THE UNIVERSITY BABY KANSAN
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19. 2006
NEWS
5A
Eric Farmsworth of Lawrence has been creating unique bicycles since he was a young child. In recent years, his bicycles have served dozens of purposes beyond exercise from a shopping cart to a lawn mower.
BICYCLES (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
The man behind the wheels doesn't consider himself a scientist. He's self-taught, and he'll be the first to tell you his designs aren't that unique. His practical, do-it-yourself mentality and desire to have a minimal impact on the Earth are the driving force behind his bicycles and his lifestyle.
His current project involves an old exercise bike. He described it as a "bucking bronco exercise machine" because the seat moves up and down, a feature he plans to keep. He despises exercise bicycles because they don't move, so he takes his revenge by attaching wheels.
"Exercise bikes need to get a life," he explained.
The first bike frame he ever built was done out of practicality. After riding his mountain bicycle all day in the California Redwoods, he was bothered by soreness in his neck and shoulders.
"I guess I was aware of recumbent bicycles, but I thought I should try one. So I looked around and found I had to spend $2,000 to get one. So I said, well that's really stupid, I can build one for less."
So he did. But not for much less by the time he got done buying welding kits, parts and tubing.
"Once I got a welding kit, I said hey, I can build another one a lot cheaper," he said. "Eventually I just stopped buying new parts. Now I just use recycled stuff. There's just so much bike junk lying around."
Some of his "bike junk" moved with him during his migration east to Kansas in 1996. The open space and slower pace attracted Farnsworth to the Midwest. With the help of an inheritance from his mother, he bought 40 acres near Garnett. He always wanted to grow wheat, so he did.
In the process of learning how to grow, cut and grind wheat, he created a grain mill bicycle. Trying to grind hard grain with baseball bats and hand power just didn't cut it, he said.
A rusted old 10-speed frame, and shiny new flywheels were combined to make the tool.
"I've been doing time studies," he said. "The hopper will hold two pounds so it takes 45 minutes to grind the whole business."
He moved to Lawrence five years ago after he met his wife Jean Burgess at a local barn dance. After getting married, Farnsworth and his bikes moved in with Jean and her daughter Emma in their east Lawrence home. Visitors walking up to their vine-covered front gate can see Farnsworth's shopping-cart bicycle on the green lawn. He uses the cart, which is attached to the bike frame, to transport fruit from friends' trees around town, haul bed frames for another project and to carry groceries. Up the stairs on their front porch are
garden tools in one corner and more bicycles in the other. One is a 1970s blue 10-speed, Eric's favorite, with an Art Togue Parade ribbon hanging from the handlebar. Next to it is his front-wheel drive bicycle. It's silver frame is shorter than the average bicycle so the rider's feet can pedal gears attached to the front tire.
Even more bikes rest against the walls of their cozy living room. Downstairs in his shop, otherwise known as the "Farnsworth Bicycle Laboratory," is his collection of bicycle pieces. Bicycles large and small and frames hang from hooks on the ceiling. Boxes of gearshifts and brake pieces sit on a table, which is covered with more boxes. A large red toolbox with three open drawers holds tools. Leaning against the rock wall are six bed frames, scavenged in August when KU students were moving. Underneath the stairs is his 10-foot-long wooden workbench, covered by a sander, flame torch, tools and the bottom of a shopping cart. About the stairs hang saws, metal rulers and levels. Underneath the workbench is a pile of tires and rims. His prized tool is a drill press he purchased at a garage sale. His pedaled grinder, dusted white with flour, sits in the basement next to two buckets of grain.
On this day, a path is cleared to the washing machine, something his wife Jean appreciates. She supports his artistic endeavors and accepts the bike clutter in the house, but said "sometimes it's annoying when I can't get to the washing machine."
"I think a lot of guys are career driven and it's nice Eric has a shop he can work in here," she said. "It keeps him around and we can spend a lot of time together."
She has gone with him to the Art Togeau parade since they met. It's fun and silly, she said, recalling the time they tried to ride the wooden tricycle made completely from wood scraps. Unfortunately it couldn't stop.
Her daughter Emma, a KU freshman, was 12 when Eric made her a "plain simple bike," she said. She picked an Italian girls frame she liked from his stash of bike parts. She said it was slim and cute after he painted it and added handlebars.
Jean said Farnsworth was not afraid to look silly and he's not afraid to fail.
He gave two "cool" bikes to his neighbor Doug Bergstrom. Farnsworth offered the five-foot "tall bike" when the three-wheel bike he originally gave him was stolen a few years ago.
"I'm too scared to ride his other blikes, but they are cool." she said.
Bergstrom said he didn't like to lock up his "Eric bikes," because he wants people to try riding them and to be inspired. He figured if someone stole one it would be easy to spot around town. But the three-wheel
bike was never found.
