Cycling "heats up" in the Minnesota winter

Minneapolis, January 26 and 27, 2008 -- a cycling weekend on ice.

After a couple weeks of Arctic cold, the Minnesota winter warmed up to near the freezing point, and cyclists' thoughts turned to ice-biking.  The Minnesota Human-Powered Vehicle Association usually holds races on Rogers Lake in Mendota Heights, but snow had fallen during the freeze-up, and the ice was un-rideable.  Rinks and paths on Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis had been cleared for an international Pond Hockey tournament the week before, so the races were (unofficially, since there had been no time to get a permit) re-located to the city.  Enthusiastic riders raced on a dozen trikes and about as many bikes.  From as far away as South Carolina, innovaters came to test their ice-racing contraptions in timed heats, drag races, and circuit races.  Check out the Icebike race and photos in the Gallery, or look at a few ice-bike pictures on Flickr or a lot of videos on YouTube.

Winter weekends on Medicine Lake, just west of Minneapolis, are a time for ice-fishing, and for the annual Art Shanty exhibit.  A cluster of ice houses sponsored by a local art group offered something new this year -- a human-powered fish-house.  Six cyclists lined up on a wooden bench pedaled this  little shanty around the exhibit, while the other passengers warmed themselves next to a wood stove.  See more Human-Powered Fish-house photos in the Gallery, or on Flickr or watch the videos on YouTube.

Mary Arneson

A two-person velomobile with electric assist -- introduced in Belgium.

Fietser.be introduces the Bakmobiel, a two-person velomobile with electric assist. This special-purpose vehicle was built for a foundation that provides employment for the disabled. It serves as a delivery van for a bakery, hence the name "Bakmobiel" which refers to a "Baker's vehicle" and also plays on the "Bakfiets" or "box bike" that serves to transport goods and children in the Low Countries.

Mary Arneson

September 2007 bike events

Mary Arneson

A local event with a global flavor

Cycling promotion sometimes bypasses urban residents who didn't grow up with bikes.  A new organization in Minneapolis, BikeOn.org, reaches out to immigrant women, low-income families, and others who may not even know how to ride.  (Readers may be familiar with a similar program in London.)  Their promotional material shows the Midtown Global Market, a mixed-use development in an old Sears store in south Minneapolis.  Running up the left-hand side of the picture is the Midtown Greenway, a cross-city bike and pedestrian path all the way across Minneapolis.  This commuter route links to other trails, reaching the University of Minnesota, downtown, Farmers' Markets, and several suburbs.  

On Saturday, June 30 and Sunday, July 1, BikeOn invites everyone to Global Bike Days at the Midtown Global Market.  "A weekend of bikes, music, language, culture, art, spoken word, film, theater, children's activities and more" is planned for participants.  And of course there will be bikes -- from ordinary to completely different!

Mary Arneson

Velomobile news for spring of 2007

Velomobile News

It's been a month now since the Spezi bike show in Germany, and we're overdue for a report on what we saw there.  We had a terrific time on our trip -- triking through the tulips in Holland, riding through Cologne in a Velotaxi, catching up on the European specialty bike scene at Spezi, and visiting friends and relatives in Austria.  It's taken us some time to process and edit more than three gigabytes of photos, and we've been back at work since the day after we flew home, but we have some videos up on YouTube and some photos on Flickr and in the Gallery here.  More will be coming as get them sorted and edited.

Velomobiles are cropping up all over, and some of them are quite different from the "standard" models.

The minimalist approach was seen in these examples of fabric or soft fairings for bikes and trikes:




Winter-Reisner of Hamburg offered some enclosures for trikes, including the blue one on the left.  Alfred's All-Weather Solution (seen in two versions in the center) is a fairing system for various recumbents.  The Velo-Kit (in red, on the right) fits a variety of trikes. 


There were also new removable rigid fairings for trikes -- including one delta version:




The Cabriovelo, seen above in orange with the roof down, and in blue with the convertible top and sides in place, is built on the Sinner Comfort delta trike.  In yellow, the Ped3 fairing from Slovenia is made for the Berkut trike from Russia.


