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Showing posts from June 17, 2018

Old Meets New at Electric Avenue - Austin, TX

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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

The Electric Klunker Finally Lives

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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.