The Frank-n-Liner
By Mike Mowett

Note:  Material and photos for some of this article came from the excellent photo-story created by Rick Wianecki on the WISIL website listed below.  In January, I visited Frank for some more updates. http://www.wisil.recumbents.com/wisil/wianecki/frank-n-liner/

The Frank-n-Liner Team

Over the past year (2006), Rick Wianecki of Okemos and Frank Geyer of Brighton have been collaborating on the design and construction of the Frank-n-Liner.  The project started with informal discussions in February 2006.  By late October, Frank was already riding the nearly completed bike (without its’ top) around Rick’s subdivision. 

First test ride: October 22, 2006: Frank will be putting his hand down to start/stop.  Photo from the WISIL website.

The Frank-n-Liner combines perhaps Michigan’s most talented fairing and bike designer/fabricator - Rick Wianecki and perhaps Michigan’s best lowracer recumbent racer - Frank Geyer.  

Rick has worked on a variety of past projects over the past 15 years or more, including streamliners, front fairings, a leaning tadpole steer trike, and lowracer bikes.  He’s handcrafted several vehicles.  Frank says all of Rick’s experience has gone into the Frank-n-Liner.  See several of Rick’s other creations on the WISIL website’s Projects page at: http://www.wisil.recumbents.com/wisil/whatsup.htm

Frank is known as FranknSpeed on the BROL and WISIL message boards.  Originally from Germany, he’s lived in Michigan about ten years.  He earned a world championship in the men’s stock division at the worlds held in Europe in 2002.  Frank says the competition over there is very competitive.  He’s won numerous events in recent years at the Waterford HPV rally, won the Category 5 State of Michigan 40k TT championships on an upright, and then won the HPV division the next year on a recumbent.  He finished 2^nd overall, five minutes ahead of upright field and 250 entrants at the Black Bear 100 mile race in 2004.  As at the other races, Frank was racing his unfaired Jester lowracer.  The race was won by Dave Johnson in the Great White streamliner, another bike that Rick helped to build.

Frank is Michigan’s fastest cyclist of all time with a 63.58 mph (102.32 kph) run at Battle Mountain in 2004.  This was in a borrowed streamliner – the Big Gun, designed, built and owned by Steve Delaire of California.  Obviously Frank’s strength extends from sprints, to distance time trials, to even through to the century distance.

Lending support and equipment to the Frank-n-Liner team is Garrie Hill of Ohio.  Garrie is perhaps Ohio’s best fairing fabricator and builder.  [Note the Midwest connection going on – and who would have thought cross-state rivals Wolverines / Buckeyes could get along so well!]  He lives about four hours south of Rick and/or Frank, but he’s made the whole trip up to Michigan to help out and/or they’ve met half way to exchange parts.

Garrie will fabricate the windshield for the Frank-n-Liner.  Garrie and Rick made a mold was made off of the upper body around the windshield area to ensure a perfect flow and fit.  A carbon fiber seat that Garrie once built for Frank on an earlier project is installed in the Frank-n-Liner.  This particular seat was retrofitted with carbon fiber outriggers to attach and wedge it into the lower tub.  Garrie makes lowracer seats, headrests and wheel disks for racers around the globe.  His windshields are used on several of the Varna streamliners.  Frank has been using a set of Garrie’s carbon wheel disks for several years on his Jester. 

Garrie and Rick (on right), lay fabric to make a mold of the windshield area.  Both commented that it’s nice to have each others help on this lay-up. Often builders have to work alone because there are no other builders near by.  Photo from the WISIL website.

A look back:  Frank at Battle Mountain 2004

So how fast will Frank go at Battle Mountain?  A wise person once said you have to look to the past, to see the future.  In 2004 at Battle Mountain, Frank had to quickly become acclimated to piloting a streamliner for the first time.  He had years of experience on a lowracer, but it was the first time he was being taped into a shell, learning how to keep a streamliner upright when being launched, controlling a streamliner in cross-winds, plus there is the added speed factor of a streamliner and long-run up at Battle Mountain to get used to.

