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Showing posts from September 27, 2020

e-Bike Hydraulic Brake Swap (The Juiced Gets Juice-Filled Brakes)

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After two years of hauling my less-than-svelte behind around, the Juiced has earned an upgrade in the stopping department. [I wasn't planning on writing about this, but Jim from Jim's Obsessive Cycling Disorder asked if I'd share my results from this cheap caliper swap and I figured I'd just share it with everybody. Thanks, Jim!] See Jim's Brake upgrade here I've been commuting on the OceanCurrent  for two years now. Other than cable adjustments and switching to thorn-resistant tubes, it's been an impressively maintenance-free bike. But the brake pads are almost gone and I wanted to upgrade to hydraulic brakes before winter sets in. So I started looking at ready-made hydraulic brake kits like this: But e-bike brake levers have a built-in electric switch that acts as a motor cutout when you apply the brakes, so the set pictured above won't do the trick. I had to find another solution or pay a much higher price for an e-bike specific set of brakes. A litt

A Follow-up to the Mesquite Hugger e-Bike Video on the 2020 National Solar Tour

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I recently had the opportunity to make an e-bike video for the National Solar Tour. Over the course of a weekend I shot a few hours of video and edited it down to just over five minutes. (It was great fun and took a whole lotta time!) The hardest part was all the info that hit the cutting room floor. I had a writing professor once tell me that editing meant that I had to get used to killing my babies. That's how I felt with this, even if most of my babies were boring, long winded, and poorly filmed. The same professor told me to write [or create video] about what I know, so I made a video about the e-bike I've been commuting on for two years now - a Juiced OceanCurrent. It's a bike I would happily recommend to anyone; however, it was discontinued two years ago. Find all the South Plains entries here In its absence, here are some bikes that are very similar in specs and price in case you're looking for such a thing: A  sampler of simple e-bikes for commuting (under $1600

The National Solar Tour Begins Today! (9-28-2020)

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Woohoo! It's here! Click here to see the South Plains Solar Tour Recently the coordinator for the local solar tour invited me to be a part be a part of this year's tour. YES! I am thrilled to be a part of it and wanted to share the work of a bunch of talented and knowledgeable people who are involved in sharing sustainability practices here in the Lubbock area. So, please click the link above to see the local tour. (If you're looking for me, I'll be the dork with a bike.) If you want to see what's going on all across the country, just go to NationalSolarTour.Org . For those of you who are curious about ebikes, I'll be posting a followup to the video on both blogs ASAP. Thanks for checking the tour out. May your day be wonderful and lead to a better future!