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Kinetic Labs

The Kinetic Labs was more subdued than in previous years. Perhaps the uncertainty about the 2007 race reduced participation. In any case, it seemed quieter and less crowded to me. But of course the stalwarts were there. Here is Deliverance Truck by Ken Beidelman and June's Bloom by June Moxon.
		I let folks ride the spinner that we brought with us.
Ken's Spinner was also fun to ride. His is more stable than ours. Here Dave and a girl from Deliverance ride it.

Saturday - Road and Sand

The Arcata race has a long history and is well attended. Still, this year seemed more sedate and less crowded than in years past. There were also fewer race teams. Perhaps all of this was because of the doubts that the race would happen this year. So we owe thanks to those who did make it happen. I doubt I can list all of them, but I understand that the queens were involved. Plus Goddess Jen-o. And Ellin Beltz. I'm sure there were others who I am not aware of. A thank-you to all of you.

The last time Rex raced in Arcata was 2001. The race has changed. And Rex has changed. It was about time to experience this event again.

Unlike most of the Kinetic Sculpture Races that we participate in, the Arcata-Ferndale race doesn't require a song. That's OK. Dave prepared one anyway. It's wonderful having him on the team.

The following photos are an incomplete roster of the racers. I wasn't always able to get a good photo. Plus some of the teams showed up after my walk-around.

	Queen Harmony of 2006 raced the vehicle behind her		The square seemed less crowded than in previous years.
Here is KangaRex.		Spontaneous Combustion can spout bursts of flame out the top.
	That Was Easy		Patriot Act
Red Rocket		Grandpa's Flying Machine
Dwayne Flatmo's Armored Carp			Isle of Lost Boys
	Henry Ford Goes Surfing	and Pear County Chopper were both built by Elliot Naess. The chopper was raced by Christy Catrell of Ventura.
	Bounce4Glory was built and raced by Peter Wagner.		Ursa Vehicularis. This is a High School project.
	Tortoise and the Hare	Hypno-Toad
Deliverance Truck
	Not everybody raced. But that didn't stop the Tinman from getting into the spirit.		Ain't No John Deere
Roll On The Mattole		Heads of the Class was a High School team. I really liked their artwork.
	Jungle Boogie was bought from Paul Vibrans. Formerly called Lutefisk, it is an advanced machine. This team struggled with the complexity of it. But by the end of the race they seemed to be getting the hang of it.	In case you are wondering, yes, this one did float. Sorry, I don't know it's name.
Super Beetle			Who Gives a Flying Duck
	These three vehicles were certainly interesting to look at. But they didn't even parade around the town square as far as I could see. They didn't race. I've heard they are primarily for Burning Man.

We had a breakdown during the race. A derailer on KangaRex came apart just before the Community Center. Riki and her family (Wok On The Wild Side) found our derailer parts on the road. But there didn't seem to be enough parts. We needed a replacement --- quick!

Marylou Vibrans took me to Arcata to harvest one from my Spinner. But when I got there I remembered that I needed an allen wrench. And all of them were on Rex. Doh! So we went to the plaza, where I had noticed a bike shop. When we returned to where KangaRex was we learned Dave had found all the parts and reassembled the broken derailer. He was testing it by giving folks rides. We lost 1.5 hours.

I have to confess here that I made several mistakes.

• When the derailer came apart we should have proceeded to the Comm Center where there were a lot of other teams stopped. We might have been able to borrow a derailer without loosing so much time.
• And at the Comm Center, Dave could have done the sand conversion while I got the replacement derailer. So even if I still had to drive to town we would have lost less time in the end.
• I should have asked around for the nearest bike shop and not bothered with the spinner.

At the Community Center the race course required us to go up a curb. This is really hard on wheels, but we did it anyway. Alas, the shock caused my water bag to come open. I had suspended it above my head because that made drinking water out of it the easiest. Unfortunately this meant that almost 2 liters of water came showering down my chest. If the weather had been colder this would have been serious. But between the warm-enough weather, and the intense exercise, I dried off without getting cold. One of the spectators filled my water bottle while we did our sand conversion.

