EV Vespa, Farmers Market, glad to be alive

I love Saturday mornings. Saturday is the one morning each week where I do not have a prescribed place to be, and there is a tremendous value in that.

This Saturday was a good one. I met some (many) of the Too Flatters downtown for breakfast and a stroll around the Lubbock Downtown Farmers Market.

I bought coffee, dog biscuits, carrots, peaches, and a truly magnificent brownie from my favorite vendor - Chocolate and Beyond. (Condo's favorite is still the KDJ Barkery.)

Lucy the truck, the (silver) Gas-Powered Vespa, and the (black & dusty) electric Vespa

 

The electric Vespa has gathered entirely too much dust lately, so I dragged it out of the back of the overly junky garage. And the same thing happened that always happens. I re-fell in love with it and electric vehicles in general. I have been toying with the idea of selling it to raise funds for paying bills and funneling a little to the electric pigeon fund. The Vespa is quick (but not fast). It has a low center of gravity and great brakes. And it is silent. It handles better and stops better than any vintage Vespa I have ridden. And I have ridden many. It doesn't leak any fluids. It emits no carbon monoxide and doesn't require any increasingly expensive 2-stroke oil or gasoline. Riding it makes me smile a lot! (And without the guilt I feel when riding a gas-powered scooter.)

 

Where am I going with this? Nowhere. When our country is running around angrily pointing fingers and judging each other, sometimes it's refreshing to spend time with friends, feel the wind in your hair, share a little chocolate, and take some time to enjoy life.

 

May you have a Saturday morning soon.

Electric Moped: Somebody built our napkin-sketch dream bike!

I drink coffee with the Scooter Workshop Night guys on most days. Over coffee we have built many dream vehicles. Mind you, we don't actually build much, but we do plan lots of builds on napkins and envelopes and tabletops. One of my favorite dream builds has been the unholy marriage of a two-stroke European moped with an electric motorcycle powertrain. And I have gotten close to the dream. I did build a Velosolex with a hubmotor for a good friend. (Hi, JG!) And I did purchase the running gear out of an early Zero motorcycle. (I am terrible at minimalism.) And that running gear has dustily resided in a box since it came into my possession. (The current plan is to install that motor in one of the ElectroPigeons. But there's a lot of tuition and taxes to pay first. So, I will keep designing on napkins.)

Not this Magnum,

nor this Magnum,

this Magnum!

Back to the moped plan. My favorite mopeds are the top-tank models, the ones that look like undergrown motorcycles rather than overgrown bicycles. One of the coolest and most adaptable is the Puch Magnum. I have kept an eye open for a cheap Magnum for years. But I never actually found one nearby.

Yesterday on Autoblog Green, the Bolt Motorbike showed up. And I recognized it from my coffee napkin sketches. Some intelligent and ambitious mopedders (Mopedders seldom get called either of those words.) must have made the same sketch. Lighter than a motorcycle, sturdier than a bike, and powerful enough to climb San Francisco hills with ease - the Bolt is a very cool bike, and it appear to have a Puch Magnum frame.

Check out that ultra-cool bolt logo!

 

Lots of nifty features and a pretty impressive range - 30-50 mile depending on your power setting of choice. I am surprised to see such a low-voltage battery pack, but it looks like the Bolt crew invested their money in amp-hours rather than volts - a good way to increase range. The price is not far away from what it would take for you to build one if you had the time, the tools, the skills, and the ambition.

 

It is definitlely a cool machine, and at $5000 for a turn-key American-built electric moped, you could do a lot worse. (I am now picturing my Mesquite Hugger journalistic dream - the opportunity to have a head-to-head-to-head comparison: Fido vs. Boxx vs.Bolt. I would be in blogger heaven!

 

May your napkin sketches become reality and make the world a better place!

The Boxx Electric Scooter Lives!!!(?)

One of the frustrations of being an electro-dork like me is the steadily waning excitement of watching a new vehicle go from protoype to (wait for months or even years) actual production and public availability. Lots of those things never materialize (Brooklyn Motorized) or almost materialize (Copenhagen Wheel) or materialize only to those who live in select counties just south of San Francisco (it's a long list) or something like that.

