Monday coffee and weather, 7 September

[ibike2havefun]

Good morning everyone

The potful of Cubano roast is ready and waiting for you...

It's 58°F and clear in Rockville on this Labor Day holiday (in the U.S.; elsewhere in the world it's just another Monday) as the sky begins to brighten ahead of the rising of the sun. Sunny with a high of 82 is expected, and as the air warms the relative humidity will decrease from the current 93 percent to a very comfortable 42 percent around 1700 hours.

I'll take my visually impaired friend to our favorite bike shop today. The pretext is that the shop owner, a longtime friend of ours, has recently been diagnosed with bladder cancer so we're going in order to show our support. The real reason, however, appears to be that by blind friend thinks he wants to get a tandem of unusual design: the stoker actually rides in front on a recumbent configuration, with the captain riding behind on a traditional upright / diamond frame setup.



Naturally, the blind friend would be riding in the front seat, and he's looking for captains to ride with him. He hasn't asked directly, but I'm sure he's thinking / hoping that I'll raise my hand for periodic duty but I'm not at all certain I want to sign up for that so I'm keeping mum on the subject for now.

Before we go I've got some housework to attend to, and some uke to practice. My rate of progress has diminished in direct ratio to the amount of time I spend not practicing. No surprise there, of course.

Stay safe and well everyone and tell your dear ones you love them. Do it today, NOW, for tomorrow may be too late.

 

[steve3b3]

Good morning and thanks for the cubano coffee, Keith.

It's sunny and 53 in MA this morning, and it'll remain sunny all day as the temperature rises to 76.

We didn't do anything worth mentioning , yesterday, except dinner at our local Chinese place.
I seem to be in a rut.

Today, I've got no real plans, again.
The gym is a possibility, as is a walk. it's also a nice day for another bike ride.

Enjoy your day,
Steve

 

[Obo]

Morning all, and thanks for the coffee, Keith.

There's a couple or recumbent riders around here. One even has a cocoon around the bike. That one sits fairly low to the ground, while the other seems to sit very high. Almost reminds me of the old two wheelers.



Weather here is an overcast 11, headed to 22. As it's a holiday here, and not raining, I'm told it may be a get-out-for-a-ride day. I'm ok with that.

Hope everyone has a great day and gets out for some fun.

Obo.

 

[jdmccright]

Gmornin' from RI! This "hotel" only gave us a single regular coffee pack to brew, so I must wait until we get to the goodbye breakfast to get my daily dose. If I could reach the Cubano I would, but thx Keith!

This labor day will be spent in the car driving back home, but carrying good memories and hope for my nephew and his new bride. A very elaborate and rich wedding event which I've never seen before and likely won't ever again. When you've seen a sushi bar where they carve the sashimi tuna right from the fish to your plate, or roll it into the sushi rolls, astounding. I would've been okay with pre-made, thx. But the wife and I cleaned up quite well to give the impression we belonged there. And the band was phenomenal!

Anyhow, hope everyone's day goes well, whether it be labor or not. Take care y'all!

 

[Chris09]

Thanks for the start and a couple of interesting cycles so far. Had to Google that one; if you do it also it seems to be along the lines of lying down or leaning back
Well that's my helpful tip of the day, all I've got
Had a good couple outings around the lower mainland last couple days still no VStar test run despite all threats.
Got caught up in following a couple different riders in a couple different direction on a couple different days a little longer and further out which took up a good part of the days
Days well spent to say the least got out to Mission and some good paths between and then Ladner and Deas Island the terminal overpass and a quick u turn, should have got a pic but stopped here and there and got a few
It's a different perspective from the bike looking around and toward places and routes I'm already mostly familiar with from working in the areas and good to follow guys that have
run down some of these frequently and know the best routes and times to go; good weather and very little traffic
Wish everyone a safe ride

 

[Sadlsor]

