Bittersweet, Part 1

We finally made it to the 2012 World Human Powered Speed Challenge in Battle Mountain, Nevada!

First order of business is a tech/safety inspection...

We passed the tech/safety inspection. Now I need to ride this new creation for the first time.

No, I didn't crash. Another WHPSC participant, Larry Lem, advised me to try riding my streamliner without the upper body half. He also suggested taping cardboard "crash panels" to the sides of the lower tub. Last but not least, he advised me to pick up a pair of cheap leather gloves from the local hardware store so I wasn't ruining my good cycling gloves.

Here's video from a GoPro Hero mounted in the nose of the streamliner...

I had exactly ZERO experience riding any sort of recumbent bicycle, and vastly underestimated how difficult the streamliner would be to ride. We returned to the Super 8 Motel, where all the WHPSC racers hang out when they're not racing down Nevada Highway 305, for some advice.

Georgi Georgiev, creator of the Varna Diablo streamliners that Sam Whittingham and Barbara Buatois pedaled to world records advised us to stiffen the rear wheel mounts, but I already knew what I needed to do... it was the same advice everyone gave me last year: learn to ride a recumbent.

Burnin' the Midnight Oil

(2012 WHPSC started today... without us)

We had another long day of finishing all the little lose ends. I didn't take many pictures.

Here are a few from late in the afternoon.

Mating the Subframes to the Tub

(1 day until the 2012 WHPSC)

Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug. We pretty much got our butts kicked today. Around 3:00 or so, it became apparent we're not going to finish in time to leave first thing Sunday morning. Aligning the front subframe with the tub proved very difficult and stressful. We've been at it for too many days in a row, and our nerves are getting a little frayed.

We finally got the subframe mounted.

Dad added a little bling to the body

"Special thanks" is the understatement of a lifetime!

By the way, here's how Universal Cycles packages a tire (left) compared to how Amazon packages the very same tire (right)

We encountered yet another obstacle last night, and here's how we're plowing through it!

Brake rotor now fits over-sized cassette

Pat filed a couple of old cassette cogs to fit the over-sized cassette

I welded them

Closeup of the welds

Pat holds the rear wheel mount while I take a measurement to make a custom spacer for the brake rotor

Parting the custom spacer

Rotor mounted on the rear wheel

While Pat and I struggled with the brake and rear wheel mount, dad struggled with the windshield

Got Clecos?

Progress on the rear wheel mount

Installing the seat back

Steering limiter

Closeup of limiter

Front shot of limiters

Fork deflection limiter... So at the end of the day (Sunday, September 9, 2012), we're still not ready to go. So we're going to resume construction tomorrow, and hopefully leave for Battle Mountain on Tuesday, September 11, 2012.