March 31, 2008
First Recumbent 1902??
Not much seems to be known about this early recumbent design but its existence does seem credible due to the fact that Boise, ID based patent attorney, Robert Shaver, points to it at his amazing site: http://patentpending.blogs.com/patent_pending_blog/2005/02/the_first_recum.html
Subsequent to the original post here, Steve Whan forwarded the full patent, It can be found HERE
March 24, 2008
20 Year Old Bent Promotion Video
Dick "The Godfather of Recumbents" Ryan wrote:
This is a promotional video I made about twenty years ago. Due to the fact that misinformation about recumbents is as common today as it ever was. Especially on Usenet where the "experts" with minimal to no experience reign. I thought that maybe the old cliche about a picture being worth a thousand words might apply. About 40 seconds is missing from the tape that I hope to fix shortly, (shows the riders passing the upright bike on the downhill). The rider in the downtown Boston part of the tape was myself. The riders in the suburbs were Harry Wallace on the bike with the camera, a bike racer from Fat City Cycles. The other rider was Steve Bussolari from M.I.T. who was one of the Daedalus project engineers.
March 12, 2008
Max Chen's Rideable Art Trike
San Francisco blacksmith and NBG Scout, Max Chen, keeps adding to his impressive collection of Rideable Art. HERE are action shots of the amazing trike he created.
I encourage you to get a look at his full collection. There is a lot of idea food there..
My favorite is his soapbox derby racer ..
March 03, 2008
Big Ha Spotted or Big Hmmmmm??
Spotted my second Big Ha on the sidewalk at the Tour de California prologue in Palo Alto a few weeks ago. The owner of the first one I saw in nearby Menlo Park the year before is friends with one of the bike company owners and he tells me that they have actually sold 250 of them! I began to believe such a thing might be possible when I saw my second Big Ha in two years. After all, this a a big country!
I started to feel it necessary to throw caution to the wind however, when the second owner didn't even know that his bike was not a happily known part of the recuumbent bicycle universe. Nor was he much aware of the connection between his machine and the BikeE that so many people used to love and enjoy Owner #2 found his on the web.
I will admit that Owner #1's bike rode beautifully but you have to wonder about a company that is led by a lot of the same people who were at the BikeE helm when that company went out of business the way they left so many people holding the bag. Especially when one of the featured products at their web site http://www.bigha.com is a star gazing chair. They also seem to specialize in binoculars, telescopes and laser pens.... Big Ha or Big Hmmmmm? Hmmmm.....
I wonder if all those once loyal BikeE dealers and fans are saving their Big Ha's for a bike that is not only overpriced for what it is but was a machine that participated in the demise of the BikE as they knew it? And/or was/is the Big Ha only so much hubris?
Long Live BikeE!