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Art students' polar bike gives new meaning to 'extreme cycling'
Monday, January 03, 2000 By Byron Spice, Science Editor, Post-Gazette
Bill Farrell spent the New Year weekend in the Allegheny National Forest with his teen-age sons, riding mountain bikes along snowmobile trails. That may sound chilly, but consider where Farrell will next mount a bike: the South Pole.
An industrial design instructor at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Farrell will depart for the South Pole next week to test the Ice Prowler, a bicycle designed by his advanced design students expressly for use in the extreme cold of Antarctica.
Farrell has been working for several years with the Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica, or CARA, a consortium headed by the University of Chicago and including Carnegie Mellon University that is building an astronomical observatory at the South Pole.
The bike is the latest attempt by his student to address problems faced by scientists and technical staff at the pole, some of whom spend the long, dark Antarctic winter there. It's meant to solve a utilitarian problem -- getting around -- but after the first bike was delivered to the pole last month, it became clear the CARA staff wants something more.
"They want it to be more recreational," Farrell said. It's designed to go about 10 miles an hour -- not so fast that someone would work up a sweat. "We didn't think anybody would ride them for fun." But the South Pole folks are begging for something with a little more go.
So a second Ice Prowler now on its way to the pole will have "more extreme gearing," Farrell said, to give users a bit more speed.
The bikes feature wide rubber tires -- actually, golf cart tires that have been specially cut with deep, snow-chewing treads. The bike may need a bit more bite when it's used off the beaten paths, however, so the tires are being fitted with wire chains, Farrell said.
The second bike also will have a special, wooden seat designed by student Nick Boor. The first bike has a standard gel seat, which has a hard plastic shell over plastic foam. Both the shell and the foam tend to crack when extremely cold. Boor's seat is more resilient. It's also ergonomically designed so that it doesn't compress the insulation in the seat of the rider's pants -- important for keeping the rider's bottom ice-free.
Students have stripped the bikes of all plastic parts, which can crack in the cold.
It will take a week of travel -- a succession of airplane flights punctuated by long, weather-related waits -- for Farrell to reach the South Pole.
The actual test riding may take only half a day, Farrell guesses. While he's down there, however, he'll be talking to CARA staff members to see what other problems they face in building and operating the observatory. "I hope to find some new projects," he explained.
Additional information about the Ice Prowler project is available on the Internet at http://www.iceprowler.com
The Web site for the Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica is astro.uchicago.edu/cara
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