat with caddies. With shorter playing hours, most of them will jump at a chance to moonlight and gladly purchase a lantern.

Quote from: Radding Along on September 25, 2023, 07:41:29 PM
Mission batteries can only be used in the Mission.

I knew my Radmission battery wouldn't back up my Radrunner, but I was sure it propelled the bike forward when I turned the throttle.

To be sure I understood you, I went out to the garage and put my Radmission battery in my Radrunner.

As before, I had to back it up manually. As before, it moved briskly forward when I turned the throttle.

What am I doing wrong?

Do I need to remove some screws?

Quote from: JimInPT on September 25, 2023, 02:37:53 PM


My main headlight is a Planet Bike 800 rechargeable, almost exclusively used in slow-strobe mode for daytime visibility.  Highly recommended.  I was hoping that yellow one would be a good backup for nighttime use just in case, because where I live, if the moon's not up after dark, it's farkin' DARK outside.  The stock (and "Premium"... hah) headlights are actually dangerous in that condition, where you'd be in the pothole, or critter, before you spotted it.

You may be unaware of the law. Unless on rails, a locomotive must have somebody with a lantern walk at least 60 yards ahead. That should allow ample braking distance if he spots a critter or a pothole and flags you down. It was repealed when motor vehicles came along, but an ebike is not a motor vehicle.

Quote from: JimInPT on September 25, 2023, 08:43:21 AM

Will only work with stock 200 lumen headlight, will not work with the 500 Lumen headlights. THE 500 will burn up your controller.

Sigh.

My rechargeable has a 5.8 AH, 3.7 V battery, or about 21.46 watt hours. The manufacturer says it will run 4 hours on high. That would be more than 5 watts. I think a modern Cree bulb will typically produce 100 lumens per watt, so it's probably about 500 lumens. I can adjust the beam height as I ride, and unlike a carbide lamp, it won't burn my fingers.

Quote from: Naranja_CT5+ on September 25, 2023, 07:37:48 AM

Quote from: handlebar on September 24, 2023, 05:11:04 PM
Still, a device like this could be useful in a power failure.

Doing a quick Google search.
I found this https://www.goalzero.com/collections/portable-power

The Growatt has a LiFEPO4 battery, for a much longer service life and safer operation. The 200 W panel will charge it in 2.5 hours of full sun. I might get 2.5 hours even on a day when the sun kept going behind clouds. In the middle of day, an overcast sky is sometimes bright. I don't know if a solar panel could provide some charging under a bright overcast sky.

Twenty years ago, I was without electricity for a week. However, as it was just my neighborhood, I could have recharged at somebody's house. Solar charging wouldn't have helped ten years ago, when the neighborhood was out from 6 PM to 10 AM. A unit like this would have given me 16 watts for a fan, 7 watts for a light bulb, 10 watts for my modem, and 30 watts for my computer and monitor (which drops to 1 watt if the computer is idle for a few minutes).

My refrigerator compressor uses 110 watts. The defroster uses 325. Years ago I measured the watt-hours per day, but I can't find my record of it. I'm remeasuring. If I run out of food that doesn't need cooking, my 3-quart Instant Pot will cook efficiently or heat water for coffee. Still, if I want to cook and refrigerate during an outage that lasts more than 4 hours, I should buy a bigger unit.

The week-long outage was in freezing weather. The blower on my furnace takes 600 watts. With a duty cycle of about 30% in the coldest weather, it's way oversized. Blower wattage increases as the cube of the volume blown. If I got a furnace with 25% less capacity, blower wattage would drop about 60%. If I want to stay comfortable in a winter outage, I should get a smaller furnace.

How wide is your tire?

I grew up riding a Raleigh Sport labeled A B Jackson. Jackson manufactured a few 50cc motorcycles as a cover to smuggle Raleighs labeled as boxes of motorcycle parts. Their tires were 1-3/8 x 26, inflated to 4 bar (60 psi).

There was frost in the pavement one November evening when it rained. The result was a layer of wet ice. I was 14. The city streets were deserted when I rode a few blocks to a friend's house. After I dismounted, I slipped and broke my coccyx. Nobody was home. I guess the impassable roads had stranded the family. Stepping carefully, I remounted and rode home without incident.

Riding a good bike on wet ice is dangerous. It can lull the rider into thinking the ice would be safe to walk on.  I guess those tires had a higher loading (more bars against the pavement) than my shoes, which were much wider. If I didn't go too fast, the tires could push through the water film and get some grip on the ice.

I found a flaw in the Growatt power station, too. The weight might be feasible to travel off the grid, but I don't know how big the folded panel is.

Actually, envisioned it as an uninterruptible power supply with a much larger capacity and much longer service life than a consumer lead-acid UPS. The advertising says it switches on in 20ms after the mains power fails. What they don't say is that its outlets are dead until it switches on. Until the power failed, I'd have to plug my stuff into a wall outlet.

Still, a device like this could be useful in a power failure.

Quote from: pbirm on September 24, 2023, 03:08:51 PM
@Radding Along

How do you know that the controller shouldn't be screwed back in place?  What issues does this cause?

I'm interested, too. I see these controllers are mounted in dead-air spaces. My aftermarket controller cases have cooling fins, and they're mounted in the breeze. Maybe the dead air circulates around these new Radpower controllers better if they aren't screwed down.

Quote from: Mtolesen on September 24, 2023, 10:00:13 AM
Thank you for further info handelbar.
I may have found out what the problem could be, it i like when i activate the rear brake, one end of one of the brake pad, do not reach the disc, meaning that the two brake pads on each side of the disc, only use a part of surface to brake, and that limit the brake power.......if this  make sense......i need to try to adjust this.

My rear Radrunner brake came from the factory misaligned that way. I didn't realize it because I didn't understand the Radpower's instructions to check and adjust the alignment.

My method is simple. Slightly loosen the two allen screws that hold the caliper to the bike. Reach through the spokes with an allen bit on a long shaft and tighten the adjustment screw so that the inside pad clamps the rotor against the outside pad. Because the caliper can move with the screws loose, this will align it so the pads hit the rotor flat. Then back off a little so the wheel will turn freely.

The caliper is no longer clamping the rotor, so it could move out of alignment when you tighten the screws. That's why I lash the lever to the handlebar. That keeps the caliper clamped to the rotor while I tighten the screws.