Aerocoupe CyclecarsVarious1982-1985 |
There are 5 collections of photos:
Beauty
A bunch of shots that show the general layout of the machine: two-in-front, one-rear trike. 20" front wheels, 26" rear wheel. Most had a two chain drive through a modified tandem crankset: the primary chain ran under the seat on the left side of the frame, crossing over to the right side behind the rider for conventional shifting. We built one with a three-speed internal gear hub.
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| beauty01.jpg | beauty02.jpg | beauty03.jpg | beauty04.jpg | beauty05.jpg |
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| beauty06.jpg | beauty07.jpg | beauty08.jpg | beauty09.jpg | beauty10.jpg |
Track
This is a collection of shots taken at the 1982 IHPSC. There were a couple locations: Orange County International Raceway and a straight stretch of road in Carson, California. There was also a preview day at the velodrome located on the campus of Cal State Dominguez Hills.
The vehicle at this point had our Mark I fairing- flat sides, flat top, pointy nose, cut off tail. Even with this primitive fairing, minimal training, and no sleep in the previous week, I managed a best speed of 38 mph in the 200 meter sprint.
We had several riders, ranging in height from just over five feet to 6 foot 4 inches. Since our seat wasn't easily adjustable, the shorter riders ended up flat on their backs. The taller riders, including me, hung out in the airstream.
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| track01.jpg | track02.jpg | track03.jpg | track04.jpg | track05.jpg | track06.jpg |
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| track07.jpg | track08.jpg | track09.jpg | track10.jpg | track11.jpg |
Mark II
Mark II is the second version of our fairing. It, like the first, was made of plastic-coated foamcore and clear plastic. This was held together with hot glue and black plastic tape. If I recall, the whole fairing weighed about 7 pounds.
One problem I had with this fairing was that it was built for an "average" size person. Since I'm 6-foot-4, I didn't fit under the top. If you look at
markii05 , you can see that I had to slide down in the seat and tilt my head to the side to fit. Even with that, my head's pushing up on the top.| |
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| markii01.jpg | markii02.jpg | markii03.jpg | markii04.jpg | markii05.jpg |
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| markii06.jpg | markii07.jpg | markii08.jpg | markii09.jpg | markii11.jpg |
River
This is a series of photos we shot on a test ride along the Rio Hondo and San Gabriel Rivers in Los Angeles County. Actually, "river" is a misnomer- they're concrete-lined flood control channels. This means the bottom of the channel is a completely flat, hard surface, usually covered by a half-inch of water. This coats the concrete with a layer of very slick algae- great for doing tricks like J-turns and 360-degree spins. Of course, you could catch some vile sickness riding here… but who thinks of that?
My favorite of this whole bunch is
river11.| |
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| river01.jpg | river02.jpg | river03.jpg | river04.jpg | river05.jpg | river06.jpg |
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| river07.jpg | river08.jpg | river09.jpg | river10.jpg | river11.jpg | river12.jpg |
A couple casual photos of team members: Greg Eckholt and Mark Murphy.
Greg died unexpectedly in 2005, but Mark's working in Creswell, Oregon on three-wheeled electric cars he calls
"BugE's".
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| markmurphy.jpg | gregeckholt.jpg |