Wedneday, April 8th

Wednesday, April 8th

Building day 1 was a blast! Turns out all the boring research that Eli and I did last week paid off. To begin our day, Eli and I arrived at Auto Repairs by Patrick bright and early. Once there, we finally got to start on the much anticipated building of the bicycle. We decided to begin by building our electric motor first. So, we went to work. To start off, I should probably explain our electric motor. Contrary to what some may believe, our electric "Motor" is actually a bicycle wheel. The wheel is a standard 26'' frame, and it has a long cord hanging out from one side. The cord actually connects to a battery pack that is also attached to the bicycle. The battery pack provides the wheel with power, and the wheel spins on its own when power is initiated. So, to begin building, we first had to remove the original rear wheel from the bicycle, which was done with some heavy wrenching, and untangling of the bike chain. Eventually, after removing the brakes and kickstand to make way for the tire, we secured the tire onto the back with the chain attached. 

Next is where we encountered a little trouble. By disconnecting the breaks, we had essentially loosened them, and could not figure out how to tighten them. We decided to leave them be and fix them later, but of course the next part we had to install was the brake handles that came with our kit. These brake handles were specially modified for our bike kit. When squeezed, the brake handles both slowed down the tires as well as cut off power to the rear wheel. So, we went to work removing the original brakes as well as the grips on the handle bars. Once removed, we encountered another slight problem. Our kit also came with custom hand grips, one of which is the "on" switch for the battery pack, as well as a throttle. However, our bicycle had multiple gears, and included a gear changer situated on the right handlebar. We soon realized that the brake handle, gear changer and bike handle would not all fit. After some discussion, we decided we needed the gear shifter on the bicycle in order to enable it to be ridden as a normal bicycle. Therefore, we actually moved it to the other handlebar. This worked fine, but we realized the gear shifter was upside down. However, we had no where else to put it, so upside down it remains. 

Once we attached the brake handles, we soon realized we had to connect the brake cords to the handles. This required the reinstallation of our removed brake lines. Much time was spent figuring out how to readjust the brake lines in a way that they were tight and stopped the wheels from moving. After much tinkering, we soon realized we needed to look it up, but had no access to our computers. Therefore, priority number one tomorrow is to fix the brakes. 

The building is going extremely well. However, the instructions we received are very poor quality, and low in detail. So, we also must try to find a more substantial instruction sheet or video, which I am sure we will. If not, we have Patrick to help out, as he did a lot today. I am so ecstatic to finally be building our bicycles, and cannot wait to finish the first one. If all goes as planned, we should be done with the electric one tomorrow, and can hopefully start on the gas powered motor. All in all, it was a very productive, successful day.