Ebike Conversion Workshop, Wed June 25th 6-10pm

We are offering our first electric bicycle conversion workshop on Wed June 25th, at the Pedal Depot located at 1820 Pandora St. As it is bike month, and our first time hosting a workshop, we are doing this course for free. However, there is only space to accomodate 6 or 7 bikes for conversion, so please send us a note to reserve a spot if you would like to electrify your bicycle here.

We expect people to arrive with a bicycle and all the required conversion parts, either pre-purchased from us (in which case we can bring them down) or brought elsewhere, then we will guide you through the process of doing the installation using the many bike tools and resources available in the Pedal shop. This is a hands-on workshop, we will give many pointers and tips on doing a tidy and robust installation of the electric bike components, and you will gain familiarity with how the electric assist operates so that you can have confidence to troubleshoot and service the system down the road. There have also been several inquiries from people who just want to watch and see it what the process is like without actually converting their bike. This should be fine, but just be aware that the primary focus will be ensuring that the 6 people who show up with their bikes can go home with them electrified.

If you would like to participate and reserve a spot in the workshop, please send us an email as soon as possible, including details on the bike and the conversion parts that you are looking to work with.

Largest Ever Critical Mass, Friday June 27th

June is always a special month for the Critical Mass bike ride in Vancouver. Last year it attracted over 1000 bicycles, a large number of them electric, and this year can only get better. So put on your festive hats next friday, bring some music and drinks and celebrate bike transportation with the masses. It all starts at the art gallery at 5:30pm.

VEVA ebike talk, June 18

Discussion on the monthly VEVA meeting that went into some depth on regenerative braking systems for electric bicycles.

Car Free Vancouver, June 15th

We were super excited to find out that the Car Free Vancouver day was expanding this year to include Main Street. This event started in 2005 on Commercial Drive and has grown with tremendous success, briging 10's of thousands of people to see what kind of life and community abound on the streets when they are liberated of car traffic. For the event on Main St. we are going to be hosting a 'car free vehicle show', with all kinds of electric vehicles for people to test ride. These will include the side-by-side tandem, balancing skateboard, and cargo trike, and we are hoping that tons of people from throughout the region will come by with their own electric bikes and other car-free vehicle creations as well. The exact details of this event are still being sorted out, but it looks like we will be located on Main St. between 15th and 16th Ave. Additional information will get posted here as well as on the Car Free Website.

VEVA REV! 2008, June 7th

The Annual Ride Electric Vehicle (REV) show is happening this year at a new location in Burnaby. While traditionally focussed largely on electric cars, the VEVA REV! shows have had an ever increasing presence of electric bicycles, scooters, and skateboards. Just about all the local players in the electric vehicle scene attend with demo vehicles to ride around, and we will of course be there with a handful of fun creations. For more information, see the REV! page from the Vancouver Electric Vehicle Assocation website.

Segue's Frankentrike, Oct 15th

Congratulations are on order for Segue Fischlin, who's cargo-hauling-front-loading electric frankentrike not only captured the imagination of people all around Vancouver, it also caught the attention of Momentum Magazine. Page 25 in the fall 2007 issue has a one page rider profile one on her project and where she plans to take it.

Presentation to Science 1, Oct 4th 2007

In a fun twist of fate, one of the teaching assistants who taught us in our 1st year at University happened by the shop to pick up an ebike conversion. That lead to Justin heading back to campus as a guest speaker for the Science One physics class. The overall theme of the presentation was how, in spite of massive leaps in technology in the fields of lighting, computation, and so many other fields, the domain of transportation had actually be regressing. We currently expend more energy per kilometer of transportation than at any other point in history. The students had recently completed labs measuring the rolling and drag forces on bicycles and cars and so the topic was quite relevant to their studies.

