The Great Handcar Regatta
Sep. 10th, 2009 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alessandro_bardWhat have I gotten myself into?
About a month and a half ago, some friends told me about the Great Handcar Regatta handcar-regatta.com. For years I've been kicking around the idea of building a railbike, and here was an opportunity. I sent in my registration, dubbed my soon-to-be-invented contraption "Cyclotron", and got busy at the drawing board.
My evenings are now filled with cutting, welding, finagling, and bludgeoning of metal, wood, and bicycle parts. What has emerged from the cacophony is in no way historic, whimsical, nor steampunk. But, it works - to a first approximation. There are some abandoned tracks near my house, and after several test runs, there is still a lot of refinement needed. Stability comes first, then speed. I'm a long way from maximum speed, and someday I'll want to be able to ride from here to Santa Cruz and back - but that's getting ahead of myself.
So, the day after Bardic (Sunday the 27th), I'll be in Santa Rosa at the race.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
acanthusleaf will be along as my guide to all things steampunk, and I'll do my best to charge to victory. Or crash spectacularly. Whatever is more amusing to the collected gallery.
Either way, this is going to be fun! Heck, it's already a lot of fun!
About a month and a half ago, some friends told me about the Great Handcar Regatta handcar-regatta.com. For years I've been kicking around the idea of building a railbike, and here was an opportunity. I sent in my registration, dubbed my soon-to-be-invented contraption "Cyclotron", and got busy at the drawing board.
My evenings are now filled with cutting, welding, finagling, and bludgeoning of metal, wood, and bicycle parts. What has emerged from the cacophony is in no way historic, whimsical, nor steampunk. But, it works - to a first approximation. There are some abandoned tracks near my house, and after several test runs, there is still a lot of refinement needed. Stability comes first, then speed. I'm a long way from maximum speed, and someday I'll want to be able to ride from here to Santa Cruz and back - but that's getting ahead of myself.
So, the day after Bardic (Sunday the 27th), I'll be in Santa Rosa at the race.
acanthusleaf will be along as my guide to all things steampunk, and I'll do my best to charge to victory. Or crash spectacularly. Whatever is more amusing to the collected gallery.Either way, this is going to be fun! Heck, it's already a lot of fun!
