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That's a dad-gummed porcupine. He looks harmless after a veterinarian removed his quills, but salt is porcupine catnip, and a porcupine will chew up a bicycle tire if sweaty hands have touched it. I once emptied a 15-shot semiautomatic rifle by lantern light at an attacking porcupine 10 feet...

Thank you! If I'd known then what I know now... This stuff should be great with uninsulated crimp terminals, which make it easier to be sure of a good crimp connection. I don't know about shrink ratios. I ordered 3:1 in lengths of 3.5", I think. A longer length of adhesive should resist tugging...

Those are where the corners of the base of the center stand mashed it. As you can see, I was able to pull a lot of slack out of the controller compartment. It was zip-tied alongside the motor cable, which, along with the brake line, hid it when I bolted the center stand (marvelous piece of...

I hear you. I've had to modify seat and handlebar positions of 3 e-bikes that were supposed to fit me. After the first one, I learned to study the geometry to see how much modification would be necessary. The other day I looked at a Specialized Como online. They asked my height and shin length...

Thanks. That looks like the stuff used to bundle cables coming from handlebars, and it can be applied after the repair. I'm better off than I thought. I can buy a 90cm male extender, which will allow me to make a splice at a safer location. Three years ago, I bought what I thought was a...

I removed the center stand from my Abound. It's wonderfully made. I thought pulling the hinge pin would be asking for trouble, so I brushed it off and sprayed moving parts with silicone, and it works better than new. I turned on my headlight at sundown so drivers would see me coming. When I got...

Phase current could heat up a point of resistance. When the motor was acting up, the trouble spot might be detectable by touch or an IR thermometer.

My "spare bike," a RadMission with racks, weighs 57 pounds without the battery. I put a hook on a post in the carport to experiment. To tip a bike up on the back wheel, I need to prevent the back wheel from turning. Then I need to keep the front wheel from flopping to the side when I let go of...

I relied mostly on this Wera kit before I went to L keys. I love the L key color coding, to help me pull the one I need from the holder or in case I'm working with more than one size. I see Bondus is in Minnesota and John invented the ball end. Thanks for the tip, in case I find something not to...

I don't lock my knee. They say it's inefficient if the saddle is so high that a leg straightens all the way while pedaling. Sitting, a locked knee wouldn't help absorb bumps. In the style of old English utility/touring bikes, my saddle clamp is 36 cm aft my BB. Standing on one leg, I can lift...

Whenever I coast, I stand on one leg, with the pedal at 6 o'clock. My butt remains on the saddle for stability, but my weight is on my leg, which nicely absorbs any bumps I might hit. If one leg tires, I can rotate the cranks 180 degrees and stand on the other leg.

Bikes are often stored vertically to save floor space. In this case, I used a chain hoist because the bike weighs more than 90 pounds and both wheels are off the ground. It's not very vertical because my handlebars are set 55 inches high. It would have been easier if I'd raised just the front...

Are the fuses accessible?

I didn’t get a car until I was 49. Until then, I’d depended on BMW motorcycles. A BMW tool kit had a 12-point box wrench with 10 and 12mm ends. Its rigid connection let me clearly feel the change in resistance. When I torqued a cylinder head, I could tell when I’d taken up the elasticity of the...

When you're sitting on the bike, much of your weight is suspended on the spokes from the top of the rear rim down the the hub. If a spoke is loose or broken, things can move and make noise. If you feel every spoke, you may find a broken one. I like to turn the wheel one rotation, hitting each...

I can't speak from experience, but I believe a controller can start a hub motor in a no-sensor mode. When it gets going, the absence of feedback from one of the hall sensors can make the motor noisy. If the controller shuts off the motor because you stop pedaling, and the wheel continues to...

I got a RadMission, like a 1-speed RadCity, in 2022. I'd often have to dry the controller because it seemed to absorb enough humidity to cause missed shifts. A KT controller fixed it. The KT controller let me have throttle without PAS. The other day I recharged my battery because it was down to...

If it gives you pleasure to believe the woman was a vigilante, TV news has you hooked by your confirmation bias. A vigilante seeks to enforce laws without legal authority. To enforce is to compel compliance. Nobody has accused her of seeking to compel compliance. An anonymous caller accused...

According to a 2024 Gallup poll, there are only 3 of 17 institutions in which a majority of Americans have “quite a lot” of confidence: small business, the military, and police. Only 12% trust TV news. Revenue comes from advertising, which depends on audience size, and confirmatory bias is the...

Enforce the law? The chief complains that there are no laws to enforce. In America in the 1950s, the per-mile death rate for adult bicyclists was lower than it was later, in the age of helmets. Town boys also fared well, but the death toll for rural boys was horrendous. A rural boy might not...