Tour Easy Expedition from Easy Racers
The Tour Easy is a great bike but many people are puzzled by how to mount headlights on a faired bike. This is how I did it.
The light bar is made from plastic pipe and cost about $3. Any light heads can be mounted on it. It is held in place with one wing nut securing it to the fairing. The pin on the end of the Tee fits loose in the extra hole on the fender mount. It can be installed or removed in seconds. Battery packs go in the water bottle cages.
I also use two small lights under the fairing, mounted on Pedal Power Computer Mounts. These are designed to hold a cyclocomputer on aero handlebars but work fine as light mounts. The Pedal Power ones are longer then other brands and should hold most small lights. These lights do glare on the fairing, but that's a good thing. I'm lit up and very easy to see, but as the fairing is well below eye level, it doesn't interfere with me seeing the road. If you are shorter and closer to the fairing, this might not work for you. Even with the glare, enough light gets through the fairing to the road to be useful.
I do all my shopping with the Tour Easy and for larger loads I use a BOB Coz trailer. For loads up to 50 pounds, the Coz is wonderful. The only drawback is that it's sometimes hard to park a twelve foot long bike.
 |
The standard Greenfield kickstand is almost useless due to its position. Many people replace it with an ESGE 2 legged kickstand. I, instead, added a second kickstand on the chainstay. It's a Specialized mountain bike stand. No more falling over in the driveway while I'm trying to unload the panniers. |
 |
More lights. Vistalites mounted on the Koolback seat rails. Behind the seat is a good place to put some extra water bottles. These are Two Fish cages that velcro around the seat rails. Note the stand off stick that encourages motor heads to give me safe clearance. It's bendable plastic tubing with a soft plastic tip painted silver so that that it looks like a metal spike. It sticks out only about as far as my elbow but drivers give me a couple more feet of room. Motorists seem to be more concerned about scratching their paint then killing a cyclist. |
 |
Gas power assist on my
Tour Easy. From Dimension Edge Bicycle. |
| Mitsubishi ENCORE two stroke 43 cc, 1.4 HP engine and auxiliary fuel bottle for long range cruising. |  |
 |
Friction drive wheel. |
| Hard shell pannier made
from a Tidy Cat cat litter bucket. Rain proof,
splashproof. In front of the pannier is a vapor tight container for the motor's fuel funnel, extra two stroke oil and anything else that might be oily or smell of gas. It's made from a Metamucil bottle. |
 |
 |
That's a custom rack but
it fits a standard rack too. |
Loaded up for the long haul.
A BikeE CT from the now defunct BikeE company.
With four folding shopping bag panniers and a huge seat back bag, it carries an equivalent of five large paper shopping bags. When more cargo capability is needed, I hook up the BOB Coz trailer.
Vision VR40 full
suspension from Advanced Transportation Products
Vision
Maybe I'm spoiled by the high quality of Easy Racers design, but I'm really disappointed in the many little design problems in the VR40. A short wheel base, under seat steering bike should be a lot of fun to ride, if it is properly designed. This one isn't.
An elderly mountain bike heavily modified for commuting that used be my commuting bike a decade ago.
Now equipped with rain proof cat litter panniers for rainy day use.
1954 Schwinn Traveler 3-speed
 |
My restoration project. |
NO WHEELS THE JOYS OF CARLESSNESS -- NON-CONFORMISTS REJECT THE AUTO CULTURE
Sheldon (Captain Bike) Brown's articles.
Travel with Bicycles (Air/Rail/Other) db
The articles
and artwork on this site are used without permission but are
being used only in a fan-oriented, non-profit endeavor. This page
is not intended to infringe upon the copyrights of any companies
or individuals concerned and articles or artwork will be removed
if so requested by any copyright holders.
