Tony Eastwood's velocycle experience
Friday November 12th 2004 looked like it was going to be quite a good day - the day had begun well, the children had been on time for breakfast and prayers and I noticed, as I walked out to the garage, that there was slight westerly wind. It was mild, so mild in fact that I broke my own rule about always wearing more than one layer of clothing - but I was still wearing leather gloves. Some mornings, as I open the garage door I haven't quite made up my mind whether I will cycle to work on a conventional bicycle or choose the Paradigm Shift, my very own concept vehicle. However this morning is different, yesterday it had been the bicycle; today it will definitely be 'Paradigm Shift.'
I never like to think, as I begin rolling the vehicle out of the garage what its average speed really is. Yes, I can often do 22 or even 25 mph on the flat, and as soon as it begins to go down hill, virtually any speed you like (the speedo only goes up to 48Mph!) . On the other hand, if you count how many hours I have slaved over it, at first at the drawing-board and then with reluctant pieces of metal, I have a horrible sneaky feeling it may have been quicker to have crawled to my destinations on my hands and knees. I have been building it, off and on, for over eight years and yet suddenly, just over the last three months, it actually works. It is a means of transport. I am beginning to put my confidence in it. The lay shaft drive unit, for example, has NOT failed for three months, the suspension no longer affects the steering geometry, after countless painstaking (and sometimes frightening) adjustments and test rides. Both front and rear tracking are correct - I know they are for my tyres are lasting as well as any bike tyre. Indeed I am partially dry in the rain, there is a roof, an experimental front fairing in builders' plastic (to be replaced by a special fabric I had once I am sure the shape is correct) and there is even half a windscreen - I have tried the other half as well; but in the dark and the rain it seems to be better, as of yet, to be looking out through pure space.
They say a thing of beauty is a joy for ever and that's how I feel about the Paradigm Shift- at least when it works. I had tried a very old Peter Ross Trice. It was fun while it lasted, but really somewhat scary (ICE have fixed all the scary bits like unbalanced brakes and non centre-point steering; you can have one now and not be scared - it's a great vehicle). But after that, and its final human powered flight over a hedge, the thing I wanted was a space frame (I wanted protection!). I also wanted a long wheelbase - my four person 'Snark' had both these things and I felt that I could achieve the same things for one person. But as I sat at the drawing-board and worked out tilt angles I realised that a long wheelbase trike with most of the weight on the back wheel was going to be pretty unstable. Hence the four wheels. I also wanted feedback on how it was cornering - I had twice nearly turned Trice over because I didn't realise how near I was to its limits. Thus I had to have front and rear suspension so the vehicle would lean convincingly, if slightly, and give me some clue as to how near I was to something nasty. And amazingly, well perhaps not so amazingly after all the time spent on it, it actually works. You can indeed just let it go down hill, knowing that nothing bad will ever happen to the steering and that the long-wheelbase gave it a tremendous stability. And it does, indeed, roll slightly on corners just like a car.
Of course it isn't perfect. It is too heavy, partly because I have simply used too heavy a gauge of tubing (don't we all?) and partly because it is hard to make a four wheeler that is light. But for me the HPV 'paradigm', the standardised trikes, the inside frame, has shifted. Yes it is heavy- still it is wonderful what high-pressure tyres will do for you - indeed this morning I have time to pump them up. The front tyres are not so critical - I have about 80 psi in those; but the two rear wheels, especially the one I am now driving, need all they can get - around 95 psi. And I'm not really happy about the way twisting loads are handled by the rear wheel carriers - the suspension unit should be above the axle as it is on the Snark. That will have to be fixed if there is any sign of cracking - and then I can really show off on the corners. Still I am aware of any difficulties and before I set off I make a quick check of any really stressed parts - after all this was still a prototype with only 350 miles on the clock.
Just one or two more pre-flight checks to do before I push the bike onto the road. First check the lights. There are two independent sets. The first is driven by a 6V NiMi battery pack in the boot. It gives me just over 1 hour 20 minutes from the two front headlights - these are mounted on the top of the kingpins - an ideal place to put them in terms of lighting as it means that the beams turn into corners - not so good in terms of aerodynamics perhaps, but safety is what this thing is all about. The other lamp is a standard bicycle light mounted as high up as possible, as there is bound to be someone who says the others are too low.
