Friday, October 22, 2010

What do Recumbents Have to do with HiWheel Cycling?

This excerpted draft comes to you from "How America Can Bike and Grow Rich" :




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As everyone soon began queuing up to leave, I said to those within earshot, “Yeah, here is where it gets interesting. I remember the last time I rode with Steve eleven years ago. All the locals out there in DC were all cheering him on. They weren’t looking at our high tech recumbents or the tandem trike that I was on, they were looking at Steve. “


And unbeknownst to me at the time, seeing all the attention he and his bike were getting, he had planted a seed. 

Even though I could now see that the HiWheel created a lot of excitement, the notion of my riding one was easy for me to dismiss. Reasoning that I needed to keep the playing field leveled between myself and cars, there was not going to be any way that I could build one into my world. As a transportation cyclist, I needed to be able to get places fast without a lot of effort. And it was  for this application that I knew that the HiWheel was in a word, IMPRACTICAL.

I was closed to the possibility of doing anything more than admiring what is also called a Penny Farthing  until a year later when I pedaled a tall wheel for the first time. I had bought a well used, replicated version to bring attention to our booth at the NBG Festivals we used to produce. However when I finally worked up the nerve to try it, even though it was not mechanically sound, the joy of floating above the cars and the rest of the world below forced me to rethink my priorities. The danger of being so high off the ground suddenly paled in comparison to the sudden feeling of magnificence that soon overwhelmed me. 

I determined if I could learn how to walk again and do what it took to reverse my paralysis and all of the other complications brought on by my 1977 head injury to ride a traditional bicycle and then a recumbent across the US, that I could ride a few blocks on a HiWheel bike. Besides, I now did yoga and had been doing so every day since I had completed my last coast-to-coast bike ride. I knew that no matter how bad my bones got shaken out of alignment, that I could still remedy the situation.

I also loved making people smile. The joy riding my HiWheel  brought to others told me I had to do what it took to be able to ride it more. But where would I find the time, I wondered.

Soon I determined that if I rode one a few days a week when I was not working out with weights, that I could develop enough expertise to be able to ride it in a parade or two. However, once I got the bike repaired and it became evident that the longer I rode, the less energy I had for the gym, I asked myself if I could ride more and work out less. When I could see that my body felt and looked as fit as it ever did the more I HiWheeled and the less I pushed iron, I did a very hard thing. 


I gave up my gym membership!

I traded in the safety and familiarity of a social world of fellow health seekers sequestered from the rest of the world  by walls and windows for asphalt, cars and the fit and the mostly unfit. For 24 years,  working out had been a way of life for me. It had gotten me beyond the helplessness of my head injury setback. I had become so accustomed to seeing my body change as I focused on different parts of it with resistance training  that I was only minimally aware of the fact that most people only paid attention to their bodies when they were sick.

As such then, I would be using all the time I had spent under a health club roof to place the National Bicycle Greenway vision before an America that really needed it. The several hours a day I spent working out in the gym, I began to spend on my HiWheel bicycle. And just as soon, I could see that just by riding the Penny Farthing  I was bringing hope to the the young and the old, the overweight and the fit and all the different ethnicities that make up the world around us. All the happiness that resulted pushed me on.

Ten years ago, I would have been happy with a couple of blocks worth of pedaling, while being able to ride a parade or two would have tested the limits of my joy. And yet here now, I was crossing the country on the bicycle where modern transportation all began; the same machine that forever changed the way man would move about. 

Besides connecting me to the people on the street, the HiWheel was also connecting different cyclists to one another. Since even within the ranks of cycling there are different factions all with their own agendas, needs and desires, the HiWheel bike seems to have built in leadership qualities. As I got around on the HiWheel and more and more touring, racing, training, commuting, off-road, recumbent and casual cyclists got a chance to see  motorists give me more respect than they themselves were getting, I could see that more and more of them wanted to be a part of my family. And as my  family of regular bicyclists grew, a critical mass of us would be elevating the public consciousness to show how important it is for all bicycles to be on the road. 

And it is here that I count mountain bike cyclists as an interested party. Even though their preferred riding turf is off road, in getting to the dirt many of them pedal the road. And more of them would travel that way if the streets were safer for them to ride. Nor does any off this account for the fact that studies have shown that most of the off road bikes  that are sold today spend most of their time riding not off the road, but on the road.

And then there are the people who ride recumbent bicycles, a marginalized population of cyclists indeed. They are seen by many of the mostly younger cyclists who ride traditional upright bikes, as being less capable. They dismiss the recumbent rider as being a man or woman who is limited by age, health or weight problems. So the fact that since 1982, I had only been riding recumbents, partly in an attempt to get attention for the National Bicycle Greenway, seemed to communicate that I had special needs; that I couldn’t ride a “real” bike.   It seemed to be telling people who had no visible way of knowing that I had already crossed the country on an upright, that I wanted a Greenway so I would have a place to ride my non-conventional bicycle

I had not realized that I was limiting the support I needed for our vision until I started riding the HiWheel. In hindsight, however, I do take comfort in the fact, that I am still cycling all these years later. Looking back I had seen so many of the same upright cyclists who looked down on me for riding a recumbent, fall by the  way side because of the discomfort their bikes were causing them as they got older. While my pedaling  kept  me fit, I watched as the familiar faces around me were in a constant state of change. While I knew some of them had simply moved to new cycling turf, I was also sure that an even larger number of them had traded in the two wheel road for  the luxury and unhealthy ways of the automobile. Where they had gone was corroborated for me once in a while when I would spot one of them filling  up at a gas station or sitting behind the steering wheel of a car at a traffic light. 

