Railbiking and how to find railbiking parts

Sat November 19 2011
Posted Nov 19, 2011
7,189

I was recently watching a railroad documentary on the History channel, and I noticed a man riding a mt. bike on a railroad track. His bike had a outrigger on the right side of the track, and extra wheels or guides protruding in front of and behind his rear wheels on his bike. His bike was stationed on the left side of the track. I had never seen this type of bike before, so I decided to do some research on this peculiar bike. After conducting many hours of research, I found out this bike design is called a velocipede. The technology for the velocipede has been around since 1869 in the U.S.A., and since the 1840's in Europe. I was able to locate some videos on youtube.com pertaining to railbiking. My favorite railbiking videos on youtube.com are as follows: Hal's railbike, Jeff's railbike, Railbike- Revolution cycles-Eugene, Rail bike adventures, Amsoil railbike, RailBiking Spring 2010, and the Brazilian Railbike 1 and 2. I discovered that Mr. Dick Bentley of Tupper Lake, N.Y., sells engineering plans on how to build a railbike. His plans cost: twenty five dollars. Plans must be ordered by: December, 15, 2011, or after: April, 1, 2012. Mr. Bentley can be reached at: rrbike.freeservers.com or at 50 Mt. Arab Rd., Box 786,Tupper Lake, N.Y., 12986, or by phone at: 518-359-9300 Bicycle parts for Mr. Bentley's design can be bought at a local hardware store for one hundred dollars. Mr. Bentley's and Dr. Smart's railbike inventions are similiar, but different in design. Railbikes/veliocipedes were formerly used by the railroads for track maint., moving workers to worksites, or helping distressed trains. Telegraph companies used railbikes/velocipedes to check telegraph lines for damage or vandalism. One of the best railbike/velocipede designs I found was by: Dr. Richard C. Smart Sr., from Coeur D' Alene, Idaho. Dr. Smart's Convertible Railway Velocipede invention was granted a patent by the U.S.A. Patent Office in 1980. Dr. Smart's patent can be viewed at :http:// www.google.com/patents/about/4230046,_convertible_railway_ve locipede.html?id=9_gtAAAAEB Dr. Smart's patent application contains forty- four technical drawings, invention explanations, invention overviews, invention abstracts, and invention claims. What I admired most about Mr. Smart's invention, was that the guides and outrigger can be retractable. So the outrigger and guides can be folded into your railbike. And then a bicyclist can switch from rail riding to mt. biking very easily. Mr. Smart's patent application can be downloaded from the aforementioned website in PDF form. Mr.Smart's patent # is: 4,230,046. Only download railbike patent info. for educational purposes. Dr. Smart's railbike plans are not for sale anymore. He is happily retired and railbiking throughout the world. Mr. Bob Mellin of San Anselmo, Ca., has one book for sale on where to find abandoned railroad tracks to ride on in the U.S.A. Or you can email Mr. Mellin at: Bobmellin@aol.com for info. on his book. The cost is $20.00 for the book. Mr. Mellin can be reached at: Railbike Intl., 1323 San Anselmo Ave., San Anselmo, Ca., 94960 He can also be reached at: 415-453-8886 Railbikes tours are available in: Oregon, Costa Rica, Japan, Belgium, and California. Check railbikes.com for info. on railbiking tours and how to buy completed kits for railbiking at the price of $450.00, plus $250.00 for shipping and handling. If anyone wishes to build a railbike in this area, I recommend that you first get permission from all railroad companies where you wish do your railbiking. Riding on railroad tracks without permission is trespassing, and against the law. Mike Bennett, Eastern Iowa.