MattiThundrrr
Rattus All Terrainus
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Somet Hingo Rother
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There are many Russians who live in the city next to us (Fresno) But there are people from nearly every mid-east country who have moved here. We have a lot of people from southeast Asia, Turkey, & eastern Europe. It is amazing.
If you walk down my little street which is 1/4 mile, you can meet people from Mexico, Canada, Israel, Lithuania, and Laos. The number of people moving here is staggering, and we are building houses at a pace that is unbelievable.
Nobody here In the San Joaquin valley worries about the Russians, but we all worry about water, because this is the desert and there would be no agriculture at all without huge reserves of water in the mountains.
We certainly don’t worry about foul weather, because it is sunny here almost every day of the year. We have more bicycle riding days than any place I have ever lived except for Phoenix Arizona.
I’ve been to Canada but otherwise I’m not a world traveler. At my age I am not likely to start either. I traveled the US extensively with my family as a child, and I just got tired of all the moving around. I attended 10 different elementary schools.
Nowadays I want to stay put. It’s too bad that Russia won’t stay put. If they wanted to make money they should’ve set themselves up for extensive tourism.
Instead they’re killing civilians while they tell you that they’re fighting Nazis. They are just pouring rubles down a hole as fast as they will go. It’s not just about the dead soldiers.
If you ask the average American woman what she wants to do, the answer is, “go somewhere.”
Unlike me, they don’t like to stay home because it reminds them that the house they wanted all their life is now a real daily job, that they have to keep clean and maintain.
I think Russians don’t realize that there are millions of Americans who would like to go see the cathedral in Moscow and all the famous architecture . . . such things that only appear here when the news has something unfavorable to say. They would pay a lot of money to see those things.
If Russia could make it efficient and affordable, they could make a fortune, but they don’t have good sense when it comes to capitalism yet. They’ve only managed to adopt the gangsterism side of capitalism.
I suspect that Putin will just deplete Russia until his cohorts get tired of the expense, and put him out to pasture.
In fact I pray for that daily.
If you walk down my little street which is 1/4 mile, you can meet people from Mexico, Canada, Israel, Lithuania, and Laos. The number of people moving here is staggering, and we are building houses at a pace that is unbelievable.
Nobody here In the San Joaquin valley worries about the Russians, but we all worry about water, because this is the desert and there would be no agriculture at all without huge reserves of water in the mountains.
We certainly don’t worry about foul weather, because it is sunny here almost every day of the year. We have more bicycle riding days than any place I have ever lived except for Phoenix Arizona.
I’ve been to Canada but otherwise I’m not a world traveler. At my age I am not likely to start either. I traveled the US extensively with my family as a child, and I just got tired of all the moving around. I attended 10 different elementary schools.
Nowadays I want to stay put. It’s too bad that Russia won’t stay put. If they wanted to make money they should’ve set themselves up for extensive tourism.
Instead they’re killing civilians while they tell you that they’re fighting Nazis. They are just pouring rubles down a hole as fast as they will go. It’s not just about the dead soldiers.
If you ask the average American woman what she wants to do, the answer is, “go somewhere.”
Unlike me, they don’t like to stay home because it reminds them that the house they wanted all their life is now a real daily job, that they have to keep clean and maintain.
I think Russians don’t realize that there are millions of Americans who would like to go see the cathedral in Moscow and all the famous architecture . . . such things that only appear here when the news has something unfavorable to say. They would pay a lot of money to see those things.
If Russia could make it efficient and affordable, they could make a fortune, but they don’t have good sense when it comes to capitalism yet. They’ve only managed to adopt the gangsterism side of capitalism.
I suspect that Putin will just deplete Russia until his cohorts get tired of the expense, and put him out to pasture.
In fact I pray for that daily.
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I had an attack of latent geezerism, but it’s gone now.
It was Bike shop madness here today.
We have five bicycle shops within 10 miles of our house, so it’s easy to buy bicycles, but some parts and tools can be difficult to get.
It was Bike shop madness here today.
