Bike Forums - The Whymcycle Bike Guy...

That's what I tend to be called by students & others. I am a full time sub, using my assorted cycle based
creations for kids and adults to enjoy and learn from. I hail from L A, and have lived in Davis, CA for 13 years. Davis is supposedly known as one of the bike friendliest cities anywhere. I learned to ride a bike-a 26" girl's Schwinn- at 4, without any parental knowledge, tho' probably some guidance from my 3 older siblings (probly not my then 5 1/2 y.o. sister... ) So that makes 50 years on bikes for me. I have built bikes since I was 10, and have finished @ 235 bike/trike/uni/quad cycles. Hand powered,foot pedal, single speed, kunstrad (fixy), tandems up to 4 seaters , most with rear steering, either by chain type linkage, or tie rod style. I have made many tadpole singles and tandem trikes, up to four seats. All the multiple seat tadpoles have had rear steering (for fun). I have @ 30 to 40 different designs... of cycles.

I make fwd trikes from bike trailers, so you sit where the kids rode; upside down bikes, tall bikes from full-suspension mtn bikes. Have built and raced a 48" Boneshaker Ordinary Penny Farthing High wheel bike -fun and hazardous! Made sev'l Ha' penny farthings (mini hi wheelers). I have breakdown tandems, double and triple, that shorten to a single (or double) for shipping (vacations!). Those are rear steered, too.

Since 1999 I have built and raced Kinetic Sculptures, human powered all-terrain-road, sand, mud and amphibious machines. The races are here on the West Coast, Boulder, Colorado, Baltimore, Maryland, Prague, Czech Republic and Perth, West Australia. I have built 5 different machines for this fun pastime, and have come in last, first and in between, even having the machine break in two pieces, which required me to swap to a sister machine piloted by my pit crew! This machine is 'Bounce For Glory', an eccentric
rear axle powered machine, which uses 2' x 3' Hoosier balloon sprint car tires. (Google it) It has one moving part for land propulsion, as opposed to my previous racer, which has 8 chains, 7 deraillieurs, 2,268 fwd gears, 324 reverse...Propeller and paddle wheel water drive, reverse gear in water for drive-wheel-first
exits . Breath..... this made from a Honda 3813 lawn tractor... it used the little tractor wheels in 2003, Hoosier Balloons in 2004, and 40" wheels made from trampolines in 2005.

I am making my 120th eccentric wheeled Whymcycle scooter, @ 110 of them are bouncing around the Northern Western Hemisphere. These are patterned after the 1930's Ingo Bike.

That's a bit o' me. Ok? Oh, all this stuff is recycled, and cost little or nothing for materials...GREEN!