Of bicycles
11/11/14 05:28
My brother is known in his town as “the bike guy.” Convinced that the pollution and problems of private automobiles exceed the benefits, he stopped driving many years ago. Along with his personal decision, he has been an active promoter of bicycle travel. He has made a couple of coast to coast trips across the United States and several other journeys that exceed a thousand miles. He has learned, often through hard experience, what needs to be done to prepare a bicycle for long-distance travel. He pretty much knows how to repair almost anything that can happen to a bike. After working a several different bicycle shops he has invested a lot of hours in organizing and participating in the Corvallis Bicycle Collective, which uses second-hand bicycles, donated tools and parts to help people have high-quality, well-functioning bicycles. He has worked with others to make Corvallis, Oregon, one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the United States.
When we were growing up, we looked enough alike to confuse some folks and as adults our appearances are similar. I have a bit more white in my hear and a bit more spread in my middle. He has the legs of a long-distance cyclist: hard and firm and muscular. I have the shoulders of a paddler and rower. Together we’re in great shape.
Over the years, my brother has had some spectacular accidents on his bicycles. When we were kids he got a new 5-speed stingray bicycle with a banana seat and high rise handlebars and a T-handle shifter on the crossbar. It had a speedometer that topped out at 45 miles per hour. He was convinced he could “peg” that speedometer and he did it, going down the airport hill. That was just before he hit a gravel windrow trying to make the corner at the bottom of the hill and went airborne before landing in a tangle of bent bicycle parts in the ditch on the other side of the road.
That was before bicycle helmets.
He was wearing a helmet when he went off the road on Whidbey Island in Washington and hit a tree. That accident netted him a ride in a helicopter to a level-3 trauma center in Seattle. And the manufacturer of the helmet he was wearing gave him a new one to replace the one that split when he hit the tree. He, the paramedics, and the helmet manufacturer all agreed that the helmet saved his life.
There are several other bicycle stories that I could tell and a whole lot more that he could tell that I don’t know. And I didn’t set out to write a blog about my brother today in the first place.
What I do want to say is that, unlike a lot of other people, I completely understand some of the things that happen in this world because of my relationship with my brother.
For example, I can imagine that the city of London may well spend 600 million pounds (nearly a billion dollars) to build a futuristic floating bikes-only pathway. The proposed Thames Decay will follow the south bank of the river from Battersea and Canary Wharf past the Millennium Bridge. The city is also considering plans for elevated pathways for bikes as well. I’m sure that if he lived there, my brother would be in the thick of all of the political lobbying that is being done in that city. In London, they have the support of the mayor, Boris Johnson, who is an avid cyclist. And, due to high fees charged to private automobiles int he city, about 25% of the commuter traffic in London is by bicycle.
Get enough people like my brother in the same room and spending a billion on a floating bike path lit by solar energy that rises and falls with the tides might seem like a good idea. I’m not saying that avid cyclists have an air of moral superiority about them, but they can be persistent in asserting that their lifestyle is preferable to those of us who drive cars.
And I think I can understand the French bus driver who figured out how to strap a rocket motor to the back of his bicycle, light the fuse, and set a new speed record for bicycles: 207 mph. You got that right. He went from zero to 200 in just 4.8 seconds, which is over 10 seconds ahead of the Hennessey Venom GT - th car that currently holds the record for a production car in the 0-200 sprint.
The bicycle is a rather specialized vehicle. The hydrogen peroxide rocket produces the equivalent of 560 horsepower and the accelleration subjects the rider to 19gs. It is pretty much a process of steering straight and holding on tightly.
For most people 207 mph on a bicycle seems ludicrous. But knowing my brother, he’d probably say yes if offered the opportunity to ride on that rocket bike. Technically, there are probably some significant environmental costs to rocket bikes and I don’t think my brother would support the concept of motorized bicycles for the masses, but I suspect he’d make an exception for one hair-raising ride on the world’s fastest bike. And he doesn’t need the hair-raising. I’m the one with the biggest bald spot and farthest-receding hairline.
I suspect that my brother would be up for trying to pedal one of the pedal powered airplanes that have been built. If it weren’t so expensive, he might even give a try riding the parallel, a pedal powered flying machine that incorporates a parasail with a bicycle and a fan hanging below. Actually the device doesn’t fly by pedal power. The bike is for transporting the equipment on the ground. it flies with a 22-horsepower t-stroke motor turning the fan. And so far the cost of over $16,000 is higher than the average bicycle.
