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Our van and the trailer with my bike and our trike early Friday morning. We're just about ready to leave for Bath, NY.
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Another shot of our "train." We left a little after 8 in the
morning (from Pennington, NJ) and arrived a little after 2. We
stopped for a pit stop, for gas, and for lunch. There was also a
delay on I81 due to a stalled tour bus blocking the left lane.
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Here I am setting up our tent.
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I think that's Joe and Stan eyeballing the trike.
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Now I'm working on our fly. Our tent (without its fly) is to the right.
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OK, the fly is up. I had to pound the stakes in a little deeper when the wind came up on Saturday.
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I'm talking with Dana who was one of the vendors (Bentup Cycles) that brought bikes to show at the expo.
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Joe is riding his upright delta trike with power assist. (I hope I got all the jargon correct!). There are rechargeable batteries under the seat. Joe said he gets about an hour on a charge (depending on what he's doing) and it takes about two hours to charge. Looking on is Steve, another home builder.
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We rode our trike to the registration tent. It was on the campground perhaps 100 yards (meters) from our site. That's Jane at the left of the picture.
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Relaxing on Friday afternoon, are ???, Nicholas and his dad, Brian.
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Folks enjoying the afternoon at the campground.
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Stacie worked hard throughout the rally. On Friday afternoon (and other times too) she handled registration.
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Denny was another one who worked hard throughout the rally. Here he's in the registration tent. He drove one of the SAG wagons on Sunday.
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After registering, we rode back to our site where Harry and Gail admired our trike.
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They took it out for a test ride. Harry's about my size so he fit pretty well. Gail's taller than Jane, so she was a bit cramped. The trike can be adjusted, but it's not a totally trivial operation!
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Later in the evening, it was time for the opening dinner/party, so Jane and I rode the trike down the hill to the pavilion. (So it was uphill coming back!) Altogether, Jane and I rode several miles back and forth to meals in the pavilion.
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I'm so proud of Jane for giving this trike thing a shot and being a good sport about it that she gets another picture! We put on jacket/sweatshirt because it cools off in the evening.
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Here's the inside of the pavilion. I think the food hasn't arrived yet and that's the beer line. I'm not sure what Jane's doing since she definitely doesn't like beer!
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One of the door prizes on Friday night was a new recumbent bike. This was awarded to someone that didn't already have a recumbent bike. Karen can't believe she won - Bryan (the head honcho of the rally) is holding her bike.
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Bryan explains some of the features of the bike to Karen. You may be wondering why Karen was at a recumbent rally since she didn't have a recumbent. (Actually there were about a dozen or so people eligible for the recumbentless rider's recumbent prize.)
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Karen tries out the bike. It turned out to be a bit too big for her, even after adjustments. Jane and I first met Karen on the 2001 FANY Ride and have been good friends ever since. Karen is the head honcho of the FANY(Five hundred miles Across New York) ride and came to ride stoker on our tandem trike in Sunday's ride around Keuka Lake.
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Bryan steadies Karen while she tries the bike. It turns out Jenny, another organizer of the FANY ride, has recently acquired a recumbent bike and Karen found the BROL web site and the recumbent rally. At this year's FANY ride, we worked out a deal, where Jenny would come with her recumbent and Karen would come to ride stoker on our new trike. Then Jenny couldn't make it, but Karen came anyway!
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After the door prize award there was a "bicycle fashion show" emceed by George in the white coat. I'm not sure who this is, but it's a sexy bike!
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George highlights a few more features with his laser pointer.
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Another bike and rider in the fashion show.
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A trike in the fashion show. I didn't get the owner's name but I do know she was trying to combine her cycling and quilting hobbies. She was passing out fabric squares for people to draw on/autograph. Also asking for any pictures she might use. (All the photos on this web site are fair game - I also have higher resolution versions!)
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Bryan and Stacie model their bikes in the fashion show.
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Outside, there was a bike with a really sexy lighting
system.
There was another bike (or possibly this one) that had three sets
of lights along the spokes of the rear wheel. When the wheel
rotated, the lights were turned on and off to make really
interesting patterns. I'd seen the web site for these lights but
never in person. Hokey
Spokes.
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Denny guarded and served the beer! He's talking to Ed.
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Karen and Bryan have a discussion.
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Jane relaxing after the fashion show.
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We jump from dinner to breakfast on Saturday morning. Here are Jane and Karen.
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Some of the bikes parked outside the pavilion on Saturday morning (including our trike on the left).
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Saturday's activity is mainly a recumbent expo. In addition, cue sheets and road markings for several rides were provided. Here are Karen and I ready to go on the short ride. This is mainly a shakedown cruise to see if we're capable of the ride on Sunday. Karen has never ridden a recumbent and I've got maybe 70 miles on the trike (my only recumbent experience), most of it in tandem configuration but solo.
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First we rode to the expo site (maybe a mile with a steep uphill towards the end). Then we did the short ride which was a 10 mile out and back from the expo site. It was basically all downhill on the out and all uphill on the back. (Was this Bryan's way of eliminating the unworthy??) At the end of the out, we took a break. I decided to find out how high the hill was, so I installed fresh batteries in my GPS. While I was doing that, several other riders arrived. There's Karen in the yellow and Bob on the right. I didn't find out who the other two are.
