I had a very pleasant Saturday hanging out at the Michigan Human Powered Vehicle Association Rally, at the Waterford Hills race track. I haven’t been to this event in years. This is a picture that I found on the recumbents.com website. Warren Beauchamp keeps this site up to date, and also as an archival record of all things recumbent related. This way future generations can enjoy the sight of the hideous purple windsock that I had on my Challenge Hurricane on that day in 2001. I’m talking to my friend and TBCA member John Foltz, who will be showing up later in this post, eleven years later.
After a pleasant evening camping with the Michigan Muzzle loaders (I went to the wrong campsite, arriving in the dead of night), I broke camp and took a very short drive to the infield of the racetrack. Here the U of T team is waking up. Calvin discovers that there is WiFi here. If I had known, I would have blogged from the track, like Din did.
This year they brought 11 riders, three streamliners, and the trainer.
Here the three streamliners are being prepped. In order of build year, from left to right: Ace, Vortex, and Bluenose.
For good measure, I brought a bike as well: a folding recumbent called an Aiolos Speedlite. Here it is in the back of my car.
Looking around the infield, I saw many familiar faces, and many interesting bikes. Here is Rick Wianecki with his hybrid velomobile. It was much more finished than when I took pictures of the velomobile a couple of years ago.
Here it is with the roof on. Rick has many project builds documented on the recumbents.com site, including the velomobile.
HPRA rules require rear view mirrors to provide vision to both the left and right sides. Here is Danielle in Vortex, checking if she can see anything in the mirrors that have just been taped on.
Here is the single mirror mounted on Bluenose.
John Foltz takes the minimalist approach of two eyeglass mounted mirrors.
I liked the mirrors on Dave Johnson’s streamliner, Great White (which was built many years ago by Rick). Although you can’t tell from this angle, the left mirror is mounted in a cut down plastic wine glass.
John F had a nice M5 highracer. Here you can see the triangles of carbon that seem to have been put into the layup for a decorative effect.
Here you can compare the riding position of John F on the highracer with Thom Ollinger and his ultra-low racer.
Here are race director Mike Mowett’s two bikes. You can see how svelte his John Morciglio built lowracer is.
Here is the lowracer from the side.
and here is Mike on the bike, at speed during the 1K sprint.
The first event of the day was the hour race. Here the streamliners (and partially faired racers) were lining up on the grid. U of T is off to the side since they wanted to hand launch after the initial flurry.
Here is geezer’s row in the grid: Wally, Garrie, Jim and Richard. I hope that Garrie is not offended by the term “geezer”, but I’m just getting him back for asking me if I have retired.
This liner won the race. From the results posted, it is Rick Gritters. No wonder it was so fast.
Next up was the stock race. Here they are lining up on the grid.
Sean Costin appears not to have gotten the memo about wearing a yellow jersey.
Here is John M with his beautiful carbon midracer.
Here is Sean at speed. He lead for the first half of the race, and then he bonked and dropped out. Mike Mowett won.
Warren and Thom played a game of cat and mouse until at some point Thom dropped a chain and fell back.
The organizers let us run the streamliners (without timing) during the second race so that more people could get seat time. Here is Trefor in Ace, which was the most reliable of our bikes today.
Vortex has a jammed chain while Victor sails by in Ace.
Vortex at speed. In the background, you can see Richard who is using a homemade camera mount as a steadicam.
Dave and Din take turns riding the Aiolos. I think the speedmachine was also out on the track during the race.
During lunch there was more time to look at bikes. Here is Richard Myers with his vintage polo bike.
There were also two guys with a nice selection of unusual homebuilts between them.
Here is Marissa on the snake themed chopper.
Brian showed up with two Strideride bikes. They are basically a stairstepper on wheels. He has just started to market these US built machines. They were fun to try out. It was particularly interesting to be so high up, since you are standing on the machine as you ride. Here Cam is trying it out.
Vortex had drivetrain gremlins all day. Here Cam is working on the bike.
After lunch, the hill climb / coast down ran in parallel with the urban transportation contest. The UTC was run by Paul Pancella. Paul and I did the timing at Battle Mountain a couple of years back. Here Paul is doing the static inspection on Tim’s commuter. Tim is a good friend, and the director of the MSU Bike Shop, as well as a cycling advocate.
Here Tim is trying to minimize his turning radius.
The UTC contest involved a static inspection, which had both an inventory of features such as lights, reflectors, lock and tools, and various measurements of the bike and the rider on bike. The turning radius test was next, and then a timing event where the rider had to grab some grocery bags, ride around a short course, and then try to stop in a minimum distance. Here is Wally hauling groceries. He would ride around the course with the bags hung from his arms.
