Pedal vehicle for traversing abandoned monorailway

In 2002, Vincent Lamouroux built this Pentacycle to travel along the abandoned Aérotrain hovercraft monorailway built in the 1970s.

Link | Video about Aérotrain (Via VVORK)

[#1 posted by windybt , February 6, 2008 10:59 AM]

that music for the video is amazing

[#2 posted by arkizzle , February 6, 2008 11:06 AM]

.. the queen track?

[#3 posted by john weeks , February 6, 2008 11:13 AM]

1:1 pedal ratio? How 17th century! (thats how we can tell it's art)

[#4 posted by jeffjeffbobeff , February 6, 2008 11:19 AM]

What an amazing idea with such a lame realization. 1) Those nerf ball tires will get you up to a max speed of about 4 mph. 2) The seat? I hope his chiropractor was along the route 3) It looks entirely to safe. Lose those two stabilizing wheels, jack up the center of gravity and set the pedals up backwards and we'll talk.

[#5 posted by ConcealedCabinet , February 6, 2008 11:22 AM]

I agree with Jeff. It's a great idea that makes me wish I lived near an abandoned rail, but it seems like it could be designed better. Still, you gotta love innovation.

www.iinnovators.com

[#6 posted by g.park , February 6, 2008 11:25 AM]

They could really use these in Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook.

[#7 posted by jeffjeffbobeff , February 6, 2008 11:29 AM]

Thanks, John Weeks, I get it now. It's about being disappointed by under-executed technology. Art, humph.

[#8 posted by TwoShort , February 6, 2008 11:52 AM]

@John Weeks: 19th century, but they would have had a 60 inch wheel. That looks to be about 12 inches.

By my calculations, a good cyclist adept at high-cadence spinning should be able to achieve a cruising speed of not quite 4 miles per hour! Though with all those big balloon tires, probably only half that.

Yes, I know it's art, because the guy goes on about the the duality of the vehicle as object and conception, blah, blah, blah. I know I'm unfairly judging him by criteria he probably never aspired to, but as a cycle geek, riding that thing sounds unutterably tedious.

[#9 posted by Dustin Driver , February 6, 2008 11:52 AM]

The Aérotrain: A train with AFTERBURNERS. Sounds like very six-year-old's dream come true.

And I'm pretty sure that the Aérotrain could be written into an episode or two of Thomas. As a French villain, of course.

[#10 posted by Bobdotcom , February 6, 2008 12:34 PM]

Oh, 'an aerotrain'. Oh, I say, we are grand, aren't we? Oh, oh, no more buttered scones for me, mater. I'm off to play the grand piano. Pardon me while I ride my aerotrain.

[#11 posted by Hugh , February 6, 2008 1:09 PM]

I positively assert that for functional art to be art it has to be functional. Go ahead, try to convince me otherwise.

[#12 posted by Miles , February 6, 2008 1:22 PM]

Dammit G. Park, you beat me to it

[#13 posted by mralistair , February 6, 2008 1:24 PM]

what happens when he meet's someone coming the other way.

[#14 posted by Antinous , February 6, 2008 1:33 PM]

I'm so excited about seeing all the re-worked, more functional, faster versions of this. When should we expect them to be submitted to Mark for posting on BB?

[#15 posted by Harrkev , February 6, 2008 1:57 PM]

This reminds me of a railbike. For those of you who haven't heard of this, you can modify a bike to ride on a traditional railroad track, using any bike that you happen to have, and some materials from your local hardware store.

Of course, you life expectancy is much longer if you stick to unused railroad tracks.

His bike looks cooler in that there is a better view many feet off of the ground.

[#16 posted by Takuan , February 6, 2008 2:00 PM]

always wanted a rail bike. And some rockets.

[#17 posted by pork musket , February 6, 2008 2:59 PM]

@14 - Right, because only authors are allowed to critique books, and only filmmakers are allowed to review movies.

[#18 posted by Dustin Driver , February 6, 2008 3:01 PM]

Where did he get the orange tires?

[#19 posted by Antinous , February 6, 2008 5:15 PM]

...because only authors are allowed to critique books, and only filmmakers are allowed to review movies.

Just a little acid on my blade to counter the soporific on yours.

[#20 posted by anthony , February 6, 2008 5:45 PM]

#14
I'm thinking something like a cross between a mechanic's "creeper" and a recumbent bike (wheels go on the top rail).
When do the time trials begin?

[#21 posted by Takuan , February 6, 2008 6:12 PM]

ah, that would be he duel between Feyd Ratha and Paul Attreides? neh?

