2 Wheels Maybe

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...

Another gorgeous morning sky today   Yesterday I ran across an article from Awesome 98: Lubbock is thinking about improving biking and walking around the city   Here's a quote from the article:   If you have ever complained that its too dangerous to ride your bike or walk in Lubbock, you're not alone. I try to ride my bike a lot when the weather is good, but I make sure I stay away from any big streets because even having to cross them quickly is damn near impossible.   Me, I felt the same way a few years ago, but then I joined the National Bike Challenge , started commuting to work a few days per week, and overcame (most) of my fear of crossing the big streets. (And life became much better!)   How about you? Do you ride? Do you walk? Would you ride or walk more if you found it easier/safer?   Why do I ask? Well, the Awesome98 article contains two links where the city is asking for your input into this discussion. One is a survey...

[2 Wheels Maybe is actually an offshoot from my other blog - Mesquite Hugger . You may notice that a lot of ideas and posts stem from there. This is definitely one of those.] I subscribe to lots of vendor emails. It's a great way to keep up with what's happening in the green vehicle world. Most of those emails show up in English, but not always. This week, one rolled in from Germany -  and it was a little hard to read. But the pictures helped me get the gist. Visual translation: Angels ride cool electric scooters! Actual translation   Visual translation: Jesus wants me to ride an electric scooter! Actual translation I am actually pretty fond of number 6. Benzinjunkies , by the way, are gasoholics - people addicted to gasoline. The Schwalbe Scooter A Schwalbe (or Swallow), by the way, is a vintage German scooter that is now being produced as a rather nifty electric scooter. You can check them out here:   myschwalb...

 [Today's post is dedicated to my wrists.]   I was checking out Electric Bike Review today, drooling over the Coboc ONE SoHo , and I caught myself making a list of changes I'd make. I realized that I've been doing that for the last few years when I check out a bike. You see, the Coboc is downright sexy as is, but it's a butt-in-the-air bike. I am not a butt-in-the-air rider. Sometimes I ride for recreation, but most of the time I ride to get to work or the store. Butt-in-the-air is just not that practical for middle-aged me getting around a busy town.   If I were to ride the Coboc (as pictured) all of my (considerable) weight would be on my wrists. After a short while, I'd find my hands tingling and my back groaning obscenities. The Coboc has a negative BTW slope. Ouch.     What I figured out is that I do a BTW slope measurement every time I my gaze falls upon a new bike. If the slope is negative or flat, I start looking at ways to give it a posit...

Hi, I’m Daniel. Welcome to the new blog. I’m here to encourage you to make some positive changes and to encourage others to join in on the fun. And, to be honest, to encourage myself to keep pedaling too. Is it all about bikes? No.   It’s all about choosing cleaner – cleaner living, cleaner travel, cleaner air, cleaner water, cleaner soil. How do we make that happen? We quit releasing so darn much carbon. Whether it’s coal, natural gas, diesel, gasoline, or petroleum-based plastics, we are a people absolutely addicted to something that’s very harmful to all life on earth. If we’re going to survive this we have to change our appetites, and that’s what this blog is all about (but there will be lots of bicycles). Find it here   So, if you’re interested in getting around a whole lot cleaner or you really like wheeled things like bikes, scooters, cars, motorcycles or you just want to see what random things I come up with to share, please stop by often...