16" Wheels

One I prepared earlier, 16" wheels on current Vuong trike

Homemade bearing removal tool: the slotted part expands when the tapered part is screwed in to the bearing or its crush tube.

Apropos of not very much, this is part of an ex-Hallmark Jetset bike I used as "tooling"

This is all the stuff stripped from a Trisled 16" wheel, bearing, crush bar, outer sleeve.

Pressing the replacement bearing back in using my (very much unplugged!) drill press.  The bearing needs to be pressed in using the outer race.

Finished!  This is the wheel with a 15mm custom shaft fitted, and ready to be fitted to a pedal to make a Vuong trike wheelset.

Hi

I'm still building Vuong trikes and need to get parts for them, unfortuately being a very early adopter means many of them need to be custom or highly modified.  Back wheels included!

The 16" wheels I've been using have been good and I wanted to get some more, but the last set needed seperate purchases of hubs, rims and a quite expensive spoking service, not to mention tyres, tube and rim tape.  This time I've simplified things a bit but there's still a bit to do.  I bought WHF-16-32DB wheels from Trisled after finding that the bearings were 6804's, 32 od x 20 id.  My axles are 15mm OD, so swapping bearings for 6002's would seem to be able to fix things.  And in the end this worked.  Custom wheels made to suit would be a bit cheaper with no need for bearing sleeve, spacer or even disc brake mount.

I have some plans for some improved aerodynamic wheel covers for these wheels, and will post on that when the time comes.

A Shopping Trip

While on a shopping trip to Sydney Road I chatted to Darryl who I bump into every now and then.....

 and a lady I didn't know about the trike.

The trike storage compartment.

Hi

I haven't done any long rides lately but am doing about 30k most weekdays and the occasional week end ride.  Sydney Road is a popular shopping strip only a few k away on the bike track, and there's an Aldi and an open-Sunday op-shop there, so I'll sometimes ride over there to blow away some cobwebs.  The trike shown is my current daily driver  and is gradually being improved: it started off being a trike as Ilean mk2 but it has a longer history as a recumbent bike.  The latest changes have been to fit a custom steerer which the brake and gear cables run through and new forks with a bosses for front fairing mounts.  Might even build a front fairing for it one day!

Indian Avon Roadster

Bike near to where I found her.

Nice markings on pedal and chainring - the hubs are Avon branded too........

but you can't see the nice bit of the chainring from the other side, or remove the chainguard without removing the pedal first....

and this is where she came from, here is the website and she resembles this and this bike which are still sold in India.  To buy one in Australia, rock arount to these guys.

Hamming it up!  This is the Australian.........

application for this style of bike.  (I am pretending to be) Gathering produce and picnics down a not too taxing country lane.

A small spider-inhabitant.

Hi

Although I resolved a few weeks ago to rid myself of several bicycles, the opposite has occured, and the count is at +3 instead of the intended -2.  This Avon bike is one of the positives.

For a while I have been interested in abandoned, locked up bicycles and how they deteriorate, so after seeing this one on my bike commute, snapped off a picture.  To my surprise, she wasn't locked up, but I didn't thing much more of it.  A few days later, after dropping some books at an Op-shop in the car, there she was again, this time on a nearby, different, slightly busier street.  Someone was obviously saying "please take her" and on this occasion I answered "oh, allright".

Its been a week or so since then, and being a weekend I had a chance to fix her up and check her out properly. The bike is a modern-ish Indian remake of a classic 1950-s English roadster. In India they cost about $85 new , but I have a question, why, if they are ever-green roadsters are they mainly painted red or black?

Not much fixing required!  The tyres have woods valves, but with an adapter I could pump them up and the tyres hold air.  And the chain was rusty, I took it off, washed it in turps, scrubbed it a bit and added grease.  Next came a test ride - all good and a very cheerful old clunker to ride.  The brakes work fine, but the seat height is a bit high for a ladies bike and the seat springs bottom out under my 80-something kg weight.

Anyway, for the moment at least, this one is a sharer and a keeper.

Regards

Steve Nurse

Bennett Bike

Surf Check with Simon B.

More or less as it came from a hard rubbish pile.  I had pumped up the tyres and that was about it.  First voyage was an epic journey of about 1.5k.

Hi

These days I am more or less immune from picking up old bikes from rubbish piles but occasionally something good comes up and I can't resist.  This is my latest find, a Bennett 3 speed family bike, there were 3 bikes on a hard rubbish pile near our place and I picked the best one. 

Having aquired one bike, another has got to go, and I will be selling the Bullock bike detailed here.  The Bullock is really too good for me to own, someone else can look after her.

