Long distance rides?

[B Bassett]

There is so much nonsense being spoken and regurgitated here that it's not worth the bother really. If it's not a Class-1 or Class-2 ebike, if it requires a license... if you'd rather walk away from it if/when it breaks down (or runs out of gas) because it can't be ridden like a bicycle then it's a motorcycle, electric or smoker nothing else, and should be relegated to riding in traffic or up and down a driveway. What makes it difficult to answer questions here is that there are so many "opinions" backed in nothing. From worthless suspension seat posts to long travel forks, to down-hill frames when discussing long-distance rides. I have ridden across America on motorcycles 5 times... each way and it means nothing other than the memories. Fill the tank, kick her over, and twist the throttle... real hard. Anyone ever heard of Neil Peart? He used his motorcycle as a therapy to learn how to live with what life threw in his face. Many, many miles. For those of you that want to ride an ebike for touring keep contacting me in messages. Those of you that want to sit, suck up fumes and, and go to sleep with your ears ringing... all I can say is Ride Safe.

 

[FurryOnTheInside]

But you cant pedal a motorcycle or car when it breaks down either, so you should ride only up and down your driveway so you don't to have to walk it home?
We weren't talking about making a bike that breaks down on a 100 mile ride and needs to be pedalled home anyway. We are just chatting about what features we would all individually like to have on our bike for longer rides.
We never need to cause bother to anyone with our little petrol engine, and that is another fun and valid way to ride your bike.

It is too easy to make a 100 mile capable bike to even need a discussion lol, but its harder and much more interesting and specific and individual and interesting (again) to make it for your needs and tastes, and be comfortable for your body and your specific terrain like decent roads or long distance cross country routes.
Do you have any needs and tastes, beyond the compulsion to always have the correct permissions and paperwork on your person, or is that the biggest pleasure of cycling?

Comfort came up and was discussed in the various ways that it can possibly be achieved, like fat tyres on rigid bikes, or narrow tyres and suspended, or keeping the chassis rigid and only suspending the contact points.
Some examples were shown of the parts we have to hand.
Yes it is true that you dont need a 9" travel downhill frame or 4"+ fat tyres for riding roads on any bicycle for any distance, but we are carrying significant extra mass attached to the bike frame and usually not trying to spend all day getting there. Adding up the extra weight we need extra heft to carry it, all te way through the build it's just getting bigger and heavier and more rigid as we bolt all these extras in/on there.

Whether it is huge batteries for the whole way, or a wide 79cc 4 stroke, or a cute light 69cc 2 stroke with a front wheel geared hub motor and smaller batteries on the fork there is still a bunch of heavy stuff that needs supporting and carrying safely. Remember snapping your pannier racks and using some bungee or straw bale string to fix them mid ride?

We can reduce our motor weight to reduce the mounting parts weight, and reduce the power we need.
We can also use mixed technologies like to 30% of the way on stealthy eleccy where necessary, 65 on petrol and the rest we just pedal and coast, and make it in a few hours. A much reduced weight bike should not need as much suspension.

All of these are valid options but all also need some thought about how to carry them in a practical arrangement that is safe from inertial forces during 100 miles of vertical shocks.

All-electric is the heaviest option by far and that is somewhat impractical because of the inertia and exponential heft growth thing. It doesn't mean there is no middle ground, or moderate level, or mixtures of these elements.

You want to be confident of not breaking your bike or battery or motor or cargo mounts literally from the strain. So you add more weight in the form of stronger frame and strong battery mounts and strong wheels and thicker tyres to support a traffic extra weight. Then it keeps on expanding exponentially to support itself, just like the water/food/fuel/clothes did when you were the only motor on the bike.. then the extra rigidity of the frame and cargo mounts and stuff can add up and ruin the comfort too.

Go too slowly and your butt gets tired of all the saddle time.

So consider the soft suspension to really cushion the vertical forces as you mount kerbs, rumble down rocky roads and traverse farmyards on your winding way. Its only going to make it easier to carry the enormous frame-straining loads without slowing to a crawl.

It used to be a problem to have long travel suspension on a road touring bike because of pedalling inefficiently for hours, and weight compared with "real" touring bicycles.
It used to cost £6000+ for a serious DH bike anyway; but now you're motorised and now those bike parts are affordable because they are really old tech now. The bouncy pedalling inefficiency is not even a problem with the motor/s doing all the work.

