Carly Cady
Special to the Mustang Daily
The need for speed had been replaced by the necessity to make a bike people can realistically use.
The Human Powered Vehicle Club is taking a new approach to building its vehicle this year, mechanical engineering senior and president of the club Matt Baker said. Instead of building a bicycle only designed to go fast, the club now has to make one that can be used in everyday life.
“This year, the ASME, or the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, is really emphasizing the utility aspect,” Baker said. “They want to figure out how to replace cars with what we’re building.”
The main goal of the Human Powered Vehicle Challenge is to work in teams to design and build efficient, highly engineered vehicles for everyday use – from commuting to work, to carrying goods to the market, ASME said.
One of the new utilitarian requirements is being able to start and stop without assistance, mechanical engineering senior and club member Samantha Weiner said.
The old bike would tip over when it slowed down, Weiner said. In order to prevent this, the bike is being redesigned to make it more balanced.
“In order to accommodate this rule, this year we are making a leaning trike,” Weiner said. “We still have brakes, but it’s just like a tricycle so you are always balanced, whereas on a bike you can’t be balanced unless you are riding, you can’t be stationary and balanced.”
A leaning trike can lean into corners in the same manner as a bicycle does while a normal trike remains vertical when going through a corner, aerospace engineering senior and vice president of the club Will Hilgenberg said.
This is a change from bikes the club has made in the past, Hilgenberg said.
“I would say this is the first time in about 20 years that we’ve had a three-wheeled bike,” Hilgenberg said.
Another requirement that goes along with the practicality aspect is being able to carry a package the size of a brown grocery bag in the bike, Hilgenberg said.
“The addition of a third wheel will make it a bit easier to build in a place for a package to go in,” Hilgenberg said.
Each year the club has to come up with an innovation for its vehicle, Hilgenberg said.
“Each year, they want an innovation, something new, something fresh,” Hilgenberg said. “Last year, we actually had a cell phone charger based on solar panels in the back of the vehicle.”
This year, the innovation is going to be geared more toward improved rider comfort, Hilgenberg said.
“We’re looking at designs for easy entry and exit and to improved ride comfort,” Hilgenberg said. “If your rider’s uncomfortable then you won’t be able to go as fast.”
In the past, the team has done well in competition, Hilgenberg said. The pursuit to get first place drives the team to work hard and make the vehicle perfect.
“Last year, we missed first place overall by .01 of a point out of 100 points,” Hilgenberg said. “So we are driven by that to make this year’s model even better.”
The competition is putting an emphasis on the utility of these vehicles because of the increased research into alternate sources of transportation, Weiner said.
“The price of gas is increasing at really huge rates, so people are trying to find alternatives to driving, so it is a step in the right direction,” Weiner said. “To encourage people not to necessarily eliminate driving, but just to decrease the amount of cars and to find other methods.”
Human powered vehicles could become a great source of transportation for anyone, Hilgenberg said. People just have to be willing to give it a chance.
“We’ve been able to build bikes every year that have been really easy to ride. We have people try them out; if you can ride a bike, you can ride one of our bikes,” Hilgenberg said. “The only limiting factor for riding this bike is whether you’re willing to.”
Carly Cady contributed to this article.