gabe tows megatrailer |
| Gabe borrowed
MegaTrailer to move this bookshelf. |
two tall bikes |
are sillier than one? |
| I borrowed Tall Bike back off David for a
dance party I was going to over new year. That
necessitated moving two bikes or walking. So I did
this... riding one bike while holding the handlebar of a
second bike isn't unheard of, after all. It was not
really all that difficult technically, but it was quite
hard on my arm - tall bike is not light, and there are
hills between the two locations. Starting was easy, as
Fiona (who took the photos) was there to hold the spare
bike while I got up, started riding, and collected the
second bike. To get off I just dropped tall bike against
a wall. Stopping was the usual - just lean on the second
bike to balance. |
|
|
| For the Christmas Mass in 2000 we dressed up
the tall bike and tandem trike, and went round giving out
puncture repair kits and sweets. We had two Masses - one the
Friday before Christmas, one on the last Friday of the month.
Both were well attended, and fun. But the dress up bikes made
it more fun again. |
Daniel - Mad Professor built this chopper bike for Mass |
a Giant brand electrically assisted bike |
| Another interesting bike from Daniel. Quite
rideable, and very well put together. The Giant turned up in my
living room momentarily. Bought in Taiwan, apparently not
available in Oz. Owner not happy that it doesn't have the
grunt to go up hills without him pedalling, or the range to
use it as a motor scooter. I don't think he quite "got
it". |
a SWB USS FWD FWS MBB bike |
with Megan on it |
| Megan wanted to build this as a prototype
commuting bike, but got busy halfway through. Since I needed a
bike, I "finished" it, to the point where it was rideable
anyway. It's a short wheelbase, under seat steer, front wheel
drive, front wheel steer, moving bottom bracket bike. Despite
my initial skepticism it's actually fairly rideable, but as you
might expect the next one will be a lot better. Still, this
one cost less than $AU100 (new tyres, welding materials, a few
bolts). Changes are mostly with the seat position (it's too
far back), front wheel fixing (it's got two sets of dropouts
on it, making it impossible to adjust properly), and handlebar
position (they hit the seat, giving only about 30 degrees of
steering movement). Oh' and it really is as short as it looks.
I rode it about 10km in total before giving it back to
Megan, mostly because of the wheel hassles, and because it
only has one gear, making hills (and hill starts) quite hard.
She can kind of ride it, mostly because she hasn't practiced
much. |
|
| Outside Mark's place while we were staying with
him for a while. There wasn't really a good place to park the
tandem, so it hung in the tree. |
|
|
| This was a bit of a challenge to ride - the load
weighed significantly more than Kelly does, and riding up the
little ramp from the street to the carpark was enough of a
jolt to lift her rear wheel off the ground. But she didn't
fall off! |
a bike called "Massive"
| 
Birdy folding bike |
| Ian Humphries built this bike specifically for going to Critical Mass rides.
It carries two people, but the second rider is more of a
pillion passenger. It's all mild steel and cheap (recycled)
bike bits, so it flexes a bit. But it makes a great camera
platform and part of the ABC documentary was shot from it. |
The Birdy folding bike I borrowed from Ken for six months
while I didn't have bike parking where I was working. Well,
parking except for under my desk. It rides very well for a
folder (now that's faint praise! It's noticeably better than
anything else I've ridden, folds quickly, and rides better
than many cheap road bikes). |
CRR_rowofbents.jpg |
| A really bad photo of a huge row of recumbents lined up
along a railing at the end of a Sydney Recumbent Riders
meeting/ ride. |
fairing.jpg |
ians_gs_fairing.jpg |
| A polystyrene fairing plug originally build by Peter for
the Solar Challenge race, which he used then gave to Ian. Ian
reshaped it using all sorts of things, then left it out in
Ken's backyard in the rain (under a cheap plastic tarp) for
six months, and now it's in storage somewhere while he thinks
about doing something with it. |
Ian also got this fibreglass trike fairing from someone
(Giles?) and has been thinking of using this too. |
Who needs spokes when the hub is that big? |
a Rohloff hub in a tandem trike? |
| Ken's Rohloff hub fitted to my tandem trike
during construction. With a trolley tyre fitted over it it
looks quite reasonable, if a little on the small side. We
never actually rode it like this... |
