The Gadgets Page

It was a rainy day, but that didn’t stop the owner of this bicycle from commuting to work. Before I ran across this bicycle at the local bakery, I had never seen a mountain bike conversion before. I was so excited that I immediately grabbed my camera to take pictures.

I don’t know if you can tell from the pictures, but the motorized conversion doesn’t stop you from being able to use your bicycle as a normal bike. You can pedal your way home, or if the wind or incline are too much for you, you can fire up the engine and get yourself home a little quicker.

It took me some searching on the Internet to find this particular brand of bicycle conversion kit, but I finally did:

• Spit-Fire Motor Works Motorized Bicycle

You can’t order it online through Amazon anymore and when I called their phone number, all I got was a message directing me to their website. I have no real proof that you can actually get this product anymore, but this is a perfect match to the bike conversion I saw chained up in my neighborhood.

Here are a couple other bicycle conversion kits that I found online while looking for the Spit-Fire.

• Lash Out available at Electric Cyclery – lashout electric bicycle

• ecoZen Bike Index

Considering the cost of gasoline lately, an inexpensive conversion kit sounds like an economical way to get yourself around town if you’re not in good enough shape to power your bike yourself. With this little gadget, you can certainly work yourself up to that point pretty quickly.