Saturday, April 25th

We are finally done! Eli and I met this morning to make some final touches to our presentation, and finish both the presentation for the faculty, as well as the presentation for the senior project assembly. We are feeling a bit sad now that it is all over, but also ready to show our peers what we have done. We can't wait to rock the faculty that didn't see our bikes at the barbeque, and really want to make sure we do a good job. With our hours complete and our bikes ready to go, Eli and I can't wait for this coming week. All in all, this experience was a life changing one, and the decision to do a senior project was one of the best decisions of my life!

Friday, April 24th

Pretty short day today. Eli and I both decided we wanted to go to the senior chapel, so that took a large chunk out of our day. We spent most of the day working on our presentation, but Eli had to leave early for tennis, so we plan to meet this weekend to finish our hours for the project. Reflecting on the senior project, we are both happy and sad that it is over. We are excited to head back to our friends, but no so thrilled to have to sit in class next week. Now is the time we prepare for our presentations to both the students and the faculty. Cant wait!

Thursday, April 23rd

Today was the day. We started off by heading over to Patrick's in the morning to see if the carburetor was securely fastened after a night of drying. Luck was on our side, as it stayed on the whole time. Once we were sure that the carburetor was securely fastened, we spent some ample time riding around the area near Auto Repairs by Patrick. This was to make sure the motor was running correctly, as well as warm it up for our time at Lovett. Once we were sure the motor was ready, we loaded up the bike and said what we hoped would be our last goodbyes to Patrick (DeJaVu), and headed over to Lovett.
Once at Lovett, we had a blast. We arrived during Lower school lunch, where Kindergardeners watched us ride our bikes, and applauded us and screamed. As lunch went on, older lower schoolers came out and began to ask questions, which Eli and I enjoyed answering. It was almost like we were giving lectures, as we had an entire 5th grade class and their teachers surrounding us. Middle schoolers weren't as interested in the bike as we had anticipated, but many still came to ask questions. The fun was when our friends came to lunch and saw what we had built. The best part was being able to show them how they work, as well as the words of admiration from both our peers and teachers. The amount of heads we turned today was amazing. Although, I would have to say my favorite part of the day was lower school lunch. Eli and I figured out that if we rode the bikes once around the circle, kids would come running to figure out what we were riding, and ask many questions. Unfortunately, the question most asked today was, "Can I try it?". Of course not. Based on all the issues Eli and I have had with the bikes, we decided inexperienced riders would put our project in jeopardy.
As lunch came to a close, Eli and I headed to the track to get some footage of us riding the motor bike, which wasn't as reckless as us filming the electric bike. Today was a really fun day, and also important because we realize this is the only opportunity our piers will have to see the bikes work in person. As much as we would like to, I don't think the tech crew would be so hot about us rolling our bikes onto the stage. One day left, and Eli and I are satisfied with our work. We plan to work on the presentation both tomorrow and this weekend.

Wednesday, April 22nd

Long day today. To start our day, we went to Patrick's to try to fix our bike. However, when we arrived, Patrick wasn't there, only his son. We talked to his son for a while and asked him if he had any suggestions. Unfortunately, James told us that Patrick knew way more about carburetors than he did. However, he did make a suggestion about the spark plug. He suggested removing it while waiting for Patrick in order to let to motor dry out, as there may have been too much gas in there. After about 45 minutes, Patrick arrived, and we began to look into the carburetor. Patrick suggested many different methods to try and attach the carburetor, but none of them worked. The real issue is that the carburetor is not very high quality. At some points we were able to get the bike started and ride it, but when we switched it into idle and reved the engine, the carburetor would shake off. Eli and I realized we may just have to make due with reattaching the carburetor after every ride. For the most part, the carburetor stays on, its just when it is in idle that we run into some issues. Patrick had one final idea where we glued the actual screw of the carburetor to keep it from unscrewing. With the glue applied, Eli and I planned to leave it overnight to dry, and we will check back in the morning before the outdoor bar b que.
Next, Eli and I decided to get some footage on the electric bike to try and show people what it looks like to ride it. We did this because we realize that we will not be able to bring the bikes on stage with us when we present the bikes, so the videos we make will hopefully suffice. Though it was a little reckless, I got in my car and rode along Eli on the bike, filming on my phone. Surprisingly, it was kind of tough to keep up with Eli because of how agile he was on the bike. We plan to incorporate this into our presentations.
After we finished filming, Eli and I headed to Starbucks for some more work. We began by compiling our final list of expenses. We soon realized that we may have misplaced some of our receipts. Luckily, we only used credit cards, so hopefully we can outline exactly what we spent on our bikes. We then began work on our presentation to the faculty. We discussed for a while about how to actually present. We debated going through our project by day, week, etc. We have decided to basically focus on the gas powered bike, then the electric bike, then compare the two. This would include showing our stats for each bike, which one is easier to ride, discussing the actual assembly of the bike, and so on.
With two days left in our senior project, Eli and I are feeling both relieved and sad to be finishing up. We are glad to finally have something to show for our work, but will miss getting down to business in the mechanic shop. We are both really excited to be at the outdoor bar b que tomorrow, and really want the students to see what we have done. We are still debating if we should let people ride the bikes or not. I guess we will find out tomorrow!

