NYC Journal

Snarky Joe and I talked about bikes at the last Meet-Up.

My old Ti Basso mountain bike does not have geometry for a suspension, so I have it set up as a full rigid. Presently this Basso has a longish 42 inch wheelbase due to a chrome retro Koski fork that has a mucho long rake of 2 1/2 inches.

The effect is a bit of EZ Rider chopper, and perhaps is kinda “ghetto.” The frame is polished titanium so the bike has an over-the-top flavor anyways and is kinda loud looking.

The steering is kinda slow with the chopper like effect, and while my other bikes pretty much I can steer by shifting my weight around, this bike requires steering.

Anyways retro and different, but also fun.

​​​​​​​Cal
 
Kinda crazy temperatures in the low seventies expected Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Until then high temperatures in the upper sixties, then a cool down after the 70 degree days.

So far a mild week of weather for New York in November.

My hope is for a mild winter to combat high energy costs.

Cal
 
Calzone said:
Kinda crazy temperatures in the low seventies expected Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Until then high temperatures in the upper sixties, then a cool down after the 70 degree days.
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The temperatures are kinda crazy. I keep having to change clothes. It's like I need to be wearing one of those Mitsubishi Mini-Splits.
 
The weather is really strange. My older son's girl friend is running the NY marathon this Sunday and I'm sure she is not happy with this warmer that normal forecast.

Joe
 
jszokoli said:
The weather is really strange. My older son's girl friend is running the NY marathon this Sunday and I'm sure she is not happy with this warmer that normal forecast.

Joe
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Joe,

Tell her that if her time is under 5 hours her name will be published in the next Sunday’s special coverage/supplement.

Generally it is much better to run on a crisp day where the morning is rather cold. Running in a warm day expends and depletes reserves.

What is amazing is how it wound up to be so big. When I ran the NYC Marathon there were only 35K runners, but now somehow the accommodate about 50K runners.

Also tell her to draft behind a pair of runners that are a “Pace-Team” basically too many go too fast in the beginning. The first mile is the Verrazano and it is a mile long climb. On a bike it is easy to hit “Terminal Velocity” by just coasting, which is about 45 MPH on a mountain bike with fat tires, or about or over 50 MPH on a road bike in an aero position. Basically use the first mile to warm up, and I bet she will pass many runners in Brooklyn that passed her on the climb on the bridge.

The Pace-Team are two runners running abreast, so if you tuck in behind you are essentially drafting. Also it helps prevent getting trampled, especially in the beginning of the Marathon.

Two warnings: the 59th Street Bridge is a climb that comes just after the halfway point (it is actually steep); and then the upper east side is rolling hills, so basically after you are tired this stretch is like doing intervals.

The revised forecast not is a higher temp. I saw 75 degrees, but that is in Peekskill, and that’s about an hour north in the Hudson Valley.

”Brutal,” I say.

Generally Marathon Sundays are crisp days in the upper 40’s.

People should know that it is not easy to get a bib. Many people have to earn their bib by participating in a lot of shorter running events and volunteering. Usually this involves killing a year to do enough events to earn a spot/bib.

15 years ago you could purchase someone’s bib for $800.00 to basically pay for a short-cut.

I was “Just minding my own business,” when at a Friday work meeting a friend offered me his bib because he had overtrained and had fallen ill. Pretty much I hadn’t trained, so I basically was going to run the NYC Marathon “Off-The-Couch” as my friend Scot Nicol, the President of IBIS cycles said. I literally had one day to get ready.

”Maggie” was worried that I would follow the original legend and run 26.2 miles and die at the finish line. Unknown to Maggie earlier a Olympic Team Marathon hopeful was qualifying for our Olympic team, but he collapsed and died at mile 6 or 7 in Central Park.

Again, I was just “Minding my own business” when this burnout der-A-LICK offers me some hash brownies to fuel my run on the Statin Island Ferry. I turn down the offer, but through this wacky guy I find out about the 5 hours time deadline.

I had promised Maggie that I would not race and that I just wanted to complete the 26.2 miles and finish, but now I was going to race against the clock.

She was pretty mad when I ran out of the mob kissed her on the cheek and ran off before she could yell at me or smack me.