On the first day of competition (Monday), Frank did a mediocre run of only 37 mph while getting used to the bike.  This is still fast for a bike, but maybe not a streamliner.  The next night (Tuesday), he went out and started cranking hard.  Frank saw the speedometer steadily going up from 40 mph to 50 mph then 60 mph.  He thinking “holy-cow” and getting more and more excited as the speedometer climbed and climbed.  In the midst of that, the ventilation flap was closing itself from the high speeds.  Still Frank went an amazing 63.47 mph in his first real sprint in a streamliner, surely much faster than he’s ever gone before pedal powered.  It was also the fastest the Big Gun’s ever gone.

There is nothing quite like racing at Battle Mountain, nothing quite like the experience of pedaling down the fastest course in the world.  No bike simulator or other course can get you ready for it.  Frank said he felt the same experience on the course that Matt Weaver felt then wrote about in 2001.  It’s the experience of seeing your speedometer digits rising rather quickly in the first few miles on the course. When numbers like 40, 50, 60 mph come up and you know you’re going much faster than you’ve ever gone before on bicycle, you keep pushing it harder and harder just to see how fast you and the bike can go.  Riders can forget how far away the finish is and tire themselves out early, slowing down before the finish.

The following night (Wednesday), in even better conditions, Frank was pacing himself now and on his way to an even better run than the night before.  But then he saw the flashing lights of the ambulance pulling onto the course ahead of him (the ambulance parks about half way down the course)  Then his chase vehicle drove past him on the left which is the signal for a rider to stop - something has gone wrong on the course.  Hans Wessels of the Netherlands, the rider launched about 3 minutes ahead of Frank, had crashed pretty hard, smashing his acrylic windshield and getting some nasty cuts.  Luckily, the Big Gun’s chase crew could get enough ahead of Frank, pull over, and run out to catch him.  Frank didn’t have to ditch the vehicle or coast to the finish. 

Frank emerges from the Big Gun after his Tuesday run of 63.47 mph.  Photo from the WISIL website.

The next night (Thursday), Frank once again put his legs to the cranks (no pedal to the metal in these things) and bested his Tuesday speed by 0.11 mph with a run 63.58 mph.  At the time of both of these runs over 60 mph, only 19 people had ever gone faster while riding single or tandem vehicles on official or unofficial runs.  Hence Frank became the 20^th fastest pedal-powered person in history.

Only one girl, Andrea Blaseckie had ever gone faster than Frank when he made his runs.  Just after Frank made his run, Ellen van Vugt of the Netherlands came through the traps at 66.02 mph for what would have been a new ladies world record, but one-half of our wind measuring equipment said the wind speed was too high on her run for a record.  I had the honor to help work the timing traps this evening. 

Frank on his way in the Big Gun to 63.58 mph Thursday night.  Photo from the WISIL website: http://www.wisil.recumbents.com/wisil/whpsc2004/pictures.htm

On Friday morning, I was out finishing up at the drag races event, when Frank, Sam and Ellen rode by on their lowracers.  They had started out from town about four miles away.  I joined in with their group and thought wow; all of them had just gone over 60+ mph the night before on their bikes.  Frank was the fastest ever from my state, Sam was the world’s fastest man (81 mph in 2002) and Ellen would recover the disappointment of the night before and set a new ladies record of 65.89 mph that night.

We rode out about 10 miles from Battle Mountain along Muleshoe road, a portion of which is used for the qualifying runs and drags.  It also parallels I-80.  Then we turned around and headed back to town.  The weather was hot and dry as it was high-noon in this desert country.  I was getting parched and sunburned.  Sam said this was just a cool-down ride to get the kinks out in-between the hard sprints each night.  For the record, I think we averaged about 14 mph – slow!