Besides the butt, shoulder, neck and sometimes arm pain that forced a lot of them off the saddle, there are also the issues of attire, functionality, even peer pressure. As many of us grow older, only to find more and more demands placed on our time, the conventional bicycle often becomes less and less attractive because it is harder to build into our lives. There is all the special wear, such as gloves or padding and chamois for one’s hind quarters that must be bought, kept clean and just changed in and out of in order to be an effective upright cyclist. 

Besides wearing the right, tight-fitting  bike clothes for two wheel efficiency, there is also the subtle pressure the bike industry places on its cyclists to remind us that we must look and go fast. From what our helmets and upper body wear (preferably brightly colored jerseys with lots of corporate logos on them) are supposed to look like to the kinds of biking events that appear on on our TV screens (the Tour De France and to a lesser degree the Race Across America), to how cars are needed for our activity (at such races, we see a mass of cars and motor homes with bikes on top of them following the two wheel speedsters around), etc, there is both a dress code and a code of conduct anyone who wants to be seen as a serious cyclists must abide by. It is here that  driving a car to a bike event, for example, scores higher marks than riding a recumbent to get there or anywhere for that matter. This is partly so because when they were banned from racing in 1934 an unwritten rule was somehow placed  on the books that also said that anyone who rides a recumbent  is a rogue cyclist.

By the time time newspapers and magazines join in to also adulate the bright and colorful bike racers, “serious” cyclists know they are supposed to be riding their bikes fast, and what they should look like when they are on them. In such a way,  the real heroes of bicycling, those who replace car trips, are cast by the wayside. As a result, the needs of transportation cyclists are not  placed on center stage. Instead, those chasing speed become the unofficial ambassadors of what is supposed to be seen as a sport that also requires motorized support. 

While there are becoming more of those who  make, sell and promote conventional bikes that are designed for comfort, even transportation, the market of such users is  always reminded that they are B-League cyclists. Because such pedal machines go slower, those who ride them are made to feel almost like they need to apologize for not being young and able to withstand the pain of a traditional road bike any longer.

Conventional bikes are also limited in how much they can carry. Sure racks and saddle bags can be added to them but they change the handling characteristics of the bike. And odd shaped purchases or things one might have to get to and/or from work, school or play are more difficult to mount on a traditional pedal machine. 

All of this changes on a recumbent.  Because the seat is shaped more like the chairs found at one’s dining room table, besides the comfort of a large seating area and then having your back supported, it is easier to hang or drape things off of. All this as the recumbent cyclist pedals away in loose fitting clothes that one does not have to change in and out of in order to do a strong ride. If all this is not enough to warrant that we should see more of them on the road, if for no other reason than to keep older cyclists out there with us, they also have a higher speed potential. 

In fact all the present day human powered land speed records were established using the recumbent design. Even the English Channel was flown over by a man pedaling supine because engineers determined that that was the only way  they could get enough power for such an effort.  And if one wanted to spend the money, depending on their fitness level, there are recumbents a person could buy that would put them at the front of most any racing pack.

Recumbents are also safer bikes to ride. Because you are much closer to the ground, the impact of a fall is not nearly as great. Over the years, I have known more than a few upright cyclists whose lives were ruined, some of whom  even died, by crashes  from a machine, the upright road bike, that makes the head and not the butt the point of impact. Nor is the recumbent rider so low that he or she cannot be seen. Not at all. In fact the biggest part of their body is what is most directly in the car driver’s field of vision instead of legs or skinny bike tires.

Besides their comfort, safety, speed and practicality, are there other reasons why do we not see more recumbent bicycles on the road? To begin with, we do not see many of them in bike shops. And if they do show up there, they are often not supported by an enthusiastic sales staff. This is  so because the same pressure the ad man uses to  tell a person what serious cyclists are supposed to look like, finds its way into the bike shops where most of the employees have not reached the age where comfort on a bike is a concern, Since they tend to sell and be knowledgeable about what their conditioning has told them is acceptable, even fashionable, to ride, the recumbent is an unknown oddity to them. As are those who express interest in knowing about them. 

Sure one can go out on the web and find such a machine. However, since mechanical support is harder to find from the bicycle marketplace, a lot of shops for example do not like to even do repair work on recumbents, interested buyers will often need some mechanical aptitude in order to build one out of the box. And once they get it out on the road, they must be able to play the game of being an instant cycling authority as they  answer all the many questions that will always be asked. 

If however they are new to cycling or have been away for a number of years, much strength of character will be  required in order to consistently ride a recumbent. This  is so because as they redevelop their skills or learn new ones, it will be harder for them to remain anonymous. Insecure in themselves as cyclists, it will be harder for them to ignore the looks of disdain or outright disapproval that will come their way once in a while. Such a cyclist, lacking in confidence, will also have a harder time laughing at comments such as  ‘get a real bike’, ‘quit laying down on the job’ or ‘what a silly/wacky bike’, etc, that they can expect to hear on occasion. And yet new or returning bike riders, the ones we most need to grow the activity, are the same ones who may never get get a chance to really ride  the only bike that it makes sense for them to ride.

I could not wait to return to the speed and the comfort of a recumbent bicycle but for now I was a man on  mission.

