Blatant Opinion
UnaBenter Manifesto
by Joseph Kochanowski
My primary transportation for the past several years has been a recumbent streamliner. A bike like this, with at least a roof and a windshield, lets me wear basically the same attire all year round no matter what the temperature and weather. I dont need rain clothes or sunscreen and I dont dress like an Eskimo in the winter.
Its been my experience that all the worlds scientific proof and broken speed records will not convince anybody to ride a recumbent. To achieve this you have to show people that recumbents WORK! This means having a real vehicle that they can see being ridden day after day, season after season, in various weather conditions over a long span of time. By riding my streamliner I am a living testament to the practicality of the recumbent streamliner as a vehicle for daily transportation.
Many experts in the field of automobile design and industry, cycling gurus and bicycle advocates have told me that streamliners will never see popularity. I dont agree. Whenever I ride a fast streamliner like the Moby, Rotator Super Seven or a faired Tour Easy with side panels, people are interested. The faster it goes, the more interested they become. However, most people are unaware of streamliners and have never seen one. Conventional cycling is seldom seen on TV, in movies or in the general pop culture and awareness of streamliners is almost zero. But when people see my streamliner riding around on the streetthey remember the bikeand they remember me.
Currently there is no mass-produced state of the art streamliner that any ordinary person could buy and safely use for transportation. I have concluded that since THE WORLD HAS FAILED to produce one in the past 50 years, I have to build the thing myself. I just cannot wait for the likes of Trek, Schwinn, the Japanese, the Europeans or Tim Brummer to include all the specifications I need in one package.
SAFETY... A good Streamliner has a top speed of at least 50 mph on flat and/or rolling terrain and cruises all day at 35. It is stable on slick roads and self-centering in crosswinds. The most important feature would be the CRASH PROTECTION. A good sales promotion would show one being run over by a truck with very little injury or none to the rider. A head-on collision into a solid object (like a brick wall with a crash test test dummy) at 15 mph with no injury should be possible. A cargo capacity for such things as lawn mowers, a full set of golf clubs or a 24-foot. extension ladder would be helpful. All this would be in a package that fits into the back of a pick-up truck and weighs about 60 pounds. This is what I need to escape the evil empire of the automobile.
My current machines are about 100 lbs, after installing all the usual equipment (lights, spare parts, tools) and I sometimes carry a 50-pound cargo of groceries. When someone asks, How do you ride a 150 lb bike?, I answer, Real men ride heavy bikes. A heavy bike also turns any short ride into a major workout. This helps keep me in shape. I dont need the latest yuppie, infomercial excerciser. Most car drivers are so weak that they need motors to move themselves around.
MOTIVATION... Money and ecology dont motivate me. I am going to tell you why I must ride a recumbent streamliner. First of all, I would rather fly, but I am not permitted since the FAA does not like anybody to take off and land on their own driveways or the local supermarket parking lot. Now, I am forced to use the government roadways.
Automobile innovation has been a dead end for the past 50 years. The research desperately needed is from the vast untapped potential of the human body. A Human Powered Vehicle is the most technologically advanced machine on earth. I seek to improve the human machine. A persons strength comes from inside oneself and not from ones car.
My foundation of good streamliner building is bargain hunting. The difference can be finding NOMEX honeycomb for 50 cents a pound at the Lazy B Ranch (Boeing Surplus) or using plain old corrugated cardboard. I scavenge and recycle old bike parts, go to swap meets, recycle bikes and braze my own frames. I collect materials like titanium, polycarbonate, honeycomb, fiberglass, stainless steel, cardboard, and other high-tech stuff to create a bicycle, which gives me the confidence to solve any problem. I AM IMMUNE to adversity.
CHALLENGE... is a good thing. But the only real challenge in driving an automobile is to earn enough cash to pay for it. A Human Powered Vehicle puts it all to the riders mind, spirit and body. Theres something to gain even for those riders who only ride on bicycle trails, weekly/monthly rides, racing, velo, tours and centuries. Commuting is paramount. This challenges my fate, riding day after day, year after year. The most useful skill that Ive learned is the development of my sixth sense. Riding a streamliner helps to develop confidence in my skills. A properly tuned mind (conscious or subconscious) can sense in advance when red lights occur, when cars appear around turns and where mine-shaft potholes are located. Therefore an HPV commuter becomes immune to adversity, since danger stares you right in the face at all times. A good HPV rider understands that courtesy is the fuel that keeps our transportation system running smooth.
The words self-confidence are treason to those who have sold their souls and freedom in exchange for the vehicles the BIG CAR COMPANIES and BIG GOVERNMENT command them to use. I live on less money than many yuppies spend on their cars. One local rider told me his two cars cost him over $1,000 per month when all expenses are paid. We are turning into a nation of people who no longer improve ourselves. I do not need someone else to tell me that I am too weak to transport myself anywhere I wish to go, under my own power and untaxed.
The typical government roads are made for large, heavy, fast care-free cars. I know riders of frail lightweight bicycles that only ride on smooth, low traffic roads and bike paths. I choose not to surrender the roads to cars but to build and ride a rugged, fast machine that is designed for the real world and not some smooth-pavement, skinny-tire racer wannabe fantasy.
ROAD RAGE... Since my unique vehicle attracts a lot of attention, I must always set a good example in traffic. If a motorist follows me and wants to go faster, I will not get in their way. Road rage is a fight over the poorly designed government roadways. There is nothing to gain for any winner in the dispute. Any motorist who wants these crummy roads that bad can have them. In the capitalist world inventors like Edison, Ford and Bell have earned the respect of everyone. I try to earn the same respect from motorists by building and riding a HPV that can compete with cars. I am either treated with inventor respect or I am so funny that nobody wants to fight a comedian. I ride thru the valley of the shadow of death. I fear no evil because Im riding the meanest, most frightening, menacing vehicle in that valley.
NATURAL HIGH... Riding a streamliner is my way of getting a natural high. I am against drug use, alcohol and/or cigarettes. People can drive an automobile wasted or drunk, that could cause their own death or the death of others. Cars are far more dangerous than bikes. You cannot do this with Human Powered Vehicles. If you cannot balance yourself, you get nowhere. And if you get killed by trying, then you deserve it for you are responsible for your own actions...your own life.
TAKE ACTION!... I am not here to change the world or the opinion of others. I am here only to improve myself. I am not afraid to take on the challenge. I have been mostly alone in this quest and am not willing to say, Let someone else take care of it.
