A clunker part 3: A clunker for christmas.

Hi

With the clunker finished, I could easily have plonked in the garage with the 6 or so other bikes, however, my son hadn't seen it and I don't think he reads my blog often, so I decided to wrap it and give it to him and his wife phoebe for Christmas.  This involved logistics and planning.  How do you wrap a bike?  There is only one local paper which still comes in broadsheet format, and that is "The Australian", so for a few days before Christmas I conscientiously bought this paper for wrapping purposes.

Anyway, the bike present went down quite well, it is now plonked in the garage with the 6 or so other bikes, but it had a role as a Christmas present before the plonking.  My brother Richard rang from England and I was able to "show" him the pics of the clunker in the previous post.

Happy Christmas!

Update 21 Feb 2018

By chance I clicked on an ad in the website bentrideronline.com and clicked through
to this page which reveals something about the bike's possible origin and original purpose. Some screen dumps from the website have been pasted in above.  The bike resembles a Sun Atlas Industrial Bike, which can be optioned with all sorts of stuff including the Solid No Flat Tyres present on the bike we have. It only comes in the colour "Industrial Yellow" .

Regards

Steve Nurse

New Trike Part 7: All done for now.

Photo 1: 2mm plywood sidepanels, the small tabs on top are "bridge" structures

 which make a gap underneath as per photo 5

Photo 2: Making the tailbox, the top cable ties have stayed there, and the lower ones have been replaced by epoxy glue.

Photo 3:Almost there!  This is the trike with one side panel off.

Photo 4: There.  For the time being at least.

Photo 5: Inside the tailbox.  One of the bridges for the sidepanel can be seen lower right.  It is used to accommodate a bulldog clip.

Photo 6: This compares the 2 curvy seats I have made.  Finishing it off with glue makes a mess, the cable ties are much neater.

Photo 7: For future development.  The design works with 4mm hoop pine ply because 6 layers fit securely into the frame for the front and back frame plugs.  But this is what was sent me!  Hopefully, I will get some credit from the suppliers for this mistake.

Hi, for now, I have finished this trike and this post shows some of the final steps in its construction, making the tailbox and the sidepanels which go on it.  These panels are timber but could be corflute or cloth covered frames.

There is a bit of more work I could do on this machine, like trying to make the tailbox in 3.2mm ply instead of 4mm, and  using the hoop pine material for the frame plugs.

Weight is about 19.5kg at the moment, and the luggage capacity which is built-in is about 50 litres.  Things like shopping bags, shoes and helmets can be hurled in the back and I can't help contrasting this storage with the storage on Brian Ball's bike which is based on panniers mounted on racks.

Regards

Steve Nurse

Dec 25

Here are some photos of the bike in the wild, I have ridden it from Airey's Inlet to Spout Creek and back a few times.

Sometimes the camera self-timer works....

and sometimes it doesn't.

Not the Audax Vic Christmas Breakup

At Monash Uni, Photo Janice Wasylenko, Bike Decoration Gene Bawden

Helen Lew Ton

Rowing Santas on the Yarra

Me and Helen

Hi

Things can get a bit fuzzy this time of year.  There are all sorts of invitations swooshing around, some of them by email and you can forget who invited you where and when.  Such was the case last Saturday.  I had had an email invite to the Audax Vic breakup party which should have been easy peasy to get to and participate in, e x c e p t,   I went on the wrong day.  Anyway, I was in good company, as Helen Lew Ton, who I am now promoting to Audax Legend was there as well.  We both arrived at about the correct time, but a day early.  Nobody's perfect.  We had quite a long chat.  Helen is in her mid sixties and still completes a monthly 200k Audax ride.  These are often permanents like Round the Bay in a Day.

Helen said' "Yes, I got the invite, but no, I didn't bother replying to it, I just showed up" and I did exactly the same thing but added, "had we bothered to reply properly, we might have bothered to note which day its on".

So there you go.  I was quite hungry by the time I'd ridden home.

Regards

Steve Nurse

 

December Flower of the Month

Is Bougainvillea.....

It is growing all over our neighbour's fence at the end of the street.....

and, it being December, we have Jacarandas blooming as well.

Hi, this is my second in the flower of the month series.  The flowers on our neighbour's fence had completely escaped my attention for the 30 or so years I have lived in our street until now.  I asked my wife Christine what they were and she told me Bougainvillea and she seems to be right.  So now I know.

Regards

Steve Nurse

A clunker Part 2

Over the last few days, I have disassembled and transported........

the clunker mentioned last post to where we are staying on holidays.  It has been stripped and cleaned, bearings oiled, new seatpost and seat bits found and put back together.

After a few test rides, adjustments and seat repositionings this is what it looks like, outside a newly opened surfshop.

This was a Christmas shopping trip, I got books for me, Mum, Dad and my wife Christine.

 

Captions tell the story on this one.

A clunker

Richard and Sarah and Clunker

Hi tech, oooh!  Sarah and Mum & internet. Thingy.

Mum, Dad, Richard and Sarah

Hi

A week or so ago my brother Richard and his partner Sarah were visiting from England, and I caught up with them at my Mum and Dad's place. 

When I catch up with Richard it is often by phone, and we have long rambling conversations about bikes, often what old bike we are buying on ebay or what we have found on dumpsters and are fixing up.  So a bit before visiting Mum and Dad's place, Richard rings me up:

Richard:  there is a bike on a hard rubbish collection, do you want to grab it from the pile when you come over?

Stephen: What sort of a bike is it?

Richard: Well its a bit of a clunker.

Stephen: Ok, well, go and grab it now.  There is only the quick and the dead

Richard: Yes, yes, you are right, I will go and get it.  He who hesitates is lost.

Stephen: Ok, good.  There is only the people who end up with crappy bikes they don't need and the dead!  See you soon.

Richard: Ok, see you soon!

So I took the car over to mum and dad's instead of riding a bike and had afternoon tea with the family and picked up the bike.  Yes, its a clunker and it even has solid tyres which are heavy but don't need pumping up. 

This bike doesn't really need or want to be done up very much, it wants to be ridden on beaches and off piers!  Will report later when its properly on the road.

Sofar the full extent of the the repair has been to buy a $5 pair of pedals which fit the horrible, heavy Ashtabula cranks. Will report later on the repair process. 

Regards

Steve Nurse