Motored bicycle publicity

when you finally find a riding buddy, your world will really change...san diego, eh? well, here's driving directions to the ocean park rally in august.

head north (water on left)
stop at my place.

:cool:
 
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Thanks for the link, I was hoping I'd get to read the article. In case that cache is eventually updated to show the current page that asks for a registration, here it is:

A bike, an engine and a man who doesn't have to pedal

By JASON SCHREIBER
Union Leader Correspondent
Friday, May. 30, 2008

IMAGINE GETTING 200 miles to the gallon.

It sounds like a pipe dream, but Paul Normandin found a way to make it happen.

Like so many, Normandin is fed up with his gas-guzzling sport-utility vehicle.

With gas prices soaring past the $4-per-gallon mark, Normandin has been on the lookout for a cheaper way to commute from his home in Danville to his job in Fremont.

The 36-year-old found his answer on the Internet: An engine for his bicycle.

After spending hours reading reviews and watching YouTube clips of others who have turned everyday mountain bikes into motorized transportation, Normandin decided to give it a try.

"It's a trip," he mused after making his 12-mile round-trip commute on his newly motorized 18-speed Shimano mountain bike this week.

Normandin paid $600 for the geared belt-drive, bicycle-assist engine from Golden Eagle Bike Engines.

The new rig will get him 200 miles to the gallon. It hardly compares to the 17 miles he gets with his 2000 Dodge Durango. In his first two days on the road, the bike drank about a cup of gas.

Normandin describes his contraption as a "weedwhacker engine on a bike." The tiny engine is attached to the back and a throttle was clamped onto the handle bars. The brakes work the same as they do on a normal bike.
53008BIKEH_275px (JASON SCHREIBER)

The motor attached to Paul Normandin's mountain bike gets about 200 miles to the gallon. (JASON SCHREIBER)

The bike can reach speeds of up to about 30 mph with its four-stroke engine. He can pedal whenever he wants to, but it's not required.

During his commute, he pedals a total of about 45 seconds when he has to get up a large hill and the motor lags a bit.

Normandin admits that he could have avoided the motorized equipment and stuck to just pedaling back and forth to work. But after a 10-hour workday, he said he's just too tired to pedal home.

"This works for me," he said.

The bike has other benefits as well. If he runs out of gas, Normandin can always pedal.

Along with the motor, Normandin added street tires for durability and purchased digital equipment that measures speed and distance.

He also plans to install fenders in case he gets caught in the rain.

The motorized bike has only added about three minutes to his commute, so it's hardly an inconvenience.

And it's made his commute a lot more fun.

Normandin gets a good laugh from kids waiting at the bus stop and a thumbs-up from other commuters stuck behind the wheel of their gas hogs.

"It's a head-turner for sure," he said.
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Any publicity for the cause is good I guess, the guys at the other forum have got featured and have linked their site: http://www.quazen.com/Recreation/Autos/Motorized-Bicycle-Revolution.131703

I have been commenting as many articles and youtube/myspace videos as possible telling people where they can find more information. Might have to try and get some publicity over here in the UK, as they are illegal I'm not sure how I could do that!

Fasboy
 
from the article:
Most of these kits are $200.00 and under. Consider the fact that many enthusiast are going to garage sells and buying regular bikes for under $20.00 and you can see that the cost of getting started is cost efficient.
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pimping HT's & cheap bicycles..."send us your money, then go out & kill yourself."

thanks for that one...we can't let folks get sucked into thinking there's only one source of info, tho...so i commented, let's see if it stays. since i'm no longer MBc-staff i can start saying things i had to shup about.
 
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Whenever people ask me about MB's I always tell them to start off with at least a $500 kit. I straight out tell them they can get a kit for $200 but it's chinese junk and they'll be disappointed. I figure if they aren't interested because of the price tag then they shouldn't be motorizing a bike in the first place. You have to expect to put a fair amount of money into a vehicle so it doesn't get you stranded or catastrophically fail on you endangering yourself and others.
Furthermore, whats the image of a poor guy pushing a broken MB down the road going to do for our hobby..? It'll just make people think all MB's are cheap, unreliable and UNSAFE.
 
fastboy9 said:
I have been commenting as many articles and youtube/myspace videos as possible telling people where they can find more information.
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I've been doing the same on digg.com anytime a fairly fresh article on fuel efficiency hits the front page of Digg (and they come up quite a bit now, I wonder why).
 
brilliant! yeah I didnt think of that sort of thing, I'm going to start too. Almost every new person to the forum is saying about how much a week it costs them to fill up their "truck"! Over here in the UK the average engine size is 1.8 litres, just a guess but in the US its about 3 litres? Theres no replacement for displacement! My mum spends about 60 pound (about 120 dollars) on petrol a week, its ridiculous. And as hard as it is to believe, this is one of the best practical solution for people on a budget. In the paper there is always articles about "the rising cost of gas" so I think we all should start cross linking and introducing people to the motorized bicycle concept. I dont know about you but I love telling people about it! 80mpg, 44mph top speed, can lift it with one hand, soon everybody will want one!
 
fastboy9 said:
In the paper there is always articles about "the rising cost of gas" so I think we all should start cross linking and introducing people to the motorized bicycle concept.
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That's why I like the 250cc or less sub-form for non-pedal bikes, like Graucho builds. I mean if anything, they're our best allies... they're nothing like cagers or full-blown Harleys. Moving people up the motored bike scale or down toward motored bikes is good. Maybe somebody starts out with a huge Harley or Honda, but talks to his mini chopper friend about how $4/gal gas is too much for him still... then the mini chopper guy says, why not use your big hog *and* a motorized bicycle. It's even more fun that that huge hog!!! I feel like that kinda cross-linking inside this forum is best for word of mouth advertising to this site.

fastboy9 said:
I dont know about you but I love telling people about it! 80mpg, 44mph top speed, can lift it with one hand, soon everybody will want one!
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:eek: No way!
 
ever-vigilant, let's steer 'em straight.

has anyone found any more internet-instances that require the MBc-touch?
 
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