cheesy

Bought the trailer from work for $150. 8 x 12 tilt bed, 3000lb rating. Hauls vehicles with flat front tires, too. Time for some new boards, though.

Found this pic while searching for a pic of my flat bed trailer. When firing up two cylinders makes more sense that firing up eight.

Yet both are Panaracer Pasela tires.

Just about have this ready for that first ride. Just waiting on a nice day to be outdoors to wrap the bars.

I run Duro HF307 knobby tires on all three corners. They are 6 ply specific to sidecar use. And yes, the Russian Mini-Tractor has 2WD, though I didn't use the 2WD at all this past winter. The 2WD can help a lot but can also get you more stuck farther into the woods. The mitts on the handle bars are a generic version of 'Hippo-Hands'. They're pretty good at blocking the wind though you can't wear bulky gloves with them. I have Oxford heated grips inside the mitts. The heated grips can make a very cold ride tolerable.

I got Buster to sit in the sidecar yesterday. Baby steps as he just isn't sure about this weird machine yet. I think once he gets it that he can go for a ride, he'll be fine. Every time we walk past the Jeep, he wants me to open the tail gate so he can jump in the back.

Moving right along with the Gitane track bike. Built the front wheel this morning. Finding a correct chain ring for the front will be the next challenge.

We used to call those 'nut snaggers' when I worked in a bike shop. ? The top tube 'stick shifters' on Sting Rays had another name.

If I had any thumb shifters in my stash, this one would have them. OTOH, I grew up with downtube shifters, starting in the sixties, and can do double shifts with one hand. In my advanced age, though, all my dropped bar bikes would have bar end shifters. They are the catsass for touring. Not a fan of brifters, mostly because they are such a complicated system to do a simple task. Repair parts are almost unobtainium. It's usually replace, not repair. At least it was when I worked in a bike shop.

This one is finished. It's going to my youngest daughter. She rides a 1974 Raleigh Grand Prix now and this will be an upgrade even if it is four years older. I couldn't save the Blumel fenders. Next up is the Gitane Mexico track bike.

Here's some of those wonderful wires with Soy based insulation and the resulting rodent damage. Add to the fact that the signal wires are all the same color with only a number on each end, it took a while.

This could have gone in the motorcycle or bicycle thread, so I flipped a coin. I threw the bike rack on the Ural and loaded up the Gitane track frame to visit a cycling buddy in Chicago. A nice day to ride for us cold blooded types. I counted about a dozen other motos out today. It was about a hundred mile round trip from the very far, far south western 'burbs to the NW side of the city. My buddy supplied me with the rear wheel, plus the handlebar and stem. Everything else I need is in my stash.

We had thought about getting another dog after I retired but Buster showed up early. We've allowed him the run of the house, but so far the living room, family room, and front entry are his hang outs. He won't go into the kitchen unless there is a rug to walk on, which I find weird as there isn't a rug on the entryway floor. I'm also not used to not having a dog next to me when I open the fridge. I don't know if he was banned from the kitchen at his previous place but we would rather he would go out the back door to his dog run I set up and that's accessed through the kitchen. He doesn't beg but he will burn a hole in you by staring. Last night, while on our pee walk on the property, he spotted something in the dark and dragged me along. I tried to dig in my heels but I just skied through the mud.

Meet Buster, our new pooch. What we know of his breed is Border Collie, Lab, and some sort of Terrier. He's around 7 years old and absolutely chill. Needs some leash work, but not too bad. I don't know if his previous family had a Jeep but if I open the tailgate or the drivers door of my Wrangler, he's in there. His previous family broke up and he was sort of a pawn in a nasty divorce. I've met all of his previous hooman family and all I can say is Buster was the only sane one in the bunch. Although he will probably be banned for life from the DeSoto, once things warm up and dry out here, we'll attempt having him ride in the sidecar.

I don't know if they'd fit the flat head but here's a pair on a 1952 Ford 215 I built 25 years ago. My daughter and son in law have the truck now Offy intake, Clifford header, Fenton Hi-Lift rockers. My SIL put a Pertonix(sp) ignition on it but when I was driving it, it had a Columbia dual point ignition with a blue Mallory coil. Blue meant when it bit ya, it left a mark. Issues with the 1904 carbs that I found were warped bodies and different throat sizes.