Over the next couple of months two things happened as a result of this. Both front tires failed catastrophically. The cost of replacing them was $70. And we learned that the people at the Community Center were not acting officially and we were not required to go up the curb.

As implied above, the Comm Center is the staging area before the first sand. And the first sand is a climb. Rex is just OK on sand, not great. We slogged thru it. Dave told the photographers "If you use a 3-second exposure, it'll look like we're moving".

After a few miles of beach sand we got stuck climbing out. Unfortunately this was at a bottleneck. After trying several times we had a guy stand on the front grill support, shifting our CG forward. It made a huge difference. We climbed right up.

This put us into the dunes leading to Dead Man's Drop. Alas, some kids had removed the course markers. We came to a Y in the road. There were no significant tracks to the left. We turned right because there were tracks. After awhile Mary-Lou found us and set us right. Turns out those tracks were a sheriff's ATV chasing a horse. But we had lost 30 minutes. Still, Mary-Lou had saved us twice. What an angel!

At Dead Man's Drop we had some choices.

• Fill sand bags and hang them from the tail of Rex. This would shift the CG back, making us more stable.
• Have Dave hang from the tail of Rex, for the same reason.
• Just chance it.

The last time Rex had gone down Dead Man's Drop I had gone with option 2. And it had proven necessary. But that was 5 years ago. Since then I had stretched the frame by 18 inches. And the new rear seats carried the pontoons, further stabilizing Rex for descents. I decided to take a chance with option 3.

It was a good choice. We had no problems with stability. The differential brakes performed brilliantly. We went down quickly and in good control. But during the descent my secondary drive chain fell off. A short distance before the bottom it jammed the main axle on my side. Unplanned, we made an extreme turn to the left. We were lucky. If this had happened higher up the hill we would have rolled. We fixed this quickly enough that few people noticed a problem.

We kept a good pace from here on and didn't get lost again. But alas, we had lost too much time. We crossed the day's finish line about 1:40 after the day's close, losing our Ace.

Sunday - Water and Road and Camp

KangaRex is fast on water. But she looks pretty awkward getting in. As Dave and I struggled to lift KangaRex up onto her pontoons people were wondering if she was going to work. But when she popped up in her full glory there was a gasp from the crowd as they realized the vision.

And then when we dropped the prop and rudder into the water and took off they gasped again as they saw how fast we were.

Several years ago, in Ventura, we had done a loop around Dwayne Flatmo. This time we got the opportunity to do the same for Ken Beidleman with his Deliverance Truck. And we also did a "rooster tail" around Tortoise And The Hare. We were having fun being infantile.

After the water we came to the roads, and hills. Perhaps the most notable was Loleta Hill. We had been warned about this one.

At the top we talked for awhile with Peter Wagner. Peter had taken a spill on Bounce For Glory and was recovering before tackling the hill. And he was asking around for someone to hold him back so he didn't lose control. Bounce For Glory doesn't have brakes and has limited ability to keep it's speed down. If we were to limit his speed we weren't sure if that would be regarded as towing us. After all, there would be a rope between our KSRs and we would be in the back. The fact that we would be riding our brakes on the way down might not matter to a judge. But I understand he found someone else.

We also talked with Laura Allen, who had been hit by a truck a few days before in Corvallis while she was riding her bike.

I had full confidence in KangaRex's brakes. And time was running out. So we started down, and got some good momentum. Still, I had to ride the brakes somewhat. Near the bottom of the hill I was wondering how hot the brakes got. I stopped and touched my brake. Warm, but suprisingly not hot. But Dave's was much hotter and he burned his finger. Sorry, Dave! I guess I need to balance the brakes.

