This thread is for people who aren't suckers who buy cars.

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After a year of having this bike I think I have finally got it in decent running shape, and by that I mean it hasn’t died on me yet. It’s from 2006 or so, and only had 30 miles when I got it. It has about 80 miles on it now, which means that it isn’t even broken in yet!!!

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I spent a lot of time trying to get it to run, which meant getting zapped while trying to check for spark with a test probe. Spent a significant amount of time trying to get this old aftermarket pipe to fit onto the frame by bending the bracket I bought for it enough to actually fit. Also cranking over the engine dozens of times only to find out the gas tank was bone dry. I ended up pouring some gas from another bike into a beer can, then pouring that into my bike, and tilting it downhill so it could trickle into the carb.

Well it turns out, there’s a gas vent on the frame that if it isn’t pressed, the gas tank will only fill halfway. This is why I haven’t been able to fill it but a half gallon. Maybe this is also why it would mysteriously stop running?

So now that it would start, it was time for a test ride, and because it has 15 year old transmission fluid in it, the bike would stall out after the clutch engaged in first gear, then it would stall out if it shifted into 2nd gear. The bike has two gears, and a wet centrifugal clutch for both gears. However on these test runs it would actually go faster than 30mph, all the way up to pegging the speedo, with just taking off the air filter and putting a new pipe on it.

I then changed the transmission fluid, properly mounted the pipe, and tested a few other air filters to see which ran best. It seems to prefer a mesh filter. Air / Fuel can be a pretty delicate balance and get you varying degrees of performance, especially when the weather changes and the air gets colder and denser. I tried with the stock air filter, and it was so restrictive it would cut off at about 35mph.

It’s not…Fast. It will climb any hill but do so at a sluggish 20mph and it won’t gain speed at all. It’s a pretty heavy bike and it has a stock tomos motor, so even with a pipe it’ll struggle on Seattle’s hills. However, it’s very very comfortable. The seat is huge. The handlebars are swept back so you can ride upright. The suspension and tires are bigger than a regular mopeds, so the ride is much more cushy. Even the hand grips have vibration absorbing foam on them.

I think I’ll see how i like this and maybe slap an alukit 70cc cylinder on it, which is on my other tomos, the one that goes scary fast in 2nd gear.

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The Tomos scene is so cool! I want a Tomos!

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I mean even I, a damn dirty motorist, thinks this is insane

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Ya. tomoses are good “starter mopeds” because they have a pretty robust design and there’s generally a lot of good aftermarket parts. That or an old Puch.

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the only thing more depressing is the online china stans insisting that this abomination isn’t an abomination because it was built in China

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I don’t understand how anyone could stan for a nation state but I knowv several of these people who are like that online

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to be fair it is extremely cool looking in a “concept art for hell” kind of way

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Photographer who went to our rally published a few of their photos. i’m even in one!

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finally caught up with the diy ebike guy who made one out of a moped frame (ran into him walking to get groceries) and asked to take some photos.

here you can really see the handiwork. i thought it was done by a shop but he did all of the work

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Posted a longer thing about this on Cohost but I was in NYC over the break for like, 3 hours in the middle of the day, and when I emerged from Grand Central Station I immediately saw one bazillion Arrow-10 ebikes zooming around with delivery workers.

I was actually really excited to see these bikes, I knew they were gonna be there… it’s a Chinese ebike brand that in the US basically only exists in NYC. It’s the electric mountain bike that all the food app delivery workers use to get you your Seamless or whatever. If you live there you’ve certainly seen it before, but you may not have been aware that it’s super local and is not really sold in many other places in the US.

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The Arrow is unique to NYC because it’s supported by a network of physical shops that have strong ties to this delivery worker community and will repair their bikes for them, charge their extra batteries for a fee, etc. Everyone delivering food by bike in NYC is using this one brand, basically, and you do not see it ANYWHERE else in the US. In LA, the folks who deliver food by ebike are usually doing it on monthly rentals like Zoomo or one of the several bizarre vespa-like devices Pico rents out.

In NYC they all own their bikes and they’re modifying the shit out of them to make them more durable and fit-for-purpose. This is the best article I’ve read about the systems delivery workers use to maintain their hardware and protect themselves, and it has a big section about the Arrow bikes and the services folks need for them in the city.

The one big thing you see everyone doing mod-wise is wrapping the frame with colorful plastic tape. I assume that this is to prevent the metal from getting scratched, to keep the long-lasting durability of the frame high. I saw some really weird patterns on bikes in NYC in the few hours I was there–different colored stripes, zig-zags, etc. It was pretty cool. I also saw a lot of folks with a giant decal of the virgin mary on their taped-up ebike battery, which is probably the most cyberpunk thing I have seen IRL in a while.

I was researching the cohost post for a while and I found a bunch of people on forums and social media posting shit like, “where can I get my own Arrow?? I see everyone with them on the street in NYC and they must be good!” and the answer they invariably get is “you do not want this ebike. buy one local and make sure your local shop can maintain it.” Because fewer people are into bikes in the US and because local bike shops are pretty physically small–they don’t take up acres on the main drag the way car dealerships do–I’ve found that a lot of people who are getting into bikes or ebikes really do not understand the relationship bike riders need to have with their LBS or co-op in order to use these vehicles and live this way. In some way the Arrow follows this trend… they exist in NYC because the shops support them. The incredible level of service the shops give them is what allows this weird hyperlocal phenomenon to even happen. It’s super cool.

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the true Connecticut experience

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the metro north ride was two hours so I was in the train for as long or longer than I was in the city basically

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Did another Critical Mass. For the first time, everyone I brought with me got tired and quit in the first half or at the midpoint break. I did the rest of the trip alone and it was an incredible experience–during the final 8 miles a bunch of teens on BMX bikes started launching small fireworks from their bikes while doing wheelies. Constant fireworks as we cruised through west hollywood and back toward downtown.

