Bobike mini saga

I haven't posted in a long time, but my I thought what I learned about baby seats for bikes recently would be useful to other folks.

Problem:
Bobike mini does not fit all bikes, like my Electra. You need several inches of clearance on the stem.

Details:
I wanted a bike seat for my little girl that attached to the front of the bike so I can keep an eye on here.

The iBerts are pretty popular out here, but I didn't think it was worth ~$100. I found the Bobike Mini on Amazon and it was more reasonable and looked more accommodating for the baby. I have an Electra single speed cruiser and I wasn't sure if the seat would work with my bike.

I'm not a bike expert, so I emailed two photos of the stem at different angles to the company that sells the seat on Amazon asking if it would work. I got a generic response that in retrospect I can see they did not look at my pictures:

It can be fitted onto nearly all bicycles including the majority of racing, towing, and mountain bikes. Also, you do need to measure the bike stem where it will be mounted. The stem needs to be between 20-28mm.

I order it and paid extra to get it by the weekend. Once I saw the mount I realized it wouldn't fit. Not being a bike expert, I removed the handlebars to see if the steering tube was somehow adjustable to get more height. It wasn't. I called around a few shops and consulted a friend that with more bike expertise and discovered that short of getting a new fork and headset, this would not work on my bike.


Solution:
Measure your handlebar stem and make sure you have several inches of clearance for the mount. If not and you do not have an adjustable quill stem.

PVC Bike Rack II

This is the latest rack. Again, you can unscrew it easily so just the tee mounts are on the bike. It was a little harder to work around the frame on the Electra. I tried to paint it to match, but was a little off on picking the right blue for the top tub mount.

Stolen and Recoverd: blue Electra RS bike

(photo taken before black Carver longboard installed)


I had my blue Electra Rally Sport stolen 1/15/2009 near the 4490 block of Fanuel (near Garnet). This happened sometime between 7 PM and 10 PM.

It's a single speed blue Electra Rally Sport with a partial Carver surf rack (black, paint chipping) .

I had a cable lock that they simply cut and left at the scene. I have the serial number and this has been reported stolen to the San Diego Police Department and Electra.

Update 1/28/2009:
Whoa! So after a tipster alerted me to an ad on Craigslist I was eventual able to recover the bike.

Apparently the guy had bought the bike from a "young couple" at a swap meet. He had purchased several bikes and paid $50 for mine. He reported that the surf rack was not on when he bought it though.

Getting back to the tipster, she emailed me late Sunday night. By the time I got to the email, I couldn't find the ad. After a bit of back and forth, she was able to send me a screen capture of the ad from her browser cache! I in turn posted another ad on Craigs listing his info.

Actually, to be fair, I did contract him asking about the bike. We emailed a few times and then I called. When I called, he reported that he had "just sold it 15 minutes ago and offered another bike instead. I thought all was lost at this point. So then I posted the "Stolen" ad, this time with a search in Google with his phone number, a copy of his ad and a specifics about my call and the conveyed my feeling of his sketchyness.

I got a few supportive email for me, one supportive of the seller and one from somebody who assumed I had the wrong bike because of a missing fin in my picture (it had rusted off and I took the photo to send to Electra when requesting a new one). I replied to all emails, but didn't have much hope.

Then later today, I was shocked to get an email from the guy. He knew he had sold my bike because of my description (specifically the rusted off kick stand). Apparently he was able to contact the guy he had resold my bike to and get it back. We emailed for a bit and then talked. He insisted I talked to the guy he sold it to (a Marine no less). I confirmed that this guy got his money back. After work, I picked up the bike.

The surf rack is missing, which was a bummer, but I now know how to make one! Somewhere along the line someone hastily painted over the rust and cleaned her up a bit... I tried to remove the over spray, but that didn't work. I now have a u lock and plan to ride her to work tomorrow.

Now I have two bikes...