Back at the motel that Friday afternoon, Frank and Steve felt that the Big Gun was having a problem with the valley in its fairing between two humps over the rider’s knees.  This is just in front of the windshield.  It was causing crosswinds to swirl around and suck energy from the bike.  According to Frank, when a cross-wind came up, it sucked air out of the interior, so he couldn’t get enough air to breathe properly.  He would wait for a cross-wind to subside, then air would start to flow back in through a small vent, and he could get a few big gulps of air. 

At the suggestion of Dave Kennedy, this valley was taped over, making the fairing more aerodynamic and manageable to ride.  Following these improvements, Steve decided to ride it that Friday evening, taking Frank’s spot.  That night turned out to have the best conditions of the whole week.  Steve went only 59.95 mph, but nearly became the first member of the 50 years old and over 60 mph club.  Had Frank raced it that night, who knows how fast he would have gone, maybe 65+ mph.  The Big Gun was probably approaching its design speed limit.

Saturday night, the weather turned nasty and no one could race.  So Frank got in only two good runs that week, using one on a very necessary test run and then robbed of three other chances due to Han’s crash, Steve using his slot, and the nasty weather.  With his own streamliner, Frank will have time to train and get a very good feel for the bike and any improvements that can be made well before racing at Battle Mountain again.  As every streamliner pilot knows, with multiple runs comes experience.  How fast will Frank go with the Frank-n-Liner at Battle Mountain, it’s likely that over 70 mph is possible.

The Frank-n-Liner Design

Now back to the Frank-n-Liner.   On the WISIL site, Ricks says this, “I have been thinking of building a new streamliner for some time now, and have been trading ideas and drawings with Warren and Sean since the beginning of the year (2006). I was talking to Sean and Warren at the HPRA Race Directors meeting in February 2006 about the design”

“Sean said that I should consider building a vehicle Frank Geyer could pilot. That planted the seed for this project. On the drive back from Indiana I thought about what Sean had said and e-mailed Frank several drawings of what I was thinking about and asked him if he was interested in the project.”  Frank said he was very interested and could provide parts and support. Frank said he would like to take the vehicle to the planned HPRA races and possibly Battle Mountain but mainly he was interested in a vehicle to compete in the HPRA series and be able to do several of the 100 mile events like Black Bear.”

Rick used a moldless fabrication method to construct the plug.  Rick says, “I have been a fan of Burt Rutan and his moldless construction technique so I thought if would be interesting to build this vehicle without building any plugs or molds.”   There was a lot of pink insulation pieces involved in fabricating the fairing shape.  Full-size templates of different cross-sections were drawn out by Rick.  This method perhaps saved on the labor involved with making it a plug from hard material, and doing male/female halves.  The final fairing shape has two layers of composite sandwiching about a ¾” thick section of the pink insulation.  It is very strong and light. 

A bunch of foam strips forms the “mold”.

A work of art!  Ever do THIS with home insulation!?

Rick removes some of his moldless mold foam. Photos from the WISIL website.

Authors note:  I couldn’t do justice summarizing all of the excellent details of this build, please see Rick’s web pages on the Frank-n-Liner WISIL website.  Rick’s done an excellent job documenting each stage of the build, and all the techniques involved, almost making a blueprint for others to follow at the website given at the beginning of this article. 

The Frank-n-Liner is a long-wheelbase, rear wheel drive vehicle, with carbon fiber fairing, carbon fiber sub frame & tub.  It features an ERTO 406 (20” diameter) front wheel and a 650c rear wheel with a Rohloff hub.  It has some of the slickest and lightest, parts I’ve ever seen – all designed and built by Rick.  Most of these parts are made of aluminum and attached to a carbon fiber subframe.  The handlebar remotely steers the front wheel.  It is adjustable up/down, fore-aft and the steering linkage can be adjusted from tight to loose depending on the course.  The bottom bracket and seat are adjustable fore-and aft allowing, as Frank says, the opportunity for another rider to perhaps try the Frank-n-Liner and plenty of adjustment for him/her.

