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. Read More
Tandem Milestone:
October 5, 2011
Look Ma, No Brakes!
May 5, 2011
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. Read More
Trial Fit:
April 10, 2011
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. Read More
Rage Over a Lost Penny
February 11, 2011
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. Read More
First Frame Cut
February 2, 2011
We now have the coach cleaned up so it is time to get down to the business of building the new bicycle. I have been picking away around the edges for 20 months now. I have the wheels built, one and a half seats built and a bit of the rear suspension built. I have been toting all of the component parts around in the trailer for almost 12,000 miles. I have drawn and redrawn the plans a half dozen times to incorporate the latest ideas or eliminate some interference or another. It is time to fish or cut bait. Read More
Flying Again
March 15, 2010
After eighteen days on “Shank’s Mare,” we are once again flying down the road on “Path,” our recumbent tandem bicycle. Read More
The Long Walk
March 9, 2010
Sometimes things go against you and you have to take a long walk to keep from doing something stupid. Today was one of those days.
From my last blog you know that we broke our bicycle. For the past ten days I have been working to repair the damage by creating a replacement suspension fork for Path. My goal was to create a new part that was stronger and more rigid in all dimensions. I have indeed created a replacement part that achieved those goals. Read More
Basket Case
February 25, 2010
History repeats itself occasionally. Today’s story is reminiscent of June 15, 2005 in Medicine Hat Alberta. On that occasion Path had a major catastrophe and we wound up carrying him back about 4 miles. Yesterday again we were about 4 miles from home when Path dropped to his knees again. Read More
One Step Forward:
November 6, 2009
“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.
Rear Suspension, Work Day
November 2, 2009
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
