Hoima Bicycle

Thoroughly enjoyed this video. If you haven't seen it, check it out..........

Bike Blender!

Thought about making a bike blender for a while- read a bunch of stuff on the net, and studied the Rock the Bike offerings as well. http://rockthebike.com/ As a side note I bought a Down Low Glow from them, and found them excellent to deal with.
I then came across this little gem at a thrift store for $10 and the plan was in motion.



An old exercise bike- Made in W. Germany-it appealed to me as it was made with real bike parts, old cottered cranks, nice old rubber block pedals. I then attached a base from an old Osterizer blender onto an aluminium bracket I scabbed onto the crown of the front fork:


The drive is a hard rubber cork attached to an piece of 1/4" threaded rod that runs in a couple of pillow blocks I scrounged out of the shop. The whole gubbins actually works really well. I was concerned about the 20" wheel not spinning the blender shaft as quick as a 26", but it works fine. If I stumbled on a bigger chainring I would change it however. At 30 mph on the speedometer it makes quite a vortex if you can keep the cadence up!

I don't think I would use pillow blocks again- I have since seen photos of one that utilized a high flange front hub- fasten one flange to your plate and use the front axle as the drive. Nice.

I also have the rig fixed up so I can pop the Chariot wheels and towbar onto it and tow it along to self-propelled parties!

Fiets of Parenthood

Alright, so we didn't have an event like they have in Portland- or Seattle. What we did have was my wife's brother come to visit with two of his sons. We had a great time biking to the park- both on the Mundo and with the home-built bakfiets. The two visiting boys are 5 and 7 years of age. The older one rides really well. The 5 year old is very good too, but wasn't up to the task of riding to the park. He either rode on the Mundo or in the Bakfiets. We strapped his bike and a trike onto the back of the Ute so kids of all ages would have something to ride at the park.

This morning we started the day with some home-grown eggs and fruit juice/yoghurt smoothies spun up in the bike powered blender. (more on the bike blender some other time) We then found ourselves in the yard running the kids through a bicycle slalom course made of windfall apples, pears, and bottles from the recycling. Here is a pic of Uncle Steve running the Civia through it.

Of course I had to try the bakfiets. I am actually getting the hang of it. Perhaps a road trip to a Fiets of Parenthood competition next year! Here is a video of the frankenbike.....hope it works; I did have some technical difficulties.

KIVA

A while back a friend introduced me to Kiva. What Kiva.org does is partner with micro-finance organizations worldwide to raise funds for entrepreneurs. You can hop onto Kiva and be part of a team of people that each lend a person $25. You then get repaid in installments and can then use the credit in your Kiva account to help someone else. I have made a dozen loans to Kiva, and currently have one borrower that is late in making a payment. The beauty is even if they totally default, I am only out $25.




One of the hurdles I experienced on Kiva was how to "focus" my loans. With hundreds of loan listings this is a challenge. One thing you can do is focus on an interest.......say cycling. Or join a team. Lending teams are structured either geographically or via some special interest. I currently am counting my loans towards the Bicycles for Humanity Team. There is another team called Carbon Trace that focuses on carbon free transport, there are religious teams, atheist teams, country teams, workplace teams- you get the picture.

Fitness Cycle

Okay, I have been on this build cycle infrastructure and save health care dollars kick.....here is an article that came out in the local paper yesterday.

http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/peninsulanewsreview/community/100484254.html

Is pasting this link here like re-gifitng?

Family Mundo

Here is a very short clip of the whole family on the Mundo. The kids would need Peanut Shells or some such to ride the Mundo- but we had to try a lap around the driveway! This bike continues to impress me- it feels so good, even with 4 humans on it. (albeit a couple of small humans!)

Bakfiets

I have been getting a bit of shop time in lately. Working on the bakfiets again. Maybe it is time I share the frankenbike with the world?

I took a Rocky Mountain MTB, an cheapo Peugeot MTB, an older Bianchi racing frame, and a sturdy little kids bike with a 20" front wheel and hacked them all apart. Then tried to weld the pieces back together. Here is a fellow from work giving the prototype a spin.

I managed to scrounge up a 48 spoke BMX wheel with a 14mm axel. Skookum. The double horizontal tube seems very strong and plenty stiff. It just means the upper tube will run through the box. This will make it less flexible for cargo, but offer up a tube to tie stuff too. Surprisingly enough, the bike is quite easy to ride--- maybe a little twitchy at low speeds, and the front brake will lock up the front wheel in a blink. I expect these conditions to improve with the addition of a plywood box. (and cargo)