The elderly senior engineer said it could not, should not, be built, 17 Mos ago. And maybe he was right. But my blood boils with such naysayers. And I have defied these my entire adult life. That vehicle shouldn't be built, it defies the laws of physics, the engineer said 17 months ago. Khanh Dam's Sol has just arrived on the West Coast. Maybe I'm cheating in declaring Victory two days early but that's what I'm doing. It is too dangerous, the engineer said. Dangerous to whom? The pickup trucks or semis? I wouldn't make a dent. Too dangerous to the rider? Half a dozen times on a traditional bicycle, I would have been dead. So inconsiderate. No, I am extremely considerate, piercing lights front and back out of courtesy to drivers, carefully choosing my route and time of travel to avoid interfering with others, so that they would not be surprised. Pulling off every 0.2 mile if necessary to avoid people being behind and almost never that's the case. 10 honks of encouragement, maybe fifty, for every honk of anger. And I suppose this 70 year old stage 4 cancer survivor has defied the laws of physics as well. Is any of this important? I don't know. I just think when we're called to do something constructive we should not give up prematurely. Certainly not to be discouraged by the pitiful naysayers. And certainly not to do it to spite them, they are so pitiful, so not worth the effort. But not to be discouraged. Oh, and well over 99% of this journey was done on renewable energy, the solar array. And traveling across the country was never the mission. Attempting to stir the occasional Soul that still has any life left in it, with the example and the words of the man Jesus about how we might live as brothers and sisters to one another, that was and Remains the goal. And probably thousands of souls have been stirred by what their eyes saw and occasionally by the conversation they initiated in a parking lot or on the side of a road when they asked me to stop. Pitiful on my part, several Advanced degrees, lifelong learning and expertise. But better than anything else I can think to do. And joyful for me. Making otherwise unbearable life, bearable for me, this hell that we have created for our children and grandchildren. PS. In four years, just over 45,000 miles, today was the best day of cycling ever. Millennium Falcon, move over.
5.09.2022
3.26.2022
Cycling. This may be definitive.
Four years to arrive here? SMH.
- Roll through the endpoints, way way way up towards the pelvis, and directly opposite that, out toward the front of the vehicle.
- Roll through the nearest and farthest in such a way as to totally sabotage, constructive sabotage, any attempt at grabbing, leverage, poking, thrusting.... Savor, treasure, every millimeter up toward the top of the cycle has the most pure, most sustainable, least two struck this. It works.
- .5 in femur stumps.
- Roll through in such a way as to sabotage any sort of grabbing.
- https://photos.app.goo.gl/rm7W36RD3ZEBMHqRA
3.10.2022
3/12 update. Cycling video log. I've been making an ass of me for 4 years? SMH.
- 170 W sustained for 2 hours today was easier than 100w sustained a week ago.
- Sucking your belly to create added room, James and focus on your lower lower spine as the place to push off from 10 until 2.
- Think push-ups.
- Think reaching out from behind 10.
- Push it out, reach out, move out, from 10 at the lower spine as low as one in from the base.
- Savor The Impossible incredible power at half an inch from the base of the spine seated fairly squarely against the back.
- The perineum is the crank axle, the three in femur stump the crank arm.
- Press the point at 2 in on the femur stump forward with between 10 and 40 lb of pressure, from 10 until 2, repeat.
- That's it. It's heaven.
- Gently wind things in close. In a deadlift you pick up the pot close to your chest. You climb a rope right against your body. You wrestle your opponent really close in. Same with this cycling.
- The first 3 in of your femur is a mirror image of the pedal crank arm.
- To maintain the close tight relationship between your femur and your torso, accelerate, or sometimes decelerate gently, your velocity, Cadence.
- If you ask it, your body knows that there is only one part of the body that can possibly power into the pedal crankshaft, the lower Torso and first 3 in inches of the thigh. The extremities of the leg are critically important linkages, but no more than that.
- Luke, wage the 3-inch demer stuff with the Torso. You have nothing else. You need nothing else.avoid distractions, Temptations, get everything else out of the way of the femur stump let them do their job, keep them coiled up close to the b e l l y. A slight lingering there give it reality and position to the Torso.
- Monumental importance. Awareness of the entire femur stuff awareness of the entire crank arm but ribbon is Pocus on up, I'll point the third up on East. A permanent relationship keeping track of that is not feasible or necessary. Focus on the points and drive the point on the femur stump forward it will understand its doing so is pushing the corresponding point on the track star further forward. Linear it can handle, curbing it cannot.
3.02.2022
I feel a very very deep connection, identification, reverence and affection for this fellow that mauled my finger yesterday, and would....
