cheesy

Sturmey Archer made several 2 and 3 speed fixed gear hubs in the late 40s to about 1960. The ASC was the 3 speed, AF(I think) and TF were 2 speed. Very rare now, which translates to very expensive. Being a cheap Norwegian farmer, I built my own hubs by doing internal magic. I've converted several Sturmey Archer AW 3 speed hubs into fixed 2 speeds. One 4 speed FW became a 3 speed fixed gear. The overdrive, or high gear, is lost in the conversion. I also converted two Bendix manually shifted, not the kickbacks, to 2 speed fixed gear. Those are low and direct so there is no overdrive to lose. The Bendix hubs are really easy to do, but I won't convert one unless the plating is bad. Too rare. Where the British 2 speed TF is considered a jewel and does things with grace, the converted Bendix can be considered the 'Uncouth American Cousin' that does things with brute force. After Sturmey Archers sale to SunRace several years ago, they came out with a new 3 speed fixed gear hub called the S3X. It didn't live up to the fanfare due to many failures. I have one, still in the box. One of these days... As an aside, I was really into fixed gear bikes in my 50s. Everyone had a nickname and mine was 'Cheesy' because I hailed from Wisconsin and usually had double cheese on a burger. I did a lot of Alley Cat races and track races against kids half my age. Usually I had my ass handed to me but I had a blast. I built my first hub because I'm a lousy climber and I wanted a lower gear. As happened with the AW hub, there is a neutral position between low and direct. I use it for a long gentle downhill or setting my pedals at a stop sign. Some of my friends saw that and started calling it the "Cheesy Hub".

The 13ga spokes MAY be a benefit with the bike being a fixed gear as resistance, aka backpedaling, is used to slow down and in some cases, stopping. That's a bit of torque applied to the hub flanges. I've not seen a spoke break with backpedaling but I have seen broken aluminum hub flanges. Those were either a poorly built wheel or a hub with a casting defect. Either way, scary to watch happen and must be terrifying to the rider. I have at least a front brake on all my fixed gears because I had my first design multi speed fixed gear hub fail the first time I tried to slow down by back pedaling. The hub made a hell of noise. So did I as I lived at the top of a hill at the time. With no way to stop.😁

This got finished on Monday. It's a Fuji Flair frame and fork I picked up where I got the 1970 Raleigh from. I paid a whopping five bucks for it. The parts from the bent Robin Hood went on here. I had to buy a seat post, crank set, and spokes for the rear wheel. I built the rear wheel with 13ga spokes instead of the usual 14ga spoke. The 13 ga spokes are very overkill for a wheel like this. It's been a while since I bought spokes and things have changed a bit. I used to be able to buy a box of 100 spokes and they came with the nipples. Now, a lot of places sell spokes in groups of ten and the nipples are extra. I found the 13ga spokes selling as a group of 36, with the nipples, for cheap and snagged them. I had plenty of 14ga spokes on hand, but they were either too long or too short. I have the ability to cut and thread spokes but I'd rather slam my hand in a car door, repeatedly, than cut and thread 36 spokes again.

On interventions. My family was going to have an intervention for me 15 years ago. I was 54 years old and looking at a 1991 Corvette, black, 350, 5 speed. 40k miles on it. The asking price was $10K. To me, it was a smoking deal. The family thought I was going to cruise for chicks. I was the only male in the household, so why would I put myself through more torture. My thought was a nice looking black 'vette for ten grand. And I figured red or yellow was for chick cruising. Turned out that no intervention was needed as I had a hard time getting into it and an even harder time getting out. I'm not a big guy but I'm as flexible as two year old concrete. I bought a black 05 Wrangler instead for more money and I still have it. I can't speak for the current Jags as they do absolutely nothing for me. But I have experience with British cars and it hasn't been great.

I can only suggest that you lie down and wait until the feeling passes.

Happy Thanksgiving guys. As we are an hour behind beautiful Maine, we have just started moving about. I still have a second cuppa waiting for me, then a light solo breakfast and a quick walk of Buster dog while she who must be obeyed gets things going. I'll then be spending my time messing with an over torqued and damaged lug nut on my pickup until dinner time. It's also just us and the dog this year. We need to steel ourselves for the upcoming Christmas holidays as we are hosting the Mainer branch of the family this year.

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.

I don't know how to answer your question, but this is what I have. I should update the software but the reader is in the garage and my laptop is in the house. The latest update became available a couple months ago. https://www.foxwelltech.us/product-detail-525.html

I have a snooty upper class Foxwell OBD2 reader. It has paid for itself numerous times over. The software can be upgraded easily through my laptop. What I really like is that I can get real time readings that let me see if one of the O2 or other sensors are getting lazy before it becomes an issue. It also does air bag and ABS checks. I do have a phone one that I keep in a vehicle if I get a CEL while traveling. I don't recall the brand.

I just call the DeSoto, The Old Broad. Usually after I've floored it and it downshifts, I say something like, "The Old Broad can still hoist her skirt and move when she wants." I'm more likely to give my motorcycles nicknames, though. My 1979 Honda CX500 is called the Maggot cuz it's kind of ugly and my Russian Ural is called Arpok, which is a version of RPOC, which is an acronym for 'Russian Piece Of Crap'. My French mo-peds are called Phrench Pharts. As far as my other half goes, her name is Cynthia. Because of stitches in my tongue at a young age, I have a problem of not being able to pronounce it correctly, so it's either 'Hey You' or 'Fred'. She calls me 'Bud'.

Bump. With my recovery from my '68 going on 20' broken ankle actually going well, I was able to get out yesterday and put on some miles. This is at the local BP station where the DuKane ABATE chapter held their Motorcycle Awareness Day shindig. It's pretty much a bunch of old bikers holding up signs telling drivers to put their phones down...and cops writing tickets for the same.