It will be able to start stop unaided.  It will have a flip forward canopy for getting in and out.  Frank will be able to put his hand down for support (i.e. There will be no flip open foot doors or skateboard wheels coming down to support it.)  This is one of the last parts that needs to be built before spring-time.  Rick is building a roller and track system that will allow the canopy to lift a bit, slide forward, then catch, and pitch the rear of the canopy up and forward.  Sounds complicated, but will all be accomplished with one simple bent rod and a roller. 

Following some modifications in November, Frank brought the completed bike to his house for training in December.  [Note: Rumor has it that Rick’s family was glad to have the streamliner out of the garage! Finally, a vehicle could be parked inside before winter-time!]  Rick’s builds all his bikes so they can fit lengthwise into his mini-van. The Frank-n-Liner makes it in, but just barely.

Frank rigged the Frank-n-Liner up to a set of Kreitler rollers he received as sponsorship.  Ironically, this company likes to use Frank’s moniker “Watts up” on their website: http://www.kreitler.com/  Only the rear of the bike is on rollers, the front is supported by a sling – necessary because the bike has an 80 inch wheelbase, far longer than a regular bike.  The long wheelbase will help to soak up bumps according to Frank, yet it can still make 90 deg turns in Rick’s sud-division.

Good shot of the Kreitler rollers – part of Frank’s sponsorship.  Photo by Mike Mowett

He will spend months pedaling in the streamliner position, and at the same time, break in the Rohloff rear hub which requires 600 miles, 1000 km of break-in.  He will also get used to the narrow bottom bracket and short cranks of the streamliner.  Frank has been pedaling with Rotor Cranks on his Jester for a while, but on the Frank-n-Liner, he will use traditional circular cranks.  Rick built these cranks with short 145 mm crank length arms mounted to a super narrow custom bottom bracket, both which reduce the frontal area.  These features are not possible with current Rotor cranks.  Frank had to do some experimenting with shoes and cleat placement to clear up some initial problems with his shoes rubbing on the inside of the fairing.  About an inch and half of height was also taken out of the fairing’s top half to reduce the frontal area even more.

The length of the bike requires a block to hold up the front end.  Photo by Mike Mowett

Frank says:  “The wattage chart for the rollers will help to simulate the BM required output.  My guess is that I need around 900 W for the final 300-400 meters before entering the traps.  We'll see how close I can get.”  Rick recently sent CAD data of the Frank-n-Liner’ shape to Ben Eadie, the co-designer / aero-designer of the Critical Power streamliner for CdA analysis.  Bens’ website www.Mountain-Wave.ca  Greg Kolodziejzyk rode the Critical Power to a 24 hour world record (www.adventuresofGreg.com).  The analysis came back saying the bike will have an aerodynamic sweet spot at around 40 mph, which is the target cruising range for Frank in events like Black Bear.  To go 80 mph, it will require 1000 watts of input from Frank, strenuous, but certainly not out of his reach.

The Frank-n-Liner will be more than just a straight line sprint bike.  Rick and Frank designed it to handle tight and winding road courses at the HPRA events and Black Bear.  Right now, during Frank’s training period, they will continual to test the drivetrain and look for any structural issues that could be there before the racing season begins.  This is a team that is doing it right.  Some HPV teams are still finishing their HPV, in the parking lot at Battle Mountain, fabricating parts, up all night, etc.  With almost ten months to go, the team already has the bike nearly complete, and Frank has time to train with the bike.

Frank reports that the bike’s position is a good fit.-“(It’s a) very powerful position, a bit more upright than on the Jester, perfect torso-upper leg angle. Everything clears and fits. I guess someone did his home work!  Rick is doing a great job in getting this bike right out of the box.”  At first glance, when you see 6’4” muscular Frank-n-Speed sit down on the Frank-n-Liner’s seat, you’d think he wouldn’t be able to fit in there with the top faring on.  His hips bulge out a bit wider than the lower half fairing’s width. 

However, Frank points out that the top half fairing flares out to a wider width.  This is not typical of most HPV fairings which have their widest point at the parting line between the upper and lower fairing halves.  This is necessary to get a one-piece solid mold out of the fairing halves.  But since Rick built this fairing using a moldless technique, there was no one-piece solid mold to remove, only blocks of insulation material which could be broken apart by hand and passed through the narrowed down opening in the upper fairing half.

