Really goes to show how ripe the bicycle is for innovation, in enabling it to truly transform the way we transport ourselves around our world as our cities continue to grow more and more congested with people, cars, scooters, you name it. Electric scooters are great alternative to driving (albeit still pretty dangerous in a lot of situations) but they lack the benefit of exercise that you get from a good old fashioned bike ride.
We're always a fan of innovation here at Companion Bike Seat, especially when that innovation involves building on top of our bike seats to further expand the functionality of your bicycle. One of our customers recently sent us these pictures of a custom tow-hitch he made for his bike seat, that allows him to tow a dolly behind his bicycle. It comes complete with a swivel so that turning while in-tow doesn't cause any issues.
Really goes to show how ripe the bicycle is for innovation, in enabling it to truly transform the way we transport ourselves around our world as our cities continue to grow more and more congested with people, cars, scooters, you name it. Electric scooters are great alternative to driving (albeit still pretty dangerous in a lot of situations) but they lack the benefit of exercise that you get from a good old fashioned bike ride.
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A customer of ours recently started making rubber shims for our bike seats that raise the frame up off of the pegs. This is extra useful for fatbikes with tires that are 4.5 inches and larger, providing additional clearance underneath the storage compartment. They're available for purchase directly from the Dragonfly website. One of the most common bikes we've run into for these is the Sondors Original and Sondors X bikes, both with 4.9 inch tires. Dragonfly makes these rubber shims in two different sizes, 10mm and 19mm. All of the pictures included are on the Sondors Original ebike, using the 10mm size shims.
This is very exciting for us that Dragonfly is making these shims available. We first ran into the problem in the summer of 2016 in Reno NV while dropping off bike seat orders to folks heading to Burning Man. I came up with a work-around solution using commonly available parts from a hardware store (separate blog post here on our website) that worked, but was 100% DIY and not ideal. Now these shims manufactured specifically for use with Companion Bike Seats are readily available online! Super cool ... thanks Simon! A recent customer of ours created a customized security device for his Companion Bike Seat, installing it into the storage compartment. It's a vibration sensitive audio alarm to try and scare away potential thieves, and also includes a GPS tracking device just in case they're undeterred by the alarm and are able to successfully steal the bicycle and bike seat. Here's the description he provided of his crafty alarm and tracking device:
_______ Hi again! An update on our previous conversation. Since you were interested on a security measure for the backseat. I installed a magnet held: battery pack/vibration sensitive alarm/GPS tracker into the box. They all use those small light STRONG magnet name-tags (from employees at stores like Target, Best Buy, etc.) to stay connected to the walls of the storage box. After all 3 items were installed, they really didn't take up much space, as you can see, the U-lock still has plenty of space to hold more chains or other locks. Btw, those small holes drilled into the sides of the box were to allow the sound to come out louder. After much testing, there was a huge difference when the box was completely open to when it's locked close. Those holes helped a bit. My friends thought I went a little overboard with the GPS locator, but I think it's worth it to protect my investment. ________ Love the ingenuity, and don't think he went overboard at all. Maybe we'll turn this into a product some day! A gentleman in Santa Monica CA reached out to me a couple weeks ago inquiring on whether or not I thought it possible to rig one of our bike seats onto his tricycle. After trading emails for a week or two digging into the measurements of the trike rear end, there didn't seem to be any visible challenges with installation. The pegs weren't necessary as the seat mounts directly to the frame of the trike. The peg clamps required some custom shims once the bike seat arrived, but otherwise it was a perfect fit! Here's what Giorgio said after taking the bike seat for a ride on the beach in Santa Monica with his girlfriend: Will type something long later and explain everything but I did 12 miles yesterday with her on my back so big success. Truthfully just between you and I, I never saw her smile and laugh so much in the years that I have known her. I rode from 7pm to 9pm ... and people on the beach said, "wow I never saw that before ... that is the best one I have ever seen ... oh, that looks soooo fun." Actually kind of funny ... because she is so small, people could not see her behind me until I passed them and everyone thought I was loony tunes and got out of my way because they thought I was talking to myself. PS: I had some random teen take the pictures and I asked him "dude is this kinda d*%^$#y " and he said " no f*#%ing way ... it is killer". So there you have it. PS: Part deux ... met some guy that is the national Firestone distributor and showed some pictures on his phone of your seat and this guy is actually bidding on doing the suspension on the Hyper Loop for Elon Musk and said something to the effect of "you know ... I know they are having problems sorting out the seating on the hyper loop and what this guy (you) has is sort of interesting." Ya never now...Companion Seat on the Hyper Loop? I plan on reaching out to Elon next week to start talking hyper loop seats ... Giorgio also noticed something pretty cool with the bike seat and his red tail light. The way the tail light was positioned on his tricycle cast a bright, red glow off the bottom of the stash box, which made for a great effect riding at night. Hyper loop seats should definitely glow red, right?! Such futuristic technology deserves nothing less.
Received some pictures today from one of our first customers to use our ebike pegs and had to post it to our blog. This is a bike seat install on a bike using an ebike conversion kit on the rear wheel. This particular kit required the M14x1.5 thread pitch ebike pegs that we offer, and installation went without a hitch! Thanks Brandon for sending in the pics of your bicycle and bike seat!
A customer from Washington DC that bought his bike seat about a year and a half ago wrote me this week with the coolest story - he and his girlfriend > fiance > wife rode their bicycle with the bike seat to and from work every day. It was such a big part of their daily routine, that they decided to include their bicycle + bike seat in their wedding photos! They had met while working at the Washingtonian, and the magazine wrote a story about their wedding, including several of their wedding photos in the story. I included one of them below, the rest can be found at the Washingtonian story. The Companion Bike Seat even made it onto their wedding website! Not to brag, but I'd like to think that Companion Bike Seat played a small but important part in spurring this love story along. Either way, it's always awesome to get such great feedback on our bike seats. Here's what he had to say: I'm sure you don't remember me, but we corresponded a few times back in June 2014 when I had a few questions about installing the bike seat. You were really helpful and patient in answering my questions.
"So it's time that I write a review for this passenger bike seat that I got. First off, I've had the seat since May and paid $149.00 for it and it was a wonderful investment. I ride my bike about 6 hours a day which measures out to about 50 to 60 miles a day which amounts to 42 hours a week or 350 to 420 miles a week and you can multiply that by 30 to get the amount that I bike per month and so on. I ride around my girlfriend on a regular basis, and a few friends of mine every now and then. Bike with a companion even though that person is not pedaling is a wonderful experience and workout especially up hill and long distances like going from New Haven to Woodbridge or to Hamden or even the West Haven beach, all of which my girlfriend and I have traveled together.
I would recommend this seat to all cyclists. I have gone grocery shopping, moved things from my parents' house to my apartment 20 blocks away, gone to the beach, the movies, out to dinner, dropped off and picked up my girlfriend from class, road to and from work, and have road around recreationally with the trunk loaded with my iPad as a GPS and a refreshment or snack in the trunk. Thanks again and please keep me posted on upgrade and updates for the seat. I love it!" We received a letter and some photos this weekend from one of our customers in the UK and just had to share a couple quotes.
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November 2020
Remember, ALWAYS wear a HELMET!
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