What have I been up to lately?
Just a little update, because I've been quiet
Unfortunately, I still haven’t gotten the replies that I’ve been waiting for to get one of my posts out the door. If I don’t hear anything by the start of the week, I’ll publish the post without it, and post a followup in the future if I hear back. But more generally, I’ve been doing stuff and keeping busy, and I realized I haven’t ever publicly posted a life update like I used to do at Stripe.
The Great Garage Update: 2023 edition
It’s been no secret that I’ve wanted to get a new motorcycle now for a while. I’ve had a 2022 Zero FXE 7.2 that I love and have ridden ~daily since May. It’s my primary means of transportation (riding season never ended here in North Carolina!) and I love it so much. And it’s electric! Instant torque! No gasoline1!
Despite being a great bike most of the time, there are a number of downsides:
The range is fairly limited unless you’re not exceeding 45mph. Riding around downtown is no problem, but as soon as I get on the highway the range drops off significantly. This limits my ability to get to, say, Durham and back2.
You can only practically charge at a rate of about 0.75kw, which means 0-100% takes almost ten hours. You can get a quick charger accessory, but the plug for it is behind a fairing (???). You can attach up to four quick chargers, but they each need to be on their own circuit, it seems. Frankly, the cost and inconvenience of the quick chargers makes them not worth it.
Charging away from home is basically out of the question; you can’t use J1772/CCS chargers, only household outlets.
The acceleration is quite good (0-60 in under 5s), but it caps out on paper at 85mph, which can make highway riding kind of stressful when there’s a lot of fast-moving traffic. It doesn’t accelerate very quickly above 75mph.
Range is really the biggest issue. If I have something to do in Durham and subsequently want to go downtown, I’m out of luck. At least not without waiting 4-5 hours between rides. It’s a fun bike and a joy to ride, but it’s hard to have it as my only means of transit.
I’d decided to get another bike, which ticks all the boxes. I’ll talk about that more in a minute. The bike I’ve wanted is electric and has a faster on-board charger, which commands more power.
This raises another problem that I currently have: we’ve faced unending difficulties charging the car and the bike. They can’t both charge on the same circuit, as home builders of the 80s didn’t anticipate EVs. My garage and all of the external receptacles have been on one 15 amp circuit, which is Not Awesome. We’ve had to run an extension cord so that the car can charge in peace, but that has also caused the car to trip the circuit breaker when we run the sous vide.
If I was going to bring a bike that draws more power into the garage, we were going to need to accelerate our plans for modernization.
The electrification project
The first step was getting new circuits installed. I wanted two 50 amp circuits put in, one on each side of the (two car) garage. And I figured, if I’m getting an electrician to do this I’d might as well get any other electric work done while I’m at it. We’ve been talking about getting a second fridge, so we need an outlet in the garage for that. And I want to get some counter/shelf space in the garage, so some counter-height outlets are also needed. I also wanted a camera with floodlights installed over the garage door, which would require some additional wiring.
When we contacted the electrician for a quote, he also noted that we’d need to replace our breaker panels3, as the manufacturer "went out of business" and "they were no longer considered safe". Not something I'd had planned, but not terrible because we were ~out of space in both panels.
The electric work happened over two days. And it’s done! We got the NEMA 14-50 adapter for the Tesla charger and the car charges so much faster. And we have not tripped a circuit since.
This wasn’t a cheap project, but the new breaker boxes and the high-power chargers both come with tax credits, which will make 2023 taxes a bit milder.
The painting project
I contacted someone to renovate the garage, and would be able to provide everything I was looking for…but, they they wouldn’t paint. So I had to hire a painter to come in and get things looking good after the conduits were installed. The walls were not looking very sharp and the popcorn ceiling was in very rough shape thanks to pockmarks from generations of drywall anchors and dings. The ceiling had (cosmetic) remnants of water damage from when a washing machine was located in the room above the garage (now my office).
We had the ceiling and baseboard painted a dark gray and the walls painted a simple, neutral gray. This also took two days. I’m glad I hired someone to do this instead of doing it myself; they did a far better job than I’d have done. Watching them do the work, it’s striking how much effort goes into taping things off and priming, and the drywall repairs were tiresome to watch.
The renovation
The renovators came and gave me a quote for three things:
A new Swisstrax floor
A counter with cabinets above and below, along with a sort of wardrobe-like closet for motorcycle gear
Slatwall for the side walls and back above the counter
Here’s what it’ll look like:
The space to the right of the wardrobe will be for the refrigerator.
For this project, the materials are on order and we’re set to have work kick off in the second half of April.
The motorcycle
We’ve spent enough time at the motorcycle dealer that I text with the folks that work there. Chatting with one of our friends in the service department, I asked how long to expect a delivery to take from the time of order until it arrives for a bike made in Italy. The answer I got was “probably about two months.” Which is very reasonable! I asked this around the time I got the quote for the electric, which would put the bike’s arrival right at the completion of the renovation.
