The Challenge Fujin. One hell of a fine recumbent. Great speed, good handlingcharacteristics, a low profile but a rather meagre luggage capacity.
“The cyclist”
Toying around...
It has been quite a number of years ago since I cried my lungs out in a strange smelling hospitalroom.
Over the years, my shoe-size has increased to size 43 and I still don’t like brown beans.
By the way, I’m about 20 cm taller than anyone else in my family.
Maybe that is why the milkman used to say ‘hi’ every time I cycled-by years ago when he cruised the neighbourhood :)
Fact was that I had been toying around with the plan to cycle to Italy for years and years. It was about time it got executed. You’ve read the reason why in the previous chapter.
The initial plan was to find someone to join me, but because of the fact that all the people on my “I would like to be accompanied by...” list were engaged in serious relationships , I had to do it on my own.
The passion
I can’t remember the first time I saw a recumbent but I DO know that I was immediately grasped by the concept and the accompanying design.
The memories would be conveniently tucked away in my mind.
Years later, the whole concept was taken from the shelf; I wanted to build
one for a schoolproject.
But I lacked the money and the experience to carry it all out.
It would take another 7 years or so to revive that idea.
The ‘Whippet’.
This was my first home-build recumbent. It featured a‘ top-noch’ paint job, customised decals, a specially made‘ twisted spokes’
rear wheel and hand crafted idler-wheels.
Made a 70 km test-drive with a smile on my face! No break-downs. That’s what I call rockin’ !
Many parts of this bicycle were used on other recumbents I owned, but most of them can still be found on my parent’s attic.
The gear-shifters found a new lease of life on my Condor.