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Thursday round-upNews of a laid-back convention, the ultimate in granny gear, wheelie good news, the mechanics of unicycling and an alternative to 'Daisy Bell'. Sue Archer writes: First Recumbent-Con announced Spotted via Recumbent and Tandem Rider, news of the first annual Recumbent Cycle Convention, in Pomona, California. The event, scheduled for 16 -18 October 2010, will give manufacturers, dealers and distributors an opportunity to do dedicated recumbent business together, and members of the public the chance to test ride recumbents on traffic free routes in the grounds of the Pomona Fairplex exhibition centre. Mum's new bike Even among the dedicated cycling ranks of Velo Vision readers, probably not many of us got our Mum a new bike for Christmas. But Bram Moens did, and as you'll see from this entry on David Hembrow's 'View from the Cyclepath' blog, it was no ordinary bike. Bram used his expertise from M5 Recumbents to make a carbon city bike weighing in at a mere 7.3kg for his 84 year old Mum, who still covers around 6000km a year in the saddle. The result is a gorgeous sinuous low step-over frame, and with a 250g rear rack in the pipeline for it, it'll be practical too! A wheelie record breaking performance Can you do a wheelie? No, me neither. But fourteen year old Aaron Stannage can, and to prove it, he's just set a new world record for the longest continous wheelie, as reported by the BBC. Aaron covered 8 miles on one wheel in an hour to set the record, now waiting confirmation by Guinness World Records. His next target is to wheelie the Great North Run half marathon. If you fancy your own world record, why not try for the Longest Bicycle, with a target to beat of 28.1m, or the greatest distance covered in an hour on a static cycle (65.48km). After you've burned off all that energy, you'll be ready for the fastest time to eat a 12" pizza... Just how do unicyclists do it? If wheelie-ing just seems like carrying around a wheel you don't need, you may well prefer a unicycle, and now a boffin has worked out just why it's possible to stay upright on one. According to this BBC article, Professor Robin Sharp has spent a year mathematically modelling the actions used to keep a unicycle upright. Refreshingly he says his work "has no real application and was just for fun", but that it would have relevance for anyone attempting to built a riderless unicycle type device. Now, who would do such a thing? Answer: Japanese robot makers Murata, whose Murata Girl goes one better than Murata Boy we mentioned in our Velo Vehicles news. Daisy, Daisy... Anyone who's ridden a tandem has probably had Daisy Bell sung at them. But now there's a grittier alternative, found via the Tandem@Hobbes mailing list. This song by Those Darn Accordians describes some of the pitfalls that can befall a couple new to tandeming... Posted on 21 January 2010 Your comments ...
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