Regards

Steve Nurse

Wooden Bikes at Melburn Custom Bicycle Show

1890's Bamboo bike from the Farren Collection

#1

#2

#3, A Vaughan Plycycle.

#4, Bamboo and carbon Cyclocross

A 36" big-wheeled mountain bike with custom aluminium suspension forks from Fikas

Bowls in the middle of the Velodrome.  None of the bowlers were paying any attention to the bike observers and the feeing was pretty mutual.

My newest trike.  Note Spokey Dokes!

Lyrebird Frame and tube sample. The tube is very light with carbon and veneer layers.  There is a little bit about lyrebird cycles here and the build process (which makes my build process look incredibly simple) here .

Lyrebird Cycle under Construction

Lyrebird bikes

1890's Bamboo bike, obverse.

Hi

A couple of days ago, I received an email notification that this event was on and I pootled up to see it, (a few km away) and saw friends Peter Falconer, Chook and Matt Benn up there.  Lots of nice bikes, creative in the frame material department, a bit less so in the frame configuration department.  Anyway, it was an enjoyable time, I got to visit the dumpster, the bakery and the op shop on the way up there too.

Regards

Steve Nurse

Audax Vest

Modified Audax Vest

Hi

A few months ago, I bought a cheapy night visibility vest at an Audax event, and I wore it occasionally.  But this winter, I've been commuting to and from Uni, and it means riding home in the dark every night.  The straps holding the vest at the bottom were too high up to secure it easily, so I set about changing it.  The photo is of my second and best attempt at fixing it.  I used some velcro sourced from a bmx handlebar protector in this rework.

The small red bits of velcro are the "sticky hard" part and the long bits are soft velcro.  This minimises the chance of the sticky bits sticking and tangling on other things when you don't want them to.

Really, I don't mind helmeting and thoroughly daglowing and lighting up when I ride a bike.  My bike is a geek bike anyway, by riding it I'm rebelling anyway, and I probably look like a dork when I'm riding it, and helmets and bright clothes won't make my any more dorky.   Here is a link to a recent storm in a teacup about Australian Helmet laws.

Menwhile, Louis Vuitton, you know my number.

Regards

Steve Nurse

Wilson Recumbents

Hi

I've posted about Wilson bikes before here .  A few recent events reminded me that I had a Wilson bike brochure buried away somewhere in the large collection of paper known as Steve's HPV Archives.  * George and Chris Durbridge came for dinner and we somehow got to discuss Peter Wilson and his bikes.  * I saw another on at uni and that was a kick in the pants to finally put the brochure up.

Red bike at Monash Caufield Pt 1

and Pt 2

Anyway, without further adue, here is the link to the brochure files, 2pdfs for a 2 sided sheet, have fun. Peter, if you're out there, your bikes still seem to be very much loved.

Regards

Steve nurse

Underwater Velomobile

Hi

Its not very often my habit of buying trashy videos and dvds from op shops (or rescuing them from dumpsters) coincides with my interest in Human powered vehicles although this older post seems to be all about videos.

Anyway, my most recent trashy dvd purchase was a triple movie dvd ($1.00 from a Malvern op shop) including the movie "Monster from the Ocean Floor" from 1954.

You know, its the old story, girl hangs around Mexican fishing Village, girl meets hunky scientist who rocks up in pedal powered submarine, girl is filmed swimming underwater to the accompanyment of nice music, girl is threatened by unfriendly locals, girl is threatened by shark and amoeba grown to gigantic octopus-shaped proportions under influence of underwater nuclear explosion, hunky scientist rescues girl and they live happily ever after, or at least until the end credits roll....

Anyway, for all its apparent trashiness, the film is possibly worth watching.  Underwater filming was probably quite new and filming the submarine and a few people swimming underwater takes up quite a bit of the short running time.  The submarine is the spitting image of a modern fast velomobile and was made by Aerojet General. Here is a quote from the "all you needed to know and probably a whole lot more" 100 misspent hours website:     "And in what might be the biggest production value-adding coup of all, (producer Roger) Corman finagled the use of an experimental, pedal-powered, single-seat submarine with what we would today describe as a product-placement deal. The fledgling Aerojet General company let Corman use the sub for free in return for one plug in the opening credits and another in the dialogue itself."

Due to the wonders of modern technology, you don't need to scour Op Shops of Malvern to find "Monster from the Ocean Floor".  It is right here on the Interweb. Thingy.

 Here is the link:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xm8619_monster-from-the-ocean-floor_shortfilms

Regards

Steve Nurse