Fifty Plus (50+) - "A thing of beauty......Wooden Tandem

http://bicycling.about.com



I don't think I have anything else to add to that ...........!

Also at the top of that page are some comments of Mary Peters (Secretary of Transport U.S.)
that could make your blood boil !

http://bicycling.about.com

I don't think I have anything else to add to that ...........!


very nice!
thanks for the link

What do you expect from a Bush appointee? :rolleyes:

Thinking back to what de Havilland did with plywood when they designed and built the Mosquito in the 1940's, I suspect a better engineered wooden framed bike has the potential to be considerably lighter than that one. But it is pretty.

What a stupid comment by the Secretary of Transportation. When I was watching Ozarks Public Television tonight, and they ran the credits after a one hour special and funding was provided by the U.s. Department of Transportation to make a stupid (well, actually pretty nice) TV show about obsolete covered bridges, I had a high blood pressure moment. It was not improved by reading her comments about bicycles and bike infrastructure not being "worthy". Someone please try and help me stay a good republican. It keeps getting harder and harder, at least on the national level....

I just fired off a comment on their web site! As Terrierman stated, it is getting tougher trying to find reasons to vote Republican, and this is coming from an EX card carrying Republican, too! If only the Dems would bring out a good candidate for President, rather than simply win the next election by default!
No bike paths for wierdos who actually do that sort of thing, bigger and more thirsty SUV's and more dependency on foreign oil to force us to "take out" some dictator who is sitting on oil! Never mind the dozens of horrible dictators in Africa who only have sand dunes and brush as a prize!
Sorry about the rant. Back on topic - that would be a cool bike to see up close!

The wooden tandem is beautiful and ingenious but I was surprised it was constructed by laminating thick pieces of plywood. It could have been considerably lighter (but more difficult to construct) with a monocoque (sp?) construction from very thin plys of wood formed over a mold into a hollow structure.

To be fair, the Secretary was responding to Lehrer's request for an example "about where federal transportation money is being spent inappropriately".

In my town, over three million dollars was spent to construct a bike tunnel under a local street and a bike bridge over the I-5 freeway when surface streets and bike lanes for those routes already existed.

The projects add a small amount of convenience for cyclists but I would have had no objection if the federal money had instead been used to repair any of several existing bridges that desperately need repairs and a case could be made that this money was "mis-spent". Don