I was interested in the Energica Eva Ribelle, but Energica produces a second, essentially-identical bike called the Ego. The physical differences are almost exclusively non-functional parts (a windscreen, the shape of the fairings, the handlebar shape and position, etc.); under the proverbial hood, it's the same bike. The result is an aggressive riding position4 and a slightly higher price tag, but a higher top speed (150mph versus 120mph, 241kmh versus 193kmh).
The dealer had one new Energica bike in stock: an Ego. They had borrowed a part from it to fix another customer’s Ego, and the replacement part was arriving within days. The manager of the dealership offered to let me come by and check it out (though it wouldn’t run). If I wanted it, I could have it as soon as the replacement part arrived.
I came by and checked it out, but was not fond of the aggressive riding posture. If I was planning track days it would be a great bike, but the position was uncomfortable for someone who sits for a living and I frankly don’t plan to spend very much time above 100mph, let alone 120mph. I’ll take the comfy bike that I can show off around town, thanks.
The manager happily took my order. It turned out, the bike I wanted (with the options I care about) was in stock in Energica’s San Francisco warehouse. The two month procurement time became a one-week procurement time. They happily charged the deposit to my card and told me they’d text the ETA as soon as they got it.
In the end, the bike took two weeks to arrive. Sadly, I misunderstood them: I couldn’t pay for the bike with my card5, just the deposit. My Wealthfront cash account wouldn't send outbound wires, and due to the dinosaur that is ACH, I couldn't get my cashier's check until the following week. Even more sadly, I was in NYC for work that week, and couldn't pick up the check or the bike until I got back. It was a week of agony.
A bit over a week ago, I picked the bike up! As my followers on Instagram saw, I bought the emoji:
Something that strikes me about this purchase is that it’s one of the few that I’ve made where I have no disappointment. There’s no aspect of the bike that I’m like “Aww, I wish that was different” or where I have even the tiniest pangs of regret. All of the things that I wish were different about the bike are things that I can adjust if I read the manual and got the right tools out6. It's really pleasing to know that I got exactly what I intended to get, and it's solved real problems in my life.
You can count on me to post lots of motorcycle content in the coming weeks and months as the weather improves.
The progress
Here’s just a few pics of the progress on the garage.
In this picture, you can see the bikes charging7, with the newly-painted ceiling, walls, and baseboard. All three bikes could use a good wash, I know. There haven't been many warm days to justify it.
This second pic is taken in the opposite direction, showing my janky wire shelf (to be replaced with the cabinets and counter). Behind the shelf, running up along the side wall, is the new circuit for the countertop outlets. The conduit extends along the ceiling to the back right corner for the refrigerator.
For those wondering, the specks on the wall and ceiling are not defects in the paint, they’re bugs that managed to sneak in. Alas, it is still a garage.
The Nest camera with floodlights is also installed and working:
Future work
The work continues! Besides waiting for the renovation, I’ve got lots left to do:
The electricians didn’t touch the existing circuit in the garage. I’m replacing the receptacles and wall plates with nice new white ones.
I’m installing a Yale smart lock so we don’t need to rely on the garage door to get in and out without a key.
I’m researching devices to monitor power use. Now that the car can charge in a reasonable amount of time, I’m interested to see whether we’d benefit from time of use pricing.
A friend recently renovated his garage and has these beautiful custom-made window treatments: sort of a wood grille that latches in front of the window. I’m interested to see what it would take to fabricate some of my own.
I’ve got a camera in the garage, and I’d like to make a mount for it rather than sitting it on my janky shelf or on top of the cabinets. This would be a simple project, it’ll just take some effort.
This isn’t really a DIY sort of thing, but I’ve gone all-in on Milwaukee tools (M18). So far, I’ve got their yard tools (mower, weed whacker, leaf blower, chainsaw) and power tools (oscillating multitool, orbital sander, and more). I was excited to learn that you can purchase a Milwaukee-brand counter stool (I believe the stool is generic, the cushion is replaceable):
Any stool for my forthcoming countertop would be great for working on projects in the garage, but this is something that I really love and will definitely be picking up. Part of why I like it so much is that I know my dad would have been super jealous and have to go get one of his own (though he was a Makita fan, so maybe he’d be getting a nice Windows 98-teal one!).
Those of you who know me know I just really hate gasoline. It’s a mess, it’s inconvenient, the exhaust irritates me, and I hate that they play commercials while you are at the pump.
I go to Durham to see my doctor, and it’s 35 miles round trip. This is within the limit of my bike’s range at a reasonable speed, but this route takes the highway and is out of range. If I don’t take the highway, it’s a 42-ish mile trip, which is just on the cusp of the maximum range.
We have 400 amp service with two 200 amp panels.
Your body is tilted more forward, with the back closer to parallel with the ground than perpendicular.
I wanted the points!
Thankfully, I’ll soon have a clean, organized garage to do it in!
I’ve since received a NEMA 14-50 to 6-20 adapter so that the bike can charge at the full 3.6kw, using the new circuit on the wall in the background.