We have five bicycle shops within 10 miles of our house, so it’s easy to buy bicycles, but some parts and tools can be difficult to get.
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Well, I did not get much done over the weekend, other than repairing some minor damage to some of the things I intend using, but I did make a great discovery while out with wifie yesterday.
We spent the day visiting some friends, and stopped on the way to visit a small fortified hill. It was a lovely day, so we did not bother reading the endless bumpf they printed on signs, but instead climbed up this former fortified village.
Wifie decided that was as far as she was going, and I do not blame her as everything was a bit rickety.
Yep, some odd bit of timber to hold the flag...
And then, just as I was about to leave, I noticed what they had used to hold the flag post - a main crank sprocket off an old Romet bicycle. OK, so it is not much to look at, but I was pleased, historical even
Wow!Well, I did not get much done over the weekend, other than repairing some minor damage to some of the things I intend using, but I did make a great discovery while out with wifie yesterday.
We spent the day visiting some friends, and stopped on the way to visit a small fortified hill. It was a lovely day, so we did not bother reading the endless bumpf they printed on signs, but instead climbed up this former fortified village.
Wifie decided that was as far as she was going, and I do not blame her as everything was a bit rickety.
Yep, some odd bit of timber to hold the flag...
And then, just as I was about to leave, I noticed what they had used to hold the flag post - a main crank sprocket off an old Romet bicycle. OK, so it is not much to look at, but I was pleased, historical even
Thanks!
Yes, geezerism can be fatal, but that was a really good postI had an attack of latent geezerism, but it’s gone now.
It was Bike shop madness here today.
We have five bicycle shops within 10 miles of our house, so it’s easy to buy bicycles, but some parts and tools can be difficult to get.
We have one bike shop within 10 miles of our place, and it is not that good - so I tend to either buy secondhand, get things mailed or wait until we next visit Lublin. I am currently looking for a cheap secondhand bike with wide 24" wheels, but that might take some time.
Almost the only thing left in my new bike storage room is this set of scales. One day I might feel the need to renovate it, but it is the most complete one I have seen yet. The wooden box with a mess of chain lying there is on the part that was used to weigh boxes of fruit and vegetables, and is actually a counterweight that hangs on the other end.
I finished cleaning up the frame, and began painting with a clear paint in the difficult to reach parts - like inside the hinge and around the rear brake and side stand brackets. I had to mask off the BB and the generally impossible to remove hinge lever and catch.
Later, after another clean up of the bench, I clear coated the rest of the frame. Last week I would have just done it outside by hanging it in the entrance to barn B, but things have turned a little cooler and damper since then. I was also worried about whether the badges would shrivel up due to the fresh paint, but they were OK.
Later I flipped it over to finish off on the top side - and then ran out of paint. That would have been ok, but then I realised that the new paint was not made by the same company as the old one.
So I painted my rear derailleur tool, part of my small hammer handle and two of my plastic brake grips, just to see what it looked like. It looked close enough to what was on the frame, so I used it to finished that off.
I finished cleaning up the frame, and began painting with a clear paint in the difficult to reach parts - like inside the hinge and around the rear brake and side stand brackets. I had to mask off the BB and the generally impossible to remove hinge lever and catch.
Later, after another clean up of the bench, I clear coated the rest of the frame. Last week I would have just done it outside by hanging it in the entrance to barn B, but things have turned a little cooler and damper since then. I was also worried about whether the badges would shrivel up due to the fresh paint, but they were OK.
Later I flipped it over to finish off on the top side - and then ran out of paint. That would have been ok, but then I realised that the new paint was not made by the same company as the old one.
So I painted my rear derailleur tool, part of my small hammer handle and two of my plastic brake grips, just to see what it looked like. It looked close enough to what was on the frame, so I used it to finished that off.
Good luck with mixing the clearcoat. I accidentally mixed two different varnishes in a jar and I had an explosion in the night.
Some slow chemical reaction blew the jar apart, and shot icky varnish on my wife’s car. I picked 100 spots of dry varnish off that car with my fingernail. There’s still some on my garage floor, nine years later.
