James writes from Hirakata, Japan:

Hey!  Big fan of the site and of anything and everything steampunk...Funny thing is, there are so many people who are straight-up steampunk without even knowing that such a cult underground exists.  For example, when i was a teenager, I modified a 13inch TV i had from the 80's to fit inside of a 1930's TV box that I found in an abandoned, half burned down factory near where I lived. [I did the same thing! -JvS]

Well, the same thing occurs throughout the world, I've found.  I live in a small town in Japan in a very rural area.  Upon exiting the supermarket the other day, I came across this steampunk masterpiece!  I waited for an hour for the presumed Japanese steampunker to come out with his goth gear on and his mohawk, but low and behold, an 85 year old man comes out, grabs his lighter from his scooter, and lights up.  I went over to him to complement him on his work, and with barely audible Japanese since he had no teeth at all and had very badly fitting dentures, started to explain how he put it together in the heaviest Japanese countryside accent I have ever heard.  Classic!

James is spot on, Steampunk is not a new thing but an expression of something that has been with us all along.  What's different is that people's dissatisfaction with what they are offered in the marketplace has more and more of them turning to DIY to make their own wonderful things and the advent of the 'net gives them immediate access to how to information and each other.

Thanks James!

WISIL HPVers is one of the best sites on the net for information about recumbent bicycles.  I've recently managed to get sir CodPeace of The BostoDelphia Blog interested in them and he sent this link to a review of a bike that I must have.

This bike was conceptualized in 2003 by a host of individuals as a breakaway from the current crop of recumbent bikes which were all compromised in some way or another to provide added comfort or perceived safety. This is truly a racing recumbent, using the latest in splitter plate design philosophy, and constructed from carbon fiber and Kevlar using a bladder in female mold process. This bike does not suffer the same issue with flex that the M5 carbon lowracer has, it's incredibly stiff. The NoCom weighs about 24lbs as shown, which is incredibly light considering the use of heavier components like a disk wheel and disk brakes.

You'll recall I posted a picture of my recumbent bike last week and that one of things I wondered aloud was how one would go about steampunkifying a bike?  Well Eric and Alan - a.k.a. Steuben's Wheelmen - sent me a whole passel of new photos that show exactly how one would go about this process!

Don't miss the video!

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