2 Wheels Maybe

Mae Simmons Park Part 1: The Joy If you're like me, at times your right-hand fingers tingle. Sometimes that means you need a medical checkup. Other times, though, it means your fingers are itching to build something. For me, it's a little of both. (And those fingers have been buzzing lately.) A few weeks ago I spotted this pic in a local ad - old Huffy frame $15. A week later I was (joyfully) riding this thing around Clapp Park. In between the before and after pics my fingers buzzed less, but my brain took up the slack. I started scheming and planning and digging through leftover parts. I dismantled a dumpster-bound donor bike and transplanted the parts onto the Huffy frame. As the bike came together the buzzing turned into something else - satisfaction. It felt good to turn two unwanted things into one wanted and useful thing. And with each ride and each tiny upgrade, the satisfaction grows. No, I'm not saving the world, and the bike isn't going to win any races or bea...

A lot going but not a lot of posts lately, so I figured a little update and let you know what you might see in the future. I rebuilt my first wheel. This one needed a new hub, so I replaced the old one with a disc-compatible hub. After watching three youtube vids, I spent about 90 minutes lacing it up. The next day I spent an hour straightening, truing, and tightening it. It may sound weird, but it was one of the most satisfying and calming projects I've tackled in quite a while. I can't wait to tackle my next one. (Spoiler alert, it will either be a rear hub motor or a front drum brake into a 26" rim. Stay tuned!) Farewell, Old 9917 The black Worksman klunker unexpectedly found a new home. (Remember - lock up your bike - even at your local coffeehouse. I hope it went to someone who needed it.) A new Worksman to build! (Woohoo!) So, I purchased another frame from my favorite seller on Rat Ride Bikes . Coincidentally, it came with a terrible paint job that matches the reb...

The Sodium, the CSC, and the Sondors  Before we get to the bikes - two explanations. First, I've been drinking coffee with motorcycle guys lately, and I'm jonesing more than usual for an electric motorcycle, so I may over-do-it with this post. Second, for an around-town motorbike, I've established my acceptable speed/range/price and examine all new bikes through that filter. I've landed on 45mph/40mile/$3,500. As much as I love being on two wheels, I don't have a big desire or the time to travel hundreds of miles per day burning up the highway. I just want a bike I can hop on and scoot about town as part of daily life. Now, let's get those wheels rolling! Sodium Xubaka (50mph/37-50miles/over $7,000) Click pic for Xubaka link So, let's start with the weirdest of the three - the Sodium Xubaka (I hope that is the French spelling of "Chewbacca". If so, they should offer a furry brown seat and a bandolier as options.) The coolest thing about the Sodium ...

Yes, I know it's been a while. 2WheelsMaybe has been on a hiatus, but I've still been riding and gathering info for future posts. For those of you who've been hungry for more 2WM content, here is my first attempt at a mountain bike trail video. Enjoy, have fun, and keep pedaling, amigos! (All three of you!) I hope to see you again soon. Click here! May you be well and have a much better new year!

After two years of hauling my less-than-svelte behind around, the Juiced has earned an upgrade in the stopping department. [I wasn't planning on writing about this, but Jim from Jim's Obsessive Cycling Disorder asked if I'd share my results from this cheap caliper swap and I figured I'd just share it with everybody. Thanks, Jim!] See Jim's Brake upgrade here I've been commuting on the OceanCurrent  for two years now. Other than cable adjustments and switching to thorn-resistant tubes, it's been an impressively maintenance-free bike. But the brake pads are almost gone and I wanted to upgrade to hydraulic brakes before winter sets in. So I started looking at ready-made hydraulic brake kits like this: But e-bike brake levers have a built-in electric switch that acts as a motor cutout when you apply the brakes, so the set pictured above won't do the trick. I had to find another solution or pay a much higher price for an e-bike specific set of brakes. A litt...

First ride - Saturday evening Taken at 9 am Taken at 5:30 pm Really, I went backwards. It all started with this youtube video: Klunkers 3 on YT      I've watched the video a few hundred times or so. The big guy on the yellow bike with no cables, shifters, or brake levers became my idol for a week or two. The video made me want a klunker. Specifically, it made me want a yellow Transition Klunker , but that bike was no longer being produced. It didn't take me long, though, to figure out that the TK was mostly an upgraded copy of on old straight-bar Schwinn frame. A little web surfing let me know that Schwinn is still producing a version of that bike for industrial use and I could buy a new one for around $450. (And it comes in yellow!) But I'm too cheap for that kind of fun!      Then, I rediscovered the Rat Rod Bikes forum and found a lot of people building bikes based on used Schwinn Heavy Duti frames they purchased from a forum member. So I bought one a f...

The bike showed up on Craigslist a few years ago for $10. I recognized it as a fairly odd bird. Grizz was nice enough to pick it up for me. I looked online to figure out how to fold it and learned a whole lot of cool stuff about it. Can a folding bike look epic? (From the 3rd ride) I also figured out that it had led a very hard life. In order to fold it, you had to remove the seatpost. And someone had installed an oversized seatpost very forcefully. After a few days of working to remove the seat post, I figured out that the frame had no intention of folding, the gears had no intention of shifting, and the brakes refused to brake. At the time I had two other folding frames that were much more agreeable, so I drenched the folding points in penetrating oil and the Fuji went into storage. While the Fuji sat motionless, I got the first of the folders together and on the road. A friend borrowed it and liked it so much that he decided to keep the bike rather than the friendship. (Serious bum...

[This week's minipost.] I am excited about this bike! I've been sitting on the Where are they now? draft version of this post for a while. After seeing the original crowdfunding campaign not make it for the Zooz, I feared that the bike would turn into vaporware, but I've been watching and have been elated to see that the electro-BMX-hooligan bike hasn't faded away. You see, I love my current e-bike as a commuter. For how and where I ride it, it is the perfect machine. But once in a while I think back to my first factory-built e-bike. It was this bike in silver:   The 24volt Currie E-zip Trails (bought on closeout at Best Buy) I was a dozen years younger and 35 pounds heavier than now. And it was a terrible bike, but I did not know it. I started commuting to work on it and quickly came to think of it as this: But I was wrong. It was designed for someone 100 pounds lighter than me who would ride it timidly. Riding home from work one day, the bike and I got air -  about 12...