Having Fun

by Ed

This post has been long over due. For some of my regular visitors, thanks for checking back from time to time. It just that I don’t have anything really interesting on the money part to share.

Since this blog title is partly personal, partly money, maybe I’ll write a bit more on the personal side for this post. So here goes.

We went to have some fun time last week. Took time off work to see some hot air balloons which is rare over here. The half day off was really enjoyable. I did not have so much fun in a long time. I got to practice my photographic skills, (which were quite rusty), ride in a hot air balloon and also a trike for the the first time in my life.

Photographing hot air balloons is also new to me since, like I said, we don’t have them much over here. Even the event was limited due to proximity to our airport. Gosh, I wonder how on earth the organizers planned the event. Granted there are some nice background to photograph the hot air balloons.

Heck, there was even a pair of Levi’s that got inflated.

The balloon ride was tethered, not go with the wind type of ride. Perhaps one of these days, else where, we might just try that. The best best part of the day was riding a trike. If you don’t know what that is, it is a tricycle with 2 wheels up front and you ride it in a reclining position much like a sports car. The trikes can go pretty fast and cycling them is quite different from a normal upright bicycle. After riding the trike, I came back and look up some information about such tricycles online. This is what I found and here we can draw some lessons from history.

Reclining bikes also known as recumbent or “bents” like the one above (those with 2 wheels) have been around in the late 18th century. The story of reclined bicycles is as follows

In 1933, Francois Faure, a Frenchman, rode a recumbent 49.99 km in an hour, a new record. The day of Faure’s hour attempt the other racers jeered at him and his bike. Stand up and pedal like a man they joked, lying down will make you sleepy. Their laughter died as he out paced two professional riders. Faure went on to beat the world hour record, going 45.055 km in one hour. In 1934 the UCI (Union Cyclist International) ruled that the Velocar was not a bicycle and could not be raced in UCI events of for UCI records.

Faure’s record was relegated to a foot note in cycling history with the stroke of their bureaucratic pen. The recumbent was faster, and they didn’t want to have to compete with it. They have not relented to this day. In 1938 Marcel Berthet rode a streamlined velocar 50.5 km/hour, another new record. Francesco Moser surpassed this mark on a wedgie (normal upright bicycle). Moser rode 51.1 km/hour, but not till 1984, 46 years later!

Till today, reclining bikes are still just a tiny niche even though they are faster, more comfortable, allows you to put more power to the wheel and generally much more fun to ride. They are more expensive due to the fact that they are usually larger, need more material to build and production never really reach mass production levels.

What has this got to do with money and progress? Well, the story here goes to show that just because some things are the norm does not mean they are better. Society accepts certain ideas and very few questions them. The same thing goes for ideas relating to money.

For instance, I recently looked at some mutual fund returns over 5 years. Since the market have become a bit more stable and the recovery looks good, it seems reasonable to look at the returns. Over 5 years, some of the better funds achieve in the region of 8 to a little less than 10% return a year. Most funds showed lower returns. Now while the returns are commendable, taking into account inflation, the figures are not that interesting anymore. Fixed deposits would have shown much lower figures and yet, a large portion of people still keep money in FD (where I live anyway). Property prices have jumped quite a bit and here we have largely escaped the property bubble like that in the US.

But to change what has been acceptable and safe might not be easy.

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