2 Wheels Maybe

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...

[A new minipost series - it seems like every week I'm tempted by a new bike that just came out, but I don't find time for a full post - so let's go mini!!!!!] I've been a big fan of Monday Motorbikes since April of 2015 (when they were still called Bolt Motorbikes).Through each generation of the M-1, I 've watched the bike grow more impressive (and less expensive) and as a plethora of new e-mopeds have become available lately, Monday has kept pace by upgrading the original, by launching a step-thru model in 2019 - the Gateway , and this week they have announced a new top-tank model - the Anza! (Woohoo! This thing is cool and pretty darned affordable!) Find it on the Monday Motorbikes site I love that they've taken the old Puch-Magnum-style frame and adapted it to be a lightweight hardtail e-bike with a rear hub motor. Where the original was more of a motorcycle with pedals, this one is better equipped to compete with newcomer e-mopeds like the RadRunner, the Ju...

So, let's talk turn-key klunker again. After spending a year riding and upgrading a (pseudo) klunker, it's become my favorite type of bike. The old HuffKlunk morphed into my favorite mountain-BMX-short-distance commuter, and it's the easiest bike for a grab-and-go ride. Surprisingly, it's also one of the lightest and most comfortable bikes I've owned. So, now I keep an eye out for klunker news and...guess what - a new one popped up this week - the Schwinn Rumbler. And it's down in my almost-willing-to-spend-that-on-a-bike price range. Schwinn Rumbler (at City Grounds) The few specs I found Schwinn Rumbler (Blue) While the thing is gorgeous, I have one concern - it looks pretty small. (My legs like bigger bikes.) I can only find it on the City Grounds site and on eBay (where it costs a lot more). There are no photos of it next to anything for reference. It's not even listed on the Schwinn website. But I love the look and the BMX components and retro straight-...

So the kid was turning twelve in the early part of July and we had been wanting him to have an ebike so he can keep up on our family e-bike rides. Before e-bikes were so popular, you could buy this at department stores! The Mongoose CX450 was a pretty cool bike - 15mph, 18 mile range, full suspension, front disc brake - sweet! After looking around for a bit (during a time when almost no bikes were available for purchase) we decided it was time to build one. A few years back I bought a Mongoose CX450 that had been stripped of its electric drivetrain. So I pulled it out of storage and got to work. Not our bike, but identical (I didn't take a before pic)     My first attempt at getting it together was to add a brushed motor like the original setup for the bike but I struggled to come up with a suitable bracket to hold the motor. Being a man with a welder and welding skills would have made it possible, but that's not me these days. So I came up with a Plan B - a brushless hu...

Black Tea -  they didn't hook me with the name, but the price, the stats, and the simplicity - goodness... The BlackTea website I'm blaming this one on Greg and Micah. Greg's been talking to me about converting an old Allstate Puch Saber to electric and Micah Toll already ordered a BlackTea citing non-buyers-regret from the Onyx launch. Just like Greg and I had been discussing - 72 volts and 3000 watts seem to be the sweet spot for small electric motorcycles. It should be able to cruise easily at 45mph and have a 35-mile range on just one battery. (BlackTea gives the option for a second battery to double the range.) It's been an ongoing discussion around here - a smallish electric electric scrambler. It was a growing flame in my project list that really heated up with the Fly Free Smart campaign . Back in the early 1970s, little gas-powered scramblers were everywhere and they were great fun and very economical transportation. From Honda to Hodaka , dozens of co...

Be still my heart! (a Benno Carry On Spotted this week at DFC Cycles ) Longtail cargo bikes - for years I've been watching but have never seen one in the Hub City. But this month I've run across two, real, honest-to-goodness, longtail cargo bikes here in Lubbock. For cargo bike dorks this is exciting stuff! Even more exciting to me is that the two cargo bikes I've seen have been two at the top of my most-wanted-bikes list - the Benno Carry On and the Radwagon. Rad Power Bikes Radwagon (Version 3) The Radwagon has appealed to me since its release and has consistently represented the best cargo bike deal out there. While there are nicer bikes out there with higher quality components, the $1500-$1600 Radwagon continues to be the most impressive bang for the buck - and Rad Power has done a great job of being consistent in their deliveries, service, and customer satisfaction.  For dorks (like me) who are always questing for ways to get out of the car and get...