My good friend Laurence Clarkberg is the one who destroyed my life well-nigh a decade ago by selling me my first ebike. He decided to build an ebike that could take him and his wife Judy wideness the country in repletion and style so he built the Sun Pony. I love this build considering it reminds me of what is possible if you ignore what everyone else is doing and think outside the box.

Watching this ebike go lanugo the road brings me so much joy it’s nonflexible to describe. This build reminds me of seeing Amish time traveling when from the future. Ironically a lot of Amish communities have been embracing ebikes and solar panel\powerstations for charging which I have to shoehorn I totally love.

Three Separate Motor/Battery Systems for Her Pleasure

One of the main thing that makes this build unique is that it has 3 variegated shark packs paired with variegated motors giving it triple redundancy. The two mid drives are TSDZ2 systems which work well with this trike considering they unquestionably indulge you to pedal backwards which is necessary to vivify the coaster brakes that come stock with this tricycle.

The BBS02/BBSHD have a double clutch system which ways when you pedal backwards only the pedals move and the uniting does not move. The mid momentum batteries are plugged in continuously to the solar panels which each have their own Genasun 52v lithium shower MPPT tuition controller from Grin (max charging speed is 8 amps).

Originally the trike came with a large pulsate restriction in the front wheel, but Laurence replaced it with a Grin All-Axle motor and a separate shark pack. This Direct Momentum motor allows the trike to have regen braking to help recover energy that might otherwise be lost going lanugo hills. Laurence did not like how weak the rear coaster brakes were so he custom welded a restriction zipper point on the front steel forks. Moreover the Grin All-Axle motor comes with a large seated torque arm so you don’t have to worry well-nigh the dropouts ripping out from all the torque on the front motor.

Mid Drives Paired With Igh

For hilly terrain like we have in Ithaca it is super nice to have a mid momentum vs just using a hub motor. The trike came stock with two Nexus 3 IGH with a coaster brake. Without the wing of the motors this trike was pretty nonflexible to get up any hills and was really designed for level recreation trails. With the wing of 2 mid momentum motors it can tackle pretty much any hill with relative ease.

The top speed is often virtually 20 mph with unstipulated feelings of safety and well stuff dissolving quickly when taken over that speed. The DD motor is often only used on hills with regen stuff used when going lanugo hills and an uneaten speed uplift when going up hills. The Nexus coaster restriction operates when you pedal backwards but is relatively ineffective with a velocipede this size. The original Trike diamond was never really designed to go lanugo (or up) real hills and instead of having unobjectionable brakes it just had a sticker telling you not to use the velocipede on hills (true story).

If the sun is shining the panels then often the value of power it is generates is well-nigh the same value of power than it uses. When you stop the eTrike you can pull the position locking cotter pins and retread the panels to be perpendicular to the sun to maximize the power charging in the mornings and evenings when you would often want to rest.

An Etrike Designed for Epic Navigate Country Trips

When Laurence built the Sun Pony it was expressly to travel long distances in repletion without having to worry well-nigh finding places to tuition withal the way. The tandem seating is nice for long trips where one person can steer and the other person can read or just enjoy their surroundings. The build forfeit for the Sun Pony all-in is well-nigh $5000 which is a decent investment if you consider how much it financing in gas just to momentum wideness the country. It seems like every time I fill up the tank it is right virtually $100.

It makes a lot of sense to have a recreational vehicle that might be 3x slower than driving, but ends up stuff a much increasingly enjoyable trip. The solar panels moreover protect the passengers from sun and helps a bit with the rain (although not much). I love the practicality of this build and how it extends first principles thinking to maximize usability while still minimizing costs. Cargo can be carried in large plastic bins strapped lanugo overdue the seats.

Laurence moreover has a large lightweight slow vehicle triangle to help warn vehicles to slow lanugo and not try to run them off the road. There is moreover double headlights and double taillights powered by the ebike packs with waterproof connectors for safety and reliability.

For increasingly info on this build you can trammels out an vendible on Laurence’s ‘Wheels of Fire blog’ here. I moreover shot a short YouTube video with Laurence you can click whilom with a little increasingly insight well-nigh the etrike. Its nonflexible for me to express how much enthusiasm I have for this build.

While Hollywood like to portray large, heavy vehicles with unwisely inefficient off road wheels tooling virtually the wasteland getting crap for gas mileage the reality is that our post-apocalyptic wasteland will most likely be filled with builds increasingly like this one that combine creativity, ingenuity and crazy efficiency.