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Original mechanical drawing of Charles Mochet's Velocar supine recumbent bicycle, 1933. Francis Faure
broke the world hour record on this bicycle going 45.055 km, July 7, 1933, Parc des Princes, Paris.
If anyone were alive today who rode early 1930 s when Frenchman Charles of the details. Actually this story hasn't
the Starley Brothers' Rover Safety cycle in Mochet shook the conservative, been published in the United States for
1884/85, they could climb on today's traditional bicycling establishment with more than 50 years.
bikes and pedal away without a second his sensational Velocar.
thought. They could recognize nearly I talked at length to Georges Mochet,
every part of a modem bike except the seat The Velocar was a sleek recumbent the son of Charles, and he gave me copies
stay which was added about 1889 to bicycle, and when raced by several pro- of original documents as well as many of
complete the familiar diamond frame. fessionals of the day, it proved to be much the photos that accompany this article.
Why? Everything else in this turbulent faster than a standard bicycle. The reason Georges lived through this whole era,
world has changed beyond recognition, was pure and simple - aerodynamics. But visited the bicycle tracks of Europe, and
clothing, architecture, the automobile, the I'm getting ahead of my story, let's start at ran his father's business after Charles
airplane -- why not the bicycle? The the beginning. I'm sure the readers of Mochet's death in 1934. His story is an
answer lies in a drama that unfolded in the Cycling Science will want to know all important part of bicycling history,
ighter weight and ease of manufactur- return direction is aided by the return
spring "S", and the return stroke deceler- Fortunately, the mechanism's quick-
ng. Overall vehicle weight will be
return stroke and the excellent aerody-
tround 15 to 18 kilograms (35 to 40 ates as the rider's legs lift and compress.
Thus, kinetic energy is naturally con- namics of the sculling position help to
)ounds) with ball or needle bearings at
served in both directions. offset this effect. Perhaps a row bike
ll pivots.
More usable energy may be obtained would be a perfect place to implement a
Laterally balancing the drive mecha-
short-term energy accumulator or
lism gives a smooth, non-binding motion through the use of spring biasing. With
"massless flywheel" such as described by
even while pushing with one foot. In ad- biasing, energy can be stored from the
return stroke to be added to the drive John S. Allen in the Fall/Winter 91-92
lition, the downward angle of force from
issue of Human Power.
he rider's legs on the footrest assembly stroke. I still experiment with it, but
through trial and error, I soon discovered
Handling
that the return stroke (bench-press and
For obvious reasons, I am trying to
stomach-curl motion) is a poor exercise
for driving a H.P.V. Power contribution, perfect the bike's handling first, rather
than concentrating on speed. The steer-
overall, is very small. For anyone dis-
ing system is another departure from the
puting this, try lying on your back and
norm, but it is actually very simple and
bench pressing even the weight of your
empty hands for one hour. Control of the handling feels quite natural. The handle-
vehicle also suffers when alternating be- bars are mounted on a "floating" steering
head, supported by the articulated paral-
tween pulling and pushing hard on the
bars. For distance riding, I prefer just the lelogram linkage as shown. This posi-
return spring shown, to lightly bias the tions the handlebars at a more operable
mechanism in the return direction. It angle to the operator throughout the
keeps things simple, and it gives me a stroke. The only controlling link to the
Figure 2 Space frame and mechanism
quicker return through this low-power or front wheel is through flexible sleeved
counters the upward angle of force from cables. I think most people would expec
no-power stroke. (This quick return
the lever arms. All of this greatly re- the steering to be mushy due to cable-
duces friction in the linear motion of the would not be possible with Harrison's
hypothetical forced rowing machine, nor sleeve compression but the heavy-gauge
footrests and increases the overall me- motorcycle control cables that I use give
chanical efficiency of the system. would the ability to coast or choose
a very solid feel. The system is light-
The design utilizes all available en- stroke length.) Power rowing combines
weight and offers many new possibilities
ergy in the power stroke and is aided by the best of forced and free-rowing forms.
the deflection of the primary drive chain Qncara/ M&aclOIct -