The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly My Sony laptop died on the 20th, hence the long break between posts. One would think technology might last longer than three weeks (the time between purchase and watching the screen go black… never to work again). Yes, one would think that… and
Month: September 2008
Whittingham Sets New Record
Sam Whittingham, the Canadian cyclist and bike builder who has dominated the sport of HPV racing for nearly a decade, pedaled his Varna Diablo III recumbent bike to a new world record speed of 82.3 mph (132 kph) late Thursday, under conditions that veterans of the World Human Powered Speed
Fast Tuesday
Wednesday, Sept. 17/08 Battle Mountain NV Speeds continue to creep upwards at the Human Powered Speed Challenge, but so did the wind velocity during the Tuesday evening runs, wreaking havoc on expectations for the most speed-friendly weather of the week. Sam Whittingham and Fred Markham are still the two fastest
Day One Delivers!
Sept. 16, Battle Mountain NV Good conditions prevailed on Monday, during Day One of competition at the 2008 World Human Powered Speed Challenge, with riders posting very respectable times and looking forward to even higher speeds today. Once again the Varna machines have proven themselves – Georgi Georgiev designed bikes
Speed Challenge 2008 Qualifying Session
Pictures from early morning qualifying session — Monday, Sept. 15/08 SR 305 outside Battle Mountain NV(where the HPV Speed Challenge takes place) Sam Whittingham prepares for his first qualifying run in the fourth version of the Varna Diablo Beautiful paint on “Fast” Freddy Markham’s machine Sam’s second run — this
Train trip travail
A long row of Humvees at the Tacoma train station photo: Chris Keam Sept . 12, 2008 – 7:35pm, somewhere between Eugene and Klamath Falls, Oregon. Can one stall a train? Apparently, yes. The scheduled stop at Eugene lasts longer than expected when the locomotive decides it’s more loco than
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Seattle – Friday, Sept 12/08 Boxing a bike is easier than I thought. Delighted to see a Momentum magazine at the local coffee shop where I’m frantically checking email and writing this post twenty minutes before the boarding call for the train. More when I get to Sacramento, including, hopefully,
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Sunset on Chuckanut Drive – Sept. 10/08Photo: Chris Keam Sept. 11 9:00am – One mile south of Larrabee State ParkI crossed the into the US border yesterday afternoon at the Peace Arch border crossing . I didn’t ask Border Protection Officer Engels if he’s any relation to Marx’s good buddy
Trains, bikes, and too much stuff
photo: Chris Keam One of my favourite films is the Spencer Tracy classic Bad Day At Black Rock. It’s not about someone taking the brown acid at Burning Man. It’s set in a tiny town in the Arizona desert. In the opening scene, Tracy disembarks with just a suitcase, at
The Speed of Sam
Follow all the action of the Human Powered Speed Challenge 2008 right here. I’ll be travelling to Nevada and filing daily reports as Sam Whittingham of Quadra Island attempts to pedal the Varna Diablo III (designed by Georgi Georgiev) faster than his current record of 81 mph. For more information