2 Wheels Maybe

[Bob, I'm understanding you better and better.] Bob Sharpe is a friend I've never met, but we've talked on the phone and support each others' writing and lots of good stuff like that. While I've known Bob, I've lived in Lubbock and I think he's lived in 47 different places. He seems to be on a quest to find a great place for a cyclist to live and ride. His most recent home (and one that looks like it may be THE one) is a tiny town in Iowa that happens to be right on a 100 mile bike trail. Yep, 100 miles of car-less and truck-less getting about on a bike. Imagine that! He writes about it often. Sometimes I read with envy. Sometimes I worry about his sanity. Over the last year, I have traveled very little, but I have been taking a bike with me whenever I can. I've gotten to ride in New Mexico (Cloudcroft and Alamogordo) and more recently I've pedaled part of a Rails-to-Trails path in Quitaque, Texas and a linear park in Mansfield, Texas. ...

Yep, it has pedals - must be a moped.   Several years ago, I was at a scooter rally in Austin. About 100 of us had ridden our old Vespas up to Mount Bonnell to check out the view. As we were headed up the stairs to the lookout point, a woman said to her companion, "These must be the people on all those cute mopeds."   Get yours at ClevelandMoto   The guy next to me, we'll call him Sean [His name really is Sean. He's a Brit expat who's done a remarkable job of not losing his accent.] yelled at her, "It's not a trucking moped!" or something that rhymes with that.   The woman and her companion fled the scene in a panic. It's pretty easy to offend scooterists and mopedders (two distinctly separate groups) and they are all a scary lot.   Keep reading to learn more about the Onyx RCR and CTY   What's the difference? you may be wondering. It's all found in the word "moped." It's a contraction of the ...

Lots of good stuff, indeed! I spent a week in the Metroplex where it was green and luscious and rainy, and there was lots of good stuff, but it is good to be home with the people I love and the dogs (and on a lesser scale) it's good to be back on a bike. It's funny - there's a buildup I feel when I don't ride, when I don't write, when I don't spend some time outside. And this week it was worse. The first four days of this year's National Bike Challenge I spent in a motel with no bike. More Bike Goodness from the League But this morning, I hopped on the old black bike and pedaled away, and things felt right. And I saw squirrels, sparrows, dove, starlings, grackles, robins, and even a pair of house finches. And there was no rush of traffic. And I pulled up to a big, empty bike rack. And it's good to be home. Don't forget the challenge Man, it's good to be home! May you know the feeling and may May be good to you!

Learn more at  www.lovetoride.net Tomorrow, May 1, is a big deal around here the Mesquite Hugger / 2Wheels Maybe corporate offices – the National Bike Challenge begins. The NBC is a big motivator for me. It is a daily reason to ride. It’s actually what helped me take a big leap to become a bicycle commuter rather than an occasional cyclist. And I have to say, life is better on a bike. What do I mean by better? Find it here Personally: My body is skinnier, my stamina exists, I smile more, I save money, I enjoy and look forward to my commute to work. I reduce my risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and obesity. Most of all, my spirit is healthier and more hopeful when I ride. Find it here Environmentally: This one’s pretty easy – no air pollution or noise pollution. The bicycle doesn’t burn coal or natural gas or gasoline or diesel, which leads to less habitat destruction and less war. Find it here Communitarily: (I may have m...

Yep, you know how we love the vintage side of earth-friendly transportation. So, You can imagine how thrilled our staff was to discover a Green Car Reports article about the 1970 Clean Car Race! Enjoy! GCR: 1970 Clean Car Race A steam-powered hipster convention? May we be thankful for the pioneers!

But I will start by telling you a little about the Swytch. Are you familiar with the Geoorbital Wheel and the Copenhagen Wheel? Are you familiar with the old-school e-bike kits with a hub motor? Well, the Swytch is a nifty halfway point between those two things. You just swap out your front wheel, add a few wires, and put a bracket on your handlebar. Voila! You have an e-bike. (And it's pretty inexpensive.) But this is not an ad for them - it's an encouragement for the e-bike curious. Honestly, I don't know if the Swytch people got the conversion kit right, but they did get the video right - it explains the whole rhyme and reason to e-biking. So here it is - Oliver will tell you more: Swytch Crowdfunding Video (and the crowdfunding page) Yep, an e-bike is a great way to live lighter without being a full fledged athlete in spandex shorts. And it requires no gasoline, tar sands, oil spills, and lots of other nasty stuff that does not seem to make the world a be...

Yep, I'm a can't-leave-well-enough-alone kind of guy when it comes to bicycles. The body likes to ride and the brain likes to tinker with new ways of doing things. To keep it all balanced, I've been building a new-to-me e-bike to haul me to work, shopping, and coffee and to keep me from burning more gasoline. So, let's talk inspiration: Klunker A while back I wrote a series of articles on how to build a dependable and sturdy e-bike for $500 or less, and I wanted to take it from theory to reality.  So, I'd been looking for the bike to build that would cover a lot of needs. I landed on electric cargo klunker! In case you're not nerd enough to know what a klunker (or clunker)  is, it's the precursor to the mountain bike. The old cruisers that daring pioneers (otherwise known as crazy people) turned into off-roaders to help them fly down mountains. Klunkers appeal to me even though there are no mountains to fly down around here. (Want to learn mor...