Dune Depictions

And They're Pedaling…

An odd glowing orb hovered above the Arcata Plaza and seemed to be responsible for what we are told is called “warmth” as the noon whistle sounded signaling the pandemonium of the 50th annual Kinetic Grand Championship was officially underway.

LoCO is going to be kind enough to provide you with a bit of video, below. It’s like you were there! 

(VIDEO) Dune Depictions

A description of the sculpture courtesy its designer:

ART: none

ENGINEERING: minimal

OTHER: not much to write home about

 

 

A description of the sculpture courtesy its designer:

ART: For 2018 we have built on our 2017 Grand Champion Theme, TriloBike Test Kitchen, and have done major upgrades with TriloBike Diner. We were able to reuse the vintage style refrigerator on the back for gear storage but we had to make some structural upgrades because at one point last year the giant fork was torn off its mounting to the fridge and the body of the fridge it got tweaked from pushing against it to get us up the steep bank of the Eel River. The fridge is now stronger than ever and is used to stow sand tracks, inflatable floats, float supports, winches, Sandy Claws, tools, spare parts, and the 2 gallon bucket with all the “required” stuff. The front aerodynamic fairing is now a curved counter of a retro diner serving up the finest paleontological fare. Check out the juke box controller and the record player up front along with “fresh” trilobites with a side of fries. Life jackets and paddles stow under the counter. The stem to stern giant arrow diner sign with rotating menu wheel up top ties the diner theme all together, but unfortunately it is a bit heavier than the fork from last year. Next year I must make it lighter. We have a real functioning diner clock if you ever want to know what time it is. I put way too much work into the costumes this year with cool diner hats, aprons, hot pink tee shirts, and flags. We have done a rewrite of Be Our Guest for the pageantry competition and will have a team cheer for the race course. For those of you lucky enough to see us at night at Crab Park, you will see some cool lighting effects as well.

ENGINEERING: The current TriloBike machine is seeing its fourth year in the race and each year there have been major upgrades. Our system of extremely low gears, robust sand tracks, and wrap around “sandy claws” will get us up the sand dunes without too much fuss. Our new float system introduced last year works pretty well, but we use custom made worm drive winches to lift the machine onto the floats and they are under a bit of stress (keep fingers crossed). We upgraded our water drive system this year and use a twisted chain on a fold down propeller drive assembly. Unfortunately it has not been fully tested yet and so we may end up padding if it craters. We need a reverse gear to get us back up the launch ramp and get us out of the water and this year we simplified the chain and tensioner pulley arrangement. Once again, not really tested under actual field conditions yet, so we will see how it goes. I just hope we have fixed the variety of problems in the past such as not low enough gears, key stock slipping out of the brake disk, insufficient axle support, difficulties with lift systems, water drive and rudder problems (mounting the propeller backwards!), etc. so this year it will be smooth sailing. 

OTHER: The machine is three riders in line with four wheels. This may seem simple in concept (which is what I thought), but it is logistically very complicated. We pack a lot of complexity into a small area. It is a bit narrow and I am always worried about getting blown over, but so far we have been in good shape. It is too heavy for my liking as well. The next machine will be made of titanium or maybe excelsior. Also I have spent an insane amount of time on my artwork. We do all of it with little outside help. Some of the work is very time consuming. Just wait for next year, my ideas are even more outrageous (but lighter). 

 

 

A description of the sculpture courtesy its designer:

ART: The theme of our sculpture is Silver Streak. This is based on the movie of the same name. It starred Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, Jill Claybaugh and Ray Walton. The locomotive in the movie was very distinctive. With its red and white stripes it was very recognizable. We chose to make the body from foam board and Corplast. Two materials that are very easy to work with. We will be dressed as train engineers and our pit crew will be dressed like characters from the movie. Sorry there won’t be any singing or dancing, as we aren’t that talented in that way

ENGINEERING: We started with 2 fat tire mountain bikes cut and welded into a two-person vehicle. We wanted to sit a little higher than the typical bicycle and be comfortable, so we made the vehicle with patio furniture for seats. There are 2 seating positions for each pilot. One is reclined and the other is upright, like on a bicycle. We used riding lawn mower parts for steering and chain management. Our headlight is from a mini bike. There are sprockets from a motorbike and a super low granny gears for climbing the dunes. Small scooter wheels power our boat propeller through the water. Each pilot is independently powering the rear wheels. Inflatable pontoons will float the sculpture while in the water. Steering while in the water is done with front wheel rudders

