Engineering challenges
Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2023 12:11 am
Maybe you guys who are trained as engineers always foresee problems, but me, I kinda work things out on the fly. And sometimes they don't work out as intended and a change of course is in order. I've been making a bike stand because I got tired of kneeling in the dark and cold, bent over to see where each drop lands on the proper chain link, over and over. My back usually starts complaining, or the feet, or other body parts. And when chores are unpleasant, we put them off.
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.
Inside the garage door you can see the mahogany of my VM 566 console, a curbside find. Wish there were room indoors but for now the garage is home. Would have been the landfill if I hadn't come along.
Chris Campbell
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
