<
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Tony <
[email protected]> wrote:
> :
http://www.go-one.biz/ukindex.shtml
>
> 265 cm long so it won't be "USCF legal". Sorry.
>
> PS. Just had to forward for the bent folks. Replies hopefully go only to .racing
Sometimes I read proposals for how to make recumbents and other alt.hpv's more popular in the world
of cycling.
Money to *upright* racers and racing might really help.
How did the fancy composite bikes, weird geometry bikes and wild aerobars and wheels all become
race-legal in the USCF? And required items in so many races? ---Not just because they worked. That
would make the world too simple.
Scott, Kestrel, Trispoke and those type of guys made their bed, now they're lounging in it! They
paid their dues. They sponsored teams and offered stuff as prizes and gave special prices to racers
and hosted events and series and now their acceptance is a done deal.
Classic style bikes and gear are all that are allowed in UCI events, which NOT coincedently are of
oldworld Euro descent. USCF allows more radical gear---because innovative US manufacturers have
played their cards right.
Fairings and HPVs are a category of bike/trike that are ideally suited to the HUGE distances
possible in US racing and ultra-racing (and common in commuting and touring). They also offer
numerous other advantages: weatherproofing, comfort, safety, cargo.
So I think it would be neat if recumbent manufacturers like Lightning, Rans, Vision, EasyRacer and
Rotator would all give CREDIT CARDS to a regular upright bike racing team! Plus give them FREE HPVs
and make them ride them (if they ride em they'll like em). Plus give them JERSEYS and MAGNETIC
SLOGAN & LOGO SIGNS for their cars.
The jerseys and signs could all have slogans like: "Go Bent! No more sore butt ever again! Double
your speed lying down! Have a cozy ultramarathon! Smile all day!"
I think even upright racers will ride these rigs to get in highspeed, low-stress miles and hours.
Their grins and fun will make it a done deal.
Also, the sponsors could require participation in regular HPV races. If top upright racers rode the
HPV circuit, event records would come a-tumblin' down and the upright world would open its eyes to
the speed, sensibility and comfort of faired, bent racing.
Also, the HPV sponsors should host USCF events and series (and have HPV races at these events if
they like) and offer to lodge various VIPs, etc.
HPV companies should donate money and bikes (and trikes!) to USCF programs. And of course the whole
time they can lobby Board members as they please.
Then we would see that within a few years the USCF would offer an 'OPEN' class of racing for various
events, starting with the time trial. Done deal.
Of course, we gotta find the HPV company willing to jump first...
--
JP