Kickbike, sometimes I just have to be weird/different
Kickbikes are an ancient concept, basically the original ancestor of the bike, aka the Dandy Horse from 1817.
Why not a bike?
My bike died a couple of years ago, I tried to keep it alive with the bike equivalent of tape and glue, but by the end, too much needed fixing and some of the fixes would cost me more in tools than a new bike.
Specifically I would most likely have to drill out or blowtorch the pedals, who only had stumps left and my rims was bent beyond repair, due to crappy road conditions, rims that are no longer made, so I would essentially have to replace half the bike. So off to the recycling it went (after 23 years of service).
This made me think of what new bike to get, but I have long had a costly and problematic relationship to bikes, mainly that as a tall and heavy man with little patience, the drive parts tend to wear out very quickly, just like my father before me.
The research/insane ramblings
The conclusion from me thinking about this problem, was logically that pedal drivetrains are evil and must he dispersed of with impunity! (I was quite pissed with the whole bike situation at the time)
After cooler heads prevailed, I recalled seeing an older lady gliding around on a kick scooter made of bike parts, which lead to remembering a history lesson or wiki bender about early bikes.
This and a couple of duck searches later, brought me to kickbikes, specifically YouTube videos about Yedoo kickbikes specifically.
The kickbike concept
Yedoo was not really possible to get here, but a generic brand called kickbike was available.
Problem was I had a lot of questions about the concept, like how fast do they go, are they comfortable, how far can you ride it and so on.
Which as it turns out are hard to answer from available information. I was lucky that the proprietor of kickbikes was super helpful and got me a test ride and answered all my questions.
Where most bikes has a comfortable riding speed of 15-20kph, kickbikes are a more laid back 10-15kph, expect to get tired at the 20-30km mark like on a bike, as for comfort, there is no sitting but also no butt pain.
Last notes
I've now owned the thing for 2 months and it is a lot less complexity, with only minor loss in speed (~5kmh), the wear has been partially transferred to shoes and brakes though.
I do enjoy riding on it and purposefully choose riding on dirt paths and Forrest's when I can, it's a little more toy centric, which suits me fine. 😂
Because it is bike parts, it's easily upgradeable and I already plan on putting a cargo rack and a 250W Bafang motor on it, the motor should help with shoe and brake wear.
I'll most likely be taking it out in the woods on Sunday again.
Created 2024-10-04 - Updated 2024-10-09