News

Momentum Magazine asked us to do a small piece about the electric bicycle community for their online content related to different bicycle sub-cultures. We decided to explore where the North American side of this movement has come from with a bit of historic perspective that may be overlooked. A big thank you to Felicio Sadalla, Joshua Goldberg, Morgan Giddings, Barrie Wilkinson, Stéphane Melançon, and Coffee Luke for taking considerable time to share their stories.









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Unfortunately there were issues getting all of the images to a standard for the published piece, so we put all the intended pictures that were to accompany the text in the table above.

At the start of July, we will be required to charge the full 12% HST tax on our ebike kits as opposed the the 5% GST only that was charged before, as electric bicycles were exempted from provincial tax. Local residents considering a purchase soon may want to factor this into consideration.

Although the tax break on electric bikes was nice, we understand that it's simpler and more fair to just have the same sales tax apply to everything rather than a complex set of exceptions. Our only real beef is that gasoline for vehicles was one of the very few things made exempt from the extra 7%, of all items that deserve to have a consumption tax gas should be first on the list.

The winner of our June 15th Cycle Analyst Giveaway prize goes to Kristin Rule of Australia. She is about to leave on a solo promotional tour of her new album, with her Cello strapped to a Yuba Mundo cargo bike and a little help from an electric assist "Watt-Bot" trailer made by her partner Andy. The rig and the ride are both genius and a perfect example of how electric assist, cargo bikes, and a bit of inspired craziness can fuse into fascinating pursuits that wouldn't have previously been possible. Read Kristin's full description of her setup and her ambitions here.





The only thing missing on her bike is a Cycle Analyst to replace the analog voltage and amp meters strapped to the frame, and that Kristin is on its way. It's hard to imagine a more deserving case. Congratulations and safe travels.

Finally, we wanted to say what a great time we had with the Car-Free festival this past weekend. We had no idea that one railing installed in the middle of the road to practice unicycling could be so popular. Thanks to everyone who showed up with their ebikes and unicycles and helped to make a fun, interactive, and educational event, and to all the Car-Free Vancouver volunteers who work hard to make this happen over the full 17 block stretch.

There is always a lot of bike and ebike activity happening in Vancouver come June. Many have already taken place but here is just a short list of some other coming events to check out:

* kWhr ebike Ride, Sat June 11th: Electric bicycle riders meet up at 5:30 by the central library for this monthly ride around town. June will be a beach and barbecue event, so bring food, drinks, and charcoal if you got it.

* Central Valley Greenway, Sat June 12th: The Greenway is celebrating its one year anniversary since opening as the longest east-west bicycle path in greater Vancouver. Join the group ride in New Westminster or come for just for the lunch and entertainment near Sterling Station.

* Velopalooza, June 4-13th: The 10 days of Velopalooza 2010 is packed with activity, including street festivals, themed rides, performances, workshops, and much more.

* Car Free Day, Sun June 20t:h This year, Car Free Day on Main street extends all the way up to 33rd avenue. That includes our shop! We couldn't be happier, with the party going right past our front door. The event takes place all day on June 20th and we will have electric bikes, trikes, skateboards, and unicycles of all types for people to ride.

We've had numerous customers use our Crystalyte 400 series project motor axles to build unique and innovative vehicles. Most of the time these involved supporting the hub from one side only, so we decided to have Crystalyte make us a batch of motors explicitly for this very purpose. We now have a stock of ready to go 405 and 406 hubs with a solid 3/4" thick axle and disk brake mount for the range of homebrew electric Trike, Quad, and Trailer projects. As well, we've replenished our supply of the powerful and disk compatible 5303 and 5304 hub motors for those looking for high-power setups.

Our end of May Cycle Analyst Giveaway goes to a local guy this time, Richard Johns in Vancouver. We've seen Richard come in to our shop several times over the years with his ever evolving concept of an all around utility bike. It started initially from a Cyclone conversion with a custom battery and motor mount setup, and has grown to include a full fiberglass fairing with child seat, waterproof trunk bins, removable rain shield and even a towable trailer for the kids. Richard's blog details his experience and philosophies on the project and does a good job of highlighting the many features that electric assist makes possible.

Justin's experiments with an electric assist unicycle first shown at the Maker Faire in May have been pretty successful. For those curious about this project, you can see a build description on the endless-sphere forum and some of the ride experience on unicyclist.com. At this point, we are toying with doing a small manufacturing run of a couple dozen units if there is enough interest out there for early adopters of a hubmotor based electric uni conversion kit. If this gets you excited, then please fill out our form to sign up for the electric uni email notification list.

Coming up is the Victoria Day long weekend, and Justin and some crew will be heading down to the Maker Faire just south of San Francisco, with a few home-made gadgets for people to ride. As a result, the shop will be closed Saturday, May 22nd, but will be open again as usual the following Tuesday. Any ebike enthusiasts in or around the area should check it out, as there are lots of inspiring DIY projects being showcased and a number of characters from the endless-sphere forum will be there too.







Two years ago our side-by-side sociable tandem ebike took off all around the fairgrounds with a mind of its own. Unfortunately it's too big to take on the train down this time around, so we'll be bringing mostly single-wheeled vehicles which are more compact.

As of May 4th, we formally changed our business identity from "The Renaissance Bicycle Company" to "Grin Technologies Ltd."

This was in part because we were frequently mistaken for a bicycle shop, but mostly because we wanted a name that better reflects the increasing amount of Electric Vehicle technology development in which we are actively involved. Our goal is to spread the EVGrin far and wide through the design, manufacture, and distribution of cutting edge ebike components.

You can still refer to us as ebikes.ca too, but the things that we make (Cycle Analysts, Torque Arms, DC-DC Converters, Lighting Systems and no doubt more to come) will be sold under the Grin brand. Our Vancouver store front will be called the "Grin Cyclery", so if we ever do get a sign, that's what you'd be on the look out for.

Name changes are always a little weird, at first, but hopefully this is something you can all embrace with us.