I first became aware of the Boxx Scooter in December of 2011. I wanted one! Who among you has never fantasized about stealing a Macintosh computer, converting it into a 2-wheel-drive electric scooter, and zipping around town on it? (Really? Just me and Keith?) Over the years since then, the Boxx has popped up on the radar here and there, but I have never heard of one being spotted in the suburban wilds. And I have to admit, my enthusiasm for it has waned. It's a cool machine to be sure, but it never really seemed to materialize and the website has barely changed over the years.

Imagine my surprise today when a Boxx Scooter ad showed up on the local Craigslist:

You can check it out for yourself here:

Boxx - The 1 meter vehicle

I want the Boxx M (54mph!!!) at the Boxx E price ($2997 - delivered!), but the one in the middle looks very Goldilocksian for my needs - just right. I'll take mine in blue.

May you be the dork who enjoys the ride greenly!

More Mesquite Hugger Greatest Hits: Electric Scooter Posts

In case you are dreaming of green scooting this spring, here are some posts to keep you dreaming:

Making some noise:
http://mesquitehugger.blogspot.com/2013/10/solving-one-electric-vehicle-problem.html

 

A visit to an electric scooter shop:
http://mesquitehugger.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-quick-trip-to-austin-part-1the.html

Somebody's old Vespa on Evalbum:
http://mesquitehugger.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-few-local-lubbock-evs-for-your.html

Just wow:
http://mesquitehugger.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-biggest-dang-electric-moped-i-have.html

Some available options out there:
http://mesquitehugger.blogspot.com/2014/03/petroleum-free-transport-how-willing.html

Hempenscoot:
http://mesquitehugger.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-new-twist-in-green-scootering-hemp.html

(Very popular) collected conversions:
http://mesquitehugger.blogspot.com/2014/04/some-of-mhs-favorite-scooter-moped.html

The Mahindra Genze:
http://mesquitehugger.blogspot.com/2014/05/an-american-built-e-scooter.html

Fido news:
http://mesquitehugger.blogspot.com/2014/05/electric-scooter-news-fido-i-am-excited.html

Daymak Beast:
http://mesquitehugger.blogspot.com/2014/07/kickstarter-your-commute-off-grid-off.html

EVT 168 Custom Conversion:
http://mesquitehugger.blogspot.com/2014/07/a-little-evalbum-inspiration-cure-for.html

A couple of new old Euro scooters:
http://mesquitehugger.blogspot.com/2014/09/another-modern-vintage-electric-scooter.html

Vintage Conversion Candidates:
http://mesquitehugger.blogspot.com/2014/10/electric-pigeons-vintage-scooters-that.html

Fido Update:
http://mesquitehugger.blogspot.com/2014/11/electric-scooter-news-fido-grows-up-and.html

Gas 2 Articles:
http://mesquitehugger.blogspot.com/2014/11/two-wheeler-articles-from-one-of-my.html

Mini's mini-scooter (Yawn):
http://mesquitehugger.blogspot.com/2014/11/disappointment-mini-debuts-another.html

May your spring be green scootastic!

Disappointment: Mini Debuts another Electric Scooter

2010 Car and Driver article

 

About four years ago, Mini debuted an electric scooter at the Paris Auto Show. And it was cool and exciting. About the same time, Smart also debuted an electric scooter as well. And the electric vehicle world was a very different thing then. Companies like Tesla, Zero, and Brammo were just releasing electric vehicles and were far from being household names. The Leaf and the Volt were just getting rolling. The EV landscape was very different.

2010 Smart escooter article

And I looked forward to both of those scooters for a long time. The Smart scooter fizzled a while back - Smart had planned to partner with Vectrix on their scoot, but Vectrix folded and the Smart scooter faded away. And, to be honest, the Mini scooter just faded from my mind...

...until this morning. I saw this Gas2 headline: MINI Debuts Electric Scooter Instead Of Electric Car. And the electric scooter geek in me rejoiced! Then I clicked on the link and saw this crappy little thing that would fit in nicely in the Target bicycle section:

I haven't read the article yet. I will get around to it, but not yet. I did look at the photos and saw an image that took me back to the 80's and a little dream scooter called the Honda Motocompo that was designed to fit in the back of the tiny Honda City automobile in place of a spare tire.

disappointing scooter in Mini 

Honda Motocompo in Honda City

Second-Wave Ska Legends Madness in the Japan-only ads

(If you're a fan on the Nutty Boys, it is worth seeking out the commercials on youtube.)