OTHER: The length of the sculpture is 9’ 2”, The width of the sculpture is 5’ 4”, The height of the sculpture is 5’ 4”, The weight of the sculpture is 150 lbs. (approximate). This is a brand new sculpture built this year by brothers Bob and Scott Campbell. It will be piloted by Pam Slocum and Scott Campbell. Our crew is made up of Bob and Janice Campbell. We have a couple of Peons too, Mike Andalora, a former pilot and Heidi Fraser, his lady friend. There are 6 wheels on the sculpture. Four on the ground and 2 used to power the boat propeller. As mentioned before, we have 2 riding positions. One is reclined like a recumbent bicycle and the other is upright and pedaled like a bicycle. We will be going for an ACE so keep your eyes on us. Our top speed on land is nearly as fast as a bullet and the top speed on the water is close to that of a dolphin.

A description of the sculpture courtesy its designer:

ART: A sleek, silver, spacecraft with retro sci-fi elements hand built from aluminum sheeting, stadium lighting hoods and other random pieces of junk. Hand made latex alien heads created to house our huge brains! YOU’LL HAVE TO SPEAK UP.

ENGINEERING: Two person, four wheeled time-tested chassis built by Ken Beidleman in the 90’s with engineering updates by Billy Pinnix C O over the past 8 years including: disk brakes; improved front- end geometry; adjustable seats.

OTHER: We’re a class act from space here to perform awkward magic tricks and receive human glory! 

 

 

A description of the sculpture courtesy its designer:

ART: “Life is a journey, not a destination.” Potholes? Lane closures? Traffic? That rough road is an invitation to forget about the finish line and dance with Team Pineapple’s CalTrans Solid Gold Wrecking Crew! We’re hard at work to make you late for work. Combining gold for this 50th annual race with orange for safety, our fashion sense is as unstoppable as our crew. We’re putting the “trans” in Caltrans! We’re making the race a real bash with our sold gold pineapple wrecking ball swinging at the end of our crane which rises up to 14’ high. The wrecking ball not only looks fabulous but also is our counterweight to keep us upright on Deadman’s Drop! Our glorious heavy equipment themed rig encourages other teams to slow down and enjoy the journey as we take over lanes and spread joy with our fresh dance moves. Our golden shovels are not only functional tools in case we get stuck in the sand, they are also handy as paddles for water crossings and add flash as we dance. Our giant sand tires complete the burly look of our wrecker. Always concerned for the wellbeing of others, we bring the safety with traffic cones, road signs and flashing lights. At Crab Park, be sure to follow the flashers to complimentary pineapple-themed beverages! No CalTrans crew is complete unless there are people standing around doing nothing - so watch for folks in safety vests who are just standing there. They’re stopping to appreciate the world around them. Join them, join us; slow down and savor this journey - it’s glorious! 

ENGINEERING: Our tiny 4-pilot all-wheel drive rig weighs in at just 320 pounds. Each seat features a breathable webbing cross-weave and is fully adjustable for maximum pilot comfort. Integrated flotation provides seamless transitions for water crossings, and our specially engineered, high-thrust paddlewheels work with our very low draft to speed us through the water. Wheels are dished to provide extra lateral support for solid cornering. The specially contoured floats maximize stability in the water while providing sufficient clearance for land obstacles. When we strap on our sand tires, we have plenty of dune-conquering clearance beneath the floats. If we do happen to high-center, the floats can be removed and carried on the roof racks to preserve our ACE. Moving the steering pivot forward of the front axle improves upon Ken Beidleman’s center pivot design. Steering is car-like while also reducing the risk of capsizing should one end of the vehicle begin to list. A whacking great steering yoke provides positive control eliminating inferior steering cables used on other sculptures. Every budget-conscious opportunity to reduce weight has been exploited. The 60 tooth drive gear is also the brake rotor, bolting directly to the wheel hub. The drive axles taper inboard to eliminate heavy pillow block bearings. Half-inch drive chain is as short a loop as possible. Cleverly designed and fabricated eccentric bearing cups replace idler and tensioning gears. The frame is minimized and optimized for strength. Even the wheels are low-mass, built from relatively small 29” rims. This is one of the smallest, quickest 4-pilot rigs ever built. Team Pineapple proudly pedals our ACEmaker to Glory

 

A description of the sculpture courtesy its designer:

ART: After seeing some remarkable things while being upside down in the bay last year, we have decided to turn our machine in to a submarine. Glory Diver will continue our tradition of mining all of the world’s Hobartonium, the true source of all Glory on this planet. We’ve drilled for Glory, now we will dive for Glory. Come sail away with the Tempus Fugitives!

