NOTICE : This Forum Will Retire on December 1st 2025

Radical Brad

Radical Brad

Garage Hacker!
Staff member
Well, it's been a fun 25 years!

I just wanted to say thanks to this amazing community of creative builders.
Even though I have been mostly a spectator here, I enjoyed watching so many cool builds come together.

Starting in 2026, I will be moving into some new adventures and for various reasons including financial, I am going to retire my old web presence completely. Closing my business also means shutting down all sites and connections to the old name.

I know there are a few threads still active, so perhaps something on Reddit might work?

My career takes me to many fly-in remote communities, sometimes for weeks on end and my new venture will also be very time intensive, so I will simply not be able to keep anything up and running in 2026.

I looked at handing off this forum, but was advised that once my corporation is closed, I cannot retain or manage it under the current names and was advised not to do that for several reasons.

If anyone want to try, or has any ideas on a simple platform that might be good to continue the "Garage Hacker's Coffee Club" then let me know and I can at least put up a link for the remainder of time this forum stays online.

It's a strange world out there these days, but I have finally decided to jump head first into it rather than trying to resist it.
I may be 56, but not ready to submit to Old-man-itus, so a new adventure is in the near future.

Just wanted to get this out there.

Cheers!
The Garage Hacker formerly known as Radical Brad
 
Radical Brad said:
Well, it's been a fun 25 years!

I just wanted to say thanks to this amazing community of creative builders.
Even though I have been mostly a spectator here, I enjoyed watching so many cool builds come together.

Starting in 2026, I will be moving into some new adventures and for various reasons including financial, I am going to retire my old web presence completely. Closing my business also means shutting down all sites and connections to the old name.

I know there are a few threads still active, so perhaps something on Reddit might work?

My career takes me to many fly-in remote communities, sometimes for weeks on end and my new venture will also be very time intensive, so I will simply not be able to keep anything up and running in 2026.

I looked at handing off this forum, but was advised that once my corporation is closed, I cannot retain or manage it under the current names and was advised not to do that for several reasons.

If anyone want to try, or has any ideas on a simple platform that might be good to continue the "Garage Hacker's Coffee Club" then let me know and I can at least put up a link for the remainder of time this forum stays online.

It's a strange world out there these days, but I have finally decided to jump head first into it rather than trying to resist it.
I may be 56, but not ready to submit to Old-man-itus, so a new adventure is in the near future.

Just wanted to get this out there.

Cheers!
The Garage Hacker formerly known as Radical Brad
Click to expand...
I am sure I am not the only one that wishes you well in your new life Brad; and they do say that A change is as good as a rest. :)
I has been a lot of fun to be a member of this unique community in this small corner of the web.
To quote Douglas Adams........ "So long, and thanks for all the fish!".
 
Best of luck with your new endeavors. It will be sad to see the site go,

I hope your plans will still be available somewhere, they were a life changer for my family and I and we can't thank you enough.
 
Thanks!
Just stuck up in the far north installing a new server.
Got the starlink up so I could drop in to catch up.

Brad
 
Thanks for sticking it out as long as you did , at some personal cost to you and your family that was very courageous.

I am sure we can organise something amongst ourselves , is everyone on FB ? maybe a group on there with a title as Dan suggests could enable some of the old members to find it ?

What will be the legality of your plans ? are they expected to disappear forever ?

Or can they be given away discretely [ in no way advertised ? ]

Drops us the odd post in here before you go 2026 is still a long way off ;)

Paul
 
Thanks!
I will be around for sure.

Lately I have been putting the plans up on youtube, narrating them into hour long videos.
It takes some time to get them done, but since my new life will be 100% focused on generative AI, I am sure I will be able to automate the process.

