The Blog

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Durango pulls out all the stops

We woke to a beautiful cold morning and got into high gear right away getting things rolling for the day.
I started by talking to Marcus, the CEO of PIMobility who told me that we weren't getting the PI because it  had received an invitation to go to Oxford , England for an award.  What a thrill.  The bike is such a beautiful piece of work, it deserves the attention it is now getting.  Marcus did say the bike is running great and I take some credit for that since I have been pushing and pushing to get the bike ready for our trip.
Anyway, the upshot of not getting the PI is that we have decided to get an old frame, a front wheel hub motor kit and a couple more batteries and build up a bike while we are on the road.  We all agree that if we can build up a bike without much expertise and with not much cost (under $1,000.00) our story about the viability of electric bikes will be improved and more people will consider conversions as a viable way to get some fun, low carbon transportation.
After arranging for the shipping of the kit and batteries, Catherine and I drove off to do a radio interview which turned out to be a lot of fun.  Our hosts graciously loaned us their car and while we were gone, Sean and cousin Jim took the van and trailer down to the Transit Center where they set up our display for the afternoons event.
The event was great.  Lots of people, lots of interest, free food and we all talked ourselves out.  We also took the opportunity to go over the bikes and found some very loose things that could have caused some very big problems.  Thanks to Sean, we are ready to hit the road again tomorrow.
The highlight for me at the event was an electric motorcycle built by a saddle builder.  It is just beautiful, can get up to 80 mph and can get 30 miles per charge on very heavy lead acid batteries.  Loren, the builder of the bike is a delightful soul whose craftsmanship is astounding.
Tomorrow we leave early and hope to have a small entourage as we head out of town.  Sean cruised the bike shops and encouraged riders to join us for the ride out of town.  
We'll see what happens!!
Sean cleans the bikes while talking it up
Loren on his "electric horseman' motorcycle - Unreal
Cousin Jim checking it out
Fine detail on the rear bumper
My new buddy Loren
One size fits all - especially if it looks like fun


Definitely fun


1 comment:

  1. We're with you in spirt! Lots of spirit!!
    John and Sherrie, Liza and Mollie

    ReplyDelete