ENGINEERING: We have completely rebuilt our machine from the ground up. A good long soak in the bay did not do it any favors. We have lowered our center of gravity, along with our standards, to prepare this submarine for underwater mining operations (and to hopefully not flip over again!)

OTHER: 6 1/2 feet wide, 15 feet long, and 7’ tall, we have significantly lightened our load to not only go faster, but to increase our payload for all of that Hobartonium! With 4 Grand Champion awards under our belt, we are calling this race the “Dive For Five!”

 

A description of the sculpture courtesy its designer:

ART: Team Terrapin is back again! Riding with the spirit of the 60’s rockin and rollin our way through Humboldt. Celebrating the spirit of Hobart Brown, reminding you this race is more than just a pretty view! We’ll be touring with our dancing bear crew and a couple of terrapin too. You can get a backstage pass; join the fun where the high tech meets the low life.

ENGINEERING: Ken Beidleman historic bicycle still rolling strong after two decades.

 

A description of the sculpture courtesy its designer:

ART: The art for Super Moi is ourselves plus a Super sized puppet - Super Moi! Plan DD, Kaptained by Laura is carrying “Louise” through the race. Louise is 7‘8” tall, weighs only 34 lbs! and is a fully poseable and vetriolquist driven puppet created by Marilyn K. Kurka. Look for her and her all girls team to do several fun antics along the way. 

ENGINEERING: This is Plan F, 5th in the series, owned and lent by Keith Rasmussen. Plan F is sporting a new front wheel system that we hope will help us through the dreaded Junes Dunes

 

 

 

A description of the sculpture courtesy its designer:

ART: Very little Art and not much Pageantry. You cannot expect much from an Ominionated Minion. Art A one minion driven machine. It is a small one minion vehicle that might spew items from its jet power pack, but nothing that will take it out of the quest for ACE.

ENGINEERING: This was a 26” bike, more like three or four, which was highly modified into a 140 lbs. kinetic vehicle. The width is less than 8 ft., we have to make it legal. It is set-up in a delta trike configuration with duals on all three sets of wheels making it a hexacycle. I have rebuilt the power unit using mostly electrical conduit tubing. This is in keeping with the philosophy of building the craft from electrical conduit where possible. I have lowered the final sprocket ratio by 25%. This will lower my speed, but will increase my power for the last dune before Dead Man Drop. The drive system is set up based on two 6 speed and one 5 speed cassettes. This gives me a 15 speed vehicle that can be set on 6 different drive ranges, giving me a unit that has 90 forward gears. Calculated max speed is about 8 mph running a peddle speed of 60 rpm. I have had this craft up to 17 mph on a slight downhill. The lowest speed with this peddle speed is about ½ mph with everything set at the lowest gears. The craft is propelled in the water by paddle wheels that are integral part of the drive wheels. These wheels are adjustable in the water to take a better bite and not have as much churning as the position they are needed for the water to land and the land to water transition.

OTHER: Speed on the water is unknown at this time. I am keeping with my philosophy of, “Why waste a good sinking without the benefit of an audience”. Keeping with this mindset, I have sunk the last two years due to sudden structural failure. This has generated great audience participation and many stories of the hauling of the craft over rocky banks and pulling it through 24 inch soft mud. I have tested the vehicle structurally, this year, to verify it does not buckle under the stresses of the pontoons. The plan this year is to have two uneventful water crossings on my way to my goal of earning the ACE

 

 

A description of the sculpture courtesy its designer:

ART: Simply, Red. Melvin is red, lubricated with CFM (continual forward motion). This is our 37th race and we humbly flaunt our 28 aces

ENGINEERING: Three independent drive systems with 108 speeds each. Three independent retractable water- drive systems. Melvin has received an engineering award a few times.

OTHER: Melvin is 4 feet high, 4 feet wide, 24 feet long, with 6 drive wheels. The first year this frame raced was 1995. It has earned 5 Grand Champion Awards. On the road and sand, we peddle as fast as we safely can. Water speed is top secret and even faster with a supporting current and a tail wind. Melvin has an entourage of thousands. Thank you for being one. 

 

 

A description of the sculpture courtesy its designer:

ART: Sparky showed up at the animal shelter a while back and has received some loving care and attention while there. Sparky is ready to go out and find his forever home. When he first showed up he was missing some fur he had some raw patches on his feet and a lot of rust and corrosion in his gears. We are not sure how old Sparky is. He does all of his shots up to date. He has been neutered. He gets along well with other sculptures. He loves to play on the beach and in the water and some of the other sculptures will tell you he can be wicked fast on the road when he is feeling his oats. If Sparky not the dog for you, there are many other pets at the multiple animal rescues and shelters that are looking for their forever home and there is more than one that would be the perfect fit into your family.

