Timber Delivery

Mordialloc....

And 2 hours later I am home in Clifton Hill

Hi

For a while I have been looking into what my next timber bike will look like and have decided to include some lightweight Pawlonia Timber in the design.  One thing followed another, and I rang a supplier in Mordialloc about getting some.  The timber was a good price, about $30 for the few sticks I wanted, but they couldn't deliver, the long lengths (4m or so ) would be fragile and not able to be carried by most trucking companies.  So I set a time to come down and pick up the timber and today was the day.

I got on the train with the trike near work and then went to Mordialloc and rode the k or 2 to Pawlonia Timber Supplies Australia. The sticks of timber I wanted had been picked out and they were cut into 2m lengths so I could fit them on the trike.  I paid for them, then wandered outside to tape them to the trike and proceed back home.  I didn't pike it this time and rode the 40 (or so) pleasant km back along the bayside roads to home, the bay was very calm and bathed in late Autumn sunshine.  The gaffer tape stayed in one piece and I had no drama carrying the timber home.

 Very pleased with the timber (its very light and fairly solid) and  the service at Pawlonia Timber Supplies, Thanks!

  Till Next time

Steve Nurse

New Tailbox

This is the "catch" I made for the tailbox.  Its just a spare tube I have to carry anyway used as a weight to stop the wind from blowing the lid open.

Bending the base board using the frame as a jig.

Finished Box: the small black rectangles are Scotch Fasteners, making the corflute at the sides clip-on.

Bending the base board

Ciggie shelf.  Ok, I don't smoke and am much more likely to carry a phone and wallet in it.

Hi

For the past week and a bit I have been fitting some parts to my Aluminium frame  trike, last shown in this post.  The parts are an NC routed marine plywood tailbox frame, and I've made the frame more complete than any I've made before.  This means the corflute box sides can be a simple corflute cutout that doesn't need folding. 

All for now!

Regards

Steve Nurse

Kervelo Crowdsourcing

Something in the water: For a short time Marc used Vi Vuong's "Futon Express" leaning trike mechanism in the development of the Kervelo.

Hi  Marc Le Borgne from Norway has started a Kickstarter campaign for a convertible Bike / Trike using the Pinion gearbox in the front hub to give a 600% gearbox range.  There's 12 days to go as I write this.  Please get on board.  This sort of machine opens up the possibility for a wide range of machines such as those proposed by Alexander Vittouris and Velotegra .  Good luck Marc.

Fitness Tracker

The latest addition to my digital life, a stand-alone, multi-part (fake) fitness tracking system.

This is the multi-part, stand alone part of the system, the whole thing is three 3d-printed parts which go together to

make up the system which "borrows" a watchband and case from a $2.80 Electro watch from Daiso.

Fun, Fitness, Fashion, all at the same time.  Keep fit and tell the time, all at the same time!

Hi

The Background: A few months ago, when I was at the dentist, the hygenist asked me if the yellow thing on my hand was a fitness tracker.  No, I said, just a watch.  But her comment had planted a seed in my mind.  For quite a while I have endured the silly ads for real fitness trackers, which are meant to motivate you to stay fit, but really need constant recharging and enslave you to step, cycle, run or jog and then monitor your progress on some sort of digital device or app or something.  This fake fitness tracker is my modest protest.  When I want to do something to stay fit, I just do it!  At the beginning of the year I decided to walk up the stairs at uni instead of using the lift and have done so ever since.  Maybe even this fake tracker could be used as a reminder to exercise.

V1.0 which was designed to be assembled with screws and a bit of dowel....

.......obverse.

The Action: I got bored at Uni and actually started drawing the fake fitness tracker in 3d cad, and drew a similar looking stand-base and a display cuff.  It was printed for me and this became the (orange) V1.0 Stand-alone fitness tracking system.  (see photos above)  When I got home, I put the stand together, filled in the watch text with brown Plasti-Bond and left it for a week or two.  By then, I'd worked out how to improve it a bit, intending for it to be assembled with matches and rubber bands and adding slots where the matchstick could fit in, also adding the watch control buttons and widening the "bandwidth" of the display cuff.  The (blue) V2.0 stand-alone total fitness tracking system is the result.  It has been upgraded and can now display in portrait or landscape mode.

V2.0 was meant to be assembled with matches and rubber bands but I found some small nails near at hand and used them instead of the matches.

In the new blue version, I got off my #&^%$ and drew in fake watch controls.

The Blurb:  "Wonderful fitness tracker.... very lightweight, completely water-proof, never runs out of batteries and it is a total stand-alone fitness system"

What the critics say:  "I wasn't convinced by the V1.0 fake tracker, but the V2.0 is a great advance.  The increased bandwidth, new control system and new display mode are totally, awsomely awsome awsomeness"  by A. Reviewer, Melbourne Techhead Times.

Regards

Steve Nurse 

This is the back view of the 4th photo down, how to make a big, long, watch / fake fitness tracker thing.

Update, July 29, 2017.

A file to 3d print the fitness tracker and an updated, almost serious watch stand are now available from my CGtrader webstore here.  These files are free, and a picture of the new fitness tracker and deluxe stand is below. I guess you would call this mk3.0, I am interested in what the reviewer from techhead times will have to say.

Regards  Steve Nurse

New Steerer Part 5

Finished Trike

Inside the top part of the steerer, with the cap of the assembly at the top.  Its basically hollow but is reinforced at the ends where it will be drilled out later.  The slot at the right is for the brake and gear cables to come out.

In the city on the B-Spon Ride, Dale is mobbed by tourists from Vietnam,

on a windy, wet day.

Hi

Over the last week I have done a bit more work on the steerer of my trike, making a hollow top part for the steerer and fitting it on the trike.  The steerer was finished yesterday, and last night I hooked up the brake and gear cables.  Somewhat bravely, the first test for the new steerer was on a 30k ride.  I did some extra work on the steerer when I got home, locking up the join between the wooden parts.  I'll be riding it again tomorrow, see how it goes.

Regards

Steve Nurse