 

May your scooter surprises be good ones!

 



Electric Scooter News: Fido Grows Up and Scoots to Italy

Check this cool canine out at fidomotors.com!

Here at the Mesquite Hugger Hangout, it's always an exciting day when an email rolls in from the Fido Team. So, yesterday was a good day!!!

The email had two pieces of info - that Fido is being unveiled at EICMA - the international motorcycle exposition in Italy - and that the new Fido was unveiled on the new Fido website.

I went straight to the website. (The MH budget doesn't really support paddling over to Italy to see it in person.) I love the new Fido with its obvious improvements over the prototype model. I want mine in blue with the wood rack on the back! I will shut up now and let the photos do the talking.

May you be fortunate enough to have green transport this cool!

Bonus link: The last MH post about the Fido: http://mesquitehugger.blogspot.com/2014/05/electric-scooter-news-fido-i-am-excited.html

Electric Pigeons! (Vintage Scooters that is)

Electric pigeon - further proof that you can find anything on the internet!

And another electric Pigeon (link)

Yep, I have been holding out on you.

The rundown:

It's no secret to those of you who hang out around here that I love vintage scooters, that I have built a vintage electric scooter, that I was a little disappointed in that first draft project, and that I have wanted to build another vintage electric scooter that's a little more practical in the real world. And I have been looking at viable candidates for a successful EV conversion. The two top contenders have been the Allstate Jetsweep (thanks to Bo Diddley on that one), and the Mitsubishi Silver Pigeon (thanks to Mitsubishi on that one).

For more than twenty years now, my friend Spencer and I have swapped bad habits, mostly in the form of motorcycles and scooters, sometimes in the form of music and books. And I am thankful to have him as a friend and bad-habit supporter. He showed up at Scooter Workshop Night a few weeks ago and casually mentioned that he just went to look at a BSA motorcycle for sale (pause for dramatic effect) and the seller just happened to have a pair of Silver Pigeons.

You can imagine the rest, and here are photos to help the imagination: 

Silver Pigeon #1, Forklift, Lucy

Silver Pigeon #2, Forklift, Lucy, Spencer, and the passerby who tried to buy both Pigeons

Silver Pigeons #1&2, No Forklift, and Lucy

Silver Pigeons in the coop with EVT168 donor bike

I will leave details sketchy at this point, and I promise that these two will be slow projects, but #1 will have a hubmotor from the EVT scooter, #2 will have the running gear from an early Zero motorcycle, and I need to sell some other toys to finance the building of these two.

And snagit, I am excited!!!

May the Pigeons soar cleanly and greenly, and may you be excited about your own green projects!

Thanks again, Spencer, for a great deal on these Pigeons in the rough!

If you liked this post, here are a few more that may interest you:

http://mesquitehugger.blogspot.com/2013/10/solving-one-electric-vehicle-problem.html

http://mesquitehugger.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-few-local-lubbock-evs-for-your.html

http://mesquitehugger.blogspot.com/2013/11/just-couple-of-cool-electric-motorcycles.html

http://mesquitehugger.blogspot.com/2014/04/some-of-mhs-favorite-scooter-moped.html

http://mesquitehugger.blogspot.com/2014/03/petroleum-free-transport-how-willing.html

In case you have followed the Beast saga...

(Don't click "play" - click the link below instead.)

...the Kickstarter campaign funded with $37,000 (Canadian) breathing room. Congratulations, Daymak!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/867054068/daymak-beast

May your green campaign be funded too!

A Little EVAlbum Inspiration: A Cure for Barbie Scooterism

Come on Barbie, Let's go scooter!

 So I have this electric scooter, an EVT168. And it's a pretty cool machine. A completely functional and street legal machine that is capable of 35mph and a roughly 20 mile range with fresh lead-acid batteries.

She's a beauty!

Mine could use some fresher batteries, but everything works. I bought it to steal the running gear from, but I have had a hard time bringing myself to scrap out a perfectly good machine. Yes, it's a very competent machine, but I have to admit it is a little hard to get excited about its plastic Barbie scooter looks.

