2 Wheels Maybe

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...

KevCentral - way to go! Besides my obsession with cargo bikes, I'm also bit infatuated with the Huffy Cranbrook (a cheap, universal-palette bike for building all kinds of funky bikes.) Through that obsession, I ran across a KevCentral video where he went down to the local WallyWorld, bought a discounted Cranbrook , and did a very thorough review. Since then, I've seen Kev move up the ranks. Recently I was very excited to see him review a bike from Detroit Bikes . (I'm a big fan of those sleek, non-motored machines from the Motor City.) So, today I was all kinds of excited to see that mangu Mongoose sent him an Envoy to review. The biggest (and most expensive bike) I've seen Kev review Kev, I have Envoy envy! [ Blogger note: Seriously, I lie awake at night dreaming of the day that I can start a post (or video, vlog, insta-snap...) with the words, "[Insert anyone's name here] sent me a new [or old - I don't care] bike to review....

[Update at the bottom] For those of you who've been following the most-read story on this blog, there's a full resolution. You can order the Envoy for $749 from Amazon and receive free shipping if you're a Primer. My hope for this bike is that it helps Americans to develop an appetite for cargo bikes and creates a larger market for all the cargo bike manufacturers/sellers. There are so many really great offerings out there, but I live out here in the sticks (only a quarter million people live in Lubbock) and I have never seen a longtail, midtail, or bakfeits style cargo bike pop up within 200 miles of here. And I've looked! Spread that cargo bike love people - they're the healthiest station wagon, pickup, minivan recreation/transportation device available! So, yes, it's very inexpensive and pretty cool, but be sure to check out the other amazing cargo bikes on the market, and if you're lucky enough to be near a shop that sells them, check them o...

Love the Mongoose logo! This is not a drill, people - it's coming to the US! It's coming in hot! Unfortunately, it's not coming in cheap. (Is this another of those presidential tariff thingies?) Since our first Mongoose Envoy post , I keep swinging back by to check on the status of the first department-store longtail cargo bike. Today my perseverance was rewarded. The Canadian link referred me back to the USA. Man was I excited! So I clicked the link and was rewarded with a little less excitement. What had been $500-Canadian had become $750-US. (Which is still pretty inexpensive for a longtail cargo, but no longer vastly less expensive than the competition.) Check out the US Mongoose Envoy site here. Not much has changed since the our first posting about the Envoy. The bike looks the same. The site still links to the really great Chris Akrigg video . (Even if you're not a cargo-bike dork, it's a lot of fun to watch.)  In case you were wo...

[ Intrusive Narrator Sidebar 1 : Before you get too excited, this is another post about a bike you can buy in Canada but not in the US, snagit!] Cheap , Cargo , and Klunker - when you think of those words, I hope you think of 2Wheels Maybe . In my quest to make that happen, I scour the entire world North America to find cheap cargo bikes and klunkers. If you're going to ride a green machine, well, it might as well be odd and fun. So, I'm very excited to tell you that I found another cheap-ish klunker! Woohoo! I found it by bravely searching the wilds of youtube. It's the Columbia Rambler. Ironically, the Rambler is an updated version of a bike called the Columbia Klunker, but the Rambler is more of a klunker than the Klunker was. And it comes in three sizes. The Columbia Klunker was a multi-speed bike that was more of a comfort hybrid bike in a klunker-ish frame.  The new Columbia Rambler 24" (at Walmart Canada) But the Rambler, like most tra...

So there I was researching a new post about two new electric cargo bikes on the market when I ran across something truly shocking - a youtube video of a pro rider putting a Mongoose Envoy Cargo Bike to the test on a mountain bike trail. What the heck? Really? A Mongoose cargo bike? Wowser!!! So, I clicked the link and dumbfoundedly watched a thing I never expected to see going up and down and over and such with happy music playing in the background. I went straight to Mongoose.com and found nothing. So I went to the google and found Canadian Costco. And I started scheming about getting my Canadian buddy who's a bit of smuggler... (Just disregard that line.)  Yep, $500 Canadian from Costco So, I figured it'd be a while before they hit the real world and watched the video again: A British MTB/Trials rider wheelying a Mongoose cargo bike on youtube?!! Then I went back to the google and found evidence of at least one that is already in the real worl...