'Conference Bike' made for 7 cyclists really is a funcycle

Oakland Tribune, Jun 18, 2007

'THIS REALLY is the perfect ride for this thing," says Stuart Blum as he and six friends pedal his bike along Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

Yes, that math is correct: Seven cyclists are pumping away on one single, not-so-solitary "Conference Bike."

Sometimes whimsy can be the mother of invention.

A Dutch sculptor/wannabe mechanical engineer created the Conference Bike, and there are about 150 in circulation worldwide. Stuart Blum, a 47-year-old lawyer who collects exotic bikes, teamed up with a friend to buy a used one on eBay last year for $9,000.

On a recent Sunday morning, he and his friends saddled up, bound for breakfast. The Conference Bike is a beast, a normal bike on growth hormones: 400 pounds of steel in motion, maximum speed about 12 mph.

It looks like a poker game on wheels -- three to be exact: The Conference Bike technically is a Conference Trike.

Seven people sit around a large, circular handlebar, legs independently turning pedals linked to a central chain drive. The rider in the rear seat-post position (in this case, Blum) commands the brakes and steering wheel.

"Dude, you should be in a parade," Karen Pfarr, a first-time rider, says to Blum as they cruise past startled tourists.

In a way, the fire-engine-red Conference Bike is its own parade. Crowds always form. Eyes bug out. Cameras click. A contagion of smiles spreads.

Everybody perched on the Conference Bike feels compelled to wave, as if they're transportation royalty out for a spin among the lumbering, lead-footed masses.

Something about any bicycle and its youthful connotations puts people in a good mood; something about weird, multipassenger bikes makes folks downright giddy.

Larry Black is the co-owner of Blum's Conference Bike. "The Conference Bike is the best way to surround yourself with people. It's literally a barrel of laughs."

Rider Cindy Ching brought her parents along this morning. Her father, Chay Ching, is an environmental engineer. He's impressed with the design of the Conference Bike, how it transforms seven sets of legs into "one power generator." He wonders if this might be the commuting future: bikepooling?

"It's amazing," Chay Ching says as the big bike glides to a stop at the waterfront. "You turn the flat power into rotational power. That's not easy."

Blum says the Conference Bike is a low-maintenance marvel that has the added bonus of being "grossly overbuilt." Eight feet long and 6 feet wide, it's almost impossible to roll, yet steers like a dream.

When in use, the Conference Bike delivers a surprisingly good calorie burn. After all, that's quite a pile of steel to push around.

"It was more of a workout than I thought," says Paula Hickey, as she sits down to breakfast, shirt wet with perspiration.

-- Baltimore Sun

Fit to drive at any age

Older drivers aren't always the best drivers. As mental acuity and vision decline, so does the ability to maneuver a car properly. But being in good physical shape could lead to better skills.

Researchers put 90 men and women age 70 or older through weekly workouts that included leg lifts, head and neck rotations, and grip- strength exercises. Each activity related to some aspect of driving, such as moving from the brake to the gas pedal or swiveling around to check a blind spot. The study participants repeated the exercises daily for 15 minutes.

A control group of 88 people, also 70 or older, did not exercise. Both groups took part in a home-based education program on home safety, fall prevention and vehicle care.

Both groups also took standard driving tests at the beginning and the end of the study. The exercise-intervention group scored 2.5 points higher overall than the control group and committed 37 percent fewer critical errors in areas such as paying attention to signals and traffic signs and changing lanes. Total scores ranged from zero (worst) to 72 (best).

While cognitive and visual abilities are important, physical capabilities "have the most potential for intervention," says Dr. Richard Marottoli, associate professor of medicine at Yale University School of Medicine and lead author of the study, which appeared in May's Journal of General Internal Medicine.

-- Los Angeles Times

Use sunblock correctly

Dotting and dabbing on sunblock before heading to the beach?

You should slather instead.

Just how much protection skin is getting depends on picking the right product and using it correctly.

Most people are doing it all wrong, said Dr. Neil Alan Fenske, chairman of dermatology and cutaneous surgery at the University of South Florida College of Medicine.

"People never apply enough," he said, leaving skin vulnerable to problems ranging from premature aging to cancer.

Almost half of this year's projected 60,000 new cases of the most serious form of skin cancer, melanoma, will occur in just 10 states, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation. California is at the top of that list, followed by Florida.