According to a Joplin Globe article, Jene Baldwin invented the "bike-a-basket" 25 years ago but only recently has an area tech school taken an interest in manufacturing them:
Basically, the bike-a-basket was a basket on a trailer pulled by a bike. Jene used his bike-a-basket to run errands, deliver meals to the elderly, collect and haul recyclable materials, and generally to help out around town.
The Joplin man certainly wasn’t the first person to slap a trailer behind a bicycle, but there was something different about the bike-a-basket.
First of all, the frame connecting the trailer to the back of Jene’s bicycle was low to the ground. The low center of gravity, he said, made it much easier to tow the trailer. Perhaps the most unique part of Jene’s contraption was the hitch that connected the bike to the trailer. The hitch rotated, allowing the basket to stay upright even if the bike were to fall over.
According to a recently published study, summarized on Reuters Health, remaining active in mid- through late-life is important in maintaining quality of life on down the road--in particular, in delay the start of type 2 diabetes:
They found that at age 50 life expectancy free of diabetes is 2.3 years longer for moderately active individuals and at least 4 years longer for highly active individuals.
"The effect of physical activity on life expectancy without diabetes reflects both the lower incidence of diabetes and the lower mortality of nondiabetic individuals associated with increasing physical activity," Dr. Wilma J. Nusselder from Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands and colleagues report in Diabetes Care.
There has been discussion about the role of obesity in overall health. Obesity often leads to higher blood pressure and higher cholesterol. Some have maintained that these two factors alone, independent of obesity, explain the health effects of obesity.
In effect, if you were overweight but maintained you blood pressure and cholesterol, perhaps there were no health effects.
Northwestern University researchers tracked 17,643 patients for three decades and found that being overweight in mid-life substantially increased the risk of dying of heart disease later in life — even in people who began the study with healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
High blood pressure and cholesterol are strong risk factors for heart disease. Both are common in people who are too fat, and often are thought to explain why overweight people are more prone to heart disease.
Take a ride back in time on southeastern Missouri's Berryman Trail. Located in Mark Twain National Forest on the low shoulders of the ancient and gnarled Ozark Mountains, Berryman offers classic Midwestern mountain biking.
Traverse from woodsy creek bottoms to ridgetops on tight, rocky singletrack. You'll pass a cave rumored to be the hiding place of notorious Old West outlaw Jesse James and his gang. The route mixes narrow toboggan-run descents, rock gardens and twisting, bench-cut singletrack as you curl back to the Brazil Creek campground.
The ridge crest rewards you with a view of Taum Sauk Mountain (Missouri's highest point, elevation 1,772 feet) and the velvety green Ozarks stretching away south and west. Take a breath then dive back in to the trees and head toward verdant creekbottoms and rugged hollows.
Location: The Berryman Trail is located near Potosi, Missouri, about three hours southwest of St. Louis. The nearest town of size is Sullivan, just off I-44.
Many of the GI’s spent their off duty hours in beer halls. My roommate and I bought a new three speed bike imported from England. I rode it far more than he did. The freedom of travel my bike allowed me to explore the city of Munich and the surrounding area during my time off.
Some days would find me dressed in civilian clothing as I rode out into the country countryside. I would often find a farm family making hay. I would pick up a hay fork and begin helping them heap the freshly cut grass onto a temporary fence so it could cure into hay. It would have rotted had it remained on the ground. Soon a couple of the older men would come over to speak to me. Finding that I spoke only English, they would call one of the young boys who had learned English in school. He would translate for us. The workers were astonished to find an American GI who was interested in them. Soon one of the younger ones would be sent to the farmhouse, obviously to tell the women that there would be a guest for the noon meal. And what a meal it always was!
Where: About 15 miles south of Springfield on U.S. 65. Look for a sign and a left-turn lane at the bottom of a steep hill. . . .
More than 15 miles of designated trails — some easy, some difficult, some in-between — cover 2,502 rugged acres in the conservation area, which flanks U.S. 65 about eight miles south of Ozark. Designated trails have signs and are regularly maintained, with the trail route shown on an area map or brochure available at the trailhead.
A soot-blackened railroad trestle in near north St. Louis is going to become perhaps the most interesting bicycle and hiking path in the city.
The publicly funded Great Rivers Greenway District reached a rather bold conclusion: The best way to build a path among Interstate 70, numerous dead-end streets and warehouses was to go over them rather than around.
A year from now, St. Charles County should have a 50 percent increase in its miles of mountain-biking trails, solidifying its lead as the region's prime area for off-road cyclists.
John Donjoian, founder of Gateway Off-Road Cycling, is pleased by the expansion. He said mountain bikers from throughout the Midwest are discovering the trails that lace many of St. Charles County's wooded hillsides.
"We have a great reputation going right now," said Donjoian, whose group designed and, with volunteer labor, built many of the twisting trails situated in St. Charles County parks.
Fans of the World Human Powered Speed Challenge held annually in Battle Mountain, Nevada, find the top-of-the-line Tour De France mount positively archaic.
To propel a human-powered vehicle, or HPV, to 80-plus miles per hour, a rider needs more than a lightweight frame and some fancy wheels.
The fastest bike ever created won't go anywhere without the right person to ride it. In addition to having great leg strength, the pilot must be small enough to fit inside these bullet bikes and have the proper mental stamina.
"At high speeds like we experience every year at Battle Mountain, a fight-or-flight reflex kicks in," said Sam Whittingham, a record-holding HPV pilot. "You have to have absolute faith in your equipment and be 100 percent confident that everything is going to hold together at Mach 3."
The IMBA's list of 32 "Epic Rides" includes the Berryman Trail in Missouri:
