Mt. Tabor Timetrials

From the 2006 Labor Day weekend festivities. For the record, out of two runs per racer, Thud & Hang tied for best time(s) with runs of 37 seconds. But the Bear got a 38 and a 39 by jumping off the designated route and plunging steeply through flora and fauna, giving him the COMBINED best time (Hang and Thud's other runs were both 40+ seconds).

Building the Dog of War

Spidey welding mulitple stays into the big pipe axle.



Burning a hole through the axle-pipe to serve as a grease-port?



An attached wheel.

Aqua-Propulsion Laboratories*

The CHUNK 666 Aquacycle expedition to the Pleasure Lagoon quickly approaching, Megulon-5 figured he'd take his aquacycle for a test-float.

His aquacycle? The infamous PlatformThing (re-christened the Hesperus) with a squirrel-fan welded to the front between the two front wheels. The belt-drive for this was integrated with the chain-drive. A couple of empty plastic barrels were then secured to the bike for floatation.

We rode to the eastbank, under the Hawthorne Bridge.




We had to ease the bike down the steep grade to the bank with a crew of four people. Then we edged the bike into the polluted, Superfund waters.





It floats. Megulon began pedalling, and the bike... sorta bobbed around and floated upriver as the wind pushed it. Later analysis would deduce that the fan was too deep in the water (about two-thirds submerged when it should have been half). Still, it was pretty cool to see a bike float around.



Pedro dove into the river and helped Megulon5 get the bike ashore. We chit-chatted with some passerbys, and started to leave. But Megulon5 got a little full of himself and rode down a small grade at a funny angle, and, well...



Normally a taco'd wheel doesn't bother us. But, as you can see, in this case the wheel is almost entirely enclosed by the plastic barrels, and is further complicated by the weight of the bike. Megulon5 had to leave the bike where it laid for the night and come back the next day with a new wheel. At least, for once, you could leave a bike unlocked overnight and not worry about anything.




^* This is an old post which didn't make the migration from the old blog, but now with better, flickr-hosted pics.

Luigi

Luigi was formed from a tiny, curvy yellow Schwinn kids' frame as a core, an extra rear triangle, a big seatpost extension, and a set of exercise bike handlebars.



It's wheels were relatively tiny, maybe 20"ers. The gear ratio was SA-WEET--fast cadence but just enough to keep high speed on the flats. Spidey could pretty easily ride it up the steepest of hills, and the fall-away bars allowed for ejection off the front when necessary. It had very quick handling turned on a tenpence. Seemingly never broke.



Wish we still had it.

Problem Solving

Question.


Deliberation.


Resolution (w/ emphasis!!).

Public Werks & Morning Wood

New(ish) rides by Big B.

Public Werks.



Monotube fork extension is discarded sign-post. No welds - all bolts. Lot of shimmy shimmy.



The Morning Wood aka Norwegian Wood.



Wooden beam monotube, christened sophmorically in the Big B. Style.



Slot at the top for original fork to rest on, big ol' bolt to keep it aligned.

Bottom is more suspect, perhaps. Hole is bored out which another fork is inserted into, then cross-bolted.