[python] Re: New python from Finland
- From: Rhisiart Gwilym <Rhisiart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: python@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:45:18 +0100
Congratulation, Pekka. Welcome to the Bruised Python-Learners club!
To help you learn quicker, and to be able to ride even on roads, Erik
Wannee's 'Training Trike Back End' is a key idea. See here:
http://www.wannee.nl/hpv/oefentri/index.htm
Dirk Bonne told me about it, and being too far from Erik's place in
Apeldoorn, Netherlands, to hire his trainer, I just made a quick
copy. This has absolutely TRANSFORMED my riding. Before, even after
weeks of trying, I could go scarcely ten metres on my bike-rigged
Python before I fell over. Now, I'm doing twenty-kilometer rides
easily, including stretches on roads with motor traffic. And I could
ride the training trike immediately, the very first time that I sat
on it.
I've just turned 70, so my sense of balance isn't as good as it was.
But still, with this rig, the Python riding is easy. And the best is
that I can watch myself catching the trick of balancing the front and
middle parts -- just like the bike rig -- and internalising the
learned reflexes steadily. By now I can ride along for a lot more
than ten metres, with my hands just poised loosely round the
grab-bars, but actually steering and balancing exactly as if I were
on a Python bike.
Note that, though Erik's page about his training-trike back end is in
Nederlandse, the pictures really make it all quite clear. All you
really need to grasp is that the rectangular frame which holds the
two back wheels is rigid, and stays upright at all times, and the two
rearward grab handles welded to that rectangular frame also stay
solidly on the ground, and upright at all times. But the whole of the
rest of the rig leans and balances just like a bike. As Erik says,
you can't really feel the difference. But there are always those two
solid, unyielding grab bars to rebalance yourself instantly, as soon
as you feel yourself losing it. Absolutely the key to quick, easy
learning. You can just make out the fore-and-aft, horizontal-axis
leaning pivots that link the back end to the rest of the cycle, on
the first photo on Erik's web-page. That's the key!
I have a friend who runs a one-man bike sales, repair and recycling
shop, from his canal-boat home. He's watched me crawling slowly
forward with the building of my Python bike, and then the long,
not-very-successful slog of trying to learn to ride it. So he was
pretty sceptical about the whole Python idea. But the first moment
that he sat on my trike rig, pedalled away, felt the beautiful soft,
easy ride of the Mages DIY suspension system, and that extraordinary
way that the Python steers and handles, he was completely converted.
So much so that he's now offering to build bespoke Pythons for anyone
who asks me where they can get one. Graham is a really good engineer
and general fabricator, with half a lifetime solidly in bikes as a
professional, so I know that his Pythons will be really good quality
cycles.
We both think that the Training-Trike version is such a good rig in
its own right that I'm tempted to just stay with it, as-is; and
Graham also is asking me why I'd want to go back to the bike rig when
I've got a trike as sweet and easy-ride as this one. I suppose I just
want to be able to ride the original, pure Mages creation too. But
I'm very tempted to settle mainly on the trike. It's such a great
ride that I just can't get enough time on it. Got to try them both
first though, before I can decide.
Good luck with your learning Pekka, whichever way you try it.
Python's rule, OK!
Hwyl fawr, RhG
Hello pythonists,
This project has been one of the best succeeded what i've been done,
got "influence" in May, gathering bike parts from local junkyard and
steel tubes came from friend's garage. In June I was lucky to have a
place where I was able to weld everything together.
In July I finished the frame in my backyard and started to learning
how to ride the damn thing! One hour per day it took 15 hours to
convince myself that I may be able to ride somewhere else than on
the empty car park only!
From now on I am counting kilometres, not hours. The Python has cost
next to nothing, if we are not counting a beer case to the welding
place's owners, and that's not much! Everybody just keep saying that
"I want to see if you are ever able to ride that thing!"
Next thing I'm going to do is modificating the seat, the fabric is
not giving enough support to my lower back and because of my bad
back, it's got to be changed.
A little bit more fine tuning and welding and then some Hammerite
black paint, and then... who knows? :D
Pekka
============================================================
This is the Python Mailinglist
//www.freelists.org/list/python
Listmaster: Jürgen Mages jmages@xxxxxx
To unsubscribe send an empty mail to
python-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field.
============================================================
Other related posts:
