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I would like to thank everyone who came to the Rally, in spite of the torrential rains - you made the event happen!
Up until a few weeks before the Rally I was somewhat concerned that I wouldn't have enough turnout to cover the cost of the event, but by the day of the event I had almost broken even and was encouraged by number of contacts by people expressing interest in the event.
The day before the rally, heavy rain was forecast for the Friday night before the event and all day Saturday, so I emailed all of the people who had registered to let them know we were still on (and ask that they bring appropriate clothing) and posted a rain advisory on the rally page of the website.
On Friday the 7th, after strapping the Quest to the Roof of my Corolla Wagon, I headed out bound for Hatfield at about 1:30PM. Most of the ride there was pretty uneventful, although it did start spitting rain when I was still about 45 minutes to an hour away from Hatfield. I just hoped that it would hold off until I could get my tent set up and my gear stowed inside. I had printed off a Yahoo map that my contact at the Lions club had set up, which (although it was wrong in a couple spots) finally led me to the Lions Club Pavillion. At shortly after 5PM I turned onto Billings way next to the Hatfield Town Hall and drove down a long driveway past a school building, over a couple of speed bumps and past a big barn that had a sign on it indicating that it was an agricultural museum. As I drove past the museum, I saw the big open sided metal roofed pavillion and realized that I was the only person there! I quickly started to set up my tent, a 15+ year old green Eureka Timberline that I had bought while I was still in high school- deciding to put it in plain view so that if anyone else showed up, they would have a hint that they were in the right place.
Before I was even through setting up the tent, I saw a white van at the end of the long driveway, slowly driving towards me. They pulled up and the driver and passenger climbed out and introduced themselves as David Shank and his girlfriend Sharon. David and I had emailed back and forth in the months before the rally, since he had ordered a Flevobike Versatile velomobile and we had been talking about his plans for picking it up. He had just taken delivery of it after traveling to the Netherlands, picking it up at Ligfietsshop Tempelman and pedaling it around the countryside for a couple of weeks before having it shipped back home to western New York. When it arrived, he experienced a bit of a SNAFU and was unable to locate exactly where in his area it had been shipped to for three days! But he finally did locate it and since then had used it on his (approx.) 25 mile commute several times.
It was starting to drizzle, so after introductions and talking for a couple minutes, we broke off to finish setting up. While David and Sharon were finishing with their tent, I pedaled off in the Quest to put up a couple of signs that I had printed up for the Rally at the end of the Road. Driving into town, I had seen a convenience store a little way up the road so I decided to pedal over to pick up some food there. When I pulled up in the Quest, the kid who was working outside called inside to his co-worker who came out and asked what it was. He told her "it's a velomobile" and I thought he had read my web address on the machine, but a moment later he told me that I had been in the paper that day. Cool! Unfortunately they were sold out of the paper, though. He thought the velomobiles were pretty neat and told me has going to college for engineering the next year and planned to join their ultra-efficient vehicle team - I believe he said that they were ICE powered, though .
After purchasing a couple of food items, I headed back to the Pavillion into the increasing rain. By the time I got there, David and Sharon had finished putting up their tent, and were leaning against the van in the rain waiting for me. When I found out they had not yet eaten dinner either, we quickly decided to go out, driving in their rental van, with me sitting in the back next to the Versatile (a mighty fine looking blue/burgundy rig with a paint job that changes color depending on the angle you look at it).
We had a nice dinner (thanks Dave!) at a local place, and talked about various things - velomobiles, peak oil, the state of the union and the planet and so on.
When we got back after dinner, we found the light panel for the pavillion, turned on some lights and sat at a couple of the picnic tables to talk some more. Sharon was falling asleep, so she decided to turn in, but David and I stayed up for awhile longer, talking for some time about David's trip to the Netherlands - as it turned out he had met and had help from a number of the same people that I had gotten to know in my travels over there - Erik Wannee and his wife Saskia, Frans Van Schoot and his family, and of course the folks at Velomobiel.nl and Ligfietsshop Tempelman. He told me that the Netherlands HPV club (NVHPV) has set up a kind of host system so that if you want to travel around and access theNVHPV website, you can contact people listed on a website based map to see if they might be able to put you up overnight. It was getting late, so I went to turn in for the night, myself. Shortly after getting undressed in my tent and climbing into my sleeping bag, another vehicle pulled up, so after a few minutes I got dressed again and went to see who it was - and if it was someone for the Rally to let them know they were in the right place. Dave had come back out as well and the newcomer turned out to be Steve Mosca from NJ with his Go-one. We stood around and talked and joked for awhile before I finally climbed back into the tent for the night. As you might expect with heavy rain and gusting winds I didn't sleep well for the first couple of hours, concerned that the tent would blow down. It didn't though, and I finally did get to sleep.
