After an accident paralyzed him Christian Bagg created a mountain bike that could get him back on trails! Via Calgary Herald
Three quarters of the way up Ranger Summit, a four-and-a-half-kilometre climb on a narrow path strewn with rocks and roots, we stop for a break. Tall evergreens give way to an open patch of grass on a small hill. A log serves as a bench, with views east towards Calgary and west to the Rockies. I’m close to death, sucking wind and soaked with sweat.
Christian Bagg grins. “This is just fun,” he says. Hands draped over handlebars, the 42-year-old looks out over densely wooded foothills gradually rolling down into prairie. The evening sun, filtered through hazy layers of forest-fire smoke, casts an orange light.
Bagg’s invention, the Icon Explore, gets a lot of attention out here on the trails near Bragg Creek. No one has seen anything like the three-wheeled electric mountain bike. Bagg sits upright in the Icon, his long legs stretched out in front of him, ankles taped to the sleek steel frame between the two front wheels (he improvised back in the parking lot after he couldn’t find the proper strap in his van). The top of the broad back tire, knuckled with aggressive treads, is almost level with his shoulders. Even at rest the bike exudes kinetic energy—it begs to go fast.
Read more and check out PBS’s interview with Christian Bags here!
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
