PULSE AUTOCYCLE NETWORK

[Thomas]

I'm six foot tall.
I've noticed that the roll bar can obscure my view of the side mirrors.
Are there other pulse members that have this problem?
Have you been able to re-locate the mirrors?
Are there seat rests on the market that can be adjusted for a better view?

I would like to hear from yall!

Sincerely

TJ TUA

[pulse220]

Just a suggestion for mirrors to see out of them..

There are alot of sportbikes out there with "stalk" type mirrors. There are also aftermarket generic ones, although i have found that the factory ones are of a much better quality. The stalk type may help get the mirror out farther from the body to fix the viewing obstruction problem.

We had a similar issue on a Nash Metro we were building. Most modern car mirrors looked way too big and out of place. Smaller mirrors gave no real view except for the side of the car and you couldn't see out of them well. We ended up using a Kawasaki stalk mirror. Fits the car size perfect and now the mirrors can actually be used.
Here's a picture to show what i mean (cars not finished yet)....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14792223@N02/3596807178/sizes/l/in/set-72157602960346228/

On my Pulse (#220), I used mirrors off a '79 ElCamino. It was more of the look I was going for, but they are very useable and I am 6'1". I don't recall if i moved the mounting location. I know I filled the original mirror holes while I was fiberglassing since i did not know what mirrors i wanted to use at the time and didn't know if the holes would match up. I then mounted the new mirrors where I got the best vision. I don't think it was really different from where the original mirrors were. You can see the mirrors here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14792223@N02/2748512022/sizes/l/in/set-72157606637053386/

and here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14792223@N02/2748574930/sizes/l/in/set-72157606637053386/

You also mention the seatrests. Are yours reclining too much due to being old or having broken seat hinges/brackets? I found that (originally) #220 had the front seat leaning way too far back when I sat in it. It turned out that the side seat hinges/brackets were broken. New seats fixed the problem for me since i was redoing the interior anyway.

If it's just the brackets that are bad and your seats are in good shape, I'm pretty sure brackets from a boat seat (maybe Wise) may be able to work. They make aluminum pinchless ones.

Chad

[Steve Schmidt]

Here is a mirror that is very similar to stock Pulse mirrors......only these have turn signals built into them. So you can remove your existing mirrors and turn signals and add these in one unit. And they are only $22 dollars each.

http://www.jcwhitney.com/lighted-sport-mirrors/p2008318.jcwx



These are paintable and are a cheap replacement.

The Pulse on the left has the old style mirror and bulky turn signal off the
motorcycle. One Pulse on the right has the J.C. Whitney mirror - turn signal combo.

[pulse220]

Steve has a great idea. I forgot about them. As Steve points out, they are very similar to the original Pulse mirrors, and relatively inexpensive.

I bought a pair of those mirrors and painted them to match my Corbin Sparrow. Another picture if interested... http://corbinsparrow.com/id15.html





Because the Sparow is 100% electric, I modified them to change the lights to LED. Not really necessary for the Pulse, but with the Sparrow, any electricity conserved is the better. I also turned them into running and turn signals since the Sparrow did not have front running lights.

An added plus to these mirrors is that they also have the light function showing to the rear. Not only is it more visable for drivers behind you, but it reminds you to turn of your blinker if you forget to.

Oh, and if you do paint them, make sure you thoroughly sand them and use a paint adhesion promoter, such as "Bulldog". I found out the hardway that the paint does not want to stick to the plastic if you don't use an adhesion promoter (the picture link actually shows my second set- my first set had the paint flake off in huge pieces in about 3 weeks. It was a pain to remove, repaint and rewire them -Lesson learned..)

[hcubed]

To: Pulse 220

Really not on the subject, but a quick question about your Corbin Sparrow. Since it's all electric, have you considered a solid-state heat pump (AKA Peltier device or Thermo-Electric Cooler)?

Check out this site:

www.tetech.com

Since the interior of a Sparrow can't be very large, maybe a medium-sized TE cooler would work (and stay with the all-electric theme).

[lite9dave]

I have original equipment litestar mirrors which are apparently salvaged from BMW motorcycles. I modified mine to put them in a position to provide better rear coverage.

From my aircraft modeling days I recalled that fighter aircraft have rear-view mirrors on the front "roll bar" of the cockpit. I couldn't find a clear shot of these, but here's a computer game rendering of this kind of thing.
http://www.avsim.com/pages/1205/F8/Forward-panel-view-1.jpg

I attached some small aftermarket mirrors to my roll bar to achieve the same effect and they work great. The mirrors are slightly convex for wider angle views. I still have my side mirrors, but they are optional now and mostly for precision back-up parking.

[pulse220]

hcubed,

I did look into thermoelectric modules that operate on the Peltier effect when I was planning the Sparrow "air cooler", although not from the company you linked to.

The problem that I found was that those that ran on 12V appear to be extremely small and are designed to cool extremely small spaces (such a camera equipment). I don't think they would cool the Sparrow, even though it is a relatively small enclosure. They have bigger, more powerful ones, but they were running off 24V or 48V. I did not want to tap into my 156V drive pack to accomplish this. I would have had to add another DC to DC converter and it would have depleted the already limited overall range.

What does not show in the photo of the Sparrow you saw, was the Husky 12V- 400 Amp Jump Box that powers my Sparrow Air. I set it up so that the battery pack is hidden in the rear compartment for a cleaner look. There is no power drain on the drive pack to run the air. It works pretty well, but it does not last too long. Of course, 75mph from 156 Volts does not last too long either...

The basic priciple of the system may also be applied to a Pulse for cooling. It is basically a "swamp cooler" like those used in the old days before all the new cars came out that had factory air. I had an old heater core from a previous streetrod project that has a 12V fan attached to it. A bilge pump circulates water through ice to the heater core where the fan blows air accross the coils that turns cold. Very simple.

For a Pulse, I would assume that it would be more effective in a drier and less humid area, such as the midwest or southern states. That's really where swamp coolers shine. I believe that many homes are still cooled in those areas with an evaporative cooler AKA "swamp cooler".

I have not tried the set-up in my Pulse. I guess one could make a set-up to fit the back package tray area if they wanted to try it. My cost was very minimal since I had the used heater core, cooler and jump box already. I only had to buy fittings and hose (both to circulate the water and for the cold air).
Chad