Some slow chemical reaction blew the jar apart, and shot icky varnish on my wife’s car. I picked 100 spots of dry varnish off that car with my fingernail. There’s still some on my garage floor, nine years later.
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Now that I have most of the running gear I will be using cleaned up and painted, it is time to start considering what I can do to create a more interesting image for the bike.
I have am quite fascinated with early motorcycles, and in the past have spent a lot of time modifying small motorbikes to make things that suit my needs at minimal costs. I even used to work as a development engineer for Norton, a motorcycle manufacturer, but wifie thinks such bikes are too dangerous to ride on the modern road. Well, whatever, this is going to be as close as I can get to owning one.
I knew that I had some plastic tubing stashed away somewhere, and here it is the wooden barn.
A quick bit of cleaning was needed first, to get rid of the accumulated spiders' webs.
The narrow pipe is larger than the tubes on the bike frame, but not large enough to resemble a tank. Still, I can use it as a mount.
This is a bit wide and thick, which will mean I am also going to need a heat gun of some kind in order to bend it, unless I can find something thinner. We do have some old steel downpipe, which would be easier to cut but would be more problematic when it comes to soldering together.
I will have to take a good look at what is available at the local hardware stores before I start cutting anything.
I have am quite fascinated with early motorcycles, and in the past have spent a lot of time modifying small motorbikes to make things that suit my needs at minimal costs. I even used to work as a development engineer for Norton, a motorcycle manufacturer, but wifie thinks such bikes are too dangerous to ride on the modern road. Well, whatever, this is going to be as close as I can get to owning one.
I knew that I had some plastic tubing stashed away somewhere, and here it is the wooden barn.
A quick bit of cleaning was needed first, to get rid of the accumulated spiders' webs.
The narrow pipe is larger than the tubes on the bike frame, but not large enough to resemble a tank. Still, I can use it as a mount.
This is a bit wide and thick, which will mean I am also going to need a heat gun of some kind in order to bend it, unless I can find something thinner. We do have some old steel downpipe, which would be easier to cut but would be more problematic when it comes to soldering together.
I will have to take a good look at what is available at the local hardware stores before I start cutting anything.
Since I am now working on the upper part of the bike, it is time to sift through my parts stock to find the best choices. Most of this is kept on a high shelf, out of the way, so I forget quite what is there.
This is pretty much my selection of the types of handlebars I have in stock. The chrome ones are interesting as they actually came with the bike and are very different from those usually fitted to the Jubilat frame.
I cannot remember on what bike the striped down plastic seat came on, I just know it was not the Zenit. The foam used for the Romets are easy to damage as the bike gets older, and I have a number of them with splits or small chunks missing. Anyway, on closer inspection the basic plastic one is actually the core part of all my Romet seats, it has just had the foam cover removed at some stage. I would like to recover it in the next few weeks, with a thin layer of foam under some vinyl sheet, but I have not yet figured out how to apply it.
I have also applied the clear paint to most of the plastic parts, as they were quite beat up. I wish I knew where to find a spray with a more satin finish. I still need to rub down and repaint some of them.
Once I have finished selecting and painting the parts for the fork bearings I will be ready to select the seat and handlebar.
This is pretty much my selection of the types of handlebars I have in stock. The chrome ones are interesting as they actually came with the bike and are very different from those usually fitted to the Jubilat frame.
I cannot remember on what bike the striped down plastic seat came on, I just know it was not the Zenit. The foam used for the Romets are easy to damage as the bike gets older, and I have a number of them with splits or small chunks missing. Anyway, on closer inspection the basic plastic one is actually the core part of all my Romet seats, it has just had the foam cover removed at some stage. I would like to recover it in the next few weeks, with a thin layer of foam under some vinyl sheet, but I have not yet figured out how to apply it.
I have also applied the clear paint to most of the plastic parts, as they were quite beat up. I wish I knew where to find a spray with a more satin finish. I still need to rub down and repaint some of them.
