I used prethreaded pipe sections and a pipe clamp set from Ace hardware, and an old wheeled base, and some scrap maple from when my brother worked at the church furniture factory for grooved pads for the clamp jaws. Today I did final assembly and tried it out. Ooops, the horizontal pipe was too long, and I misunderestimated [Yogi Berra??] the weight of the old winter bike, so the whole thing wanted to tip over. That meant I had to get out the pipe cutter. It lives, of course, in an old tool box behind a stack of other boxes. But out it came, and the horizontal section got shortened, and the center of gravity was back where it was supposed to be. What a joy to have the right tool.
We've had rain all week and that washes the oil off the chain, so I applied oil carefully, standing up and in complete comfort. What an improvement! Here's the old winter bike. You can see the fenders and the red lights facing aft but you can't see the nifty studded tires tag let me ride safely in the winter. Cyclists of the Lycra persuasion will be rolling their eyes at this ancient and unsophisticated rig, but most of them are driving at this time of year while I'm cranking away.
Chris Campbell
