MA..Human Powered Vehicle Festival

[KOTA]

Anyone from here going?....Wife and I are planning on it.

http://humanpoweredvehiclefestival.frie ... nd-parking

 

[KZ1000]

that looks like fun, I just went on that bike trail 2 weeks ago with the wife and kids, very nice trail, 22 miles and great scenery. And flat. I will mark my calendar

 

[yeshoney]

As of right now this looks very doable. I will keep my fingers crossed and hope the scheduling minions keep me free!

Joe

 

[jon]

take mucho loto pics for this... sounds very cool!

 

[BankerRAt]

I might go if others go from here~

 

[HPVF]

Hey, just noticed the post on this forum. Glad to hear people are enjoying the trail!

We are trying to manage to keep up with administrative work, and were wondering if anyone here would be interested in demoing (it's free!). Let us know if you are willing to. All we need is "I'm planning to come", and maybe a description of what you are going to bring, sent to [email protected]. Any other questions? Drop us a line!


Thanks, and looking forward to seeing some of you,
Ryan
and the Human Powered Vehicle Festival Organizers

 

[Graylock]

KOTA, I'd go if they let me ride my tallbike. I just realized I'm dumping...... :shock: ....... I mean that I'm taking my lovley wife to the airport Friday and I got the week off. I don't see why I couldn't cross the bridge again for a bike ride sounds like a lot of fun.......I mean it's like going to Munson with the boys, dear, not much going on, a bunch of bikes. .
Looks like bikes and food.........yeah I could do that. Is there a starting point the Rats are hooking up?

Graylock

 

[KOTA]

My wife and I are going. We'll be in Groton center around 10:00. I'm NOT, repeat NOT, taking a bike! We did a LOT of bike riding this year. But tomorrow is going to be cold and windy, and I hate riding in the wind (I'm a baby). We will be taking a Footbike and a Kickbike (aka:Scooters). Hey, it's a Human Powered Vehicle Festival.

 

[Graylock]

I met up with KOTA and his wife. We had fun at the Festival. You think as a builder you have seen it all but this festival had some cool contraptions that were offered to try. I mean they let even KOTA and Graylock try these things. There were two skooter type bikes that had a rear wheel with an offset axle that was powered by shifting your weight up and down. I tried this thing but I could only look good when I went down hill down wind, coming back I was the king of It's like doing a hula hoop, you can get it going but it ends up..........down . Another set of bikes there was a Trikke. Weird bike, takes a lot of body english.
Also I tried some folders and some trikes. Sweet, I got to make a trike now. I was checking out a trike with an aerodinamic trunk mocked up in cardboard on the back and I told him he could make one by using the strip canoe method that I've used in my canoes and he said he was very familar with this method. I looked up at him and realized this was Bob Hicks an old friend. He is the editor of the magazine, Messing About In Boats. Bob must be in his 70's and messes about in trikes now. Really cool guy.
We took a group ride (loosely packed) to Ayer and messed around some more with bikes down there. I met some nice people there, these guys and gals really like their bike trail. Kota I think has one leg longer than the other from riding back to Groton on his Skooter. Sorry about that Kota :lol: .
The colors in the trees were arranged just for the festival and were done nicely.

Here's some pictures.................

If the Rat Trolls don't stop you the three legged dog will :shock:

....and then I swerved but the three legged dog got me anyways..........

......Get out of here you dang three legged dog.......

............Got him............

Thanks Kota!

Graylock

 

[thatismytruck]

I missed this ride and initial post completely!!! Crap!! I would have gone up there with Boy for sure. Looks like loads of fun.

 

[KOTA]

We were glad to meet up with Graylock. I'm an "idiot". I didn't bring a bike, because I didn't feel like riding in the wind ( and it was VERY windy) and cold....SOOO, what did we end up doing? Kicking a scooter for 7 miles in the wind and the cold. It was nice to see the Grunge Rudge in person, EXTREMELY comfortable and the material finish is flawless. I let at least ten people try my Footbike. But every time I turned around there was a different person flying by on the Grunge Rudge. They had TWO display areas set up 3 1/2 miles apart, all the pics I took at the first section, got deleted, I said I was an IDIOT! But I did get a few.

Hula hoop thing Graylock was talking about.....INGENIOUS! a re-make of the Ingo bike from the mid thirties.

Graylock on my Footbike....I kept telling him there was NO seat! Can't tell by the pic, but he was MOVING in this shot.

Another cool bike was this Step Bike........The guy that owned it sold it, and ended walking 3 1/2 miles back to his car.

 

[Graylock]

Got a one short video up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaYx7Tve6vY

Graylock

 

[thatismytruck]

What a great place to ride!!! Larry I can't believe I missed your first post!!!

 

[aka_locojoe]

Sounds like a neat event. Thanks for the photos and video.
Is that path a former railroad? (rail-to-trail)

 

[Graylock]

Sounds like a neat event. Thanks for the photos and video.
Is that path a former railroad? (rail-to-trail)

It is an old railway bed that originally ran from Worcester MA (wiss-tah in the local tongue) to Nashua NH and later onto Portland ME. The part we rode on is all watershed which makes it pretty flat........but like most rail trails it's uphill both ways against the wind. They have placed rest rooms at the Ayer stop and benches here and there at some of the scenic stops. One thing that I saw was a bike rack made out of metal to look like a tree stump that was left high and dry from low water levels. It's pretty cool, you just roll your bike through the roots and lock up. Also there was a tunnel with a mural of farm lands on one wall. This reminds me that there are lots of these murals around our towns, maybe there is a thread on these or maybe should start one. I'm working on a camera mount that I can wear so I can make steadier videos. One gentleman in Ayer had a tripod set up in a wheelchair and rolled it around doing interviews.

Graylock

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

Larry, your plaids clash. tisk-tisk.

 

[SCHWINNRAY69]

Wish I could have gone Sadly, I had a huge tree fall in the middle of my yard between the house and shed :x Luckily, It didn't hit my bicycle shed :shock: :shock:

 

[KOTA]

Larry, your plaids clash. tisk-tisk.

That was the VERY thing I told Graylock!

Wish I could have gone Sadly, I had a huge tree fall in the middle of my yard between the house and shed :x Luckily, It didn't hit my bicycle shed :shock: :shock:

Ther's always next year. This was the FIRST annual HPVF.

 

[HPVF]

MA..Human Powered Vehicle Festival (2011)

A thanks goes out to everyone for their photos and videos of last year's festival. (Glad to see someone caught me on the Whymcycle, the re-make of the Ingo) I appreciate the community interest in the festival, and would like to invite anyone interested to the 2011 HPVF, on September 17th. We are still working out the day's schedule, so we haven't started to invite onlookers, but we would appreciate if demonstrators could email us at [email protected] with their name and vehicle. Hope to see some of you there!

Some more details about the festival:
This year we are only meeting in the afternoon at Ayer for demonstrations, but rides, parades, other events, and a lunch and/or dinner for organizers and demonstrators are planned for other parts of the day. The rain date is the next day, September 18th, and as previously mentioned, the festival is on Saturday, September 17th.

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

I hope I can make it this year. Would be nice if we could get the NE RRB forum peeps together.