Bike Hugger 

Bettie is a Bike Hugger project to build a sport-utility bike with a Karate Monkey 29-incher frame, Stokemonkey, and an Xtracycle. Bettie has an enormous carrying capacity, it’s heavy duty – 2 adults or an adult and 2 kids at a time – and is fun (really, really fun). The total Bettie download follows.

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p>Bicycle Design | Shimano Alfine

Shimano is introducing a 2007 component group aimed straight at Bike Hugger’s heart. Alfine is a new internal-hub group, with 8 speeds, that includes a 3-watt dynamo in the front wheel, disk brakes, and very clean and pretty cranks.

It’s based on Shimano’s existing Nexus line, upgraded to promote very quick shifts. Instead of a twist group, it includes trigger shifting.

The group took one of Shimano’s two design awards at last week’s Eurobike trade show (the other went for the 3rd-generation XTR mountain bike group). This should be a terrific and reliable group for bikes intended for everyday transportation.

(Via Bicycle Design.)

Alerted by a reader, I just discovered that Treehugger gave us a big hug today. Nice! And thanks, much appreciated… now I’ll get a cup o’ Joe and start responding to the comments and emails. If you’re interested in learning more about Bettie, our project to build a sport-utility bike built with a Karate Monkey 29-incher frame, Stokemonkey, and Xtracycle check the tags, galleries, and video posts

• Tags: Bettie, Sport-utility bike, Project
• Sport-utility bike photos
• Videos: Staying on top of the gear, Bettie first ride, Riding Bettie downtown

Questions on Sport-utility bikes? Fire away and also note that we’ll be blogging live at Interbike September 26, 27 2006 with all kinda posts about cycling, culture, commuting, and more.

Untitled, by herby_fr.

Bikes play a critical role at Burning Man each year as the transportation of choice around Black Rock City.

For the last 11 Burning Man festivals, they’ve also been the centerpiece of a popular event celebrating “women’s freedom, power, and beauty.”

That event? Critical Tits. In 1996, five women, inspired by San Francisco’s Critical Mass, painted their chests and rode through town yelling “Critical Tits.” Last year, the event drew 5,000 women.

This photo is from this year’s edition, last Friday.

Pam and I rode Bettie to dinner last night and the highlight, besides the romance of riding a bike together, was no parking stress. We rolled up to the new Cactus restaurant without the usual parking search on Alki, ate dinner, and rode back. We took turns sitting on the SnapDeck, used a light in the dark on the way back, and relaxed.

The ride to dinner was one of 6 trips/errands over the weekend that we did without a car and that’s the most liberating thing about Bettie and sport-utility bikes. We’re not stuck in traffic, sitting in a car, wasting our time.

A reader sent us a great article from the Moynihan Institute on bicycle commuting. The Rant n’ Irishman takes Critical Mass to task and also insists that he’s not making a big statement, by poking a stick in the eye of people in cars, but simply taking control of his life. Today the AP ran a story on about going car free and the benefits of arriving at “one’s destination without feeling all tense and angry.” There’s also a book about How to Live Well Without Owning a Car.

For our bike night out, we were in control, not in a car, and having fun.

Switched the Stokemonkey setting to high-mode today on Bettie and flew up Admiral Way for a morning coffee run to Metropolitan Market. The high setting was like having an extra leg, Armstrong’s leg in fact, when you consider the Stokemonkey is putting out 430 watts at a cadence of 80!

I grabbed the coffee, more groceries, loaded Bettie’s FreeLoaders, and headed back home by way of Schooner Exact, where I tasted their latest pale ale. To make sure I condition the battery properly (as Todd told us), I flipped the switch back to low mode and cruised up the hills back home.

Todd, the inventor of the Stokemonkey says, “Your timely and appropriate shifting permits the motor to operate within a small band of powerful and efficient speeds at all times. This is key.”

As a roadie, I was reminded of that saying, “stay on top of the gear” and found Bettie’s sweet spot within a few minutes of riding. When the Stokemonkey bogged down a bit, I’d shift, and the motor assist would pick up speed again. After a few longer rides, I could tell how well the Stokemonkey was operating by the vibrations in the seat tube and also hear it cranking away. In the video, I’m rolling up a gently sloped, 5% grade hill.

First ride with a “thrilled” passenger on Bettie, our sport-utility project bike.

And I quote, “it shoots you up the hill at like 25 miles per hour …” See more Bettie in our photostream gallery. After more riding, the holiday, and more riding, more posts and full disclosure about Bettie.

Today we launched Bike Hugger @Interbike, a blog just for the bike industry’s big show. As previously posted, we’ll be in the media center, on the floor, blogging it all, and hoping for some serious schwag. And not the schwag you leave behind in the room, but the kind like with Eddy Merckx’s autograph! Oh yeah.

Having just ridden Bettie (reports to follow), our project bike, I’ll want to meet all the component manufacturers and talk about what it’s like to ride a commuter that looks like it rolled off the set of Mad Max.