Side by Side Tandem, Aug 2007

Usually there is a period of frantic work and then burn-out following massive projects for Burning Man. But this year, our project was a little lower key. Inspired by an image in the fabulous book "The Bicycle" by Gilbert King, Justin and Segue hacked together a side-by-side tandem bicycle out of left over bike carcasses from her trike pursuit. We had no idea if this would even work, with two people side by side sharing linked handlebars, but we'd be damned if we weren't gonna try.

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World Naked Bike Ride, July 29th 2007

OK, so there were no less than FOUR electric bicycles at the 2nd naked bike ride to take place in Vancouver this year. Of course, I was probably the only one there who was mostly preoccupied looking at people's hubs.

Makers Faire, May 18-20th 2007, San Francisco CA

Make Magazine had it's 3rd annual Maker Faire event this weekend, to promote and showcase do-it-yourself projects and homemade creations. We made the trip down and had our own booth in the bicycle carrel; Segue brought her Cargo Trike for the first public display, Justin and Frank unveiled the lean activated hub motor powerboard, and Justin brought the balancing skateboard, Emanual Version2. There were several other

Earth Day, April 22nd 2007

We were invited to be an exhibitor at the annual Earth Day presentation at UBC this year. Hosted at the lovely botanical gardens, we had a small booth prepared with sustainability information and several electric bicycles to test ride. The response by all those who made it our way was enthusiastic as always, and hopefully this exhibit spread the word of this wonderful transportation alternatives just a little further.

Presentation to VEVA, April 18th 2007

What a surprise to be asked by the Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association (VEVA) if I could be the guest speaker for their April 2007 meeting. Under recent leadership by Don Chandler, the organization has grown substantially in membership and scope than when I first attended their monthly gatherings as a student back in 2003.

The presentation focused on three things. I first gave a summary of all our battery testing results from years of discharge testing and dealing in NiMH and NiCad packs, with particular focus on issues that have arisen from early cell reversals and how these can be prevented. After that talked about the next version of the DrainBrain ebike meter with speed limiting and current limiting functionality. And the final topic was a sneak preview of the lean actuated hub-motor driven electric skateboard that myself and Frank Schmitt have been working on for the coming Maker Faire.

Open Store

Electric Unicycle unveiled at VEVA

Interview on Channel M TV

Article in Tyee Magazine

Meeting on velomobile trike by Phil Debeer

Flaming Ebike at Hallowe'en Critical Mass

Ebike Bob's "What Gas Crisis, Oct 15th 2005,

This heavily advertised electric bicycle and scooter show was put on in the Kingsgate Mall by Ebike Bob. Pictures and descriptions by those who attended are can be seen here

Think Cafe, June 24th 2005

There was a small ebike gathering at the Think Cafe, organized by ebike Bob and featuring a small t

UBC Connect, July 2005

The UBC Electric Bike Club and the Bike Kitchen worked together to put on an interactive demonstration for high school students attending UBC Connect. We called the event "The Future of Transportation" and gave a talk and demonstration rides, with the overall theme that a pending energy crunch will force transportation in the future not to be high tech, so much as minimalistic. Farewell flying cars and welcome back bicycles

VEVA REV! Show, June 24th 2005

As always, the folks at the Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association put on one solid EV event down near science world. Morning rains did not deter an enthusiastic turnout. The scooter and ebike scene contingent continued its steady encroachment on what was once a car show. This was also the first time that our 2-wheeled skateboard Emanual was put on really public display. More pictures and info can be found on the VEVA site.

Gas Price Anti-Protest, Fri Apr 29th 2005

Last Friday, hundreds of truckers in the lower mainland formed a convoy and staged a protest drive in response to rising fuel prices cutting into their revenue. We of course sympathize with the trucker's plight, but the solution is not to reduce gas tax (as they were suggesting) but to pass the rising fuel cost on to the consumer in all the products that are transported by truck. Increasing fuel costs is just about the best thing that could happen to our world right now, and we thought this was an ideal opportunity to get that point out.