I push the bike onto the laneway and another 25 yds up to the top of the hill. I could cycle it up but I have left it with all the gear changers 'parked' - so my smaller 42 chain ring is driving the smallest 13 tooth gear on the lay shaft of a 13-22 tooth block. The lay shaft in turn drives a 15 tooth gear which in turn is now driving the 13 tooth of a mega-range 13-34 block mounted on the back wheel. Thus if I try and move it now all I'll probably do is break my knees or the lay shaft. Much easier to push it to the top of the hill and get in there. And getting in, and getting out is definitely something you want to do on the level. There is, after all, a roof and only a limited gap in the side, but once you know exactly where put your feet and where to bend it's straightforward enough. Even getting out on a hill, for example if you drop the chain, is challenging but not impossible. Just before I get in I start the rear lights - there are plenty of lights on this thing - two LD600 and two LD500's. Today I put the 500's on flash and the 600's on 'chase mode' to conserve battery. Coming back in the dark the 600's will be on continuous, so people have some clue where I am, the 500's on intermittent flash so they don't forget I'm there.
Once I am in, I tie my feet to the pedals, check the mirror, clear the Speedo and begin rolling down the very steep hill which leads from my house to the village. Today they are digging a trench in the village and there are no traffic lights (why not? - They don't normally miss an opportunity for a set) and the last thing I want is a head-on in the High Street so I brake coming down the hill and only let go when I see it's clear. The brakes on this thing are pretty conventional, a caliper for each of the two rear wheels gives it slightly better stopping power than a bike. I am already thinking about disk brakes, but the one 'real' emergency stop I have done so far - screaming round a blind bend at 30mph to discover a line of stationery traffic - was a piece of cake. At first it used to worry me that the front wheels were un-braked; until I discovered that the same thing was true for the Rolls Royce until 1920 (I believe) and that I have much better braked weight to un-braked weight than even old Rolls Royce.
As I approach the junction on to the main road I begin changing down. Left hand lever, which controls the final drive, down two, the right hand lever down one, maybe two . This morning, however, there is a a continuous line of traffic, and while I would like a rolling start onto the mild rise that confronts me as I start on the main road, it is not to be. I crash down on the left-arm lever into the 34 tooth gear and stop dead. Forty seconds later, there is a gap and I can go. I'm off now in earnest - there are 9.2 miles to go before I get to work - six of these on the gently undulating valley bottom, three more as I climb from sea level to the 720 ft altitude where I work. And this morning it's obviously going to be fast, probably around 40 minutes - nearly half of that spent climbing those last three miles.
I work quickly up through the gears, and the small rise. I'm doing 15 at the top, it could be much more but I've learnt from the short time this thing has been on the road that while it's new, I'm not, and at 49 years of age it pays to warm up gradually.
After the rise the road drops slightly past a garage and I take the opportunity to change onto the big chain wheel. I will be staying on this chain ring until the road leaves the valley floor. There's only two rings at the front, a 42 and 52 - I originally had a triple 28,40,52 but that was in the days when I was insisting on driving both rear wheels. In those days the lay shaft extended to both sides of the vehicle and both rear wheels were driven. In one sense it was a good idea - I found that the Trice wouldn't climb icy hills simply because it ran out of adhesion - and as at the time I lived at the top of a steep icy hill it was a bit of a nuisance. Driving 70% of the adhesion weight sounded like a great idea. But there were drawbacks, you had two long, heavy, final drive chains - neither of which was tensioned by any kind of derailleur mechanism. And, of course, the fact that the two rear wheels are on trailing link suspension didn't help either. But much more serious was the fact the you had to choose a fixed final drive ratio - and when you were climbing steep hills the torque level on the main shaft became enormous. So eventually, after a series of very short rides, each ending in a lay shaft breakage, I've done a complete rebuild. Now I have just one wheel drive via two sets derailleur. Despite the 'close-ish' double chain ring at the front I've got a tremendous gear range - something like 93 inch down to 16 inch when the going really gets tough. [4.2 ft to 24.3ft development]. I like to rev really high when climbing - there's a longish bit of 1 in 6 (16%) in front.
