POV

So I've got two streamliners sitting in my shed at the moment. I thought I might do a little pondering on what I might do differently to create a design that would address their shortcomings, take some measurements to see how much smaller of a space I can stuff myself into, and take some pictures to give you a sense of what I've dealt with in the visibility department in these two different designs.


I've only got the pics up from inside the Coslinger at the moment, but I'll have the view from inside the Cuda up in a day or so. Check out the view, pics here
DG

The never-ending road trip

My Schedule since March 29th:

March 29-Drive 3.5 hours to Squirrel's house in DsM.

March 30-Drive 9 hours from DsM to Pencil Bluff, AR for the Ouachita Challenge.

March 30-April 1 Ridin, laughin, sleepin, awsome time in the Ozarks with like nuts.

April 2-Squirrel drives 9 hours back to DsM, first time I've ever been in the passenger seat of my car, I drive another 3.5 hours back home.

April 3rd-5am Drive 9 hours to Dayton, OH in hopes of picking up the Coslinger speedbike and making it back home for a full nights sleep. Or at least what I consider a full nights sleep(midnight to 5:30am). Get ticket in IL because the when pulling a trailer on I70 in IL you must drive 55mph. IL sucks. Arrive in Dayton OH at 3pm to find a bike needing 24hours of work before being truly prepped for the competition I'm supposed to be at on April 6 that is two days drive away, not counting the drive home from Dayton. Work on the bike with owner Thom Ollinger and gracious friend Rich Meyers for 5 hours in Dayton. Consider myself fortunate to be getting to borrow the speedbike anyways. Start driving home at 8:00pm E. Winds are blowing so hard I can't get the car out of 4th gear. Call friend Dave Ford in Bloomington, IL and crash there at midnight to save myself from certain death. Friends are priceless.

April 4th-Wake up at 5:30am get back on the road. Winds are still blowing, frick. Burn a tank of fuel in an hour on the wide open Interstate. When the turbo is pegged at full boost you are not in fuel economy mode. Drive backcountry two lanes home. Already overrunning my fuel budget for the week. Home at 9am, work on the bike until 5pm, load up. Start drive to Casa Grande Arizona. Drive till midnight, make it to Oklahoma City, then the parents take over driving through the night.


April 5th-Wake up in Texas, take over driving. New Mexico is a wasteland, similar to Texas, Oklahoma, and Arizona. People scrape by, the land has little to offer. Gain even more appreciation for dirt, trees, hills, rain, non-arid climates, and Kansas.

Flagstaff is a forest in the middle of the desert, and right before a huge decent into Pheonix, strange.


Arrive at the Fransisco Grande Motel outside of Casa Grande at 9pm April 5th. Our rooms are surrounded by streamliners, cool. I reserved a room with double beds for three adults. It turns out to be a room with two single beds, not cool. No other rooms available, no refund, no complimentary breakfast, smells like the middle of a dairy farm, mocking birds never shut up, bathroom door won't stay shut. Not cool.


April 6th-Drive to the track 8miles. There's a dip in the road so deep cars disappear. Serious dairy farm area, makes the local setups look silly tiny.


The track is huge, 3 lanes, 5.554mile oval, 36 degree banking on the corners on the outside lanes.


A few morning hour attemps are made Friday, but no one finishes due to various reasons. I do a few laps in the warm up area in the Coslinger without the rear canopy to get used to it, and immediately find the funky front brake mount rubbing the tire. Thom said I could remove it if I wanted to, so I get out the hack saw. No more front brake, but the rear drum is adequete for this event. I can ride the Cos at 9mph, but I still wish it had a landing gear.
I take the Cos out for another test ride, this time with the top on, on the track. Vision is not so good throught the nose bubble. The straights are smooth but the corners are bumpy as all get out. My second lap around the secondary chain derails and jams up, I coast from corner 2 halfway through the back straight where I manage to pop the tape loose from the canopy and catch myself before I fall over. Try to put the chain back on and limp in, but the lower chain tensioner pulley disinegrated. Garrie Hill rescues me with the Sprinter van and I set to work with the hacksaw again to install a new idler. Covered in chain grease, I run out of time for another run. Greasy hands are a trend for the weekend. Back at the motel I rig up a camera system so I can see what is in front of my right foot, as the deraillier blocks my view completely on that side.