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Now we're going up the steepest part of the hill. There's a two wheeler walking her bicycle up ahead. That's our headlight and my right foot at the bottom of the picture. The trike has a Schlumpf mountain drive and has a 7 inch low gear. We weren't all the way to the lowest gear, maybe 3 clicks from the bottom, but we just kept pedaling and made it up the hill. You can't fall over in a trike!
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Here's Karen enjoying pedaling up the hill.
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We made it back to the expo and spent the rest of the morning there. Here are some of the people at the expo. But the real point of this shot is the porta-potties arriving just after I had made use of the bushes!
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More activity at the expo.
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Some of the bikes parked at the expo. The owners of these bikes were either wandering around the expo or out on test rides.
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The KMX trikes section of the expo.
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Looking over a bike at the expo.
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Bryan and Stacie's son, Parker, on his very own trike. (KMX K series?)
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Gail finishes a test ride on a trike. Gail is fairly tall and apparently didn't have a problem getting bikes to fit. However, I did notice that the vendors had a problem fitting short people (mostly women). I saw several women start off on test rides only to be called back because the chains were doing a good imitation of lawn mowers (dragging on the ground) and several others that couldn't even start because the seat to pedal distance could not be made short enough. Probably a few more bikes would be sold if the samples at the expo would fit shorter people!
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Some people looking over our trike.
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A back-to-back tandem. Without knowing any better, I'd say the seats are too close together. Might be some serious head banging going on. A couple of summers ago, when out riding in my area, I would sometimes spot a couple riding a back-to-back tandem (not this one I think). I never got close enough to get a good view or strike up a conversation. One of the things I was curious about was how the stoker pedals backwards but supplies power in the forward direction. Once I saw this tandem up close it was stupefyingly obvious. Just cross over the chain so the top of the chain ring connects to the bottom of the cogs.
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Meanwhile back at the camp, Jane took some photos. Here's Steve's homebuilt "sociable tandem." As I understand it, the frame is plywood covered in fiberglass. It has full suspension and independent drive. The wooden box at the right is part of Steve's trailer (which I assume is homemade - I've never seen one like it!).
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Another shot of the tandem. Steve is quite a craftsman and must be an expert in wood. He won the prize for best home built with his recumbent tadpole trike with a mahogany frame! I can't believe I didn't get a picture, but I can't find one.
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Another home built tadpole trike.
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A recumbent in its rack. (I hope the kickstand was put up before the car moved!) I don't know the story on this bike - whether home built, heavily customized or stock, but it's certainly unusual.
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Dinner Saturday night. We had lasagna, salad, and strawberry shortcake. In addition there were several different kinds of great tasting bread (zucchini bread, banana bread, ...) baked by Bryan's mom, I believe. The fellow in front, whose name I didn't get, came to the rally without a bike but checked out possible bikes to buy at the expo. Later he won a bike as a door prize!
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Kim and Matt relax Saturday night.
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Denny shoots video as ??? gets up to claim his door prize.
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Still on the way to the front to claim the prize.
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Bryan gave a talk on the new features to be expected on the BROL Enhanced web site and then Sheldon gave a talk on the history of bicycles and where he thought recumbents fit in. Afterwards, they answered questions.
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Debbie and Karen. I think they're admiring Karen's new bike.
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Nope, Karen hasn't grown and the bike hasn't shrunk!
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Sunday morning. Most people drive their bikes the 10 miles to the Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport where the day's rides begin and end. Karen is planning to leave for home directly from there and has mounted her door prize on the top of her car. Since she drives SAG during her FANY ride she's already had recumbents up there.
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The tradition is to convoy to the start of the ride. Here are some cars waiting at the campground.
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More cars waiting at the campground. The green building to the left is the pavilion where we had our meals and talks.
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At the Curtiss Museum (primarily aviation), cars being unloaded and cyclists getting ready.
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More people getting ready.
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Of course, we had to unload the trike. Also, that's Steve's elegant wooden trailer behind the trike trailer.
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Waiting in the parking lot for the ride to start. The woman
standing is Jeanne. She took the next picture for us. That's her
trike on the right. She was concerned about the upcoming hills
since they don't have any hills to train on in Mississippi. She
was even more concerned because she and Keith were just finding
out about the upcoming strike from hurricane Katrina. There was
nothing they could do about it now, so they enjoyed the ride as
much as possible. We all hope for the best for them and all the
others in that area.
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Ed (me) and Karen waiting for the ride to start. One nice thing about a trike: you always have a seat if you don't want to stand around!
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Looks like the back-to-back tandem is staying on top while the faired recumbent will get a work out.
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It's an aviation museum!
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Waiting for the ride to start.
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More waiting for the ride to start.
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Still waiting, but it's getting close because I'm back on the trike. (You can tell - that's the headlight and my foot in the picture!)
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Finally we're starting. Karen and I are doing the short ride (choices were an out and back, a short ride or a long ride). It's a 49 mile loop around Keuka Lake keeping the lake on our right. We turn right on 54 from the parking lot. Turn right on 54A, stay on that until it intersects 54 in Penn Yan, then take 54 back to the museum. Just south of Penn Yan is the Keuka Spring Winery which was the lunch stop.