Thanks, Keith, and how do you say "Happy Labor Day" to retired old goats?
What does that even mean to you anymore, except that you can't go to the Post Office or renew your driver license?
Pfffttt.
The "coccooned" bikes are known as Velomobiles, but that may be just one trademark.
I had a friend in Michigan I've known for years who rides one, and for two years was always getting pulled over by the police, to either gawk and ask questions, or try to give him a ticket.
I say "had a friend", because we learned of each other through motorcycling and long distance riding, but he's quite liberal, and i suspect he finally unfriended me on farcebook because I often made the mistake of posting reasonable thoughts to his ridiculous statements.
Anyway - to the point, they didn't know what it was... it's just a recumbent, enclosed bicycle.
He finally got tired of it, because they would detain him and argue it was illegal on city streets, making him late for work.
So he carried a copy of the Michigan state law with him, as well as local ordinances, and began visiting local precincts to educate the police on bicycle law, and his right to use public roadways. All in attempt to just go about his day.
His velomobile cost about ten grand.
So, back to the bike your friend is considering... I'm gonna guess that costs anywhere between five and ten thousand?
Next up... why do so many of my coffee posts run so long?
Maybe because my thoughts are so detailed, and I strive to communicate clearly.
Just a guess.
I've seen a grits bar at a wedding reception, and been to some swanky affairs, with champagne fountains open bars and chocolate fountains, and even prime rib... but must confess I've never yet seen a sushi bar at one.
That's top shelf.
One idea I came across to fix the John Bambi riding mower, is the solenoid at the bottom of the carburetor (although in my case, an S130 model, that little solenoid is side-mounted to the carb.)
While I've already checked that it has voltage, there's a possibility the plunger that opens the carb main jet may be stuck in the solenoid body, keeping the jet closed upon startup.
I doubt that's the case - for two reasons:
1. The machine has less than 24 hours run time, and
2. It has never seen ethanol-mixed fuel, just straight gas.
But it's worth a try.
Next step, will be to call the mobile mower repair man, as I'm out of ideas. And I don't have a truck, and the dang thing is too big to load in my Bushtec trailer.
Meanwhile, my Black Rifle coffee is wonderful, and I think I'll have another.
Then I'll make sure that solenoid plunger moves freely, before I give up on it.
Make a great day, whatever you're doing.

 

[Chris09]

Not sure what carbs are on the John Bambi, but it sounds like they work opposite to the Mikuni BSR37s I was messing around with the solenoids on that are normally open allowing fuel into the main jet wells.
Before everything magically started to work due to divine intervention, I tried disconnecting the leads to them to see if they were possibly being energized at idle.
I'm wondering if it's possible that your power at these solenoids is closing the passages to the main wells.

 

[SupraSabre]

Morning Keith & All from mostly sunny, Southern Utah!

Currently it is 64F, heading for 78F. We have a slight breeze now, but later the winds will pick up from the SW @ 16 to 20mph. Yesterday's storm, pretty much stayed to the east of us. We did get a few drops here and there, but nothing that you could measure. At least it left us with a nice sunset.



Final week before WeSTOC 30! Lots to do, I'll print out some ST1300 & ST1100 pictures for the center pieces that Chris and I came up with. We'll see how well they turn out.

And I need to gather stuff, for the Bike wash and other things... Got to check my list...

Chris went back to bed after getting the bread put in the pot, she bakes them in, so hopefully she'll get a little more sleep.

Once she's up, we'll get some breakfast. Pepsi(s) have been moved into the big ice chest, since it seems out fridge is having issues again!

Anyone , have a great day on the roads!

 

[ibike2havefun]

The "coccooned" bikes are known as Velomobiles, but that may be just one trademark.

Velomobile is a specific brand, and makes a variety of rigs. One is a "tadpole" recumbent trike (two steered wheels in front, one human-powered chain-driven wheel in back) enclosed in a hard shell (carbon fiber) fairing but they also make semi-open varieties.

The generic term would be "fully-faired recumbent". I've seen a number of variants. On level ground they're quite fast, and headwinds don't affect them as strongly as they do bikes without fairings, but in a crosswind... and uphill, they're dogs due to the combination of heft and poor leverage. (Recumbents in general are harder to climb hills on, than uprights.)

back to the bike your friend is considering... I'm gonna guess that costs anywhere between five and ten thousand?

It's built in and imported from Germany so it runs upwards of $12K. That may be the pre-tariff price, I dunno.

There is, or was, a U.S.-made bike that was similar, and in fact may have predated the European version- it dates back to the early 1990s, IIRC. The original manufacturer discontinued them and folded their tent; another niche U.S. builder bought the rights, plans, jigs, and other manufacturing impedimentia and re-introduced the type under a different name some while back.