Bike festival showcases variety of pedal-powered vehicles
By Scott Dunn
source: http://owensoundsuntimes.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1652844
A bicycle love-in this weekend brought out hard-core enthusiasts and recreational riders with their two- and three-wheeled funmobiles.
Larry Bowden’s handmade fibreglass trike looked like a cigar-shaped convertible vintage motorcar. Steve Briggs let people ride his black Finnish kick bike, designed without pedals or seat.
Festival organizer Doug Miller tooled around the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre in a recumbent cycle propelled by arm power. By noon Saturday he figured 100 cyclists were about.
There were seminars covering cycling skills and bike maintenance and guided rides through the city. A mass ride was scheduled to end the event yesterday afternoon.
A collection of small tents featured bike company reps, booths for county and city tourism officials, trail organizations and food vendors on the grass between the harbour and the Lumley-Bayshore.
Avery Vreugdehnil, 12, and friend David Askwith, 14, were headed to the demonstrations at the BMX park, held throughout the afternoon Saturday.
“It’s really good. It’s a pretty big thing for Owen Sound,” Vreugdehnil said of the bike festival, which the organizer has said he wants to make a national event.
Wearing a helmet and dirt bike gloves, Vreugdehnil ogled the yellow and blue aerodynamic fibreglass trike.
“It looks awesome,” he said aboard his BMX bike. “Like, it would be weird seeing people riding it down the road, though.”
But ride it Larry Bowden does, in winter, at home in Mississauga. He said the slick body keeps the cold winter winds at bay. He knows of two or three others in the Toronto area. They’re “rare” in North America, he said.
He built his 30-kilogram “velomobile” based on designs of similar machines in Europe. Bluevelo, a company in Toronto, charges $7,000 and up per trike.
“According to my friend Tim, chicks dig ‘em,” said Bowden, who later took a double-take at Doug Miller’s arm-propelled recumbent tricycle.
Miller’s machine has a front and rear suspension, disc brakes on the back wheel and two LED turning signals built into side mirrors. It’s steered with sticks pushed fore and aft to turn two small spoked front wheels.
He sends plans to people to build their own velomobiles, averaging two per week. He charges nothing but asks people to make a donation to Princess Margaret Hospital cancer foundation, he said. Information is found on his website.
Steve Briggs rode his kick bike, which is used in triathlons in Finland, and his recumbent bicycle, which he prefers.
He said it takes double the effort to kick and coast the pedalless scooter, featuring one big front wheel, one little one at the back and a platform in the middle. They’re worth between $200 and $400.
“It’s just fun,” said Briggs, an Owen Sound eye doctor, who said he likes travelling “at bike speeds” rather than car speeds. He rides to and from work.
“After a hard day at the office it’s stressful. You just hop on your bike and the physical exercise helps relax you.”
Miller, the event organizer, who owns Bikeface Cycling shop in Owen Sound, said part of the bicycle’s allure is the thrill cyclists feel.
“Cycling is a unique thing because you know, you’re moving through time and space a little differently than runners or walkers or motorists or motorcycles.
“You’re under your own power and you’re moving. There’s a little thrill in there,” even if you don’t approach the 50 kilometre per hour speeds of the Tour de France bike race now underway, he said.
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