Year end report

A few days ago, a letter about solar electric cargo bikes that I had written to the editor of Home Power magazine was published:
http://www.homepower.com/articles/home-efficiency/equipment-products/mail-cargo-bicycles

Photo credit: Mary Holland, author of "Naturally Curious:

A Photographic Field Guide and Month-by-Month Journey
Through the Fields, Woods, and Marshes of New England"

This has been followed by a mention in the New Hampshire Sierra Club newsletter:
http://action.sierraclub.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=351825.0

It's made me stop and think about the huge response and all the people who have helped with this bike.  In the last year it has been to:

-Hartland 4'th of July parade (as a town energy committee project)

-Woodstock Sculpturefest

-Two Rivers Ottauquechee Regional Planning Commission

-Dartmouth Move In Day (as part of the Upper Valley Sierra Club)

-Sustainable Hanover Transportation Expo

-VPIRG / Vermont Toxics Action annual conference

-VECAN town energy committee annual conference

-several smaller outings, such as farmers market booths

There have been a few people who helped at each event, and there are also almost a dozen people in town who donated bikes, as well as two welders who put part of the bike together while I was busy with other work.  In all about 3 dozen people have directly helped, and I'd like to say thanks to all of you.

Currently I'm working on the design of the third bike, (mid winter is a good time for design), and will soon start working on the next frame.  Plans are being worked on for an Electric Vehicle day and 2 festivals next spring, and I also hope to start the loan program that I didn't get to last summer.  There are also some blog posts I'd like to write about on the front fork, aerodynamics, the bottom bracket, wheel size, human power capacity, the ELF, and E.ON, but it has been more about meetings and planning lately.

I'd like to mention some local news for readers in the area- the Bellows Falls Community Bike Project, ( http://bfbike.org/ ), held a planning meeting last week and 14 people showed up.  Bonnie Anderson is trying to set up a bike rebuilding program using donated bikes, and sell them at low cost in the community to encourage biking.  There is also a work program where hours can be traded for bike stand repair time or bikes.  She is being helped by Todd Ward (shop manager), Tonia White (VP), and Gary Fox (treasurer).  They have an after school program to teach kids how to work on their bikes, and are hoping to set up a town bike share program too.  Good stuff.  One nice part is that Todd is enthusiastic about electric bikes and utility bikes.