Fresh noob w/ a couple of Townies

[eddywanderer]

Eddy here.

Tinkerer and recent secondhand-but-mint-condition Townie e-Electra owner, as of too late last year to ride much. Also have a nicer 9-speed one, with which I'm thinking of taking the plunge with a conversion kit.

First impressions are "Holy cow, this thing is way more fun to ride than an aging motorcycle enthusiast would expect, especially considering it uses about the same amount of power as a kitchen light bulb!"

Lots of inquiries and speculation to follow . . .

-e

 

[PedalUma]

Welcome. It will be a fun project. Here is one of mine. It was a single speed. I made it eight with a 350 watt mid-drive.

 

[tomjasz]

My absolute favorite frame to kit. The Townie rocks!

 

[JGcycle]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[PedalUma]

My mid-sized town has 12 beer gardens and a few craft breweries. That silver Townie was made for the purpose of beer garden hopping. It is a Beer Hopper. If you zoom the down tube a few inches below the head tube and squint you can see the thru-frame wiring for the sift cable and display wire. There is one place that makes fresh beer onsite daily and it is on tap the same day. If you want to take some home they will can it in front of you. They have a special hand press on the bar. The frame reminds me of the 1940's Schwinns that became the first mountain bikes, called Klunkers.

 

[SC00CHB00CH]

Took me 20 yrs but I nailed it.

 

[eddywanderer]

I have a worn-out 5" hole saw too, and an old Porter-Cable freehand router. Since it has a universal motor with commutator & brushes, it should run on 90VDC and spin pretty close to the rated 12K RPM. Which would seem to cover about one mile in... four or five minutes? A disappointing 15-20 mph. Not so easy to calculate the TPH (Tires Per Hour) spec, though.