And today it came to Portugal!  Probably the first bionicon bike ever in Portugal…

We adapted some accessoríes like the famous bootbag from Hebie and some other Goodies” that we will present later. But the most important: This bike is really cool! It rolls like a Chopper, it looks like a MTB and it is 100% practical and carries a real load. Who is not in the urgent need for our Bullitt CargoBike, because he won´t ever carry more than 50 kg on his bike, will find the perfect tool with that bike. Next week we will adapt our mobile music engine from KlaraGeist/Berlin and the go out for some cool and relaxed rides! See you!?

Providing a higher torque, this model is the best in class for climbing, long rides and fast accelerations. Providing a quicker and higher % of assistance than the PL250 with the 25,9V standard battery .

Motor: 250 Watts
Autonomy*: 90 km
Battery:36,9V- LiMn – 10 Ah
Weight: 7.7 kg  (motor and battery pack)

*: Average based on one battery charge, using assistance mode level 1, according to  use in ideal conditions. Distances will vary depending on road conditions, riding surface, cyclist weight and assistance required

After testing it the first km at night – just because we were so curious to ride it – we must confess, that it is an outstanding experience, riding a cargo bike with electric assistance. The whole bike has now a weight of 30 kg (including engine and battery) and it goes easily up tom 25 km/h on a decent hill, with a little help of pedaling and in the highest gear. The engine needs for sure some adaptation for the lower speed areas. But these are small fixes. The whole system is very convincing, seems that the Bullitt has just waited for assistance..

[Show as slideshow]

Beginning of next month we will do a practice test on our new “ciclovia” in Oporto.

Rohloff Speedhub @Bullitt FastCargoBike

Due to a server switch our blog was more or less paralysed in a parallel-world for two weeks. No EUROBIKE internals as I promised, no pictures, but a lot of file back up, directory re-naming and so on…

Means, that the files were on two different servers and everything has to be copied and administrated. And last not least, there were bureaucratic steps to solve, till everything was authorized.

Conclusion:

Nothing that I wish to repeat every month..

Advice: I started today to review the categories and tags of this blog, to bring them in a helpful order. Got some interesting articles about that subject, I found on the web: A + B. Anyway, this is not totally done and not every post is being new categorized, yet. Posts that are only marked as “General” are still pending to be reviewed…

What happened meanwhile?

• I continued working on the Bullitt cargobike with BionX electric engine (99% done)
• A Rohloff 14 – gear hub for the cargobikes reached our workshop (Something nice to look at and a tecnical toy of high standard – will be tested as soon as possible)
• I visited the Portugal Bike Show in Santarem. (very interesting, will write some review later)
• We did some promo tour in Lisbon to find dealers, who are brave and innovative enough to sell commuter bikes instead of MTB´s (I am still searching…)  ;-)
• I was invited to one year ciclo-via.org in Lisbon. Nice meeting, nice people, a lot of bicycle-talk and: Bike Polo.. (Target: I must learn riding a fixed gear)
• A Fixie-Inc. Single-Speed/Fixed-gear beauty was being sent by Cycles for Heroes to our workshop: A 2009er BlackJack (my favorite toy and exercise bike – see above –  for this weekend)
• I attended Critical Mass meeting of cyclists in Porto with the Bullitt (Great event, nearly 45 people joined us – including a bunch of freestyle hard-core riders, who made the show..)

I’ ll be back!

 Today I did my first ride with our new cargo bike in Porto. My son (3 years) and a friend of him loved it! BUT: The other people -- seeing us driving along -were really impressed. They stopped -- even in the middle of the street -- looking, screaming and pointing with their fingers on us.

That is no joke! This bike must probably be the first one of its kind driving in Portugal. The reactions are totally positive, friendly and euphoric. The acceptance of this type of bicycle seems to be 100%. People see it and understand! Two children in a protected box, sitting in front of the driver, a nice design and a practical appearance. That goes immediately through the mind and creates a smile!

The bike itself is very nice, BUT: As well very heavy.. ;-/

It was necessary to change some parts, to give me a chance to climb up the hills with less effort (and not looking like Jan Ullrich during his 1998-disaster at Col de Galibier…;-)

So I changed the sprocket from 18 to 22 teeth and eleminated the heavy weight baggage-”system”. A different handle-bar and riser made the seatposition to a more effective one. And at not at least a Brooks-Professional saddle and a sporty mud-guard made it lighter in an optical aspect…

And have a look (and an ear) to this horn:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQjH4tNUZ_g