The Mary Ellen Carter

July 4, 2018

For people of our generation in Canada, for our children, and for most of our friends there is a song that all will recognize and take inspiration from. It was composed and sung by one of Canada's greatest folk singers, Stan Rogers, in 1979. While the story it tells is about a ship, its message is universal:

Rise Again! Rise Again!

Though your heart it be broken or life about to end

No matter what you've lost

Be it a home, a love, a friend

Like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.

Now that you know the background, listen to Stan Rogers sing it:

Well the Bike Friday is not a ship, but here she is "floating at the dock", and ready for the next adventure. That adventure is likely to happen in Mexico, or Hawaii, and she could be doing it with new battery assist, using innovative cells from a Vancouver company called Grin Technologies. Bike Friday is already offering models fixed up like this. But that will be a story for another time.

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Marilyn MudgeIt is good that the Bike Friday will rise again. Thank you for the song. Uplifting music was just what my heart needed today.
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6 years ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Marilyn MudgeThanks Marilyn. Stan Rogers was the greatest!
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6 years ago

Ron SuchanekIts impressive they were able to fix Dodie's bike after the trashing it took.

Will the battery work with a throttle and pedal assist?
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6 years ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesThrottle is something we never want, because it smacks of a "motor bike". "Pedal assist" can be of two types: Cadence sensor and torque sensor. Cadence sensor just looks that you rotated the the pedals (even a little) and turns on the motor - also not good, too much like a throttle. So that only leaves torque sensor. That adds a percentage to whatever effort you are putting in.

To have torque sensor added to a Friday, it takes a torque sensing bottom bracket. A hole needs to be drilled to allow the wire from this to exit - scary. But then it can be connected to a front or rear hub motor and controller compatible with the ok for air travel batteries. Kits for this are available from Bike Friday or from Grin (ebikes.ca).
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6 years ago

Bill BonteTo Steve Miller/GrampiesHi Steve,

I have followed all of your trips since the first, through the Palouse. I am so happy that Dodie was not seriously injured. My wife and I have a Bike Friday tandem we have ridden less and less since 2005. I have had several accidents on my Mt. Bike, and I have come to believe that the tandem is a bad idea as I enter my late seventies. If I have an accident on the tandem, my wife mightl be injured too. So reading about Dodie's accident motivated us to go to Eugene and order two NWT, with the Alfine 11sp hub and belt drive. We also added e-assist which will become more and more useful on the hills we readily ride near our home in Idaho.

The test ride in Eugene was a revelation. The system watches your cadence and keeps it the same as you pedal up a steep hill.

Thanks for your wonderful journals and pictures over the years.

Bill Bonte
Moscow, ID
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6 years ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Bill BonteHi Bill, I just noticed that I had not acknowledged your interesting post. Yours is one of the first reports coming back that we have seen about a NWT with e-assist. Bike Friday certainly has entered the e-assist world in earnest. Let us know how your NWTs work out as you use them in various situations. Do they have any tendency to want to take off on you, like if you have stopped but left the assist level high?

Dodie is going in for two knee replacements in the next four months. I might post some updates from that in this blog. But beyond that, hopefully, watch for us zooming around Austria, Germany, and Czech in the Spring.

Where will you go, how will you use, your new NWTs?
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6 years ago