I feel a very very deep connection, identification, reverence and affection for this fellow that mauled my finger yesterday, and would have gladly killed me along with his three companions. He looked like this. There was no malice evident on his face whatsoever. There was Devotion to duty, Devotion to what he had been taught was the right and Noble thing to do. It was clear he would joyfully pay whatever personal price was required to fulfill his mission. He was exhausted running alongside this vehicle for miles. Many times I bashed him in the face with a heavy coffee mug before it fell out of my hands. It didn't faze him in the least. He had a mission to do. Any more than his mauling my finger phased me. I have a mission to complete. From my rearview mirror I think the car that saved me, the truck, that peeled them off the side of my vehicle rather than doing a head-on with me, I heard a thud and I think one of these dogs was hit and I think I saw it lying on the side of the road and only three of them running away. I hope it was this fella. He's been so tortured, may he rest in peace. Respect, cousin.💚💚💚
2.28.2022
Cycling. I think we've got it.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/5KNShyhx5XvymEgZA
- The running, fluid, unrestricted pelvis, lower back, is everything.
- Running in place in water suspended mid-chest
- The tube containing the water is pointed from the pelvis to the crankshaft, and the height is the same height as the thigh.
- The feet have a mild sense that they are running in sticky mud at the bottom.
- The wonderful size like to get tents on the top, they need to relax, they need to be totally relaxed and fluid. It works.
- Jogging, loping in place in thin sticky mud
- The fluid moving pelvis lower back sides are everything.
- Consciously placed and maintained center of gravity and radius of center of gravity.
- Continual awareness of the line between the top of the pelvis and the crankshaft, maybe an inch or two above the crankshaft.
- Slightly slouched lower back as necessary to achieve alignment of the narrow tube holding the fluid between the pelvis and the top of the crank.
- When resistance increases imagining that increased viscosity is the challenge for the body.
- Increasing velocity, Cadence, is another way to increase energy contribution.
2.27.2022
Am I a Christian? What in the hell does that word even mean? Am I of....
2.26.2022
I too often forget. This Mission belongs to all that have put a piece of their soul into it, in that proportion. Some gigantic, some tiny, if it's soul, they are owners. Countless now.
2.24.2022
25 degrees this morning at the truck stop, here's ten dollars, thank you for what you're doing in the cold.
A young man, certainly not of means in this West Texas desert Outpost. The prior night it was $35, a trucker, a farmer by the looks of him, or Rancher. So wistful, so deep in his prayerful wondering over what this vehicle and this Mission represent. Drawn by the iconography of Jesus, none make such contributions thinking that this is even a tiny bit dogmatic. Never, never, never, never do we ask. During any month there are probably four or five encounters like this and about $150 in funds that are desperately needed. We're just barely solvent with my paltry slightly above poverty level Social Security funding us. And the gigantic contributions of the creators of these trailers. There have been, there are, souls stirred by this mission. Each one a sacred treasure.
Cycling. Oh, we are dancing partners, and I thrust from the seat back, swing your partner...
- Dancing partners with me in the lead.
- Entirely an operation of the back just like a deadlift standing, that's where the strength is, unless one wants to blow out the knees. Not necessary.
- Head back.
- Pressing the back, the shoulders, into the seat, acts like a throttle, informing the outgoing thigh the power that it has to deliver.
- Two dance Partners, not one, because of the constantly training changing lateral Horizon of the vehicle, this t r i k e.
- James must find a dance each moment, each segment, each day, that is supposed to his liking and also acceptable to his partner. It can be done.
- A shallow, flat, modified w continues to emerge when things are going well.
- There may be a place for slow cadence in finding the relationship but it is also necessary to go to High Cadence to find the spinning nature of it.
- 85% of the energy is from the outgoing thigh No More Than Three in thigh stump, the role of the indrawing thigh to position in height for the next outgoing thrust.
2.22.2022
Cycling. I think I just woke up [literally] to what's been killing me with this vehicle?
- A conventional bicycle is a Stern Taskmaster, if you don't get it rolling and keep it rolling you fall off. On a recumbent trike if you don't get it rolling smoothly it couldn't give a fig, it just laughs at you while you build deadly habits, driving yourself crazy digging your own grave.
- I spent three months out at Mount Whitney 3 years ago and I became addicted to 4 hours worth of climbing up anywhere between 6 + 15% grade all day long. At 1 mi an hour. It has taken me three years to recognize and to begin to shake that addiction.
2.21.2022
Cycling. Am I there yet, after four years? Could be.
