February 24, 2004
Back in the saddle
I thought I was pretty hard-core to dig out my bike (literally) and ride to work today, though it was humbling to realize how out of shape I am – hibernation has left me soft and flabby. A few years ago, I would ride in most winter conditions, but never mind.
Now, (thanks again to crazybikerchick) meet a really intense commuter cyclist: David Peterson of Geneva, Illinois.
His commute is normally half an hour each way, mostly using local bike paths.
In winter, snow is a problem. Peterson decided that it would be less work in the long run to clear the snow away and ride on smooth pavement than to ride over uncleared snow for the rest of the winter.
“My first test at clearing a path was walking with a regular snow shovel,” he explains. “This worked fine, although the constant lifting and dumping quickly tired my arms and back. Scraping the shovel on the pavement for a mile or so also wore down the aluminum tip.”
Back to the drawing board. Peterson’s next solution: a bike-propelled snowplow.
After going through one winter pushing his plow, he redesigned the system so that he pulled it instead. This is his current design.
His new problem: a small-minded park bureaucrat is trying to get him to stop.