453 agile businesses, hybrid trucks, wind powered sports, and modern train travel

This little shop in Cole Valley has impressed me for years. They're agile. I forget what they started as, maybe computer repairs? But when phones started to take off, they started doing phone repairs. And now they've added ebikes to the mix. 


St. Francis Yacht Club, both the toniest and busiest club on our side of the Bay, hosted the bay's first "official" wing boarding race last week. This is a sport that is only a couple years old. The event attracted 33 competitors.


Apparently the closeness of the sailor to the wing makes for more interesting viewing than kite boarders. And it's easier to learn. Basically, hmm, yeah, that looks fun.

Since nobody asked, how about we take a minute to talk about the new Ford Maverick truck?

For about a decade, Ford only sold the full sized F150 in America.

Then they brought the current Ranger back, which had been selling overseas the whole time. And now, this.

It's based on the new Bronco, which is based on the Escape. The hybrid drivetrain only does front wheel drive. It can basically tow nothing. It does have a 1500 pound payload, in a tiny 4.5 foot long bed. (Tacomas have 5.5 or 6ft, F-150s have 6 or 8. Before 1995, you used to be able to get a Toyota Hilux with an 8ft bed in the US, too. In general, small trucks have gotten less useful and more fancy.)


But it gets about twice the mileage of any other truck out there. Close to 40mpg. Our Tacoma is advertised as 22mpg highway, but in our usual driving it gets about 15mpg.

After all those options, it will be about the same as a base Tacoma. And won't get the hybrid mileage.

It's a unibody. Typically trucks are built with a body on a frame. The only other unibody currently available is the Honda Ridgeline, and if you read the reviews, that truck is a class beater. (Nobody reads the reviews, though, and buys a real truck instead.)

It's going to look much smaller in person. So now Ford has three trucks. I guess that's good for them, considering they've vowed to stop making cars.

Hyundai is also getting in on the unibody-not-quite-a-truck truck, with this, the Santa Cruz. California geography factors pretty high in the truck naming world. We've got the Silverado, the Tahoe, the Tiburon, the Pacifica (ok, that's more of a minivan), what else? 


Here's the Brat, that funky old Subaru which started this whole trend of car-trucks.

For those of us still aspiring to live car-free, or even plane-free, here's a deal worth looking into.

Buy by June 22, and I think, start to use by Sept. 22. Good for 30 days, with ten segments. I'm wondering if this is how I'll visit my mom later this summer. 

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