Imagining Bikes - Conceptualizing II

Dave Krafft and I had this prototype number 3 which we loaned out to people of the MN HPV club to ride and to get feedback. This one time, the guy comes back from a ride with his friends and offers to buy the bike. Dave and I looked at each other and then answered that it was a prototype and not for sale. How would we price it, if it were? Time spent and materials? And, you're talking about guys who never really put something down but carry things around in their heads and multi-task. We even wake up in the middle of the night with an "Aha!" Or, if one finds a new way of making something work and magnify its' usefulness by a factor of two or three while replacing expensive parts and making it simpler? How does one go about making it affordable?

First of all, the bike was thrown together, parts of it worked as to its' gear train but the shifter needed work and we weren't happy over the seat design. It still needed work. I mean, hey, it's a prototype! It wasn't even painted! But the guy was adamant. "Name your price."

We finally just told him it wasn't for sale although we would let him copy it and help him build one for himself. Guess he wasn't interested in doing so.

This brings me to the title of this weblog, NRX bikes.

A friend and I were batting around how one would charge for products which were beyond cutting edge. The concern was, how would one be able to afford one?

Not just that, but as a prototype experimental bike, there are insurance concerns as well as concerns of the designer person and company.

As a consumer/user, what would I want? What would I need?

My Grandfather ended up being many things in life but one job he ended with was as a used car salesman. Yeah, one can laugh over that today. But, if I told you that even though he worked many years in semi-retirement and change dealerships, over four generations of customers from a five state region would find their way to him, would you begin to understand that he was not your ordinary salesman? Even though he never once proclaimed himself as this or that, I noticed fathers bringing their young sons or a new young family from this state or that state to do business with him when I was going to work with him while staying over. I noticed how pissed off his fellow coworkers would get when people would show up asking for him and refuse to do business with any other. So, one day I just asked him why this was so? His response has stayed with me these many years. It was this. "I sell them what they need, not what they want. And, if they're adamant, I just go ahead and sell them what they want but tell them that this car or that car would be better for them and why. In not too long a time, they show back up and then ask for what they need." He never would say,"I told you so," or gloat over it. He would just get on with it as though they had just arrived on their first visit. He would ask about their family, what do they do? What is their daily life like? Are they mechanically gifted or just need the minimum transportation without a lot of breakdowns? Do they have kids? How many? Are they wanting more kids? Do they travel a lot or just around their area? He would ask, and then he would listen. He did the same to the men who worked in the service department. In this manner, first he would have an idea of his product, then he would try and match up his client. If he didn't have anything on the lot to sell them today, he'd tell them so. They'd leave a number, and if something showed up which would suit their needs, he'd call or write to them. If they needed something right away, he might get on the phone and call around, and send them somewhere else. The owner confronted him once after co-worker's complaints, and never again. Sure, today they might lose a sale, but the customer would return to his starting point the next time and besides, everyone has friends and, or, relatives and word spreads quickly as to who to trust.

The owner decided to retire and closed down the business. My grandfather came home and did his usual routine. The next day, he stayed home. When I asked why he was home, he told me. I asked if he was worried about losing his job? No, he said, something will turn up. Less than a week later, the owner of one of the largest Chevrolet dealerships called him up. My grandfather took the call calmly, and after a while he put down the phone and told me who it was, and that he was going to see him the next day.

My grandfather had contracted polio when he was around twelve years old. Being one of nineteen children and a cripple had limited what he could do in life. As it was just in one leg, he sometimes had to resort to using a cane but usually, he just tried to get by without it.

Couple that with his age, and ones sees that today, in this world, he would probably have never work again.

The owner of the Chevy dealership met and hired him the next day. When he noticed my grandfather having a hard time getting around, he went out and bought him a surrey'd golf cart for just him and his customers to use. In no time, his sales off of his used car lot jumped as word got around that he was working there.

