This is a bit late, but I’ve been drowning in trying to soak up as much of my fabulous California lifestyle and finish packing and dealing with bullshit before leaving…

So I went to the Maker Fair with the family in San Mateo. It was awesome! But for the crowds. Lots of talented burners showing off their rad creations, loads of cool stuff to buy, amazing human-powered rides, the coolest mousetrap ever, fun stuff to do and make with my 5 year old niece, and shopping that even my anti-consumer mom enjoyed. Plus, there were two extremely different takes on fossil-free motorcycles. The flat earth society took a BMW diesel CAR motor and shoved it into an unsuspecting motorcycle to win the land speed record for alternative fueled motorcycles. Which would be impressive, but there’s like one other competitor. So where’s the fun in that? “Oooh, we got the world’s record in our class!!!” is really no different than “Hey! We beat Lenny!”

What I got really excited about was parked across the way, a 2004 Yamaha R1 which had been robbed of its thrilling powerplant. In the place of that awesome motor were a bunch of goofy yellow batteries. It was a trip. I had a million questions for Justin, it’s creator, mainly along the lines of “How about you let me test ride it, so I can tell you exactly how different it is from the gas-powered one?” The more I talked to him and saw his other creatings, the electric motard, the pretty fire sculptures, the more I wanted more. I am very seriously considering having him convert my husky to electric, since it’d be nice to be able to ride it in CA, and even ONE battery will get more range than that puny 2 gallon gas tank. Plus he’s cute, and I’m a big fan of supporting cute talent.