I’ve been a professional trumpet player and private music lesson instructor for over 25 years. I have students who have won major concert competitions and gone on to study at some of the top music schools in the US.
Since moving to Minnesota for graduate school, I’ve been taking advantage of the extensive bike trails in the Minneapolis area. I started cycle touring for a couple weeks each year in Germany and Austria in 2015, drawn by the incredible scenery, excellent long-distance cycle route networks and amazing bakeries.
In addition to cycling, I enjoy using my rare bits of free time to build things like furniture and a velomobile.
I also have a YouTube channel about my various bikes, including a series on the one I built, and my cycle tours. Visit my YouTube Channel >>>
ABOUT MY BICYCLE/VELOMOBILE
You probably arrived at this page after seeing me ride past in a vehicle from the pictures below. You might be wondering what in the world that was and what sort of person rides something like that.
It’s a bicycle, well, technically a recumbent trike. The technical term is velomobile. The red and white one is fully pedal powered. The wooden one, which I built, originally was fully pedal powered, but now has e-assist just like e-assist bicycles, and is used for commuting.
Why would someone ride in a velomobile? Great question. I like to be active. Riding in car in traffic is too much sitting still for me, and I find heavy traffic pretty stressful. I also don’t have a lot of free time in my busy work day to exercise. I’ve found cycling to be a great way to combine my desire to exercise, reduce the stress from traffic since I use residential streets and bike paths, and still get to my destination in a reasonable amount of time. Using a velomobile makes the travel time even shorter compared to my recumbent bike. On my regular recumbent bike, I average maybe 12-15 mph depending on the route. In the velomobile I can average 18-20 mph despite being anything but a fast rider. With my e-assist velomobile, I can cut the travel time down even more. I’ve also got protection from rain, snow, cold, and sun plus room for groceries. I’m even building a trailer so I can haul larger items when needed. Originally I built the wooden velomobile so I could extend my riding into the winter. I didn’t plan to ride it year-round, but it’s so much fun going fast, that I rarely use my bike anymore!