When the fireworks started going off a guy in sweats on a One Wheel next to me, who was also drinking a tallboy out of a paper bag, started screaming “yeeeaahh!! yeah!!!” Then a guy in full Lycra sports gear on a carbon fiber bike came up on the other side of me and said in the strangest-sounding voice ever, “Huh huh! Awwwwwesome.” I love these events because the weirdest shit happens and everyone just has a genuine emotional reaction to it and everyone is so into thier own thing that it feels like an absolute cross section of humanity. Great shit.

I did 26 miles yesterday biking to and from the ride and on the ride itself, and today my legs are a little sore but otherwise I feel fine. I think I’m getting to the point where I can handle the trip to San Diego–that would be 3-4 days of 30-50 miles a day. I think if I continue to bike frequently throughout the spring I’ll be ready in early summer.

My husband is much stronger than me but doesn’t have the endurance yet. I need to get him off his single speed and see if he can keep up with me on these long rides once the hills are easier for him. I go pretty slow, but I can handle 26 miles easily now, after not that many months of training… for some reason it’s just not that hard for me. I need to find even longer group rides, haha–I need to see what I feel like after 30 miles in a day on both days of a weekend. That’s the test for myself I’ve planned to see if I can hack it.

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i’ve always found that distance isn’t usually a problem if you give yourself time to cover it! it’s also kind of cool how cycling always makes things feel a lot closer than they are - you’ll go a pretty long distance but because you haven’t really been worried about anything other than just riding it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long? then suddenly you realize you’ve gone 20 miles

climbing is different and i haven’t done much of it outside of zwift >_>

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A week or so ago, my husband and I abruptly decided to do the “wolfpack hustle marathon crash ride,” or a group ride that starts at mile 8 of the LA Marathon route at 4 in the morning, after the barriers have gone up and traffic has been removed from the route. Bikers gather at a large intersection and bike the remainder of the route.

At 3:45 or so Sunday, we arrived at the start of the crash ride. There were hundreds of folks there and more arriving every second… I think by the end there might have been close to a thousand people on the route last night. We started early to avoid the crush, probably around 3:55, and a friend caught up to us after a few miles. The ride was fucking gigantic. Almost all the riders were on bikes but there were a few ebikes and quite a lot of roller bladers. Tons of kids on BMX bikes. Infinite wheelies.

I’d prepared for the event by sleeping in until 1 PM on saturday. I was still tired enough, however, that the ride felt feel much stranger and weirder than most night rides I’ve been on. And on top of the exhaustion, we were constantly interacting with weird cars that were sneaking around the barriers and crossing the marathon route without permission. A lot of them were driving erratically. We noticed what felt like hundreds of city employees who were setting up the marathon, saw fleets of street-sweepers everywhere, and were constantly getting passed by groups of Budget rent-a-vans that the city was using to haul equipment and barriers up and down the route.

There were some cool hills because the route goes toward the ocean, so it’s gradually downhill all the way to the end of the route. We went down a pretty gigantic hill next to a rollerblader who I was absolutely sure was gonna die bombing down that thing, but he survived, so kudos to that guy!

The route went deep into some quiet nighttime residential neighborhoods and eventually when we hit the end of the marathon route pretty much the whole group just decided not to stop. They all kept going onto regular streets and then to the beach. Roads were completely clear and empty the whole way down. We hit the ocean and turned south. The ocean is just flat black nothing out there past the edge of the road. It’s eerie as hell to zoom past it when it’s so far away you can’t see or hear or smell it, but you know it’s there, because right off the right side of the road is an impossible black void, and that can’t be anything else. We went all the way down to Santa Monica and everyone pulled up next to the entrance of the pier.

Some funny stuff:

  • Someone’s stolen bike was being biked down the route with an airtag still inside it. My iphone pinged the same lost airtag at the beginning and end of the ride, according to the “find my stuff” app. My location was apparently broadcast to the owner if they’re looking for it, but unless they know about the crash ride I dunno if they’ll understand the significance of any of those pings, haha.
  • I think the ride is fully organic now, but there were a few years where it was handled by a group called “wolfpack hustle,” which organizes? organized? street bike races in the LA area. In the past they worked with the cops to get actual races on the marathon route either approved or at least tolerated, and in the past there have been facebook events organizing this group ride. But I am pretty sure that there was no core organizer of the ride this year and no permission from the city or the cops. Nobody setting up the marathon tried to stop us though.

We finished right around 5 AM and went to get coffee. Then when we were getting ready to go home, I realized I’d lost my face mask. I biked home alone an additional 12 miles instead of getting on the train without it. My husband had his so he got on the train and went home most of the way that way.

It was gorgeous biking right down the coast at dawn. The beach trail was completely empty and I had it all to myself. But my body really started giving out and by the time I got home I was so miserable and tired that I could barely move. I am real proud of it though–I did 36 miles in 24 hours which is a lot for me, and my legs hurt like hell, but I guess that just means it will be easier next time.

Will absolutely do this ride again!

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Found this good article about the competitive crash race scene that used to organize around the LA marathon.

The race is definitely not a thing anymore, but people still meet at Tang’s. I didn’t go up there on Sunday morning because it’s a couple blocks from the ride starting line and there didn’t seem to be a point to it, but I guess there are some people for whom this is all still a continuation of that stuff and they wanna be at the old donut shop to kick things off.

Cool Vimeo minidoc in the article about the 2011 race on the Marathon route too

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mesmerizing shit

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saw one of these monstrosities on the beltway today

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it is impossible to understand how fucking big this thing is and how little it deserves to exist

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I love how people cruise around in shit like this but pop up headlights were banned for pedestrian safety reasons.

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