I’m sure it gets a lot of comments. They are cool bikes. If I am not mistaken, ‘Made in England’ is on the top tube.

Raleigh made the DL-1 from the teens to the eighties and it was basically unchanged in that time. It’s still being made under license in many Asian countries. I’ve had two different copies from India, an Atlas single speed from the early sixties and a 2012 Eastman that I threw a 3 speed hub on with a 22 tooth cog. That lowered the gearing enough to make long rides tolerable. I’ve heard a lot of comments of how poor the rod brakes were at stopping all that mass. Poor adjustment or worn pivots in the linkage is usually the cause. In the case of my Eastman, it was sloppy tolerances. After bushing all the pivots and readjusting, I could lock the rear wheel. I used to say that the front wheel of my Eastman had its own Zip Code and that English bobbies and postmen must have had thighs like tree stumps. I kind of wish I still had one. Plenty of low traffic gravel roads where I live now.

Very nice DL-1. Most popular style bicycle ever. 26” or 28” wheels?

I went to the annual Chicago Winter Bike Swap yesterday and did not come out empty handed. I scored an early 70s high end French Gitane track frame with some darn nice components on it for fairly cheap. The bottom bracket is a Campagnolo, headset and fork are Tange, and seat post is Sugino. The second fork is the original one but if I want to use it, I'll need to find a headset with French threading. I priced some on the bay of evil last night and most were more than I paid for the frame. The French didn't get with BSC standardized threading until the 80s. I plan one building this one up as single speed fixed gear for local bumming. I have another bicycle project in front of this one, though.

Never let a little snow stop you.

The Diesel Project. I'm sticking this 315cc Italian diesel with a CVT into this pile of parts that was once an Suzuki GS550L. It has been a challenge. I hope to have it on the road by summers end. Since last summer, the project has changed direction at least three times. Not on a whim, but because something looked good on paper. Real life has a way of giving nut punches to not so well laid out plans.

Good find. I scored a 1958 Darra James table saw last year. It needed a good cleaning and I added a knee safety switch. It's a tad lower down the food chain than the Unisaw but compared to the bottom feeder Rockwell I have, it's a jewel. I also find power tools from the 40's to the early 70's to be of better quality.

I know it was a PITA to get the starter out and back into my 48 DeSoto to replace a leaking oil filter elbow in the block. After I was done, I decide to check my very antique Flat Rate Manual and it listed Starter Removal at 0.8 hr and the same for replacement. So it's always been a pain.

Interesting bike. The frame doesn't look American made because it's lugged and brazed. Except for the French built Ross Lions of the 60s and the super expensive hand built Ross Signature series of the 80s, Ross built frames were lugless and welded. It looks like it may be a Raleigh frame, which isn't unusual because they made bikes for just about everybody. The 3 speed hub looks like a Shimano 3.3.3 which could have been spec'd by Ross or it's a replacement.

Last ones and I'll stop. Green 1968 Raleigh Superbe. What makes it a Superbe instead of your basic Raleigh Sports is the front Dynohub generator, lights, and a locking front fork. This was my Rehab bike. After getting hit from behind on another bike and getting banged up pretty bad, one of my riding buddies took me to a bike swap meet to get me out of the house. While moving around on crutches, I found this beat up Superbe for fifteen bucks. I worked on it while standing with crutches. I had it ready to ride before I was. The day I could swing a leg over it and ride to the end of my driveway meant I was recovering. I've covered thousands of miles on this one. I replaced the extra heavy Raleigh steel rims with Sun aluminum rims and that made it a completely new bike. Also tossed the 18t rear cog for a 22t which civilized it even more. The seat bag was made from a beat up Boy Scout Yucca pack and the brass thing behind the seat is the tank for a kerosene stove. The black thing is known by many of my cohorts as The Mighty Dunelt or The Tetanus Express. It's a 1964-ish Dunelt Sports, same thing as a Raleigh Sports but has a Dunelt badge on it. I found it in a dumpster without wheels. It was the test mule while I was working on a 2 speed fixed gear hub conversion. I added a brake after the first hub design failed at the end of my driveway. I lived on top of a hill at that time, too. Once I got the design down and working, this was my main commuter bike for nearly eight years. At 50, I raced several Alley Cats on it and had my ass handed to me every time by kids in their teens and early twenties but I had a ball doing it.