Trendy fatbikes and "expedition" tourers are the current boutique bikes for the upper class with the image and stupid price. I'm sure they're just the thing for a credit card carrying gap year Himalayas vacation silk road explorer, pedalling it entirely by himself and spending his evenings blogging trendily lol, but once you add things like engine mounts and battery carriers into them they're going to ride just as dead and arse numbing as anything we can build for half the cost and with plenty of true long distance assistance.
We can build "normal looking" bikes for riding less than 50 miies in reasonable comfort and quick enough to not miss dinner or get too sore, even using all-electric which I think is fantastic! I would rather it felt like feather bed though.

 

[BuzzardII]

 

[B Bassett]

But you cant pedal a motorcycle when it breaks down either...

Class-1 or 2 ebike. 2nd sentence.
I forgot to add that if you think riding an ebike is effortless your wrong. (Add whatever emoji you think best suits)

 

[Wrench]

 

[FurryOnTheInside]

Yeah I wonder what it's like to ride a bike.

There is absolutely no need for it to be pleasant to pedal without assistance if you never ever have to, the sun is shining the birds are chirping and nobody is checking that you brought the right licence for your bicycle.

Despite my being in my very last summer on Earth, I am not riding my bikes at all now or going outside ever. I think I went to the ATM about four or five weeks ago on my electric moped styled bike. It is a lot of effort just to bring the heavily built bike outside the front door. A few doors to pass through and a step, and its so damn heavy with all that bike heft need to support all the heft to support the lead without relying on decent suspension technologies lol. I collapse onto the bike every time, feeling nauseous and spent. Put my gloves on and then it is amazing to be carried places under the motors effort and not mine.

I do want a nicer, comfier bike to ride longer distances on, and lighter bike to move around the house, and lift onto its rear wheel to manoeuvre it and stuff.

My original 2 stroke build is better for a completely healthy person. I think it will be a bit too hard to ride on for me soon.. I need a comfy cushioned chair now lol. Just the motor saves you 95% of the effort of riding. More if its windy!
Then what I need on a super comfy long distance ride is stableness, and being in between a long wheelbase, and damping that absorbs much of the bump energy stopping it from going to your body where you get shaken up and down and get tired.




The extremely long unedited rant due to dexamethasone lol! . Been in isolation for ten weeks, no in-person contact with family or friends or palliative care nurses that used to come. Just staring at the bikes and bits, reading bike forums and ordering loads of small parts from that flea market auction app. for the builds going on inside my head, as I stare across the coffee table to the stack of embryonic bikes, on the rather-too-psychedelic meds.
Covid 19 is too immediately fatal for someone in my condition who values his last summer to do a few last somethings before I go so I dont see anyone or go anywhere. So I just sit in my smelly living room and have failing organs. I'm not getting any cancer treatment anymore but only the trippy steroids to reduce my extremely dangerous brain swelling. Its the most visually psychedelic thing they've put me on and also feels like I'm riding on the top of a jumbo jet, all day, every day.
I spend my time thinking about the things I CAN do while I am alive and homestuck, but not doing them. I have been throwing away some old crap, things I'm sure wont be needed again.
Its like I'm moving home, but out of the world, so I cant take all my stuff and wont need Christmas decorations etc, but its kinda really heartbreakingly sad doing that, and I should leave it for my relatives I suppose. It will all have to go, though!
I can try to leave a few really nice things in the world. Like the sickest collection of bikes.
I was worried about that. Things that i know what they need to become, are in pieces and only I know how they're supposed to go together. I need to complete them. I have half the parts for a dozen different bikes and only one combination is the correct one to make the awesome builds in my head.
Mail is delayed or lost or something which is frustrating as hell because of my terminal illness and obviously it isnt helpful to recieve the parts just as I become too sick to even ride a motorised bike!
All the builds I want to do before I "graduate" need some thing that is either stuck in China or that it's just too late to bother ordering from the USA now the mail is so delayed. I really need another shift kit.

I was riding to and then up the river path to get to the hospital twice every month most of last year. I always leave late and take ages to get the emoped out of the apartment and by the time I got on it I'm not feeling well at all. I still needed to hurry though, so being able to pedal along with the electric motor, adding some oomph when needed but really letting the electricity do nearly all the work is amazing.
There is absolutely no need for it to be pleasant to pedal without assistance if you never ever have to. No need to carry a licence either. Permission is a made up concept not an actual thing that exists.
It is electric direct hub drive bike and that's reliable enough with its three moving parts on the whole bike.
I think the electric powered bike is the best things that you can have ready for when your health fails. You don't always get a lot of warnings.

 

[B Bassett]

I am really struggling with my health.

I'm sorry to hear about what you're going through. I understand completely. Getting old can be painful in many ways. Keep your head up and keep thinking of the future.

 

[Wrench]

Yeah I wonder what it's like to ride a bike.

