cheesy

Not a great day at Chez Fromage yesterday. I was rearranging seasonal stuff in the garage when I backed the mower into the Honda CX500, which started a cascade of bicycles, mo-peds, almost motorcycles, and other bits of garage type junk. I was mostly concerned about the almost a motorcycle falling against the DeSoto, Luckily, the throttle grip of the bike and the front bumper shook hands and that was all. Once the four letter words subsided, I enlisted my other half, a 3 ton floor jack, and a 6' piece of pipe to get the Honda back upright and the mess cleaned up. This isn't the first time the Honda has been on its side in the garage this year. Our grandson knocked it down with his adventure on an ATV with a stuck throttle over the summer.

Just the opposite for me, and anything over 500 miles because it was every week. I would head to O'hare a 4 am on Monday and if I pulled back into my driveway before midnight on Friday, I got home early.

In my work truck, Elgin, IL to Spokane, WA and back. In 1978, pre kids, we drove our 1974 Opel Manta from Chicago to Arizona via old 66 and returned via Utah and Colorado. We drive to Union, ME every other year to visit our oldest and her family. The longest trip in the Desoto has just been to Kenosha, WI from Elburn, IL and back, about 170 miles. We're hooking up the trailer to the pickup after next week and doing the 66 route again for our 50th. SWMBO wants to go to the end of 66. I'd rather slam my hand in a car door, but happy wife, happy life. I was so glad that my work truck sprouted wings in 1999. But I traded windshield time for airline delays.

I know the feeling. My wife has her Renegade. I have my Wrangler. We share an F150 diesel and then there's the 48 DeSoto.

New to me bike day. It's 1970 or 71 Raleigh Sports with the not too common 23" frame. I paid the princely sum of $10 for it. I'd have given $50 just for the saddle, a Brooks B72. It still has the original Dunlop White Stripe tires on it. I'm just going to grease and clean this one up. I scored a few other things, too. The wheel leaning against the garage is for the bent Robin Hood. I also got two 27" aluminum wheels for the just as old red and chrome bike in the background.

That is one tall bike on a short car. I've seen some 911s with roof racks.

I found out the hard, and expensive, way. I think Phil Wood makes 26tpi cups for Raleighs, but unless it's something like a 531 Lenton Sport, they are not worth the expense.

Well, 'eck. I had a mostly original 1974 Raleigh Grand Prix sitting for sale at my favorite bike shop for about 18 months. It sold yesterday for $175. I thought that was pretty good, seeing as I paid a hundred for it a few years back. The shop gets a 20% commission, so that leaves me with $140. I just had them set that up as a tab for parts instead of cutting me a check. That should be good for a rim, some good tires, and some tubes.

Close. Raleigh was 26 tpi with a 70mm or 73mm BB shell, depending on the model. The rest of the Brits were 24tpi and 68mm, which is BSC/ISO. Raleigh got their head out in the mid 80's and went with 24tp and 68mm. Italians are also ISO now but were 36mmx24tpi, and a 70mm BB shell, with both cups being RH thread. The French also got on the ISO bandwagon, maybe late 70s, early 80s. Prior to that, the French threading was 35mm x 1mm, again, with both cups being RH thread. I have every variation in my herd. Thank God I don't have Swiss, which is French with a LH fixed cup. I had to look the above up because I couldn't remember all of it. There was a time when I could.

Thanks. It's not on the top of the list to be repaired. There are other fish to fry before that happens. I am half hunting a different Raleigh frame as I had other plans for the possible candidate. I have a gorgeous Guerciotti frame but it's both larger and Italian, so a parts swap won't be easy. We'll see.

Well, poop. There was a malfunction with the ATV we have for the grandkids. Throttle stuck open. Our oldest grandson had to choose between a tree or the open garage door. He chose the open garage door. (We are working again on how to use the kill switch) The bike was leaning against the back of my Ural but took the brunt of the hit. The Ural got pushed into my Honda and knocked that over onto the lawnmower. Our grandson got some road rash and a couple of bruises but walked away. The bike, a 1954 Robin Hood(Raleigh) 2 speed fixed gear, is totaled. The head tube is the only straight tube on the frame. As luck would have it, I have another 1954 frame available. Not as nice looking as this one was, but not bent, either. I'll need to build another rear wheel and I hope there is no internal damage to the rear hub. I found the cause of the throttle problem on the ATV and that's fixed now.

The Russian Mini-Tractor is doing what it was designed to do. Hauling. Friend Chris's fully restored 1976 Sportster in front. Last night was a dry run to a local bike night to see if I could haul all our ABATE chapter stuff. Chris wasn't sure but I had no qualms about it. The pile set up at Wildfire HD in Villa Park, IL.

Yeeaahh, I need to really check out that front fork. I was talking with Jake's Dad yesterday about what I was going to be doing to the bike. He told me that he was horsing around on it in the early seventies and popped a wheelie. The fork legs came out and he slammed his manhood onto the triple tree. (I was secretly snickering after he told me) No camps for the grandsons and no classes for me to teach next week, so I'll look into it.

Now for something completely different... a 1973 Herters Trail Mini. This belonged to our SIL's Dad. Jake, the SIL dug it out of his grandfather's 'Big Shed' and asked if I could fix it up for his boys. I'm at that stage in life where every day is a Saturday, so I took it on. The original 5hp Tecumseh is long gone. The "I don't know what it is" snowblower engine Jake's Dad supplied won't work with the torque converter because of the wrong shaft size. I have a low hour 5.5hp Briggs Intek OHV engine that got volunteered. It's completely apart, awaiting new jackshaft shafts and wheel bearings that will be here late in the week. The was going to be a 'just get it running' project but I showed my other half a pic of a restored Trail Mini and now it's kind of a restoration-lite project. Sigh. So who remembers Herters besides me?

If I keep riding like I am, I may be buying a second tire this year. Outside of the local American Legion Hall for the annual Memorial Day Boy Scout Pancake Breakfast. One of these days, I'm going to track down the owner of that cool old CJ.