The next morning, I got up fairly earlyand put up a few more signs for the Rally along the road to help people find it. Then I returned to the pavillion to have some breakfast. It was raining quite heavily and it made me very glad that I had rented the pavillion for the day. Steve had already left to go test out the Go-One in the rain and see if he would ride with or without the canopy. He got back after a few minutes and shortly afterwards a Civic pulling a trailer that I recognized as being driven by Johannes Groessbrink pulled up. The ride was scheduled to start at 10:00 and by the time 9:45 rolled around, about 10 people had showed up intending to ride, along with a couple of other people who were interested in the goings on.
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My contact with the Lions club had indicated that he'd be willing to help us out by taking orders for lunch before we set out on the ride, but I hadn't seen him yet that morning. I was about to go with plan B- I would take the orders and turn back early to get the food - when Peter Lindenauer and Evan Benjamin who lived locally suggested an alternate plan. We would change our route to cross the Connecticut River and pedal a more scenic route to an old Mill that had been converted to a used book store with a small restaurant for lunch. After examining the map, I explained the alternate plan to the group and it was quickly decided that we'd head for the Mill. One of the people who had just arrived warned us that when he was coming into town, they missed the turn to the Pavillion, and when they turned around and came back, a huge tree had just come down accross the road and was blocking their path! I figured that if the tree hadn't yet been cleared off the road, this would just demonstrate another advantage to HPV's - try lifting a thousand pound car, or even a motorcycle over a downed tree across the road! :-)
We headed out into the rain at 10:15 with Peter and his friend, both on uprights, leading the group (thanks guys!). As it turned out, the tree had already been cleared off, although we passed the broken off stump and pieces of splintered wood scattered all over the roadway. For the most part the ride traveled on quiet country roads, past beautiful farmland.
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We did have to get on a busier road to cross the river, though, and after making a left at the light on the other side, we all pulled over for a photo op (although I don't know if you could really call it an opportunity in the pouring rain) with a photographer from the Hampshire Gazette. Peter also pointed out a huge sycamore tree just down the road that he said was the oldest tree in the area. After a few minutes we got back under way, and soon came to a rushing waterfall off to the side of the road which must have been much more exciting than usual with all of the addtional water it was getting. The photographer with the Hampshire Gazette popped up out of nowhere, or so it seemed, and started taking pictures again - so I decided to climb out and get a couple myself.
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After another 5 miles or so, we had a short uphill and finally arrived at the Mill. It had a strong sense of history about it, and was perched right on the edge of the riverbank overlooking a waterfall, with some sort of ruined wooden structure out in the middle of it.
Lunch was nice, although the girl behind the counter seemed less than pleased with all the wet money she was getting. Many of us chose to get hot Cocoa and I also took the opportunity to dry off the lense of my camera. I went back to the Quest for something and passed a little girl who was carrying a chocolate Lab puppy and her Mom - made me nostalgic for my chocolate (now gone on to puppy heaven) so I just had to snap a picture.
 Lunch at the old Mill |
 Overlooking the River |
 Lunch Puppy |
It was starting to get late and we had to get back in time for the Expo in the afternoon, so we decided to head straight back rather than going north and looping back on the other side of the river. The rain continued unabated, but everyone was in good spirits and we headed back the same way that we had come, pausing when we came to the huge sycamore.
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Finally we made the turn into the drive leading to the Pavillion and as I pedaled past the agricultural museum and the Pavillion came into view I was shocked to see that the parking lot was full! When we had left there were only a handful of cars there. I pedaled up and underneath the shelter of the roof, and before I could climb out of the Quest, my glasses promptly fogged up completely. I could make out that there were large numbers of people milling around, though, and lots of HPV's that hadn't been there when we left! Once I had climbed out and wiped off my glasses, I was pleased to see that many people were excitedly talking with each other and examining the various cycles that were there.
After some time, I finally collected my thoughts and paperwork. To get peoples attention I let out a loud whistle and was embarassed to see that half of the people there jumped about a foot into the air, so I quickly apologized. It worked, though, and I explained what was going on and that everyone interested would give short presentations on their personal machines. I also was hoping to get a head count when people gave their registrations, but people were coming and going during the course of the afternoon, and I soon realized it was hopeless. I would estimate that in total there were about 50-60 people there, though.
