Tales of the Freewayblogger

Making a Sail for Recumbent Bicycles (Easy)

What You’ll Need:
1 Backpack Frame
2 2” Spring Clamps
Duct Tape/Scissors
Some vinyl or plastic sheeting

Directions:
1. Cut vinyl to fit inside backpack frame, attach with duct tape.
2. Attach sail behind backrest with spring clamps like so:

A standard 2" spring clamp costs about a dollar and fits perfectly around the seat strut and sail frame. (Use duct tape to reinforce the seat so as not to tear up the webbing.) You can use tape or a bungee cord to make a third anchorpoint on the crossbars, but the springclamps hold so well it's not necessary.

I used a standard Bike E recumbent extended with a 2” x 3” hammered directly into the frame (the fit is so perfect it’s hard to imagine it wasn’t designed that way). My son and I road-tested this along with a touring bike from Monterey to San Luis Obispo through the Salinas Valley, approximately 200 miles of relatively flat, straight backcountry roads paralleling the 101. Winds are generally light or non-existent in the mornings, but as the valley floor begins to heat up the air rises and starts pulling in the cooler air from the coast, so by 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon the entire valley turns into a wind tunnel heading south.

With its lower profile and center of gravity, the recumbent was able to keep up fairly well in low wind conditions, but once the wind kicked in and we put the sail up, the recumbent was definitely faster. Particularly going uphill, which is something recumbents aren't supposed to be.

Torture Accountability Protests

Protests Against Torture in Pasadena and Los Angeles

from Aboriginalmedia

Biggest Losers in the World Awards

Well folks, it looks like we've got a two way tie between Governor Mark Sanford (for not staying in Argentina for an extra day or two,) and this guy, who went to all the trouble of setting up and maintaining fake facebook and twitter accounts for Yours Truly.

Breathtaking.

Tribunes

International Herald Tribune from Greenpeace and the Yes Men.

Another from Tribunes of the People in LA. Story here.

The California Bike Road

The above is a quote from Frank Barron, my psychology professor who said it in class over 25 years ago and it’s stuck in my head since. One of the reasons it’s stayed with me all this time is, quite simply, it’s right. There’s really almost no downside to bicycling, and its swift adoption as an alternative to cars would combat not just pollution, global warming and dependence on foreign oil, but obesity and diabetes as well.

The downside to bicycles is of course their relative lack of speed and cargo capacity, and that they require physical effort. Not to mention the chance of getting instantly killed or permanently disfigured by a car. As it is, the biggest drawbacks to bicycling are that it takes place right next to automobiles, and if we want people to start using bikes to any meaningful extent, we have to separate them from automobiles. One of the best things we could do as a society right now would be to start building bike roads between all our major cities. Not lanes, not paths. Roads. Roads built specifically for bicycles, and designed to take fullest advantage of prevailing winds, terrain and gravity. Imagine if we built wind tunnels for bicycles alongside urban freeways, or gondolas up to mountaintops with perfectly graded downhills running along the ranges and foothills. Imagine if those gondolas, or simple tow ropes, were powered by windmills. Imagine the things we could do if we put our minds to it.

Since the election I’ve found myself with a lot of free time, much of which I’ve spent biking between San Francisco and Los Angeles, trying to find the quickest and overall safest route. This is what I’ve come up with:

Following the 101 inland instead of the coast cuts out a lot of traffic and unnecessary climbs and takes fullest advantage of the prevailing winds through the Salinas and Santa Maria Valleys, which are considerable. Although not quite as scenic as the coast it’s a hell of a lot quicker, less strenuous and less dangerous, and if we ever do build a bike road between SF and LA, I can just about promise it’ll follow this route. (which I’ll detail in later posts) Though most of it takes place on quiet country roads, there are a few hellish sections where you have to go on the freeway, and those are the parts I’d like to fix up first. My goal is that one day parents will be able to take their children on this ride in relative safety, without having to deal with cars.

I’m not sure how I’m going to pull this off just yet, but I figure the best way to start is to get other people thinking about it too, so you can expect to see more signs like this appearing here in California.

Los Angeles

A friendly reminder to the Pasadena Freeway

from the Tribunes of the People.

Update: This sign stayed up for six days over an average of 82,000 cars per day (110 @ Stadium Way, divide by two.) It was eighteen feet long and took less than a minute to post.