One day, he noticed that a couple came in and were looking around at the new cars, and kept trying to get someones attention. All of the new car salesmen acted too busy to help them, so after a while, they spied my grandfather and came over to him, asking for his help. He patiently explained to them that he could only sell used cars but they pleaded with him. He tried to get another salesman to help them but, they were too busy. Finally, he told them he knew nothing about the new models but he would help them. He did, and he sold them a new truck. When the paperwork went through, the head of new vehicle sales just demanded that the owner fire my grandfather. My grandfather just sat and didn't say a word until the owner turned to him and asked his version. When my grandfather had finished, the owner told him he was welcome to sell any car on his lot that he liked.

My grandfather ended up working for that dealership long after retirement age and only part time of the year. But, the owner kept his golf cart in storage, covered, with instructions that no one else was to use it.

My grandfather taught me many lessons but mostly I feel he taught me about value and selling to the ones who will use your product. Foremost, be honest and keep your sense of honor. Give them what they need, not necessarily what they want. The use of something is what brings value, not the want of it. The want of it is superficial and is like the picked flower. It wilts early. Something you need in your everyday life will be used often and return its' value each time it is used. In a consumer society, this fact is often glossed over by selling techniques which manipulate the buyer.

How many times have I gone to a garage sale to find upright bicycles for sale at a fraction of the price they were when new? How many of them basically rusted from little use and no care? We measure how well the bike business is doing by how many units sold over the new year. The cost of refurbishing an old used model is higher than an off of the rack model. In twenty years, the new model will be the old, but little, at this rate of change, will have changed between the old and new. Just the price. The metal will rust, the tires will rot, the plastic will crack, the leather will break down. The grease will coagulate, the bearings will freeze up, and the cables will be immobile. Not always, but many times I've seen this.
So, what is my point?
I don't believe the industry is giving good value. Why do I feel this way? Probably because I feel they've left the honor and trying to people like Pope, who led people astray, manipulated them for his own gains and basically duped them into believing he had engineered a final product while denying any competitors access to the market to give consumers another choice. Besides, he ended up secretly aligning with the internal combustion guys to run the bikes off of the roads.
What niche markets are moving in the bike market place? Where is the growth overall? Probably not in the middle where the safety model is the bulk offered. It is my understanding that a do over of the safety, the mountain bike, has leveled off. They seem to be waiting for the next do over, and it's not happening. However, there is the cabled, tune able frame which I've already done. Don't even know if they'd consider such a thing.
It seems as though the bike manufacturers are part of this huge flywheel that is turning and the most weight is in what is offered by the manufacturers which is where they have most of their capital tied up in fixtures of the safety model. I priced a fixture the other day for turning out the safety model. It varies but the upward figure is around ten grand without add-ons. With the price of frames being what they are, how many frames would I have to sell at what price to make a profit? If I had to compete with Asian manufacturers or even Latin American, well, one can see the problem. The large manufacturers produce the versions of the safety.
The problem of the gear train stagnation is all about Shimono.
All of this brings me back to giving people what they need. Too many times, big business dictates to the market place as to what will be offered based upon their profit, not what the people need. Not just that, but the most profit. For this reason, once the capital investment is made as to the kind of fixtures to build the models, a certain number of units has to be made over the life of the fixture, over a certain length of time. For this reason, the large amount of capital involved comes off as being conservative as to change once the model which provides the most profit is chosen.
How many of these large monied investors ride a bike every day and use it for their main vehicle of choice? I would venture to say not one has the experience.
For my financial model I would say not to sell bikes of a prototype model. Lease them.

