Run, Bike, Run

This may be the ultimate way to avoid road rage while riding your recumbent. The students from Nottingham University and the Giant Bicycle company have come up with a new recumbent, a recumbent airship.  Imagine riding to work and not having to worry about the right hook of a motorist trying to get their morning latte, or going for spin around the lake even when there isn’t a trail. But at 25 meters in length, it might be a little hard to find a parking space at work or home.

The prototype is currently in production with intial testing to be completed in a hanger then hopefully to be taken out to University Park in Nottingham UK for it’s maiden flight.

http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-GB/news/13191/

kif_5451, originally uploaded by Russ Nelson.

The way rail trails normaly work is this. 1) Find old railroad tracks 2) Tear them out 3) Put in trail.

But if all goes by plan, the Brooks Preservation Society agreement with the Maine Department of Transportation will allow for the restoration of the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Rail corridor. Not only will passenger excursions and some freight trains, but rail bikes. Rail bikes are small and light pedal powered bikes that ride on the rails like full sized trains. Tours would be lead by a group leader over isolated sections of track to minimize problems with trains.

The pictured rail bike from Russ Nelson’s photostream on Flickr

http://waldo.villagesoup.com/Community/story.cfm?storyID=145511

11 days after a left knee meniscectomy (partal removal of meniscus) I am back to my commute on my Rans. The surgery PA told me to becareful as to not over do it, so I will be cycling a few times a week to start. Once I got to work I felt a little discomfort but nothing like prior to the sugery. The stairs up to the lab went easy with need of the hand rail. This was a striking difference to the one commute prior to surgery where I almost couldn’t even make the stairs due to the pain.

This morning stats:

• Miles     3.9
• Time:    15 minutes
• Weather: Overcast 39 Degrees
• Gear used: North Face Goretex shoes, REI Cycling Jacket, Cabelas polypro and windshield fleece pants.

From the Oregon Human Powered Vehicle Yahoo! Group,

I just found this t-shirt on the Terry website http://www.terrybicycles.com/detail.html?item_no=1008&c=On+Sale 

If the link doesn’t work, go to www.terrybicycles.com then click on the tab for “On Sale”, then click for “Tees/Sweatshirts”, then scroll to the bottom row, you’ll see the picture.  Even tho this is a women’s clothing website, these are Men’s t-shirts – with a recumbent (short wheelbase) on the front, only one color (barn red) but on sale for $12.00.  I thought someone here might buy one or two

Awsome find, seeing that I spent alot of time during vacation in Colorado trying to find this exact shirt with zero luck. As of this morning they have XXL in stock, and one is on the way to me.

UPDATE: 1/24/09- WOW!! Ordered on Thursday, came in the mail Saturday. Talk about service, Terry receives 2 thumbs up from the clyde.

Imagine spending 8 years on a recumbent trike. According to Christopher Smart at the Salt Lake Tribune, that is exactly what Tony Adams has been doing.  With the trike, rider and trailer weight around 600 pounds makes me believe that Tony is an honorary Clyde.

http://www.sltrib.com/outdoors/ci_11310539 

Seeing that I haven’t been able to ride for a few months, it seems like a strange time to start blogging about cycling. Between the record snow of December and the record flooding that is currently going on, it’s not been great weather for riding. I have the Rans hooked up to my trainer in the garage, but it’s just not the same.  But the sky has opened up this afternoon and it’s looking like I might get a few miles in this weekend. It would be nice to hit the foot hills trail, but seeing that it’s a few feet underwater it’s looking like a few laps around 5 mile drive at Point Defiance on Saturday.