In this Sustainable Transportation Club newsletter:
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Over View of the Club
EXPLORING THE FUTURE OF HUMAN POWERED
Bicycle presentation Thursday May 16, 2006
Club building outreach efforts:
Report on Santa Monica Festival Saturday, May 13th.
Preparing for the Energy Fair in Palos Verdes May 20th
New Bio Diesel Pump on the Westside
Electric Scooter Test Drive results
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Over view of our Club.
The main idea of the Sustainable Transport Club is to bring
together as many people and groups as we can who are concerned
about creating a sustainable and environmentally sound system of
transportation. By creating this network of people we will then
become a social, economic and political influence that will result
in moving our communities toward this sustainable future.
Creating this future can be done with very simple activities that
include:
* Building our club through members and network contacts
* Getting all our members operating
with the sustainable
transport options of their
choice. (Be the change you want to
see)
* Creating and promoting a clear idea
of what a sustainable
future for transportation
would involve.
* Converting our local communities so
we have a sustainable
transport system
We will go into more details about each of these activities and this
week we are focusing on building our club. You can start be
figuring out who you want to forward this email to that might want
to be part of the solution. It would be great to get a regular list of
people you forward this to until they sign up to get on the main list
at www.sustainabletransportclub.com.
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EXPLORING THE FUTURE OF HUMAN POWERED TRANSPORTATION
An examination of trends and innovations in bicycles, bicycle
facilities and policies.
Slide lecture by Kent Strumpell, Board Member of the Los
Angeles County Bicycle Coalition
Presented as part of the Environmental Issues Lecture Series at
Santa Monica College's Center for Environmental and Urban
Studies
Thurs, May 18 • 6:45pm • Free • Santa Monica College Bundy
Campus • Room 123
The Bundy campus can be accessed from Bundy, traveling south
from Ocean Park Blvd, past the SM Airport turnoff. Enter via the
first driveway south of the airport turnoff.
Kent Strumpell is a long time bicycle activist and is an active
supporter and participant in the Sustainable Transport Club. His
depth of knowledge in this area would make this a good program
to attend and support. Tell all of your friends who are considering
the bicycle as a serious means of transport.
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Club building outreach efforts:
Report on Santa Monica Festival Saturday, May 13th.
We had another great outreach session at the Festival.
Andrew Basmajian from the Santa Monica City Environmental
Division opened the door to get the Sustainable Transport Club
into the festival and Rick Sikes, the Fleet Superintendent for the
City, really made us welcome. We were able to set up in a great
spot next to the Green Depot and a great mix of vehicles the City
had on display .
Our special thanks goes to them both for a great job.
The city vehicles that Rick brought to the event were awesome.
He had the brand new Plug In Hybrid Prius – that can get 125
mpg in city driving – even better if it only drives short trips. There
was the hydrogen electric Prius, the full dress GEM NEV, an all
electric subcompact pickup from Dymac, a Segway and a
compressed natural gas sedan that can be fueled at home and is
eligible for tax credits.
Paul Scott had his RAV4 EV over with the solar trailer – great
statement with the solar panels.
The rest of the Club showed up with three electric motor scooters,
an electric bike, the Sunbird pedal electric moped, and a stand up
electric scooter that all joined in with the Green Depot bio diesel
display to create a great focus for information and Club sign-ups.
Good showing from both John Breza and Joe Gershen in that area.
Our sign-ups were positioned in the middle of the great fleet
vehicles so the whole thing came together brilliantly.
Joe Blackburn was able to get a poster up and to park his bio –
beetle rental car across the street so it was easy for us to refer
people to him.
It was also a lot of fun to see everyone including the Bio Diesel
Co-op folks who stopped by after their picnic as well as City
council members Kevin McKeown and Richard Bloom. Kevin has
been a consistent driving influence with our group.
One of the great things about this event is how it came together so
naturally. Various Club members were just doing their normal
thing and just a few phone calls and emails allowed us all to show
up at the same place at the same time to create a special event. It is
that kind of natural cooperation and team work that really lets the
kind of changes we need to see come about quickly and
effectively.
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Club building outreach efforts:
Preparing for the Energy Fair in Palos Verdes May 20th
We have a chance to get the word out about sustainable transport at
the energy fair on the 20th in Palos Verdes. This could mean
getting a Sustainable Transport Club chapter going in that area
which would be great.
That area is also one that could produce sponsors and high level
contact for building our sustainable future.
Energy Fair – Palos Verdes.
What The South Bay Energy Fair
When: May 20th from 9 am to 2 pm on the grounds of
Where: Pacific Unitarian Church
5621 Montemalaga Drive, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275
Speaker presentations: 9 am to 10:30 am.
Exhibits: 10:30 am to 2 pm.
The booths are only $15 so that part is easy. Bio-diesel vehicles
will be there from both the LA Bio Diesel Co-op and from Bio
Beetle. Electric RAV4’s will be there with the Solar power people
but the two wheelers are more of a challenge.
We have the three electric scooters, an electric bicycle, and an
electric stand up scooter lined up. It would be great to have a
serious bicycle for transportation with a trailer there as well.
Getting all this there in time for the 9 am kick off and back by a
reasonable time takes some transport. The real answer for the e-
bikes and human powered vehicles would be to use a trailer or a
truck to get them there and set up in a timely manner.
