... and I'm not even the "record holder". Some airplane engineer in Michigan has a recumbent with a windshield, and he gets over 300 mpg.
However, within 12 months I plan to make an intercontinental solo trip from Charleston, SC to San Diego, CA, and set a time/distance/budget mark. It's about 3,000 miles, more or less, I have a tendency to get off the beaten track.
You can see America for $10 a day, $3 in fuel and lunching with locals at various small town "all you can eat" buffets.
Who has the 3,000 mile record currently? Some guy did it on a Segway, filmed a documentary about it. It doesn't even have to be coast to coast, up to Minnesota and back is 3,000 miles for me.
Read more, I only do one diary per bleu moon, and this is it:
In 1903 a young gentleman from San Francisco by the name of George A. Wyman rode, pushed, pulled, carried, and crawled his 1902 "California" brand motor bicycle from San Francisco to New York City.
He achieved this monumental undertaking before the first automobile crossing by Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson (in his Winton Automobile) and made better time, finishing his adventure in New York City at the "New York Motorcycle Club" rooms, 1904 Broadway, a mere 50 days after departing San Francisco...
You can read all about George Wyman on the best forum on the web, motoredbikes.com. It was contributed by a MB.com member named Rif, who is valiantly trying to duplicate that feat, wearing a period costume.
http://www.motoredbikes.com is spam free, obscenity free, politics free, VERY anti-Big Oil, and the place to find every type of motor assisted bike in the world. We're still contacting the thousands of experienced riders, but the concept is "free advise. After you introduce yourself, find the right thread and ask away.
It has a strong SEARCH feature, with electric, gas, bio-diesel information slowly coming from every continent.
BUT, before you click on that George Wyman MB.com link, (and to invigorate your imaginations I plan on making this "link heavy"), let me introduce my bicycle, "Rocinante":
My Benedictines for Peace Quest:
The method to my madness:
If I have enough time, and you have the patience to bear with me, I'll tell about the best bike I've built to date, just last week:
And maybe some information about how these "horses without the oats" operate.
ABOUT BIKES AND ENGINES AND MB.com
ROCINANTE is a red Sun Model Retro 7 speed, with well over 10,000 miles traveled. She has puncture proof tubes, with liners as a triple defense, a 12 inch gel saddle on shock absorber seat post, a heavy duty Wald basket on the front.
When I started installing Golden Eagle Bike Engines (GEBE) in 2005, I weighed 185 with a "danger signal" on the blood pressure scale. Within a month I dropped 15 pounds and the blood pressure leveled off.
I'm addicted to this fun hobby, and love to hit the backroads. Using the smallest 25cc Zenoah/RedMax engine I can carry about 50-70 extra pounds on Rocinante.
Most weeks I only drive the car on Friday grocery runs, and if I ever move the car on other days, I knock out a lot of tasks, like getting 5 sacks of goat/dog food or heavy mineral blocks. When coffee is on sale at $4, (limit two), I hit all 4 nearby Family Dollars on my bike, and save enough to get 2 extra cans.
20 mile trips take a few pennies of fuel, a few extra minutes ride time. As a bonus, I now drive the car like I ride the bike, deccelerate on downhills, steady acceleration up, and my car mileage improved from 25 to 27 on average ever since.
On long trips I carry a Marlboro canvas bag in the basket, saddlebags and a dome tent on the frame, and a backpack full of camera, snacks and fleece sweaters on my back. I carry 2-3 extra canisters of fuel on long journeys, so my range between gas stations is about 150 miles. On an average day I cover 200-250 miles, on the backroads, the setting sun is my compass.
I've built well over 50 bikes as a hobby (it doesn't even work out to minimum wage sometimes), and am still learning little tips and tricks along the line.
I like to start with a heavy duty cruiser, with curved handlebars and the widest tires possible. 12 gauge spokes on the rear wheel is a strong recomendation, the ones I use are the WheelMasters steel, cost about $35. If you want to avoid rust, aluminum wheels start at about $80.
