human power rocks. enjoy the ride.
Oct 19
Oct 19, 2005
Oh, what a day!!!
This one definitely goes down as a day I will never, ever forget.
It started at 6:00 am when the phone rang and it was the CHQR radio morning show. They wanted a live on-air interview which I granted them. Then 15 minutes later it was another local radio morning [...]
Oct 15
Oct 15, 2005
Finally some drag coefficient numbers!
Here is a really great video of the CP1 with canopy bubble going around the Glenmore track
I need to know if the drag coefficient of CP1 is good enough to accomplish my goals, and finding out exactly what that is, is much more difficult than you would think.
If [...]
Oct 10
October 10, 2005
Dry run and media event
I can’t believe that I think I can actually see some light at the end of this tunnel….
The two hour ride the other day around the track did wonders for my confidence that I just may pull this off.
I spent today and yesterday working on a simple removable [...]
Oct 9
October 9, 2005
Cockpit gadgets and canopy
you know the drill – click on the little picture to see a big one. Or what ever.
PETG Canopy bubbleI had previously experimented with vacuum forming PETG plastic by making a fiberglass mold from one of Garrie Hills Varna canopies. I had fairly good success and it just so [...]
Read More...Oct 7
October 7, 2005
Over-the-shoulder top bar, new seat and more testing
you know the drill – click on the little picture to see a big one. Or what ever.
What took me an entire day to make, took about 10 minutes to destroy. My seat came off quite easily – much to my happiness, and also much [...]
Read More...
Oct 4
October 4, 2005
First fully faired velodrome test!
A successful velodrome run today!
I taxied once around the ‘drome to get comfortable in the streamliner and hit a crack which threw me over onto my left side. Ouch!! Again, on the same elbow I have fallen on 3 times now!!
The first fall was on my right elbow [...]
Read More...Oct 3
October 3, 2005
Plan Z
The new format is in response to news that the AOG web site is currently using up over half of my small ISP’s total bandwidth allocation. The photos are much smaller, but you can still click on the ones you are interested in viewing and see large versions.
Well, I gave plans [...]
Read More...Sept 29
September 29, 2005
Rotating camera, rear wheel fin, carbon seat, fairing primed and new plug progress
I bought a new Sony mini-camera. It has interchangeable lenses and is very low lux for night vision. I think one of the issues with the camera view, it the lens on my Marshall 1/4″ CCD camera is 3.7 mm [...]
Sept 26
September 26, 2005
CP1 frame test at the Glenmore velodrome
I am very happy with how the CP1 frame handled the velodrome today. At first it was kind of scary going up those steep banks, but I got used to it fairly quickly. I got it up to a high speed of 50 kph on 200 [...]
Read More...Sept 24
September 24, 2005
CP1 takes flight for the first time!
It wasn’t much of an event, but it was a big deal for me. I was actually just taxing the streamliner down the driveway testing out the landing gear with the full fairing on, and I couldn’t resist pulling her up I rode down the street, [...]
Sept 21
September 21, 2005
Telescopic landing gear action.
This is taking WAY too long, but it’s turning out pretty cool so I’d like to make as big a deal out of it as possible (one way to justify taking the time to do it).
The landing gear telescopes out of the slider hole in the frame and rotates [...]
Sept 20
September 20, 2005
Landing gear and gull-wing opening fairing shell.
Step one to self sufficient starts and stops is being able launch with the stability of three wheels. That’s what a landing gear is for.
I used a piece of the stock carbon tubing I bought and added an elbow to the end of it and bolted [...]
Read More...Sept 18
September 18, 2005
340 km ride, a PETG window and a side periscope.
I woke up at 5:20 am, woofed down a few waffles, gulped a cup of coffee and was on the road by 6:10 am. Boy, was it DARK! And COLD! It was probably about 4 degrees C, and the full moon was setting [...]
Sept 14
September 14, 2005
Upside down in a drainage ditch
I can just imagine what the neighbors are thinking….
I wanted to do an easy ride down the street with the fairing on to test out the video monitor, windows, turning radius, etc before Fridays speed trials at Race City Speedway. Angel was my helper for the day.
We [...]
Sept 13
September 13, 2005
Introducing CriticalPower1.
The name CP1 has been floating around in my head for a while, so for lack of anything more inspired, that’s what she’s called for now. Critical Power is a term that describes your maximum power output in watts for an exact time period. So, for example, “CP30″ would be your [...]
Sept 9
September 9, 2005
Do it right or don’t do it at all, the first fairing shell, and another epic ride.
John Mackay arrived at my house at 9:00 am on Wednesday morning to help me lay-up the first carbon fairing shell. We went to lay down the first layer of fiberglass and I said “Dude, this [...]
Read More...Sept 5
September 5, 2005
My whits end, a nose cone and a periscope.
I was literally ready to throw in the towel yesterday. It is times like this when I start to question what the hell I think I am trying to do. Basically I suck. Well yesterday I sucked – today I suck less.
I made a [...]
Aug 31
August 31, 2005
Carbon fiber remote steerer and a the fairing mold is finally here!!
The 4000 lb slab of MDF arrived today. To tell you the truth, I am not thrilled about the surface finish, but hopeful that I can make it better. I made some assumptions about LaserSpec’s abilities, and they made some assumptions [...]
Read More...Aug 30
August 30, 2005
Further seat adjustments and the video monitor
In an attempt to get the M5 seat position exactly the same as the new carbon frame, I pulled the M5 seat off and made some seat lifters from an aluminum tube (visible directly under the M5 seat bottom in the above photo). I couldn’t lower [...]
Read More...Aug 29
August 29, 2005
Frame is complete!!!
It was a crazy hectic wet layup day yesterday, but everything went very well. After carefully cutting out the perimeter of the frame using my template made from the fairing mold, I spent most of the day adding layer upon layer of carbon to the perimeter to make it good [...]
Read More...Solar & wind power, training, sea trials and general progress
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