Recumbent News

Walking Sawhorse

This short little video clip is hysterical. Click anywhere on the above to see it!

Recumbent: Webster's Word of the Day

recumbent \rih-KUM-bunt\ adjective

*1 a : suggestive of repose : leaning, resting b : lying down
2 : representing a person lying down

Example sentence:
When Bert glanced at his father's recumbent form in the armchair, he immediately thought that he could use a good nap himself.

Did you know?
If you're ready to take your vocabulary lying down, you'll want to be familiar with the synonyms "recumbent," "prone," "supine," and "prostrate," all of which mean "lying down." "Recumbent," which derives from the Latin prefix "re-" and the verb "cumbere," meaning "to lie down," focuses on the posture or position native to sleeping or resting. "Prone" describes someone who is lying facedown, as, for example, in doing push-ups. "Supine" flips it over, suggesting the position of someone lying inert on the back, while "prostrate" implies a full-scale physical collapse or submission, regardless of the exact position of the defeated body. "Recumbent," dating from 1705, is the newest of the four words; the others all entered English before the 16th century.

The Treadmill Bike Possibility

As per THIS VIDEO about the Treadmill Bike, Faye Saunders had this to say:

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At 6:54 AM -0700 8/18/06, Faye Saunders wrote:
I'm trying to understand why anyone would need this. Why not just walk or run without the bike? Or am I just being way too practical here?
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While Tom Kabat of Woodenbikes.com had an all together different reaction:

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Thanks Martin,
I love it.
It may be the ergonomic breakthrough I've been looking for. Finally, a way to keep my running shoes clean.

If it could be made to be efficient (like a bike drive chain is) it would offer a great way to ride to the gym.
It could be made lower as a three wheeler. Easy to mount and dismount.

I actually do think it could be semi practical for about 1-3% of the 90% of people who reject bike usage for  now. (That is a market 10% to 30% as big as bikes!) Basically, I see it and the bike as both being leg levers that accelerate the user beyond pedestrian speeds using human power.

Maybe built low as a bike or trike using Max Chen’s parallelogram connected wheel setup to lower the deck and keep it from scraping in the turns. If it was geared up to give me about two strides of distance for each one stride of effort I would be able to run like the wind. That would be fun!  I see human powered chariot races in the future.

I might even enjoy an electric assist for a human hybrid. Put a bigger motor on it and a fairing and give me a carpool access sticker and we have a transportation revolution.

Of course we could always go about developing it the other way and see if Segway will add an electric treadmill to their segway. so the user could get exercise while segging… but somehow that seems almost silly. J

Keep an eye out for tossed treadmills.

-Tom