Yesterday. Dog escaped and went awol for 40 gut-churning minutes, was seen running around in a panic on nearby roads but thankfuckfully found his way back home safely under his own steam. This made me late for a pre-season friendly cricket match against another team I play for from time to time, but my lateness is well known to both squads, so was deemed “business as usual”. A bit of a lacklustre bowling performance on my part with figures of 6 overs, no wickets, for 33 runs, but we won the match comprehensively. Today. Watched a church service, shot some arrows, played with the dog, cleaned the house, washed all my cricket kit and jet washed my cricket coffin and protective gear as I discovered yesterday that I’d left a full pint of milk inside it the previous weekend which had gone sour and then burst with predictably gag-inducing consequences. Currently waiting for Son #1 to arrive.
Replaced the spring in the front door letter box The flap would not close due to rusted broken spring. Bought new unit from B&Q that would not fit flush, so took the spring out of it and put it in the old one -total cost about £9. Money well spent....
Washed it, and remembered how much I didn't miss spoked wheels. I also checked the battery as it cranks at the usual Ducati leasurly pace. I'm happy with that.
Not just today, but in 1/2 and full hour slots over the weekend when I could grab time to disappear into my workshop. It started Thursday, I don't ever work Fridays, which I took off work to get some jobs done, but also had 30M of 6mm Dia Mid Steel 'Black' Bar delivered along with 150mm of 50mm Dia Bright Bar. I'd promised Lady Nasher I'd weld up an Obelisk type frame for this years Sweet Peas. First off I knocked this up to go on top by winding the bar around an old 5" steel trolly wheel, slicing the coil into half circles and welding them to a Nut. But then I knew I needed to wind up 3 different sized rings, so put the 50mm bar in my lathe and made up a Ring winding machine. This is actually the 4th one of these I've made over the last 30 odd years, the previous 3 have all been sold on when the job I made them for was finished. But this ones a keeper as I've plans to make some more stuff for our and our Son's gardens. These 3 rings were wound up and welded: These simple winders are really effective, and it always feels like magic as straight bar goes in and curls out the other side. By taking it easy, adding a little pressure at a time, and going backwards and forwards really accurate sized rings can be made. All three of these were made to within @5mm on the diameter I was aiming for. Of course the welded up frame, @2.5M tall with a bolt on the top to mount the globe, isn't easy to photograph, but just now needs to be painted black. I'll add some green Garden wire as extra support for the sweet Peas as they grow.
I was looking round Sis's garden Saturday and suddenly realised it needed sweet peas. Sweat peas are beautiful.
That’s fantastic. I’m extremely envious of people who can design and make stuff. Come the inevitable collapse of western civilisation, your skills will be in demand, whereas there probably won’t be much call for lawyers. I’ll just be another surplus mouth to feed
joined an old codger's cycling club, several aged 80 plus! Speed is nice and sedate even for me, off out in a minute.
Have they allowed you in on your e bike or are you hoping they won't notice? Just remember the cake stops are just as important if not more than the actual riding.
it was more like me wishing they would stop more often! Half of them have got e bikes of course, it's the lack of a helmet they are frowning at.
Had to go to the excel in dat der London for a work conference. First time I’ve put a suit on in over 5 years. This dog on the train was the highlight of my day.
Some groups won't allow you to ride in their group without a helmet. Winters will be full mudguards and lights usually. I only ride occasionally without a helmet, not ever in a group though.
I’ve been playing with ChatGPT tonight, seeing what it recommends for our road trip in the car in June. I’ve already got a route in mind with places to stay, but was curious to see what it recommended, as a friend was saying he used it the other day, as he’s never done a road trip into Europe before. The customisation and speed it put the whole holiday together was extremely impressive. I still think it will end the world one day though!
Helped out a mate over the weekend with his bike before we go to the TT... Tyres, chainset, [another attempt at locating an electrical problem, we shall see] plug and cap change, a damn good clean (with the time i had). Dropped off and picked up at the end of the day my own RSV4 to have the throttle bodies balanced...im shit at it. Bike is a bit more spritely and sounds a little different so all good.
Great stuff. Really nice piece of work. Envious as I never was any good at metalworking. One thing on my radar soon is to have a go at welding. Never done any at all. Fingers crossed. Love the winding machine, perfect circles too!
For Christ sake wear a helmet Chris. I’d be dead twice if it wasn’t for helmets. The second time being as recent as January when I slid off my e-bike on a really innocuous looking roundabout which turned out to be more like a skating rink. Bashed my knee, hip, elbow, top of my shoulder then hit the back of my head on the tarmac. It actually cracked the helmet. Imagine what it would have done to my tiny little brain. I say innocuous, I was only doing 16km/hr! It was so ridiculous, it wasn’t even challenging. I implore you to get a helmet, I like your posts. Also can I have first dibs on the Monster if you don’t!
Today was a good day, finished removing the tail tidy on my Monster ready for its Spanish MoT. Bloody fiddly job putting the rear indicators back to stock. Everything has to be stock for the test. Next up I went out and bought 2 x 24v incandescent bulbs, wired them together in series. Put croc clips on the ends making a 48v light. Then hooked it up between my solar battery array and my new Victron inverter. When connected the lights lit up for all of 2 seconds which soft charged the inverter’s capacitors. Therefore eliminating the problem of ‘inrush’ of power to the inverter which caused the battery bank to shut down because it thought there was a short circuit. Result, the inverter fired up! When I get time over the next few days to keep an eye on everything, I’ll fire up the whole system and we’ll be solar powered at last. Something I’ve wanted to do for years. Maybe I’ll wear a helmet when I do the final connection.