There is absolutely no need for it to be pleasant to pedal without assistance if you never ever have to, and nobody is checking that you brought the right licence for your bicycle.

I dont ride bikes now. Despite my being in my very last summer on Earth, I am not riding my bikes at all now or going outside ever. I think I went to the ATM about four or five weeks ago on my electric moped styled bike.
It is a lot of effort just to bring the heavily built bike outside the front door. A few doors to pass through and a step, and its so damn heavy with all that bike heft need to support all the heft to support the lead without relying on decent suspension technologies lol. I collapse onto the bike every time, feeling nauseous and spent. Put my gloves on and then it is amazing to be carried places under the motors effort and not mine.

I do want a nicer, comfier bike to ride longer distances on, and lighter bike to move around the house, and lift onto its rear wheel to manoeuvre it and stuff.

My original 2 stroke build is better for a completely healthy person. I think it will be a bit too hard to ride on for me soon.. I need a comfy cushioned chair now lol. Just the motor saves you 95% of the effort of riding. More if its windy!
Then what I need on a super comfy long distance ride is stableness, and being in between a long wheelbase, and damping that absorbs much of the bump energy stopping it from going to your body where you get shaken up and down and get tired.




The extremely long unedited rant due to dexamethasone lol! . Been in isolation for ten weeks, no in-person contact with family or friends or palliative care nurses that used to come. Just staring at the bikes and bits, reading bike forums and ordering loads of small parts from that flea market auction app. for the builds going on inside my head, as I stare across the coffee table to the stack of embryonic bikes, on the rather-too-psychedelic meds.
Covid 19 is too immediately fatal for someone in my condition who values his last summer to do a few last somethings before I go so I dont see anyone or go anywhere. So I just sit in my smelly living room and have failing organs. I'm not getting any cancer treatment anymore but only the trippy steroids to reduce my extremely dangerous brain swelling. Its the most visually psychedelic thing they've put me on and also feels like I'm riding on the top of a jumbo jet, all day, every day.
I spend my time thinking about the things I CAN do while I am alive and homestuck, but not doing them. I have been throwing away some old crap, things I'm sure wont be needed again.
Its like I'm moving home, but out of the world, so I cant take all my stuff and wont need Christmas decorations etc, but its kinda really heartbreakingly sad doing that, and I should leave it for my relatives I suppose. It will all have to go, though!
I can try to leave a few really nice things in the world. Like the sickest collection of bikes.
I was worried about that. Things that i know what they need to become, are in pieces and only I know how they're supposed to go together. I need to complete them. I have half the parts for a dozen different bikes and only one combination is the correct one to make the awesome builds in my head.
Mail is delayed or lost or something which is frustrating as hell because of my terminal illness and obviously it isnt helpful to recieve the parts just as I become too sick to even ride a motorised bike!
All the builds I want to do before I "graduate" need some thing that is either stuck in China or that it's just too late to bother ordering from the USA now the mail is so delayed. I really need another shift kit.

I was riding to and then up the river path to get to the hospital twice every month most of last year. I always leave late and take ages to get the emoped out of the apartment and by the time I got on it I'm not feeling well at all. I still needed to hurry though, so being able to pedal along with the electric motor, adding some oomph when needed but really letting the electricity do nearly all the work is amazing.
There is absolutely no need for it to be pleasant to pedal without assistance if you never ever have to. No need to carry a licence either. Permission is a made up concept not an actual thing that exists.
It is electric direct hub drive bike and that's reliable enough with its three moving parts on the whole bike.
I think the electric powered bike is the best things that you can have ready for when your health fails. You don't always get a lot of warnings.

Your strength is admirable you face such challenges with bravery and beauty.
Your bravery is inspiring. Wishing you joy

 

[FurryOnTheInside]

I have to keep building and then go riding.
I am not going to survive to see the end of the pandemic and nobody cares whether my wattage was technically legal before the apocalypse started.

But also if anyone has any ideas about how specifically they would build a nice bike for all-day-long rides that was a fun subject too!

How about long wheelbase? Longtail bikes?
Its only the distance to the rear hub that is giving you the impression of less jittery bumps, but it is comfier, and the power is being put through a rigid frame so it shouldn't lose much efficiency. Turning is slower on longer bikes, and that can be good up to a point. Where is the point?
I want to be able to manoeuvre the bike quickly enough to dodge a dog on the cyclepath at 35mph lol. What is the maximum wheelbase for this? Will tyre choice affect avoidance or just the cleanup?

 

[Sidewinder Jerry]

I plan to convert my bicycle into a leaning tadpole tricycle in the future. That'll be my old man ride.