I don't know if everyone is familiar with SEMA the annual show for the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association. Its the big trade show for the automotive aftermarket industry. That translates to a hall full of hotrods, custom cars and boothbabes.

Ordinarily, a bicycle is the last thing you'd expect there. This is valhalla to the "Car Guy". But in reading a blog on Car Domains, I found pictures of a couple of carbon-fiber foldies and a well-hauled chopper. Do you think that things may be beginning to change?




Here's the whole story. SEMA

Pshaw. Here in Portland, we've been making our own carbon-fiber body shells for recumbents for years. I've been up to my armpits in epoxy creating these machines:

That's good. The key thing here is that SEMA is a major taste maker in the automotive industry. This means that bikes are becoming accepted within internal combustion circles.

I agree. One dream of mine is to show off our bikes at one of the Portland car shows. That's down the list a ways... project #8793 I think.

The Lotus Elise is a neat car- I've seen a couple 'round here. A couple years ago I encountered a gent unloading a kitted-out Elise at Portland International Raceway (where the streamliner photo was taken) and asked if I could sit in it. He said "sure!"

Now, understand that I'm 6-foot-4 of Big Ugly, and squeezing past the door bars was the least of my problems. The Elise is about the size of our streamliners, too, so it's not built Large Americans. However, after about 3 minutes of folding, spindling, and mutilating, I was sitting behind the steering wheel. I couldn't see forward (the top of the roll cage blocked my view), I couldn't operate the controls (my legs prevented the steering wheel from moving), and there was no circulation in my butt. Since I like my butt (my wife does, too), I started the process of extracting myself.

I think it went like this: pull left knee up to left ear, manhandle left leg out of window opening. Compress spine, curl chin to chest, use right arm to push body out of window. Unstick right foot, attempt to kick right leg to passenger side for balance. Fail to find grip on roof of car, fall backward onto pavement, land on left shoulder, finish extracting right foot.

Never again...