2 Wheels Maybe

It seems that the people who read this blog [I am very thankful for all four of you!] prefer posts that include cargo bikes, electric bikes, or klunkers. So, I thought to myself, Why not feature all the electric cargo klunkers I can find? And I started the search.  The only one I had stored in my memory was available at Luna Cycle a few years ago... It was a beast, but I haven't seen it on their site for quite a while. You could buy it fully built or you could order a bare frame. For what it was, it was quite cheap and really wild.. As I kept searching, I decided it would just be smarter to seek out turn-key electric klunkers . And that didn't pan out too well either. So I searched for electric cruiser bikes and got a lot closer. Two of the first klunker-ish electric bikes were from the same company - Vintage Electric Bikes. I've been a fan of VEB since I saw this video back in 2014. They are beautiful and powerful bikes but I seldom write about ...

[Imaginary Fossil Free Friday bonus points for anyone who visits all six clickable links.] Do you ever feel like you're looking in the wrong direction? Maybe you're walking along looking at a bug in the grass while not noticing the alligator walking down the street ? I do that sort of thing a lot. Every day I find my nose pointed in the wrong direction to see what everyone else is gawking at. Snagit Kia! I want the little blue beast! Kia put out a new electric car ad this week. And it made me happy until the plot turned and I realized I had been looking at the bug in the grass while they had the (really cool) alligator parked in the  garage. See the video here I saw the little blue car and immediately started having Logan's Run fantasies - I've had a lot more of those since visiting the fountains in Fort Worth . But I saw the wedge front end and was thrilled to see a modern incarnation of my beloved Citicar . And I saw the digital readouts i...

It's no surprise to regular readers that I'm a bit obsessed with cargo bikes. In my regular forays into the internet cargo bike jungle, I kept running across images of the Portal Longtail Cargo bike. I think it was even the first cargo bike I ever saw with a PTO. But every time I started to add it to the list of desirable longtails, I remembered there was one big problem - you could not buy one in the states or have one shipped over. Fortunately, that has changed. The main Portal site Good news, US cargo bike fans! You can now buy one stateside for $875 and get free shipping! (That's $124 less than the awesome Yuba Mundo Classic!) And there's a philanthropic BOGO as a huge bonus for us save-the-world types. What's this philanthropic BOGO thing? Toms Shoes Philanthropy Like Toms (and Bobs) shoes, when you buy a Portal Cargo Bike, the company donates a second bike to a Nepalese entrepreneur to help them in business. So, when you throw a le...

When I was kid growing up in Odessa, I never realized how cool it was that there were so many nifty old microcars around. (But I always thought they were the coolest.) I remember seeing one Messerschmitt driving, I located two BMW Isettas in backyards, and I drooled every time I saw the two Austin Minis. The first Mini was a Brtitish racing green Clubman Panel (across the street from Bowie Jr. High) and the second was an old Mini Cooper in full race mode - BBS wheels, fender flares, rally lights, and a racy three-tone paint job (blue, yellow, white). It even had racing numbers on the doors and lots of stickers in the quarter windows. (Strangely, it was also across the street from a junior high - Bonham.) So cool. To this day, I still very badly want an old mini - but these days I want a classic electric Mini . That's not to say I don't like modern Minis. I've test driven a handful of them and enjoyed them all, but they have not yet become as (or more) appealin...

Normally, I like to write about odd and unexpected vehicles, but today I'm writing about a rare and unexpected occurrence - a reader not only used the comment feature but also asked a couple of questions. This is exciting stuff! The Pigeon Projects (Where I Talk too Much) My e-Vespa Years ago, I converted a vintage Vespa scooter to run on batteries. I replaced the original running gear with a rear hub motor and replaced the fuel system with a 48 volt battery pack. And it was mostly a success. But I made one minor miscalculation - I ended up with a scooter that would run only 28 miles per hour. And Lubbock is pretty much a 40 mph town. Even on residential streets, West Texans have little use for dorks inconsiderate enough to run less than 35. The Vespa has been ridden very little, but no one has run it over! I learned then that the biggest drawback to using a hub motor is that the only practical way to add speed is to add more voltage.  But I had already spent a l...

Happy Memorial Day Weekend, Friends! A few posts back, I wrote about the virtues of a simple e-bike for commuting. The electric drivetrain makes a bicycle into a more consistent tool for getting to work while still getting some exercise but not arriving absolutely exhausted. Plus, and it's a HUGE plus in my book, you're not sitting in traffic burning gasoline. I feel very fortunate to have one and wanted to share the opportunity with you when a few are on sale. GenZe Nearly New Sale ($649-899) Early on, I was a big fan of the GenZe 100 Series. When it came out, it was technologically impressive and very competitive in pricing and features. After a few years, though, companies like Juiced and Rad started offering more powerful and flashier e-bikes at lower prices, and the GenZes fell off my radar for a bit. But I've still kept an eye on them and have remained impressed with their consistency and reputation for quality. A while back, I even had the opportunity to ...

For a guy who writes so much about this stuff, I've made a poor showing of riding to work on Bike to Work Week , but I did ride to work yesterday and today. And these are two days that point out the beauty of commuting on a very basic e-bike. Yesterday morning, the weather was gorgeous - low breeze, temp in the low 60's, the sun was shining. Riding to work on pretty much any bicycle would've been really nice. Nine hours later, I went to leave work. It was overcast with winds gusting up into the mid 30's (miles per hour). I was really thankful for the e-bike! Learn more on yesterday's MH post This morning was a little different. It was overcast and the wind was blowing north pretty steadily at 20-30 miles per hour. My commute to work takes me south and west. Every time I turned south I understood why wind generators are such a good idea in this part of the world. Every time I turned south, I was thankful for a 48 volt battery and a 500 watt motor and a...