 

   Martin Krieg "Awake Again" Author

2011 w/"How America Can Bike & Grow Rich"

          BikeRoute.com

   '79 & '86 TransAmerica Bike Rides

Coma, Paralysis, Clinical Death Survivor  

NBG Founding Director, HiWheel Cyclist

      Riding only active Eagle in world 

Posted via email from HiWheel's Posterous

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Worthy Camper Living Essentials Needed for NBG San Jose to Boston Bus

Our 9th Annual National Mayors' Ride which leaves May 2, 2011 from San Jose, CA per this schedule, will feature the first backwards facing Hiwheel to cross America and the 15-person Busycle. All of which will be supported by the 40 foot "Rock Star" bus you see pictured here. 




Despite the fact that our bus runs awesome and looks amazing, it still needs a lot of help inside to make it worthy of the press and the people who will visit it at the shopping centers, city halls and book stores ahead of us.


While it has a hardwood floor and tinted windows and we will be dedicating a fair amount of space inside to the public for the on board museum it will feature, we still need the kind of facilities that will help us roll from one venue to another. These include a:


- Propane refrigerator

- Propane or white gas stove

- Shower

- Toilet

- Beds/bunks


If you have camper shell or motor home, etc, that perhaps has a beat up appearance but most of these items are still in good working order, can we take it off your hands? And give you a tax write off from our nonprofit National Bicycle Greenway in exchange!! 

Posted via email from HiWheel's Posterous

Monday, October 11, 2010

Here's to the crazy ones.

Narrator = Richard Dreyfus

Here's to the crazy ones.
   The misfits.
      The rebels.
         The troublemakers.
            The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently.

They're not fond of rules.
   And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
   disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.

Because they change things.
   They invent.  They imagine.   They heal.
   They explore.   They create.   They inspire.

They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
   Or sit in silence and hear a song that's never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Chiat/Day copywriter, Craig Tanimoto for Apple Computer, September 28, 1997

Posted via email from HiWheel's Posterous

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Book Excerpt - NBG in its Highest Art Form

What follows comes to you from the re-write I am doing of  "How America Can Bike and Grow Rich". It is an almost final draft excerpted from the American River  Parkway section. The Lynn to  which these words refer, is Lynn LePage, the recreation manager for the city of Folsom.



NBG in its Highest Art Form



Handsome and fit, with a large view of the future, Lynn also saw the big picture of the National Bicycle Greenway. As an enthusiastic supporter of our mission and our yearly trek up the American River Parkway, he saw the NBG in its highest art form; what will happen once we get all of America’s bikeable roads and paths interconnected.


He and I have spent many hours talking about the NBG over the years. Lynn envisions a corridor similar to his Parkway  that celebrates the natural, as well as the urban wonder of each of the areas though which it passes to connect the coasts. From his Parkway, he foresees rail trails joining hands with old logging roads and abandoned highways and the like  to explore America’s forests, mountains, lakes, and even deserts as it moves across the West. 


He and I have spent many hours talking about the NBG over the years. Lynn envisions a corridor similar to his Parkway  that celebrates the natural, as well as the urban wonder of each of the areas though which it passes to connect the coasts. From his Parkway, he foresees rail trails joining hands with old logging roads and abandoned highways and the like  to explore America’s forests, mountains, lakes, and even deserts as it moves across the West.


In his mind’s eye, he saw, as the Lincoln Highway people did back in 1912 (see appendix), the reality of a red line on the map calling for a travel route from ocean to ocean. While the dream they fulfilled was for cars, Lynn knows the right of way from San Jose to Boston our annual Mayors' Rides are helping us determine, will one day make quiet, vehicle free cross county trips possible. This as we extol all the natural and man made simplicity and wonder that meet our path.


Interpretive in nature, the historical background of mountain passes such as the Mormon Immigrant Pass (discussed in detail later in this chapter) ahead, as well as those found in Nevada, the Rockies, the Appalachians and etc, will all be marked with tasteful signage that will make them fun to experience for those moving slow. The wonder of America’s bread basket will be explained. Even the Platte River Basin’s contribution to taming the West (talked about in the Omaha chapter), instead of being thundered through at interstate speeds, will be greatly savored by all those who use their own bodies to travel. The natural features we want to celebrate on the route we foresee are endless


Where the NBG passes through all the urban areas in between wide open America, there would be wonder at hand there as well. Once again, signage and information kiosks would be hard at work. In populated areas, they would tell NBG bikeway users where to go for food, lodging, fun and points of interest along the way. This as the route we will have chosen to most directly get across each of the cities in question will establish the character  that sets them apart from one another. In order to do so, the National Bicycle Greenway will work to make sure our route will  take in as much of the best each city has to offer as we can. This in the way of attractions, parks,  neighborhoods, traffic tamed shopping villages, places of learning, and whatever natural assets there are to be discovered, etc.

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The 2011 Mayors' Ride schedule is due out soon....

Posted via email from HiWheel's Posterous

Monday, September 27, 2010

Chapter Excerpt - Eagle Crash

The following excerpt comes from Martin Krieg's new book, "How America Can Bike and Grow Rich" http://bikeroute.com/HBGR/OverviewHBGR.php , due March 2011.




The miles of bike lanes on lightly traveled neighborhood streets continued all the way to  the border of Palo Alto. There the Wilkie Way Bridge carried us alongside a creek into our next Mayors' Ride city. Fully enshrouded by massive oaks and other trees, it is a piece of engineering mastery. In order to construct a bike way at this location, concrete pillars had to be  sunk deep into the ground at the edge of one side of the creek. In such a way a ledge could be hung off the backyards the stream passes through. It is on the five foot wide path that resulted that an important bicycle transportation  corridor has evolved. Through here great numbers of cyclists pass  everyday on their way up and down the San Francisco peninsula.


