Posts tagged “project”  

Enjoy the Speedplay gallery that “chronicles the start-to-finish construction process of my modern replica of the 1961 Masi Special.”

On Flickr and from The Juice Peddler is a photo set featuring Tonya Kay; a raw-food-athlete, superhero, dominatrix dance performer, trained aerial stuntwoman, who can use her bike to blend you up one kick-ass smoothie. Check Rock The Bike for more on blender bikes, sport-utility bikes, and the spirit of the bike.

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.

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.

Bettie, our sport-utility bike, is being built up and I took some photos today at Elliott Bay Bicycles. Eamon is putting lots of extra touches and making sure Bettie is built to last and safe. Bill Davidson has been observing the progress as well.

In the gallery, note the tires, brakes, and the fabulous Xtracycle Snapdeck custom pad made by Pam.

Tomorrow, Pam will ride it home and blog all about that as well. It’s damn cool and lots of questions are being asked by the guys in the shop and everyone else that sees it. I’ll post the Q/A. For Stokemonkey questions see Todd’s excellent site, FAQs, and blog. For the Xtracycle, see their site and user forums.

Put simply, the Bettie is a sport-utility bike that replaces a car and is built with a Karate Monkey 29-incher frame, Stokemonkey, and Xtracycle,

Bike Hugger will “represent” at Interbike this year blogging the booths, exhibits, culture, and most everything else. Interbike is North America’s largest bicycle trade event and show and we’re excited to meet bike industry people we’ve only corresponded with in email, including the long list of manufacturer’s parts going into Bettie, our project bike.

That list includes Cleverchimp, Xtracycle, Phil Wood, Sun Rims, Magura, and much more.

We’re also planning on hanging with our friends at REI and Davidson Bicycles and finding all the commuter gear we can. Related Interbike blogs include

• Interbike Times
• Masiguy
• Bike Portland
• Crooked Cog

Also see Bikeblogs.com for a directory of blogs and you’ll know us in Vegas by our Bike Hugger shirts.

Our sport-utility project bike, named Bettie, is being built. In today’s gallery updates, you can see Pam making a DIY cushion for Xtracycle’s SnapDeck, the boxes for the FreeRadical, and Stokemonkey.

Bettie, is a Bike Hugger project to build a sport-utility bike. Learn more by browsing the project tag tag. What’s a sport utility bike? It’s a bike that fits the cycling lifestyle. Use it to haul, commute, for fun, and to meet your transportation needs.

A favorite Xtracycle add-on is the bike blender and the Juice Peddler demonstrates why in a video blog post. No better way to beat the late summer heat, then ride to a shady tree and blend yourself up a smoothie with your bike!

We’re waiting for all the project sport utility bike parts to get in, most are here, and checking the creative uses Xtracycle owners are finding for their FreeRadicals, including a bike towing a bike.

How’d you like a herd of bike trailers to show up at your place to assist your move in a pedal-powered way? Then contact Portland’s Move By Bike, a crew that’ll move your house with bikes.

When I first started researching our sport utility bike project, I arrived at the Puppet Parade bike move and it looked way more fun than pizza, beer, and a U haul!

If that free energy claim from Steorn is correct (and defies the basic laws of the universe), just imagine a magnetized motor assist for our sport utility bike project! Steorn claims, among other examples, that it provides five times the amount of energy a mobile phone battery generates for the same size, and does not have to be recharged. Not recharging a Stokemonkey would be fabulous or as they’d say on Wayne’s World, “monkeys might fly out my butt.”

That’s Bryan Rhoads and Todd Fahrner riding a Super Monkey, a sport utility bike built with a Surly Karate Monkey, Xtracycle and Stokemonkey electric motor assist. We’re building one of these up right now, as a Bike Hugger project, and will blog the whole thing this Fall.

For the bike geek, the Super Monkey is a 29 incher with 26 inch wheels. “What the?” you ask … details here and photos in our sport utility bike gallery.

I shared that look on Bryan’s face, likening it to taking a kid to the fair and putting them on the tea-pot ride for the first time, when I rode the Super Monkey. Besides the utility, it was just absolutely fun.