Sweet Cargo Bike!

This is a very strong looking hauler seen at the last North American Handmade Bike Show. Though it is very strong looking I would have liked to see passenger capabilities... The best part? The bike was made in SF and ridden 90 miles to the show in Sacramento! Check out the original article at the longest link ever:
http://www.bikerumor.com/2012/03/03/rolling-keg-party-my-dutch-bikes-90-mile-ride-to-nahbs/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BikeRumor+%28Bike+Rumor+RSS%29

Not sure about photo props but I think it was taken by: Nick Burklow

Car of the Week

For those keeping track I have renamed my car posts to keep the pressure off. Car of the week seems a bit more realistic! I don't know much about this car (note to self; talk to car owners at car shows). This car was at the 2007 Early Iron car show in Ukiah, CA. There are so many things about this car that are impressive. I love people that think differently and there are some different details on this car. The logistics of fitting the engine in that small space... the unique interior... that stance... Well Done whoever you are! Here are the pics that I took:

Car of the Day

1953 Moretti 750 Gran Sport Berlinetta

The first time I ever saw a Moretti was when I was 15-16 years old. I was tagging along with the Bahtens (family of my friends that were twin boys) on their way to buy a small sail boat that they found in the classifieds of the paper. We saw the boat and the twin's dad, Jim, started talking about cars with the boat owner. So the owner says, "Well you have to see this then." and takes us into his garage. And that is where I first saw the Moretti. I had never heard of the Italian brand before but I was just amazed that someone could make a car so small, look so good. The proportions of this car are amazing to give you an idea of the size; this car has a 750cc engine that produces 75 hp (this is the same size used in street bikes) and has a 78 inch wheelbase. Tiny! There are probably only one or two of these in the US so I felt pretty darn lucky to see it. A little something changed in me that day...

Photos courtesy of: RM Auctions; photo credit, Pieter E Kamp © 2010 Courtesy of RM Auctions

Cabin Study

I have been working on designs for a cabin up at my dad's place. It has been good for me to get ideas down and really work with SketchUp from a production standpoint. I have been through a few design changes and this is number five... and likely not to be the last! This would be somewhere for our growing family to stay for the summer months when we return to the states. The idea is a small one room cabin with kitchen that really takes advantage of great views and the outdoors. Small efficient space wise and able to be built in sections. Pour the slab and upright ones summer, then the roof, then frame in and add the finished touches. Here is a quick video of a fly around of the cabin. Let me know what you think and if you have questions ask away!

Security Check

Some things that happen in our daily life seem normal and I forget to share them. I was just on the phone with my mom, retelling a hilarious story that I really had not though to share until today. So the US embassy in Dhaka has a thing called the commissary. The commissary is a store that imports food that you can't really get here. It is a great place to find a lot of processed food that people can't live without but don't really need. There are freezers full of TV dinners (Pretty sure it is more expensive to by 30 TV dinners than to pay cook for a month...) All the good stuff like crappy syrup, skippy, oreos, etc. They do have some good stuff once in a while and they will special order stuff which is cool.

To get into the commissary you have to go through security which is a pretty involved process. You have to show your badge and they let you through one gate. Next is a huge metal gate that you go through they close behind you and then you have to stop your car, turn the engine off, open your trunk and hood and show your badge again. Then three guards walk around your car. One uses little sticky paper to check for bomb residue, one walks around with a mirror on the end of a stick to look for bombs under your car, and another walks around and makes sure the other two are doing their jobs. Once all is clear they wave to another guard in the bulletproof glass control box and he opens the final inner gate to let you in.

So going in with a car is funny enough but I have been taking the cargo bike to shop there... So I pull my bike into the security check and they make me get off, put the bike on the kick stand and step away. The guard takes his sticky paper and brushes the brake lever, the seat and the cargo box. And the best part... yeah the guy with the mirror comes around and checks under my bike for bombs. It is like one of those naked gun movies where the people are serious but the actions are hilarious. I try not to laugh and they don't even notice that it is funny. They wave me in a and I do my shopping all the while some guy is analyzing the sticky paper for traces of bomb material...

So Wright!

I have been in love with this picture for some time now. This is the Wright Brothers bike workshop. They made bikes before experimenting with flight. I love the fact that they are at work in their finest clothes, it just says something that resonates with me. Professionalism where has it gone?

Photo courtesy of the library of congress

Cars...

Over the past 20 years I have vacillated on the subject of cars. When I was young, I was a hopeless car nut. I had a subscription to Sports Car International and I indexed every article so that I could look up the basic stats for a car (hp, 0-60time, price etc.) and know the issue and page number that the article was on. I spent most of my high school years working on cars with my best friends and thought that it could not get much better. Then at Cal Poly I started racing bikes and commuting on bikes and really fell in love with them for their fun, simple and sustainable form of transportation. I really started to realize that cars are about 3,000lbs of excess weight that really is not needed. I still appreciated a good car, but I did not put as much stock in them as I used to, my SCI subscription lapsed, I started thinking about buying a newer reliable car so that I would not have to work on my own car any more. Then I got a job teaching Auto Shop and had to start obsessing over cars again. This time it was with a certain amount of reservation. While teaching class I would say things like, "Cars are horribly inefficient and will always break down because there are too many parts." Kids thought I was weird because I would ride my bike to school but then when school got out I would coast by them all when they were stuck in traffic. In a car it would take me 10 minutes to get home and I would be in a foul mood after. On a bike I would get home in 3 minutes and be stoked!

So here I am in Bangladesh and the same is true. It would take most people less time to get home on a bike. It just makes cars seem so wasteful and unnecessary. After saying all this I have to admit something... I have wasted countless hours on the internet looking at cars for sale in the US. Cars that I would never buy but I really want to! Classic Land Rovers, Porsche 911's from the 60's that need complete restorations, 1988 BMW M6's, 1950's Chevrolet suburbans, Triumph TR6's, 1950 Cab Overs of any make, Lotus, Datsun 510's, and the list goes on. I even lust over the big V-8 muscle cars (not with original brakes or suspension though!) I can't help it. I don't have the disposable income, the shop to work in, or the time but I REALLY want a project. I need something to work on and tweak and spend hours perfecting and none of this makes any sense! I cannot figure out why I can't get over this.

If I have learned one thing it is that I need a shop. I have to build stuff... anything, but for some reason cars are the things that really draw me in. I need professional help. I know they are money pits and I would never get my money back out but I keep looking. I keep thinking I will find a car that needs restoration that I can pick up for a song that would be worth a bundle after I finished building it. I think there are lots of reasons for this. I got my obsession for searching for the diamond in the rough from my mom. We would go to thrift stores and yard sales and she would find the coolest stuff. So I started looking too and it was fun to look through all that crap to find the one thing that was worth money or that you could re purpose into something else or that was just cool and old. Stuff that was built well and beautiful. From my dad I got the importance of the integrity of craft and that making something is more that just the steps of making it. There is a satisfaction to something made right, to knowing that no corners where cut and you learned a bunch about yourself and the medium on the way. From old timers like my neighbor Ernie I learned that everything can be fixed and most of the time you can fix things with remarkably little. He held the idea that things should be fixed and that there is a ton more soul in something brought back to life than something bought new. I hold all these lessons dear I just wish I could change my mind about the car thing. Why do I have to want to work on cars? Any thoughts?