Tuesday, April 21st

Another fun day with the motor bikes! Today, we began our day by going to second period at 8 AM. After that, we went to Eli's house, where we planned to ride the bikes. However, the batteries for the electric bike weren't completely charged yet, so we decided to get organized on our reimbursements while we waited for the batteries to charge. We made a list of what we spent, and had receipts to match them. Once the electric bike was full, and the gas bike was fueled, we decided to ride our bikes to Lovett from Eli's house. Eli lives across the street from New York Pizza Exchange, so Lovett is about a mile away. This was definitely the most fun part of the day because of how much we were accepted on the road. Eli and I slowly inched our way onto the road, but expected cars to swerve past us and give us a mean look. Surprisingly, our bikes were actually able to keep up with the cars, and stay at a pace where the cars felt no need to pass us. Today, I was on the motor bike, and I can tell you from experience that there is nothing like riding a gas powered motorized bike. The sound it made as I rolled through Vinings was amazing.
Once we made it to Lovett, we headed down to the track, and this is where we had issues. We decided to time the bike on the straight part of the track and figure out how fast the bike was going. We used the electric bike first, which clocked a time of 8.9 seconds for a hundred meter distance. However, when we tried the gas powered bike, we had some difficulty getting it started. We couldn't figure out what was wrong, but the motor would turn on, then cut off. We were able to get somewhat of a reading on it once Eli made a few adjustments to the bike. However, eventually the bike shut off again. After about two hours of riding the bikes and tinkering with the gas powered bike, we figured out the problem. The carburetor was not securely fastened to the bike, and therefore was slipping loose on the motor. This may seem like a simple fix, but Eli and I actually foresaw this issue coming. When we were assembling the bike, we realized the clamp holding down the carburetor was not nearly sufficient enough, but we thought it would work out since the clamp was standard for the kit. However, as we learned today, this was not the case. We spent time at Eli's house coming up with ways around the issue, but eventually subjected to calling Patrick. We plan to meet with him tomorrow.
After we found what we thought was a solution to the issue, Eli and I talked about the day. We went over what we discovered today, including distance lasted on each bike, speed of each bike, and issues with each bike. We then planned our day for tomorrow and hope we are able to fix the bike. Pretty awesome day until the carburetor incident.

Monday, April 20th

Today was awesome! We finally know for a fact that we created two fully functional motor bikes. Our day began bright and early when we went to Patrick's. Once there he looked at the oil we bought, and helped us figure out how to mix the oil and gas. Our two packs of two stroke motor oil eventually ended up being mixed in with half a gallon of gasoline, which we bought at a gas station near Patrick's. We then put the fuel mixture into the fuel tank and fooled around with the bike. We watched other videos to make sure we had the starting method down, then took to the road right outside Patrick's. We noticed our gas bike is a little more difficult to operate than the electric bike, but not too hard to figure out. Basically, to start the motor, you have to get going on the bike up to a good speed, then release the clutch, and the motor kicks into gear. When you want to remain idle, you can pull the clutch back in and lock it in place. It is so awesome.
Once we figured out how to ride the bike, which goes rather fast by the way, we said our goodbyes to Patrick, as our work with him was complete. We then loaded the bikes into my truck and headed over to Piedmont Park. Our initial plan was cut short when we were told that we weren't allowed to ride motor bikes in the park. I was able to get away with it on the electric bike, but Eli's was way too loud to be inconspicuous. However, this wasn't really an issue due to all the neighborhoods surrounding Piedmont Park. We rode the bikes for a good while in the surrounding neighborhoods and streets trying to get a feel for the bikes. We want to have experience when talking about our bikes, saying we have actually ridden them in the city and they are quite practical. One major thing I noticed today was when Eli and I stopped for lunch, we were able to pull our bikes right up to the door instead of having to look for a parking spot in the full parking lot. The bikes also lasted a lot longer than we expected. One major thing we noticed is that the bikes should really be used as an assist system. By this I mean that the rider should still pedal at all times, but use the motors for help. Using just the motors to get around, though fun, uses a good amount of fuel/energy, especially when going up hills.
Once our bikes were dead, Eli and I spent a good amount of time going over what we had learned, how to best present this information, and our plan for tomorrow. All in all, it was a really good day. Today was by far the most fun day of our project yet, and I can't wait for what is in store for tomorrow. One of the most fun parts about today is the amount of heads we turned when rolling by on our bikes. People were astonished at what we were riding, and we think they wished they had some motor bikes of their own.

Sunday, April 19th

Eli and I are ready for this week. We met today at Carribou coffee to make plans for what exactly we want to do this week. We originally planned to try out the gas bike today, but Patrick was out of town, and returns late tonight. So, instead we made somewhat of a schedule for the week. Some major things we want to accomplish this week are both efficiency testing as well as filming a commercial for the bicycles. We plan to go to piedmont park tomorrow and ride the bikes around to get a grip on things. We want to make sure they work fine, and want to see how they fare in the turain of Piedmont park. Also, we plan to actually ride our bikes to Lovett this week. We want to do this to show that the bikes are capable of getting someone to school/work in a timely fashion. We are going to be recording how much energy/fuel we use and analyze the costs of each one to show that it is cheaper to ride one of our bikes instead of driving a car. All in all, it should be a really fun week filled with lots of information. The part of the week we are perhaps most excited for is the Earth Day outdoor bar b q where we plan to showcase our bikes. We are both excited to finally wrap up our senior project, and hope this week goes according to plan. If all goes well, we should finish up our week ready to present to the school as well as the senior project committee.