A Need for Speed

Being an electrical service business, plans for introducing electrical devices to our work bike were easy to understand.  From the beginning we planned on adding batteries and inverter to help make remote service work easier, lighting to make the ride around town safer and solar panels to keep it all powered up.  Workload and excessive heat were not factored into our transportation choices.  During the first summer with the Christiania, both business and climate had become unusually hot.  It was obvious that I needed to make some changes to increase speed and reduce the effort spent to get from my home, clients boats, shop and the local suppliers during the hot summer months.

I had been studying everything possible on the latest technology the automotive manufacturers were introducing in hybrid and electric automobiles.  I have had the dream of introducing similar designs in sailing vessels by replacing the fossil fuel engines with electric and hybrid propulsion.  This same technology, on a much smaller scale, could easily be installed in our work trike and help me perform my job efficiently.  This blog is all about the metamorphosis from cargo tricycle to hybrid cargo trike, the WattCycle.

Our initial plan:

• Replace rear hub with a 2000 watt, 48 volt power hub
• Install a motor control system with thumb throttle
• Install a 48 volt battery system to power the rear hub
• Install an independent 12v battery system as a charging buffer
• Install a 12 volt, 65 watt solar panel on cargo lid
• Install a 120 volt power inverter for service load and 48 volt battery charger
• Install headlights and marker lights for safety at night

In the near future, I will describe each item, concerns and reasons we selected each component.

Follow us as we install and test our modifications.