It was also nearby, on my way to it,  that my hopes to become the first to cross America on the Eagle were put on hold. Having just set out on a training ride on my way to the  bridge, I wasn’t but a few blocks away when a  car made a left turn in front of me. All I could do was turn  with him when he clobbered my wheel so hard, I flew off the back of the bike.


Two things were working in my favor when all of  this happened. First of all, I was on an Eagle, so instead of getting my  head  launched into the asphalt for certain catastrophe, I  landed on my butpak. Second, if I had been at regular bicycle height, his bumper would have crushed my legs and probably even done severe damage to my internal organs.


At any rate, I survived well enough to walk my destroyed bike back to the bus. The wheel had been almost folded in half. Nor would we be able to assess how much damage had been done to the bike’s heart and soul, the hub, in enough time to keep our  ride on schedule even if we did get the wheel rebuilt. This was so because the only expert, Jim Spillane, the man who had painstakingly re-manufactured  this machine, lived in Connecticut, on the other side  of the US. All of which brought the ride to this year.

Posted via email from HiWheel's Posterous

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Chapter Excerpt - Why I Ride an Eagle

    

A group of  fixed gear cyclists  waited. One of the  riders was holding a trackstand, a maneuver where the cyclist sits on his bike seat and keeps it upright and balanced. Since our bikes were also fixed, the original version where the pedals connect directly to the wheel without a chain or sprockets in between, the trackstand on a HiWheel was once an important skill to learn. Though few present day HiWheelers take the time to master being able to do so, I found this ability important to my being able to enjoy a Car Free lifestyle  on my Ordinary (another name for the traditional tall wheel).


Learning to trackstand gave me a better mastery over my high bike in crowded areas. Some examples of this include  gridlocked streets, busy shopping districts, even the Critical Mass or San Jose Bike Party rides that I like to attend. With what looks like a trick to most, I did not have to get off and on the bike at traffic lights or for whatever other stops the congestion in my path could otherwise force me to make. I could also stop and hold a stand to have a brief conversation with those people along my way. 


I had spent many hours learning to trackstand. In doing so, I had had to endure a lot of bumps, bruises and cuts, even many embarrassing falls. But just as I was getting more and more confident and better, the Eagle appeared  While  rumor has it that a trackstand is possible on one, I suspect that I will always be so consumed with looking for ways to get places faster or more efficiently on the Eagle, that I may not even try to see if a controlled stall is even possible on one.


The few dozen times I did try, I always went off the back end once I got the bike delayed. This is because in order to keep  from getting launched into the sometimes fatal header that made  conventional HiWeel bikes so dangerous, the Eagle's center of gravity was placed behind the rider. As a result, the Eagle cyclist is always in a gentle struggle to keep the front wheel from popping off the ground. If that were to happen, if his mind were to wander from the task at hand, for instance, he could easily slide off the rear of the machine and probably crash.


I also can’t seem to ride with no hands on the Eagle. Nor is such a skill set all about show  when one is in the tall wheel saddle for any length of time. Since it is useful to be able to get both hands free while still pedaling, not having to stop to put on or take off a jacket, adjust a helmet or sunglasses or  peel the wrapper off an energy bar, for example, all become little pleasures that add to the joy of being on an Ordinary. The on the road performance of an Eagle, however, makes it easy for me to overlook some of the smaller things I can no longer do on it.


The Eagle, for example can climb hills with fervor. Unlike the traditional HiWheel cyclist, long  known to have walked both sides of a mountain, the Eagle rider can climb out of the saddle to get up inclines. In being able to jockey the bike back and forth while ascending, besides being able to add leverage, he also won’t find himself sitting on a wheel that burns rubber as it goes nowhere. When riding the typical tall seat of the 19th Century, I always found the steeper the pitch, if I was even moving at all, the more the wheel used to slip out on me.


Once the summit is reached, the Eagle can also be used to descend in style as well as comfort. Since the pedals never stop on a Penny Farthing, being able to cross one’s feet in front of the steer tube is  easy to do when descending on an Eagle. It is also a great way to relax. On the traditional HiWheel, however, one must get his legs over the top of the handlebars in order to be free of the spinning pedals. A difficult position to get into, it also puts its rider in a dangerous position that is then hard to escape from should the need arise.


When I Eagled from San Francisco to Salt Lake City in 2009, in climbing the Sierras and across the most mountainous state in the Union, Nevada, for example, I was in and out of the saddle many times - on both sides of most all the peaks I transcended. This explains why mine was the first high bike to ever have been actually pedaled over these Ranges.


Even on the flats, the Eagle is far more efficient  than  the traditional HiWheel. Because the Eagle cyclist does not pedal the same wheel he is steering, like one does on the normal Penny Farthing, he can ankle. What this means is that he can take advantage of the full pedal stroke by pulling up as well as pushing down on the pedals. This also means, not only can more force be generated but that the steering itself is not affected by what the stronger and far more powerful legs are doing. To illustrate, if you are riding no hands on a standard HiWheel, how straight you go is in direct proportion to how well you only push down on the pedals. By pulling up on them, you involve your arms as they fight to make those corrections needed to keep you on course.


There are certain actions that make the Eagle exciting to be around. It is always easy to get a crowd together to watch me start. While my climbing out of the saddle to accelerate also turns heads, if I really want to hold people's attention, I can jump off the back of the bike to make it stop. In doing so,  the smaller front wheel shoots six feet above the street. This as I do a wide plant with my feet while holding the handlebars at shoulder height.


