The kickstand saga continues

New Kickstand Installed

Oddly, it seems that some chess players took an interest in my blog about kickstands, so rather than let you all hang on the edge of your seats, I want to let you know how my quest is going to get kickstands to hold up my heavy e-bikes.

I ordered the cheapest 2 kickstands offered by Amazon and installed one of them on my heavy Hyper beach cruiser. I figured by my experience with the cheapo that came stock on the Hyper, that I might need 2 of them before I located a suitable old school kickstand.

The good news is that the new ones clamp onto the left side chain rail just forward of the rear axle. This reduces the stress on the plastic hinge, so I may get more than a couple of months out of each one. I have not yet found an old school kickstand, but judging from the looks of many of the bikes I see on Craigslist, it won't be too long before I score.

I am pleased with the cheapo I have mounted on my Hyper, but I'll be very excited when I find an old school chunk of iron.

Meanwhile, the term cheap chinese crap has reared its ugly head again. I went to Walmart a few weeks ago and bought a small (made in China) ring-a-ding bell for the Hyper as I sometimes ride past pedestrians and horses who don't seem to hear my voice from a reasonable distance. The bell was a whopping $5 and I like it so much I wanted a couple more for my other rides.

Back to Walmart

So I went back to Walmart for my monthly shopping and couldn't find another one, prompting me to check what Amazon has.

I found some Chinese cheapos that looked just like my Walmart bell and ordered a 2-pack. Company name was LYCAON and the bells arrived in a couple of days. They were of a quality far below the Walmart bell, which is not too surprising as China exports some pretty good stuff and some very poor quality stuff, too.

Neither of the bells in the 2 pack worked and I had to return them and get my $6.42 back. I ordered a single bell from a different Chinese company, Musment, and it arrived this morning. I installed it on my Macwheel LNE26 and it's the very same good quality bell that Walmart sells. I will order another of these bells when the Huffy is ready to hit the road.

My riding is advancing and I'm up to 10.5 miles on most of my rides, working my way to 15 miles, hopefully in the next few months. The Scramento Chess Club meets at a location that is just under 15 miles away, so I may be pedalling to the chess club soon.

Mac has the range

The range on my Hyper is about 25-30 miles but the Mac can get consistently over 30 miles on a charge, making it the choice for a round trip. I will need lights to be able to ride home after the sun sets and I'll deal with that issue after I get my abilities built up for biking.

Biking requires fitness and pain tolerance, as those seats they make for bicycling aint quite as comfy as my recliner. I think I'm fit enough to go 15 miles but my butt still needs toughening.