How’s this for a unique and eco-friendly way to get from the funeral home to your final resting place? Wade Lind, owner of Sunset Hills Cemetery in Eugene, Oregon came up with the “bike hearst” as an option for those really looking to limit their impact once they’ve passed on. Let’s hope there aren’t many hills along the way.
As I mentioned earlier, living in Ithaca, NY means having to negotiate several steep inclines to get to work. Most bikers around here either find alternative windy roads that slowly make their way to the top — or walk their bike up the tougher sections. Either way, when you’re dressed to impress, sweating your balls off is one thing you want to try and avoid. This in mind, ever since hybrid-electric bikes hit the scene, I’ve been eying them as a means to avoid roundabouts and just hit these hills straight on. iZip offers a bunch of different bikes to handle such scenarios and I was fortunate enough to be given one to test drive.
The IZIP instead is an electric-assist — giving you some extra torque to help you up some tough inclines. To that end, you still have to pedal. The beauty of this system is that you can choose to have it on or off — or at different levels of assist. About to hit a hill and want some support? Simply press the “+” button on the left handlebar and watch the LCD indicator light a few bars higher. Want to back off? Hit the “-” button. It’s as simple as that — and believe me, you still get a workout.
In my rides to work, I generally kept the power button on high — which even on flat portions of the trip, never seem to interfere with normal pedaling. As soon as I hit those nasty inclines, however, I could hear the electric motor kick on and the exertion normally needed to huff and puff greatly reduced. The electric-assist can’t overcome huge inclines, however, — so on some of my trips, I avoided the monster hills and took side streets. This strategy seemed to favor the technology and the assist definitely got me to my destination much faster than normal — and with less sweat.
If you’ve ever lived in or visited Ithaca, NY your probably familiar with the phrase “Ithaca is gorges”. It’s a funny little saying that gives a good indication of the region’s topography — hills, hills, and steeper hills. In fact, the inclines we have around here would make even Lance Armstrong break a sweat. So, it was with great expectation that I took advantage of an opportunity to review the IZIP Trekking Enlightened hybrid-electric bicycle from Currie Technologies. Could it be possible to bike to work and not immediately have to take another shower?
Google’s Street View fleet has a new low-tech edition: the Google Trike. For those not familiar with the street capture technology, it’s a feature on Google Maps that allows you to view actual images of a street location — in 360 degrees. Beyond the fascinating technology that puts this all together — what’s even more impressive is the army of employees out there on the roads of America (and almost every other country) taking panoramic snapshots using the Google camera vehicles.
Of course, cars (thankfully) aren’t allowed to go everywhere. But that hasn’t stopped Google. The search engine giant has instead hacked a trike to carry the necessary equipment to get the digital deed done. From Autobloggreen,
The three-wheeled, human-powered overgrown tricycles carry 250 pounds of ballast in the form of “a mounted Street View camera and a specially decorated box containing image collecting gadgetry,” says the internet giant. All that extra heft reportedly requires a “specially trained super fit” rider. Google’s new trikes will be deployed first in Genoa, Italy, this spring. Assuming that launch proves successful, Google will send its pedal-powered cameras to the United Kingdom, where they’ll point their lenses towards a slew of famous British landmarks.
We imagine one would definitely have to be “superfit” to lug these things around — but a great design effort on the part of Google nonetheless to overcome vehicular limitations.
While baskets are the eternal favorites for lugging things around with your bike — there may be times when you’d like those groceries or books to be a bit more contained. That, or you just need some additional space. Either way, these travel bags from Detours are a fantastic option — and with a very green characteristic: they’re made from recycled juice packs.
Each bag is made up of about 100 juice packs — with the company quick to add that no two bags are alike. Each features a bathtub rubber bottom, wide mouth, removable rain cover, reflective tail-light tabs on both ends, and will hold about 15lbs of your stuff. The only caveat is to beware placing sharp objects inside your Toocan — as the pouches can rip and tear up the seam. Otherwise, the company says the bag will last many years and then when done, you can just recycle it!
Cnn.com reports that bike riders might have to pay $54 every two years, if a new bill passes. The money would be dedicated to improving bike lanes and safety.
Ah, where to begin? Taxing healthy behavior? Check. Taxing non-polluting source of transportation? Check. Pulling over riders to see if they’ve “registered” their bikes? Creepy (and double plus good).
