2 Wheels Maybe

May 1 is downright magical here at the Mesquite Hugger desk. It's an anniversary. Joining the National Bike Challenge on May 1, 2014 was my start to bicycle commuting. You can read the post here . So here I am seven years later in a very different life and still thrilled to have the month and the challenge roll around again. Honestly, I was scared to start. I had a sedentary lifestyle and a body shape to match. And I viewed Lubbock traffic as a suicide run for anyone not in a car. But I was overweight, high blood-pressured, and wanting to save the world. And the bicycle seemed like a great tool for tackling all those issues. So I got up the nerve to try it. And I'm truly thankful I did. I've learned that life is better on a bike. I'm in much better shape than I was seven years ago. I like the town I live in better and I've discovered a lot of beauty I had not noticed. I have more stamina. I look forward to going places for the ride as much as the desti...

Not much to update, no off-road riding, no progress on the cargo bike, but it's Thursday and I just came off of three straight days of commuting this week, and oh my gosh, it's been good stuff! The sights: I've been feverishly photographing birds in Lubbock parks before the Canadians arrive - lots of egrets, herons, and cormorants with some scattered migrating ducks. (Loving the new camera-phone Moto Mod!) Tuesday after work  Mornings are down in the low 40's this week, and it's been strangely nice to watch the first signs of our 1.5 weeks of fall roll in. Afternoons have been very windy and have made me thankful for the electric bike's pedal assist. Tuesday before work (great blue heron and great egret) The leaves have started turning but not yet falling. Traffic is not yet holiday frantic. Life is good. The winter gear has been dusted off Winter Gear One recommendation I have for winter riding - get a snowboard helmet w...

It's that day again - the last day of bike commuter nirvana. Yep, the Lubbock Independent School District is flinging its doors open to welcome in the chaos kids tomorrow. The sun, it rose. The best part of summer for me is the relaxed traffic. The college students all go home to the metroplex. The locals get to sleep in a bit. And the bicyclists can relax a bit more and not adjust their routes away from schools. Morning commutes in summer are the stuff dreams are made of! (We won't discuss the triple-digit afternoon rides home, but even those are more relaxed.) At coffee - I had the place to myself. Tomorrow - it'll be noisy and crowded. Unlimited Routing This is the last day I'll cruise carelessly past Jayne Ann Miller Elementary. This morning I pedaled past three public schools and cut through the parking lot of one private school. My commute was 4/10 of a mile shorter than it'll be tomorrow. Commuting is for the Birds At ...

Pedaled Every Day this Week! It's been a great week! Lots of things fell into place, and I pulled a 100% bike commute week. Yep, Monday-Friday I have been free to ride to work. (And I ran errands on the bike on Saturday and Sunday.) I've noticed that I've been in a steadily better mood over the last seven days. Yes, the car is  quicker and offers better weather protection, but it dulls the senses. When you spend your days in a windowless office, you don't have many senses left for dulling. I look forward to the ride when it's cold. I look forward to the ride when it's sweltering. I never look forward to the drive. From this morning's ride Okay, I know a 100% bike commute may not sound like much, but 60% is often a struggle. I've reached that point in life where the generation before and the generation after both need a fair amount of help. That means errands and doctor's appointments and stores and pharmacies and...well, the bike is of...

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...

The DIY-Huffy-cruiser-resurrection obsessions (Hufferklunk and KargoHuff) continue to rage in my head and amble in the garage, but there has been progress on both. With apologies to Robert M. Pirsig You know that old question What would you do if money and time were no issue? ; would it be awful to answer that I'd build mediocre bicycles out of crappy bicycles? The big progress has been on the klunker. Its first draft is complete! I had a few hours on Sunday and was able to finish running the cables, dialing in and adjusting the derailleur (a first for me), changing the chainring, changing the chainring back, adding pedals, and taking lots of short test rides.  Success-ish! The ride is pretty sweet and the gearing is low enough that I may actually make it up a few hills without getting/falling off and pushing. All that's left is adding sealant to the tires and taking it out to the trails for a real test ride. Woohoo! I love it when a plan comes together...

I see her about once a week, always near this intersection, and I don't know how she feels on the inside, but she's fearless on the outside. She pedals down Slide Road a little before 8am - peak morning traffic. Cars behind her quickly change lanes in a rush not to get stuck behind her. Occasionally there's honking and a finger or two being waved. Is what she's doing legal in Texas? Absolutely. In cycling circles, it's known as "taking the lane". When is it legal to take a lane? Learn more at BikeTexas.org Early mornings on the weekend, it's not rare to see recreational road bikers take a lane on normally busy Lubbock streets, but seeing a lone bicycle commuter in peak traffic - that's rare. Lots of bikes pass through this intersection every day, but they do so on the makeshift pedestrian walkway. Even then, it's a sketchy place to cross. Lubbock is not a great town to bike. But it is trying to get better. And, surprisingly, ...

Okay, not a lot of Black Friday deals have been announced yet, but...   RadPower Bikes (All models) ...the ever dependable holiday sale at Rad Power Bikes has been announced, and it's impressive. All their bikes have a $300 or $400 price reduction, free shipping, and you may even be able to score and additional $200 savings if you order two. The Sale Page That means you could have a pair of Radwagons shipped for $2600. That's two electric cargo bikes for less than most places will sell you one. For $2400, you could have a pair of RadCity bikes. In our new tariffed world, this is quite a deal.   GenZe 100 Series e-Bike (Nearly New)   This one is a last-minute addition to the list, and I'm impressed. You and your sweetie can have a pair delivered to your house for less than $1500. Not bad!   This one looks like a smoking bargain to me!   Check out this big boy with 0.1 miles on it!   Evelo e-Bikes (You...