2 Wheels Maybe

The didn't-make-it-this-time  Indiegogo campaign So, how did I miss this one the first time around? A big, bad, electric BMX straight outta Fort Worth - bring this thing on! As I keep looking at klunkers, I keep running across the big-boy BMX bikes. I keep thinking I want one. In the early '90's I bought my first mountain bike, and I enjoyed it a great deal, but I remember an initial disappointment when I realized that it was not just a bigger BMX with gears. The geometry was all wrong for wheelies and hops and jumps and such. Back then, there were companies making Big-Girl BMX bikes, but I wasn't aware of them until much later. A 26" Redline Big-Person BMX (for us retro dorks) So, I gave up wheelies and hops and spent a lot of time on my mountain bike, but the 10-year-old in me was always a little sad about the whole thing. (Which may explain why, forty years later, I've become obsessed with klunkers, Big-Being BMX bikes, dirt-jump bikes, and ...

Find the original here As a kid, I was a bike snob. I could not imagine riding a Huffy! I was kind of a jerk back then. But I grew up, started paying my own bills, and figured out that I would never be a professional cyclist. These days, I'm still kind of a jerk, but I'm quite happy to ride a Huffy. Any day I'm lucky enough to ride rather than drive is a good day. I've actually grown quite fond of the Huffy cruisers. Huffy Number 1: FrankenHuffy! My first (successful) electric bike build was based on a Huffy Cranbrook. I bought it on Craigslist for $50 because I wanted a heavy steel frame to support a lot of weight in batteries. The batteries went into a toolbox in the middle of the frame. A really heavy brushed hubmotor was shoehorned into the front fork. The bike would run over 20 miles per hour and had a range of six miles IF you were conservative and pedaled a lot. It would stop in half a mile. And it destroyed its first tire in two w...

As the official news gatherer for this here blog, I find myself perusing a lot of info about cargo bikes, with and without electric assist. Most of it, though, comes from bicycle news sources and local human-interest pieces about small bike-based businesses or suburban families who loved them so much that they sold one or both of their cars.   Lately, I've been running across more main-stream media about bikes that haul (stuff and people). And the gist keeps leaning to a few common notes - save money, get healthier, rescue the planet, and find more joy in life.   In case you find yourself cargo-curious, here's a new article that came out in Forbes about a guy who gave up his $70,000 Mercedes for a $4,000 electric cargo bike. You know me, I had to share the cargo-bike propaganda:   Find the article here   Meet the Tern GSD    The other big piece of cargo bike news today came in an email from Rad Power Bikes - the purveyor of my mos...

Yep, my most recent distractions have been variations on the klunker. I've always been fond of upcycled vehicles, the ones where you take something old and uncared-for and turn it into something useful and enjoyed. Cafe racers, resto-mods, rat rods, lowriders, bobbers, all of them have caught my eye over the years. And the klunker fits right in. About forty years ago, some people in California started using old balloon-tired cruiser bicycles and modifying them to become the prototype for the modern mountain bike. If you do an image search for a klunker, you get something that looks like this: That's a whole lot of DIY retro-coolness! But wait.... Yep, at least eight of those are not DIY - they are new! Sure enough, for those of you with klunker lust who'd rather ride than wrench, there are options out there, and some are relatively affordable. The Retrospec Sully For a little over $300 you can have a well equipped klunker with retro looks and qu...

 Admittedly, it's been a while, but it's a bit of a tradition around here to share low-cost DIY cargo bikes that pop up on Craigslist. Most often, they appear in Austin. You've got to appreciate that Keep-Austin-Weird mentality showing up in eco-friendly vehicles!   Lately, the pickings have been rather slim, but this silver beauty recently materialized and I knew I had to share it with you:    This one looks pretty clean and simple for a DIY bike: it's all one color, it looks pretty symmetrical, one gear, one brake, a seat that cradles your bum. Not bad. Here is the text from the ad:   So there you have it, a $125 shopping-cart cargo bike. You know, if you added a 3-speed rear hub, you could take it more places (and climb a few hills). Or...you could add an electric rear hub motor and go lots more places. Or you could just be satisfied with the thing just like it is.   The First 3-Wheeled Shopper Post   The Second 3...

Let's just jump into it: Convercycle The Convercycle (Click for original post) The Kickstarter was fully funded and closed, but you can still get one on Indiegogo for 40% off. Nope, I've never seen something listed on both, but the Convercycle fully funded on both crowdfunding sites. So, yes, you can still order yourself this transformer electric cargo bike for $1249 (before shipping) and can hope for it to be delivered this August. Dang, that thing is cool! Fly Free Smart Motorcycle The Old, The Classic, and the Desert (Click for original post) Fly Free introduced the third in their new trilogy this week. The newest is the Smart Old . (Yes, I love oxymorons!) Basically, these three are the same bike, but they are all dressed in different clothes. I'm torn -the Classic is my favorite to look at, the old would fit most of my riding, but the Desert's tall bars would make my back like it best. (And my back has a loud voice when choosing a ride.) ...

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, ...