News: Er, well, not much of late. Still have the S&B and Bob, picked up a mountain bike or two in the interim, and also a RANS Screamer (tandem recumbent for me and the missus). We run Earl on the back in the trailer when we're tandeming, otherwise I drag him along in the bucket seat on the S&B - he enjoys the view, as well as pounding on dad's helmet.

Recumbents and Joe: a history...

I saw my first recumbent bicycle in the spring of 1983, at the Ontario Science Centre: it was an entrant in a science fair, and I was hooked.  However, even though I liked biking and did a fair bit in the intervening years, it was 1996 before I got my first actual 'bent.  I picked up a floor model S&B recumbent: a basic 7-speed, tensile steel, short wheelbase, with under-seat-steering.  It arrived when I was biking on my regular upright from Hamilton to Manitoulin Island: a shame it wasn't already in my hands, given the nature and effects of road bike seats & stance over a pretty long haul.

I did a few upgrades in the spring after the purchase: a new rear-wheel with a Sachs 3x7 hub, giving it 21 speeds via grip-shifters; clipless SPD pedals, and a Blackburn rack on the back.  Aside from some lights, tires and other such basic things, the next few years were static as far as development went.

Over the 1999-2000 new year break I got a new seat custom built by Carey Chen of the Urbane Cyclist, and since then picked up 30W of Nitehawk halogens for the front, and a couple of improved tail lights.  Then, I received the fairing I ordered, and built a frame to hang this from.  Since then, I've added a few other touches, including a new speedometer, kickstand, and hook-ups for my palm IIIx and GPS combo, walkman and speakers.  So I'm a technogeek, but you likely know that by now, anyhoo...

So, the current configurations of the bike.  First, stripped, which I do occasionally still, particularly if I have to worry about terrain...

It's hard to hang much off of it when it's in barebones form (no dashboard, etc).  On the other hand, it's easy to hang too much on the frame when the fairing is on it.  This is one of the more recent appearances, though it's before the sound system was added.  My goal is to add a coffee cup holder, so I can crank up on the decaf as I trundle to work...

The fairing is manufactured by Mueller Fairings, and is a 0.06 polycarbonate wraparound kit.  The frame is a grungy little home job, made out of PVC piping (.75" and .50" pipe and fittings, for the most part).  It's fairly light, though I haven't weighed it yet.

Unfortunately I haven't done any systematic speed comparisons with the before and after side of things.  However, these days I can maintain a pretty comfortable pace at around 21-22 mph (34-34 km/h) on the flats with the fairing & all get out.  I'm not sure that this is much faster than what I did before. When I took it out on longer trips over the spring and summer of 2000 (commuting from where I lived on the boat, Semper Bufo, at the marina, ca. 54 km or 34 miles away, for example) I averaged around 17 mph/27 km/h, which wasn't bad, given the heat, the lights & stop signs, & the heat/humidity. FYI, the pannier on the left in the image below is a Serratus pack, which converts to a daypack with a capacity of 25 or 30 L: unfortunately, MEC decided to discontinue this model, because it works very nicely...

Still and all, I've been noticing that I run out of top-end gearing a little more than usual (or rather, I didn't before & do now), so there seems to be a bit of an improvement.  In addition, it cuts down on the windchill a bit, and reduces the buffeting in heavy head-winds, along with reducing the flies-in-teeth syndrome. 

I moved up to Thunder Bay in August of 2000, and rode the bike until mid-November, until the snow really started flying. I had to find an indirect commute to work (Lakehead University) in order to get a decent ride in, and I took a few tours around town & out to Kakabeka Falls to the west. The only problem I ran into was the windchill effect: bombing along at 35 km/h in -15C weather means stinking cold on the head (the rest of the body, behind the fairing, was fine. I ended up getting a full-face helmet with a visor, which cut down on the freezing noticably.

Once the snow hit, I shifted to my recently acquired beater, a CCM mountain bike, equipped with Nokia 160 studded tires fore & aft (to the left is a close up of said studded tire - grey bits are studs). I ride to work, snow or shine, and some of my best rides have been through 6 or 8 inches (15-20cm) of fresh powder in the early morning. To the right is me with bike on the path. IIRC it was around -15C that afternoon, with little wind, and a brilliant sky. This is the fave part of my ride, along a stream that runs through the campus. I don't use the full face helment when I'm riding on the trails because snow really slows down the ride (balaclava is enough), and with the heat I'm pumping out the visor just fogs up. The panniers on the back convert into a backpack with about 70 l of volume - made by PanPack, but they're formless when not stuffed to the gills, causing spoke rash. Nifty idea, though, that I hope to take advantage of when I do the cycle Euroland tour in the not-too distant.

I was hoping to do more work than I have (which is very little) on the 'bent over the winter: I've got some carbon fibre tubes for framing the tailbox, but haven't picked up the corroplast or corroflute for it, and have done no work on the bodysock either. Oh, well, you can only do so much.

Further developments will be posted...

For resources you might like to look at, try the international human powered vehicle association, and human powered vehicles of southern ontario.

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