Like bicycles and bamboo? Well Civia Bicycles has a model for you, the Civia Loring.
Whether tooling around town, cruising campus or pedaling to the grocer, the Civia Loring offers supreme comfort, safety and utility. From its gently sloping top tube to its bamboo fenders and matching trim, the Loring is a study in elegance, simplicity and fun. Designed for short runs of five miles or less, the Loring carries up to 50 pounds of cargo while delivering an exceptionally balanced ride. The Loring features disc brakes and a three or nine-speed internally geared hub.
The Civia Loring looks like a great all around errand runner. I really dig the green apple finish, however it is also available in black pearl. The bamboo fenders and racks are a cool addition to this cruiser.
Last weekend NYC held it’s final Summer Streets celebration of 2008. It was the third in a series of Saturdays during which large sections of Park Avenue and other city streets were closed to automobile traffic between the hours of 7am and 1pm. Walkers, joggers, cyclists, skateboards and rollerbladers filled the streets, free from the dangers of cars. There was drumming, dance classes, chalk art, jump rope, hopscotch and people just out enjoying the day without the noise and pollution of car congestion.
This practice of regularly closing streets to cars and allowing people to once again take over transportation corridors happens with frequency in Columbia and other parts of Latin America. It’s called Ciclovia. I spent some time last week talking to a woman from Bogota about Ciclovia where 2 million residents enjoy more than 70 miles of car-free streets each Sunday and on holidays. She said the residents of her hometown now cherish this weekly ritual. The practice has spread to countries outside of Latin America including France and Canada and had its first trial run in the United States in NYC this month.
And this only makes sense. I wholeheartedly support the creation of new infrastructure dedicated to the daily use of nonautomotive forms of transportation. And bike lanes are better than nothing but we need separated spaces for people to feel safe and confident about getting places on foot or by bike without being hit by cars. However, most people in the US don’t see other forms of transportation as viable. They think of bicycles as recreation or as something only the Chinese do to get around. This program of closing off existing streets on a regular basis will help to improve the demand for safe, car-free transportation corridors by giving people a chance to experience getting around without the dangers of being run over. It’s a natural transition to a world in which transportation is carbon constrained.
It will also help to slim down an overweight America. It’s great for communities as people old and young, black and brown and white, rich and old all mingle together. It’s cheap- the roads are already there. And it just sounds like a lot of fun. Here’s to hoping that this is the start of people taking back the streets in this country. Or, as one person in the film below puts it, “You close the streets to traffic and the whole world opens up!”
Riding your bike to work or the grocery store seems appealing, but up until now you just didn’t want to show up all sweaty or worn out to accomplish what you set out to do. There are plenty of electric conversion kits out there that allow you to convert your pedal bicycle into a electric assisted pedal bike, just do a quick Google search. The AmpedBikes kit, a brushless 36V 500W Brushless (zero maintenance) electric hub, can be installed easily by someone with the most basic of tools and bicycle maintenance experience.
AmpedBikes was started by Danny L. Ray,a cabinet maker, as he was unhappy with the quality of the kits he had tried out. So after some research and a few trips to China he found a company that were willing to build a kit to his requirements. The result of his research and effort is a $360 kit that he sells from his website. Read more »
Time magazine had an article recently discussion a bike sharing system that has rolled out to a few US cities, most notably Washington DC has the newest version. As a biker I initially thought this idea sounded really good, but after thinking about it for a while I’m not so sure.
Of course it would be handy to be able to borrow a bike on occasion and then return it at my destination. And I can see how this service can easily fill in gaps between already existing mass transit routes. This could be one of those ideas that makes mass transit easier. But I’m not sure it’s that much more compelling than buying your own bike.
If I bought my own bike I could keep it for more than 3 hours (the DC system limits you to 3 hours at a time) and I could get a bike that fits my body better, perhaps. Also, I could make the bike work better for me by perhaps installing an xtracycle system or racks and other items that make it more usable for me for more than just moving me from point A to point B. With this Bike Smart system I don’t have those options.
There are plenty of biking options for bikes that fold up and would be easy to carry around from bus to train and then unfold to ride them somewhere. I think this type of bike would be the main competition for a rental service like this. And that’s why I’m struggling to see the appeal of the service. I guess the one thing I can mention is that the service runs $40 a year whereas a fold up bike will run you $500 or so for the one time purchase.
Am I missing something? Read the article and let me know what you think about the program.
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