September, 2011

Bike Safety — 4 Comments
21
Sep 2011
by larry

Friends Bike Clinic


“There is a spirit which I feel that delights to do no evil, nor to revenge any wrong, but delights to endure all things, in hope to enjoy its own in the end.” -James Naylor’s deathbed testimony

I’ve been a bicyclist since I was a kid. As a middle-schooler I delivered newspapers from my bike. As a teenager I worked as a bike courier in Washington D.C. As a college student I biked from Portland to San Francisco on a three-week journey with my future wife. For me, bicycling is simply the most enjoyable way to travel.

Bicycling is also a way for me to care for the earth and to improve my community. In the last couple of years I’ve experimented with what the mainstream media calls a “car lite” lifestyle. I drive a large electrically-motorized bicycle that can easily carry a passenger and four bags of groceries up the steepest hills in Ithaca. In a typical month I put more miles on this bicycle than I do in the family car. I bike in all weather and in all seasons, and I make trips that are sometimes hundreds of miles long. I’ve found ways to almost completely (and comfortably!) replace our car with a bicycle.

I have a sense that others would like to bike more but don’t know how to get started. I’d like to share my experiences and learn about theirs. I’m setting up a project with Ithaca Monthly Meeting’s Earthcare Committee that I call the “Friends Free Bike Clinic”. Basically I will bring my tools to the meetinghouse deck and invite anyone to come by. We can work on our bikes together and share our knowledge about biking. Repairs could be as simple as a quick tune-up: cleaning a chain, pumping up tires, and adjusting brakes. Or they could be more involved: ordering and installing parts or even ordering whole bikes. In particular I encourage people to add electric motors to their bikes. I feel that an electric motor is a necessity for utility biking in Ithaca.

I plan to hold the bike clinic on fourth Sundays from 1pm to 3pm beginning September 25th (which also happens to be Porchfest, a neighborhood music festival). I invite complete novices as well as mechanically-minded people to join me.

-Larry Clarkberg

Cargo Bikes / Electric Bikes — 7 Comments
14
Sep 2011
by don

Electric cargo bike, made in China

If you have been following my blog about electric cargo bikes for a while, you know that I often make predictions about where the market for these bikes will go.  Over time, many of my predictions have come to pass, but usually later or on a smaller scale than I had anticipated.  For example, I wrote this almost a year ago:

I know what cargo biking will look like when it enters the mainstream, and I bet you do, too.  We’ll see stores like Wal-Mart and Costco selling electric cargo bikes for about half the price of today’s models.  They will be made in China, and probably designed there as well.  When that day comes, I won’t know whether to cheer or cry…

That was one of my most audacious predictions, and one that I didn’t expect to happen any time soon.  But let’s check where we are one year later.  Available at Wal-Mart?  Yes, but not electric cargo bikes, just electric bikes in their traditional form, priced between $400 and $800.  Still, an electric bike for $400?  That’s just unbelievable.  Or maybe crazy – the bike has mixed reviews from customers on Amazon.

ODK Utility Bicycle

But as far as I can tell it’s not manufactured in China, and surely not designed there, so that part of my vision hasn’t arrived yet.

Or has it?

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