[#22 posted by Antinous , February 6, 2008 6:17 PM]

Bi lal kaifa

[#23 posted by Takuan , February 6, 2008 6:25 PM]

speaking of which they appear to be low psi sand dune tires

[#24 posted by Kristoffer , February 6, 2008 6:30 PM]

I just wanted to point out that this work was actually a collaboration between the two artist Raphaël Zarka and Vincent Lamouroux. It's just Vincent seems to forget Zarka a little bit nowadays.
And just for the record I think that a lot what is nice about this project are the images of the two guys riding it and the little narrative these images put into play.
The point of art, in my option, is to be a space free of the usual practicalities and rational train of thought that makes up most of the world that surround us.
I know I'm being a little bit simplistic in this explanation, but I think it’s important not to judge everything by the same standards ie. judge art on the basis of engineering. Just as I would not like to see the merits of engineering judged basis of artistic quality.
Art works like this are almost always more like prototypes that production ready devices - Build on very limited budgets, by no specialist, they focus on communicating some sort of an idea or image.
So in the end I think this Pentacycle gives me a great feeling of possibility. Instead of looking at the abandoned test site as a site of failure or something like that. I get more of a positive utopian vibe - The world could be different, we could all be biking on top of monorail tracks. It opens up the possibility that we could misuses and misunderstand "failed" technologies in a positive way.

[#25 posted by help i cant comfirm my username themelonbread , February 6, 2008 6:45 PM]

So that's why they're called monorails!

[#26 posted by ace0415 , February 6, 2008 7:26 PM]

"monorail, Monorail, MONOrail, MONORAIL!!!

Well, sir, there's nothing on earth
Like a genuine,
Bona fide,
Electrified,
Six-car
Monorail!
What'd I say?

Monorail!!"

Someone had to say it.

[#27 posted by TwoShort , February 6, 2008 7:29 PM]

@#14 - I don't have an abandoned monorail track handy, so my own art bikes have different targets. Also, I'm more interested in building and riding them than documenting them, so it may be a while before they're ready for posting anywhere, sorry. You'll have to take my word for it that while they are of various unusual dimensions and drive-train configurations, they are also functional transportation. All of which is irrelevant to my ability to opine upon the art of others.

By my sense of vehicular aesthetics, the judgment is clear: Anything with pedals should travel faster when you use them than when you walk behind it and push. This will not.

[#28 posted by Antinous , February 6, 2008 7:37 PM]

Anything with pedals should travel faster when you use them than when you walk behind it and push.

Think of it as a conceptual art piece.

[#29 posted by Bekah , February 6, 2008 8:19 PM]

The intense desire to redesign is, I am sure, precisely the response desired given the theme of this art work. It certainly makes me wish I had an abandoned rail nearby.

[#30 posted by error404 , February 7, 2008 1:43 AM]

4 years of art school and I gotta say that if the thing actually worked as a bike it would improve the Art.

No point in doing less than kinetic, kinetic sculpture.

[#31 posted by dannysland , February 7, 2008 7:36 AM]

I know I'm unfairly judging him by criteria he probably never aspired to, but as a cycle geek, riding that thing sounds unutterably tedious.

Yeah, pretty tedious riding back and forth on an abandoned monorail track. Much less tedious to go fast in the bicycle commute lane along an exciting city street, huh?

After the fall of civilization, I'll be charging for rides on one of these over the ruins of Disneyland. Book your tickets now.

[#32 posted by TedJohnson , February 7, 2008 7:47 AM]

Echoing the comments of the "form follows function" faction, let me direct you to this:
http://www.stevendwilliams.com/expeditions/around.htm

Steven D. Williams actually built a bike-on-rails system to get him across a desert leg of his transect of Africa. He hadn't planned for it in advance either. What he built was improvised in some Sudanese town on the edge of the desert.

Art was the last thing on his mind.

[#33 posted by jef , February 7, 2008 8:26 AM]

There were originally two Aerotrain tracks. I visited the other one in 1971 and it was already abandoned and overgrown. That one has since been demolished.

[#34 posted by CitrusFreak12 , February 7, 2008 4:28 PM]

Am I doing something wrong? I go to the site, find the pentacycle, click it, and it gives me one picture and some text...

[#35 posted by ablestmage , February 8, 2008 4:26 PM]

Even if I were on an abandoned railroad track, I would still be wary that a random abandoned train would be coming down it at me, and would generally avoid them. Pedaling down an abandoned monorail track in your experimental art piece is just begging for an experimental high-speed monorail being tested on an abandoned monorail track to smack you into oblivion. I'm just sayin'.