April 7th- Set up for an hour attempt after watching Sam Whittingham set a new world record. Launch goes well. I make it into corner three of my second lap where the main drive chain derails off the front chainring. Coast through corner four and down the front straight to the catch crew. Head back to pits to build a chainguide out of an aluminum tent stake borrowed from Dave Balfour and some parts leftover from the idler that disintegrated yesterday.
Finish that in time to set up for the low altitude 200 meter run. Crash the first launch, and then spend too much energy getting to the first corner, finish the first run at 47mph. Second run goes better at 48-49mph, but that's still not that fast. Sam finishes just shy of his record at 62mph and change. So I did 200 meters at the hour pace, not unexpected from prior experiences.
The camera works ok at best, resolution is too slow to make out which lines are which at speed. Basically have to try to keep the white line in front of the left foot as it goes around, and keep the round speed bumps on the inside of the track in the right window. Doesn't work to well, since the inside lane comes and goes and the lines fade in and out with tar patches.


I try taking the Cuda out for a lap, but I can immediately feel my IT band tighten up in my knee so that's not happening. I've got to figure out what about this bike is askew, something is out of alignment. Definitely easier to handle than the Coslinger.

April 8th-I'm the first one off today, 6:15 am. First launch is not so good, but they catch me before I fall. The tape on the bike is not sticking too well this morning though, so right away after the launch I can feel that the canopy is not secured, and I can hear the tape flapping. O well, there are no second chances today so I just keep going. I can feel that there was no warmup for todays run, laps one and two are the warmup, the muscles are a bit sore from the previous days. Lap three sees speeds coming up over 40mph finally, then the secondary chain derails on the fourth corner. I just manage to reach up to the cassette and flip the chain back on, phew. The next four laps gradually gain speed again, 39-41 on the front streach, 42-45mph on the back streach. I'm all over the track, usually trying to stay near the center white line. There are two other streamliners on the track with me, Dean Peterson in the Coyote, and Steve Delair in the Mach 5. I catch Dean on lap two, and Steve is out with mechanicals in the first few laps. We started before the sun came over the horizon, which was fine, but as the sun came up I lost most all of my forward vision on corners three and four causing me to slow a bit there in worry of running into the other riders. Luckily I never had to make another pass for the rest of the hour. On what ended up being the last lap one of the folks at the timing tent hollered something at me but I couldn't hear it. I spent most of that lap wondering what was up and slowed just a bit, then as I passed the timing tent again the van pulled up beside me and I was still confused. Finally it dawned on me that I should be sprinting, but it was too late. And that was that. I finished my hour at 39.841miles. I felt like I was just getting warmed up, like I did my hour at 6hour pace, great. At least I finished. Weather was perfect for my run, but not many others.


We hung around long enough to watch the rest of the morning runs as the winds increased, temps increased, and the sandstorms blew up. Then we gathered as many of the liners, riders, and crew up as we could and took a couple group photos, which are historic in themselves. Not too often that you find this many streamliners in one location. Prolly a 15% of the total number of streamliners that exist in the world were in attendance here, with 2/3 of the fastest people ever to pilot them. How cool is that?


The rest of April 8th and April 9th were spent driving home, aside from a short stop in Wellington, KS for a meal. Didn't stop for the deer 50miles from home at 3:30am either. Took out the hood, right front fender, grill, headlight, fan, ect on the van but we made it home by 4:30 am. Went to bed. Woke up at 5:00am and went to work.

Thank yous to Thom Ollinger for loaning me the Coslinger speedbike and a huge thank you to my parents for sharing the driving chores, crewing, and making this trip possible.

A complete list of results can be found here

My photo gallery from the trip can be found here

DG

Happy post-Easter-erer

Results here

There's a writeup to come here with much to tell, but I really need to get some sleep at the moment. Click here for pics, the rest will be up soon.

DG

Epic

Beautiful weekend at the Ouachita Challenge.

Finished up 28th this year with a couple of stops to play with some sidewall pinholes. Not too shabby. The goal was top 30. But you know I must've watched 15 people go by while I was dinking with that.....guess I'll have to come back next year and fix that ;)

Big congrats to Sydney Brown on her first place women's finish. Her fourth mtb race and she smoked 'em. Almost caught me. Beautiful.

Huge thanks to Squirrel for hooking the cabin up, helping get the group together, sharing the travel costs, and cutting down on my driving time. Heal that Achilles up buddy.

Alright, back on the run. Gotta go pick up the Coslinger for this coming weekend's Speed Championships.

DG

Where we roll, buddy.

Can't wait.

Gonna miss the cool dudes who couldn't make it.

But I think It'll be every bit as epic this year. Whole new passle of like nuts.

Hope to avoid having to use the McGuyver skills this time.

In other news: New arrival in the family. More details on that later. Time to finish packing.

