BEHEMOTH
the Megacycle is Born

OK. Given all those motives, the general design specification became obvious: BEHEMOTH should be an efficient human-powered vehicle optimized for comfortable long-distance travel with minimum external support facilities. It must carry state-of-the art mechanical, safety, medical, life support, and camping equipment. On-board systems must provide maximum possible autonomy in electrical power generation, computation capability, file storage, navigation, and communications. All components must be easily maintainable with on-board CAD tools and R&D equipment, and all system documentation must be machine-readable or microfiched. Operation while riding and while fixed must be supported equally, and both modes should maximize communication bandwidth between man and machine. On-board computers must support major application software standards, and the embedded control systems must be adaptive and power-efficient. There should be a minimum number of hardwired switches, with all control and management functions depending instead on an extensible graphical user interface (except for basic safety equipment). Future hardware additions or upgrades must involve minimal hardware changes. No radio operations should require antennas with external supports. The security system must be robust enough to allow me to turn my back comfortably for more than a few minutes. While I cannot claim that all of those goals were adequately met before I declared the project frozen and moved on to shipbuilding, the 3.5-year development project yielded a system that embodied much of the spirit of the above. Let's take a look at BEHEMOTH (Big Electronic Human-Energized Machine... Only Too Heavy). First, I should give you a quick physical description. The bike is an 8-foot recumbent, meaning that I sit in a relaxed position with my hands on control grips at my sides and my feet latched into a crankset out in front. Behind the bike is a 4-foot yellow trailer with solar lid, flip-down communications bay access door, and numerous antennas. In front of me is a large control console contained within a smooth white lexan fairing, presenting a panel with three large LCDs and numerous other instruments. Behind me a large white "RUMP" provides additional equipment space, a helmet-cooling system, more antennas, and a docking bay for an aluminum manpack with its own small solar panel. Atop my head is a decidedly bizarre helmet with heads-up display, motion sensors for cursor control, lights, the fluid heat exchanger, and an audio system. The whole system, fully loaded for touring, weighs about 580 pounds... plus me... and thus has 105 speeds, deployable "landing gear" for mountain climbing, and hydraulic brakes to help me survive the descent. Let's do it....  .