July 31, 2019

Dutch recumbent bike designed to go 120 km/h

Filed under: Bicycles by Orangemaster @ 11:07 pm

TUDelft

The National Military Museum located on the former air base at Soesterberg had a special attraction recently that had nothing to do with old planes, helicopters, tanks or military equipment: a recumbent bike that is made to go 120 kilometres an hour.

The VeloX 9 recumbent bike – a bicycle that places the rider in a reclining position – was designed by 16 students of the Delft University of Technology and the University of Amsterdam for the World Human Powered Speed Challenge to be held September 8-14 in Nevada, in the United States. Team VeloX 9’s goal is to break the women’s record of 121.8 kilometres per hour with Dutch riders Rosa Bas from Utrecht and Jennifer Breet from Leiden.

The highest speed ever achieved in the Netherlands on the bike is 70 kilometres an hour purely due to lack of a free, straight track to be able to fully test it. Even at the airfield, it could only go 50 km. What must be a breeze to test in the United States is a space issue in the Netherlands, but that’s never stopped the Dutch before.

(Link: rtvutrecht.nl, Photo of Delft University of Technology by Gerard Stolk, some rights reserved)

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March 18, 2019

Sudden street name changes hurts business

Filed under: Weird by Orangemaster @ 11:07 am

A couple from the small town of Soesterberg, Utrecht apparently woke up one day to find out that their street had changes name, from Sterrenbergweg to Sternbergweg. Google and the likes point to Sterrenbergweg, while there are no streets called Sternbergweg in the Netherlands.

They thought maybe it was a mistake, but walked down the street to read Sternbergweg once more, so in fact, it’s probably a huge mistake. What’s more, they run a business from their home and have had to tell their clients that their street name has changed for reasons unknown, which has costs them money. And I bet they’ll have to do another round if and when the town fixes the mistake or doubles down and have to compensate people for messing up their lives.

Of course, they contacted the town, but have to wait a whopping 14 days for an answer, which is a good reason to go to the media. They love their town, but this has upset them quite a bit. Their theory is also that whomever ordered the signs can’t spell.

People make mistakes, but when it forces people to incur costs, that’s not OK. We’ll keep you posted.

(Link: .rtvutrecht.nl)

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September 15, 2013

Moving meeting room looks like a stealth plane

Filed under: Art,Design by Branko Collin @ 11:14 pm

Secret Operation 610 is an artwork created by Rietveld Landscape and Studio Frank Havermans that doubles as a meeting room.

The artwork consists of hangar 610 at former Dutch airbase Soesterberg (hence the name) and of a vehicle that looks a bit like an F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter plane.

The creators, Frank Havermans and Ronald Rietveld, told Volkskrant that they had been asked to create a piece of furniture for the hangar. “But if we had created something that was attached to the hangar that would mean the building itself would be compromised, which we did not want. So we started joking about furniture on wheels. At first that did not sound realistic, but before we knew it we had bought a plane wheel from a dealer in Oss and we could not turn back.”

The vehicle can be driven slowly over the air strip using a joystick. Havermans and Rietveld are open to renting out the vehicle as a mobile meeting space. “As long as people don’t turn it into a beer shack.”

Secret Operation 610 is one of the art works that were created to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Peace of Utrecht. The work was revealed during Festival De Basis which started yesterday and which will last until Sunday 22 September. Airbase Soesterberg was closed in 2008 due to cuts in the Dutch defence budget.

A video showing the unveiling of the project and some of the other works at the former airbase can be seen at De Utrechtse Internet Courant.

(Photo: Rietveld Landscape)

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