Monday, November 3, 2008

A good idea gone wrong: taking it to far


Yesterday I was lucky enough to come across a picture of a very interesting idea, while I was aimlessly exploring the vast and endless "Interwebs". It of course was a picture of a kid, in what looks a mini air stream trailer being toed by a single speed bike. Being the author of one of the smiling endless arrays of "bike blogs", I though oh snap that's like a free post, I hardly even have to write anything, Which was great. because I'm not even very good at writing. Just look I just used three commas in one sentence! Any ways some anonymous comment poster was nice enough to pass along a link with these two images. As you can see the idea is still very much alive, and living somewhere in Europe. Of course If I hadn't seen the other posting first, I probably would have just looked at this and though, oh its just some kook on a recumbent. Which of course it is, but that doesn't mean you can't tow that thing behind a road bike. That of course brings me to the question, would any one want to two that on a road bike. If that person was planning on doing some long distance touring with stops for camping along the way, then maybe the answer is yes. The design though, has a lot of room for improvement. For one its not very aero, at all. You could argue the it is traveling somewhat in his slip stream. But it doesn't hold up to the fact that, if the design were perhaps collapsible and folded up flat, with aero fenders on the front you would go allot faster.

I would also venture to say that if your the sort of person with is considering doing something like this, you've either got no money and you making the whole thing buy hand gehhto style, or you've got more money than sense and ridding cross country seems like a fun idea. Assuming your part of the latter gorp I would say the whole base of thing should be built from carbon fiber because no one wants to two something that's really, really, heavy. Also the wheels should be smaller to save weight, but not to small. So they still roll smoothly over potholes. Also some sort of breaks on each wheels probably wouldn't be a bad idea either. Of course even thinking these ideas I am treading a slippery slope. As these guys show us, sometimes it's hard to know when you've taken it too far








2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi

Did you check out the frame of the recumbent? It looks to me like it is made of wood.

good luck with the big vote

kale said...

The last Chinese guy looks like he needs a larger frame, he could develop a serious backache. I would talk to my OSHA rep if I were him.