Bicycles

HOW TO – Building a better Tall Bike

HOW TO – Building a better Tall Bike

E2Efcf7Ad8Ee10D760A002D9.ThumbGreat bike hack on Instructables from Maxwell – “How to Build a Tall Bike, one that you can stop safely, and could be construed as street legal in most places. With this method, you’ll be able to stand over the bike, allowing you to hop down easily, have two brakes, a full complement of gears, And have a better riding position than two bikes stacked on top of eachother. You’ll only destroy one bike, The top portion is bolted to the bottom bike, so if it breaks, or you get tired of it, the bottom bike can be reverted to normal. All in all I think this makes for a suprisingly sane tall bike. Not that you’ll look any less the madman riding it through traffic.” Link.

Bicycle-powered blueberry winnower

Bicycle-powered blueberry winnower

P74325 Excellent tale from the “Make” – If the field wasn’t so remote, Waldo County residents would have been treated to an unusual sight in September: Blueberry rakers merrily pedaling old bicycles that powered even-older machines used to clean the fruit. Like many good ideas, Shana Hanson’s bicycle-powered blueberry winnowers had their roots in calamity… Hanson borrowed two bicycles that were already mounted on homemade wooden frames. She removed the tires from the back wheels, and covered the inside of the rims with duct tape. Then she attached drive belts that linked the wheels to pulleys on the winnowers. It was an instant success. Link.

Distributing the Future – Data for Web 2.0

111-Future Distro This week, O’Reilly’s audio magazine program Distributing the Future takes a look at the Data for Web 2.0. Tim O’Reilly explains “What is Web 2.0,” Marc Hedlund thinks about the browsers of the future that might mash up the private data on your hard drive with data that lives on the Web, NAVTEQ’s Robert Denaro explains why NAVTEQ drives so many miles each day to gather the geographic information you use in your favorite online mapping applications, Phil Torrone is already hacking the iPod nano, and our “FOO Cast” is more of Richard Giles’ Gadget show interview with John Batelle. Link and MP3.

Distributing the Future podcast

Distributing the Future podcast

111-Future Distro We’ll be back with lots of MAKE audio starting next week – but do check this out, we talk about the PSP and there are some great guests covering many other topics! “Distributing the Future” is O’Reilly Media’s new weekly podcast featuring the technology and the people behind what you use now and what you’ll use next. This half hour program includes interviews and commentary on science, technology, related social issues, and just plain fun. This show is in public beta. Link. Listen to MP3.