Forget Standing Desks: Here's One You Pedal To Power Your Gadgets | FastCompany
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By
Bill
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Finally, you don't even need to get off your butt to get moving at work.
"I wish to suggest that a man may be very industrious, and yet may not spend his time well," wrote Henry David Thoreau a century and a half before his society had stuffed its white-collar workers into cubicles with computers. His point, made as part of a longer series of lectures, boiled down to the notion that if you don't sustain yourself with love for what you do, whatever you're doing might be sort of worthless--or worse, without principle or enjoyment.
People who move back to the land to devote themselves to active living are often considered Luddites in our fast-paced modern age. But white-collar office workers don't have to those extremes to at least enjoy their desk work, or participate (to some degree) in the movement. A pair of best friend engineers in upstate New York are Kickstarting a campaign to open-source their dynopods--or pedal-powered work surfaces--that use the power from your legs to charge anything from a smoothie maker to a laptop.
"Bikes are the most efficient transportation machines by far, by an order of magnitude of 10," lead Pedal Power engineer and avid cyclist Andy Wekin says. So when a group of families in Burlington, Vermont, came to his business partner Steve Blood and asked him to help them build an intentional community with localized energy sources, he naturally thought of pedal power...
In July of 2006 a few of my friends joined me on an inaugural bike tour of West Virginia. I spent that winter planning a variety of routes through the Monongahela National Forest, and this would be our first of many weekend tours in the Mid-Atlantic Region. An early morning departure from the Pittsburgh area had us loading up the trailers high atop Spruce Knob . The starting point for this 60-mile mixed-touring loop was the Big Run/Allegheny trailhead off Route 112. Heading clockwise, we utilized forest roads, rail-trails, and paved roads. The reality of pulling our belongings behind us set in as we headed down the dusty and rolling forest road, quickly understanding why West Virginia is known as "The Mountain State." Soon we were treated to one of many mountain vistas. After rolling onto pavement (Route 28), we climbed over Allegheny Mountain and coasted into our campsite for the evening -- Island Campground , situated on the banks of the East Fork of the Greenbrier
have had some very fun excursions on rail trails , disused railways turned into pedestrian/bike paths. The trails typically go through very beautiful areas and rarely do you have to concern yourself with motorized traffic of any kind. Reader Will appears to be interested in rails as well, but he wants to ride on them - literally. Check it out - Will included the following text - A rail-bike is a bicycle that has been modified to be able to ride on the rails of a railroad. The front wheel has a device attached to it so that the bike won’t steer off the rail while an outrigger is used to support the bike using the other rail. I used conduit, cut up “razor” scooters parts, one bike fork two bits of steel and numerous nuts, bolts, washers and retaining pins. Nothing is welded. The hardest part is getting the spacing right so that friction and play are minimized. A lot of person hours certainly went in to this working model and the details are pretty amazing. [Keep re
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