O yea, and an interesting thought for you next time you're buzzed by a careless motorist:

"I too have chased down idiots in cars. Screaming at them is never satisfying enough as they don't care. Next time I'll likely do what a friend of a friend once did... He beat the motorist and then U-locked him by the neck to a parking meter and dropped the keys down the sewer." -boulderbird

DG

3Flat/6Hour

I've been finding some interesting quotes lately. Like this one from Woody Allen: "Eighty percent of success is showing up". Well, that might be true, but that last 20% sure seems to be divided up a bunch.

For instance:
The Spoke Pony 3/6 hour mtb race was last weekend. Trail conditions were about as good as it gets there, weather was nice, camping was good. Feel pretty decent going into it. I know the course. I've been on the podium here. But I made a mistake, I put my Stans tubeless setup together the night before. And it didn't seal so well, as I found out on laps 1 and 2. Totally shot myself in the toe there, I knew better. Always work the kinks out of your equipment in training, dummy. (Yea, like I've got time for that)

And then for some reason on lap three I noticed the front der wasn't shifting so well. Thought maybe the cable was slipping, but I was in the middle ring so that's really all I needed anyways.
Later that lap it jumped into the granny and wouldn't shift, so I was forced to stop again. I looked down. The eccentric had worked its way loose and was slid over about 3/4" ....doh!

After that it was smooth sailing. Well, other than the fact that I had put myself in the hole pretty far. With all the stopping for mechanicals and riding way over the threshold to try and catch the twenty or so people that passed by.

At least I didn't hook any trees or fly off the bike for any reason, that trail hurts to fall on. I know, I've tried it. Unfortunately so did Syd. (Sorry Sydney, we truly didn't want to jeopardize your health or future races, but you'll thank us after the bruising goes away and you're flying down some comparatively mild rocky trail in AR.) Even Squirrel made mention of magically ending up running without his bike into a tree. Somehow I escaped the bruising. I feel fortunate for that.

End result? A fun weekend with friends(aka: "passel of like nuts") on dirt and rock. Yes real dirt. Not snow, not gravel, not mud. Dirt. And rock. One of many successful (by another definition) weekends to come this season. Congrats to all that raced.

The definition of success--To laugh much; to win respect of intelligent persons and the affections of children; to earn the approbation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give one's self; to leave the world a little better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition.; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm, and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived--this is to have succeeded.--Ralph Waldo Emerson


DG

Flat #3 for the weekend

Better now than in two weeks. Better fuel mileage at 50mph anyhows.....

What goes down must come up

40,000ft of climing in 535 miles.

It's tough for me to wrap my mind around these numbers for some reason.

Squirrel's gravel century had about 6500ft of climbing in 100.

RAO has about 7600ft every 100.

Squirrel's route didn't kill me off by any means, but multiply the distance by 5, speed by 2.5 and see what happens?

Makes TransIowa look a little easier.

I see alot of hill training in my future ;)

DG

Fun with Dacron and inclimate weather

Spring was here last Wednesday. Made for a nice, messy, recovery ride.

Back to reality Thursday. Rollers are nice...

More good building weather.

Dacron wheel covers for the lowracer.

A couple more wheelsets to cover.

Gonna make a 700c set to see how they hold up on the larger wheel.

A few more details to work on in the streamliner.

Revamping shell mounts for quicker repairs, landing gear maintainance done,

new seat in the works.

Other news

Sounds like I might be doing a few more road ultras than I had initially planned this season. Maybe in conjunction of yet another team.

Renued my RUSA membership, signed up for the UMCA Year Rounder mileage challenge.

Think I'll try to get a full set of brevets in. One or two KC, One IA, and as many of the Boulder brevet series as I can make.

No, I am not doing RAAM.

Just thinking about that makes my bones ache and my budget shiver.

I do want to do RAO though.

PBP?

And if you haven't heard this is coming up.

DG

This week's base miles....complete

522

New course record

2 flat tires

Great event, great people.

Time to raise my goals.

DG

Small escape

Time to escape the winter workshop for a bit.

2007 base training and start of the spring race season.

Goal +500miles/24hours.

Earn some respect.

Maybe rekindle a little flame.

Happy Valentines

DG

93/73

Late night at work.

DG

Shimek resistance training

Banker Steve taking the lead.

DG

Post Winter Solstice

Badger 29er with Ritchey Speedmax Pro CX tires = pretty quick on gravels. Kinda nice to be running gears again for a bit. Tailwinds are nice. I keep finding myself in the 40x12. Might have to get something bigger than a 40T. Tried the tubeless bit with the cross tires but just couldn't get a good seal. Prolly due to my crappy job cutting the valve hole on the new yellow rim tape and the fact that it usually helps to have warmer weather to get a good seal. Guess I'll have to wait a bit to get that working.

