The first prototype pannier hooks arrived this week from the factory for review and they're very close to being ready for manufacturing. There are a couple of details to work out with the specs, and we're requesting a second prototype from the factory to iron them out. But based on the turn-around with the first prototype, we should be able to start manufacturing within the next month!

eBikes today come in all sorts of different configurations: rear-wheel drive, front-wheel drive, mid-drive (power is applied to the crank set where the pedals are). For some rear-drive systems, the motor is housed in the center of the rear-wheel, and the throttle and control wire feeds in to the motor through the center-point of the rear-axle on one side. To date this configuration has posed a serious challenge to installing a Companion Bike Seat because this wire gets in the way of properly installing the peg onto that side of the rear axle.

Last week I started working on a potential solution for this eBike setup, and I'm making good progress! Below is a picture of the almost-finished "prototype" peg, with a slot in the side to be able to feed the throttle wire through after installing the peg onto the axle. The only thing left is to get the proper sized tap to thread the holes of the peg so that it screws directly onto the axle (without required axle nuts). Once this is done, I'll be able to do a test-install with this updated peg and see if it works!

Depending on how the test installation goes, I will hopefully be able to offer these "eBike pegs" for purchase on the website very soon!

Photos of the first prototypes of the pannier hooks for Companion Bike Seat arrived today from the factory! The edges are a little rough and the paint job needs some cleaning up before it's ready for manufacturing, but overall they look good ... definitely headed in the right direction.

A little cleaning up of the rough edges with a file, then the prototype pannier hooks will be shipped here for physical review and testing.

I heard back from the factory this week on manufacturing progress for the backrests, and we now have a delivery date for completion! They'll be finished and ready to ship on August 10th. From there, it will take another three to four weeks for freight shipping across the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco. Once I receive them, I'll prep all of the pre-orders and will ship them out immediately after!

If all goes according to plan, the backrests will be shipping out right around Labor Day, just in time for back-to-school!

I also have some great news about the pannier hooks. Now that the backrests are almost complete, I've started working with the factory on prototyping the new pannier hooks for the bike seat! Initial prototyping will take about 7 to 10 days, and I'll share pictures of the progress made as soon as I have them back from the factory.

More updates to come soon!

The latest backrest prototype from the factory arrived today and it looks like we're ready to start manufacturing the backrests for Companion Bike Seat!

The new backrest worked like magic! We took the backrest out for a ride to Dolores Park for the day (just like everyone else in the Mission) and the backrest exceeded expectations. We brought the dog with us for the inaugural bike ride, and she enjoyed every minute of it. The backrest made it much easier to ride as a passenger, such that holding the dog in arms while riding to the park was a piece of cake.

I've let the factory know that we're a GO for manufacturing the bike seat backrests. As soon as we have a delivery date from the factory for the backrests we'll let you know!

We received some pictures from the factory this morning of prototype number three of the backrest, and things are definitely moving in the right direction. We noticed that the screws holding the cushion to the base-plate of the backrest frame are coming loose, so we're trying out a couple different ways to solve this. We should hopefully have this fixed in a week and shipping out to SF for inspection soon after!

We did some home-grown load testing to make sure that the backrest could support reasonable weight against it and it held up without a problem. We also filled a pannier with over 25 pounds of water and hung it on the side rail and there were no issues at all. It's very sturdy, and we have just a couple aesthetic elements to clean up to be ready for production.

As soon as the Chinese New Year holiday is finished the factory will start making a second prototype, accounting for all of our change-requests based on this prototype. Hopefully manufacturing won't be too far around the corner from there!

The factory is shipping this prototype out to us as we speak and we expect to receive it sometime next week. We'll provide an update as soon as we have this new prototype in hand. If all looks good, we'll start manufacturing right after Chinese New Year!