I joined a club.

"I would never join a club that would have me as a member" - Groucho Marx. I know everyone thinks it was Woody Allen, but he was quoting Groucho, and gave him credit. I always identified with that, and thusly, have never joined a club. With one exception. In High School, we had a club called the TUNA CLUB whose only  criteria was that you didn't have to do anything, or ever see anyone in that club ever again. We had shirts made, and posed for a yearbook picture, but that was the only time we were ever together. 

So I joined the Electric Auto Assoc, their local chapter. I had read that the bi-monthly newsletters had a lot of good, up to date info (they don't put it online, unfortunately) and I could go to meetings and meet some folks who have done this. I went to my first meeting yesterday. 

Suffice to say, I had a couple pages of questions ready for whoever would listen. It took place at a new business called Green Motors in Berkeley. Nice place, they took over an old toyota dealership or something. Anyhow, I wandered in, there were plenty of coffee and donuts. All sorts of crazy electric bikes, cars, minivans (not what you imagine, truly minivans, about as big as a honda civic) were parked around there. We got started with introductions. "What the hell am I gonna say? "

We had to go around the room and introduce each other and explain your projects, vehicles, etc. I'm totally out of my league to speak about anything. I have a 62 bug. I'm trying to make it electric. That's all I got. I'll get laughed out of the room, or shunned, or worse; ridiculed after I leave. There's a guy there with a button that says "Ask me about my electric car" I won't even look at him when I speak. He has glasses, and most of the people in this room have glasses. And beards. I can't look at anyone with glasses and/or beards as they are sure to be smarter, more experienced and scientific than I will ever be.

They started the introductions. The first guy didn't even have a car. Neither did the second. Third guy had that really small electric van. 4th, 5th and 6th guy...no car, though one had an electric bike once, that someone offered him a lot of dough for. Then me. "I have a 62 bug, and I'm  trying to convert it. This is my first meeting, and I'm just trying to collect some info for the design." Done. Okay, good, no one laughed. we move on.

One guy is just there cuz he has a donor car. One guy lost his car in an accident. Sounded pretty upset about it, but no more car. 2 people just bought new electric cars from this delearship. I am astounded at how many people are here that don't actually have a car, bike or motorcycle. They're just getting info too. 

Okay, we watch a demo on this system you can add to your Prius (none of us have one, except for the guys doing the demo) that turns it into a plug in that allows you to drive all electric and changes your mileage to around 100-150mpg. Pretty interesting stuff for those that have an 04 Prius or newer. For the rest of us, seems a bit too pricey. But I applaud their efforts. The whole product interfaces with the Prius computer, so it was a lot of work.

Anyhow, the best part of the meeting was that 1) I was not shunned, and 2) I got to talk to the guy who brought his 68 ghia. He did his conversion in 86! It's still rockin, and is super clean. I got all sorts of good info from him like 1) use a system that uses the clutch (message loud and clear) and 2) use lead acid flooded batteries. I even saw how I could make some battery box hold-downs from hardward store aluminium and my vice, instead of welding. 

Anyhow, lots of good info there, and I'm glad I joined the club. The next meeting next month is a big electric car show, with all sorts of folks bringing their vehicles. I'll see if I can bring the kids and missus. I'm catching a lot of guff from the Missus about joining a club. I guess since I was in bands before, that's sort of like being in a club, isn't it?