The heart of the electric power assist turned out to be an elegantly simple device. Creating the design taxed my creative imagination for a couple of weeks. My wife, Judy, may have began to wonder if I had lost track of reality as I traced imaginary chain lines in the air and doodled increasingly complicated sketches of Rube-Goldberg devices on scraps of paper.
Category Archives: Bicycle Construction
Son-of-Path
I have started a companion blog to our regular travel stories starting here in September. I have started building a replacement for our recumbent tandem bicycle we call “Path.” Until we dream up a new name for the new bicycle it shall be known as “Son-of-Path.” I don’t believe the gestation of the new bicycle will take as long as “Path,” (a couple years.) I do expect this to take several months and be full of adventures and indeed misadventures.
Dinsey Mark III, The Blog:
This is the story of the creation of Dinsey Mark III, the son of “Path.”
First: “Path” is the name given to Dinsey Mark II. This name was derived from Anne McCaffrey’s “Dragon Riders of Pern,” a fantasy/Sci.Fi. series about a mythical planet with mythical dragons with telepathic and telekinetic powers. “Path” was a Green Dragon ridden by Mirrim in the series.
The Terra based “Path” is ridden by Gary and Judy Dinsmore and was a participant in the 2009 Oregon Human Powered Challenge May 23 through May 25, 2009 at Portland International Raceway. At this time “Path” had accumulated 12, 121 miles in about eight years of riding. Periodically I would meditate over what the next version of the Dinsey series of bicycles might look like and what improvements it might have.
New Bicycle
Back on June 10th I reported that my creative juices were surging and I was busy designing a new recumbent tandem bicycle with electric assist. Well today I can report the first piece of the new bicycle is complete. I can hold it in my hand.
Back in Oregon
I know! I know! I have been falling down on my Blog writing. Has it really been a month?
As all our local friends know, we are back in Oregon and hanging out in Hillsboro near Renee and Neil’s place. We have been quite busy this spring. First we attended the Human Powered Vehicle Challenge over Memorial Day Weekend. This is an annual get-together and race conducted at Portland International Raceway. We raced against other laid-back, recumbent bicycles in ten mile, one hour and 200 meter races. We were consistent in that we placed second in our class in every race.