​​​​​​​Cal
 
One of the many high points in my life was completing the NYC Marathon “Off-the-Couch” just 26 seconds under 5 hours. What a wonderful experience.

BTW I was 49 years old when I did this. The next day I could not walk, and I called in sick.

How-Weird my boss asked me if I wanted a vacation day, but I told him my legs hurt and if I had a head ache I would use and get a sick day.

What a jerk.

Cal
 
Temperatures are crazy in Italy too, much warmer than usual in this time of the year. Most people are happy because no need to switch on the house heating and with the high prices of natural gas and a possible shortage it seems to be a great benefit.
At least in short term.

But it also means not yet snow in the Alps, possibly no water in the rivers next spring/summer with related problems, much higher temperatures in summer. Not good at all. No reason to be so happy. It's like dancing on the sinking Titanic...
 
robert blu said:
Temperatures are crazy in Italy too, much warmer than usual in this time of the year. Most people are happy because no need to switch on the house heating and with the high prices of natural gas and a possible shortage it seems to be a great benefit.
At least in short term.

But it also means not yet snow in the Alps, possibly no water in the rivers next spring/summer with related problems, much higher temperatures in summer. Not good at all. No reason to be so happy. It's like dancing on the sinking Titanic...
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Robert,

I agree.

The warmer temperatures are leading to droughts, and you can’t live without water.

Here in the U.S. I’m afraid that parts of the country are becoming deserts.

BTW Much of California would be desert without the extensive irrigation that continues. Water by treaty comes to California from Canada. The Colorado River effectively gets emptied into California.

Even the Pacific Northwest, Washington State, Oregon, and Canada’s British Columbia have suffered droughts. Normally these are wet and rainy locations.

Just north of Peekskill, near West Point and from there west is a drought stricken area right here in New York.

Cal
 
When I planned for retirement I avoided flood zones, Tornado Alley, and looked into places where there was adequate water supply that was sustainable. New England and the Pacific Northwest seemed to be the places, but the Pacific Northwest is in a bad drought, has had many forest fires, and even Vancouver suffered heat related deaths.

It seems Peekskill was a good choice as it lags behind, but there have been tornados not far away, and violent storms. Drought is not so far away. I figure just an hour north of NYC and on the Hudson River is about as good a place I could of choose.

Meanwhile the world is a mess and not so good.

I don’t think many Americans are thinking forward decades out. I’m startled by how global warming has advanced.

Cal
 
Out to Lunch said:
"I’m startled by how global warming has advanced." Which is why you bought a gass-guzzling pick-up truck? Cheers, OtL
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My “gas guzzling pickup truck” is a 1966 Chevy C10. It has a 250 cubic inch I-6 engine. It is not a daily driver, and in fact is in storage until I can get it road worthy.

I figure it burns zero gas.

When I have it on the road one day it will be maybe a once a week driver. In December I will have owned my used compact car for two years and so far I have only put 12K miles on the car in just under 2 years. Gas guzzler???

Did you ever consider how recycling might be good for the planet. This is an old truck that will get recycled and repurposed. My economy car is too small for many tasks at hand.

Did you know that I lived in NYC and used mass transportation for decades and did not own a car? Did you know that I walk extensively? Do you know that I’m an avid cyclist?

What have you done to try and make a better safer planet?

Anyways you are kinda off base here and likely will get a good dose of “shade.”

In fact you come across to me as a waste of energy. Let me say it: “You are a waste of energy.”

You will be ignored in the future. Let the shade begin.

Evidently you do not know me enough to judge me. Are you calling me a gas-guzzler? Kinda funny because I have a rather small energy footprint.

Happy-happy.

Cal
 
I keep telling Cal that he should convert the truck to electric. But I guess thats not weird enough for Cal.
You will never need to drive it more than 50 miles...

My son's girlfriend is a serious runner, to qualify she ran a Marathon in Italy this year in well under 4 hours, and she said was the 2nd or 3rd US finisher.
Joe
 
jszokoli said:
I keep telling Cal that he should convert the truck to electric. But I guess thats not weird enough for Cal.
You will never need to drive it more than 50 miles...

