Sport Utility Vehicle
I rode past this custom build on Telegraph Ave last week, and of course I had to stop for photos:
I rode past this custom build on Telegraph Ave last week, and of course I had to stop for photos:
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 at 11:13 pm and is filed under Bicycling, Oakland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
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I would love to see that thing in action–especially to see how it turns. Any city with the creativity to produce so many wild bikes must have the potential for a better municipal government than Oakland has had. Maybe your next mayor…
July 15th, 2010 at 2:38 pmgreat interview! maybe we need a picture of your bike!
July 16th, 2010 at 5:20 amI can’t quite make out that bumper sticker on the back of that SUV…Does it say “This vehicle climbed Mt. Diablo”?
July 16th, 2010 at 11:20 aminterview? bumper sticker? huh?
July 16th, 2010 at 2:35 pmng: Thanks. My bike is too plain to merit a picture—just how I like it.
wordnerd: Funny you should say that, because when I was posting the photo the other day, I was wondering how low or high the gear was. I can usually guesstimate the gear of a regular drivetrain just by eyeballing it, but the third (and fourth, I guess!) chainring complicates things too much for my in-the-head math skills.
unique distance from isolation: Presumably ng meant the radio interview on living carfree which I linked to in the sidebar, where there’s no way for people to leave comments. As for the “bumper sticker,” I assume wordnerd was just riffing on my SUV joke…
July 16th, 2010 at 3:07 pmThat is one Hugley* Bike.What’s with the tiny seat compared to the tires.* Hugley,Huggable and Ugly at the same time.
July 16th, 2010 at 9:43 pmThe vertical gear ratio looks pretty close to 1 to 1. Maybe the top ring has a few more teeth. The front to back is maybe 1 to 2. Multiply and get 1 to 2, or 1 to 1.8, whicj makes it a considerably lower gear than you’d find on any mountain bike. (The wheel diameters are more or less the same as an ordinary bike, right?) Those wheels look HEAVY.
July 17th, 2010 at 5:32 amHey… Moving up the Celebrity Ladder, are we? (Re: NPR Interview)
Looks like a mobile gym bike. An attempt to use up more calories than getting from A to B?
I want to see the owner bike this baby up SF steepest hill. I’ll bring popcorn and a coke with me.
July 17th, 2010 at 8:10 pmwordnerd: I’d guess the wheel diameters are a bit smaller than an ordinary mountain or road bike. Maybe 24 inches or even 22. The top ring is significantly larger than the center chainring—you can see that more clearly on the photo I took from the opposite side:
AlexAG: I’m trying not to let my newfound fame go to my head, but it’s difficult with all the NPR fans who now lurk around my neighborhood hoping to get autographs. Oh, wait, never mind—all those people waiting for me outside are muggers hoping to rob me of my cell phone and wallet. Good thing I can outpace them on my bike!
July 19th, 2010 at 2:12 pmWithout microscopic counting, it looks like the final gear ratio is still under 1, but not as drastic as I said before. Taking into account the smaller wheels, it looks like a very low mountain bike gear.
July 20th, 2010 at 4:23 amI wish the bike in “Unicycle” had been parked in front of this window.
July 21st, 2010 at 6:27 amYou can’t tell in the photo, but that neon sign in the window behind the bike doesn’t just say “LOCK”— it actually says “URBAN SURVIVAL LOCKS.” (It’s a hardware store.)
July 21st, 2010 at 11:32 amDC: Ha Ha Ha….. Now, watch it !!! I am a supporter of the unemployment insurance extension and a fan of Paul Krugman. … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOYAuk809fY Ha Ha Ha…
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:16 pmAlexAG: What do you know, it looks like that song-a-day guy lives here in the East Bay (not in Oakland, though—in Berkeley). I wonder if the quality of his songs would improve if he only wrote and uploaded one per week instead of one per day.
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:42 pmDC: Oh yeah, That’s a great one. Thanks. I know he went to CIT for grad school, but not sure if he went to Berkeley for undergrad. (Did he?) Yeah, now that you wonder, I feel just the same. Maybe he enjoys doing them once a day and move on. Some people don’t like doing “2nd draft” , “final draft”, etc. And some people just like all drafts except doing the “final draft”. Ha Ha Ha….
While we are the transportation topic, I saw this (yeah..again, from NPR…) http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/07/16/mm-is-public-transit-really-cheaper/ In short, ex. “Mascioli found out she’d save $34 a month by taking her car instead of the train.” BAH!!!!!!!!
July 23rd, 2010 at 8:48 am