So, the bikes I use, with all my tire and wheel modifications run about $290-350. You can find vintage Schwinn cruisers on Craigslists, but my wheel/tire advisements will cost you about $80, my motto is "no flat tires", and I can put air in a tube in January, have the same air pressure in October.
You can build a better bike than me, the other GEBE'rs and I will help you in the MB.com forum, where I'm bamabikeguy. Last month we assisted 2 teenagers, one way out in the North Dakota plains, got them up and running without much hassle.
This link takes you to the Rack'em section of MB.com, where engines mounted over the rear wheels are found. I also try to contribute to the Traveling Section.
When you click on MB.com, in the upper left is an official sponsor, Golden Eagle Bike Engines (GEBE), I use their 2 cycle 25cc and 33cc kits. (On the forum, the 4 cycle kits are also mentioned, but I'm SOLIDLY in the 2 cycle camp, which we are trying to make even better.)
Before somebody lambastes me about 2 cycle fumes, the Denver engine has about 6,000 miles on it, cranks on the second pull and I've never even changed a sparkplug. Once you have 1,000 miles on an engine, you can change to the new synthetic oils, which mix up to 100:1, NO SMOKE OR SMELL.
You have to get an engine good and broken in before switching over to a synthetic, and these high performance/high compression engines get stronger as you get more miles on them. The newest Tanaka33 may take 2,000 miles to really begin peak performance.
I'm learning something new all the time in this hobby, and the MB forum is developing guides on how to modify, adapt, and improve all types of engine systems. Since the newest GEBE's have eliminated the drive shaft, I have been documenting a small improvement called 'frame-mounting', rather than 'axle-mounting' the engines, getting the engine independent of the wheel, which will allow MORE modification possibilities, like pulling trailers, adding blinkers, holding auxillery fuel tanks.
One GEBE'r is looking into building delivery vehicles, another is welding a long stretch frame, a third is our recumbent expert. It doesn't take very long to become a contributing member to the forum, be able to offer really good advice.
GEBE is the "MercedesBenz" of the possibilties, $549 plus price of the bike, good builds start at $750 total, my Sun's cost about $875. Very little hassle if mounted correctly, and we'll show you how. Pull starts, belt driven, thumb throttles, no chance of burning shins on the exhaust, because the engine is behind you.
You can swap out the drive gear, 11 tooth 'trail gear', 12 tooth 'normal gear', and 13 tooth 'highway gear'. The lower one is for acceleration and easier hill climbing (28 mph max), the higher one is for speed and mileage (36 mph max).
Whizzers, retrobuilds and electric models are the "RollsRoyce" $1,400-2,000 is a ballpark figure.
You will see on MB.com the majority of members buy Chinese "Happy Time" engines for about $200 and average $500 for a build, and we figure those are the 3 pricing plateaus, $500-$800-$1,500.
There are "street legal" (like GEBE under 49cc) and "stealth builds" (no transmission and the ability to pedal are what makes this different than Mo-Peds).
For those who need a small engine primer, in simple terms, a 2 cycle delivers as much power as a 4 cycle with twice the displacement. In other words, a 25cc 2 cycle performs like a 50cc 4-cycle, and the Tanaka33cc compares to a 65-70cc 4 strokes.
Because of MB.com, if somebody wants to start at the entry level, the commonsense advisors will help you get rolling DESPITE the lousy translated Chinese instruction and installation manuals, newbies are swapping out shabby Chinese bushings and gaskets, switching to heavier clutch cables, adding pull starts, doing lots of things to make them better and faster.
THE BENEDICTINES FOR PEACE QUEST
I'm the guarddog for a small group of Sisters from Sacred Heart Monastary in Deep Red Cullman, Alabama, to prevent episodes like this "Soldier Upset" incident. We have felt a change over the past 4 years of twice per month Witness for Peace vigils, a 70% Thumbs Up factor.
They sponsored me last January, to meet some Mobile Kossacks and join them on a Senior Bowl Day demonstration. The warm hospitality and itty bit of press coverage made up for the 22 degree temp camped out on Dauphin Island on the return journey.