Imagining Bikes - Conceptualizing

When I first started down this road, there was the sound of someone saying "What is the question?" Not that I was hearing voices, but I had heard someone or read somewhere of someone pointing this out. It's not the answers one should be looking for but the actual question. The answers become self evident once the true question is brought into the light of mind. In practice, this has proven correct for me over the years.
Now, if anyone ever reads this other than myself, let me just point out that I'm all for intelligence. I've met some very intelligent people, and I've met some intelligent enlightened people. Then there were others that I would fondly call those that have access to knowledge and delightfully dance upon the light. Very special people.
I used to have to sit in management meetings and listen to people brainstorming, or attempting to, and in frustration finally ask just what is the question they were asking? Then I would point out that the topics they were viewing as negative weren't necessarily negative if they could see other parts to the question. Just trying to get them to "do the math" so to speak of melting a problem down to its' smallest components and then disassemble the smallest parts one at a time. Then, keeping an eye of the larger end product, create the components. Sort of like mapping.
Then, if you can come out of a meeting like this with something in hand,, a road map of where you are to go and what you need to do, then it has been a valuable meeting. If this doesn't happen, it has been a waste of time. In the usual hierarchical structure of corporations and smaller companies even, uttering these words will get you the door. As it did me many a time.
People may be intelligent about some subjects but usually not about all. Few can dance upon the light, and I'm not one of those.
I would guess, at this time, at this point in time, it is more important for me to develop maps in my mind for operating day to day. For instance, I had a teacher in my senior year in high school that managed to get me out of the clutches of a provincial system inside of the school, and into his class, college prep English. Ruffling feathers all of the way, he even personally "appropriated" an extra desk by himself, hauling it up three flights of stairs so that I could attend his class. As school had already been in session for some period of maybe a month or so, my schoolmates were kind of surprised to suddenly find me amongst them but didn't speak of it. Mr. Pearson then directed me to the school library to check out a book called, "Thirteen Common Fallacies of Logical Thinking", by Stuart. As I had worked in the library for a couple of years, I hadn't recalled ever seeing this book. Going to the library, the head librarian questioned why I was out of class, and I told her why. She looked at me quizzically, I remember. Upon finding the book, I was piqued at the small book and looked at the copyright date. It was in the 1800's or maybe earlier. As I checked myself out, I looked up the history of the book and found that it had never been checked out. Puzzled further, I returned to class with book in hand.
Mr. Pearson informed me that I was to read the book and report to him the next day. He was planning on quizzing me. I thought, okay, another test and no big deal.
The next day, the class was having a discussion on the homework assignment given to all and Mr. Pearson stopped the discussion, and said, Mr. Coleman, what is going on with this logic? In front of everyone, I had to recall, and explain, the illogic behind what was being said. Once I had done so, he would then turn to the class, and say, "Please continue", only to stop them when they steered off of the path of logic into another pitfall and "quiz" me again. So it went for the rest of the school year.
I have too older brothers who could do no wrong when we were growing up and they had attended Mr. Pearson's English prep course but in remembering the history of the book, it had been in the library for years and had never been checked out. They had never mentioned it nor had I seen them bring it home. A small booklet really, more like a hardbound thick pamphlet. It is still in print today.
When we envision a bicycle, what do we see in the mind? What is our question? Do we see automatically the safety bicycle? Are do we see the question of how to get from here to there in comfort, in the most efficient manner our technology can bring us? The given to the equation is the human body can produce, measured, a quarter of a horsepower for short periods of time. Other "givens" are that over eighteen miles an hour, you begin spending more energy pushing air than going faster; inclement weather happens; hills, for most of us, happen; wind is a constant factor; for many of us for part of the year, we need light to see by; wheels spin up debris; for most of us, we ride on paved roads; many of us, if we depend on human power, need a way to haul loads; most of us have to share the road with motorized vehicles.
If we take these premises and apply the last hundred year's advancement of technology, forgetting the notion that the safety bicycle design is the end of its' design cycle, what can we come up with?
Will we apply the latest knowledge of say, a charged skin on an object can create a slipstream effect for a vehicle? Can we apply stand alone energy systems for power assist when needed without weight? Can the latest in drive trains be incorporated? Can the latest in coating technology be applied to wear surfaces? Can the maintenance cycle for bicycles/tricycles be extended, and if so, how far for the cost? Could we use ceramic bearings with the latest in high strength stainless steels? Could we create and manufacture cheap HPVs? Can the nanotechnology advances apply the surfaces or coatings which would shed dirt as in the lotus petal design?
In short, can we effectively sever the chains of comment that the safety bike is the finite of the design of the bicycle and move/apply technologies to apply for consumers waiting for product?
I feel we can, if we have a plan. And, financially, we can pay for these advances.

