craschworks

[I've posted this before, but I couldn't find it, so here it is again.]

Riding His Time: Bicycle Bill shows off his pedal-powered home.

Pedal Powered

For bicycle mechanic Bicycle Bill, riding a stationary bike isn't just exercise–it's a way of life. Bicycle Bill lives downtown in a pedal-powered home he designed and built himself. The structure, which is 15 feet long, 3 feet wide and 8 feet high, can travel at 3 to 4 miles per hour but has been parked all summer at the Hub for Sustainable Transportation on Walnut Avenue, where Bicycle Bill fixes bikes.

Bills points out that all the electrical devices in his home could be powered by a stationary bicycle hooked up to an electric generator–although his home is currently power by converted energy from candles.

Before he moved to Santa Cruz, Bicycle Bill had already built more than seven pedal-powered vehicles. His favorite, “The Spirit of Bucky Fuller” (named after the fuel-efficient car Buckminster Fuller invented in the 1930s), could travel across the city of Sacramento in 30 minutes. Creating a “body shell” for Bucky gave it better aerodynamics and doubled its speed, Bill explains.

But Bicycle Bill's work these days is no longer focused on speed. He would rather spend time teaching people what he has learned from 19 years of experience designing and building pedal-powered vehicles. He provides weekly bike-maintenance classes at the Hub's Bike Church for a group of middle-school students on Mondays, and he fixes bikes at the church Monday through Thursday from 3pm to 7pm.

Bicycle Bill hopes to promote pedal-powered homes in Santa Cruz as an affordable alternative to conventional housing. He figures that spreading the word would be a good way to get the homeless off the street. “There are other alternatives besides ordinary housing when you're cheated out of the [housing] market,” Bill says. “Your best bet would be to build yourself a pedal-powered house.”

But the dilemma for pedal-powered homeowners in Santa Cruz is finding a place to park their rolling residences. Bicycle Bill needs a new parking space. If you would like to learn more about pedal-powered homes, or if you have a space for rent, you can visit Bicycle Bill at the Hub at 224 Walnut Ave., Santa Cruz, or call 425.0665.