Author Archives: Logan Piepmier

Disrupt the Holidays!

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Rodriguez Disruptor Automatic Shifting Electric Bike

Put away the Thanksgiving decorations and throw away that leftover turkey hanging out in the back of your refrigerator, it’s time to dig out the bin of holiday movies and get your tree up. Ahhhh, the holidays. What a wonderfully magical and stressful time of year. Wouldn’t it be nice if decorating the house was automatic? Just sit back on the couch, press the “decorate the house for the holidays” button on the remote, and “ho-ho-ho” the tree is lit and all those festive knick-knacks you have collected over the years are in their place.

Now that you have all this free time, you can go for a holiday ride. Wouldn’t it be nice if your bicycle were automatic as well? Well hold on to your eggnog because I’ve got some holiday cheer for you! Rodriguez Bicycles’ Disruptor™ electric-assist bike, equipped with the Shift-E™ automatic electronic shifting system, is ready to take flight. How about that? An eBike from a company with 47 years experience in bicycles!

Unlike the frustrating process of finding the “decorate the house” remote lost in the couch cushions, operating the Shift-E™ system is simple. Shift-E has two modes you can place it in, manual or automatic. Set in automatic mode, you can pedal and relax as the Shift-E electronic shifting recognizes the speed at which you are traveling and shifts for you automatically. If you happen to find yourself riding home with a bag full of toys strapped to your rack you can keep your mind on thoughts of the holidays without a care about shifting.

Protect your investment: Not only does Shift-E™ have the ability to automatically shift for you, it is engineered to withstand the punishing torque that E-Bike motors dish out. It will also choose the right gear to protect your E-bike motor. No more over-torquing. Shift-E™ allows you to fly up the neighborhood hills without any pedaling interruptions, awkward shifts, or worrying if you’re in the right gear.

Don’t forget the holiday cookies! To sweeten up the deal the Rodriguez Disruptor™ has plenty of power for any hill or any ride. With up to 750W of power, you could strap a sleigh on the back of your Rodriguez Distruptor™ to deliver cookies and good cheer to an entire neighborhood.

Combining the Shift-E™ shifting system with a powerful E-Bike motor, the Rodriguez Disruptor™ can handle whatever holiday havoc you can throw it’s way. It’s like having eight reindeer in front of you effortlessly leading the way back to the North Pole after a full day of delivering toys.

Stop by the shop, grab a holiday cookie and take a Disruptor for a spin.

At Rodriguez, It’s NAHBS every week!

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It’s that time of the year again. The North American Handbuilt Bike Show (NAHBS) is almost here, and folks are asking us if we are going to attend as a vendor. As always, the answer is no. Now, some of you probably already know why we don’t go, but for others who might be curious, we’re simply the busiest little custom shop in world (not to mention one of the oldest). If you want a longer answer than that, here’s an article that explains why in detail.

That being said, we certainly have made a lot of bikes over the last year that would be excellent entries for display at a show like NAHBS. The difference is that these bikes were all custom made for their owners and are out on the road instead of being on display in a show. We have however spent a little time to photograph a few of these unique creations so that we could share them with you over the internet.

Realize this is just a small portion of the unique bikes that have been created here by the Rodriguez and Erickson team. If you’d like to see a lot more photos, visit our complete photo gallery.

I’ve selected a few bikes (there were hundreds to choose from) to highlight here to illustrate some of the more unique bicycles that we’ve done since last years NAHBS show. Scroll down the list and you’ll see that there’s something for everyone. Anyone of these bikes by itself would be a great NAHBS entry, but as a collection, I think it’s almost mind blowing. Look it over and see if you agree with me that we’ve got the best custom bike team in the industry right here in Seattle’s University District.

Click on any image to see a gallery of that bike with lots of close ups.

How about a Bicycle built for 4, that’s convertible to a bicycle built for 3?

Or, a Rodriguez 6-pack micro-folder for Willie Weir to ride through Minneapolis?

It wasn’t just Willie either! We built a half-dozen or so of these amazing Rodriguez 6-pack Micros in 2014!

Have a taste for amazing art bikes? Check out the incredible Erickson Rohloff bike that managed to pull off in 2014.

The Rodriguez Micro-Revolution spread even into our tandem line with a new Micro Tandem Model – The Rodriguez 2014!

Ever seen a step-through tandem tricycle with differential rear end? Well, we built one of those this year!

So you like lugs do ya? Here’s a 2014 Erickson that you might enjoy then.

Still with the lugged theme…a real beauty hand painted by a tattoo artist here in Seattle.

Of course, there’s always the light weight road bikes with cool paint jobs.

Another light weight with a sweet paint job! Orange was hot this year.

How about a titanium Rohloff belt-drive commuter?

Another Rohloff belt-drive bike….this time in S3 steel.

We even built one of our exclusive Rodriguez 8-balls this season!

The Rodriguez 8-ball is a travel tandem and a travel single bike in one bike!

Lots of titanium this year. Here’s a ti travel single with Campy Record.

By request of the Mayor, we even built the official ‘Mayor’s bet’ Seahawks bicycle!

We built some killer fixed gear bikes over the season!

We’ve also been called upon to build several sweet Rando bikes.

Another titanium travel tandem with disc brakes and Campy Record!

A sub 26 pound Rodriguez steel tandem that took the tandem world by storm!

Who’d of thunk it? Off road touring bikes have become somewhat of regular here at R+E Cycles over the last year.

Another heavy duty off-roader. This one’s set up for an Alaskan winter.

Another sweet custom ride! A townie with hydraulic disc brakes.

Another sweet Rodriguez Shiftless fixie. I’d like to post them all, but I’ve gotta stop somewhere.

Step through frames are back for men and women. This Erickson fillet brazed step through is particularly beautiful.

In 2014, Rodriguez Custom Tandems for all shapes and sizes of riders were selling like hot cakes!

If you’re still reading this, I hope you had a great time looking over these unique creations. I’m surprised at the number of bicycles we built this year, but mostly at the variety. It’s truly amazing to look back over a year and see what kind of bicycles are rolling out the door here at R+E Cycles. Thanks for choosing us and telling your friends about us. We love what we do, and I hope that shows in this sampling of our work.

Dan