Mule Train Part2

Start of the day, flat head bolts are on the green post..........

and mid change, the flat head bolt is moved to below the green post so the for has more movement, and......

some cheapie velcro-type straps were put on the forks as a cushion.

This arrived during the day, a set of folding handlebars, about $aus 30 from this ebay seller. Shown here in riding position, and

Here folded up.

A little bit of extra disassembly, and you can fit them to any 22mm stem.

Bike at the end of the day.

Handlebars mounted.

Working on these as well as the mule train bike.  A couple of recumbent bike seats which started as an order for routing on Sean and Horn for routing at Spacetank Studio.  Will write more about these later.

Hi

This shows today's progress on the Mule Train Bike.  The main thing that happened was a pair of folding handlebars arriving, and sofar I'm quite pleased with them.  I wasn't really concentrating on building this bike today (gardening, giving away a trike, working on some tailboxes as well), but that has worked, its given me a bit of space to think about the rest of the design of the bike, which is now mainly timberwork and painting.

Rest in Peace David Gordon Wilson, a fine pioneer of recumbent cycling.

Regards

Steve Nurse

Bikes and Beer at Brunswick

Retro-Motorbike inspired e-bike.

Mine was not the only leaning trike,

these 2 dragsters tyrned up but I didn't see them ridden.

My Leaning Trike

Dragster Leaner

Gayle & TJ

Mike, Gayle, TJ

Start of the lowest gear race....

Which included these 2 dragon bikes.

Mike and Gayle battle it out for bragging rights.

Dragon Bikes

My son Ewan, Phoebe in background in red.

Just about every novelty bike competing in the novelty races got a prize. Including mine!  I passed the socks I'd won on to Ewan & Phoebe.

The prize I actually won was a scarf, but I swapped it for the socks this young lady won.

Ewan in the slow race (Flouro helmet)

Small circle race, Penny Farthing hanging in there.

Tandem triplet girls.

A rush on raffle tickets followed some spruiking by Gayle and Kirsteen.

This was the original start line for the skid competition, the start line....

Was later moved back to here.

Raffle presentations with Gayle and Kirsteen

Triple was very ably ridden, even at low speed.

Hi

Today was the the first "Bikes and Beers" festival, part of Good Beer Week .  The bike charity I help, Wecycle had a stall there to recruit volunteers. Kirsteen provided the food on the stall and there were several bikes of the sort we repair and give away on display.  One small bike was hooned on and even ridden on by adult riders, and was sold right at the end of the day.  A pleasant day had by all I think, especially some of the organisers who were fuelled up by some of the sponsors product and were singing along to the Dad rock (We are the Champions, Queen, Horses, Darryl Braithwaite etc.) with great gusto by the end. Thanks to all the organisers & volunteers, Regards

Steve Nurse

Mule Train Bike

Latest bike rolling off the production line is the "Mule Train" which

.......started with this bike (already much abused, see here for example)

....and is named after the (also an antiquated form of transport) curve Bikes Clydesdale Cargo Fork.

Everything on the bike sofar is made from bits in the shed. This shows the main cantilever beam end (centre), the green support bar, and a bolt that was turned down to go into the green bar.

This is another pair of bolts, one already modified, they were later brazed to the frame,

....as shown here

..... and here.

Jigging to drill the support bar.

Hi, here are a few pics of my latest project, the Mule Train.  I had seen a few pictures of "Clydesdale" bikes, but couldn't find much about them, and then after I had started on this, discovered them to be based on the Clydesdale Cargo fork from Crust Cycles.  Anyway, I've built a version on this bike before which I had forgotten about, and a couple of others as well. I will report further as the project continues.

Regards  Steve Nurse

Death of a Pair of Trousers

Sam had painted the bunk bed seat out the front, which led to

this......

and this.....

and this trike being painted.

How the trike works, video of the same trike style is here.

Tailbox detail.

Back view

Ventisit screwed down. The screw and washer are grey, and just visible through the mesh.  But the screw poked out the other side which....

ripped my already slightly old....

pair of trousers but......

inadvertently started a new fashion trend.

Sharp bits of screws removed with angle grinder (circled in blue)

Hi

A few weeks ago, our painter Sam made a good job of varnishing the seat I had made out of a bunk bed. She'd sanded it, then painted it 3 times with varnish, and it went from a dull to gleaming over the course of a few days.  This painting set such a good example that the condition of other bits of timber (including one of my trikes) around the joint became embarrassing.  On one of my excursions I bought the same type of varnish from a nearby paint shop, and then set about painting things, first the table out the front, then a trolley out the back, and finally one of my trikes.

The trike involved a bit of a switcheroo, I stole a tailbox lid from a kit I haven't built up yet, swapped an all-wooden seat over to a trike with a wooden steerer, and also took things apart so I could paint them properly.  This included the Ventisit / ACS10 seat pad.  When I put the seat pad back, I hid some of the holding screws under the Ventisit, and unfortunately, this meant a bit of screw poked out the bottom.

Yes, the sharp bit!  And when riding the next day, I accidentally started a new fashion trend, ripping some jeans tears at the back below the knee.  This was caused by getting on and off the bike and scraping the pants with the pointy end of the screw.

Now a tear-at the-back-of-jeans-above-the-knee had its moment in the sun at some of last years fashion parades, but that faded quite quickly.  However, I am sure the rip-at-the-back-of-jeans-below-the-knee thing will come into style, and endure like the black T-shirt, the pink sock and the desert boot.

So the ripped jeans might be fixed and reserved for the mankiest of jobs, or become a rag, and I fixed the bottom of the bike seat by removing the sharp bits with an angle grinder so no more jeans will be ripped and die, and really I'm not totally into fashion!

Regards

Steve Nurse