481 keep the battery charged

Recently I've been thinking about changing the name of this blog, to The Weird Report. What do you think? 

In the meantime, it's time for another Bike & Battery special.

Safe, I have no idea. Right sized, I think so. Definitely a step closer to the ride I imagined in my book Self-Driving Mystery.

It's also very far from being built. Still, Puneet Nagi, if you're reading this, nice work on the design!

Overkill? This Biktrix Juggernaut XD features a 2000 watt mid-mount motor. They put two chains on it to handle the power without stripping out the gears.


2000 watts is only 2.5 horsepower, but that's a sick amount of power for an 80lb vehicle. Plus it has something like over 200 ft lbs of torque. This is basically designed for a very heavy person, or someone towing a trailer, or?

This company set out to build a delivery robot, then realized people were walking up to it and trying to buy stuff. So they added a credit card reader, and turned it into a mobile store. Both use cases require city permits, so they're mostly going to park the robots in front of stores to do after hours vending. 

So basically, one of these, with a credit card reader instead of a coin mechanism.

Yes, I'm still trying to figure out why I don't have VC funding for any of my bonehead ideas.

Really, I don't need to say more. Except, I also want self-driving bicycles.

The Netherlands has one ebike for every three adults. And growing.

Looks like I'm sliding into the right demographic for pedal assist.

It's been pretty well proven at this point that expanding roads only leads to more congestion. But I didn't know this.

Wasting money on old car-centric infrastructure is actually damaging the economy of places that are building roads.

Now, that could be just the income gap widening in growing areas, but I don't think so.

Or it could be both. Either way, unless you're at the top of the economic ladder, you might consider voting for public transit expansion.

Or even if you are.

Reading about the propaganda Russians are faced with while invading Ukraine reminds me of, well, the propaganda we get when we invade another country.

Russians are being told this is a patriotic peace keeping mission to free Ukraine from Nazis. 

Meanwhile...

Hmmm... What is really going on?



Well, it turns out they can't really make enough vehicles to keep up with demand, anyway.

Even at close to $100k.


Be safe, and keep the battery charged. But only to 80%, if you want the longest battery life.

Also, don't blame your neighbor just because driving is annoying.

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