My son's girlfriend is a serious runner, to qualify she ran a Marathon in Italy this year in well under 4 hours, and she said was the 2nd or 3rd US finisher.
Joe
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Joe,

I don’t discount your idea. I don’t call you Snarky Joe for no reason.

Your idea lingers because it actually is a good idea.

The way I see it Ford already is offering electric drive trains for DIY, but at this point there still is a lot of home engineering involved. Eventually this will get expanded, but it is expensive. My research revealed that obtaining batteries is a difficulty. Also expensive.

The 1966 C10 weighs less than my Audi A4 Executive Compact Car by about 150 pounds. It has a full frame to build around, and because 1964-1966 Chevy C-10’s are basically the same with only badging changes to make them different years this truck has great future potential because the aftermarket supply is mucho vast.

The C-10 only weighs about 3400 pounds. While the three on a tree 3-speed tranny is bowling ball sized, it only weighs about 65 pounds, but an electric vehicle is direct drive and pretty much the design is like a golf cart.

So really the idea would be is have a “Monster” golf cart. My local Home Cheapo is about 7 miles away. In fact if my supersized golf cart could do 40 MPH I would not need to go on Bear Mountain Parkway and have a need to go 55 MPH.

The really great thing about cars that are over 25 years old is that pretty much you don’t have regulations to ham string you.

As you know I already have a 100 amp service in my garage, so adding a charging station is no big deal.

I would think that an electric drivetrain would be lighter than say my small tranny and I-6 gas engine. My estimate is about 500-550 pounds for the gas engine and tranny.

Perhaps a realistic goal would get the driving weight down to 3200 pounds. Know that 15 gallons of gas is about 105 pounds alone. A 3000 pound full sized long bed would be mighty cool and is a possibility.

I might have to lower the front suspension because of lack of weight.

Also I would not need 200 mile range so I don’t need mucho battery. 100 mile range would be useful because I don’t drive a lot, but I could drive to Long Island for my dental appointments and get home without a need of a charging station. Another reason is that full cycle charging shortens battery life. Best to charge to 80% of full charge like Leica battery.

Anyways this is the kinda stuff I did at National Labs (2: Los Alamos National Labs; and Brookhaven National Labs) at Grumman, and later at Northrop Grumman.

Pretty much crazy ideas and making them work have been my professional career for decades. Being a Cyclotron Engineer, really was like being a bus driver for 22 years, where I ran a machine and just followed a schedule.

So if I got an electric drivetrain from a wrecked production car the big full frame truck pretty much would be EZ-PZ for a guy who put a Corvette engine in a 1984 Jeep Scrambler to create an urban assault vehicle before they invented a HumVee.

Time is my friend here. The challenge I see is making it cost feasible. I already have done some research and seen some of the difficulties. For me I don’t want to need a computer to control everything, a plain golf cart without a tranny direct drive, and dynamic braking (counter EMF) is the EZ-PZ way to go.

Really golf cart technology is not that complicated…

I think one of the challenges might be getting a highway speed, but if my golf cart only has a top speed of 40 MPH it still would be great for driving down 9A to Croton, or Crompond Road to Yorktown, or to Home Cheapo at the Cortlandt Town Center: all local driving.

Cal
 
So converting a 1966 C-10 into an E-10 might employ a GM kit called Connect and Cruise,

200HP and 266 foot pounds of torque, more than the stock 250 cubic inch gas engine. 60KW hour battery.

About 90% of the parts come from a factory Chevy Bolt.

As a show demo GM converted a 1962 C-10 and a 1977 K5 Blazer.

The GM E-Crate mates to the LS family of engines and trannys to create a lot of flexibility. Kinda modular.

Ford has its motor out, but GM lags with Covid delays. No pricing and availability yet from GM.

So making an E-10 from a GM factory kit. EZ-PZ. How cool is that?

Cal
 
Austintatious said:
This topic is actually far more complex that it may seem. This is an interesting and enlightening read.

https://www.realclearinvestigations...res_why_that_claim_has_zero_basis_860938.html
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Austin,

Many thanks for your contributions and keeping this thread and post “thoughtful” and open.

I was aware of an about 25% increase of grid power projected as a logistical problem. Our power grid is a big problem and bottleneck.