I’m not likely to try a flying bicycle or a rocket powered bike that goes over 200 mph or even lobby for a billion-dollar bikeway anytime soon. But I do understand these things. I think I know someone who would.
When we were growing up, we looked enough alike to confuse some folks and as adults our appearances are similar. I have a bit more white in my hear and a bit more spread in my middle. He has the legs of a long-distance cyclist: hard and firm and muscular. I have the shoulders of a paddler and rower. Together we’re in great shape.
Over the years, my brother has had some spectacular accidents on his bicycles. When we were kids he got a new 5-speed stingray bicycle with a banana seat and high rise handlebars and a T-handle shifter on the crossbar. It had a speedometer that topped out at 45 miles per hour. He was convinced he could “peg” that speedometer and he did it, going down the airport hill. That was just before he hit a gravel windrow trying to make the corner at the bottom of the hill and went airborne before landing in a tangle of bent bicycle parts in the ditch on the other side of the road.
That was before bicycle helmets.
He was wearing a helmet when he went off the road on Whidbey Island in Washington and hit a tree. That accident netted him a ride in a helicopter to a level-3 trauma center in Seattle. And the manufacturer of the helmet he was wearing gave him a new one to replace the one that split when he hit the tree. He, the paramedics, and the helmet manufacturer all agreed that the helmet saved his life.
There are several other bicycle stories that I could tell and a whole lot more that he could tell that I don’t know. And I didn’t set out to write a blog about my brother today in the first place.
What I do want to say is that, unlike a lot of other people, I completely understand some of the things that happen in this world because of my relationship with my brother.
For example, I can imagine that the city of London may well spend 600 million pounds (nearly a billion dollars) to build a futuristic floating bikes-only pathway. The proposed Thames Decay will follow the south bank of the river from Battersea and Canary Wharf past the Millennium Bridge. The city is also considering plans for elevated pathways for bikes as well. I’m sure that if he lived there, my brother would be in the thick of all of the political lobbying that is being done in that city. In London, they have the support of the mayor, Boris Johnson, who is an avid cyclist. And, due to high fees charged to private automobiles int he city, about 25% of the commuter traffic in London is by bicycle.
Get enough people like my brother in the same room and spending a billion on a floating bike path lit by solar energy that rises and falls with the tides might seem like a good idea. I’m not saying that avid cyclists have an air of moral superiority about them, but they can be persistent in asserting that their lifestyle is preferable to those of us who drive cars.
And I think I can understand the French bus driver who figured out how to strap a rocket motor to the back of his bicycle, light the fuse, and set a new speed record for bicycles: 207 mph. You got that right. He went from zero to 200 in just 4.8 seconds, which is over 10 seconds ahead of the Hennessey Venom GT - th car that currently holds the record for a production car in the 0-200 sprint.
The bicycle is a rather specialized vehicle. The hydrogen peroxide rocket produces the equivalent of 560 horsepower and the accelleration subjects the rider to 19gs. It is pretty much a process of steering straight and holding on tightly.
For most people 207 mph on a bicycle seems ludicrous. But knowing my brother, he’d probably say yes if offered the opportunity to ride on that rocket bike. Technically, there are probably some significant environmental costs to rocket bikes and I don’t think my brother would support the concept of motorized bicycles for the masses, but I suspect he’d make an exception for one hair-raising ride on the world’s fastest bike. And he doesn’t need the hair-raising. I’m the one with the biggest bald spot and farthest-receding hairline.
I suspect that my brother would be up for trying to pedal one of the pedal powered airplanes that have been built. If it weren’t so expensive, he might even give a try riding the parallel, a pedal powered flying machine that incorporates a parasail with a bicycle and a fan hanging below. Actually the device doesn’t fly by pedal power. The bike is for transporting the equipment on the ground. it flies with a 22-horsepower t-stroke motor turning the fan. And so far the cost of over $16,000 is higher than the average bicycle.
I’m not likely to try a flying bicycle or a rocket powered bike that goes over 200 mph or even lobby for a billion-dollar bikeway anytime soon. But I do understand these things. I think I know someone who would.