Jan 2007 Frank’s in his basement training.  Frank’s hips actually have more room than it appears here because the top half of the fairing designed and built by Rick flares out.  Photo by Mike Mowett.

For those that didn’t see much of Frank at competitive events these past two seasons, don’t I repeat, don’t count him out.  Frank’s not retired!  For all the bent-heads that have given him noise for not showing up recently, here’s a few of the issues Frank’s had lately…  He had a knee/ankle injury this season.  A switch to a new job in a different location, forced him to give up his daily commute by bike which was part of his training.

Plus, he’s had problems with his sinuses which led to chronic inflections and sickness the past two seasons.  He had sinus surgery to correct this in December.  But most of all, Frank and his misses, Anja, have become the proud and happy parents of two little ones.  Frank hasn’t had the time to train like he’s had before.  Life is more than just racing!

Side view showing the parts made by Rick. Frank’s power output goals taped to mirror at his left.  Photo by Mike Mowett.

According to Frank, his body tune-up is going well.  “After the knee/ankle injury that took longer to heal than expected and a very demanding new job I have now a bit more time and the health to get back to full power.  I'll keep track on the training and progress on the FranknSpeed website.  Right now I do 2-3x per week for 1 hour easy to medium high cadence training.  Next is the base training to build up the capilars and VO2max.  Done by the book.  Looking forward to BM 07 and the HPRA racing.”

Last minute note:  It seems the Frank-n-Liner may be making a debut in world-class competition even earlier than planned.  Frank and Rick could be taking it out to the Nissan test track in Casa Grande, Arizona during Easter weekend, April 6 to 8, 2007.  Last year, Fast Freddy set a new world one hour record on this track.  The Nissan folks are opening up the track, since they will be on vacation that weekend.  See last years event description at: http://www.wisil.recumbents.com/wisil/racing2006/dempsey2006.htm

Frank is doubtful he’ll be in top shape by then, (as most cyclists in the Midwest aren’t due to the weather which keeps them indoors all winter hampering training.).  But when you chance to ride on currently the fastest track in the world for one-hour runs, you got to go.  How far will Frank go?– Well he’s averaged 27.66 mph without a streamliner, in the hour time trial at Waterford in 2004.  This is just under the world record of 28.00 miles for stock recumbents – not a bad speed considering Waterford has a hill on every lap!   Is 45 plus miles possible?

The first public unveiling of the Frank-n-Liner was at the Michigan winter meeting. Here’s to you guys.   We’re looking forward to big results in the 2007 season! 

Minutes of the Michigan HPV Association winter meeting, Feb. 17, 2007
Francois Xavier Bagnoud building, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Present: All officers and board members of the MiHPVA were in attendance, except for Paul Bruneau who had a family emergency. Bob Krzewinski of the Wolver-Bents recumbent club, and Brian Beauchamp, League of Michigan Bicyclists board member, plus about 25 other members and guests attended.

At 12:30, folks gathered in the lobby to hear Bob K. give his talk on “Buying your first recumbent”. This was followed by a walk over to the U-M engineering projects building, where interested members saw the latest progress on human powered submarine and helicopter projects being undertaken by student teams.

At about 1:10 p.m., President Wally Kiehler called everyone into the auditorium and those present briefly introduced themselves.

Show and Tell
Rick Wianecki of Okemos and Frank Geyer showed “Frank-n-Liner” {http://www.recumbents.com/WISIL/wianecki/frank-n-liner/} a 65-pound streamlined bicycle built snugly around Frank. Rick described some of the features of the vehicle and his hybrid moldless construction technique. Frank has already put in a lot of seat time in the bike riding on rollers, breaking in the Rohloff drive. He is scheduled to compete in several speed events this season.

Don Smith showed his Velokraft No-Com very low-racer, and described some of his many travails in assembling and getting it to work.

