Bicycling the Rails

[sarongsong]

Woo-hoo! Anyone tried this?August 2007
...Rail biking was fairly common back in the 1890s. Sears & Roebuck advertised an apparatus to adapt a regular bike for use on a rail...The last patent was issued in...1980...for a magnetic guide that helps hold the wheels on the rails. High-tech urethane wheels and sealed bearings from skateboard designs have improved the rail bikes...“serene, like gliding on ice.” The concept is simple. A device must hold the wheels on one rail, while outriggers reach across to the other rail to keep it from tipping. The rider must have a way to alter the angle of the bike on turns to prevent tipping...
Ruralite (http://www.ruralite.org/archive/2007/August%202007/Aug%20pp%2010-13_August%202007.pdf)
.pdf (4 pages)

[Whirlpool]

I haven't tried that.

:nuetral:

[hhEb09'1]

For best results, wear an iPod, and play it loudly :)

[Ivan Viehoff]

You can ride your bicycle on the railway at the Norwegian town of Namsos. You hire some device from the campsite just east of the town centre. This device makes use of both rails to have stability. The railway branchline to Namsos is fortunately now closed to other railway traffic.

Some cyclists a few years ago cycled from Vladivostok to Leningrad before the recent opening of the final stretch of the Trans-Siberian Highway which now makes that possible by conventional means. So they cycled along the Trans-Siberian Railway for a couple of hundred km, getting out of the way whenever a train approached. Initially they tried cycing between the rails, but as you can imagine that wasn't very comfortable. So eventually they jerry-rigged some bits of wood vertically that held the wheel onto the rail and cycled very quickly.

[mugaliens]

Sounds like a lot of fun, provided there's an early warning system. I recall a time while hiking out West when I was standing next to the railroad tracks, talking with a friend. His eyes got wide and the next moment the train flew by around 90 mph, about 3 feet from us.

Never heard it coming, save for the last three seconds, which, to be honest, isn't exactly a lot of time to haul one's self out of the way, not to mention a bicycle, and certainly not a rig.

Now if there are certified abandoned tracks anywhere around that are kept relatively free of weeds, that might work...

[Captain Kidd]

A railroad-issued velocipede (http://www.jf2.com/aasrr/030425velocipede.jpg), you pumped the handle rather than pedaled. We've got one at my RR museum. I haven't tried it myself, but I've heard it's a bear when you get to any sort of a grade.

I've also see vintage footage of a bicycle used by a company doctor that was composed of two frames. One was complete, the other had the seat and handlebar stripped off and used as the outrigger. I couldn't see how the wheels were, but they looked fairly normal. Probably had the tires stripped off and some sort of flange installed. This was a logging railroad and he'd ride the empty train to the top of the mountain, treat the workers there, and then go back down on the bike.

[Krel]

I remember reading in a travel magazine back in the late 80s, early 90s that there is a closed railroad line in the U.S. north west that is used for bicycling. It is so long, and popular that there are restaurants, and inns along the line for people to eat and have a place to sleep.

David.

[JohnD]

The Hotchkiss Bicycle Railway, which runs from Mount Holly to Smithville in New Jersey, USA was invented by Arthur E Hotchkiss, and built in 1892. According to one source, the idea was that you hired a bicycle and cycled along the girder track to your destination; there were a number of bicycle depots along the route. Why this would be better than cycling along a paved path I do not know. I also don't know what Mr Richards opinion of this system was, but I doubt very much if it was seriously proposed as a solution to our transport problems.

From: http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/TRANSPORT/oddbike/oddbike.htm

[mugaliens]

I was in a local once that had filled in a couple miles of track with asphalt, which made for a good walking path through the woods. Would have been good riding, except for all the people walking it. Not to mention a little tight to two cyclists in opposing directions...

[NEOWatcher]

I was in a local once that had filled in a couple miles of track with asphalt, which made for a good walking path through the woods. Would have been good riding, except for all the people walking it. Not to mention a little tight to two cyclists in opposing directions...
When I was in college, I used to bike a path that was primarily railbed. It was dozens of miles long. They took the rails out and compacted the bed down with a finer material. It made an excellent trail (wider than your between rail asphalt). It was virtually flat, except for intersections, and one spot in the middle where the old rail bridge was long removed. Instead of a bridge high over the highway, you had to follow the valley underneath the highway.

Not far from this is also our Ohio&Erie canal towpath trail. Again; an excellent, flat trail.