A bike that came about during the last two years of the HiWheel era (1869-1892), the Eagle is likely what we'd all be riding if the pneumatic tire and refinements in the chain had not made the smaller wheels of today possible. Blessed with the honor of riding Jim Spillane's celebrated and near exact re-creation of the 1891 Eagle, regularly affirms for me why I feel the Eagle was the highest art form of the Industrial Revolution that shaped the America we know.


Posted via email from HiWheel's Posterous

Monday, August 16, 2010

The Big Picture - How the NBG will become Real!!

From my personal home page - http://www.bikeroute.com/MartinKrieg.php :

I took the 2007 Mayors' Ride season off to devise a fully interactive Google mapping system that runs like a game while building community to let users calculate, request, plan, utilize, store, display and vote on bike routes. I did this all toward the end of showing how, in our increasingly crowded world, the internet can now make the bicycle the superior way to move one's self about. Once my cross X rides are complete, it will be this program I will work to make real so we can connect the principal roads and paths we identify for safe  intra city  travel  with  those those that connect cities. And as this happens, coast to coast bike travel will become possible on the National Bicycle Greenway heaven I know will soon result.

Posted via email from HiWheel's Posterous

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Manny Garcia to Spearhead NBG Bus Conversion

Former long time bike shop manager and passionate two wheel zealot, Manny Garcia, has agreed to do the build  out that will be required to make  our bus one we can live in on the road! And this man is all about Can Do!! If you followed my Eagle HiWheel ride to Salt Lake City in the summer of 2009, you will recall that Manny rode 400 miles of Nevada, the most mountainous state in the Union with me. What's wild is that in order to do so, he  had to double whatever I rode so he could go back and get his vehicle allowing him to have it wherever it was that we lodged for  the night. As in afternoon headwinds and re-summiting innumerable mountain passes to do so, whoaaaa.......

To the degree I can supply him the resources, money and new and used hardware, Manny will be installing everything from toilets and showers to fold down beds, cupboards and  other forms of storage, even insulation, while I am  away getting my books rewritten  and ready for the  2011 season. The perfect man for the job, he knows how to get a result with often times much less than perfect materials.  This is so because he  grew up in a large family in Mexico City where he learned that if he wanted any of those things most American kids take for granted, that he could mix and match new, used and discarded items to create a worthy facsimile of that which the kids north  of the border were enjoying.

That said, I will be using my afternoons to bring  on more advertising support (to buy supplies for  Manny) for my  San Jose to Boston Eagle ride as well as scour Craigslist and other want ad boards for camper shells with  worthy insides we can cannibalize. As well, if any of you want to come by Park Automotive here on Park Ave in Palo Alto to help Manny, we need you!!!

Here is what we foresee:

GMC Bus

  •  Double bed to back of bus that folds down from wall when acting as window shade when I compute
  •  Solar equipped
  •  Bio diesel
  •  Shower
  •  Sinks - 2 (kitchen, bathroom)
  •  Toilet
  •  Bedroom in section  behind driver
  •  3 fold down beds in next section for Documentary Film Crew
  •  A Solar Panel that can drive a laptop computer
  •  A propane reefer

                                     THX 4 all of U!! 


   Martin Krieg "Awake Again" Author

2011 w/"How America Can Bike & Grow Rich"

          BikeRoute.com

   '79 & '86 TransAmerica Bike Rides

Coma, Paralysis, Clinical Death Survivor  

NBG Founding Director, HiWheel Cyclist

      Riding only active Eagle in world 



Posted via email from HiWheel's Posterous

Friday, August 13, 2010

Fall Author Tour Yields to New Excitement & Possibilities

IMG_0011.JPG

As I worked here on the phone to build my Author Tour of "Awake Again",  in moving east along the Mayors' Ride route, I  discovered that, in its present condition,  the  economy was having a very hard time supporting my book journey. Offices, for example, that had in the not too distant past suggested that maybe I could bring hope to their head injury patients (they call them clients) with a book tour during the bicycle off season, reported back to me when I called. that they did not even know if they were going to have jobs themselves. 

Fortunately, however, an opportunity I am very excited about  has presented itself to me that I can not ignore. I have been offered a place where I can work on the completion of some or all of the books I have noted below!!

As such, instead of touring our Mayors' Ride cities  as a promotion for my San Jose (read the nation's 10th largest city and proactive in its plans for cycling) to Boston Eagle ride with just my autobiography, "Awake Again", since they are all almost complete, I will now be able to do booksignings with several of the other tomes that will soon result . Since I can also use my writing "retreat" to invite more sponsors to come forward with ads on the people mover John E Cabrera donated to our organization, I can commission one or several of the people I have identified as willing to help, to build out the interior so that I can live in it when I tour the US with the product of my soon ahead writing efforts. 

Nor had I allowed the depressed state of the world's affairs take my eye off the prize of using my story and our national Mayors' Rides to promote the coast to coast National Bicycle Greenway  we foresee. I renewed my driver's license so I can drive the bus Park Automotive Don is going to teach me how to drive!! After 21 years of not owning or driving a car, I had to really hunker down to get cleared to legally operate a vehicle. Because I had originally needed this DMV document to get a passport so I could go to Ireland, with no study, I flunked the written part back in May. On the second try, however, after hours of study I was golden! And not only did I learn a lot about all that has changed in my time away from the wheel, but I am a better cyclist because I better know what is expected of cars.

Until I soon leave then, I will keep working on the bus. The photo above, for example, is of MrLettter.com's 'Not For Hire' sign that I  loaded on to the bus. I did that yesterday at Park Automotive, where owner Don Armstrong has gone far out of his way to be supportive of all that I am doing. So much so, that as the true car doctor magician that he is (he's even married to a doctor, an esteemed PhD who teaches nurses), when I rewrite, "How America Can Bike and Grow Rich", he and his Park Automotive will become a part of the story that I tell. 