Here is Brian hopping onto the Strideride with groceries.
Dave J also entered the UTC with a beautiful late eighties Stumpjumper, his daily commuter. I liked how he used a length of chain on a chainring as a chainguard.
The final element of the UTC was the scores from the hill climb and coast down events. Here are the only upright riders of the day waiting for their turn at the bottom of the hill.
Cam thinks about the climb ahead.
There was a little more down time while we waited for the last event of the day: the 1K standing start. Aidan decides to see if he can fit in Bluenose.
Here he imagines what it would be like to be wearing a helmet in the bike.
Here is photographic proof that he fits into the bike. However, he was not able to pedal in this position.
Meanwhile, Marissa and David are Mario and Luigi.
Ace taking a turn. Ace needs to lean much more than our other bikes.
John M raced his Varna bodied leaning trike in the 1K. He says that it leans a maximum of 37°.
and here is the trike at speed.
I rode the Aiolos for fun, and if I am reading the results correctly, I see that I beat one of the students who rode the Speedmachine (and his name will not be revealed for his protection). Got to keep the whippersnappers in line.
At the end of a long day: a team picture.
I could only stay for the first day, but it was just as well as I stupidly forgot to pack a hat and sunscreen, and I picked up quite the sunburn on my neck.
A big thanks to the organizers for running such a great event. In particular, they were very patient with our team as they cycled through multiple riders in each bike for every event. The main goal for the team was to give everyone seat time in the various bikes, and all the racers and organizers were very accommodating.
Update: Tim has posted a bunch of his photos here.
Hah! Geezer indeed. At my recent physical, my doctor said I was in excellent condition for someone who’s 87 years old (TING! Barrrump-bump!!)
Seriously, it was great fun watching all of the UT students running through the permutations of riders and vehicles. They definitely had their act together!!
It was great to see you again as well. I’ll try to see if I can make this an annual thing. Timing was bad this year.
Great pics and reporting Jun! Loved the action shots especially.
Do you suppose the organizer will post the results of the UTC?
Thanks for the super report and pics! About the UTC, is it still treated like it was years ago? …As the least important event. (Bags on arms?) Yet it’s the one event developed in HPV circles that relates to a bike scene that is booming. If HPV wants more impact it should play *up* the UTC (with Press Releases and Top Prize such) and piggyback the speed side off of that. UTC has the potential!
The UTC has been a one man show run for many years by Paul Pancella. There is a similar tension between racing versus practicality at the ASME events. Racing is what attracts the participants at both, and if the events were totally given over to utility, not that many would be interested in competing. The development of utility biking seems to be driven much more by the cargobike / velomobile communities.
Yeah, racing is big in HPV, which is tiny as a scene. UTC is tiny in HPV but huge in the rest of cycling — since it significantly includes the citybike and commuting missions, too. It’s a funny set-up. HPV is perhaps in a good position to push research and innovation in everyday cycling since a lot of science-builder types are part of it. Yet it seems like UTC has always been weak. Maybe it’s weaker in US HPV and stronger in UK/Euro? UTC seems like it would have much lower overhead — less windtunnelishness. It also seems like grant/research potential for “integrated everyday” bike design might be available. Say, how did Rick’s velomobile work? It has an unusual look.
I didn’t get a chance to ride it, but it has a pretty powerful motor inside.
main issue with UTC is that it is not that much fun. Also, the upright city bike (which is what i commute on) is perfect for that, and very little improvement has happened in a while.
I think the ASME direction, of combining speed and some utility in the same race, is not bad at all. The slalom course and the stop sign make it interesting and fun, and the rest of the open course favour aerodynamics. This does however require an HPV specifically made such that it can turn and stop quite well. This doesnt mean a slow HPV (Vortex, designed with utility in mind, is faster than ACE, which was not), but it means a lot of the current streamliners at the HPVA races are not eligible…
I think a race such as Waterford is not great at advancing the state-of-the-art when it comes to UTC. Whether a bike is good in an urban setting will be determined by whether people buy it or not, and whether they are happy with it day-to-day, not by a UTC-like competition.
Price, looks and reliability will matter much more than the score it gets.
