Building a DIY Recumbent

I’ve been doing some research on recumbent bicycles recently and really like the idea. The problem with an upright bicycle is aerodynamics, the upright sitting position maximises wind resistance. This is not a problem at 10 mph, but as speeds increase it become a very big factor. By 20 mph most of the energy expended to push a bike forward is being used just to push air out of the way.

The Spirit Short Wheel Base Recumbent

The recumbent overcomes this problem by placing the rider in a more reclined position, greatly reducing wind resistance. For the same amount of energy it is possible to go a lot faster on a recumbent. It’s a lot easier to move at 20 mph on a recumbent.

They do have disadvantages, the rider is lower down and has a poorer view, an important factor when mixing it with cars. On an upright bicycle you can get out of the saddle to cushion your body against the shock of rough roads and potholes, and to apply more power going up hills.

The single biggest problem I discovered with a recumbent is cost. A serviceable mass produced upright bicycle can be bought for as little as 300 euros, a low end recumbent starts at about 1000 euros. So I’ve decided to try and build a recumbent. I bought a plan online from Atomic Zombie who produce plans for recumbents, trikes and cargo bikes. The plans costs about 20 dollars each and are a PDF download. They are comprehensive, well written and lavishly illustrated with photos.

Draper 130 A Stick Welder

I chose the Spirit, a short wheelbase racing recumbent to start with as it’s about the simplest design available. I bought the steel needed last week, which cost about 18 euros. A small 16 amp stick welder cost 120 euros and a 600 watt angle grinder 55 euros. I'm on the look out for suitable second hand bikes I can strip for parts, like wheels, gears, brakes etc. All going well I should be on the road for less than 200 euros in parts.

I am learning how to cut metal accurately with the angle grinder and to weld it together. Welding is not that difficult and although ascetically my welding is poor, the joints seem solid. Mistakes are easily overcome as metal is a much more forgiving material than wood. I will start building the recumbent in the next week or two and will post updates here as the build progresses.

For plans of recumbents, trikes and cargo bikes Atomic Zombie

The Spirit short wheelbase recumbent racing bike

The Spirit recumbent on Youtube

Draper 130A 230V TURBO ARC WELDER

Bosch 600 Watt Angle Grinder

Bosch 600 watt Angle Grinder

Traditional Trades

Many doomers seem to believe that industrial civilisation and industry are one and the same thing. They assume that when industrial civilisation collapses industry will inevitably follow. But industry existed for many millennia in small workshops and homes, long before the industrial revolution scaled it up and moved it into factories.

Dresser made by Carpenter
 in the 1800s

Before the industrial revolution every small town was an industrial centre, where goods were produced by local craft people for local use. I recently came across an interesting webpage about my local village of Kilnaleck in the 1821 census. The census recorded the occupations of the villages residents.

This is an interesting insight into a pre-industrial community because Kilnaleck is 50 miles from a salt water port and over 30 miles from a canal port. The only way to get mass produced goods to Kilnaleck in 1821 was by very expensive road haulage. Geography favoured locally produced artisan goods over expensive mass produced imports.

The trades of Kilnaleck residents in 1821 give a very good insight into the economy of a rural community before the industrial revolution. Some of the trades like publican, shopkeeper, butcher, surgeon (doctor) and apothercary (pharmacist) are still there. But most of the 1821 trades are long gone.

Blacksmiths Gate

The most important tradesman in the village was the blacksmith, he made horseshoes and shod horses, and he made hand tools, like spades, shovels, and knives. He also made small metal parts for other tradesmen like carpenters. Locally made blacksmiths gates are still common in this area. They are still doing their job after many decades of service. Many older people in this area can still tell which blacksmith made a particular gate, as each had their own style.

Other trades in the village that supplied the local market were
Chandler 1 - made soap and candles.
Carpenters 2
Dress makers 2
Tailors 2
Bakers 3
Shoe makers 4
Shoe binder 1
Wheelwrights 2
Nailers 2 – made iron nails in a mold

Journeymen were fully qualified tradesmen who worked for other tradesmen. There were five journeymen, three working for shoemakers, one for a tailor and one with a wheelright.

There were five apprentices serving their time with tradesmen, one with a shoemaker, three with a tailor and one with a wheelwright.

The Kilnaleck area was involved in the linen business and quite a few of the villages tradespeople worked in that “export” trade. It’s hard to tell how many of the spinners and weavers recorded were producing for the local market and how many were in the “export” trade.

The breakdown of those in the cloth business was.
Read Maker 1
Spinners 22
Flax Spinners 8
Flax Weaver 1

By the time I was born in 1963, the last of the local trades were dying. Kilnaleck still had a shoe maker and a dress maker, but by then they were repairing shoes and dresses rather than making them.

In the future if we are going to maintain our civilisation after the oil is gone, we are going to have to relearn all those lost trades and go back to local production, with local materials, for local consumption.

Full details of Kilnaleck in the 1821 census

An interesting place to study old trades is The Hall Genealogy website which has a comprehensive list of old trades that are found in 19th century genealogical records.

Kilnaleck 1837

Bicycles Make Us Superhuman

The most amazing thing about the bicycle is how such a simple machine can allow ordinary people to achieve  superhuman feats. Two stories I came across this week illustrate the point very well.

The Finchs of Portland

The first story is about Portland, Oregon, resident Emily Finch, a 34 year old mother who moves her six kids and groceries on a Bakfiets cargo bike. She has a kids bike attached to the back of the cargo bike and this is usually ridden by her 9 year old daughter Mary, who is often called on to deliver some extra power to get up hills.

The Bakfiets cargo bike weights 44 kg, the kids bike perhaps 12 kg. The cargo bike can carry up to 130 kg of cargo and maybe a 9 year old on the kids bike might weigh 30 kg. If Emily weights about the 50 kg this means the total weight of this rig, on the road, fully loaded could be over 250 kg. A quarter of a tonne or about one third the weight of my Nissan Micra car.

I know from riding a heavily loaded touring bike about the extra handling problems that weight can cause on a bike. I am in awe of this woman who clearly can deliver a lot of power when needed, but I’m even more impressed with her bike handling skills. A rig like this leaves no room for handling errors.

Perhaps ever more impressive is that if you take Emily’s weigh out of the reckoning this woman is capable of moving 200 kg on the road. It would require quite a big pack horse to move this kind of load. But with the right cargo bike an ordinary woman can achieve this feat using only her own power.

Trix Zgraggen

The second story I came across was the Race Across America, a grueling 3000 mile bicycle race from California to Maryland, over burning deserts and a 11,000 foot high pass in the Rocky Mountains. This year the womens race was won by Trix Zgraggen, a 46 year old Swiss woman who completed the course in a mind boggling 10 days 13 hours and 59 minutes. Another super human feat made possible by the bicycle.

Ancient legends are full of stories about characters with superhuman powers, able to move great loads, travel long distances and travel faster than an ordinary person could. Everyday all over the world ordinary people are using bicycles and achieving feats that rival those of ancient legends.

The full story of Emily Finch is on the bikeportland.org website

Bakfiets Cargo Bikes

Trix Zgraggen

Race Across America