Dream Bike

This is a video of a mom cycling with two kids and 4 bags of groceries. A similar cycle, featured in this month's MAKE magazine, was used on a camping trip to carry a 55-gallon drum, camping gear, and four potted plants, all while towing a trailer with a kid inside. The pilot of the bike, a tiny woman named Martina, who (from pictures) can't be more than 5'4". Martina is not an olympic athlete, nor a steroid user. She is able to move such loads because she has two very useful and clever accessories on her bike.

The first is a hitchless trailer. It essentially lengthens the wheelbase of the bike, and adds a great deal of cargo capacity. The hitchless trailer kit is made by Xtracycle, and is what allows all of the cargo to not only fit on the bike, but also enables the bike to bear the weight.

The second accessory is a Stokemonkey electric motor. There are tons of motor kits for cycles, and though most run out of power after ten blocks leaving you with a 100 lbs bike with a partially jammed drivetrain, there are a few that do a good job. In that regard Stokemonkey is nothing new. What Stokemonkey does a little differently is that it works with the rider instead of in addition to the rider. Stokemonkey connects directly to the crankset of your bike, and by pedaling you engage the clutch. There is a throttle on the handlebars to let you choose how much help Stokemonkey provides, but the clever clutch design means that the Stokemonkey is always working in tandem with your legs, and because it applies torque to the crankset rather than the wheels, the Stokemonkey make just as smart gearing decisions as you do!

I want a bike with this set up incredibly badly. I'd love to be able run weekend errands on my bike rather than in Leorah's car. Depending on how you use the motor a single 9Ah charge will get you in excess of 25 miles, which is far cheaper than gas (even at Leorah's 35+ mpg), and suddenly your bike becomes far more versatile. Right now I'm not even able to grab groceries on my way home from work without having to think far enough ahead to bring an extra bag or empty my panniers. Even with empty panniers I only have room for ~2 bags of groceries.

Unfortunately the Xtracycle kit and Stokemonkey run around $1700 total, so I don't think I'll be getting one soon. However as long as I'm in or near a city I think I'd choose this over buying a car, or even a motorbike or scooter. It's better suited to my needs, lighter on the wallet, and better for the city.

Keepon's back

[via Boing Boing]

Ahhh, urban biking in America...

On the ride home a guy merges into me (into a bike/bus-only restricted lane no less), nearly forcing me off the road. I slap his rear passenger to let him know I'm there. It works. He slams on his brakes and gets out of his car yelling at me:

"You hit my car, why'd you hit my car!"

so I told him. "You were merging into me."

And he sputters, staring in disbelief.

I love how drivers tend to get flustered and confused when a biker confronts them calmly and directly with their illegal driving. He's simply standing there staring at me, blocking traffic because he can't believe that I think I'm entitled to be treated as another vehicle in traffic, as I'm considered under law.

I love even more how drivers get really mad when they realize they're in the wrong and that I'm not about to be intimidated. After a few seconds of sputtering he starts backing towards his car and threatening "Oh, I'll merge into you!" several times, which I find hilarious since he already has. Apparently my levity showed because he got even madder, shouting "why are you smiling!?! I'll knock you off that bike!"

At this I laughed. For him to threaten violence when I was simply sitting calmly waiting for him to get back in his car just made no sense. My laugh set off a bunch of onlooking pedestrians, who I hadn't noticed until now. They cheered for me and mocked the guy back into his car. As we both pulled back into traffic the onlookers shouted and jeered, and I was repeatedly urged to "slap his car again."

The whole event seems surreal to me. I was mildly entertained at the time, but clearly felt nowhere near the passion of the guy in the car. I try to drive more safely (and legally) than other bikers around town: for the most part I won't weave through traffic, I stop at lights and stop signs, and if there's no bike lane I take a lane just like a car, waiting behind stopped cars just as I'm supposed to.

In West Philly I only rarely was met with outright hostility, but in Center City it seems roughly half the drivers think cycling should be a crime. I even get honked at when I stop at stop signs! I'm truly mystified. My bike is zero-emissions, near-zero impact on the roads, safer than cars, motorbikes, or even mass transit are for pedestrians, and frankly it's less of an eye-sore than most of the big American cars that honk at me.

I've spoken to both bicyclists and motorcyclists, and though the motorcyclists often feel as though cars disregard their rights and safety, they never encounter the same sort of vitriol. Can someone please explain why on earth the driver today, and motorists in general, have such contempt for bikes on the road? < /confounded rant>

AfriGadget

I keep telling people about this blog, then not emailing them the url.

Here you go, ye poor neglected masses.

Pictures from the Utah trip

The gallery's still in disarray (lots of duds, near-copies, etc.), and I have yet to do any photo editing (clean up messy exposures, balance colors, etc.) but almost all of the pics I took in Utah are up at http://unin5pired.smugmug.com/gallery/3301788#183561948

Wow, this is Leorah and me!!!

In which the day is seized.

I could totally see this being the way I die...