News and Events

Keep up to date with the latest news and events of Modular Bikes.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Big Spike from the Russians!

Hi

This blog has a backroom where I (omnipotent writer / editor / administrator / slave) can see all the statistics associated with page visits this blog.  A recent spike in traffic had me looking for the source.

It was the Russians, and for wholly innocent reasons.  Here is the forum link , already processed into English courtesy google translate.

And there is some quite good advice about working  with timber and fibreglass, things I have found out for myself the hard way, breaking stuff !

"But! Plywood has been quite different characteristics

That's right!
The tree is typically 80/8 MPa at a density of 0.5. (Along / across the grain)
We usually plywood 20/20 MPa at a density of 0.7 (this is for the construction of plywood). And 1 MPa for the layers on the cleavage.
Aviation (sea MARINE) is already up to 50/50 MPa for the Finnish and 30/30 MPa for the Chinese.
For comparison, fiberglass has a density of 1.6 at 250/180 MPa at a density of 1.8 320/220 MPa at a density of 2.0 380/250 MPa.
In the calculations usually take for fiberglass tensile strength of 120 MPa, 230 MPa for the ST3, for a tree up to 10 MPa."


All for now!

Regards

Stephen Nurse


Sunday, October 13, 2013

Shopping and Family

Christine hears that I had already donated away the books my Dad gave me.
With Mum and Dad (Self-Timer Photo)
Home with a 10kg Vintage Elna Sewing Machine and some books in the back of my trike.
At home, Christine checks out one of the books I bought, Elna sewing machine in the foreground.
Hi

Yesterday was a fine warm day and I headed out to visit Mum and Dad on my new trike.  On the way over to Kew (only 2 suburbs away) I bought a speedo from Bikes de Ver and visited an op-shop and bought some videos.

Mum and Dad were fine and showed me a few pictures of my neice Josephine, my brother Richard and sister - in - law Serena.  Richard and Serena were obviously very proud parents at Josephine's graduation.  I realised there weren't enough pictures of people on this blog and hope to remedy that.  

So I helped mum and dad out with a few jobs, had a cup of tea and a catch up and then headed home.  Dad had given me some books (and I never read the books he gives me) so was looking for another op-shop to donate the books to on the way home.

And Lo, I was in luck, there was a fete at a convent on the way home, and I had had luck buying books and plates and stuff (ok, crap) there in the past.  So first stop was the bric-a-brac stall and I bought an Elna sewing machine there ($20), left it with the gentlemen on the stall complete with custom made "Sold Steve" sticker on it and wandered on to the book stall.  At the book stall I bought a few books and one was a biography of a dude my wife Christine knew when she was growing up (Pierre Gorman), there was a vintage and battered Alan Marshall book (1946)  and a Hillaire Belloc paperback.  Also hugely expensive, $2.00 the lot for the books!

Collected the sewing machine on the way back, loaded it in the back of my trike and then wandered back in to the fete to pass my Dad's books on to the convent book stall. And then home on the trike, no dramas, and Christine very happy with the purchases.

So that was my Saturday morning.  Still not sure what we will do with the sewing machine.  But it was a bargain!

(2 days later and our friend Christine Durbridge came and picked up the sewing machine. )

Christine D. happy as the new owner of the Elna Grasshopper.


Friday, October 11, 2013

Bike Market at Richmond

A few historical bikes at the market.  The bike in the centre is an "elliptical chainless bicycle" 1896.  A bike of this type is featured in Paul Farren's book.
Detail of the elliptical chainless.

Some of Matt Benn's excess bikes were on sale, a fairly eclectic lot....
including this ladies bike, a bargain at $100.

Part of Adrian Cox's stall.
More market bikes, The green and red Malvern Star Coronation Special had sold for about $1500.

Matt Benn and my trike

Atomic Zombie unicycle on sale
Hi

About a week ago I visited a bike market at Abbotsford cycles, which is (slightly confusingly) located under Richmond station.  This market is a semi-regular event and a chance to catch up with a few bike type people (ok, blokes) that I know from years of bike riding and activities around Melbourne and buy bike books ("Early Bicycles" and Paul Farren signed "Bicycling through Time" for me) and various bits of bike junk, (2 pairs of old pedals, potentially more Vi-trike wheels.  So hello to me old mates Ross Harrup, Chook (selling off about 1% of his shed contents), John Harland, Adrian Cox, Michael Kater and Matt Benn.

Regards

Steve Nurse