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05may2003

Three-speed tall bike! Camera died, pix when I can. Seat is about adams-apple height on me.

A yellow bug, complete with bud-vase daisy.

The daisy is filched from USB War's Halloween costume (Peace).

Its maiden SCUL mission was on 03 May 2003, Operation BackInTheSaddle. Here's TLA VWB's SCUL Technical Data page.

This should make a fine commuting chopper, if I can learn to free-mount it in fewer tries... But once you're on, you're fine.

A flip-bike. NoWay: "Invert the dominant paradigm!"

Still conduit and hose-clamps =/

Base bike was a step-through Columbia 3-speed, 1972 Sturmey-Archer hub.

The seat post is oddly sturdy on this one. For one thing, it's at less of an angle, so there's not as much torque on it. It's got a sort of seatstay of 3/4" conduit, attached to the base frame's old seatstay with a BMX stem.

Quadrofork design (one for 20" wheel, one for 26"). Offset monotube extension, sort of (1" conduit, so shoot me). Gets the handlebars out of your lap.

The three lengths of conduit got innertube sleeves.

The shift-lever box (barely) reaches the handlebars, but the brake lever is on a floating extra grip, 5" of Cu pipe. It sits hooked in a bungee cord off the handlebars. Makes getting off (and on) thoroughly objectionable. Pausing on a street-sign or comrade's shoulder is about impossible.

This might make a fine cargo bike - there's lots of space on the frame that isn't in the way of front wheel or cranks. There's not a good place for the standard rear rack, for multiple reasons. The QR rear rack doesn't really work, can't handle much past 3/4" conduit, and this has mostly 1". I've already managed to velcro on a front-type pannier. Maybe a pair of yellow milkcrates?

Arm thing is from bad dismount from the new tall bike a couple of weeks ago - I was thinking it was the short tall bike - till it was toooo late. Didn't feel it at all till 12hrs later, and then it was only a tired muscles feeling in my hand. Next day it was all swole up. I even iced the knee and the ankle rightawayish (which I never do, I hate that), and they were fine the next day, but this got lost in the noise somehow. Hairline? Dunno. Could barely type - for a week and some. I learned to mouse left-handed... Left shoulder is all knotted from compensating, bleah

06may2003

Speaking of cargo bikes, now I'm trying to imagine what a flip bike plus an xtracycle would look like. (Ooh, that'd cure a wheelie bike. Which, mind, TLA VWB is not.)

17may2003

Geared it down, switched a 22-tooth cog for the 18. Essentially, where it used to have 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gear, it now has 0th, 1st, and 2nd. Perfect for SCUL missions. Also nice because low gear is erratic for some reason. Same (maybe worse) for the previous rear wheel I tried, the '72 SA AW that it came with, so maybe it's the shifting cable housing - ??

Found a new brake cable and two housings that added up to the right length - and half the handful of ferrules ACE WW gave me - finally ran the brakes up to the bars.

Serious to do: install two rear brakes, on each end of the long bolt, so I can brake with left hand or right. Make it a ton easier to rest on signposts from the left.

Conversely, I moved the shift-lever from the bars to the stem. Now the cable runs a little straighter and it's happier going into high gear (slack).

OperationCrackDay2003. Pretty much managed to avoid free-mounts. Screamed some, cussed lots.

In particular, the launch site has a high fence, the upper half of which is chain link. If I lean the bike against it and claw my way up the chain, I can stand on the ledge (am I remembering this right?) and ease on from there, perch a bit, then take off at leisure.

19may2003

Rode this to work to aikido to home. Must've been about 30 people all had something nice to say. Even the C-town projects kids only faked throwing things (with a lacrosse stick).

Showed V. my favorite route from MGH-CNY to MIT.

The QR seatpost rack is not a good cargo solution. Pain in the neck to get on and off, semi-incompatible at best w/any of my panniers, and there's nowhere to put it that it doesn't bonk my feet a little - it has to attach to the 3/4" conduit strut: the actual 1" seat tube is too thick (and there's no inch of seat post free).

So the only thing that's working right now is the small front-type pannier fits pretty well just behind the head tube, velcroed on to the top and down tubes.

04jun2003

Tried to figure out how to put two sets of rear brakes on (there's nowhere to put front brakes) so I can let go with either hand to lean on things on either side. Failed.

06jun2003

'65 Sturmey-Archer TCW 3-speed coaster-brakes hub from Sparky! "Coaster brake. Mark I, II, III, IV. Unreliable, replaced by the S3C."     =)     Shiny, too...

That was just what was wanted.

I'll miss being able to reset the pedals easily at a nondismountey-stop - but it occurs to me that if I have enough hands free to rim-brake and stay upright and shift, the pedals should freewheel forward in 2.5th gear - a three-speed thing.

09jun2003

Vomit was amused this bike turned up for the SCUL Day mission sporting a basket.

The coaster brakes are sweet. Not real grippy, but something.

Now, I could be wrong, but it seems like in gear 2.5, not only does the drive disengage (and it'll freewheel forward), but so does the coaster-brake, and it'll freewheel backward - I can reset the pedals in either direction. That's vaguely disconcerting.

Heh heh heh. I just found out the kiddie trailer I just picked up was supposed to come with a flag. I think that's going on YellowBug here (um, if I can figure out some kind of low-bridge everybody-down hinge).

14jul2003

ThreeSpeed points out it would be pretty feasible to make a cable splitter (one brake cable goes to two levers) out of some scrap metal...

Yeah, the odd TCW hub feature is a bug. SB: "Coaster brake. After Consumer Reports rated the TCW IV 'unacceptable' due to the fact that the brake would fail completely if the shift cable was misadjusted, Sturmey-Archer completely redesigned their Tricoaster, so that the braking was independent of the gear-change." We'll pretend that's why there's rim brakes, too.

19jul2003

In his quest to ride a different chopper every week, Nameless rode this on Operation InmatesRunTheAsylum!

04oct2003

SCUL-'lympics mission, HeadCrash was rideless, but Summer was free and I wanted it and Giraffe passed PaleHorse on to HeadCrash and rode YellowBug (with some trepidation)!

?oct2003

Skunk didn't come on the mission, and this bike was the official cyclometer! Couldn't suck quite as many decimal places out of it as Skunk manages, though.

31may2004 (Vernal Feast of Eris, goddess of Discard)

Labor Day weekend trashpicking, scored a visibility flag and a color-coordinated CA license plate.