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At one point, David Gordon Wilson, (one of the Fathers of the HPV movement in America) came up and introduced himself- Wow! I was also very happy to see that the newest generation of HPV'ers was there to get some ideas - students from the HPV team at the University of CT, Hartford. Among others, I also got to talk briefly with a fellow from Connecticut who is hoping to start up a business manufacturing an aluminum trike called the Trimakazi that shares some features with the Windcheetah (but is also different in some important ways). I didn't get to try it, but the rubber damped seat mount system looked interesting.
 David Wilson and family with Reg Rodaro |
 Trimakazi |
Towards the end of the afternoon, I met a couple that also was from the area, John Fabel and Mary Kraus. Johannes and I had planned to camp out that night as well, but upon inspecting my tent I found that my sleeping back was completely soaked. As it happened, Mary and John lived at a co-housing community in Northampton and generously invited us to sleep in the common building there. I was very interested in learning about co-housing first hand, having read about it and was also not looking forward to spending the night in a saturated sleeping bag, so I greatfully accepted. For about 15 or twenty minutes, I ran around trying to get everything situated for the evening, breaking down my tent, locking the Quest in the utility room and throwing the rest of my stuff in the car. Then a group of us headed out to a local Japanese restaurant suggested by John and Mary for a very enjoyable meal with great conversation and pleasant food.
As an aside - Co-housing, also known as Intentional neighborhood is a very interesting concept, which could be a good strategy for creating more sustainable living situations. Legally I believe they are considered condominiums, so each family owns their own house, but there are grounds held in common. Often, attention is paid to making the houses as efficient as possible and the houses are usually clustered on part of the property surrounding a common house with the rest of the property kept as common open space. Cars are usually relegated to the periphery. One of the major purposes of the whole concept is to foster a strong sense of neighborhood and social interaction, and usually several group meals a week are held in the common house.
After the meal, the group broke up and went their separate ways, with Mary riding in Johannes' car, and me riding with John in his. When we got back to their place, John and Mary showed us around the Common building and we put my sleeping bag in the big industrial dryer that they had there. Then they invited us back to their place for some tea and we sat around for a few minutes talking, when the phone rang. It was their neighbors, inviting us over for some fresh pumpkin pie! So we walked a few doors down and got some nice pie to go with our tea. I could tell that Johannes was pretty tired, and in fact he had earlier mentioned that he left very early in that morning, so we stayed a little while and then thanked our hosts and bid them good night.
Sleeping on a couch with the sound of the rain beating on the roof was considerably more pleasant than the alternative (Thanks very much John, Mary, and Pioneer Valley Cohousing!!), and when we woke up in the morning, the rain had stopped. While we were packing up to go, Mary came into the common house where she said that she intended to spend much of the day making soup stock. She offered to give us a brief look around, and so we spent 15 minutes or so walking over to the co-housers shop past the gardens and looking around.
Johannes and I then went back to the Pavillion and got everything packed up and straightened out (Thanks Johannes). Then we went out and got some breakfast before saying goodbye and heading our separate ways on I-91.
Several people local to Hatfield have indicated that they would help me out if I do it again in that area next year. In fact, John and Mary suggested that it be held at a pavillion about a half mile from their place. I had been thinking that I would hold next years NE HPV Rally up in my neck of the woods, but I now think that it might make sense to hold one in the Spring up here in Maine, and one in the Fall down Northampton way. If you have any thoughts about this plan let me know (my email adress is in the header above). Another fellow from Mass, Geoff Adams, has indicated interest in starting an series of HPV rides through the region. If you have any thoughts, such as being interested in leading such a ride, feel free to email he or myself.
Hope to see you this Spring or Fall at the next one!
(Please let me know if you attended and would like your name, email address, links, etc. listed.)
Many thanks to all who attended, you made the event happen!
Present for the ride and Expo
(those who rode in tropical storm Tammy deserve extra credit!)
For Photo'staken by Jeff Grippe of New York: Click Here
For Photo's taken by Marc Rosenbaum of NH Click Here
The 2004 New England Velomobile Rally was a blast (Click here to read my account of the event).
Please join us for the 2005 New England Human Powered Vehicle Rally as we bring northeastern human powered vehicle enthusiasts together to celebrate our machines as fun, health promoting, environmentally conscious and sustainable transportation.
Event Date: Saturday, October 8, 2005
Event Location: The Lion's Club Facility located on Billings way in Hatfield, Massachusetts. FOR DIRECTIONS - CLICK HERE
We're on, rain or Shine
It looks like we will be getting rain this Friday night and into Saturday for the New England HPV Rally. Please make sure you have gear suitable for the conditions. For the velomobilists, it'll be a chance to put your vehicles through their paces. For unfaired riders, please bring warm weatherproof gear. An extra change of dry clothing is also a good idea
The Expo event in the afternoon will take place at the Hatfield Lions Club Pavillion, which is a large, metal roofed structure - so we should be well sheltered for that portion of the day.
