Arcturus' Travels » Son-of-Path

Tandem Milestone:

Gary — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 03:04:23 +0000

Today I finally was able to install the key assembly in the power train for the new tandem. This assembly is a jack shaft that allows the blending of power from the rider and the auxiliary electric motor. That is the rider can power the wheel with no auxiliary power. The auxiliary motor can power the wheel and the rider can coast. Finally both can power the wheel at the same time.
At the same time the shaft itself functions as the pivot for the rear wheel suspension. This is good because the chains don’t vary in length as the suspension flexes.

This is the New Power Distribution Assembly

The next task is to configure the front wheel drive. It will be pedal power only. The tricky part will be that the pedals will remain fixed to the frame and the chain will have to bend with the steering. I have ridden another person’s bicycle with a bending chain drive so I know it will work. I just have to position some idlers at the perfect point.
It was exasperating trying to compete this task today. The rainy season has started in Hillsboro where we are staying. We would get a delightful “sun break” and I would unload the bicycles and start working on the shaft with the lathe. About then the light would go away and a cold rain squall would descend on us. I would quickly return the bicycles to the trailer, lock up and retreat to the warmth of the coach. Half an hour later the sun would be back. Out comes the bicycles again and I would get back to work. Repeat the scenario several times.
The other complication occurred when I started to drill the setscrew pilot holes in the collar that locks the shaft in place. I wanted three equally spaced setscrews in the collar. I have the perfect tool, a dividing engine that allows you to rotate the part with exact precision. I dug it out of the tool chest and was horrified to see that it had rusted in the damp air. I spent about two hours disassembling the tool and polishing each part and carefully oiling and reassembling it. When compete I mounted the collar and drilled three pilot holes at exactly 120 degrees from each other.
We need to get out of this damp weather and back to the warm dry part of the country.
These years I have written extensively about “Path” the green dragon. This is our recumbent tandem bicycle. I designed and built “Path” back in 2001 and he has been our trusty steed these ten years and 13,701 miles. Path replaced our regular garden variety upright tandem named “The Purple People Eater,” (because it is purple, of course.)” Purple” has 8,428 miles on his odometer. Last week “Purple” came out of retirement and will replace “Path” as our ride of choice.
What I need to explain is that “Path” is harder to balance on. There are two reasons. First: we are closer to the ground so you have to correct for errors in balance quickly. Second: because my feet swing with the whole front end of the bicycle to steer, it takes more strength and coordination to ride a nice straight path at the edge of traffic. Over the past year my balance has been deteriorating and it now takes most of the lane to keep my balance. In April of this year my diagnosis was confirmed, I am in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease.
The new tandem will be designed for Judy to be the captain. I will become the stoker. As soon as we can finish up the new tandem we will probably retire “Purple” again. In the meantime I expect to hear “Shift!” from the back seat every time I start lugging the cadence, and I will have to remember to yell “bump” when a chuck hole rears up.

Look Ma, No Brakes!

Gary — Fri, 06 May 2011 04:43:12 +0000

We are celebrating today, Cinco de Mayo, but is has no connection to the 1862 battle of Puebla when the Mexicans defeated the French. Instead we are celebrating a milestone in the construction of the new bicycle.

Look Ma, No Brakes!

We have enough of the bicycle completed and assembled to be able to sit on the frame and coast down a hill, feet in the air, laughing and screaming “Look Ma, No Brakes.” Both Judy and I have taken turns coasting on the bicycle frame. The frame has one seat, two wheels and handlebars. It has no cranks, no chains and no brakes. There are no gears to shift, no pedals to click into and indeed nothing to put your feet on. But it is a time to celebrate our progress.

Judy Gets to Try the New Bicycle

I do have to back up and re-design one part of the bicycle. I was showing a friend the new frame and explaining how the NuVinci hub worked. Part of the demonstration was to get out the shifter parts and hold them up to the hub. Suddenly a glaring oversight became apparent. I had bought and installed some cast steel dropouts to hold the wheel axles. These are really heavy-duty and strong. However, they are too bulky and the shifter assembly will not fit on the hub. I am going to have to disassemble both the front and rear suspension and hack saw a big chunk of the dropout off and grind it much thinner and then braze them back together again.

Judy Solos on the Frame Rail

Oh well two steps forward and one step back.

Trial Fit:

Gary — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 03:25:49 +0000

Today I reached a significant milestone in the design and construction of the new bicycle. I put the major components together this afternoon for a trial fit. There is a photograph of the new bicycle on the blog. The components are the wheels with tires, the front fork, the main frame with a small front sub frame and the rear suspension frame its Fox Vanilla Shock and one seat.
As you can see in this photo there are no cranks or pedals and no steering. There are cranks, chains, brakes and shifters in the boxes. We have been hauling it all around for a year now. The trial fit was to see that the step-over height matched my design and that everything fit properly.

