partisan39

This Retrosprec Dart 24" electric bike conversion has become one of my favorites to ride! I swapped out the stock handlebars for BMX bars and replaced the seat and added a 48 volt 500 watt geared front wheel hub and it rides awesome! I have ordered a few of these 24" 500 watt wheel kits on Amazon and Aliexpress but I think that this one came from Amazon and was a 36 volt setup. When I checked out the controller, it was 36 or 48 volt and set it up for 48 volts and I can't remember the other settings but it peaks power! One thing that I have noticed on my camera mounts on my recent rides is that my DJI Pocket 2 camera does not like the very bumpy ride when rigid mounted on my handlebars or frame mounted due to the natural movement of the 3 axis gimbal which was meant for drones. It made for a very choppy video. I won't do that again. I will use instead my DJI Omso Action Camera 2 which doesn't have gimbal. It is much more solid for that role. One handing the Pocket 2 or over my shoulder might be OK. I was running a 48 Volt 14 Amp Hour battery which powered it great but the battery bag I got for it was a bit insecure on the mounting. I set the controller for 9 PAS mode and I bumped it up a speed, it went faster and faster top speed. I got this up to 30 MPH top speed in my neighborhood! It is a rigid frame and you have to keep that in mind. The V brakes are adequate to slow this thing down and it looks good going down the road. I swapped out the other battery for a slightly bigger Hailong 48V 15 Ah triangle battery that I have and mounted it upside down. It seems to stay much more secure on this bike. With the nice whitewalls, and the low riding profile of this little machine, we affectionately call this bike simply, the "Low Rider". This one is not for sale, it's a keeper! ~William Flying39

I've been putting together simple electric bike conversions for a bit and like using Kent & Retrospec bicycles as the platform. They are good quality for the money and they have good performance with the 48 volt 500 watt front wheel drives. This black 26" Kent SeaChange Men's Cruiser retains it's stock coaster rear brake and an added U brake on front to help it stop. It rides really good and sporting a 12 Ah 48 volt battery. It can fit a 20 Ah battery under the top tube. It attained a top speed of 28 MPH on the first ride before I tinkered with the settings in the programming and just rode it on the default settings. The K-T LCD6 Display settings are a bit unfamiliar to me so I had to watch a few YouTube videos for other similar models so I tinked around with the programming. Not sure I got everything right, but it still rides nice with the Zemake front wheel hub. I believe with further tweaking the settings, it will peak power and go as quick as the first ride. 25.2 MPH is not too shabby for a top speed on the last ride here. I am still working with my camera mounts and also editing with the picture in picture which was a bit of a PITA! The more I trimmed and moved the two videos to the same fraction of a second, the more I messed it up and finally gave up. The two videos were from the same ride but I could not match the exact moments in the timeline so I finally gave up after a few hours. Oh well, forgive the sloppy editing ion this video. I do have a few electric bike conversions for sale including this one. Anyone local interested can contact me. ~William Flying39

I finally tried out this cheap little FPV camera on my UMX Timber which is a little radio controlled airplane flying over the lake the other day. The 5.8GHz video was being broadcasted to my budget Mini FPV Goggles with lots of digital interference and noise in the signal which was being recorded on a $20 micro DVR so don't expect miracles with the footage. I could recreate the flight in full 4K UHD TV quality with my Mavic 2 Pro drone but that would not be nearly as fun. ~ Flying39 Aviation

Last Saturday afternoon, we got together for the first for 2024 Brewing39 BBQ & Brews and had an awesome time together!!! The slow smoked pastrami was ready to slice when my guests showed up and the Huli Huli chicken turned out tasty! I had 4 kegs of my creations on the deck including Tamarindo Hard Seltzer, a German blonde Deutscher Girls Ale, Scottish malt Highland Pale Ale and an American SMaSH blonde called Bird of Prey Pale Ale and three of my dark beers bottled and ice cold. A few of my regulars could not make this one but some new faces this time which made everything very special. We had the biggest turn out yet which was pleasant surprise! Thanks to everyone who helped me out this time to make everything come together. ~ William Brewing39