Is there anyone who has a truck or a car with a trailer hitch that
would be able to help make this happen? If so please get in touch
by return email or by calling 310-450-7419.
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New Bio Diesel Pump on the Westside
The USA Gas station in Marina Del Rey is opening a Bio Diesel
Pump right there off Glencoe in the Marina. This is in addition to
the pump they have at the station in the Pacific Palisades.
The prices on the Bio-Diesel are now in line with the price of
regular gas and with the cars getting upwards of 40 miles per
gallon it makes better sense than ever to go bio diesel.
These pumps mean that you do not have to consider converting to
straight vegetable oil for you renewable fuels. The fuel in these
pumps can be used in most standard diesel vehicles without
modification. No need to try to process the oil or to mess with the
advanced engineering of your car.
We have contacts for people who want to get a diesel car and start
running bio fuels. Just let us know and we can connect you up.
Please let us know of any such contacts you might have so we can
pass the info along.
It is great to see the efforts of our bio diesel members creating
these positive results. You each have your unique role to play and
you are all doing such a great job of bringing renewable energy to
our area.
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Electric Scooter Test Drive results
The new generation of electric scooters is here and preliminary
results are good. The E-max 2000 watt brush-less scooter made its
local début at the April 15th earth-day event and it came at the
same time as other high wattage brush-less motors have made it
here. We have had a chance to test these bikes against each other
and against the established EVT brush motor technology.
Please note – these are all real world-testing results. People
weighing from 160 to 205 lbs drove the bikes. The tests were on
real roads. The range tests are for normal driving with stop and go
traffic conditions and hills here on the Westside. The scooters
were operated normally at their full acceleration and full speed.
2000 Watt E-max vs. 2000 Watt brush-less generic
vs. 1500watt Brush motor
Zero to twenty miles an hour
– E-max vs generic – very close result
– E-max with power boost button vs. generic without – E-max pulls ahead by 15- 20 yards
– Generic 2000 watt vs. EVT 1500 watt in power mode – EVT pulls ahead by 10-15 yards
– E-max vs. EVT - no test but they should be similar with E-max having a slight edge with power boost
Twenty plus miles an hour
– E-max vs generic – generic starts to pull ahead around 28 mph and top speed is 2-3 mph better.
– E-max with power boost button vs. generic without – E-
max pulls ahead up to 27-28 mph then generic takes over. (E-max
has a speed limiting governor that can be removed by those who
want to go against vehicle codes and DOT)
– Generic 2000 watt vs. EVT 1500 watt in power mode –
Generic pulls ahead starting around 25 mph and can make up for
lost time on long stretches
Hill Climbing
Tested going up the Pico hill at 11th street.
– E-max vs generic 2000 watt – over the top about the same time and speed.
– E-max with power boost button vs. generic without – E-max pulls ahead and is over the top at about 10-12 mph faster.
– 1000-watt – operating in the bike lane - best to go around on quiet street
Conclusion – the E-max rocks, particularly with that power boost.
That is why we have one being delivered into the area on the next
shipment. EVT is still a good ride with a lower price point.
1000-watt brush less compared to the above.
These are very different scooters. They are more like a fast bicycle
with great lights and brakes that you do not have to pedal. The off
the line is nothing to compare with the more powerful motors and
the top speed is 22-23 mph. The main advantage these have over
the big brothers is price and range. The 1000-watt goes 25 miles
on the same gel cell batteries that the 2000-watt brush-less goes 20
mile on.
The 1000-watt brush less motor has been tested for close to 450
miles and is performing well and reliably. The 2000-watt generic
is from the same vendor and there is a 1500 watt one still in the
box waiting to be tested. These motors are looking good with high
efficiency and good performance.
Battery test results
Gel Cell batteries - close to new condition
1000 watt 26 miles per charge vs.
2000 watt at 20 miles per charge
Gel cells with a year and a half use on brush motors – 35 % loss of range
The brush motors are reported to be harder on batteries than the
brush-less motors due to their higher peak amperage demands.
1500-watt brush motors draw close to 80 amps at take off and the
brush-less ones are closer to 50 amps. Brush less motors should
allow longer battery life with less degradation of range.
Brush Motor 1500 watt vs. Brush-less 2000-watt motor
– 17% lower range for brush motor – one test comparison only.
Silicone Batteries - 1500-watt generic brush-less motor – 29 miles
– one test in regular city stop and go driving. A second test with
the bike running full throttle 80% of the time got a range of 26
mile. This means going 35 miles an hour most of the time. That
speed reduced the mileage by ten percent. More testing is planned.
E-max reports ranges from 30 to 40 miles on these batteries, which
seems reasonable given this one test on a generic motor and that
was on a brand new scooter out of the box. Batteries seem to get
stronger after 3-10 charges. This scooter has a new controller and
more tests will be forthcoming. We will also have test results from
the new E-max that will be in town soon.
Conclusions so far.
Brush-less motors are the way to go and the silicone batteries are
looking good. With a range of over 30 miles that puts the bikes
well into the world of alternative transportation. Even the 26 mile
range on a gel cell is good for most local uses.
There are various test bikes and brand new scooters available for
sale right now including the E-max 2000 watt sport. Please get in
touch if you are interested. Russell 310-450-7419. When are you
going to get beyond curiosity and into being a bigger part of the
solutions?
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