Looking forward to getting ahold of some of the new 29er treads out there. That Kenda Nevegal looks nice, but then so does the Panaracer Rampage, WTB Wiefwolf, Specialized Resolution, and Michelin XC.

Made it into the Ouachita Challenge. A few didn't, bummer. Registration filled super fast this year. I wonder when all these other ultra 100 events open up and if they have rider caps. I'm definitely looking forward to this season, bunch of new events and trails to explore, stacked new team for the mtb stuff(wish I could elaborate here but it hasn't been officially cleared yet. Lets just say that I am merely a bench warmer on this team, lots of talent).



Christmas was good. Couple good rides, some much needed articles of clothing, and one of the coolest movies I've seen in awhile: The Fastest Indian. Burt Monroe was one amazing cat. Maybe a bit crude in his methods, but meticulous and unrelenting. Reminds me alot of some of the great HPV builders I've met in my exploits. And I'm afraid I see alot of the same in my own shop, I just haven't taken to sleeping out there(yet). The sound of the moto in this movie re-awakens the motorhead in me. I'm sure I'll get back to the non-hpv stuff eventually. One obcession at a time.

• Finished up the fork for next liner. Nice tight fit on the 451 SA drum wheel, milled the crown to end up with about an 1/8th of an inch clearance from tire to crown. Real nice. Next, I suppose I get to rethink what I'm building and who I'm building it for. My original plans have been put on hold for a multitude of reasons which made for a pretty crappy Monday last week. IE: back to the drawing board. But thats not all bad, means I get to work on a new shell design, and I won't have to figure out who the hell the thing belongs to when I'm finished. Sounds like I just answered my own question. I'll be building the next liner to fit me. It will be dual 451, fwd, dual drum brake, 15deg seat angle, really friggen low and about half the size of the Cuda. Anybody know where to get Dibond around here?

• I did a century in the Cuda last Saturday. 4hours. 15miles of gravel. Yep, gravel roads in a streamliner at about 25mph with a good 10-20mph South crosswind. Actually wasn't too bad. The gravels in Western IL are actually better than some of the "paved" roads over there.

• Other news: I paid off my last credit card, YAY! Now all I have left is the Cuda and the Suby to pay off. Cuda should go quick, I hope.

• New recommended music:
• Radiodread: Radiohead Rasta, nuff said.
• Brandi Carlile: wow
• Linda Ronstadt and Ann Savoy's Adieu False Heart: Beautiful. A little sad if you listen too closely.
• East Village Opera Company: high power rock and roll opera
• Any James Brown you can get your hands on: respect

DG

Tag

So I was tagged by Amanda. Normally chain mail goes in the trash, but it is Amanda's 20th birthday so .... i suppose it's the thought that counts. Six interesting things you may not know about me, hmm.

1) I have a somewhat obsessive personality, with very few compulsive influences. Everything I do is typically thought over many times whether it be purchases, hobbies, or life in general. When I am interested in something I explore every facet of it. With these traits I can attribute most of my success(cycling) and failure(relationships).

2) I've been on wheels nearly since birth. In my early childhood I spent a year or two recovering from having my legs crushed in a farm accident by pedaling around the house on a tricycle. I started riding atvs when I was 12 and was bored with that by highschool when I picked up my first real bike, a 1979 Raliegh Gran Prix. First century(on the gravel roads around my house) when I was 16.

3)I have broken three bike frames and three separate forks in the last 15 months, yet I have never knocked a wheel out of true more than 1/4". One of those frames was the 1979 Raliegh during a cross race last year. I miss that bike.

4)I used to be easily mistaken for a hippie. My first vehicle was a 1966 VW microbus with a 1/4" of finger paint on it(I still have it) and my hair was down to my waist. However I have never done any drugs, took one year to explore alcohol and found it repulsive(aside from its moral negatives), and never had a grade lower than a B- (aside from band, skipped the individual practices, too shy) and made Deans list 3 out of 4 semesters while acquiring my associates in precision machining.

5)I own five VWs, a Suburu, enough parts to assemble at least three more VWs, 4 mtbs, two road bikes, and two streamlined recumbents. Half of my uprights are single speeds.

6) I couldn't swim until two years ago and I still can't tread water. I decided I should learn about a year after buying my kayak when I decided I would like to try a few triathlons.



There you go, that was really more than six things, but I told you I was obsessive.
Now go tag yourself.

DG

Welcome to winter

So, it decided to be winter now. Two weeks ago i did a night ride in shorts, today I ordered a set of Lake winter boots and Craft Lobster gloves. More shopping for wool and windstopper yet to come.