      THX 4 all of U!! 

Martin Krieg's Work in Process Books:
"How America can bike and Grow Rich"
"Awake Again" in paperpack, audio and for the iPhone and Kindle Reader
"How to Bike America"
"How to Move Mountains with Love".
"Cycle America 2000 Anthology" - a distillation of the weekly newsletters I put out for 3 years when I brought thousands of cyclists to Washinbton DC  for the millennium.

Posted via email from HiWheel's Posterous

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Busycle Hears the Stones

We took the Busycle out tonite on a Thank You ride. I had initially staged it to express my appreciation to all those who had helped to move it into Gerrry & Dana's driveway while I was in Ireland a number of weeks ago. Well as it turned out, when it came right down to setting a time and a date, Gerry and Dana were the only ones around, no one who had volunteered their time was available. Steve Branz and Jill Cohen replied to let me know they were out of town. George Bradshaw never saw my email and Ashook did not  show until were were actually  rolling.

 

And yet,  Ashook and his friend, whose name I keep forgetting, were a big addition. But the hardest part,   doing a three point turn out of the driveway, was done by just  seven people. Gerry and Dana were joined by Anna DeCosta and her niece Nicole and friend Roz. I also managed to recruit a suited out cyclist with a Russian name I can not recall, from the nearby bike boulevard. This crew was joined by the man who would be this evening's powerhouse, Manny Garcia. 

And as we moved the 9/10 of a mile distance to nearby Mitchell Park, we got faster and faster as we picked up more and more people along the way. John E Cabrera even caught up with us not far into our journey! We arrived to a park that was filled and alive with the sounds of the Unauthorized Rolling Stones. 

Nor was it long before every seat was filled by kids as this evening's Busyclists all went off and got closer to the stage. I stayed behind and kept an eye on our machine which for me was like old home week. Friends from the nearby neighborhood where I used to live, who had not seen me for several years, kept coming up and saying hi. This as many dozen of  little ones took their turn at sitting on the seats and trying their luck with the pedals.

When the music ended, we were a Busycle of kids and their parents on our way back to Gerry and Dana's. This was so because for every kid who asked to ride, I told them that there had to be one adult. And it worked so well that Manny did not have a seat. And of the original crew all that was left for the ride home were Gerry and Dana. 

And it was a good thing that Manny did not have a seat. When he was not sitting on the Busycle gearbox, a maneuver I frowned on that required him to jump aboard while were moving, he was behind the Busycle  pushing us up any rises in the road that slowed us to a   crawl. His power, the three times this happened on  the way back, was huge!

We pulled into the Busycle  driveway as the dusk like conditions were giving way to a darker and darker evening. Soon the beautiful cover that Empire Covers donated was on and mounted and  another Busycle ride was on the books!!

If you want to Busycle with us next Saturday to hear Fotia, a Greek folk and blues band, at Mittchell Park, reply accordingly. If I get enough interest, I will get a ride together.....

Pictures soon!!

    THX 4 all of U!! 

Posted via email from HiWheel's Posterous

Busycle Hears the Stones

We took the Busycle out tonite on a Thank You ride. I had initially staged it to express my appreciation to all those who had helped to move it into Gerrry & Dana's driveway while I was in Ireland a number of weeks ago. Well as it turned out, when it came right down to setting a time and a date, Gerry and Dana were the only ones around, no one who had volunteered their time was available. Steve Branz and Jill Cohen replied to let me know they were out of town. George Bradshaw never saw my email and Ashook did not  show until were were actually  rolling. 

And yet,  Ashook and his friend, whose name I keep forgetting, were a big addition. But the hardest part,   doing a three point turn out of the driveway, was done by just  seven people. Gerry and Dana were joined by Anna DeCosta and her niece Nicole and friend Roz. I also managed to recruit a suited out cyclist with a Russian name I can not recall, from the nearby bike boulevard. This crew was joined by the man who would be this evening's powerhouse, Manny Garcia. 

And as we moved the 9/10 of a mile distance to nearby Mitchell Park, we got faster and faster as we picked up more and more people along the way. John E Cabrera even caught up with us not far into our journey! We arrived to a park that was filled and alive with the sounds of the Unauthorized Rolling Stones. 

Nor was it long before every seat was filled by kids as this evening's Busyclists all went off and got closer to the stage. I stayed behind and kept an eye on our machine which for me was like old home week. Friends from the nearby neighborhood where I used to live, who had not seen me for several years, kept coming up and saying hi. This as many dozen of  little ones took their turn at sitting on the seats and trying their luck with the pedals.

When the music ended, we were a Busycle of kids and their parents on our way back to Gerry and Dana's. This was so because for every kid who asked to ride, I told them that there had to be one adult. And it worked so well that Manny did not have a seat. And of the original crew all that was left for the ride home were Gerry and Dana. 

And it was a good thing that Manny did not have a seat. When he was not sitting on the Busycle gearbox, a maneuver I frowned on that required him to jump aboard while were moving, he was behind the Busycle  pushing us up any rises in the road that slowed us to a   crawl. His power, the three times this happened on  the way back, was huge!

We pulled into the Busycle  driveway as the dusk like conditions were giving way to a darker and darker evening. Soon the beautiful cover that Empire Covers donated was on and mounted and  another Busycle ride was on the books!!

If you want to Busycle with us next Saturday to hear Fotia, a Greek folk and blues band, at Mittchell Park, reply accordingly. If I get enough interest, I will get a ride together.....