Well, today I decided to take a quick glance at EVAlbum.com where I saw this little jewel. Pieces of it seemed familiar, but I did not realize why until I saw it listed as an EVT168. This particular DIYer took the same scooter and turned it into a pretty cool mini-motorcycle. That's it. I found this exciting and I wanted to share it with you. (Just what I needed, another inspiration for a project...)

May you find a little Friday inspiration today!

Kick(Starter) Your Commute Off-Grid, Off-Road, and On-Budget

Oh Kickstarter, how you tempt me!

As regular readers know, I have been jonesing for a new e-bike. My frugality extreme financial stinginess has kept my search at the low end of the spectrum - bikes in the sub-$1500 category. A Kickstarter for one popped up recently on ElectricBikeReport.com - it falls into the price range, but it does so rather differently than most. It's called The Beast. For a pledge of $999 (+ $249 shipping) you can (hopefully) get yourself a 48V Lithium-powered electric off-road scooter-bike with built in solar panels and a removable battery pack, and there are some upgraded models with larger battery packs that look well worth the upgrade money.

So, if you are comfortable with Kickstarter wait times and want to be the first one in town to have something funkycooldorky, check this one out! Snagit, it's a good thing I don't believe in buying on credit!

May funkycooldorkygreen turn your head today! (Happy 4th of July, good friends!)

The Seriously Jonesing for a Simple E-Bike Blues (Cheapos take note)

All images from today's post can be found at http://www.eco-wheelz.com/forum/topic/funny-facebook-graphics/

(Those of you not interested electric bikes might find this one worth skipping. And, I pity you those of you who are not interested.)

Yes, it may be raining today, but it was hot yesterday. Very hot yesterday. Summer is upon us, and those triple-digit temperatures actually scare me a bit, especially with my commute home landing at 5pm. I am not a big fan of stroke and/or heart attack, and those would definitely defeat the purpose of riding a bike to work.

My electric bike dreams have been pretty simple lately. I have been commuting to work a few days per week on a non-electric bicycle, and it has been great to know that I am capable of that. And the ride is one of the best parts of the day. But I show up very tired and quite sweaty. Applying extra deodorant is a must! Most days I average 9-10 mph and the ride takes 30 minutes. Windy days slow me down a great deal and triple digit temperatures are a great struggle. I live in a hot and windy place, and I want some electric assistance to overcome those two obstacles. But I still want some exercise.

I'm a rebel, Dotty!

The goal looks something like this:
15-18 miles per hour
15-18 mile range
Less than $500 in the conversion

The plan looks something like this:
Thirty-six volts. Five hundred watts. Ten amp-hour. Rear, geared hubmotor. I have the bike already, a garage sale hardtail mountain bike that I have already enjoyed a great deal. I am hoping to keep the conversion money under $500. I want a pedal-assist setup. I would love to have a torque-sensor setup with no throttle, but that would require a much bigger cash outlay. I want the geared hubmotor because they are smaller and lighter than direct drive and (most importantly) they maintain the ability to freewheel, so I can pedal without a friction penalty.

Shouldn't her e-bike be invisible?

I want to do something like this kit from Green Bike Kit. It looks well under my budget until you throw in the $200 for shipping. It goes downhill even further when you start factoring in reported shipping times of up to 6 weeks - mid August, snagit! It may be time to raise the budget or gamble with something from Ebay.

We are going to need a lot more batteries and a bigger wrench over here!

The reality looks something like this:
Snagit even more, the family budget is not quite up for a $500 or more hit right now. So, maybe I need to leave earlier and pedal slower. Maybe I need to sell off some other projects. (Anybody wanting an EVT 168 electric scooter, a Rally 200 project, a Voloci, a couple of vintage balloon-tire cruisers, or my first diy electric bicycle?) It is pedal and peddle time!

May you get over your jonesing for an e-bike blues more quickly than I do!

A new twist in green scootering - hemp!

(Thanks to Keith, MH's most dedicated reader, for sharing this)

I know the development did not go this way, but I picture a couple of Dutch guys sitting around with a pile of scooter parts, a pile of hemp fiber, and a vat of glue. "Dude, Demetrius, like, what are we gonna do with all this stuff?" "I don't know Ibrahim, but maybe we need get out and see the world. If only we had a scootmobiel..."

Hemp and flax fiber body panels

Enjoy the article for yourself at Wired.com.

May you scoot in renewable silence and joy!