It would be wonderful if someday some extremely accomplished cyclist, maybe an extremely accomplished recumbent cyclist, try to move this vehicle. Would they find it a snap? Would they find it a nightmare? The latter I think. Profoundly difficult. But maybe we arrived back home today.
- James, of the hundreds or thousands of cycling legs on this blog, stay with this one unless you absolutely need to go to the others.
- The essence of conventional cycling is that with the perineum on the bicycle seat, the first three or four inches of the thighs launch down toward the crankshaft, no? How did it take us four years to grasp this?
- Launching four in smooth pulses through the rail that is the spine pointing, through the perineum, just above the crank axle, where the weight of the legs born Oz at the feet and a few pounds 3 inches out on the thigh, on that imaginary rail.
2.19.2022
All waking moments I cram my mind with strategically important high quality information and sometimes it makes connections making me wiser, more able. Joy.
Insight comma wisdom comma epiphany comma revelation period period period is the brain making connections period
Our creator, Who Art in our deepest Soul, holy is your name. Thy kingdom comes as thy Loving is done on Earth as we would do if we had no earthly fear. Give us all this day our daily bread, that is, our vision for this day of how to best serve our neediest on Earth. Lead us not into self-centeredness, but Deliver us into solidarity with the neediest. For loving is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
2.16.2022
Cycling today was pretty easy, and 25% more powerful. WTF?
- Let the uprising leg totally fend for itself. It will.
- We are a smoothe running engine 90% in the back, 75% of which is in exactly the lower back and buttocks that walk a heavy package up the stairs.
- Everything Beyond of the two and a half in thigh stump is linkage that we keep out in the entanglement at the pedals. Relaxed, limp, just there.
- Any and all stress in the knees, drop it down to the buttocks, back, and possibly heels.
- Underhanded grip pulling the legs through.
- Dropping the shoulders way way way back to get the stress off the knees. Imperceptible but it has an impact.
2.14.2022
Cycling. Take 2 [trillion]
- On the back, slid under the crossbar.
- Particularly under stress, a interlocking gear mechanism jealous of every single tooth engagement, from the shoulders down to the first inch of the femur stump.
- Especially under stress, the gears along the back from the shoulders to the first inch of the femur stump.
- Averaging probably 95 Watts human per hour, only mild discomfort in the knees. Possibly pretty Optimum for a seventy-year-old, five or six hours per day.
2.13.2022
One good, one bad, way too inform the legs.
Best ride ever yesterday.
- Properly positioned perineum pointed in crank Direction. Creating the effect of the conventional bicycle seat which is of instrumental information content to the body, the legs, what their range and direction of motion is, profoundly freeing and empowering. The alternative way of informing the legs range is to use the pedals as a reference and this has been four years of disaster. And James has no recollection that the pedals is what was used on a conventional bicycle, no, the perineum.
- Linkages between femur Stump mid-thigh and crank top and bottom. Thigh stump is not nearly precise enough.
- Smooth running, taking the initiative; can be fast.
- Positioning such that the end of the stroke is never encountered.
- A synchronicity between-the-legs such that they thought I can return more quickly than the leg extend.
- Smooth run the size, the femurs, forward and back next to one another.
- Feedback aligned approaching 90 degrees to the line of the legs to the crankset .
- Smooth running.
- Running correlates with not missing a small tooth on the gear for power.
- Experiencing the power at the Crossing Point between the femurs.
- Remembering that any pressure port weight belt be on the femur stuff is subtracted from the total energy delivered..
- Constant tension gentle in the abdomen boarding some of the weight of the Torso off of the back of the seat so that the uprising femur always has something to pull again. Much better balance of the system.
- And torso and femur stumps in constant relationship spatially to the outgoing and returning CRAN CK period
- We are the small gears after perineum that was run forward to turn the turbines forward.
- We are the 4 inch long femur stump that smooth Runs small beers at the perineum that drives forward the turbine that is us.
- Centering our weight on the coccyx so that the pelvis is free to enable the femur joints to free smooth run.
2.05.2022
Cycling. Lessons I hope I carry forward when resuming tomorrow.
- The power of the small sprocket, the screw driving the car jack. Don't lunge James, don't miss one tooth of one gear.
- All power emanates from the Torso.
- Posture torso such that the legs are clearly out of control. Passive linkages, wonderful, essential, but out of control.
- Power is in the constantly moving muscle, not enforcing, clenching, gripping.
- Lumbar support.
2.03.2022
Stranded. You won't be able to move that thing till Saturday or Sunday, the driver said....
Turn Up the Volume when it's facing away from me, the camera.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/p3iB4AkVc2V3Ndwv6