Unfortunately this came up on very short notice. The convoy started around 9am, and by the time Me, Stefan, and Paul had our banners prepared and strapped to our ebikes it was after noon. We still caught the tail end of the convoy though. The reaction from both drivers and the truckers was great, lots of positive cheering and honking. Our message: "Leave Fuel for the Truckers, Ride an E-BIKE"

Club Meeting, Thurs Feb 3rd 2005

We had our first official club meeting of 2005. Voltage Electric Vehicles kindly offered to let us host it at their new store at 4346 Main St, easily accessible from both the #25 bus and the #3. Store Webpage. Agenda items included plans for a spring ebike event, hub motor orders, balancing skateboard demonstration, and test riding of the latest bikes at VoltageEV

Also, just the week before Charlie had a chance to visit the people who run Crystalyte in Beijing and test drove the latest 750 watt X-5 ebike. I have put pictures and videos on the articles page for now.

Hallowe'en Critical Mass Bike Ride

Two of us braved heavy rains to show up for critical mass this hallowe'en. We came equipped with robotic costumes, LED eyes, and of course pyrotechnic and lithium powered ebikes. The weekend before we prepared some powerful magnesium based torches that got strapped to the back of the bikes, as well as colourful flares to tie between the spokes. The result was a blazing inferno while we crossed overtop of the cambie street bridge. Unfortunately, it was raining heavy so we couldn't get any photos of the fire in action. But I assure you there will be more mixing of pyro and bikes in the months to come. For those unfamiliar with critical mass, it is a monthly bike ride where hundreds of cyclist band together and lay claim to their space on the road. Anyone interested in bicycle activism is encouraged to come, next ride is on Friday Nov 26th. For more information, have a look at the Monkey Wrench Cafe.

Sustainability Day

The UBC sustainabilty office organized what I believe was the first sustainability DAY at UBC on OCT 13th. The event brought together all the organizations on campus that shared a common objective towards sustainable initiatives, including the farm, the food coop, representatives from BC hydro, and the local bike clubs. http://www.scup.org/profdev/csd/ubc.html

The day was beautiful and we were delighted that the e-ride store showed up with a nice display of electric scooters and skateboards. They were a good compliment to our selection of bicycles.

Clubs Week

The fall AMS Clubs week was a pretty big success, and I welcome all the new members who signed up. Due to time commitment and preparation reasons we were only set up for tues->thursday, so if anyone came by monday or friday to visit we appologize! Even the persistent rains didn't deter people from checking out our makeshift booth with its makeshift bikes. Thanks goes out especially to Zev and Matt who volunteered extensive hours to make this happen. Although my electric skateboard wasn't yet ready to demonstrate, we did manage to put a mini hub motor on everyone's favorite electric kick scooter.

Imagine UBC Sustainability Street

This year Imagine UBC hosted a "Sustainability Street" at its Main Event Carnival. The idea was to give 1st year students a taste of the sustainabilty themed resources available to them at UBC. The UBC electric bike club was invited to participate and we had a booth set up with 2 different electric bikes to demonstrate.

Veva REV show

Unfortunately our contingent was mostly on a surfing trip, but the show was still great. Our black panther bike won an informal race, and the scooter was a big hit with the kids. The number of ebikes at the show is ever growing. One of our members, Aviv Keshet, one a raffle draw for the Merida power assisted bicycle from VoltageEV. It was a great unit but got stolen before we had a chance to soup it up with NiMH batteries and increase the top speed.

UBC PEV (pedal-electric vehicle) show and Membership Drive

This was our first major event and membership drive one month after we were constituted as a club. We booked the space in front of the Student Union Building on April 5th and 6th and for two days had a demonstration event and free test rides. Special thanks the three electric bike stores who brought dozens of different bikes for people to try out. JV Bikes, E-Ride, and VoltageEV

Radio Interview on CiTR Velolove

Stefan and Justin were interviewed on the CiTR Radio Show Velolove regarding electric bicycles and our upcoming membership drive for the UBC electric bike club.