Victor
The Oregon Manifest utility contest is quite popular and rather big-bucks, in terms of citybike action. A couple dozen bikemakers (many livelihood makers) are in on it, trying hard to win with realistic innovation that meets realworld specs. Many follow the results and details…and the bikes get sold. Not bad! Price, etc., are part of a realworld success formula but there are other relevant factors that enthusiasts and builders alike would call “fun.” I agree that there could/should be a sizable role in all this for speed, hence for fairings. A Dutch bike is dandy for a one-mile perimeter but for suburban action of 5-10 miles suddenly fairings are viable and can be very helpful. The test, of course, has to be relevant (stunt turns and stunt balancing seem lame, but I dunno if they’re included). I’d say that my old full-fair WISIL Missile was really good at this. I modified it to carry groceries and it was safe in traffic yet could readily cruise at 30mph and handled good and was comfy with full sus so it absorbed things like curb-cuts with aplomb. Yet it was also a contender at regular HPRA events. Fairings can be good for weather and crash pro — I like ’em! However, for simplicity, I now gravitate toward bare-ultralight-yet-aero carbon as a way to achieve my 30mph cruising (with a tailbox that can hold groceries). UTC contests can help sort out the viability and value of all these concepts. An idea that’s exotic now could prove to be thrifty if it caught on at such events — and might someday meet the common tests of cheap and reliable, etc. — yet also give impressive range at impressive speed.
Congratulations to University of Toronto for having the fastest bikes at Waterford for the 3rd straight year! Todd powered ACE to 47 mph 2010, and Vortext to 48 mph in 2011, Both set new track speed records. Then this year, Trefor had the top two speeds in both ACE and Vortex at about 45 mph. The only place to go faster is at Battle Mountain! U of T is perhaps pushing the track limit for speed might be getting close as streamliners are flying towards the corner and have to brake.
Mike, thanks for the information. I was not able to tell from the spreadsheet who had done those two fast sprints. I did get that one good picture of you at speed, but I think that I’m going to have to break down at some point soon and get a real camera.
Hello thank you for sharing all those pictures it’s been a long time since I have seeing the streamlined bicycles. I’m curious on what age you call the Geezer class. I probably over qualify for that. I have been into bicycles since 1960. I was around when they first started developing these as well as the modern mountain bike.
. Also thank you for the information about the cameras that’s what led me to stumble upon you. I know it’s just a matter of time until I get hit. . I don’t ride far everyday it’s less than 10 miles each way and for the first time in my life I’m finally able to slack off a little bit. Not much but a little bit. Every time I get on my bike it’s like a time trial against the clock. I used to race had a national record did some bike building with 531 double-butted materials and some custom bikes including some downhill racers that 1 / $10,000. I’ve ridden a lot in Japan Hawaii Mexico I’d even been up to Vancouver. I do a fair amount of Designing and ideas fabrication my profession is to make things go fast and faster most of all automobiles. I’ve been involved and directly one dozens of land speed records thousands of race victories and hundreds of championships around the world but I’m still in the bikes. I’ve got a couple little simple by conventions if you’re interested. I don’t think I’m ever going to Market it them. And what I’m kind of interested in now is number one not getting killed. Actually I’m not really worried about getting killed I’m more worried about getting injured. Sometimes my imagination goes a little bit crazy what I’m thinking about paintball gun turret mounted on my handlebars. Actually to be really honest the idea moved along the idea of a simple lightweight blowgun which is basically a straw that would fire off ceramic pellets. And if you don’t have any idea of what little chips of spark plug do when they hit a window you should look it up it’s quite impressive. But actually it’s just one of those passing thoughts when somebody cut you off or especially when they cut you off make you crash and cuss at you. I’m sure you’ve been their.
I’m kind of thinking about some of this electric-powered stuff but it’s all way too heavy. Basically I like the idea of the bike doping equipment but it’s super high-dollar unobtainable but I like the idea of compensating for my loss of a couple hundred Watts and it would be nice to be able to jump on the back of buses again and have the power to chase down cars like I used to. I don’t want the power to sit and get a free ride I just want to have something more like a nitrous switch. I have a custom frame bike my friend and I hand-built a really lightweight vitus which is all aluminum typically called a chick bike but works really good if you’re only 138 lb and I own the original winner of the 1976 Tour de France that has been in Japan and maybe Canada.
Anyways thanks for the pictures and such I know aerodynamics is the ticket. Since I modify scooters as well as serious professional Factory back racing teams mega million dollar cars. Anyways thanks for all your efforts and putting that together that was pretty great stuff
Dan
Oh do you still have some cameras?
thanks for your comments. I’m out of the cheap cameras now, but you can get something even better for not very much money if you hunt around on eBay or amazon.