Bike Hugger 

Of all the bikes in my stable my Fixed Folder is the bike I get the most questions about. She’s also the bike I take the most pride in, having built her up from just a frame and some rims. It’s actually not terribly hard, despite requiring some cold setting. Amazingly, these bikes can still be had new on ebay for less than $200 bucks. So if you like to tinker and want a unique-ish ride, my recipe follows.

Props to Rain City Fix for the updated photo.

With the cold, sunny days in Seattle (cold for us at least), we shot this video riding around Alki Beach and the University of Washington.

Bikes and gear shown include

• Batavus Flying D
• Bike Hugger Bettie
• Bike Hugger Modal
• Ibex Clive Jacket
• Crumpler Complete Seed

and the audio sample is Lyrics Of Fury from Tricky.

When Bryan and I were riding around Beijing (inhaling various flavors of fuel), I fretted about locking the bikes, making sure we picked a good spot to lock them, and was wary of bike thieves. We debated the likelihood of theft and thought with hundreds of millions of bikes on the street, who would need to steal one? Well, according to a China Daily report, 4 million bikes get stolen a year and they just halved that and consider it a success. Wow that’s a lot of bikes!

Interestingly, the bikes we did see locked, were more like a cursory lock, not NYC style at all.

Delta 7 Sports and Miōn Footwear partnered to power their booth at the Outdoor Retailer show with a mountain bike. Scott emailed me about it and we got a photo from Delta 7 Sports. Show attendees, employees, and anyone else they could find, attempted to pedal more than 3,000 watts of electricity per day

From the Coloradoan, a story about Rob Martin’s bike business.

… each morning, Martin hops on his bike to pick up bagels from Gib’s and deliver them to Old Town coffee shops … every trip I make is one less car on the road or in some cases, one less truck,” he said while collecting recycling at Lyric Cinema Café in Old Town, the fourth stop on his recycling rounds that day. “I want to be part of the solution.

Of course, a bike economy interests us and besides the bagels, Rob picks up recycling for local businesses.

What I’m wondering is what other businesses can run with bikes?

Photo: Rich Abrahamson/The Coloradoan.