Never been one for this...

[suitepotato]

...introduce yourself type thing. So...

I am a returning bike rider. As in returning after years of driving. More necessity given a car going south, but given that good weather is approaching and I'm tired of not exercising enough to spend my free time hiking, why not keep riding?

It is a bit annoying though. Lots of hills, usually at each end of my travel between work/shopping and home. For the life of me I can't remember how I got up the hills where I grew up. I walked on some and others took longer lateral courses on side streets. Can't do that so well now with the city I live in.

So I've been researching motorized bikes having remembered the gas crisis decades ago and I find that the industry is very nearly moribund compared to where it was headed*. Not surprising when the gas thing ended and people forgot all about bike engines, and all the nanny thinking of excessive safety... Those pocket bikes were fun to see on the streets for all of five months before they took away the fun like they do with everything else where I live.

Oh well, that's where I am. Just getting back in and determined to make it a go. Either the Golden Eagle rig or a pusher trailer. Maybe convert the bike into a recumbent with that Cruzbike kit as well. Should be good for stares.

One other thing. I was a machinist for a bit and understand metal and carpentry work and am interested in DITY (Do It To Yourself) work so if I do any with any entertainment or educational value, I'll be sure to share it. Got some ideas about making a gas-electric hybrid.


*Projections were once for everyone to have pre-installed modular engines, continuously variable automatic transmission systems, etc. By like the mid 80s or 90s at most. Here in 2009 it's still inventor and user dominated. I'd like to see that change.

 

[BoltsMissing]

Welcome to MBc

I am sure with your machinist skills you will soon pick up on a lot things that get modified etc. while building your fist MB.
Pics of your progress would be a cool thing to

All the Best
BoltsM

 

[Mountainman]

welcome
you mention wanting some help on the hills
we have some pretty good climbs here
my little motor has been great -- much help
should be just the thing for you -- plus -- you will be getting some good exercise

ride the motor bike

 

[suitepotato]

Thanks for the greetings.

Looking over the Staton vs GEBE thread last I read, I'm leery of spokes now and starting to look over some ideas on wood, aluminum, carbon fiber, etc. wheels. It's got the creative interest going now.

 

[bamabikeguy]

Thanks for the greetings.

Looking over the Staton vs GEBE thread last I read, I'm leery of spokes now and starting to look over some ideas on wood, aluminum, carbon fiber, etc. wheels. It's got the creative interest going now.

I made the switch to 12 gauge spokes in 2005, and have neither bent or broke one myself, but none of the bikes I've built have had a problem either.

Spoke issues are for folks who don't take that advise, to dump the cheap Chinese 16 gauges as quick as they can.

A properly prepared rear wheel will last for years.

 

[suitepotato]

Yeah, I was afraid of that. There's always one area that mysteriously rebuffs my attempts to get it right. In science class it was rain deficit calculations. In bikes, it was spoke lacing and wheel balancing. When I was a kid, a friend and I had zero money for bikes so we'd take from the local bike shop dumpster. We made a wicked recumbent dragster from what we found, but still had to get the wheels redone by paying the shop with money that took a year of mowing to earn.

That bike shop is a Chinese restaurant now so that tells you what you need to know of my home town's interest in biking.

The weird thing is, we got that done and had rigged a frame to mount a lawnmower engine that ran about 5hp and a local cop who was the father of a friend of ours was helping get it going, so my actual first motorized bike was thirty plus years ago now with the blessing of the police. Contrast that with now and the strict controls on hp, displacement, etc.