Garrie Hill of Granville, Ohio brought a Greenspeed SLR, a very low-slung trike with canted wheels. He plans to mount a full fairing.

Bob Krzewinski showed the aftermath of an automobile colliding with his Lightning F-40 from the rear, while underway at typical urban commuting speeds. Rear wheel, fairing and seat frames absorbed substantial impact energy in their deformation. His helmet also did its job. The incident is an unsolved hit-and-run crime, which occurred Nov. 19 of last year near Ypsilanti. We are all grateful that Bob’s injuries were not more serious.

Mike Eliasohn of St. Joseph showed his latest homebuilt, a 40-pound bike he calls SMBIBA (Stop Me Before I Build Again). It is a 15 speed long wheelbase with retro components.

Pat Flinn of Dearborn described the bicycle repair clinic and earn-a-bike programs called Back Alley Bikes, in an area of Detroit that is economically depressed. These programs are successful, based on the number of kids who have access to bikes that would not otherwise, and are only limited by the number of volunteer hours available. The program operates from 5-9 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays. Back Alley Bikes, 3535 Cass Ave., will accept donations of bikes and parts, but more importantly can use more volunteers. If interested, call Pat at 313-581-2131 or e-mail maggieflinn@peoplepc.com or backalleybikes@gmail.com.

Business meeting
The business meeting began at approximately 2:40 with the acceptance of the agenda. Treasurer Bill Frey presented his report covering the calendar year of 2005. It showed that expenses exceeded income by $720, with adequate cash reserves. More than half of the shortfall was due to non-recurring expenses, including an additional donation for transponders and a substantial fee for reincorporation. The treasurer’s report was accepted unanimously.

Special guest
At this point, Brian Beauchamp of the League of Michigan Bicyclists introduced himself, and described some of the issues that the LMB is planning to address this year.

HPRa Racing series report
Rick Wianecki relayed some items from the annual race directors’ meeting, mostly minor changes on forms and in the superstreet class. A full series of events are scheduled. The Indianapolis-Mooresville events are being moved to May, instead of the often-rainy April weekend used in the past. Release and insurance forms can now be downloaded by race directors from the www.recumbents.com/hpra/ site.

Elections
All of the current officers were nominated and reelected unopposed to their current offices. Wally Kiehler, Mike Mowett, Paul Pancella, and Bill Frey will serve another year as president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer respectively. Wally let it be known that he would be happy if this was his last year as our leader. Three candidates were nominated for the two at-large board positions, Mike Eliasohn, Paul Bruneau, and Rick Wianecki. The incumbents, Eliasohn and Bruneau, were re-elected.

Web site/newsletter
There followed a general discussion of our Web presence and newsletter practices. Volunteer labor fell one issue short of the number of newsletters expected before the winter meeting this year, and all the release dates were later than desired. No one else volunteered to take over the Webmaster duties, so we will continue to rely on Paul Bruneau, who sent word through the secretary that he is willing to continue to do his best. For articles or notices which are time sensitive, such items can be posted directly on the main web page, outside of the newsletter but without replacing it. Such items should be sent in good electronic format to Paul Bruneau, who will consult with the president and/or newsletter editor if need be [webmaster note: It is actually better to send things to Wally or Mike first, and then they can approve/edit them and forward them to me].

Waterford 2007
Next, we made plans for our annual race weekend. The 24th annual Michigan HPV Rally will take place June 23-24 at the Waterford Hills raceway. Camping will be available on site Friday and Saturday nights.
The “Michigan Fast 50” which we tried last year was not a huge success. It was decided that the event schedule will revert to 2004-05 custom, as follows:

Saturday, June 23
8 a.m. - Registration, vehicle inspection, practice runs.
Timed race, run twice for a divided field (faster classes first)
Lunch break
Hill climb / coast down (counts as two events).
Urban transportation contest.
1 kilometer time trial
(The latter two events will occur in parallel)
Dinner

Sunday, June 24
8 a.m. - Registration, vehicle inspection, practice runs.
Sprints (flying start through 200 foot timing trap)
Road race, possibly speed segregated.
Awards presentation.

