New to forum

[jgarrish]

Fascinated by motorized bicycles. Have been a cyclist for years, and have recently been pondering how to...

1. cycle with my 2 boys (ages 1.5 and 4). One kid is easy (kids seat or trailer). But, combined, these boys add about 75 lbs to my bike. And hey, i'm a dad working full time. Not much time for riding, except for, yep, you guessed it, with my boys.

2. I live in a hilly area like Belmont, CA. It is about 30 miles south of San Francisco, and about as hilly.

My current object of lust is a Stokemonkey, though these are currently on production hold. In learning about the Stokemonkey, though, I have begun investigating many types of gas engines as well... trying to figure out the best option.

Have been blogging about it at

http://johngarrish.blogspot.com

Look forward to the forum. I happened upon it by accident and am glad I did.

John

 

[go you good thing]

Welcome

 

[OldPete]

Welcome John.
Looks like you will bring as much(blog) as we might offer. Good to have you aboard.
I did post a comment on your youtube vid as OlderPete.

 

[mickey]

Welcome to MBc

 

[Dockspa1]

Yup, Welcome Jgarrish and please explain what a StokeMonkey is? Thanks.

 

[azbill]

welcome to MBc !

 

[wavygravy]

who says accidents are a bad thing? welcome to mb'c

 

[dbigkahunna]

Welcome to the MBc tribe from the Giant Side of Texas!

 

[Alaskavan]

Welcome to MBc. On some recumbent site I was at, I saw the design and execution of a truely electric assist trike. It was designed to just assist when climbing hills etc. I think it was done in 7.5 lbs including bats.

 

[jgarrish]

Dockspa1,

Ah, Stokemonkey. The object of my latest bike crush. Stokemonkey is an electric motor assist kit for Xtracycle equipped bicycles. Basically it is an electric motor that acts as a stoker, as you might find with a tandem bike (which is where the term is primarily used I believe).

The primary difference between this and a straight-up bicycle motor is that it drives the pedals, not the wheel. Which means in practical terms that you must always be pedaling. Now, that said, you may not need to pedal very hard, but you will need to go through the motion. So, I think it really will appeal to those who line up more on the bicycle side of motorized bicycles than those who line up on the motor side. Which I think is really the goal of the guy who is bringing it to life... which is to replace cars with bicycles for those instances where it makes sense.

Here is the main site which offers a great explanation, plus a couple of cool videos.

http://cleverchimp.com/products/stokemonkey/

This is also an interesting post and interesting comments. In it, Todd from Clevercycles (I don't know his last name) discusses in relative layman's terms why his idea makes sense. It's a good read, as are the back and forth in the comments from some very knowledgeable readers.

http://clevercycles.com/blog/?p=33

Here is another great picture taken by Todd I believe... I think he originally lived in San Francisco, was/is an avid cyclist, and had a kid to lug around on his bike. 1+1 = Stokemonkey.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cleverchimp/793086014/

Anyway, I could go on and on. I wonder if it would make sense to start a Stokemonkey thread?