It was a little over a week ago that my family came together for my mom's 80th birthday which was incredible! There was so much celebrating going on out back but I wanted to take the electric bikes for a little ride around the neighborhood. My delightful Prima, Tata was in, 100% and she hopped on the 24" Low Rider running a 48 volt 500 watt front wheel drive and was ready to roll!!! I was one handing the Pocket 2 camera which was a little risky but we had a blast!!!! ~ William Flying39

I had been hoping to get my beloved Tio Ury & Sebastian to be able to go for a little electric bike ride to El Dorado park before they had to fly back to Puerto Rico today and I was so blseed to make it happen yesterday. Here is the little story in video of our 22 mile adventure. It was an amazing, beautiful day to ride our machines to the destination and then back home for dinner with my folks. ~ William Flying39

My Primos were in town for my Mom's 80th birthday and I got to take Sebastian up for a little with my DJI FPV with two sets of video goggles. We had a great time! William ~ Flying39

We had a wonderful time yesterday at my beloved Momma's birthday celebration at my place! Lots of love from everyone, fantastic food and drink!! What did I do then? I coaxed everyone out front and sat my mom down next to me as my copilot and I did a little crazy flight for her and the guests with the DJI FPV quadcopter with two sets of video goggles, one for a eema & one for me. This is what we saw as we flew fast over the neighborhood. I had a little fun with this one. Enjoy! ~ William Flying39

It was near impossible to select only the few pics that I included on this little movie. I hope that you like it! I love you forever! Your loving son, William (Tito) Flying39 Aviation / Brewing39

I have been putting together electric bike conversions for a while and always looking for fun little projects. I love 24" bicycles and saw this Girl's Huffy Cranbrook Cruiser in periwinkle blue with whitewalls and a white seat, blue pedals and I said "Why not?". I strip the new metal fenders for safety purposes as this little bike will go faster than the manufacturer intended. I installed a KT 48 volt 500 watt front wheel conversion kit and a rear luggage rack for the battery mount. I left the rear coaster brake and added a hand brake on the front to help slow it down. I tried it initially with a 48 volt 1000 watt front wheel motor but it was too heavy for this bike. The 500 watt is perfect! I clocked a 28 MPH top speed before with the 48V 1000 watt but with the 500 watt wheel, it still got me up to about 24 miles an hour top speed. It has very good pickup off the line and rides nice! I got a new camera mount and this was my first time to try it out with the DJI Osmo Action camera and wanted to have a little fun with it. We are working on how to bring more aerial photogrpahy with some cool drone shots into the efforts around here. Thanks for watching! ~ William Flying39

I had some time to process the last few days and the people who The Lord has brought across my path over the years. Driving back from my destination, I thought of the souls that I spent time with, discussions that we had, ranging from temporal things to the Eternal, life and death and the words the proceed from my mouth. Add to that yet another chapter of personal heartache ... hopefully the last for a while and with closure. I drove those lonely miles in silence and yet I had a song in my head. So much of this song is personal to me and reminds me The Lord has been working in my life and He is not finished with me. ~ William Flying39

Here's a little something that I put together for our Victory Anaheim Men's Bible Study we have been having at my place. It's been fantastic to study through the story of Abraham from Genesis and learn how to apply it to our lives and be men of character. It's been great fellowship and awesome to go through it with these men. ~ William

I have a dear friend, Henry who I wanted to take for an electric bike ride at the park. I have another dear friend Big Dave that I wanted to bring along for the ride. I have loaners for my buddies so he piloted the yellow 48 volt 750 watt Fucare Libra and we had a splendid afternoon at and around El Dorado Park in Long Beach. Poor Henry's battery was not charged up correctly that day, so switched "horses" along our journey and Big Dave and I did a little pedaling on Henry's bike on the way back. It was just one of those days when you just smile and sense a fourth "certain Someone" who is also pedaling alongside us and` enjoying the ride. ~ William Flying39

My apologies for the out of focus 2nd half the video clip but the first part was pretty awesome! SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket tonight from Vandenberg Space Force Base CA and I just happened to walking to my garage in my backyard in Buena Park and I ran inside to grab my iPhone and try to capture the launch. I missed the first part in my video clip running back inside but it was amazing! This one had a payload of 22 Starlink satellites onboard the rocket. ~ William Flying39

