Hi,

Similar background to myself - never built a recumbant but have built a track frame, also starting with an Aerolite and have bought a set of Nick's plans. Anyway, the Aerolite design seems pretty easy - I'm about halfway through the frame on a snowshoe 12. The plans reccomend spruce etc for the "stringers"{(front to back ribs) - I see no reason you couldnt use Poplar but it will weigh more. For the ribs the plans call out Ash which has a lot of natural flexibility - you can get about half the bend needed in kiln dried strips without steaming. I assume you could use anything else here as well as long as you steam it, just Ash is a material usually called out when you need to bend it.

Hoping to build the steambox this weekend and start on the ribs.

PVM

: I have a couple of questions for the group a little bit about my background
: first. I have been researching building different canoe and kayak designs
: I currently design and build recumbent bicycles for fun. I figured boats
: were the next step in my home building projects. I looked hard for
: something cheap and easy to build. I almost bought a set of CLC plans till
: I came across the Plat Monfort AeroLITE canoe plans cheap and easy. If I
: have good success with the canoe I want to build a strip built sea kayak.
: With all of that said my questions are I have a ton rough sawn planks of
: poplar is it suitable for the type of frame for the Aerolite canoe and for
: a compleat strip buit kayak. All of the research I have done I have not
: seen the mention of poplar as a suitable building material. Thanks