Once I'm in the top ring the speed soon rises, 20, 22, 23 - I decide it's really quite reasonable, lie back and begin to enjoy my journey. Am I really cycling? - it all seems too deliciously easy and relaxed. I'm singing a hymn (mentally - I still have to breathe) 'Over the Gloomy hills of Darkness, Look my soul be still and gaze,' [W. Williams Pantecelyn]. I can amuse myself by pretending that I'm not moving at all but am on kind of gym machine - all the scenery is just being wheeled past me like they do for the astronauts in the International Space Station. This particular road has a lovely quiet surface and this conspires with the long wheelbase and full suspension to give a feeling of strange remoteness from the road - its more like being in a boat than in something with wheels, I simply float along. In front of me everything happens as part of a head-up display - I keep my head right back on the headrest and just move my eyes. Eyes right a bit and I can see, on the right hand end of the handlebars, the shift lever for the front changer - I will only change down for the big hill. Then to the left the brake lever, the front changer on a narrow range block, the speedo, rear changer on a mega range block, and brake lever. Beyond them I can see the road clearly - (how do cyclists manage hunched over their front wheel?). If I lean my head slightly to the left I can see the near side front wheel and can, if necessary, hold it one inch from the kerb even at 25 mph. The steering is a steady as a rock, that's what a really long wheelbase will do for you. When it was new I used to amuse myself by watching the suspension in action, like some small child still fascinated by the fact that the up and down didn't interfere (anymore) with the tracking. But now most of that mechanism is hidden from me by the fairing. On my right hand side the mirror gives a complete coverage of the road behind me. If there's nothing there I'll ride right out where a car would normally go, but if there's some great truck bombing up behind me I can tuck right and to curb and occupy no more space than the bicycle. Not that any one passes it close like a bicycle - even those who see me every morning give me a foot or too - and often a friendly wave as well if I pull in for them. Occasionally, secure in my little cabin, I will look behind me and check that all is well, there is quite a lot of metal between me and the back of the vehicle - yes it has weight I could do without but it's also my safety margin. If anything goes wrong I guess I'll get hit from the back.
On the left I pass the strange farm where tourists are accommodated right next to the asbestos disposal plant (do they know? - I guess not) then another slight rise and my speeds drops a bit. I wonder what kind of average I've got by now? - I switch into average mode rather than time elapsed on the speedo- 16.8, that's a bit disappointing; it just shows what happens when you have to wait any time at all for some traffic. Still, I've got a nice downhill bit coming now, Cae Afalau (Apple Field) it's called in Welsh. It's where they used to take pack horses to load slate on to little barges in the Dwrwyd and then in the mouth of the estuary, unsheltered by any harbour, they used to tranship to slate on to sea going craft. I often wonder what that was like, slate tiles are awkward square sharp things to handle at the best of times. What was it like passing the stuff between two rocking ships I wonder? - plenty of opportunity to get crushed, drowned or injured I would have thought. Still when the only alterative was dangling from a rope in the quarries it can't have been so bad, better than starving; life was cheap in those days. Coming up to Cae Afalau I'll do a right hand bend at about 30 mph, a slightly gentler left-hand and then on to a great big open section that is one of my favourites. As I do the right hand bend I'll really open up and hit my pedaling limit at about 35 mph - and it will be half-a-mile before I'm below 30 again. I look forward to a higher average.
I check the mirror for traffic behind me, there's nothing. I get ready to take slightly higher line on the bend. A car, a black Fiat Punto, appears coming the other way. His back end swings out. I change my mind about the higher line on the bend and go for the kerb. The Punto oversteers, leaves the road, misses a telegraph pole and carries on spinning. He crosses the road towards me, broadside on it seems. I think I missed him - I'm wrong - he hits about a foot behind the front wheel. There's a very short bang. I'm sliding along the road, I can't see anything, something to do with the G force I think, but I'm still conscious. I come to a stop. I get easily out of the vehicle which is lying on its side - there is no roof any more, no wonder it's easy. I'm alive, one of my elbows is wet and red but I'm alive, I can see, hear and still have all my limbs. For me life will still continue; I'll still embrace my children, play the guitar, preach sermons. I'm euphoric - I look at my totally wrecked vehicle and and I'm still euphoric. I'm standing here alive, and well, and praising God's providence in preserving me whole - I've just hit something at over sixty miles an hour and survived. My own vehicle saved my life - 8 years work gone in 1/20 of a second but I'd make the same bargain any time. The police man and ambulance man think so too - they are amazed, full of praise for the vehicle. It's a wonderful accident - can you have such a thing? - I can simply walk away with just one small hole in my left arm, a reminder of what could have been.
No one else is hurt - the driver, a nice young man having his first accident, is terribly shocked but he's OK. His car's wrecked, my bike seems to have taken a lot off it and the wall's done the rest. And that, I guess, is my last ride on a velocycle for some time. If I'm lucky the nice young man's nice, kind insurance company will buy me a Leitra, Quest , or even pay for a replica - but as they say, the jury is still out. But, for anyone who is interested, the space fame and the long wheel base is the way to go.
Tony Eastwood