The good, the bad, and the ugly points are made in the article, and the point that in a lifetime analysis that the break even point is pretty far out there and the data used in most projections is very-very optimistic.

The demographic of affluent, educated and coastal I fit, but I’m older than what is typical. Also I fit the typical where my electric would be a “secondary” vehicle.

The environmental destruction of the mining required to me seems unsustainable, and is very energy intensive. I had not considered or had discounted the pollution and the need of using cheap energy which most often is coal.

So in the end it is suggested that keeping a Kia with an internal combustion engine likely is better for the planet, and that pretty much subsidies are needed/required to support a business model that has hurdles to overcome, the biggest is the near monopoly that China has on battery production.

In the end there is no cheap energy, and the real costs lay hidden, and the outcomes of bad policy pretty much create even more problems in a compounding way.

Cal
 
There is a $7.5K subsidy that has stipulations as an incentive to buy an EV.

As usual this generally helps the affluent and the more highly educated to concentrate wealth. Not my idea of the best way to cycle money and a reason to tax people. Generally subsidies generally are a cause of inflation. I cite how government subsidies have made College education more expensive, and now more unaffordable.

In my sample/example the unintended consequence is that instead of making college more affordable it made it more expensive over the long run and in a bigger envelope of time. Note how some people were able to take advantage, and others not.

BTW I have student loans that will get paid off in March of 2028, but my interest rate is locked at 2.125%. I will be 70 years old at that time.

So now bad policy likely will waste taxpayer monies eventually, and help advantaged people who have more disposable income and generally higher levels of education to become wealthier and more affluent concentrating wealth at the top.

Very basic economics.

In an example cited in Austin’s link The cost of fueling an electric vehicle at home only cost 48 cents for a gallon of gas equivalent, but using a charging station outside the home cost about the equivalent of purchasing gasoline. Understand that government wants to help build out charging stations, so basically a subsidy, paid by taxes, that also is inflationary.

So would it be wrong for me to take advantage and basically build an E-10, on the backs of taxpayer’s if I can secure the $7.5K subsidy? Would it be wrong or morally bankrupt to know that my EV actually creates more pollution initially than a internal combustion engine, and that the net gain on possible lower pollution is some almost arbitrary point in the future due to very optimistic manipulation of data and vast assumptions.

In my case fueling an EV for less than a dollar gasoline equivalent is likely enough incentive if true. An E-10 certainly recycles an old chassis and would be very cool.

Know from my independent research that both Ford and GM, large corporations, receive mucho research money from our government to develope and to collaborate in developing an electric motor, and that pretty much the Ford and GM E-Crate motors are pretty much the same. Tax payer monies were spent so that currently Ford can sell a “Eluminator” electric motor for about $4.1K that I could buy even cheaper from an aftermarket car parts distributor for under $3.9K.

As a referance in the 80’s when Ronald Ray-Gun was President you could go to certain Chevy dealerships and buy a Corvette engine on a pallet for $2.7K brand new.

Cal
 
The Ford “Emulator” is 281HP and 317 Foot-pounds of torque and weighs only 205 pounds. Measures 22”x22”x32”.

Listed at $4340.00 on Ford’s website, but I can secure one at CJ Pony for $3894.99.

My projected weight savings on the engine is about 250-300 pounds. The “Q” factor is how much battery weight. I would likely try to shave weight here and limit range. A 3K pound full sized long bed vintage truck is crazy enough for me Snarky Joe.

I expect the GM E-Crate motor to be almost the same, but the GM “Connect and Cruise” is where my interest lays at a low 200HP and 266 Foot-pounds of torque because of the modest and humble use of Chevy Bolt parts. They say the Connect and Cruis uses 90% of already existing Chevy Bolt parts. This is more HP and torque than the OEM 250 I-6.

I also figure charging at home for under a dollar a gallon gas equivalent means the full sized truck would have low operating costs and mucho low maintenance.

Warning is Snarky Joe says people who own EV’s don’t stop talking about them.

The way I see it that there is an envelope of opportunity to exploit here, and also a very unfair advantage.

On one hand it is very cool; but on the other hand not so cool. This is a moral dilemma…

And Snarky Joe, know that it is you that came up with the crazy idea and not me. Perhaps I’m a bad influence…

Cal
 
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