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. 

 Great news! Companion Bike Seats are now compatible with thru-axle bicycles! There's a new product on the market that makes it possible to convert thru-axles to solid axles to allow pegs to be installed onto the rear axle.

It's called:
Atomlab Bolt-on Axle Adapter, and they're available now on Amazon. These convert 12mm thru-axles to 10mm solid axle ends, perfect for the pegs that come included with our bike seats.

Now Companion Bike Seats are compatible with even more bicycles!

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.

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:
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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.
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​Love the ingenuity, and don't think he went overboard at all. Maybe we'll turn this into a product some day!

Sondors recently released some additional customization options and upgrades for their fat bike ebikes, one of which is even larger tires (4.9 inches). Unfortunately this causes the tire to rub (very lightly) up against the bottom of the storage compartment of the bike seat. But not to worry, I figured out a way to cheaply make some heavy rubber shims from stuff at the hardware store to lift the bike seat frame up off the peg a couple millimeters, giving the bike seat enough clearance for the tires. This will of course also work for non motorized fat bikes as well as some 29'ers.

At the hardware store, you'll need to pick up a piece of 2 inch outer diameter / 1.5 inch inner diameter braided vinyl tubing, and 4 socket cap screws (M6x1.0, 30mm long). With a utility knife, cut a strip approximately 15mm wide from one end of the tubing.

Slice the tubing down the sides to make the shims. Each shim should be about an inch long. We want it to provide the clearance, but not interfere with the screws at all when installing them. You'll ultimately need two of these shims, one for each peg.

Once the shims are done, it's time to install it onto the pegs. Install the pegs onto the bike, and as you set the bike seat frame onto the pegs, position one shim under each "leg" of the bike seat. Make sure the shim is positioned directly on top of the peg. Use the longer screws that you purchased with the tubing to tighten the peg clamps down. The screws included with your bike seat are just a bit too short. Make sure the frame is seated cleanly on the shim (the shim isn't crooked or anything), and tighten the screws very tight. Note in the pictures below, I purposefully left it a little loose for exhibition of assembly.

I actually came up with this fix while on the road trip in Reno, while installing a bike seat onto a customers Sondors before he headed out to the playa. Unfortunately we forgot to take pictures after getting the bike seat installed, so I shot the pictures above in the hotel room.

​Alternatively, another customer with the same issue decided to use one of some extra rubber shims he had gotten with his Sondors, shims originally intended for mounting the screen onto the handlebar.

Very soon I'm going to start working on designing a custom shim specifically for Companion Bike Seat, and will make this available on our website once it's ready.

We had several orders from people planning to take their bike seat out onto the playa this year. Unfortunately the bike seats were scheduled to arrive at the fulfillment center without enough time for shipping before people left. So I decided to take matters into my own hands. I already had plans to meet the new shipment when it arrived at the fulfillment center in Phoenix, since this is a new partner and it's always great to meet business partners face-to-face. In order to get bike seat orders out to folks heading to the playa, I filled up a minivan in Phoenix and road tripped north to meet them in Reno to give them their bike seats.

The new inventory arrived safely at the new distribution center on Friday of last week and I was able to review it all on Monday after arriving in Phoenix late Sunday night. The shipment looked great and all back-orders have been shipped out this week. I met with the team managing fulfillment now and they're good people and will take care of Companion Bike Seat well. It was pretty exciting to see the rows and rows of new bike seats (and backrests and ebike pegs) ready to ship out!

All in all it's been a pretty exhausting road trip after covering over 1500 miles of a 1700+ mile road trip, but well worth it at the end of the day. Most of our bike seat sales occur online today, so I get very few opportunities to meet with customers face to face, and this road trip has been awesome for that. Plus, bike seat orders are flowing again!

The first batch of sound cloths for Companion Bike Seat finally arrived from the manufacturer this weekend, and they look great! These sound cloths are now available for purchase on our website. We prototyped the sound cloth back in the Spring of this year and made them available for pre-order, but now they're finally available and can ship out immediately.

The sound cloth helps to dampen the sound that objects make bouncing around in the storage compartment of Companion Bike Seat while riding around. It's a piece of neoprene cloth that's designed to fit snugly down into the storage compartment, helping to eliminate any sound from objects clanking around inside the plastic stash-box of the bike seat.

Individual sound cloth back-orders will ship out immediately. Orders that also include a back-ordered bike seat will ship together next month once the next batch of bike seats arrive.

Great news! I received word from the factory this weekend that manufacturing was completed on Saturday! The new bike seats, backrests, and ebike pegs are going through final inspection at the factory now, and if everything looks good, they'll be in a shipping container on a boat heading towards California by the end of this month.

This latest shipment contains more bike seats, backrests, and the newly updated ebike pegs. This new design for the ebike pegs makes it easier than ever to tighten them down onto the rear axle of your ebike.

Tentative arrival of the shipment in LA Harbor is scheduled for August 15. From there it'll take a couple days to clear customs and get trucked to our new distribution partner's facility in Phoenix AZ. As soon as it arrives in Phoenix all back-orders will be shipped out immediately. I'll be traveling down from San Francisco to greet the shipment personally and make sure all back-orders are shipped asap. If everything goes according to plan, back-ordered bike seats should arrive by or before the end of August!

Stay tuned for more updates as I receive them from the factory and our shipping partner.

Companion Bike Seat was out at Pedalfest 2016 yesterday in Jack London Square, Oakland, CA. This was our first year attending Pedalfest, and it was quite a sight to behold. In my opinion it is probably one of the best bicycling events in the bay area, lasting all day long, and some of the coolest, craziest custom bikes you've ever seen. Plus, tons of great food, grog, and music ... nothing but good, clean fun.

Towards the main entrance of Pedalfest was Whymcycles, some really cool, functional bicycle-art pieces. I'd be really surprised if one or more of these didn't make it out to the playa later this summer. Not pictured below, but they had a bicycle with a ping-pong table strapped to the top (it folded up to ride the bike), so you could take your ping pong tournament with you wherever you go! And all over Jack London Square there were bicycles "parked" on the light-posts. It must have been a heck of job getting those up, and then taking them down afterward!

We were out offering free test-rides to anyone who wanted to take the bike seat out for a ride. Unfortunately we're still temporarily out of bike seat inventory, but it was still a great opportunity for people who hadn't heard of us give our bike seats a try.

And of course, what type of bicycle event would it be without at least a penny-farthing or two, or what I decided to call "the Pedalfest double penny-farthing!"

Pedalfest is a lot of fun, whether your a hardcore cyclist or simply a leisurely rider, there's something for everyone. We're planning on attending for many years to come. So come on out next year and check out all the fun!