From here we proceeded to Crab Park, where we camped. A new tradition has developed for this night. Last year was the first time for "Burning Bird".

As the sun was setting I had an opportunity to talk with Dave Weinberger, the creater of Unwheeldy. He had a new machine, The Smile. We talked about advantages, and mostly disadvantages, of rear steered vehicles, which Rex and Smile are. But unlike Rex, Smile is all 3 wheel drive. Dave said it performed quite well on the sand. His drive chains twist as he steers. But it works. I had seen this done on a KSR many years ago.

Making Rex all-wheel-drive would be quite a challenge. And it would limit how sharply we could turn, at least while the rear wheel was engaged. Still, there might be ways...

Monday - Water, Road, and Finish Line

Monday morning as we were preparing to race we discovered a kidnapping. Our teddy bear plus the big kangaroo with two joeys was missing. Initially we suspected an innocent prank. But then I noticed that the teddy bear's seatbelt had been sliced to get him out of his seat. That transformed the action from mischief to vandalism.

From camp at Crab Park we proceeded to the Eel River. There were lots of seals in the area who found us to be curiousities. And then into the slough. This is the first time I had encountered the famed eel grass. As Ken had predicted, it fouled KangaRex's prop. We proceeded on oars, but at greatly reduced speed. And what slowed us dramatically more was my loss of an oar. The oar came loose from the handle. We had to maneuver back to the oar with only one oar for propulsion. Tortoise And The Hare was stuck right behind us until we left the water.

	We followed Melvin's path into the water. Several other craft were taking a path that involved less water but more sand.
The seals were interested in these strange critters invading their domain.

Monday after the water crossing was just a road trip. Long, but no real challenge.

At the finish line Dave gave rides to kids. Honest! I would have helped, but he insisted on doing it. So I hawked seats and took pictures.

At this time Jason discovered the kidnapped animals had been abandoned on the announcer's stand. They were hungry and tired, but otherwise unhurt. We are glad to get them back. We never learned who had taken them, or who had returned them.

Until I arranged a ride back to Arcata. Alas that left Dave to fend for himself until I returned.

Elliot Naess generously took me to Arcata so I could pick up the van and trailer and return them to the finish line in Ferndale. Once I got back we had just enough time to load the KangaRex into the trailer before the awards banquet.

Given our performance during the race I wasn't expecting anything for KangaRex at the awards. So I was shocked and quite unprepared when we were called up there twice!

• Golden Dinosaur (first breakdown after the starting line)
• Second to Last Place

Dinner was more awards than banquet. About twice as many people showed up as had been planned for. A lot of people went hungry. I got half a meal.

Denise plays with the plant.

So after the awards a group of us went to a Eureka restaurant for dinner. It was nice to be able to talk in relative quiet. That's Dave, Beth, Jason, Bob, Hugh, Denise, Paul, Mary-Lou.

I'm afraid we made a windfall profit from our adversity. We ended up with two more animals than we started with.

The "Golden Dinosaur" trophy is in front. The kangaroo at far left escaped capture by the kidnappers at Crab Park. But they nabbed next three kritters: the teddy, the frog, and the big kangaroo with two joeys. But the purple teddy was a gift from Ellin Beltz in sympathy at the teddy-napping. And the rabbit at far right was recovered with our animals. Evidently the kidnappers hit another team. But that other team never reported the theft, so we are taking care of the rabbit until the proper owners step forward.

There were numerous people who helped us during this race. I want to give particular attention to:

• Mary-Lou Vibrans
  Saved our bacon on multiple occasions. Schlepped our supplies around so we didn't run out. Fed us.
• Beth
  Fed us and schlepped our supplies.
• Elliot Naess
  Drove me from Ferndale to Arcata so I could get my van+trailer to the finish line.

No kangaroos were harmed making this Kinetic Sculpture Racer.

Unless otherwise noted, all pictures above were taken by Allen Brown.

Copyright © 2007 C. Allen Brown