I recently put together another Kent 26" SeaChange Cruiser conversion with a modest 350 watt 36 volt front wheel drive and it was a big hit with my friends. It rides great and gets up to 21 + MPH. It's just a tall bike with the luggage rack installed for shorter folks like myself. When I Iearned that Kent International made a smaller 24" "Kids and Small Adults" version of the SeaChange, I ordered it from Walmart and had it overnight for $128 plus tax. I am very imopressed with the quality of Kent bikes. I am always satisfied with what I get. I had the 48 v 500 watt front wheel drive wheel and a nice Hailong 13 Ah "kidney" battery already. I put front and rear V brakes on it and kept the stock coaster brake in place. It's a rigid frame bike but it's a delight to ride! It has nice acceleration and I hit a top speed of 24.9 miles per hour at one point! Not bad with a 24" wheel with a 48 v 500 w motor. This is my new favorite eBike build! The next one will sport a 1000 watt 48v. That one will need a rack for the battery on back. Stay tuned! ~ William Flying39

We had a great turnout this afternoon at Our Bar in Costa Mesa. 2000 Newport Blvd Costa Mesa 92627. One of the members of our Tribe, James "Santiago" Reese is dealing with cancer and we showed up to help him cover the cost of treatment. When it's one of our guys, the troops show up. A whole lot of love today. I had a huge hamburger and lots of cold liquid refreshment. It was a great turnout! I meant to hit the record button again but I got distracted by all the goings on.

I used to really enjpoy flying my DJI Avata until it was updated with a firmware update with the Remote ID requirements from the FAA where I had to have my goggles plugged in to my smartphone and logged into DJI Fly app to get off the ground. It flew great with the DJI Goggles V2 which I shared with the original FPV drone. It was sure a hassle to share the goggles with two different quadcopters. I ordered the DJI Goggles 2 when they were available seperately instead of a package with the drone alone when I first bought it. Then came the dreaded firmware update and the Remote ID error issues in the app. I watched quite a few videos online with other pilots were having the same issues. It ended up being the DJI product that I did not want to fly too often due to having to be plugged in to my iPhone and hsve the DJI Fly app open. What did I do? When the Goggles Integra Motion Combo came out and had yet another new set of DJI FPV Goggles 2 Integra that no longer required them to be plugged in to the smartphone. I wouldn't know becuase I ended up binding these with my Mini 3 Pro instead which is kinda cool in combination with the new Motion Controller (2?) with the new trigger and features. I have not bothered to try this setup on the Avata yet as I still have it paired with the Mini 3 Pro. What is this latest video about? Now my battery capacity not updated for extended period. I had to run down all 4 of my batteries to 10%. Land. Let them sit for 30 minutes. Charge them and then let them rest again for 30 minutes. Then use them. That's what I was doing here. I had to override the Return to Home when I hit 20% due to low battery. I got 3 batteries that accepted the update and one that I will have to do again because it didn't work. My flights here were just trying run the battery down, flying low, flying in Sport Mode and just goofing around. ~ William Flying39

We had a great time last night as the Christmas Car Parade passed through our neighborhood. The parade has grown in size every year since it was started in Buena Park 4 years ago. It's wonderful that the Buena Park Fire Department and our Police Department take part in the festivities and bring plenty of lights of their own to the motorcade, as well as the many volunteers and bring everything with wheels to participate. I was flying my DJI Mini 3 Pro with the Goggles Intergra Motion Controller FPV setup so I could stay low with the parade for a fair portion of the parade path. I was pretty sure that I got some good shots last night and I avoided wires and tree branches and that was a bonus. Thanks to everyone who was part of it. Well done! A Merry Christmas to all and a blessed New Year to come. William Flying39

