The British Human B H P C Power Club If he says “Eh- oh” once Again, more, I swear Eh-oh! Again!! I’ll strangle Me, him! Me!! Demand For The New Make-Or-Break Rover 66 Had Reached Unprecedented Levels... Autumn 2000 Issue 62 BHPC Newsletter - Issue 62 Front Cover: Now we know who started this scooter craze... Back Cover: But somehow I always thought Dilbert would have a recumbent Contents Events 3 News And Stuff That Bloke With The Tatty[1] Kingcycle 3 Correspondence 6 Hill Climbing Mike Burrows 7 More Rules Mike Burrows 8 An Experimental Water Cycle George R. Stevenson 10 Brandy Wharf Ride Eric “Cyclone” Coles 14 Races & Points Dave Larrington, Jonathan Woolrich 15 World Championships 2000 Rob English / Dave Larrington 27 World Championships 2001 Jonathan Woolrich 37 Late-Breaking News 41 Suppliers And Wants 43 Back Page Scott Adams 48 1 - now with functional front suspension! Read all about it in issue 63. Maybe. Objectives: The British Human Power Club was formed to foster all aspects of human-powered vehicles - air, land & water - for competitive, recreational and utility activities, to stimulate innovation in design and development in all spheres of HPV's, and to promote and to advertise the use of HPV's in a wide range of activities. Good luck, Rob! OFFICERS Chairman & Press Officer Membership & Distribution Dave Cormie Dennis Turner 143 East Trinity Road 7 West Bank, Edinburgh, EH5 3PP Abbot's Park ! Home 0131 552 3148 Chester, CH1 4BD e-mail: [email protected] ! Home 01244 376665 Secretary & Touring Secretary e-mail: [email protected] Steve & Sherri Donaldson Librarian 15 Station Road Pete Cox Dyce, Aberdeen 11a Lorne St AB21 7BA Chester, CH1 4AE ! Home 01224 772164 ! Home 01244 376776 e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: broken... Competition Secretary Newsletter Manglers gNick Green Dave & Tina Larrington ...no fixed abode 166 Higham Hill Road e-mail: [email protected] London E17 6EJ Treasurer ! Home 0208 531 4496 Fiona Grove (after 19:00 weekdays...) 7 Salmon Close e-mail: [email protected] Bloxham, Banbury, or: [email protected] Oxon, OX15 4PJ ! Home 01295 721860 BHPC on the Web: e-mail: [email protected] http://www.bhpc.org.uk/ Issue 63 closes: 1st Dec 2000 Letters, articles, pictures, Shiny Things, etc. are always welcome - please send to the Editor at the address opposite. Technology being what it is these days, we can cope with most file formats readable by a PC (text in ASCII, Lotus WordPro/AmiPro or MS Word easiest to cope with), but if you haven't got one, items on paper are just as acceptable. To reduce cheesiness, electronically- transmitted photos should be at a resolution of 300 dpi (or greater if you can afford the bandwidth). A Day At The Races BHPC Race Events October 8th Eastway circuit, London E15 (AGM) Notes: 1. The AGM meeting will again be a points event Specially-Selected Other People’s Events December 1st -3rd HPRA/HPVA North American Championships, Disneyworld, Orlando, Florida. Contact: Garrie Hill, 220 Vill-Edge Drive, Granville, Ohio 43023, USA. Web: http://www.recumbents.com/hpra/ The Editor Crosses The Andes By Frog World Championships Not long back from the Worlds in Belgium. A good time seems to have been had by all, in spite of the ‘orrible weather, and there was an excellent turn-out of Brits. Good show, boys and girls! We’ve got a lot of work to do if we’re going to come up to this standard in Brighton, and various of the great, the good and the unsung have been plotting hard in this direction - see separate article elsewhere in this issue. Meanwhile, Dries Callebaut writes to say: “After the champs we found a blue Adidas training jacket with in its pockets; some pounds, a pair of glasses and some bike-slot keys. Does anybody know from whom it could be?” The general sus- picion is that it’s Tim Elsdale’s - is it so, Tim? If anyone else thinks it’s theirs, please con- tact Dries, either directly or via the Editor. Baccura Type R From the United States Of Abroad comes news of the in- triguing Baccura Type R rac- ing trike. Much carbon, tita- nium and aluminium go into the makeup of this front drive / rear steer beastie, and the The elegant Baccura Type R 3 mono-stay front wheel is also noteworthy. The resultant device is said to weigh in well under twenty pounds, though how much you’ll have to pay for this lightness and simplicity I know not. More details from: Baccura trikes, 3660 Se Henderson, Portland, Oregon 97202, USA, +1 503-775-3603, e-mail: [email protected], web: http://www.baccura.com (is this OK, Jamie :-) New Tyres Also from the US comes