The snow is nice to see, if not somewhat ironic(I sold my snowmobile last year, hence snow this year). I'm thinking about buying some CX skis, but I wouldn't want to scare the snow away.

This fall's racing has been somewhat of a bust for me. I think I left my fitness in September, I just hope its waiting for me in March, maybe i can sneak some in February. In the mean time I've been doing the fixie-cross bit. Still good with the barrier sections, but man am I dieing on the runups. Time for a cardio overhaul this winter.

Next season is going to be a little different. Back to my roots, grow a few new ones.

So far on the calendar:
Feb 17/18 Sebring 24hour RAAM Qualifier on the bent
feb 25th Landal hmbcs #1
End Of March Ouachita Challenge
April 14/15 Crowderfest

Transiowa8-29-07
May 7, 6 hours of Platte River
May 19th dirty KANZA
June 3rd Landal
July 4th Firecracker 50
End of July Wilderness 101

august 18th Landal 6/12
August 25th Endurance 100
September 1st S + M 100
the rest of the mtb100 series
Maybe the Laramie Enduro
and some other assorted ultras

Hope to do some sweet riding in new places. Maybe meet a few folks. Spend some time with old friends.

And then there's the HPRA series
and UMCA events on the bent.
Unfaired recumbent hour record.
Finish building a few more bents for myself and others.
Organize the Hawkeye Downs HPRA again this year, coordinated with the Velomobile gathering in CR.
Hope to find a little time for another state crossing or two, a
good brevet or two, maybe even a little touring if I find the opportunity.

Many long miles into the wind to be had this winter. The story of my midwest roots lie therein.

DG

Checklist revisited

NorthEast IA, sweet views. First snow. Thanks Lee and Andrea!


To do list:
Heal these stupid ribs. -3weeks off the bike did the trick. Now where'd I put my fitness?
Pay off the last credit card this winter. -winter's not over yet, heck it hasn't even started snowing yet. Progress is being made.
Take a crack at the unfaired hour this fall.-yea, note the two previous items on the list. Track rental is expensive.
Buy an SRM crankset-somehow...this still needs to happen...somehow...
Buy a highracer.-as much as I would love to buy an Aero, I think I'm going to have to settle for building one.
Train for the real hour attempt next year.-in progress, from base level.
Finish scouting and noting the IA West-East UMCA record attempt route-check, sh92, rough.
Notify UMCA, find and official, set up the crew, and set a record with the Cuda.-check(pending UMCA approval) Not fast enough though.
Build a frame jig.-check, yea check it out, sweet.

Build a couple Gritters copies. -gettin components together, gotta work on the brazing skills so I don't smoke that high zoot thinwall tube though. On the search for SA drum brakes.
Rebuild the Zoteliner frame and shell subframe. -practice, here ya go. 16' of 2" x.049 should be showing up early next week along with some 1/16th brass and some decent flux(used powder flux and 1/8brass for the last one. No wonder I was burnin tubes)
Finish the shell. -need to order some small tube to redo the shell subframe, then<-
Play with Vivak windsheilds/bubbles.Stock up on Vivak, Dibond, Choroplast, Zotefoam, Steel tubing, fiberglass and epoxy. -looks like I need to find a sign shop sponsorship. Need more funds. Dear Santa, please bring me a roll of Vivak, a bunch of thinwall 4130, and some Zotefoam.....wha?..right.
Build a back to back tandem. And a shell for it. -well at least I've got the jig to do it.
Stop falling over. -just falling in a different way. but not a new way.

DG

wish I could find no truth in this skit

no matter which way you read it

UMCA IA West -East record attempt

275miles at 25.6mph
2-3mph NW winds, gusting to 10mph
10,979feet of climbing
56deg avg temp
27.6mph moving avg

New UMCA faired recumbent IA West to East state crossing record(pending certification of the Ultra Marathon Cycling Association)

Hmm...nice shape

To do list:
Heal these stupid ribs.
Pay off the last credit card this winter.
Take a crack at the unfaired hour this fall.
Buy an SRM crankset
Buy a highracer.
Train for the real hour attempt next year.
Finish scouting and noting the IA West-East UMCA record attempt route
Notify UMCA, find and official, set up the crew, and set a record with the Cuda.
Build a frame jig.
Build a couple Gritters copies.
Rebuild the Zoteliner frame and shell subframe. Finish the shell.
Play with Vivak windsheilds/bubbles.
Stock up on Vivak, Dibond, Choroplast, Zotefoam, Steel tubing, fiberglass and epoxy.
Build a back to back tandem. And a shell for it.
Stop falling over.