A blast to the past. I was recently digitizing some old 8mm camcorder tapes from back in the 1990's and found this old video. I apologize for the modest quality of the video of the era but it is what it is. What this was is John and Ken from KFI AM 640 decided to broadcast their live radio show from the Insight Shooting Range in Artesia California. I am a long time talk radio guy. I believe that John and Ken had come from New Jersey not too long before and fairly new to the KFI afternoon lineup. My friend Jack Solomon owned the place and offered his establishment to host the event. Back then, the Erik & Lyle Menendez trial was in the news, the event was to be a yard sale in the parking lot of Insight the next day. The proceeds from the yard sale was supposed to go the prosecution of the Menendez brothers who viciously had murdered their parents and the trail was a circus in the media. This was the Fry The Mendendi Yard Sale. We drove down to check things out. It was fun and there was a cool crowd there. I was there with my friend Michael and not long after we showed up, John Kobylt was checking out the crowd and he walked towards me. I was in mid 20's, lots of tattoos and John walked up to me with his mic. He thought that I looked scary. LOL We had a few minutes on the radio and some of buddies were listening to KFI at the time and they were sure that it was me that John was interviewing on the air, so they drove down too. The Date was May 13 1994. The bummer that Michael was manning the Sony HandiCam 8mm camera but was not recording at the time of my brief radio debut. The last part of this video is my playing of the re-broadcast of the hour of radio which I recorded on my audio cassette recorder. John and Ken are not gun guys. The gun control arguments were exactly the same even back then. Jack invited John and Ken to shoot a gun live on the air after some firearms safety instruction and his close supervision. That part of the video is hilarious! Only John Kobylt opted to shoot the revolver 6 rounds. That was it for him. Ken Chiampou didn't shoot. What was funny is how they ducked behind the lane dividers, not sure what to expect when John finally pulled the trigger and sent a round downrange. There was at least one strike of the metal target clamp which made the target dance around which was followed by chuckles from my entourage. There is a little bit of us squeezing off a few rounds that day. I had my Smith & Wesson 9mm in my truck and asked Jack could rent a lane nearby the radio broadcast. He said OK. We did a little traget shooting. We were the ones shooting nearby and John and Ken and crew were flinching at the loud gunfire in the neighboring lane. John even asked "what kind of security do you have at this place?" which made us laugh too. Jack and us fellow 2A enthusiasts were the security which was plenty. If was a fun day.

My Pops mentioned to me that the retired Rockwell and Boeing Aerospace employees were planning their annual Christmas/Holiday party just down the street from us at the La Palma Community Center today. We signed up online and Pops bought us two tickets. I've had space flight in my blood since I was born. I love to spend time with these amazing men and women who built the spacecraft that took us to the moon with the Apollo missions and then designed the Space Shuttle Orbiters that delivered many satellite, space telescope and a space station that still orbits our planet. He asked me if I was going to bring one of my drones as I might get to fly a little bit. I knew that my DJI's would give me trouble with those tall high voltage power lines in the nearby green belt, so I brought my Autel Nano drone instead and a couple of batteries. I took off from the same courtyard where celebrated a few birthdays when I was a little kid, in my home town of La Palma. I love the stories they tell me about the good old days. There are some who are no longer with us. I cherish the folks who are still around. They have the Right Stuff indeed. The first part of the movie is my panning the crowd with the DJI Osmo Action camera. After that, I took a quick look of what was behind the building and where I was going to soon fly over. No fancy flying today but it was a fun day. ~William Flying39

Last Saturday evening, we met up and had a fantastic time together! Thank you friends and family who showed up and made it so special. We BBQ'd burgers, my Beer Brats, Lupe brought her phenomenal Mexican food and my beer cheese dip which was pretty good on tortilla chips! The firewood pile never ran out and that the place to be on a brisk night. I had four kegs online and more of my bottled beers in the cooler. On tap was Appomattox White Ale, English Poltergeist Ale, Gomer's Homer Ale and Kablooey White IPA, all new creations! Until next time, my friends!!!! ~ William

A few years back, I really wanted to take my folks to the Pacific Airshow in Huntington Beach. I knew that it was going to be a zoo. Humanity like sands of the sea and that parking was going to be tough to find a spot. There was no place to park anywhere in the vicinity and we had to drive home which was a major disappointment. This time, I had an idea that I would ride my electric bike up the San Gabriel River Trail to Seal Beach and follow the coast through Sunset, Bolsa Chica and into Huntington Beach. The weather was marginal and a bit of rain as I felt but my phone weather app gave me the current weather in HB and I decided to risk it. I couldn't make the whole day but got to see the F-35 Lightning II flight demonstration as well as the Thunderbirds fly which was awesome! I had some footage of my 43 mile round trip on the Fucare Libra e-Bike but the 4K clips on my DJI Osmo Action camera displayed that the 128GB micro SD card was full and I missed some great flying overhead. I had to delete those files in order to capture more of the flying aircraft. Eventually, I switched to shooting the end of the show from my iPhone 8. It was a little cool at the beach and lots of clouds in the sky. The rain held out until I was headed back for my ride home. There was a bit of light rain as I made back to Seal Beach and for about a mile or so as I rode the bike trail and then I got ahead of the weather and then it stopped. My battery held out until about 5 miles from home. I brought a spare with me, so I swapped it out and made the last leg of my journey. It was the longest ride I have made on the eBikes and it was a lot of fun. Met some nice folks there. William Flying39

What really stirred me about 2 years ago was watching some videos online of motorized bikes. I owned one older mountain bike at the time. I took some measurements of my frame and ordered the motorized bike kit. Then I saw the 4 stroke variant and ordered one of those kits as well. I bought another mountain bike after taking measurements of the frame cradle. Neither of them would end up working out and I put all of the motorized bike gear away on the shelf in my garage. This perked my interest in electric bikes as well as gas mini bikes and pit bikes. Recently, I've seen a few motorized bikes for sale here locally. I shopped around a bit and found the best candidate for a very good price. For me, it was a good pattern to see how the previous owner got everything working. I got it for less than asking price because it had a flat rear tire and the seller pulled the flat rear tire off the rim trying to start it. It was a runner drive and I was confident that it would run again once I swapped out the tube. That's what I did the next day. A rear wheel removal on these bikes is a hassle. I put a Slime puncture proof strip inside the tire and it's holding air now. I believe that this motor is the smallest of the displacements of the motors at 50 cc's. There are 66cc, 80cc and a 100cc big bore motors but I don't care. The 26" Kent Bayside bike platform is pretty ideal for the motorized bike. It had the front bike disabled with the cable removed. We fixed that so it has front and rear brakes now. Applying the clutch as well as the front brake lever is not easy but a bit of an art. You have to rely on the rear a brake a bit but I will swipe it out and move the front brake to the other side of the bars. For me, it was a lot of fun to fire up this 50cc S stroke motorized bike and ride it though my neighborhood a bit. It's nice to know that it doesn't need a battery level display. I am fascinated with two wheeled machines of all kinds. Electric bikes are great and can go where the internal combustion engine powered bikes can't go. Pound per pound, gasoline produces much more power and range than any battery available. I like them both. Now to get my 4 stroke motorized bikes built. I hope to add some drone footage to riding this soon. Stay tuned. ~ William Flying39

Last Saturday, we came together on a hot muggy afternoon to celebrate the end of the summer. We had a huge crock pot full of carnitas for tacos and lots other tasty summer food. I had 4 cold kegs of summer beers on line, Belgian Light, Desert Road Blonde Ale, The Main Event Blonde Ale, California Über Alles Ale as well as a variety of bottled brews in the cooler packed in ice. We had the fire pit going but it was such a warm day that we mostly hung out on the patio and braved the mosquitoes with the citronella plant close by and branches of Rosemary passed around, the mosquito coils burning around us and enjoyed the time together. I was missing a certain special someone who could not make it on Saturday and pouting a bit inside. Next time, Lord willing, I hope that she is there next to me. That's what the audio track choice is about. I want to thank my wonderful friends and family who showed up and made the afternoon & evening very special for me. William Brewing39

I was reasonably sure that my lady friend Julie could fly my DJI Mini 3 Pro with the new Goggles Integra Motion Combo. I do have it insured for replacement. She was sporting the FPV goggles and after a little practice on how to fly with the new Motion Controller, up we went. I was plugged in to the DJI Fly app and patched into the goggles and we went for a nice flight over the neighborhood. She did great and I only had to watch the altitude a few times and proximity to the wires to the aircraft. We had fun! I only had to take motion controller back as we were landing it as it can be a little tricky to get it back on ground if you're new to landing FPV. ~ William Flying39