History of the Human Powered Vehicle Operators of Ottawa (HPVOoO) (H-P-Vous?)

A little history...

The group was formed in early 2002 by Mark Rehder and Richard Guy Briggs (who is also our webmaster and server host), with Juergen Weichert joining in when Richard and Mark first began tossing around the idea of some sort of recumbent club.

Mark had been toodling around since 1997 on his Linear bent, and in his travels only came across one or two others on recumbents. Fast-forward to late 2001, when Richard (who Mark knew as a fellow enviro / cycling activist) mentioned he had ordered a Greenspeed tandem trike.

Some talk was made about finding other recumbent riders, and Richard got the ball rolling by offering to host a website and starting up a mailing list. Juergen began doodling a logo, and after many names were tossed around the wonderful acronym of HPVOoO materialized. (We like the VOoO part, because there is a strong French prescence in Ottawa, both in population and in the fact that the province of Quebec is right across the river!)

Things got more interesting for the group when local bike builder Mike Watson joined, as Mike has created some of the wildest and funniest bikes in the world! Whenever the call for a parade went out we would ride to Mike's to sort through his pile of wacky machines and get ourselves ready for some silliness.

Mark liked the Rainbow Chopper so much that he bought it from Mike, and then one by one the "Downtown Contingent" either bought one of Mike's bikes, or made a funny one for themselves. Again, check out the Events page to see all the machines.

We had a blast and won our first award at The Irish Society St. Patrick Day Parade, March 15th, 2003 in Ottawa, concocting a trike trailer to hold a Hammond C3 organ with Leslie speaker played live by MKP. We've entered every St. Patrick's Day parade since.

For a detailed chronological history with photos, please see our events and media coverage pages.

Group shots: