Tuesday, April 10, 2007

5 Kyles & no Records!
SO, another 3 months gone, and A LOT OF SHED TIME LATER, and what do I have to show for it all?
But the biggest piece of news in this time was seeing my son, 12 yr old Jack, having his first ride in a speed bike, but riding using a PERISCOPE! You can just see his helmet behind the top mirror & below the normal bubble cover. Eyes are well below the top of the fairing, but the mirrors shift the image to that level. This is BIG news for others making speed bikes, as it showas the possibilities of reducing bubble height significantl;y, whilst enabling excellent stereo vision (required for best balance). This was a very exciting development.
This ride was accomplised at the Holden proving grounds, along with 4 other copies of the Kyle speed bike. We were trying to break 2 long standing Australian records, but came up short in both. So they stand: 89.8kmh for a flying 200m, and 58.3 km for 1 hour. Something to aim for next summer!

During this time I also made a trike version of Whoops for a kids Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) endurance event in Wonthaggi, Victoria. A team of 10 riders rode Tri Whoops for 16 hours. Slowly. I added quite a few safety features (rules require them) late in the building of the bike, which relly hurt it's speed. So, in short it was slow as a slug, or, as we ended up calling it, slow as a Carrot on Wheels!
Time for a break now from my shed. I have a wife who needs my attemtion for a while, so my bikes can survive without me for a month or so, and then I'll get into making them fast!

Thursday, January 04, 2007


Where did those last 3 months go?

So, Whoops is now being cut up to fit over my new vehicle... a TILTING Trike. You see the prototype here. At rest, the rear wheels are locked in the vertical position. Once moving, you unlock the rear end & ride it like a 2 wheeler. I'm cutting 30cm of the Whoops fairing (race rules) as well as removing the rear wheel cover (no longer required). It's really fun to ride... stable at rest, dynamic at speed. I'll add a 70tooth chainring & realy crank it up. More soon.