Pictures soon!!

    THX 4 all of U!! 

Posted via email from HiWheel's Posterous

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Jeff Kistler gets Eagle Wheel on Road Again!!

The one two punch of Jeff Kistler and Jim Spilllane got my Eagle wheel  back on the road!! After Jim located a rim from his stock of old bike parts back there in Connecticut and then got it shipped out to us, Jeff went to the  work of lacing it all up. It did not end up in complete mode on the first pass, however, because Jeff kept discovering spokes that needed to be replaced. For which we had to rely on Jim to send us even more spokes. 

It was a good thing I was in Castlebar, Ireland while this whole painful process was played out because I did get the bike back  until yesterday. And even then I still can not go the distance on it until the replacement bike shows up as this video shows.

Posted via email from HiWheel's Posterous

Friday, June 25, 2010

San Jose Replaces San Francisco as New Mayors' Ride Start City on 7/10

Well, it's official, the City of San Jose is now the bona fide start of the 8th annual, 2010 Mayors' Ride. San Jose Transportation Director, Hans Larsen, who Carlos Babcock introduced me to at the concert San Jose joint ventured with the  San Jose Bike  Party  last month, pulled together the principals needed from his city to develop the excitement that will you soon  be seeing. Toward that end, we will also be working with the San Jose Bike Party, Lance Armstrong Live Strong and Silicon Valley Bike Coalition (SVBC) people to help San Jose fulfill its goal of being known as  America's top bike city.  

San Jose, 15th Best Bike City in USA on Street Films  

(a must see video for those wondering about the commitment level of SJ city fathers)

 

Nor will it be difficult for San Jose to become the Number One biking city by which others are judged. All the variables are already in place. San Jose has exquisite weather, it has a fast growing number of bike lanes and pathways and most of the riding turf is flat. Separated from the ocean by the Coast Range on one side, and the epic Mt Hamilton and all the hills that flank it on the other, it has a delicious smorgasbord of mountain roads one can easily get lost  in. Along with its rich century old biking heritage, here is some information about San Jose that will show you why we have chosen them over San Francisco as the starting point for our ride to Boston:


News Flash:

After receiving a staff report and public comments in support of the plan, the San Jose City Council unanimously approved Bike Plan 2020. The new bike plan adopts a vision of building a community where bicycling is safe, convenient and commonplace. The plan identifies five broad Goals – including completion of a 500 mile bikeway network – as well as several individual Strategies and Actions to accomplish the Goals. Click on the following links to view the plan - more 

A Partial History of San Jose's rich bike history

Bronze Bike Friendly Community Award (many of those cities with higher rankings have spent more time on presentation than on actual infrastructure and the like) 

San Jose Trails Program

Hans Larsen

San Jose Bike Party

Silicon Valley Bike Coalition

So Exciting!!


             THX 4 all of U!! 



btw: I will be coming back from the heavenly bike roads of Ireland next Tuesday. Here is some of what I have been enjoying 

btw2: In case U missed it, I am still waiting for the insurance to settle the wreck of my Eagle 

Posted via email from HiWheel's Posterous

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Larry Magid Documents Rare Steve Jobs Interview

Here is a rare interview of the man who has been the crucial force behind the creation of a lot of the tools many of us take for granted today. The iPhone, for example, was a huge part of my last summer's ride to Salt Lake, while the iPad that Steve Jobs also helped usher  into form, could very well be a big part of my upcoming journey to Boston. See the interview and read what else Jobs has catalyzed at the link below:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-magid/steve-jobs-is-a-national-_b_605444.html

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Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Amazing Sculpture Art by 2010 Ride Savior, Shawn Raymond

Armed with a small bit of time as I wait for the insurance to settle before the Summer of 2010 fully consumes me, I present to you this video representation of what Shawn Raymond's fully astonishing sculptture art looks like on YouTube. That's right, sculpture art. An integral part of our SF to Boston effort, Shawn not only is a respected, precision level car mechanic, as well as a cutting edge bicycle wizard, he is also astounding the art world with the bronze piece he created below:

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Friday, June 4, 2010

More beautiful sign art for the bus by Mrletter.com

Of note is the fact that the empty panel to the right of Sunfood, is being saved for an ad that expects to soon have added horsepower from the Irish Dept of Tourism. 


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Sunday, May 30, 2010

Jasen Levoy w/his tall bike & goggles he made

At Stanford in White Plaza

iPhone sent 415-606-5043

Martin Krieg
"Awake Again" Author
'79 & '86 TransCon cyclist
2010 on Eagle w/Busycle & Book
http://www.BikeRoute.com/HBGR
Coma, Paralysis, Clinical Death
Survivor. NBG Founding Director
HiWheel Cyclist

HiWheeler@gmail.com

Posted via email from HiWheel's Posterous

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Augmenting the Flat Eagle Roads

Not the stationary bbikes. But pumping the metal (not shown)...

iPhone sent 415-606-5043

Martin Krieg
"Awake Again" Author
'79 & '86 TransCon cyclist
2010 on Eagle w/Busycle & Book
http://www.BikeRoute.com/HBGR
Coma, Paralysis, Clinical Death
Survivor. NBG Founding Director
HiWheel Cyclist

HiWheeler@gmail.com

Posted via email from HiWheel's Posterous

SF to Boston Bus Host, Park Automotive, Webbed

Finally had clear skies this Saturday morning, where Park Automotive was not covered with cars. The result: a worthy picture for their  web site

Also caught up with owner, Don Armstrong, when he came in to do some bookwork. 

