On Cars, or: Here's a Pretty Sweet E-Bike I Made

I live in Houston, Texas. It is a good example of a sprawling region; practically everyone I know owns and operates a car or truck. It's more or less a necessity. The sidewalks are like afterthoughts and road planning seems nonexistent. Such is life, I'd normally say. It's time to pony up the money for a car, and since I'm not made of that kind of currency, then I should get a credit card and saddle up some debt... but I had a better idea. What if... okay, guys, hold on a second... What if... Guys? Seriously, I have a good idea, c'mon! Okay... Are you ready? Here goes... What if... What if I didn't drive a car?

... ... ... See those ellipses? That's the response I get whenever I mention this idea to people -- a blank stare, with a raised eyebrow if the weather's right. The first question is one of pity: Are you a poor person? Do you need money? And my response is, No, I'm not poor, I would just rather not drive a car. And then they ask, Well, why?

And then I break into a grin. You see, there are so many upsides to not driving a car it's ridiculous:

• Improved health
• Decreased expenses
• Less stress/anxiety
• Ecological responsibility
• Increased solidarity with nature
• I'll just stop now; the above mean a lot to me

And there are so many downsides that what started as a small thought grew into something much, much larger. See, I now ride a bike everywhere.

Well, almost everywhere. I also use public transit and hitch rides from friends who own cars when necessary. For example, there is no bus infrastructure in Spring. If, for some reason, I need to go far north, then I car share. Works out often enough to be sustainable.

But, anywhere else, I try to bike. Popping down to the shops doesn't require a car. I can make the fifteen miles to my campus on a bike. It's fun stuff. Feels good, man. Why would I give up the fresh air and sunshine for a nauseating ride in a box on wheels? (I get carsick. It's not fun.)

Nausea is only one downside to a life with cars. Let's look at more problems! :D

• Maintenance costs
• Inspection costs
• Petrol/gasoline
• Licensing cost (and exam)
• Insurance
• Peace with driving a potential weapon. Not kidding.

Let's say you're an average guy I know and use your car for pretty much everything -- picking up groceries, nabbing the kids, driving around to errands, and the like. Cool. Lot's of people require cars; nothing wrong with that. However, if you're an average guy in my neck of the woods, around my age (19), doing the things I do (e.g. college, groceries, errands), you're looking at the following running costs (in dollars):

• Insurance: 300 monthly (19, male. Sad.)
• Petrol: 125 monthly (people laugh and tell me this estimate is too low.)
• Lease/note: 250 monthly (I sincerely hope you didn't buy a new car)
• Maintenance: 20 monthly? (not quite sure, but kids I know often pick up parts here and there)
• Inspection: 40 annually

Assuming the above costs are more or less accurate, there's somewhere around 8000USD a year going into driving a car. That is, if I decided to get up and start driving tomorrow (or, after I take and pass a driving course and test), I'd be looking at spending 8 kilodollars over the course of a year. That's ridiculous. Even if I somehow found an insurance agent willing to knock my payment down to 200USD, that's a shaving of 1.2 kilodollar. Significant, yes, but still unnecessary.

I say unnecessary because, really, owning a car isn't a necessity for me. The upsides to owning a car aren't enough to make me willingly shell out 6 to 8 kilodollars a year. Speaking of upsides, here are some nice things about cars:

• Safety/security from adverse weather
• Expeditious, comfortable movement (well, not really...)
• Ability to transport others
• Ability to transport others' stuff (like moving homes and whatnot)

And then, when you throw a bike into the mix, the car gains some advantages:

• Arriving at your destination not covered in sweat
• Arriving at your destination comparatively quickly

However, those advantages can be matched. In my case, I leave earlier to arrive on time. And, I take a shower when I know I'll be around other people. I mean, if I'm taking a bike ride to get shots of wildlife on the White Oak Bayou, I don't care if I'm leaving footprints on the pavement. But, if I'll be in classrooms or cubicles with others, I'm definitely allotting time to clean up.