Minor changes are still possible. There was an expressed desire to end as soon as possible on Sunday for those who travel a longer distance from home.

It was moved and seconded to increase the entrance fee, to $30 for one day (either day); $40 for two days, including annual dues. The motion passed. We will try cash prizes this year, with approximately the same budget as used previously. The membership supports the continuation of the “best homebuilt” award for another year as well.

It was noted that this will be the 24th rally and members should start thinking about ways to recognize the 25th such event next year.

Publicity
The officers were authorized to spend up to $50 on advertising in the LMB newsletter.

The meeting adjourned at 3:55 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Paul Pancella, secretary

DON SMITH shows his Velokraft No-Com. "When you get one of these, you have to do a lot of work because they're not very precision built," he said. Among the problems were poor frame alignment and a poorly-fitting crank boom. The frameset costs $4,200 and the bike weighs 24 pounds. "You automatically get fast on one of these," Don said. "I've had it up to 41.4 (mph) on the flat."

RICK WIANECKI talks about the designing and building of Frank-n-Liner, while Frank Geyer shows the riding position. "I'd say 95 percent of the work I did myself," Rick said. When finished, it should weigh 65-70 pounds. The chainring has 72 teeth.

U-M STUDENTS Willie Hatfield (left) of West Bend, Wis., and Dominic Piro of Brighton talk about the U-M human powered submarine project. U-M won the national championships last year in California, over 11 other teams. This year's competition is in June in Washington, D. C. The hull will be the same, but with modifications to the mechanical components. For more, go to www.engin.umich.edu/hps/

STUDENTS CHRIS BROWN of Columbus, Ohio, and Becky Smith of Ann Arbor give an update on the U-M human powered helicopter project. Years in the making, Becky said the first test flight will be, "Hopefully this semester." For more, go to www.umich.ed/~umhph

RICK WIANECKI puts on the top half of Frank-N-Liner, with Frank Geyer inside. The windshield hasn't been made yet. Fortunately, Frank isn't claustrophobic, because he was "in the dark" for a few minutes, which Rick kept talking.

WALLY KIEHLER lays on Garrie Hill's Greenspeed SLR (Super Low Racer) while Garrie, seated in the audience, talks about it. It has about 1 inch of ground clearance and weighs just under 30 pounds. "Because its center of mass is so low, you can scream around corners," Garrie said. To get more heel clearance, he's planning to switch from 153mm cranks to 125 mm and install slightly larger diameter tires. Garrie also plans to build a body for the SLR.

BOB KRZEWINSKI (right) talks about the hit-and-run accident in November that trashed his Lightning F-40 and put him out of commission for a few months. (Note the cast on his left arm.) He said he hopes to return to work in March, and will replace the bike. He said the fairing protected him from more serious injuries, as did his helmet. He said about 1 inch of his helmet was ground off in the crash; without it, that would have been his head ground off. Wally Kiehler is the holder.

FOR SALE by Mike Eliasohn. Homebuilt, but professionally welded, powdercoated and upholstered. 65 inch wheelbase, 40 pounds, 15 speeds, new wheels and tires (700x25c rear, 16x1-3/8 front. Fits riders up to about 5'9". Asking $400 plus shipping. Will deliver all/part way, depending on distance. meliasohn@heraldpalladium.com or call 269-982-4058.

Newsletter Submissions
Submissions for the MHPVA newsletter can be e-mailed to editor Mike Eliasohn at editor@mhpva.org. If what you have is on paper, mail it to him at 1016 Morrison Ave., Apt. 2; St. Joseph MI 49085-1429.

If you have regular photos, mail those to Mike. If you have digital photos, e-mail those to our Webmaster, Paul Bruneau, at webmaster@mhpva.org, but let Mike know what you sent to Paul.

Mike will mail a paper copy of the electronic newsletter to members who don't have e-mail. So if you are in that category, and somehow read this anyway, write him or call him at (269) 982-4058.