Human powered vehicles, a way to travel, conserve fuel and get exercise

[Recumbent ReCycler]

About a month and a half ago, I bought a recumbent trike.  I started modifying it and using it to travel to work (or at least to the bus stop in Dover).  In the first month of riding, I lost about 10 lbs and saved approximately $3/day in gasoline.  Thanksgiving set me back a little, but I'm back on track again, for the most part.  Here are some pictures of it that I took today. 



I have some ideas for modifications and accessories, and would like to run them by you folks.  One idea that I have is to get a couple of Ron Paul signs, probably the 2'x4' ones, and add LEDs where it says "Ron Paul", and put them above the seat at approximately a 45 degree angle from vertical/horizontal so that they would touch at the top and slope down on the sides so that the bottom edges would be a little higher than my head and so that rain and snow would run off the sides and back.  This should give me (and the signs) plenty of visibility for motorists, and give me (and the seat when it's parked) some shelter from the rain and snow.  I haven't figured out how I would attach them yet.
Another idea that I have is to make a towable human powered street sweeper which I would use to clean up breakdown lanes and bicycle paths, which generally have a lot more debris on them than the travel portion of a roadway.  It would be somewhere between one of these: https://www.tryshark.com/contents/index.aspx and the ones that are pulled behind vehicles at airports to clean the runways.  It would be about 32" wide and the brush would be powered by the wheels.  It would attach to a bike or trike much like the kiddie trailers would.

[error]

Do you really ride in this weather?

[Puke]

Cool ideas.
I've never seen a recumbent like that before. It looks pretty neat.

[Recumbent ReCycler]

Do you really ride in this weather?

Sure, why not?  I rode it to the library today.  I found that wearing appropriate clothing helps make the ride much more comfortable.  I wear this kind of jacket:

When it's cold or raining, I wear some bright green or yellow snowboarding pants over my clothing.  One problem I first ran into yesterday was that I need to get any moisture out of my cables so that they don't freeze up.  Today I couldn't get it to shift out of 1st or 2nd gear and the left brake was sticking because the cables had frozen up.

[Jim Johnson]

Cool trike, Tim.

I like that three wheel conveyance, two front, one rear with front steering.  It's the most stable of the three wheeled vehicles.

I have built five Human Powered Race Machines.  My two person, four wheeled, four wheel drive was the most successful.  http://www.kineticrace.com/archives/1998/latimes.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_Sculpture_Race#World_Championship_2

[David]

Clam I Am???   
I would love to have a 3 wheeled bike.  Cannot afford it though.  Iv'e never seen any for less than a grand.   

[Jim Johnson]

The cheapest three wheeled bike that I built was $1500 in parts alone.  But that was an all terrain/amphibious machine.

[jaqeboy]

Congratulations, Tim - that baby looks awesome! What make and model is it?

There is a new economy trike coming out - I heard about it at Common Ground Fair from a bike dealer in Maine. I'll have to dig thru my notes from that workshop.

I have some experience with the sweeper concept since we worked on sweepers at the mobile robot company I worked at. We can talk more about that.

[KBCraig]

Tim, what a deviously clever way to add political content to a politics-free forum! 

Cool trike, too. We're buying bikes for Christmas. It will be tough for me to find a way to bike to work, though. The roads are deliberately designed with choke points, so everyone is forced through major intersections (makes it easy for police, when they only have to sit in a few places to see every vehicle passing through town). There are a couple of places I could cut off road, though.

[Recumbent ReCycler]

The trike itself cost me just under a grand before I started adding accessories.  It is a RecumbentUSA Trike II.  They don't come with instructions, so proper assembly took a while to figure out.  I broke the dérailleur before I got it working right and had to replace it.  I'm planning to  make improved versions of some of the components and replace the stock parts with them.  I would love to get together with jaqeboy and Jim Johnson to discuss design ideas.

[elf]

I lived in Europe for a number of years.  Many HPVs are all-weather types.
Three or four-wheel models enclosed in an egg shaped shell.  Handy little things!
Examples:   Danish Leitra, Cab-bikes, Aerorider and many more. 
The Alleweder is built in Texas. 

[Kat Kanning]

Cool   Do you worry about being hit, when you're so low?  Do you have a flag or something?

[elf]

Exactly, Kat.   Also, the body paint is light-reflective.  Glow in the dark flags help, too.
When car lights hit it, the things shimmer like they're radioactive.   
Oh, and they have lighting kits, too - for those who want to put headlights, taillights, turn signals. 
Most people opt for those kits. Turns them into a kid's dream car. 
The back has plenty of room for shopping trip items. 
Gee, where were these things back in the 50's when I was a midwest state farm kid? 
Best of all - no licensing, no registration, no insurance, no parking stickers, and no fuel required. 
You'll be the talk of the town. Get ready for a new wardrobe.   Guaranteed fat burner/muscle toner!

[elf]

Ooops, nearly forgot.
If the powers that be won't let me bring the horse and buggy into town - they damn sure can't stop me from rolling in on one of these things! 

[EJinCT]

I would love to have an enclosed trike for commuting to work, but the one major obstacle I experienced, when last I rode one, was hills. It was more difficult and took longer to ascend than on a bicycle.