Many of us dream about ‘getting away‘ to beautiful places to relax and ride bikes with those we love.
Recently, I came across the video Smartwool Presents: Riding the Rails.
In this video (see below), we meet Evan Kay, his wife Ella, their dog, their bikes, and the railbike project they designed to use on rail trails to access more nature and adventure.
Evan and Ella ride MTB – a lot. Like most other MTBers, off-trail riding is their passion and purpose. They like to explore remote places and go on adventure rides.
Evan is an engineer who grew up loving farming, fishing, and family – and combining these passions with his technical skills is at the heart of this project.
Evan and Ella live in Vermont (New England, USA) where there are several disused railroad lines. There are many similar remnants of the old train networks across the USA, and seeing these got Evan curious about how to use these railroads to reimagine family adventures.
The challenge was to combine his technical skills with his love of outdoor MTB adventures. Inspired by seeing other riders adapting their bikes for railroads, Evan and Ella started working on ideas to use the rail to reach ever further and remote locations.
In this video, we see the evolution of their project to adapt their MTB bikes to ‘ride the rails’ – or railbiking as it is known.
A central aim of this project was to experience nature using active pedal power generated through their mountain bikes.
The initial design was based on three main needs. First, they wanted to use their mountain bikes as the drive mechanism. It also needed to be stable and safe. And third, they wanted both riders to be parallel (side-by-side) and not front-to-back (as in tandem like other designs). There is a platform between them that carries all their cargo and the dog with minimal effort.
I was really inspired by Evan’s ingenuity and skills in being able to utilise what is already there, yet often overlooked (in this case the abandoned rail trails) as an opportunity to extend their bike riding adventures – as well as creatively self-manufacturing an adaptive MTB frame that is unique and purposeful. So inspiring to see a design makes it easier and more comfortable to go further, for longer on a bike.
I also love that the whole family can literally ‘go along for the ride’ together!
Gives a new meaning to ‘off-(t)rail mountain biking’!
All images in this post are stills from the Smartwool Presents: Riding the Rails video.