I'm somewhere on page two of the conservative Mobile Register
Benedictines for Peace, we kind of "leap into the fray early", not worry about the consequences. I have a former college administrator, sho operated that radio show describing injustice during the original Selma Bridge conflict, which I revisited in last Spring's Bridge Crossing Jubilee. At the bottom of that thread I got Front Page Center, ABOVE all the candidates and honorees. Sort of like the RainbowWig John 3:16 guy.
It's pretty cool having a monastary full of Benedictine Sisters praying aloud for you 3 times daily while on on these adventures, and that Peace of Mind probably makes the coincidences and happenings double in intensity. Who knows?
I have a huge St. Benedictine medal I carry as an amulet, they presented me on my 50th birthday last year. Sacred Heart has a Papal Charter, ergo they don't answer to a bishop, but directly to the Vatican. Since the medal has a handy exorcism on the back, which I can direct at rude automobile drivers, in my mind that Papal blessed medallion keeps me out of danger.
MY SELFISH INTEREST?
When the Inauguration Victory Parade happens in January 2009, me and Rocinante sure would like an official spot, be in the rearward portion of the procession, trying to show OUR energy independence solutions......if millions see this small idea, imagination will flow !!!
Oh, until the Landslide Happens, and if Al Gore & Richard Branson read this diary, "maybe a small grant to put 100 motor assisted bikes in low income areas, or one in each volunteer fire department across rural America."??
The extra-frugal Sacred Heart sisters could administer the program, interdenominational charities find one prospect per town to build the "template bike", and make this a Johnny Appleseed crusade. One bike, duplicated to build thousands of sturdy transport devices. "Loaves and fishes" kinda thing.
The Sisters call it "teaching a man to fish", but I call it "adding an outboard engine, get where the fishings good."
I could easily give 100 seminars in various towns during a year.
My friends and I put up 20,000 custom storm windows and doors during Carter's Energy Conservation years (gutted by RR in 1983). I know when something works.
SPREADING THE WORD
On my long tours, I am constantly showing off Rocinante, explaining the simplicity of "how it works".
From the looks and occasional shout outs by passing motorists, I realized early on "folks want to hear about this", but I couldn't constantly stop and explain, else I wouldn't get anywhere !!
Last Sunday morning a few kossacks suggested I write a diary of my adventures. The trouble is, after 10,000 miles at close to 250 mpg, the ideas become a Zen and the Art of Schwinn type project, too long for me to write, too burdensome for you to read.
I've lost track after more than 30 newspaper reporters have told my tales. To "get the word out", I roll up to a small town paper, introduce my bike, and they have a lot of fun putting their twist on the story. They tell me the local feedback, after publication, is pretty fun too.
A few of the interviews are online, and early this summer a reporter, Kim Bryan at the Birmingham News, had her first ever article to go "international" across the APWires, (she hit a home run) MB.members in Canada and Australia read about it in their local rags.
Miles of Smiles (B'ham News). The B'ham News also put a video on YouTube(that my lousy dialup WON'T let me view. Seriously, I've never watched it).
Back in 2006 NBC-13 was in my yard, the dealio was Brian Williams would run a 3 minute feature at the end of some "Gas Crises Series" they were doing that week. The Friday my story was supposed to run, somebody blew up the Golden Shrine in Iraq, blew me off the airwaves.
I like small town papers better anyway, they have more "independence" and take lighthearted view in the coverage. Here are a few:
Ada, Oklahoma - Alabama man retaliates against high gas prices
Nashville, Arkansas Bike built for mileage
Decatur, Alabama The first belt drive bike in Alabama
The little papers, like in Red Cloud, Nebraska and Springfield, Colorado, and Tuskeegee and DeQueen, etc. really have unique angles, but aren't online, so I pasted them in my Picasa Picture Album, which I'll try to list somewhere...
So thats how I spread the word in the old days.
AND THAT BRINGS ME TO THIS DIARY...(which is already getting way too long)
In the age of hucksters and infomercials, I want to convey "yes this is real", and emphasize I’m just a goat farmer in Alabama, a Deadhead shepherd still wearing ChuckTaylors, who has no interest in building a million bikes nor hiring a single employee.
When I ordered my first engine, and it climbed the steep hill below my driveway, I had my "Eureka" moment. Since I have demonstration bikes, and it is so simple to operate, folks come out and just ride, always come back smiling.
I have a heart patient customer in Jasper traveling 40 miles per day in all directions. Another fella, Jack, had a small stroke, couldn't climb stairs, weighed 275. He putters to lunch at 15 miles per hours, unafraid of hills, and has lost 40 pounds, improved all his vital signs, can use his second story bedroom again.
Exercise is one just one reason (me? I pedal for speed, but often let the engine do ALL the work ). Energy conservation, saving money on auto upkeep, trying to use it in business and getting the .44 cents per mile tax deduction, trying to save $10-20 per week using it for small chores....I can't list all the reasons this hobby is SO COOL.
My main enjoyment is just meeting strangers in small towns, Rocinante is an ice-breaker, and the courtesy of folks re-invigorates me, there IS a common sense in America, and these bikes are an example of achieving Energy Independence.
When somebody develops a small alcohol burning carburator, MB.com will be the first to jump on it, brewing our own fuel.
DAMN IT, growing up they promised us Jetson's type setups by the turn of the century. But think about it, in 1903, while crazy George Wyman was crossing the country, Wilber and Orville Wright used many bicycle parts to achieve flight... adding a 175 pound/12 horsepower engine.
The first flight, by Orville, of 120 feet in 12 seconds, at a speed of only 6.8 mph over the ground, was recorded in a famous photograph. The next two flights covered approximately 175 and 200 feet, by Wilbur and Orville respectively. Their altitude was about ten feet above the ground.
I sold some bikes to 2 local drag-racers, who claim using 110 octane fuel, they may get those bikes OFF THE GROUND !!!
There is a possibility of a bio-diesel engine in the "less than 3 hp" range being developed, and when that happens, MB.com will be right on it ! In the 1950's there was a diesel that claimed 450 miles per gallon. WHY CAN'T WE DO THAT TODAY???
I'M GOING TO CLOSE THIS DIARY WITH A FEW TRAVELING MEMORIES-
Rousting THOUSANDS of prairie dogs, TWICE, searching for camping site in south Colorado, turning around at the "Rattlesnake Warning" sign and reversing the waves of brown critters uponn exit moments later. Thousands of praire dogs, some seeming to be having otter or dolphin-like fun, either racing beside me or chasing me out.
A porcupine wandering into my camp in Oklahoma, a mule-deer buck standing there snorting like my goats, for 20 minutes while I packed up to leave another camp. Pronghorned antelope racing me, 50 buffalo staring puzzled through a fence. The scenery, flora and fauna, architecture and history, can be fully appreciated at 30 miles per hour.
Returning with new appreciation for Willa Cather’s novels, and picking up Larry McMurtry’s Telegraph Days and knowing exactly what they were saying about the plains and Oklahoma panhandle.
Seeing 1850’s graffiti a mile off the highway on the Santa Fe trail. Meeting members of 11 Native American tribes, getting exact locations from them of hidden swimming holes to while away the afternoon. A Chickasaw assistant chief in Ada confirmed that my N. Central Alabama location was considered the "Happy Hunting Grounds" in pre-history, unclaimed by the four cornering populations (Cherokee to the NoEast, Creek SE, Choctaw NW and Chickasaw SW).
I love talking to farmers, ranchers, store and cafe owners, nice and helpful people are EVERYWHERE, we are all the same. (And unfortunately, thanks to bright franchise signs, all towns are looking identical).
By only shopping with Mom and Pop operations, and having a few minutes to shoot the breeze at every stop, every mile is an adventure.
I'll close with one of those ditties that run through the mind...
Small wheel turn by the fire and rod,
Big wheel turn by the grace of God,
Every time that wheel turn 'round,
Bound to cover just a little more ground.
The wheel is turning and you can't slow down,
You can't let go and you can't hold on,
You can't go back and you can't stand still,
If the thunder don't get you then the lightning will.
(j.garcia/r.hunter/b.kreutzman
Alabama Getaway, apologies for the size of the photos, something in Photobucket just doesn't compute with me !