2 Wheels Maybe

The DIY-Huffy-cruiser-resurrection obsessions (Hufferklunk and KargoHuff) continue to rage in my head and amble in the garage, but there has been progress on both. With apologies to Robert M. Pirsig You know that old question What would you do if money and time were no issue? ; would it be awful to answer that I'd build mediocre bicycles out of crappy bicycles? The big progress has been on the klunker. Its first draft is complete! I had a few hours on Sunday and was able to finish running the cables, dialing in and adjusting the derailleur (a first for me), changing the chainring, changing the chainring back, adding pedals, and taking lots of short test rides.  Success-ish! The ride is pretty sweet and the gearing is low enough that I may actually make it up a few hills without getting/falling off and pushing. All that's left is adding sealant to the tires and taking it out to the trails for a real test ride. Woohoo! I love it when a plan comes together...

Today is Tiny Adventure Day here on 2Wheels Maybe. Yesterday I saw two articles about tiny adventures. The first was very inspiring on a personal get-out-there side... Read the Treehugger article (but avoid the video) ...but then I watched the accompanying video and saw it wasn't in my real-world budget side(although my office mate explained her modularized garage storage setup that has her much more able to take off camping on a moment's notice, so maybe I just need to be realistic in scope and not be discouraged that I don't have a folding-bike/ultra-light-tent/inflatable-kayak section in my garage.) Then I ran across a second tiny adventure article that involved very little prep and a pretty small $ investment. The cheapo adventure light in the birdhouse in my soul lit up! Just reading the article was enjoyable. Read the Gizmodo article here Your adventure map may be less dramatic Yes, I get it, your Adventure Trek may not take you across the ...

[Following up on this recent post ] On my daily romp through the local Craigslist today I spotted just the thing needed for any of you who've been itching to build an e-Cub - a donor bike, and it's right here in Lubbock. Really, there are a jillion of these out there, but you don't even have to go hunting for this one. The Lubbock CL  Link (while it lasts) The same seller had a more complete one for sale, but why would you want to pay $450 more for all that stuff you don't need? Learn more about the e-Cub here. May you be inspired to buy or build machine that lets you get around without burning gasoline! Have a great day, friends!

So there I was researching a new post about two new electric cargo bikes on the market when I ran across something truly shocking - a youtube video of a pro rider putting a Mongoose Envoy Cargo Bike to the test on a mountain bike trail. What the heck? Really? A Mongoose cargo bike? Wowser!!! So, I clicked the link and dumbfoundedly watched a thing I never expected to see going up and down and over and such with happy music playing in the background. I went straight to Mongoose.com and found nothing. So I went to the google and found Canadian Costco. And I started scheming about getting my Canadian buddy who's a bit of smuggler... (Just disregard that line.)  Yep, $500 Canadian from Costco So, I figured it'd be a while before they hit the real world and watched the video again: A British MTB/Trials rider wheelying a Mongoose cargo bike on youtube?!! Then I went back to the google and found evidence of at least one that is already in the real worl...

Upcycling, we love upcycling around here, especially when you take something old, unloved, and (possibly) polluting and turn it into something useful, appreciated, and green. With that in mind, today's post features two very tasty Honda cycles being reborn as modern electrics. The first is new to these pages, but the guy doing the conversion is not new around here. Micah Toll is the driving force behind EbikeSchool , a writer for Electrek.co, and part of the team responsible for the Vruzend (battery building) Kit -  the kit I used to build the battery for the e-Klunker. Yep, Micah shows up a lot around here. He recently posted a video about a new project he's undertaking - a vintage Honda conversion. The 1st installment This is a video to get your juices flowing. Okay, to be clear, this is one of those videos that has me Jonesing to get back to work on one of my old projects. He has other videos about commuting on a GenZe scooter and about acquiring a CSC City Slic...

It's been a busy time at Casa de Mesquite Hugger - not much time for building bikes, but we're getting closer. Grizz was nice enough to bring the Huffy out of storage for me. From humble beginnings... In some earlier versions, I changed the forks to add cantilever brakes, added a rear caliper brake, and added a derailleur to use as a chain tensioner. For now, those will all stay. I've decided to build it as a 7-speed. I wanted to go with an internal 3-speed, but the internet consensus is that internally geared hubs don't hold up well to dirt and torque on mountain bike trails, especially for those of us who are gravitationally challenged. I also gave a lot of thought to running a single-speed, but I'm no superman when it comes to climbing hills. Maybe at the end of summer I'll be stronger :-) I keep looking at klunkers online, and a lot of them are really beautiful. This bike won't be that. The goal is a junky, low-money bike to ride and to rid...

The didn't-make-it-this-time  Indiegogo campaign So, how did I miss this one the first time around? A big, bad, electric BMX straight outta Fort Worth - bring this thing on! As I keep looking at klunkers, I keep running across the big-boy BMX bikes. I keep thinking I want one. In the early '90's I bought my first mountain bike, and I enjoyed it a great deal, but I remember an initial disappointment when I realized that it was not just a bigger BMX with gears. The geometry was all wrong for wheelies and hops and jumps and such. Back then, there were companies making Big-Girl BMX bikes, but I wasn't aware of them until much later. A 26" Redline Big-Person BMX (for us retro dorks) So, I gave up wheelies and hops and spent a lot of time on my mountain bike, but the 10-year-old in me was always a little sad about the whole thing. (Which may explain why, forty years later, I've become obsessed with klunkers, Big-Being BMX bikes, dirt-jump bikes, and ...