"Everyone loved it," he said. "Kids clamored over the bike. At a certain point I realized three-wheel bikes were practical."
Moving his muscles and being outdoors is what Farnsworth loves most about riding a bike. He recalls biking to and from work on a valley road in northern California, breathing in the balsam aroma from the Douglas Firs until a car zoomed by leaving behind an unpleasant odor of fumes.
He told Farnsworth they were marketable and could be sold for young children to ride, but he said Farnsworth wasn't in it for the money. He would rather pedal than peddle his bikes.
He still bikes to and from his job at Horizon Systems, Inc., about a four and a half mile ride, and said it improved his mood after a bad day at work. After twenty minutes
of riding home, he forgets what was bothering him.
"Riding my bike to work every day is not going to save the planet," he said. "Even if everyone in this country rode their bicycles instead of driving cars it wouldn't save the planet."
"I make them because I like to," he said. "And once you get in the habit of something you can't stop."
But it's an improvement in his eyes and if there's something he can do. he'll do it.
Apparently he can't stop thinking about them either. When Jean asks him what's on his mind he'll tell her: Bike parts.
Kansan staff writer Erin Castaneda can be contacted at ecastaneda@ kansan.com.
— Edited by Travis Robinett
Eric Farnsworth of Lawrence welds copper wire into the heart of a future bicycle, which will incorporate a "Health Rider" stationary exercise machine, among other things. Farnsworth creates his bicycles in the basement of his home, known as the 'Farnsworth Bicycle Laboratory.'
POLITICS
Kline's practices questioned by former Kansas Attorney General
BY JOHN HANNA ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOPEKA — Having already broken with Attorney General Phill Kline over another issue, former Attorney General Bob Stephan is questioning practices related to his fellow Republican's raising money from conservative churches.
Stephan said Wednesday he is particularly upset that a church passed around its collection plate after Kline spoke there this summer so that it could donate money to a for-profit company led by Kline's wife and paid by Kline's campaign for services. He called the incident "s o m e w h a t reprehensible," though he
doesn't doubt its legality.
State law prohibits a state officer or employee from accepting speaking fees, and the ban applies even if the money ultimately goes to a third party on the officer's behalf. But the state ethics commission has said the ban doesn't apply when someone isn't acting in an official capacity.
Kline told reporters that he discussed issues involving his campaign, the company operated by his wife and his appearances at churches with the state Governmental Ethics Commission's executive director so that he wouldn't run afoul of state law. Executive Director Carol Williams said conversations with Kline's campaign were after the fact.
"Everything we've done has been run through the Governmental Ethics. It's fine."
I tried to call him and he didn't return my calls and that's been pretty much it," Kline said.
Kline said the Carr case was an issue between the two men but wouldn't say why Stephan ended his association with Kline last month.
The attorney general also said he and Stephan, who held the office from 1979 to 1995, disagreed over whether Kline should make convicted multiple murderer Reginald Carr an issue in his re-election campaign. Stephan said Kline had promised not to but later did so.
Stephan said he learned about the church's donation later, was troubled, and couldn't get detailed answers from Kline or his staff. He said he asked for those answers in writing.
"Frankly, I found it somewhat reprehensible. It's weighed on me, and I haven't known just how to handle it," Stephan said.
PHILL KLINE Attorney general
"As far as these other things,
He added: "Everything we've done has been run through the Governmental Ethics. It's fine."
Kline, a conservative, formulated a "church effort" to take full advantage of his support among
Seeking a second term, Kline is in a difficult and frequently bitter race with Democratic challenger Morrison, the Johnson County district attorney.
conservative Christians.
He put it in writing in an internal memo to his staff on Aug. 8, and someone leaked it anonymously to reporters.
In the memo, Kline discussed political receptions held after services, directing his staff to get friendly pastors to invite "money people."
On Wednesday, a nonprofit watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate.
Kline has repeatedly said his activities aren't putting churches' tax-exempt status in jeopardy.
"That's false," he said when reporters asked the question Wednesday.
For years, Kline has spoken during services and before church groups about how he and his estranged father reconciled and about the importance of people having God in their lives.
After speaking at the Light of the World Christian Center in Topeka this summer, the congregation collected a $1,339 offering for SWT Communications.
Among other things, the company, owned by Kline's wife, produces radio spots about historical events that are broadcast across the state. Kline said Wednesday it also operates a dog kennel.
The company donated $1,181 to Kline's campaign in June, and Kline's campaign paid $3,600 to SWT this year for storing documents and furniture.
Williams said neither the donations from SWT nor the payments to it appear to violate Kansas law. She said the church's donation to SWT came after SWT made its contribution, so there appears to be no questionable funneling of dollars there.