2 Wheels Maybe

A while back (Has it really been 4 1/2 years?) Grizz and I were lucky enough to spend a little time at Electric Avenue Scooters down in Austin. It was a great visit, and I test rode a Vectrix VX-2 scooter. That visit has fueled a lot of Mesquite Hugger dreams and schemes. Since then, I have followed Electric Avenue at a distance - what a thing to make it more possible for people to pursue a petroleum free life! Recently on twitter (@EAScooters), they posted a bike that is the epitome of what I'd like to be building - a beautiful vintage cruiser with the modern e-bike convenience of a Copenhagen Wheel. Truly the best of both worlds! How cool is that? Here at 2Wheels, we drool over $3,000 e-bikes all the time, but very few of them appeal to me anywhere near as much this sweet machine! Along the same lines but even more attainable, they posted a similar bike just before the Roadmaster: This one features the Huffy Panama Jack (Yep, it's the same frame as...

I love it when a project comes together! Nope, I can't quite say it's finished, but I can say that it's ride-able. And that's a big pedal in the right direction. Hub motors - aren't they sexy? The most recent progress came in determining that the geared motor I had planned for the bike has a problem. So I swapped it out with the direct-drive motor from another project and now it runs! The (Harbor-Freight/Dollar-Tree sourced) DIY PAS sensor (none too pretty, none too functional) What's left? My home-made PAS magnet sensor is not doing the trick - pedal assist is really important to me - so I have to fix that. I need to find a better home for the battery (that blue thing on the back in the first pic. I am leaning toward the $16 frame bag that Micah recommends . I had been thinking of a box on the rear rack, but the frame bag would offer a lower center of gravity and free the rack up for panniers and cargo and looking less dorky. ...

Yes, I love classic and oddball cars, so I've had this post in mind for a while. (Be patient, Mesquite Huggers, it'll turn green in a bit.) Growing up in West Texas, I didn't have much exposure to that many Bristish-made Austin cars, but I did fall in love with the Austin Mini and the Bug-Eyed Sprite early on. As a matter of fact I looked at each as a possibility for my first car. But I didn't become aware of the Moke's existence until much, much later. And I've never seen one in person.   Find it here   Find it here   Just last week, I almost had my chance. One showed up (You guessed it!) on Craigslist.   Don't find it on Amarillo Craigslist - it disappeared quickly!   Yep, there it was just a two hour drive north of here. But I invoked my new project mantra - The best way to avoid temptation is to avoid temptation. (I sent it to Chris and Grizz so they could be tempted instead - sorry, guys!) I guess we'll throw that on...

[Dual-posted on Mesquite Hugger and 2Wheels Maybe ] Cargo bike obsession - normally, I figure it's just me being an eco-dork. But lately it seems so much bigger than that. A homebuilt longtail cargo bike Cargo bikes siren sing to me for a lot of practical and impractical reasons. The biggest three are I want to do my best to go car-free/petroleum free I want to spread the word (and a cargo bike would invite a lot of questions!) I want to live healthier - both physically and financially. and a cargo bike should help with all three. A snippet of  the most recent runaway post (by MH standards) post Number 3 with a bullet! (by MH standards) Recently, though, a lot of you have been stopping by to check out cargo bike posts. Back in October, I wrote a post about a pretty simple way to build your own cargo bike. Most posts around here have an initial response of twenty to thirty clicks and then quickly die down to a click or two per week ...

It seems that every time I ignore Juiced Bikes, they pop out another model or make some big lineup change. I started watching them when they produced only one bike - the U500 cargo bike. It wasn't that long ago. Now they have bikes all over the place. The big surprise maxi minibike - the Juiced Scrambler.  The CampScrambler (knobbies & spokes) The Juiced Scrambler site Unlike the tube-framed minibikes of yesteryear (and most of the electric maxi minis we've seen lately), this one has a cast frame. This gives Juiced a better opportunity to keep the bike clean by hiding the components and wiring and all of that good technical stuff. (I am a little disappointed that they didn't use that advantage to wire the rear taillight into the battery pack, but that's a very little gripe.) The CityScrambler (streets slicks & mags) The Scrambler Indiegogo site Juiced offers three distinct models. Other than color, rims, and tires, the CampScramb...

Here in Lubbock, bike-commuter nirvana starts next week, and I am excited! Yep, the kids will be out of school. The sleep-deprived parents won't be out in force, and the bike routes near schools will be all quiet and peaceful. This time of year always gets me dreaming (and scheming) of bikes, and I like to dream big! (I like big bikes and I cannot lie!) For me, the whole goal is to burn less (or no) gas and to tread very lightly. And the ultimate gas-less-tread-lightly tool for a low-budget fool like me is a cargo bike. It's the double-cab pickup of the bicycle world. So, I've been scheming a lot... The Cargo Bike Biggies! (Xtracycle and Yuba) Unlike my last low-cost cargo-bike post , this one won't focus on building your own frame, but it may still have you doing a fair amount of assembly (and possibly cursing). For instance, the first (and lowest cost) option on today's list is the Xtracycle Leap . The Leap is a kit that you add to yo...

[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. ...