Re: *The 76er(s)* (build update: 5/6)
Day 6 &7
Some days you just gotta ride.
Busy days, had to fix my Jeep when the wife's van broke, that's next. Ballgame, dance recital, grandparents visiting, etc...
Nothing much happened yesterday besides life, but today... today was nice.
The weather was beautiful, fixed the Jeep this morning and was not motivated to touch the van, so what do you do? Goof off.
Ever since I threw my old big wheel fork/wheel onto a yard tricycle my son loves us to ride together, so what do you do? You ride.
My daughter joined us on her scooter
Bubby boxed me in against the neighbor's boat
I escaped
Then we ride off into the sunset...
Wait, the sun doesn't set this early!
It seems I was motivated by Strings_and_steam's Hotrod Hobbyhorse so much that I had to make one of my own:
My son has been needing a balance bike, he is leaning too heavily on his training wheels, so I wacked his sister's old bike. Cut the seat tube to get the seat as low as possible (Bub has short legs), cut off a chainguarg mount that would get his leg, removed the crank, then lovingly adjusted the rear dropouts to accept another front wheel (read: layed frame in dirt and stomped it in), and you've got yourself a balance bike!
Here he is trying it out, he doesn't understand what it's all about, but he is already starting to balance on it:
I couldn't let him have all the fun:
Maybe I'm a little big for this:
A friend dropped off a 20" girls bike this morning, $3 at a yard sale, this bike is too nice to hack. So I decided to fix up some garbage grabs and put out the word that I have free bikes to needy kids. My mom has one of her patients in mind (mom's a nurse) and word is going out other places. Here are the 3 I will give away when I find good homes:
Did I just form my own co-op?
OK, so playing is done, bike charity is done, I guess this is a build-off, so I found 2 of these today in my junk, looks like I have some steel to make my fork drop-outs (is that the correct term?):
So there's my progress, I found some big thick washers. :roll:
The Tour De France in 1976 was won by none other than Belgian cyclist Lucien Van Impe, what does this have to do with me? EVERYTHING! Though at the time of the race I was not born yet, before I graduated elementary school I had written a research paper of Belgium, then just last year I was given a bicycle made in Belgium for Karel Mintjens, teammate of Eddy Merckx who won the Tour De France 5 times. The bike was ridden in the Tour... so yeah, what was I talking about? Waffles? Oh yeah, I like Belgium Waffles, and once I build this bike, I'm going to get one.