[freebeard]

(I never realised how hard it is to improve the efficiency of a machine until I started working on pedal-powered vehicles... makes car stuff look easy.)

“When one compares the energy consumed in moving a certain distance as a function of body weight for a variety of animals and machines, one finds that an unaided walking man does fairly well (consuming about .75 calorie per gram per kilometer), but he is not as efficient as a horse, a salmon or a jet transport. With the aid of a bicycle, however, the man’s energy consumption for a given distance is reduced to about a fifth (roughly .15 calorie per gram per kilometer).

“Therefore, apart from increasing his unaided speed by a factor of three or four, the cyclist improves his efficiency rating to No. 1 among moving creatures and machines.

www.bikeboom.info/efficiency/: How the bicycle beats evolution and why Steve Jobs was so taken with this fact

I like the space frame. Can you use the trusses as a luggage rack?