Hi all, I have been lurking for a while and finally decided to join your forum. My main areas of interest are with recumbents (I think so but haven't really had much experience of them) and I am considering load carriers as well. I don't do much cycling at the moment due to the long distances for work, but I do have a Marin Hawkhill which gets used for circular trips until I get some better security sorted out or for return trips from dropping the car off for servicing. I am currently studying an MSc in Architecture, Environment and Energy at the Centre for Alternative Technology and I am thinking of including a cycling element in my thesis proposal so I hope you don't mind me asking for some advice on here about that for my research. I will say when it is for research reasons. I used to do a lot of cycling in the past but then I got a driving licence and have struggled to get back into it for the last 25 years! However at that time I was designing and building my own bikes for fun and just to be different. Also I never considered the Raleigh Chopper to be sufficiently 'Chopper' like so I made my own with long forks, low seat and feet forwards pedalling, semi recumbent style. Much more fun. I am still designing and making now but now it is mainly furniture and the occasional trailer.
Well, my Night Train was the Harley Davidson verson I got as an early midlife crisis. It was rather bigger then the Hawkhill and 30 times more costly. I sold it to fund my carpentry workshop. Much more sensible!
Welcome! You sound like an interesting addition to the forum! I hope people won't mind me plugging something you might be intersted in, if you don't know about it already - click the link in my sig... If you're into recumbents, loadcarrying and design, you might find it useful.... Anyway, welcome. I think I know someone who is studying (or has studied) some element of sustainable architecture at CAT... Last time I was at his house he was building a straw bale shelter in the garden for some mates to stay overnight in...
How long is that course mate & is it RIBA etc?? 'Twas a long time ago ...I did the first year of a 7 year course (including post grad) and that was apparently enough (my face just didnt fit) I remember building bridges from cotton, tissue paper and thin balsa and having to drive a heavy toy tank over it, then designing a welsh pottery and building our own outdoor shelter from the contents of a skip and sleeping out in it for 3 nights....happy daze....I just wasnt into all the conceptualism etc....to me a brick is a brick not a work of art.
Thanks Arch, and the rest of you, for the welcome. I will have a proper look at your sig when I have recovered from trying to emulate James Brown... I have been thinking about the Pick Up that used to be made by the 'Seat of the Pants Co' and I think Brox do something similar. I tried the Pick Up once at a cycling awareness event in Rochdale a few years ago when I was working there. It was fun but hard work for the unfit, desk bound bloke I was then.
The course isn't to become an architect but it does introduce a lot of aspects of building design for better energy and environmental performance. It also looks agriculture and transport too. CAT Graduate site There is information on the Renewable Energy adn the Built Environment MSc as well as the Architecture, Environment and Energy Studies MSc. It is a really good fun course to attend. I do a residential module from Tuesday to Sunday once a month and it is a choice of 8 out of 10 modules and can be done in one or two years this way. I am doing part time over two years as it spreads the modules out a bit more and allows time to work in between.
Welcome to you. Had a colleague of mine go to work at the CAT. If you see him, say hello* * Obviously this will be difficult not knowing his name or mine though.
Happy landings Night Train. It isn't always plain sailing here, but we do seem to get there in the end. Questions are always answered, but the decision is yours.
