Human Powered Vehicles
Pedaling with your Feet Bicycle
Wheels on your Feet Inline Skates | All-Terrain Skiing/Skating |
Road Skiing | Off-Road Skiing (grass skiing)
Kicking with your Feet Skateboarding | Scootering
| Kicksledding | Hiking (yes,
that's right!)
http://webpages.charter.net/rcgilmore/Illustrations.htm
Bah. Who needs a motor with all the noise, fumes, pollution, and
expense it produces. Let's use our own bodies to propel
overselves
in the great outdoors and get great exercise in the process.
This human powered vehicles section only includes land based human
powered vehicles. That excludes human powered adventures on
water, snow and ice which are described elsewhere. Land based
vehicles powered by other means such as wind, gravity, motor or animal
are also described elsewhere.
Pedaling with your Feet (or
rarely Hands)
The bicycle is the most
popular and versatile human powered vehicle. As a land based
vehicle its biggest disadvantage is its size, it requires a lot of
space to store as opposed to say inline skates. Its biggest
advantage is the terrain it can handle.
Wheels on your Feet
Inline Skates
Inline skates have boots you wear on your feet with three or more
wheels in a straight line on each boot. The wheels are usually
tiny so for best results inline skates should be used on the smoothest
pavement you can find. Inline skates are one of the most popular
summer urban sports that cheap skates can be found almost
anywhere. Inline skates are even sometimes a way to commute to
work, especially in big cities.
Inline skates biggest advantage is they are easily stored. With a
bicycle you would have to lock it up outside while with inline skates
you could put them in your locker. However, inline skates take up
a lot more room on a road which makes them impratical for narrow busy
roads.
All-Terrain Skating/Skiing
This is decribed in its own section. See All-Terrain Skating/Skiing.
Road Skiing aka Rollar Skiing
Road skiing is used mostly for cross-country ski racers as a cross
training activity. When there is no snow you do road skiing
instead. Rollar skiing is fairly limited in the areas it can be
practiced.
Rollar skiing guide http://www.xcskiworld.com/training/rollerguide.htm
Off-Road Skiing
xxx
Kicking with your Feet
Skateboarding
Skateboarding started out as kids reduced scooters to the bare minimum
turning them into a simple version of the skateboard. The first
skateboards rode very poorly and unsafely but have improved over
time. For more information check out my Skateboarding section.
Kick Scooters (aka Foot Scooters, Push
Scooters)
Scootering Scooters are a popular means
of proplusion that compete with inline
skates and bicycles. The advantage of scooters is you can
actually carry them with you inside most stores. Just don't
actually use them inside the stores however, that wouldn't be
appreciated. Scooters are more popular with kids than
adults.
Kicksledding
See the kicksledding section.
Kicksledding is an old and disapparing way of getting around.
Hiking
Hiking is a minimalist way of getting around on your own power.
It doesn't require any vehicle at all. See the hiking section for more details.