Since we are talking electronics, I have an iPod that I rarely use but I think it would get some use if I could play it through my stereo----how can I do this?

Also, I cannot get this song out of my head: https://youtube.com/watch?v=H_KY_d9MQv8

This Saturday. I was thinking we could meet at Kipling Station at the Kiss 'n Ride drop off area. Not sure what time.. anyone? Also, is this rain or shine, wind or calm? There's a good chance it's going to be the ****s out, and I don't particularly relish the idea of going for a multi-hour ride when it's windy and miserable.

If your stereo has RCA inputs (white/red jacks for left/right), a cable like this will do the trick -- check Active surplus:

Hmm.. I know I've seen guitar amps that run off a battery (Pignose?) How about a car battery (or several, in parallel, depending on weight) and an inverter for an off-the-shelf solution? (Although, I don't think car batteries do well when they go through complete drain/charge cycles)

I'll try for tonite. Thanks again to everyone for coming out. I'll have training wheels next week, promise

Car stereo amps run off 12V or a bit more DC so just use one of those. You can use "marine" deep cycle batteries for repeated cycling although for a good car amp and a good deep cycle battery you're looking at a fair chunk of cash- and you haven't even got speakers or the enclosures yet. Also, them batteries weigh about 50lbs (not exaggerating)

THEN you still have the issue of run time. How much power are you thinking? I'd say you'd want at least 50W if you plan to use it in an outdoor environment. Back in my pimped out honda car stereo days my battery would last around 30-45mins before dying in the car. (~400W)

Also, at low wattages depending what subs you're running you might want to think about adding a capacitor to help prevent underpowering your speaker.

Hahaha - I actually went to Urbane today and had a 13 in my hand but decided that I needed new pedals for my winterbike more than I needed a ridiculously tall gear.

We'll see, though, over the weekend it'll probably weigh on me and I'll go get one!

Wes has a good point.... miserable and windy bleh!

I was looking at the Soul Cycle set-up and it appears that the digital amp runs off a smallish battery enclosed in the wooden handlebar mount. Theirs has 30w and they say its enough. Perhaps some kind of Li-Ion battery.

I saw active surplus has li-ion cells for pretty cheap, but they're 3.7V. 4 would make 14.8V so I guess you'd have to be sure the amp could run on that OK (my guess is yes, but that's just a guess)
there's also the sealed lead acid batteries I just got for $2 each that are 12V 2.3Ah
1.2V Ni-cad batteries are pretty easy to come by. 12 of them would give you the same voltage as their system and it would be reasonably light and compact.

If you're thinking for Sprints, which last about 2hours:

30W/12V= 2.5A X 2hrs = 5Ah+ some sort of a fudge factor for losses (temp, less than perfect charge etc) 3 of those batteries would give you 6.9Ah at 6lbs weight.
(each battery is 7x1.5x2.5")

I assume the iPod runs off it's own battery?

So I would just look for a car amp at 12v or something more special? They did mention that theirs is a digital amp which I assume uses less power than a typical solid state amp? This is why the plans are $375 I guess.

Finding a car amp that small might be tough...
Do you have a more detailed breakdown of what they're running? It's really just 30w total?

Also- boom box guy from our own critical mass could give you some good pointers I'm sure.

No details. They sell the detailed instructions so giving away any of the technical specs isnt in their best interest I guess. In the testimonials people seem to rave about run times (5-8 hours) and power/volume levels (rides of 25+ people) They might have had an amp speced specially for this use.

Yeah, I couldn't find any details either. One week till CM. I'm gonna ask the guy with the stereo trailer for some details of what he's running-- I know what he has lasts well and sounds good.

Instructables to the rescue: https://www.instructables.com/id/Soul-Cycle-Chopper/

Looks like he went Lithium with some voltage regulators.

Boom box guy is Nick. Him and his dad run Ring Audio (Queen and Grant) that place refurbishes/repairs audio/visual gear so he'd probably be a great guy to talk to about this sort of project. He bought a bike from us and is a huge bike geek so maybe you could work out some sort of barter agreement if you need him to do some work.

Thats gold. All I need to do is figure out an amp that would work and get er' done.

Good find on the article Wes. That's one hell of a project!

Also- he made a good point about the battery draw with a stereo not being constant like a lighting system that I never considered. He did have a ****load of batteries on that thing though.

Instructables is the b0mb. Not that I ever build any of the cool projects on there... ditto for my subscription to Make Magazine.

Here's another site with a sound system on it. Even though most of the instructions are for tallbikes, it would be easy enough to adapt to a rack mount https://www.mozbike.com/build/speaker-box/index.html

I broke my right clip on the way home today, no fun.

Look for that guy who always rides in the cm rides his set up seems good? Maybe it’s not loud enough?

This Sunday looks like 18 & sunny here i'll be hitting the road Hell Ya

had more energy tonight, figures... lovely ride down by the bay... down by the bay!

are there like weekly fixed gear rides (like alleycats???) that happen in toronto?

apart from the wednesday night sprint thing.


~Stuart~

I found it would occationally come loose from the hub, not enough to strip anything though. I used some blue loctite and no problems after that. Easy to use and set up. Too pricey IMHO. A good idea if you have a wheel that you love and want to use fixed, but don't want to spend the time or $$ doing so, ot like me don't do wheel building and didn't want to spend big money when I had a really good wheel already. But with a surly hub being the same price as the fixxer, I can't see why you would want to use it. For customers, a good way to get fixed without alot of hassle.

Make sure you're not frothing at the mouth when you return. Offer is still open, come by for some chai and I'll set you up for India.

MattRennick-I have a 13t durace cog I don't use. Alittle worn but still in very good shape. Yours for a good cup of coffee if you want it.