ENGINEERING: Sparky is a happy go lucky dog that is showing his age in a few areas but still has a lot of get up and go. With four paw, rear paw drive, Pontoon floats, two person internal companion and a multitude of bicycle and go-cart gearing.

OTHER: Since the animal rescues have so little available funds and so many animals to help are financial goal was to spend less than $100.00 this year. We are right on budget. Any donated funds made through the sculpture will go 100% to local animal rescues.

 

 

A description of the sculpture courtesy its designer:

ART: A few years after Hobart brown started the California kinetics he moved to Boulder and started the kinetics there. It became the largest event in Colorado! I heard about it and decided to travel the 1000 mi. Round-trip from my home in New Mexico. That year I was one of 50+ sculptures with 60,000 spectators on the beach! Big name bands, beer and hot air balloon‘s were everywhere. We felt like rock stars. I continued to build a new sculpture most years over the next 30. It was of course expensive and a challenge finding the time, but I was working so I had the money and needed the artistic outlet in my life. A few years ago most of the kinetic people felt it had become way too commercial. We reorganized, moved it to a beautiful lake in another town and it became a family oriented event. It’s been quite a ride. My sculpture this year celebrates these 30 years of kinetics with a large road runner representing my home in New Mexico and displaying photographs of my sculptures and those of fellow artists in Colorado throughout the past 30 years. In this way I hope to bring part of our kinetics to California. I know that the 3400 mile round trip uses a lot of gas and four days of hard driving will tire me but the “glory of having fun, showing kids adults having fun” I deem worth it. With this sculpture I bring the spirit of Hobart Browns Colorado kinetics to the GKR And share our glory with you as we discover new friends to help us all cope with this very scary insane world. It is hoped that in a small way we will be participating in a healing of humanity ceremony that spreads around the world. God bless all the illuminated souls who form the embodiment of kinetics

ENGINEERING:  Coming from New Mexico I knew my sculpture would have to be lightweight and compact for the 3400 mile round-trip atop my car; But not small. We want our Colorado kinetics sculptures to be seen. A tandem bike pulls a trailer consisting of two pontoons and supports several poly carbonate sheets which are the focus of our sculpture, a 22 foot long by 10 foot high road runner all weighing only 250 pounds. ROAD: The innovative feature is that the bike is located in the middle between the pontoons positioned such that the rear wheel of the tandem is aligned with the two trailer wheels! The bike is structurally attached to the front crossbar of the trailer in such a way that the crossbar keeps the bike upright. This configuration allows for a very tight turning radius and all four wheels to move up and down independently. WATER: each pilot operates an oar while sitting on a rolling seat as in a scull boat. The invention is : by using two connecting rods in a parallelogram configuration, the blade of the oar and the handle always stay perpendicular to the boat, always pushing against the water at the proper angle. Another Innovation I discovered quite by accident. I had missmeasured the support for the roller seat and when I tested it, it wasn’t level. It occurred to me that I might use this to my advantage. That is for the rest stroke I have to pull myself up an incline plane and on the power stroke I recover that, gravity generated, stored energy. (The international HPV Association allows one cycle of stored energy). WIND. I’ve never sailed in salt water only lakes in New Mexico. The poly carbonate road runner offers 50 feet of sail surface. By utilizing both a front and back rudder we can adjust the Tack of the flat bottom boat and effectively “set the sail” SAND: The Colorado kinetics has mostly water and road and very little sand. I have a low gear and four fat tires but anticipate problems!

OTHER: Over the years Colorado kinetics has evolved and changed dramatically. For example we have two blind team members. A few years back one of the queens offered me the privilege of cheating and allowing pit crews to replace pilots. Thereby we were able to accommodate these members. We have been doing this for several years now and find that it works well for incorporating more people into the artistic process thus adding to the fun . My 74th birthday is on the day of the race, May 26. I will definitely be starting as a pilot. However I’m thinking that though I am healthy I may not be able to finish the three days as a pilot. I have always taken the rule that “cheating is a privilege not a right “to heart. I hope that we can exchange many ideas and traditions. Height: 10’, Length: 22’, Width: 8’, Weight: 250#, Wheels: 4, Built: this year(as always), Land speed: 10 mph, Water speed: 5 knots, Builder: Jon VerPloegh (ploo)