Once I have finished selecting and painting the parts for the fork bearings I will be ready to select the seat and handlebar.
The other day I forgot that I also have this former water drain pipe in the barn. I know that they were all the rage here until plastic came along, and it is possible that I might be able to solder or rivit it into tank shape. It is a huge thing, and there is one in each corner of our small house, and we have been warned that we need them this big. But every time it rains I keep an eye on the smaller plastic that replaced this one when we had our porch at the back extended, but it has never reached maximum flow yet.
So I think I could either risk it or use it on the outside of this barn if I can find some appropriate guttering.
Since I have extended the seat location backwards, maybe I should consider how far forward I should put the handlebars. If the seat works in its rearward position, then the stem on the right will probably be needed to balance it.
I really need to sort out the rear seat, tank and handlebar layout.
So I think I could either risk it or use it on the outside of this barn if I can find some appropriate guttering.
Since I have extended the seat location backwards, maybe I should consider how far forward I should put the handlebars. If the seat works in its rearward position, then the stem on the right will probably be needed to balance it.
I really need to sort out the rear seat, tank and handlebar layout.
That steel galvanized pipe could work, be careful with heat, I do not know what chemicals are set free when you heat it.
Like mentioned earlier, love you workplace with all that wood.
And love your frame shape. Really looking forward to assembly!
Like mentioned earlier, love you workplace with all that wood.
And love your frame shape. Really looking forward to assembly!
PVC pipe is easy to shape when hot, and can be "ironed" on the backside to create creases or lines.
I built several PVC parts for my plastic boat, and it worked great.
I have a Wagner heat gun, after burning out my Harbor Freight gun.
I held it too close to the work, overheated the gun, and burned out the electronics.
I built several PVC parts for my plastic boat, and it worked great.
I have a Wagner heat gun, after burning out my Harbor Freight gun.
I held it too close to the work, overheated the gun, and burned out the electronics.
I would use a big soldering iron, because the metal is quite thin.
And yes, we have a lot of wood here, so much wood...
So now it was time to test out how the handlebars and handlebar stems would look. Of course the fork was just slid in there and a temporary nut fixed on it to prevent it dropping out as I moved the bike around.
Luckily it was a pleasant afternoon, and I had even cut the grass earlier.
I like this stem, although I don't think I have used it since I removed it from Pigdog. I quite like the handlebars, and I think I might have used them last year.
This was more of an experiment, with the stem from the kids bike frame I sawed up the other day to make a seat mount, and the original handlebars upside down.
I am still not convinced, but it is a still a nice bit of chrome.
Well, the black goes well with the front fork, and I am pleased that this very rusty handlebars that I painted for my last build are still looking good. They are still a contender.
Yes, the first one again, and certainly still a contender.
Finally, the flat bar. I have two pairs of these and can never really find a home for either of them. I might chop this one for the saddle mount.
I am still looking for a pair of nuts like I have on the front hub to go on the rear as well. Nuts with threads sticking out is really too much like basic engineering.
So I think I will be going with the more severely bent handlebars and the most forward handlebar stem. Maybe.
Luckily it was a pleasant afternoon, and I had even cut the grass earlier.
I like this stem, although I don't think I have used it since I removed it from Pigdog. I quite like the handlebars, and I think I might have used them last year.
This was more of an experiment, with the stem from the kids bike frame I sawed up the other day to make a seat mount, and the original handlebars upside down.
I am still not convinced, but it is a still a nice bit of chrome.
Well, the black goes well with the front fork, and I am pleased that this very rusty handlebars that I painted for my last build are still looking good. They are still a contender.
Yes, the first one again, and certainly still a contender.
Finally, the flat bar. I have two pairs of these and can never really find a home for either of them. I might chop this one for the saddle mount.
I am still looking for a pair of nuts like I have on the front hub to go on the rear as well. Nuts with threads sticking out is really too much like basic engineering.
So I think I will be going with the more severely bent handlebars and the most forward handlebar stem. Maybe.
