Information about the 36th annual Michigan Human Powered Vehicle Rally, Aug. 21-22, 2021, is the next entry down.
In posting the information on this blog about each year’s upcoming Michigan Human Powered Vehicle Rally, I include this sentence:
Even if you don’t want to compete, come and see some unusual and very fast cycles.
If you come to this year’s rally, Aug. 21-22 – if all goes as planned – you will see two very interesting front-wheel-drive recumbents, with the pedal cranks and front wheel sharing a common axle.
The creator, Ronald Thompson, and his wife, Peggy, will be coming with his creations all the way from Bel Air, Maryland, and plan to be there from Friday afternoon until Sunday, “As much to meet the people and talk bikes as for the racing,” he said in his email to me.
At my request, he wrote the following, with some editing by me, and sent me the photos.
– Mike Eliasohn
My current bikes are of a “road tour” disposition, so I am not optimistic about competing against the pure racers. I don’t think I can get my “road race” configuration done by August.
Yes, I was at the Michigan HPV Rally, but without a bike, and then rode at the Chicago velodrome event maybe the next year (editor: he was at the HPV races in Northbrook, Ill., in 2016) and saw my photos posted from that event.
Finally, I expect to be on the Laidback Bike Report on 11 July. Gary Solomon has asked, and I’ve agreed to provide a pretty good overview of my bikes. Lots of photos and short video and concluding with a short new historical perspective – Included as I can’t help believing this is a historic change in bike capability. Hoping people will enjoy it.
I have attached an article about the “Prototype 2” version of my bike that I wrote, mostly for my own documentation, back in 2016. It describes the bike I rode in Chicago (Northbrook). UK bicycle historian and author Tony Hadland published it on his blog (hadland.wordpress.com), with introductory remarks as below.
Ron Thompson’s G4 Recumbent Bicycle
Posted on 05/05/2021 by Tony Hadland
Ron Thompson, based in Maryland, USA, has created a recumbent bicycle concept which he calls the G4. The reason for this name is explained in the article he has written about his second prototype, P2. Prototypes P3, P4 and P5 have since followed, and development continues.
Ron and his wife have ridden the prototypes more than 20,000 miles. He thinks many people would enjoy them – both current riders and those not comfortable with conventional upright bikes. He is now looking for ways to make the G4 bike configuration available. A US patent based on the P3 configuration is pending. The focus of the patent is effective input of supplemental hand power, a matter which in the past has been contentious.
You can download Ron’s article in the PDF file “g4-bike” below. He would welcome your comments and questions, so his email address is at the end of the article.
https://hadland.wordpress.com/2021/05/05/ron-thompsons-g4-recumbent-bicycle/
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