I will keep the YT chan up, that's why I named it something completely different.

www.youtube.com

DIY Video Projects

After fun 25 years of bike building, I am going to retire this channel and my main DIY Website, so I made up this "Master Collection" that contains everything I have ever built. This special will remain up until I transition into a new phase of my life. For more information on all 40 DIY Plans...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

Brad
 
Thanks for your efforts in running this for so long and best of luck in your future endeavours. I hope someone cobbles something similar together to keep the gang together.
 
Say it isn't true! :eek:

Brad and Kat, it has been such a pleasure being part of the world your website created. Though from afar, it never seemed so when posting and replying to the many posts.

When I entered into what was to be a tandem recumbent build, I knew nothing about cycling, except how to get on and pedal. And there you were, with this outlandish website called...AtomicZombie.

Your tutorials were/are so well done that anyone could follow them. I learned so much from them.
They were the catalyst for venturing into the world of welding and fabrication. First with the Inferno Trike, and then the StreetRunner.

I will surely miss posting my project successes and failures. You provide a platform for many from around the world to meet and share. The gathering on this site may soon fade into history, but the memories and fellowships will carry on for all time.

I would hate losing the fellowship of those who follow my builds. I dual-post most all my updates here and on EndlessSphere. Anyone who wants to continue following my current Street Runner build to its completion can find me as Just_Ed at the link below.

https://endless-sphere.com/sphere/threads/c-cab-hot-rod-power-advice.104270/

Brad, your website created a venue for like-minded people to learn, grow, and show their creations. Leave us if life calls you in another direction.
But leave taking well-deserved pride in what you have accomplished and the camaraderie that resulted.

Brad and Kat, thank you so much. May you have a great life.
Safe and fruitful while seeking new adventures.

And remember these words:
You are never too old,
----------- to set another goal,
--------------- or have a new dream.

Take care
Ed
Edspedalcars@yahoo.com
ed.jckmn@gmail.com
 
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Heartfelt thanks Brad. Because of you and your plans I discovered the wonderful world of recumbent,s. Good luck to you in your new endeavours.
 
I am now really wishing I had made time to pursue this bike project years ago, as this site seems to have a very nice community of helpful people doing interesting things. There are some other sites out there that seem to have some interesting stuff going on; hopefully I will see some of you all out there in the places where people go to talk about chopping up bikes to build them into new, more exciting bikes.
 
This forum is decent to keep running on a typical VPS host. You would be looking at $200 or so per year for the Xenforo license, $60 per month for hosting, and $30 per year for domain pointing. So, say $100 per month to keep is going in this format.

If someone wanted to do that, I could probably export the garage hackers chat for import. I say probably because I heavily modded the core code of this forum, so not sure it would be perfectly smooth.

Thanks for all the comments and well wishes!

I do look forward to my new obsession, which is developing and using local generative AI for creativity.
It is unfathomably complicated, which is why I am having so much fun with it!

Brad
 
Should have probably explained Generative AI, as AI often gets a bad rap.
What I am doing is setting up AI systems in my own shop that can create videos and music.
Everything from cinematic special FX to simple animations and sound.
I will be using it to launch a series of channels on various social media platforms in 2026.
My own focus will be mostly entertainment and humor since I have a warped mind for such things.

I am also doing work for others and helping setup local AI systems.
This puts in in reach of artists that don't have a huge budget for monthly paywall AI service costs.
The workflows I am able to run also rival most online, even Google VEO and others.
Content creators can easily dump $500/month on gen AI and have to wait sometimes hours.
Running local is just the cost of a single PC for most use cases, although I am now running 3 here.

I did this short video just now in under 30 minutes for my Wife's TikTok channel...


This was made entirely from still photos we took 20 years ago around here.
The physics in the motions are so realistic that nobody would question this as AI generated.
I also generated the music, all on my local AI hotrod.

Also doing work for a few V-Tubers, making their talking heads into other characters.
This stuff is so much fun, can't wait until I have time to unleash my own creations on the world!

Brad
 
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Brad, is it possible to download/preserve content from AZ/CZ.
I presume that once the website is closed, no link to the content will work ???
 
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