Imagining Bikes - HPVS

If you've never ridden in an HPV you should. Just about all of the ones I've ridden in had an internal framework with a body(fairing) added over it. Most seem to run in the fifty pound range. Also, most seem to be not quite workable for the day to day trips and run into big bucks. There seems to be a few ways of working around the two wheeled HPV problem of "how do I do this by myself!?" of standing still or getting rolling?

Also, there is a problem of noise control while inside and rolling - the lack of. Does anyone else notice this? Just with a front fairing(clear bubble) there is this booming sound when you hit a hole or bump. It is either in the connection points, lack of stiffness or something similar because when you take a heat gun and lose some of the smooth bubble, it lessens.

Once, I took a heat gun to some discarded imperfect bubbles and made them into bug thoraxes. Even spray painted a few with contrasting colors. The booming went away and the colors really caught people's eyes. When you're on a tadpole trike, you need for people to see you. Doubled up, they also served as good bumpers!

Mentioning tadpole trikes, when I worked at making parts of the Dragonflyer trikes with a couple of guys, I mentioned to the (what should I call him?) designer that the trike had a problem of pedal steering and this needed to be overcome. Brushing off my comments to possible fixes(we parted company shortly thereafter) he later just appeared with gussets off of the main tube to the connecting tubes between the front wheels. Maybe the final straw came for him when I said out loud that this won't fix anything! And, it didn't. Anyway, others later on have pointed to this situation as just part of the problem with two wheels in front and so forth. But, I beg to differ. Just as we've been able to straighten out the frame flex problem of the LWB recumbent, so too will this tensioning member straighten out the frame steering problem of the recumbent tadpole trike.

I watched some wonderful videos of the HPV racers out in Nevada on Youtube. I'll have to find and list that here. One of the things which caught my eye was one vehicle that seemed to succumb to pedal steer and didn't recover.

One of our work projects over at Dave's was making a foam and plaster HPV plug for attempting to pull plastic vacuum molds. It didn't go well with the person doing it, so we ended up taking FRP off of the repaired forms. During this episode, another Aha! moment came when we were cutting all of the openings for this and for that. I had been following a guy from New Zealand who had perfected his way of getting around the expense of turning out faired FRP multihulled sailboats. Called the KSS method, it is my thinking that using his method of construction on a smaller scale, one could break down the HPV shell into components and bend the components over a form and join them together clamped into place doing away with the molds all together.



Another way would be to form them into yet smaller pieces and let these pieces slide on small tubes like fish scales which would interlock and you could then pull, or tension them to a rear part of the bike allowing one to make a convertible HPV and/or a side hatchway.



But, why stop there?

Why does one need an internal frame in an HPV? Why not make the frame the fairing? Take a piece of flat FRP formed using the KSS method and draw it together using a high strength stainless steel cable. Take one of similar size and mirror image and use another cable to bend and shape it along a longitudinal axis. Joining the two halves together at the ends basically would give you an aerodynamically shaped form. Put a bubble on the front end, join a front wheel steering assembly along with a crank assembly joined to the tensioning cables, place hard points for sliding up a rear wheel assembly, slip on your chain, fasten your seat to the tensioning cables,,,. What frame? What plug?

Think about it. Could we dare go another step forward and make the HPV totally able to be disassembled and assembled on a whim? Could we make it fit within a suitcase? Why not?

We can fly objects to Mars, land and go exploring but we can't revolutionize a form of transportation that has been around for over a hundred years?