Now, weather is a bit of a different beast. Cold and warmth change with the days, it seems. In the winter, layer up! And in summer? Grab an extra bottle of water. It's not too much of a stretch, but at least it never hails, and sleet is pretty rare.

As far as transporting others? Hasn't been a problem so far... In a city where everyone drives a car, it's easy to find a ride. And, as far as objects go, I'm working a cargo bike in the future. For the present, I have a rear rack and a messenger bike. Again, there hasn't been a problem so far...

Anyway, I kind of touched about motion sickness and comfortable movement. I also mentioned some kinda peace, yeah? Well, I'd rather not drive a ton of metal around. It's scary. If I wanted, I could plow into an establishment, let alone a pedestrian, and cause some massive damage. I'd rather not have that ability; it's quite a bit harder to seriously injure someone on a bike. Not impossible, but not easy, either.

So, with that all out of the way, I had another idea: What if I had an electric bike? I mean, for those occasions where there's no showering available, or I'm incredibly pressed for time... For example, let's say I have a photo shoot to attend across town, and I'll be moving about for four hours, before biking back. Honestly, I'm pretty sure that I don't have the energy to move twenty miles, run around chasing animals (or brides), and then biking back home. That's where an electric bike would come in handy.

Here are my restrictions: no license, no gas, no recurring payments, and no insurance. It's kind of a tall order to find an electric car or motorcycle for less than 1 kilodollar. It's even harder to find something I can drive without a license or registration of insurance or the like.

So, what did I do? I built one.

GNG mid-drive motor, bicycle, laptop batteries, a million zip ties, a gooseload of hot glue, and one of my old road bikes. Most. Excellent.

I'm still working out a few bugs, but the first ride went pretty well. Except, I somehow caused a short and blew five batteries. :x However, I ended up rebuilding them and making the entire deal even better. The bike is now running on a total of 84 18650 cells (that's the model type), in a 12s7p configuration (12 groups in series, each comprised of 7 cells wired in parallel). Each cell has a capacity of 2200 mAh, and a charge of 3.6 volts. The C rate isn't ultra-amazing like some of the hobby LiPo packs on the market, but it's enough to keep me moving at 22mph. Plus, I saved 200USD by salvaging discarded laptop batteries instead of buying a manufactured kit. Heck yeah!

 Here's an image of the aforementioned battery blowouts... The internal battery management system was shot, but the cells are still good, thankfully. So, I ripped it all apart. :D

My initial configuration involved 6 cells in parallel. However, I realized I had enough cells to increase the capacity a tad.

I ended up with 6 packs of 7 cells. Each pack is 15.4 Ah (2.2x7). The total capacity is about 15 amps at 48v.

And finally, here is the end result. 12 packs of 7, yielding 84 cells. Beautiful. They're wired up in two sets of 6s7p (42t) for ease of charging, balancing and management.

I also added some bodywork/fairing and re-routed the wiring. The appearance is neater, and I have far less fear of ripping something loose while on the road. I went from this:

How messy!

To this:

Most. Excellent. I should probably remove my aero bars at this point. Maybe.

I'm never buying a car. :D

My next project involves a sidecar or trailer to haul more batteries for long trips. Like, say, from here to my hometown, which is about 150 miles or so. I'll need to carry about 100Ah at 48v.

Now, if I buy lithium polymer batteries outright, I'll be forking over way too much cash than I'd like. Instead, I'll continue to salvage old batteries, which are full of 18650 cells... meaning I'll need... 50X12... 600 cells! Each laptop battery yields about 6 cells, so I'll need to come up with 100 laptop batteries, then rebuild them.

100. Wow. Thankfully, people throw them out all the time (which is terrible for the environment) and so I can just collect them. So, basically, this is the part where I open up a laptop battery recycle outfit until I end up with, say, 150 batteries -- that leaves a margin of error for totally dead cells and unsafe packs.

Gotta catch 'em all!