Also, I just got in copies of the 50 page booklet "So You Want to Build an HPV" that I will availble at the Rally for $17.00 Each"
All HPV's are welcome. Any riding position, any number of wheels (of any size) in any configuration - the only real requirement is that your vehicle is at least partially human powered.
This week is usually peak fall foliage season - so riding in the Pioneer valley among the blazing fall colors should be awesome!
I will be there with my Quest velomobile.
Other Human Powered vehicles likely to be at the Rally:
John Tetz has indicated that he will be there with his new Zotefoam faired trike. He has a new technique for working with Zotefoam - soon to be posted on the web- that should be suited to making high quality fairings on a homebuilder scale.
Reg Rodaro will be there with his Stormy Weather Velomobile.
A Mango Velomobile
A Go-One velomobile
Several Reynolds Weld Lab machines
A Flevobike Versatile Velomobile.
Assorted recumbent trikes - both factory and homebuilt
Various power assists
Various Easyracers bikes and homebuilt clones
Other recumbent bikes
upright bikes
This years event will be similar to the rally in Northampton last year, and will consist of an approximately 30 mile group ride in the morning (departing at 10:00 AM), followed by an expo. event in the afternoon at 1:30 after lunch. If you plan only to attend the expo and haven't pre-registered, please arrive by 1:00 to allow enought time prior to the start of the Expo. Participants are encouraged to give a brief 'show and tell' presentation on their favorite rig during the expo event.
On-site Camping will be available the night of Friday, Oct 7, and Saturday, Oct 8, and is included with registration.
Male and female bathroom facilities (toilets and sinks, but no showers) with electrical power are located on-site, however, no RV type hookups are available at the facility. The pavilion is a large metal buiding with picnic tables on a concrete floor. A barbeque grill is available.
For those that opt to camp out Saturday night, we will need to be out by 8:00 AM Sunday morning to make room for the next event.
I haven't called for rates, availability, etc, so I can't speak personally for these, but my contact in the Hatfield Area, Matt Sokop of the Hatfield Lions club has also provided me with the following information on area accommodations:
Matt Wrote:
The Deerfield Inn in Old Deerfield is very nice, as is the Hotel Northampton. The Deerfield in is located in the center of Old Deerfield and is on the route that I gave you. The Hotel Northampton is as very nice and is in the center of Northampton. The Inn at Northampton is also nice and has an indoor pool and possibly an outdoor pool. It is located just south of the center of town on route 5 by exist 18 off of route 91. There are a lot of shops and restaurants in downtown Northampton which add to the fun of staying there. For general information on where to stay, www.noho.com has more information. Also www.shelburnefalls.com has information for the Shellburne Falls area. There is also a Red Roof Inn at exit 24 off of route 91 in South Deerfield. As you head towards Amherst and Hadley from Northampton there are a variety of hotels and motels available .
The Hatfield Lion's club will have food available for purchase during the day on Oct. 8. Proceeds from food sales will go to the Lion's club and the local causes and charities that they support, including providing funding to local people with disabilities, particularly the deaf and blind.
Registration proceeds will go to supporting the Wildfire HPV velomobile project.
Registration for the AM ride and the expo in the afternoon is $25.00 before September 1. After September 1, registration goes up to $35.00 If you are interested in attending only in the expo portion of the event, registration will be $10.00 right up until the day of the event.
Registration is free for kids under 12.
Registration before the ride will take place from 8:45AM-9:45AM. If you choose to 'pay at the door', before the expo, please catch me during lunch between (approximately)12:30-1:30.
T-shirt update (9-6-05): T-shirts will not be printed this year due to insufficient orders. T-shirt money for those who have ordered them will be refunded at the rally. If you have ordered a T-shirt and aren't at the rally to recieve your T-shirt money back, I will mail your refund to you after the event.
Disclaimer:Please note that participation in this event is at your own risk and indicates that you understand that operating an HPV on the road and camping out in the open have inherent risks. The Insurance for the event requires that participants sign a liability waiver. I will have these available at the event.
T-shirt and registration payment can be made by paypal (payable to recumbo@gwi.net), or please send check or money order to me at:
Ethan Davis
61 Newtown Rd.
Biddeford, ME 04005
When registering, please be sure to provide your name, address, telephone # and/or email address, and size and quantity of T-shirts ordered.
Please feel free to Email me with any questions or suggestions.
Thanks and hope to see you there!