I saw a guy go down in an HPV doing at least thirty miles an hour and I mean he went down hard due to a mechanical failure. The important thing here is that due to it being an open shell design, he did get some scrapes to one elbow before he pulled it inside of his fiberglass/foam shell but little else. He ended up next to the curb on the roadway but basically little worse for wear. If he had not been in his shell, he would have had some nasty road rash and worse. The shell? The fiberglass was a little worn in some places but easily fixed.
I feel that if I can get the weight/complexity problem sorted out as well as the production method, HPVs could be a viable form of transportation. Of course, that is saying that the problem of being able to stop and start without assistance gets solved. There is more than one idea for doing just that with available technology.

Imagining Bikes - Biking Minnesota

It has been stated that to try and forecast the weather in Minnesota due to three climate systems coming together in the middle of the state is like a crap shoot. Now, throw in the effects of climate shift and, boy-oh-boy, it is any one's guess. My Dad, who was a meteorologist, used to be able to predict locally based upon the lay of the land when they lived in southern Georgia. I think this place would have challenged him greatly.
Working outside in the Western U.S. for around four to five years, frequently in the middle of nowhere, forced me to carry three sets of clothes and two sets of foot ware along with other necessary survival gear for any type of weather conditions, plus a sleeping bag. One even stashed emergency rations anywhere and everywhere.
Your experiences should teach you to plan for overcoming the last miserable challenge and your survival may depend upon being able to effectively imagine the possibilities. One hopefully learns to overcome the circumstances and learns to use the past similar to tools in the toolbox. Of course, one can't afford to lug around all fixes to all possibilities so one must melt it all down to the smallest possible denominator - what can one afford to carry with one's self? What will it cost in weight? How does it perform in the worst conditions of cold, wet, dark and muddy? And, if your tools fail you or can't do the job with those tools? What if the whole thing is out of commission? Can you effectively carry it or push it?
I rode for years in all types of situations, mostly on the safety. Then, I learned on both the long wheeled base recumbent after an experience on a short wheeled base recumbent. Before those times, I had the situation of having to ride a tadpole trike both with, and without, a front fairing through winters.
There are drawbacks to every available model out there, but none that can't be overcome. Just like life.
I would like to take this time and space to acknowledge a friend who built many of the recumbent bikes and trikes I've ridden over the years and who has been a mentor, employer and business partner, Dave Krafft. It was while working with Dave on his housing makeover that we fixed his long wheel based single tube recumbent model after the tubing we had bought had failed due to the thin walled material. He was going to cut the failed part out and braze a thicker walled tube into the frame when I stopped him and proposed an alternative. (Here is where the oilfield experiences kicked in.) I told him to just put a steel cable between the front crank and the rear crank housing with a turnbuckle, and take the stress off of the tube. A trip to the hardware store, a little metal fab and it was ready for service.
We didn't just end up fixing a collapsed tube. Four prototypes readily proved we had found a solution to the dilemma of frame flex robbing power to the drive train and a host of other problems such as pogoing for that model frame and controlling frame flexure along vertical and horizontal lines without adding member framing, i.e. weight. With the long wheel based (LWB) single tube model, my feeling was that the frame became the suspension. We had to repair the hardware parts many times until we upgraded to better fixtures and cables, plus we learned we had to run the cables all the way to the back to be more effective.
Since those days, both studying why these things worked and other people's art/science of structure, I've come away with more understanding and have built a model applying these same principles to the upright, or safety bike. It works the same as far as I can tell. The biggest kick comes from understanding that the frame can be "tuned" to fit the riders weight at the time. Want a cushier ride, just loosen the frame up.
On a test ride for our first redone prototype, I alarmed Dave when I took these horrendous railroad tracks crossing the street full bore. I mean, these holes around the tracks could flatten your tire and twist your frame into a pretzel! But, nary a thing happened. I didn't even get thrown off of the bike. The bike ran true. The same for hitting sand on the trail. You just aim the bike and power through it.
Now that I've read Buckminster Fuller and viewed the work of Kenneth Snelsen, I find it completely remarkable that no one has understood basic physics when it can be applied to the problem of frame flexure for bikes or other structures. It is all about force vectoring. There was another gentleman that pioneered "tortured plywood" in building catamarans on the West Coast back in the Fifties. I think "Pile" was his name? It's the same principle. You build in, or apply force which can't be overcome by the motion which gives you the problem to begin with. Of course, one has to make sure that the structural member has enough strength range to endure the problems it will face later on through use.
Imagine an upside down bow. The connecting tubes between the front wheels and the rear wheels(axle) are now held in tension with the rider sitting on the top of the compressive member. The more movement vertically results in more compression which results in tension. As the tube at static has very little bend, it is just seeking to return to its' normal condition. The rider's weight(gravity) is counteracting the bending moment of applied tension. Place an adjustable connecting member underneath the rider, and now you have two triangles between two wheels, which give ever so slightly. I refer to it as using the frame for the suspension system.

Imagining the bicycle.

Well, that was a first time adventure - writing a blog.

Over the years, riding my bike daily to and from work, shopping and even raising a family, I've watched others do their things as well through walking, driving an automobile, taking a bus (as I drove a transit bus and school buses) and biking. I watched the rise of the exercise gyms for the non-bikeriders. There is not a memory of a biking person needing a gym workout.

Anyway, as I watched others, myself and my family on bikes it was with the thought of how could we do this better? My new wife came with a bikecart, an aluminum Burley. Now, that was one piece of equipment which saved us so much effort, and eventually, the life of our newborn son.

People, even in the Minneapolis area are somewhat spoiled by the personal vehicle environmental controls. They seemed to have lost something of themselves in the process. For instance, when one is traveling to and from the grocery store in the dead of winter when it is thirty below farenheit with your infant in the bike cart, people try and stop you, especially if you're a man, and try and find out if they can possibly call child protection on your behavior. They have no concept of existing out of doors and dressing for the weather. As I used to spend my work time in the oilfields from the Canadian border to the Mexican border out West, I know a little something about having to live and work in extreme environments. But, most don't have this experience and when they see just you out there, they just think you're some kind of nut. When they see you out there with an infant, they want to intervene and have your child taken away. We went once in daylight on a bright winter's day and after that experience of being besieged in the parking lot once on arrival and then again on departure, we went in the cover of darkess. Invisibility can have dividends.

Plus, when you live off of your bike and you have a family, you plan accordingly with the weather in mind. By the time the inclimate weather hits, you and yours are ready to just enjoy the moment.

However, having lived this way, and knowing enough of manufacturing and material science to get into trouble, one can't help but try and imagine what-ifs and why-nots as to this problem or that problem. You know, the challenges.

For instance, ever have trouble in thirty-below weather of pulling up to a stoplight and just when you start to get the green light, your goggles fog up? And, just trying to breathe sometimes in the frigid weather without the right type of coldweather mask is a real problem. Then, try it behind a clear fairing. Not too bad except for the fogging problem when the wind is just right,,, or not.
Rain, always a problem if you don't have the right gear if the weatherperson was wrong. Or, if you don't always carry it with you? If you have an HPV and it rains/snows, trying to see through it? Another fun thing along the same line is getting muddy water, freezing rain or oily water on the windshield and trying to clear it without tagging on the machine an electric motor.

Two wheeled biking in winter versus three wheeled biking. Upright versus recumbent. Sliding on ice. Twenty inch wheels versus twenty-seven or more. Slicks versus off road. Long wheel base versus short on recumbents. Fairings versus none. Enclosed systems of HPVs versus open air. Bike shoes versus other.

Challenges - and how to meet them head-on with a better than even chance of overcoming them.
I guess if you've never tried these adventures and were thinking about getting into biking here or elsewhere, the challenges would be daunting.
The World of Bicycles has opened up and while the upright safety bike was the anchor for over a hundred years, every anchor has a chain. Time to let go.