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We've just turned out of the parking lot. Since this is a recumbent rally, the bike on the left must be a recumbent with negative recumbence!
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After about 10 miles we pulled off the road for a short break. Sometimes the road on the west side of the lake was right at lake level. Other times it was above the lake with houses between the road and lake.
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During our break, several riders went by. Here's one.
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Another rider that went by.
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After about 20 miles we got to Branchport where the road turns and climbs the hill (seen in the background) between the two branches of the lake. Several cyclists (including us) parked in the hardware store parking lot and took a break. I shot this photo from across the street where I got a big chocolate ice cream cone at a convenience store.
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Meanwhile back at camp, Jane spotted this tortoise crossing the road. By the time she got her camera it had made it across the road. It's about 10-12 inches long! The road in this case is the dirt camp road. Some spots on the road are prone to get muddy and have had some coarse gravel dumped on them. You can see a little bit in the upper right. On the first day, several people got stuck trying to cross the gravel on their bikes. The required technique was to get up speed before hitting the gravel patch. This usually worked but we witnessed at least one crash - fortunately the rider was unhurt.
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Back on the road, at the top of the hill is a scenic overlook where one can look out between the trees and see the lake. (Probably could see more of the lake if I had gotten up out of the trike!) No problem going up the hill.
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A little south of Penn Yan on the east side of the lake, there was a steep gravel driveway going up to the Keuka Spring Winery. Some riders rode and/or walked all the way up. Some rode/walked half way up, parked and walked the rest of the way. The "parking area" is under the trees in the center of the photo.
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The widest angle shot I could get from the winery. We had no problem pedaling the trike up the hill. Didn't even need to use the Schlumpf mountain drive!
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The rally pretty much took over the winery!
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Diane and George having a chat.
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Some of the bikes and riders at the winery. Karen is in the middle.
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The view was spectacular!
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More riders and bikes at the winery. Lunch was served under the umbrellas. It consisted of sandwiches, chips, and more of Bryan's Mom's delicious bread!
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A flower at the winery! After lunch, many riders tasted some wine. I really liked the Riesling and bought a bottle. Purchases could be left with the SAG wagon to be brought back to the museum. I estimated a bottle of wine weighs about 3 pounds. This is well under a percent of our total weight so we just brought it back on the trike.
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The lunch buffet with Keuka Lake in the background. A great spot for lunch!
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Well, all good things must come to an end. Here, we're back at the museum packing up. It's about 4pm. The ride actually got under way a little after 10am, so it was 49 miles plus lunch and breaks in 6 hours. Karen went directly home from here. I went back to the campground to pack up our camp. Jane and I eventually left for home a little after 7pm and arrived about 12:30am.
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Back at the campground, Jane snapped this photo of an interesting way to transport a big trike on a small car. You can just make out Fred standing next to his tent.
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Here are the GPS tracks overlaid on a USGS topo map by GPS Visualizer. The 5 mile back portion of Saturday's out and back is in the lower left. The purple end is the location of the expo. The red and yellow track around Keuka Lake is Sunday's "short ride" which was traversed clockwise. If you look closely you can see a little stub near the south end which is the driveway of the Curtiss Museum. There's a little stub between Penn Yan and the road to Second Milo (dark yellow colored stub) which is the driveway of the Keuka Spring Winery.
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The altitude and climb profiles for the back portion of Saturday's 10 mile out and back ride. These are derived from data recorded by my GPS receiver. The grade for the last mile (up to the expo) is about 6%. The grade for the steeper portions in that mile are about 9.5%! We used the Schlumpf mountain drive for those grades (5 to 2 gear reduction in the bottom bracket).
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The altitude and climb profiles for Sunday's "short ride" derived
from data recorded by my GPS receiver. The hill starting at mile
20 is the hill after Branchport that separates the west and east
branches of the lake. The spike just before mile 30 is the
driveway of the winery which I think is steeper but somewhat
shorter than the hill just after Branchport. Close inspection of
the data shows the steepest part of the rise after Branchport is
111 feet in 0.52 miles for a 4% grade and the steepest part of
the hill to the winery is 95 feet in 0.18 miles for a slope of
10%! We averaged 11.9 mph while moving. I think this is pretty
respectable given that the trike weighs 108.5 lbs! How do I know?
Well, the previous Sunday, in order to make sure I would be able
to do the Bent Ride, I had taken the trike out by myself (but in
tandem configuration) for a 39 mile ride with 2000 feet of
climbing. I averaged only 6.9 mph and I was exhausted. Two
weekends before that I had ridden a century on my regular bike
and wasn't as tired, so I figured it must have to do with the
bike weight. So I weighed the trike. The 108.5 lbs includes
everything that I normally carry on the trike; water bottles,
tools, etc. On the 'Bent Ride we had a little bit more, with rain
jackets, food, cameras, and, for 20 miles, a bottle of wine! By
the way, my diamond frame bike with its tools, spares, etc.,
weighs 46.5 lbs.
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