New velomobiles in the WAW and Leiba line both ended up with names that translate as "breeze" -- the WAW Bries and the Leiba Brise.  Drawings of the WAW offering showed its 16" front wheels and newly-designed wheel-mounting system.  A late prototype of the Leiba Brise was being test-ridden on the plaza.  The Leiba Brise is more open than most velomobiles. 




After Spezi, we stopped at BikeRevolution in Austria and talked with Thomas Seide about his velomobile projects.  His Thunderstorm velomobile wasn't ready for Spezi but will be introduced later this year.  He'll be offering a lightweight full fairing that will mount on a Nomad or MadMax trike, allowing the rider to choose to ride a full-function open trike or a fully-enclosed velomobile.  In addition, he will be producing Leitra velomobiles.

Mary Arneson

Spezi 2007

Where is the Spezi news? We've been back for a little over a week, and there's lots to say about the Spezi bike show in Germersheim, Germany, but we haven't had time yet to upload the photos and write about the new developments. New velomobiles and velomobile-like fairings are appearing faster than we can keep up. There is the Bries (Breeze) from WAW, with 16" front wheels and space for larger riders than the standard WAW. There's the new Brise (Breeze) from Leiba, with only a partial enclosure for the rider. 4 Seasons Velo introduces the Cabriovelo, a fairing for a Sinner Comfort delta trike. It's wide open for fair-weather riding, but quickly converts to an enclosed trike for cold or rainy weather. Several full and partial fairings for bikes and trikes were on display. The Thunderstorm velomobile wasn't ready in time for the show, but we stopped in Austria and talked with Thomas Seide at BikeRevolution about it. Ped3 is a new velomobile from Slovenia; it is built for the Berkut trike from Russia. Over the next few weeks, we'll be working on the updates to the comparison tables and the Gallery, and we'll be posting some travel photos as well. In the meantime, we have a few pictures up on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/velomobiling/.

Mary Arneson

HPV developments

Wired published an article yesterday on a Human-Powered Vehicle contest sponsored by the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers).

The West Coast Human Powered Vehicle Challenge took place at the NASA-Ames Research Center - Moffett Field, CA on April 13 - 15, 2007. Twenty-Five teams and 400 attendees particpated in the event.

The results of the West Coast HPVC are posted. Please visit http://www.asme.org/Events/Contests/HPV/HPV_Results_2.cfm for complete results.

Disappointingly, for those of us who are trying to raise awareness of velomobiles, the whole event seemed to pass without the word "velomobile" ever coming up. The mechanical engineering students could probably learn something from the velomobile industry, and human-powered vehicles have a lot to gain from new technology and insights, but the two worlds seem to run on parallel tracks and never to meet.

This separation isn't limited to the United States; European educational institutions also sponsor HPV challenges and projects without seeming to notice a thriving velomobile industry under their noses.

One where the two worlds may meet this year is in Scarborough, Maine, where the Electrathon organization is inviting some Human-Powered Vehicle people to its electric vehicle contest.

Another option is at the East Coast ASME event, coming up in May. Maybe a Florida faired trike or velomobile could show up at the University of Central Florida May 11-13 to demonstrate that HPV's aren't just for engineering students.

We're heading for the SPEZI bike show and hope to bring back lots of photos of new velomobile developments in Europe!

Mary Arneson

Snowy weather activity

Winter still has a grip on Minnesota, but there are signs of spring. A bald eagle is sitting on her nest at the corner of Cedar Avenue and the Crosstown freeway; we went and looked at her yesterday. Most of the activity is indoors, though, when half-melted snow still makes the trails slippery. I've been building a Mango velomobile. It's made out of paper, and it's tiny. You can find the pattern on the Velomobiel website. Photos will follow.

I've also reviewed our YouTube experience. It's sort of fun to see which videos are viewed and how often.

Mary Arneson

What's happening in the world velomobile market?

Astrophysicist and science journalist Yvan Dutil has been talking with manufacturers and velomobilists and has written an article on velomobile production around the globe.  Click on the photo to see what he's found out.

Mary Arneson