I am sorry to be hassling you two poor guys. My motive is actually more to get the two of you to look further into the details so you can see where the real advantages and disadvantages are. I myself am inspired to look further into a subject when I am involved in a slightly adversarial conversation than if we are all just cheerleading. Because of what you posted I have looked a little closer at the current pricing of components and have found that the prices actually have come down quite a bit on some items compared to the last time I purchased them.
I have been interested in solar power since I first saw those Bell Labs science pictures in grade school. You will know what I am talking about if you are baby boomers, but here is a link:
https://youtu.be/JBwZ6UT0mMI?list=PL_sjhEFSOGfBcUPywiy5l9jze20wxr7HQ
My favorite display at the Seattle Science Center was the one where you pedaled an exercise bicycle to light up light bulbs. The harder you pedaled the more light bulbs you lit up.
During my youth and into adulthood I built many projects using solar cells and also human powered devices. I have several different types of hand and pedal cranked generators, two built for military use and two completed projects built by hand. I have even been interested in homemade windmill projects for pumping water or powering permanent magnet generators.
My dad owns property near Mount Rainier where he has water rights to a small stream that comes down the hill. The top of his property is hundreds of feet above the lower portion. I have always wanted to place a small hydro powered generator there. Currently, impellors for that type of project are much less expensive than they used to be.
I have built up both electric and gasoline powered bicycles. We also purchased a 1938 Sun tandem bicycle with a 1938 Watsonian Sidecar. It has a very interesting but tragic history related to WWII.
I have a lot of experience riding motorcycles and I grew up with a 1958 Cushman Eagle with a sidecar that is still in the family. So I love all this stuff, I just haven't figured out how to make money using my experience and ingenuity yet.
Your posts did cause me to do more research on current component prices. As a retirement business I still envision custom building adult sized recumbent tricycles with fairings and solar cells to charge batteries for a rear hub motor. The Germans especially build impressive machines, but they are very expensive. I would like to build similar faired trikes built with more comfort, load capacity and safety in mind. I purchased a Rhodes Car 4 wheeled bicycle car which was heavy and slow, but I appreciated greatly its stability and handling.