And talk about a community asset, from seeing how much time and money this guy regularly saves his customers, Don is without question a man whose honest ways have made him a Park Avenue fixture to truly be honored possibly for the ages.....

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Friday, May 28, 2010

Stuck in the Flats with the Eagle

Since  my foray into the hills ended on Wednesday with even more broken spokes, I determined that I had to stay closer to home where the roads are flat and  friends are easily found or made.  I started Thursday out, "making" spokes. By working to  up the spoke count, as a result of my splinting spokes pieces together with a torch and silver solder, I am now only missing two spokes. And yet since too many spokes would stand between this pair (one spoke is two) as a result of all the  mixing and matching I have had to do, I  will need to wait until a new rim and spokes become available .......

Finally got the beautiful NBG logo art that MtLetter.com, some while created for us on to the front of the bus. And the way that Scott Campbell created the URL below it, the bus looks like it is smiling at us.

Gerry Gras called me say the beautiful  cover we got for the Busycle from Empire Covers  kept blowing off. I went over there today and snugged it all up with the clamps we got from Tom Kabat and Matin of shelter-systems.com. These things are revolutionary. And yet not many people, I'm disccvering, know they even exist. 

In fact I had somewhat forgot that Rich Willits had installed the male part of the coupling on to our Busycle a few years ago, And that is why I was talking so painfully much time tieing rope around our tarps to keep them on. 

-----------------------------------------------------

From shelter-systems.com:

Grip Clip™ Tarp Fasteners
That which holds it all together, Grip Clip™ tarp fasteners were designed to make our Yurt Domes but can be put to many other uses. If you decide to make your own floor out of a tarp, use 12 of the Light Fabric Grip Clips to secure the tarp to the walls of your Yurt Dome. This will keep the floor from sliding around. The General Purpose Grip Clip tarp fasteners can add more wind stability to the our standard Sun Shades. If you one or two Grip Clips with cords to the mid edge section of your Sun Shades and tie these out your Sun Shade will flap less in the wind. You can also make your own shelter tarps, canopies, sunshades, and windscreens instantly from any plastic sheeting or fabric. They can be used for joining panels of material together and/or for attaching anchor lines, without perforating the tarps or sheeting. They "button" on quickly and securely, yet can be removed and repositioned as you like. You will find endless uses for them about your Yurt Dome, at home, in the garden, while camping, and at construction sites. Almost indestructible and at times indispensable™, Grip Clips will help you create what you need.

----------------------

The amazing Grip Clip. Here the female sits on a nob that is covered by the blue fabric you see pictured here

Saw Inventor an genius, Dan Bartsch, at the Post Office today. And he and I did not get a chance to really talk as one of his fans, Dr Franklin showed up as did Cathy and Wayne, You can see all five of us if you drill into the next picture in this micro gallery.

Steve at Mollie Stones Grocery store always makes me laugh. He remembers every cartoon series that played on TV in the 50's and 60's so well that he can tell you who most  of the characters were and often knows many of  the theme songs so well, he can sound them out with authority......

Posted via web from HiWheel's Posterous

Daniel Bartsch surrounded by Cathy, Wayne, Franklin and me

iPhone sent 415-606-5043

Martin Krieg
"Awake Again" Author
'79 & '86 TransCon cyclist
2010 on Eagle w/Busycle & Book
http://www.BikeRoute.com/HBGR
Coma, Paralysis, Clinical Death
Survivor. NBG Founding Director
HiWheel Cyclist

HiWheeler@gmail.com

Posted via email from HiWheel's Posterous

Thursday, May 27, 2010

MrLetter.com Helps Showcase the Fuel I Neeed

Soon, I will be able to represent two companies I feel honored to be able to work with. While Sunfood is raising the bar for what I can expect for this ride, it is the work of MrLetter.com that really makes Sunfood and the rest of our advertisers  really stand out. And I'm talking crystal clear images that look great when looking at them from far and near!  

The jumbo Sunfood logo that will soon replace the one you see above did not lose a thing when it grew in size. If anything, its beauty is even more  striking....

And just as Sunfood is worth it, so too are the other other food and drink providers who, THX to MrLetter.com, also have a beautiful presence on the bus. As I condition my body for the colossal workload ahead, I have been using Amy & Brian Coconut Juice as the foundation for my energizing Sunfood smoothies. Amy & Brain will be am important partner when the deserts and heat ahead up my need for quality electrolytes.

And it has been Maine Coast Sea Vegetables that has gotten not only the highest grade of sodium into my system (awesome seaweeds) but I have been feasting on their excellent Kelp Krunch bars and seasoning my rice with their tasty and nutritious spice like condiments. This as my fun food is not only delicious but it is good for me. As a day comes to a close, I make sure to savor every bite of the GoMacro.com bars and cookies. Phenomenal stuff!!

   THX 4 all of U!! 

Creek Dr - seconds from Stanford



The trees at the left shield a view of the massive, river like San Francisquito Creek, which serves as the property line dividing Menlo Park from Palo Allto. So few cars use it, it feels almost rural. This as busy Page Mills Rd, which connects El Camino Real with I-280, less than a hundred yards away is also hidden from sight by the trees....
A lazy,meandering several mile road, it is a great warm up for the hills of the Coastal Range.......

Martin Krieg 

"Awake Again" Author
'79 & '86 TransCon cyclist
2010 on Eagle w/Busycle & Book
http://www.BikeRoute.com/HBGR
Coma, Paralysis, Clinical Death
Survivor. NBG Founding Director
HiWheel Cyclist
HiWheeler@gmail.com