news of some new Primo tyres. These are wider versions of the Primo Comet already much beloved of many HPV’ers, and are available in 47-406 and 40-559 sizes, rated at 100 psi. The narrower 406 Primo Comet had, according to Ian Sims’ testing, almost as good a rolling resistance as the semi-legendary Tioga Comp Pool, so all else being equal, the wider Comets should turn out to be better in this regard than the Comp Pool. The snag is that I have absolutely no idea if they’re available in this country at all, but if all else fails, they can be had from Zach Kaplan Cycles, 1518 Buena Vista Ave., Alameda, CA 94501, tel: +1 510-522-2368, e-mail: [email protected], web: http://www.bikeroute.com/ zach/ Closer to home, good news for the beleagured Kingcyclist is that St John Street Cycles now offer a Swallow Amberwall 18 x 1 3/8 (37-390) tyre. This has a similar pressure rating to the late and rather unlamented Hutchinson, and a tread pattern which appears similar to a Michelin World Tour, according to the picture I squinted at on SJSC’s web site, anyway. They’ve also got a couple of alternative 540/541 tyres, though neither appear to have as high a pressure rating as the Schwalbe 25-540 which is still doing sterling service on the back of the Editor’s bolide. Though I did blow one off the rim the other day :-( To this end, Ian Prince tells me that: “There was a recent piece about a new cycle warehouse called Decathlon in London. Useful for tyres and bits. They have now spread their wings and opened at Giltbrook, Nottingham (next to IKEA) should anyone wish to investigate...there are even cyclepaths and cycle parking, together with a small cafe. Not bad for other sports and camping. The Boy Done Good Imagine that you are a young graduate engineer, amateur cycle racer and HPV enthusiast. Then some- one offers you a job at a salary which, were I to mention the amount, I dare say would make much of the Club’s membership postively chartreuse with envy, designing recumbent bicycles. The “someone” in question being RevoBike, a Massachussetts bike shop who, amongst other enterprises, import the Dutch Optima range of recumbents into the USA. The person in question being Rob English, who in only a year or so has comprehensively re-written BHPC notions of what speed is all about. By the time I write this, Rob should be settling down Over There, but hopes to be back for the AGM and if all goes according to plan, to make an attempt on the Hour Record next spring. My spies tell me that he’s trying to persuade Cap’n Kingsbury to send some form of K2 over to the States towards the end of this year so as to give him something useful to race at the HPRA Championships at Disneyworld. All the best, Rob, and try to acquire a taste for Beer while you’re there! In America? Where the beer tastes like yellow water? - Mrs. Ed. Bike To The Future? Roy MacDonald sent the following item, from CNN.com, July 3rd, with the comment: “Thought you might find this interesting. Also Classic Motorbike (July) has a big article on the Quasar. Take a look at the full faired 1983 version, very nice.” “Despite its name, the Hydrocycle doesn't run on tap water. But it's quiet, odorless and creates no pollu- tion. All this, and it's motorized, a shining application of fuel-cell technology. 4 The Hydrocycle is a prototype fuel cell-powered bicycle developed by Manhattan Scientifics Inc. of New York City. Riders have the option of using their own power to get around or switching to a small motor powered by Manhattan Scientifics' proprietary mid-range fuel-cell technology. Jack Harrod, chief operating officer at Manhattan Scientifics, had the opportunity recently to take a spin on the Hydrocycle, an adaptation of a standard mountain bike. "It is really a wonderful experience," said Harrod. "You can actually get on the thing and ride through the forest in silence, with no pollution and no odor. It's an exciting thing." Fuel cells use only hydrogen and oxygen to create electricity. Water vapor is the only byproduct of the process, making it pollution-free. This zero-emission technology places the Hydrocycle above even standard electric bikes now on the market. "Electric bikes are battery powered," said Harrod, "and so are still using an electric power gen- eration station." The cylindrical fuel cell weighs 780 grams and fits under the handlebars of the Hydrocycle Although alternative energy technologies are on the rise, the majority of electricity is still generated from polluting processes such as coal combustion or problematic methods such as hydroelectric dams.