Testing Riding a Bike: The Bakfiets Experience

Enough said.  The bakfiets is an experience we should all take part in.   The bakfiets is a Long John style cargo bike which according to longjohn.org is a two-wheeled cargo bike with the load area between the steering tube and front wheel.  The site doesn't clarify who designed the first long john, but does attribute a Danish company with first manufacturing the bike in the 1940's.  One thing is for sure, long john cargo bikes haul ass, and then some, and the modern editions handle like a dream.

Thanks to MyDutchBike.com, I had the privilege of riding a bakfiets home, loaded (the bike not me),  after KT and I finished the Vélo Vogue Bike Wardrobe Remix photo booth at the Disposable Film Festival.  I had to figure out a way to get the photo booth equipment AND my bike home too, but with a huge cargo box I knew it wouldn't be a thing.



Loading the bakfiets was cake and it took about 15 seconds to adjust to riding, the 8-speed nexus hub was perfect even with a little incline, handling was smooth enough that I could ride one handed and snap photos of myself, getting the bike on and off the kick stand was a breeze, and if I could afford it, I'd stock my bike garage with a bakfiets today.  Experience the feat of engineering that is this bike.  Get on a bakfiets, find a load to carry, GO!

tp basket

ladies room farmer brown

Carrying a Load

I found this folding table and four chairs (inside storage cabinet in table) for cheaps at a garage sale and decided it would help facilitate a proper dinner party or two.  No more sitting around the coffee table.  Rode her home on my schwinn cycle truck.  it was hard.

czechcycle

absolute insanity. the best is the sewing machine tandem all bike around 4:41.

A Belated Let the Games Begin!

I first found Let's Go Ride a Bike (LGRAB) searching the interwebs for images of Betty Foy, a rivendell mixte.  LGRAB is one of my favorite bike blogs, offering up beautiful images and impeccable taste in bikes. Trisha navigating Nashville and Dottie in a dress pedaling through Chicago in the snow are two of the things that make the world a good place.  Needless to say, in true procrastinator form, I am making a last minute dash to enter the LGRAB summer cycling games.

Here we go:

Group Ride- 22 miles to Maker Faire

I'm on a little bikey bloggy san francisco email list and Gwen asked if anyone wanted to ride to the Maker Faire.  48 emails later, 13 of us met up for a coffee, picnic lunch and ride.

This is me, photo by the lovely Meligrosa of  Bikes and the City.



Here's  a shot of some of the group in front of me:


Lisa Marie, maker of Hambone bike bags, even looks cute from behind

and some more of the group behind me:


Gwen, producer of bike fashion shows and more, and Kristen

We rode through the city and past SFO, our international airport.  Nice to find out you can ride a bike to the airport, easily.  Helps make my dream more realistic: ride to airport, fold and put bike in suitcase, go far away, ride bike.  sigh 


Adrienne Johnson of Change Your Life Ride a Bike and Vélo Vogue
  
The best part of the day was seeing this guy realize that the model in the magazine in front of him,  was also standing in front of him.



Meli handles the Glitteratti with style.




Bike Date- Meeting KT for Mimosas

For my next athletic cycling adventure, I went on a bike bloggy business date with KT of Vélo Vogue


We met for mimosas at Cafe du Soleil



both looking fabulous in complementary solid color dress/ cardigan combos



and we sat in the sun next to Moses, the grey parrot, and his mom Jen, a self proclaimed crazy bird lady



At the end of the date I tried to convince KT to take Papi the Chihuahua home with her



Thanks KT for a great bike date. 

Super thanks  LGRAB for the fun contest!!!!!

Ride a Bike for Good Health, please

Special thanks to Patrick Sexton for his project Schwinn Cruisers.  He's currently in the process of documenting over 100 years of annual Schwinn catalogs, dating back to 1899 and he's looking for help.
This project is especially dear to me because I first fell in love with bikes as an adult due entirely to a purple schwinn hollywood.  I've been bike obsessed ever since and have fond memories of our decade long love affair.  It should come as no surprise that it also makes me really happy to see new editions of  Schwinn classics gracing our streets as modern city bikes.    

Thanks for your work, Patrick, you're serving up  a delicious slice of american pie.

cargo art

Everything in the shopping cart was loaded on the bike, including all that wine and a watermelon.  

WENG- Urban Transport Vehicles

The WENG (Where Everybody Needs to Go) is an electric urban utility vehicle, designed by Stanford graduate students.  The prototype, unveiled yesterday, is a chic vehicle that may appeal to people who want to get out of their cars but can't quite make the shift to cycling.  It's a stylish and utilitarian, cheaper version of an electric golf cart.  The WENG is reminiscent of  a dutch cargo bike with features such as a wood slat cargo bed and  a minimalist chassis.   With a 50 mile battery life, proposed production price tag under 10K and 35mph speed, this vehicle would be perfect for transporting people and goods around San Francisco.



Here's an urban re-vision:  Some people have cars, most people don't .  Services like zipcar and city car share redesign their programs and offer WENGs for city travel, while 4000lb internal combustion vehicles are reserved for highway trips.  Some people use WENGs via vehicle sharing programs.  Others own WENGs.  Bicyclists are safe and WENGers are conscientious motorists, more exposed and connected to the streets. Air and life quality indexes are record high.

a bad ass bike

a nice bicycle

I started a flickr photo group recently called 'nice bicycle' and this video was submitted.  It is indeed.