#271

Hello, friends, family, framily and fiends.
I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but we'll be taking down all of our made to order pieces from our etsy shop at some point on Saturday, June 18th. They won't be gone forever, just for a couple of weeks while my son and I visit family in Florida. So if there is something that we have currently listed that you've had your eye on, better snatch it up before Saturday! Jo won't be coming to Florida with us since this trip combines both air travel and Florida in the summertime. . .two of Jo's favorites! Instead Jo will be here in the relatively cool air, I assume sobbing with loneliness and renaming the business Cart Without a Horse. Or is she the horse and I'm the cart? She will be working on some one-of-a-kind pieces while I'm gone that I've already sewn for her, so look for those in the coming weeks.

In other news, my electric bike kit is here! As soon as it arrived, I hooked everything up and just threw all of the components in my giant wire baskets. I wanted to make sure everything worked before I spent time making it look nice. So here's what it looked like for the first few days as I rode it around. . .


I want my son to be able to ride it too, but sharing my bike is not off to a good start. The one thing I told him to do was to turn it off before getting on or off the thing. Sure enough he forgot, and while dismounting it he twisted the throttle and popped a wheelie, sending the 16 pound $500 battery tumbling out of the basket onto the concrete. Lucky for him (and me) nothing was damaged.
So now I'm starting to set the bike up into its finished form. Jo helped me wrap the battery in some black canvas that I cut from an old bag that I used to carry my guitar stuff in around to gigs with me.


I love using materials that I have a history with. And lets not forget the bread box that I've cut the battery stand out of, which is shown here without the braces underneath that I still need to make.



So far I've explored several country roads nearby that were too hilly for me to tackle before. You don't even feel like you're going uphill with this hub motor doing most of the work. So if you've been thinking of getting one, you should do it! You don't have to get such an expensive battery if you plan on taking short trips. Just remember to turn it off before dismounting!

-Dylan