All the Major Pieces Get a Trial Fit

I did discover a problem with the width of the front fork dropouts. I allowed an extra millimeter for shrinkage when brazing. Unfortunately it shrunk three millimeters. It has to be 165 mm wide between the dropouts for a rear wheel to fit. (Fronts are normally 110 mm but my front wheel is driven by the captain.) I hold the dropouts firmly in place when I braze the tubing joints. Everything gets real hot and expands during the operation. The brass cools and the parts shrink back when they get cold. I think I can thin the locking nuts down on both sides of the wheel and get things to fit. Right now I have to use a crow bar to spread the forks enough to get the wheel in. Not a good plan for the roadside tire patching operation.
After placing the new bicycle back in the shop trailer, Judy and I went for a ride on Path, our green dragon recumbent tandem bicycle. There are about five miles of roads in the campground where we are staying near Congress, Arizona. We rode all the roads in camp at least once each and logged a total of six and a half miles. This is our first ride since I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. My balance has been questionable since the first of the year and we have not ridden as much as normal. Today my balance seemed better and we got along very well. Hooray! Just to be sure, however, the new bicycle is designed so either of us can be the captain.
The new bicycle does not have a name yet. We will have to see what his personality is like when we get him all together and go for that first ride. Path may be getting suspicious with the new set of wheels hanging out in the trailer, but so far I don’t think he has a clue that he will be replaced as top dragon.

So long from sunny Arizona

Gary and Judy

Arizona Springtime

Gary — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 05:43:49 +0000

We are in the middle portion of Arizona, about an hour northwest of Phoenix. The weather has been improving daily here in the Sonoran Desert. High temperature today was 78 degrees after a low last night of 42 degrees. It makes it up to 65 by about 11 am. That is how long I had to wait to do some painting. Each day we get in an hour of walking before the temperature gets too warm. As soon as the sun sets, however, it starts getting cool quickly.

The Old Geezer

We are staying at an Escapee Club park called North Ranch. It is in Congress, Arizona. There are lots of activities going on here. We just finished Woodcarvers Week, and now it is Beading Week.
Last week I finished carving a caricature in wood that I call “The Old Geezer.” I have a song I like to sing called “I Just Don’t Look Good Naked, Any More.” The song is about this character who steps out of the shower and gets a look at himself in the mirror. Pot bellied and bald headed, my alter ego relates his encounters that convince him that his body is getting a bit dilapidated. “The Old Geezer,” is also bald headed, pot bellied and bow legged. I had a lot of fun carving him. I gave him a towel so he could preserve a little of his modesty.
Judy has signed up for two different classes for making beaded bracelets this week. We are staying here with long time Boise Cascade friends, Ray and Peggy. Peggy is one of the beading instructors.

Gary gives The Old Geezer a Bath

On Tuesday we are expecting another long time friend, Sue from Portland, to come visit and do some beading too.
Meanwhile, I am still progressing slowly on the new bicycle. I expect to finish brazing the frame this week. I will be able to start putting it together soon.
Wood carvers and beading people are all congregating at the park for these two weeks and we are making new friends every day. We all have one thought in common…winter in the northern states is just too cold and wet. We all thank the rest of you for staying put in winter to keep the lights on. Wouldn’t that be a pickle if everyone tried to live the vagabond life. Spring is in full bloom here. The birds are nesting in a friend’s clothes pin bag, cacti are blooming and we counted at least a half dozen wild flowers on our morning walk today.

Poppys blooming in Madera Canyon

Ocatillo Cactus in Madera

Rage Over a Lost Penny

Gary — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 04:26:03 +0000

I guess I know about how Beethoven felt when he wrote the piano rondo, (“Rondo alla ingharese quasi un capriccio in G major, Op. 129”, better known as “Rage over a Lost Penny”.) I have been making little doo-dahs for the new bicycle. I needed a dozen or so braze-on binder bosses and a dozen or so water bottle bosses. What I have been doing on the cold mornings is to get in my trailer with the electric heater. I set up the Smithy Lathe with a steel rod and start turning out bosses. Today I was finishing up some water bottle bosses. They are three eights of an inch in diameter necked down to nine thirty-seconds. They are about five sixteenths of an inch long and are drilled and tapped for a five millimeter bolt. I whack it off with the hack saw and dress it up a bit with a file. It takes me about fifteen minutes to create each one.

Poor Man's CNC Machine, Note Tools Lined Up in Order of Use. Binder Bosses in Foreground

You guessed it. I whacked one off and it spun out of sight behind the lathe. Now there is not much real-estate back there so I should be able to find it. A quick visual inspection revealed that a quite a bit of lathe turnings and other debris had accumulated in that cramped space. I tried getting at it with my fox-tail brush and dust pan but they were simply too big and awkward. I finally found a wall board taping knife and a paint brush that fit perfectly. An hour later I had a nicely cleaned space, but still no sign of the wayward water bottle boss. I got out my magnetic wand and searched under the motor and in all the crevices and still no boss. By this time I could have made about six more of these little suckers, so I gave it up as a lost cause.

Tool Line-Up for Poor Man's CNC

Here are the Binder Boss and Water Bottle Boss Ready to Braze Onto and Into the Bicycle Frame

Path got a nice little tune up today. Earlier this week I removed the front suspension arm and wheel to get accurate measurements of the joint. I need to replicate the joint on the new bicycle. What I discovered is after nearly ten years the bearings were in really bad shape. There was nearly a sixteenth of an inch of radial play in each of the bearings. That means the suspension arm can wobble, tip and veer as I try to steer the bicycle. I bought new bearings and installed them today.

We immediately took Path out for a romp around the island. Wow, what a difference!

Even ordering the bearing turned out to be a challenge. The shaft size is three eighths of an inch and the outer race press fits into a one inch shell. All of the sources had no bearings that fit that specification. A couple nights ago I woke up with a brilliant idea. I would fit the one inch shell and then sleeve the shaft to fit. I couldn’t wait to search the internet the next morning. I searched for a one inch outside diameter ball bearing and to my amazement the first bearing in the list fit a three eighths inch shaft. Not once but each vender had the same sizes when you search by O.D. There must be some logic there somewhere, I just can’t see it.

It is time to wrap this up and ship it off. We are still at the Beachcomber Resort in Lake Havasu City and the weather here in the Sonoran Desert is getting warmer. Today broke into the seventies.

Gary and Judy

Something New

Gary — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 03:03:10 +0000

In six years of travels we have never leased a lot for a whole month and stayed put. Oh yes we have stayed in one area for a month or longer, but always in places that limited our stay. We would have to move every couple weeks to go to the dump station, or to reset the clock. These locations always are close to our children’s families homes in Hillsboro, OR or Gilroy, CA.

This time we are staying on a lot in the Beachcomber Resort in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. It also is close to a relative, Judy’s sister, Sonja lives in the same park. The purpose is to give me some quality time to commune with “The Son of Path;” Or as Judy puts it, get my new bicycle done.

Judy looks over lot 353 at the Beachcomber

We have moved onto a lot that once housed a Park Model Home. I have had to call the maintenance people at every step of the process it seems. I did find the electricity alright, but when I started to use the water I discovered the previous tenant unhooked from the water with a Saws-All. I walked over to the office and engaged the help of Herb, the handyman. Early next morning I had a brand new water standard with two shiny new hose bibs.

It was time to wash the coach and trailer. Since everything is paved here I needed to open the sewer to dump my wash water in. I got out my big pump pliers and tried to unscrew the four inch sewer cap. I gradually worked up to my biggest pipe wrench and a two foot cheater, a three pound hammer, penetrating oil and a propane torch. Nothing could break the cap loose. I walked over to the office again. Herb and his helper finally got it open with a Saws-All.

My guess is that they have not rented this lot in a while.

I did manage to get my very dirty trailer washed and it is gleaming beside our very dirty coach. We are looking forward to sunshine and 70 degrees today, so the coach will get its due.

On a different subject; all of our friends are welcome to log in and comment on these stories. There is a “Register” button in the right hand sidebar. Click that and follow the directions. Choose a name and enter your e-mail address. Then you must solve a “Captcha” word puzzle. You will be sent a temporary password and you log in with that. Be sure to change the password to something you can remember and also be sure to put in your name and some details so I can identify you. I have been getting some spammers recently and I go in and disable them. If I cannot identify you from your e-mail address, I might disable you. To get reinstated, just request a change of password. I get an e-mail when this happens. When you log back in please fill in your name and add a little to the bio. That way I will be able to recognize you. I will immediately unblock you if I have you blocked.

Meanwhile, if you get into Lake Havasu City in February this year, be sure to look us up. We are in the Beachcomber Resort on the island.

Bye for now and feel free to register and comment. Another option is to click my Facebook link and join me there. Sorry, I don’t twitter.

Love Gary and Judy

One Step Forward:

Gary — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:42:24 +0000

“One step forward and two steps back;” That’s what my Dad used to tease me when I complained about the five block walk to school. He lived with his folks near Ewan Washington on a dry land wheat farm. He walked two miles to school and in the winter with drifting snow blowing hard he told me the he would take a step forward and the wind would blow him back two steps. I got suspicious when he told me the only way he got to school at all was to turn around and walk backwards.

Today was to be a big step forward. The first small pieces of the new bicycle brazed together. I jigged the pieces of the rear pivot together; set my fire-watch, Judy; and fired up the torch. It is a difficult join because I am brazing two pieces of ¼ inch steel to a piece of thin wall tubing. You must put all of the heat on the heavy piece and let it flow at the last moment to the tubing. I finished ¾ of the perimeter of the tubing. I than reset the piece in the vice to do the last bit. I applied heat to the heavy part again and the pressure of the vice opened up part of the completed seam, destroying my careful alignment.

I must now hack-saw the tubing off close to the steel parts and grind the brass off the pieces. I will then recreate the tubing and start over.

Afternoon report: I have now cut apart the assembly and filed off the remnants of the tubing thus salvaging my ¼ inch frame pieces. So I am back to where I was before I picked up my torch this morning.

One does get wiser from these experiences. Instead of clamping and holding the piece in the vice I have drilled a ¼ inch hole through the centerline of the 1 inch connecting tube. I will bolt the pieces together until I finish brazing. That way I can turn and work the piece as I need and the vice won’t siphon off all my heat.

I will try again in a day or two, stay tuned, I hope it works better than today.

Brazed Joint Opened Up

Starting to Hacksaw the 1 inch Tubing to Salvage the Cheek Pieces

Rear Suspension, Work Day

Gary — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:26:45 +0000

We have moved to Gilroy California and it is once again warm. Today I dug out my entire horde of aircraft steel tubing. When you buy steel there is a substantial minimum order. When I built “Path” I had plenty of steel left over for another complete tandem. The entire horde turned out to be 55 pounds. We have hauled all of this along for five years now

I have the following sizes to work with:

½ inch - 8 ft
5/8 inch - 8 ft
¾ inch - 16 ft
7/8 inch - 2 ft
1 inch - 17 ft
1- 1/8 inch - 7 ft
1- 3/8 inch - 16 ft
1- ½ inch - 16 ft

After completing the inventory I have now cut four pieces of tubing, and the bearing carriers for the rear swing arm suspension. I then created a base board out of 3/8 inch plywood and screwed it to 2×2 frame. A full scale drawing is taped to the center line of the board and I am setting up supports for each component.

Next step is to miter each tube for a perfect fit to its mates. Then each component will be aligned and the assembly brazed together. Here is a photo of the base board and the supports for the dropouts and pivot bracket.

Rear Suspension Supports

Power Distribution Hub

Gary — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 02:48:46 +0000

The heart of the electric power assist turned out to be an elegantly simple device. Creating the design taxed my creative imagination for a couple of weeks. My wife, Judy, may have began to wonder if I had lost track of reality as I traced imaginary chain lines in the air and doodled increasingly complicated sketches of Rube-Goldberg devices on scraps of paper.

I finally stripped all but the essential components away and came up with a simple device consisting of a standard eight speed freehub and a BMX freewheel. The freehub mounts hub-side outward on the motor jackshaft and the freewheel is slotted to fit onto the splines of the free hub. A couple of the original freehub cassette gears are slipped back onto the freehub and the locknut cinched down.

Peddle power is input through the BMX freewheel. Since the freehub is mounted backwards it goes into freewheel mode as soon as you start peddling. The splines of the freehub drive the cogs and that power is output to the wheel. When the motor starts to turn the inner hub of the freehub the dogs engage the freehub drum and thus also output power to the wheel.

Either power source can drive the wheel independently of the other power source. Either power source can coast at will.

The Shimano® BMX Freewheel that I chose had a hardened steel inner raceway. I created a jig for my lathe/milling machine and needed my hardest carbide tipped tools to bore the freewheel to the diameter of the drum of the Deore® Freehub. I then set up an indexing table and cut the nine slots to fit the splines with the milling machine and a Dremel® diamond coated bit. After sixty hours of careful, tedious work I had a perfect slip fit.

I am now ready to order the rest of the components. Stay tuned for further updates.

Gary Dinsmore

Gary Rockin to Bluegrass and Milling Splines

Closeup of the Spline Grinding Operation

Power Distribution Hub

Son-of-Path

Gary — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 03:13:15 +0000

I have started a companion blog to our regular travel stories starting here in September. I have started building a replacement for our recumbent tandem bicycle we call “Path.” Until we dream up a new name for the new bicycle it shall be known as “Son-of-Path.” I don’t believe the gestation of the new bicycle will take as long as “Path,” (a couple years.) I do expect this to take several months and be full of adventures and indeed misadventures.

This blog will have its separate mailing list, and you may opt out by simply dropping me an e-mail. Instead of the blog coming as an e-mail with full text, I will simply drop you a note telling you there is a new update. This will include the following link:

Son of Path

This will take you to the menu page showing the full list of topics available. That way if you are busy you can put off reading the latest and catch up next time a notice is sent. Two topics are available at this time; “Inspiration,” and “Power Distribution Hub.”

I invite you to follow along and even comment on my design. Just remember to format any critical review of my work in soft, soothing, weasel words. I hold the keys to the master mailing list!

Let the grand adventure begin,

Gary Dinsmore