Hi Peoples,
Just joined this forum, I work as an electrical engineer on fuel cell systems in the North of the UK, however to get to and from work by car involves a nasty commute that can take a couple of hours staring at someone’s brake lights involving 38 sets of traffic lights and 9 roundabouts so I built the swamp rodent (that will become clear shortly). This lets me complete the inward commute in half an hour and the return journey in 42 minutes including a savage 800 foot climb. The return journey is longer as turning right on dual carriageway roundabouts will get me killed so I do an extra 4 miles through dense countryside.
The machine has now covered 22,000 brutal miles in 4 years, and boy am I getting sore! The terrain includes dual carriageways, country lanes, canal paths, river banks, a quarry, a meadow, a forest, a length of single track with a mud and root festooned 30 degree drop, a farm yard, a sports arena and for 6 months of the year something that resembles a swamp, it’s pretty awesome, we had a foot of snow a couple of years back and I was one of the few people to make it to work although to be fair that was on my custom ice bike!
The bike itself is custom built around a Cotic steel frame ( the aluminium Gary fisher frame cracked), its running a Bafang CST in the rear, 9 speed with twist grip shifters so I can instantly go from top to bottom gear and vice Vera ( I have to cross 4 dual carriageways so have to literally catapult myself across), 203mm discs with 4 pot callipers front and rear as some of the hills I can reach 40mph freewheeling ( the Kevlar brake pads last about 3 weeks), 17Ah custom battery built into carbon fibre box with built in heaters for when the temperature gets down below -10, thudbuster seat post due to hospitalisation after an incident with a pot hole, this also has the controller mounted to it within a carbon box to isolate the electronics from the severe road and offroad vibrations (think riding over a cattle grid for an hour and a half a day).
Other special features are custom lighting that is always on when the vehicle is powered, these include led motorcycle rear lamps with brake lights, a pair of computer controlled front lights with handlebar mounted controls for high / low and strobe. In the winter I’m riding out in the back of beyond with the only other lighting being the stars and far away towns at these times my whole life is contained within that pool of light in front of the bike. I have air horns for those times when stuck behind joggers with headphones or animals in the road, a custom chain guard to stop the chain being jetwashed of its oil in torrential rain as well as keeping the worst of the mud off it, a custom derailleur bash guard to stop the mech from being bent from trees rocks and bollards and on the many occasions I come off.
Sometimes I have a 24 inch bow saw attached to the frame as I ride through some pretty raw country side where there are often fallen trees that I need to shift, I am constantly pruning the overhanging trees and brambles to keep the tracks clear. I’m working on some sort of scythe to cut the shoulder high nettles down hence the grim reaper looking Avitar.
I’ve had a few broken bones from other people’s poor driving (mainly Audi’s and BMW’s) but mostly from hooning along muddy tracks trying to avoid the trees in the pitch dark.
Its pretty full on flat out all the way averaging 18-19MPH, when I get home I’m usually covered in mud, scratches and 20 types of animal poo, it also means I suffer from low blood pressure and have the heatbeat of a racehorse but boy it’s a fab way to get to and from work, I think I’ve driven to work twice in 4 years!
Oh, and for 6 months of the year the bike is 100% solar powered.
Sorry bit of a long introduction, I’m sure war and peace wasn’t this long!
