test ride............

Monday night we got to the shop early determined to finish. This involved welding which is not our strength but we got it done and brainstormed the quickest way to get the steering hooked up. What we came up with is one of the ugliest junk yard bodges ever but it works. Around midnight we peered out of the shop to see that the rain had stopped. There was no way we were going home without riding it. Jeff's shop is too small and the muddy, potholed track outside was a no-no so we wrapped the bike up in a large brown tarp, lashed it to the top of the Scion, and drove down to the intersection of SE 3rd & Madison in the lea of the Hawthorne bridge. It was perfect, no traffic, no gawkers and a slight incline allowing us to assess handling gently. So how did it perform? Absolutely awesome! The bike has exceeded our expectations by a long shot. The ride is butter smooth, the geometry dialed and the handling confident and predictable. I even rode it some distance with Jeff sitting on it. Jeff weighs in at 180lbs fully clothed and while we were short on torsional rigidity with that load it was still ride-able. Standing on the pedals and riding hard uphill failed to induce any significant noodling of the frame. We have succeeded, first time out of the gate, to produce a functional wooden cargo bike and we couldn't be more excited. I was jumping up and down like a hyper active eight year old. The only thing that failed us that evening was our cameras. Jeff's ran out of batteries and my card was full so we were unable to record the glorious moment. This morning we finally got out on the street with a camera and committed it to film.

In the video Jeff is carrying Essie (75lbs) around Brooklyn. The music track is Fallahi by Hossam Ramzy shamelessly cribbed from the CD Passion Sources on Real World Records.