Spectrum - Volume 18 Issue 27 April 11, 1996 - Bike doctor featured

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Bike doctor featured

Spectrum Volume 18 Issue 27 - April 11, 1996

Richard Klein, director of the Bicycle Research Institute at the University of Illinois, will again participate in Tour de Tech April 18 and 19, and will also be a featured attraction at the new Tour de Tech Expo in Richmond on May 1.

Klein, a professor of mechanical and industrial engineering known as the "the bicycle doctor," has been active in bicycle-related research for many years. Most of Klein's unusual bicycles demonstrate the physical and mechanical principles involved in making bicycles that are possible to ride, even when steered from the rear, but he will also show off a bike that is designed to be impossible to ride.

This year, Klein has added several bikes of historical interest and he will talk about how the bike came into being and how it influenced the development of society and even technology.

Bikes to be displayed will include the Penny-Farthing (Big Wheel) bike of the 1880s; an antique 1895 Sturm safety, identical to the bike seen in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid;" an antique "Mother Goose" bike, similar to what the wicked witch of the East rode in the "Wizard of Oz;" a post-World-War-II bike with tanks and balloon tires; and a modern, streamlined, recumbent bike.

The Blacksburg Tour de Tech Expo is in Squires Commonwealth Ballroom from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, and 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday. The Richmond expo will be Wednesday, May 1, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at J. Sargent Reynolds Community College's Parham Road campus. Klein's presentations will take place approximately every half hour.