February 2022

 

February 2022

 

How many more storms are we to have this month? I have repaired the damage fairly quickly. It was a flying piece of wood that struck the left wing mirror on the Burton snapping it off at the ball swivel and only needing a 4mm button head allen screw through the middle of the ball to hold it together again. It took a few days as I had yet another cold and couldn’t face doing the job.

 I have had a good number of projects on the go including making stone guards for the van, wind shields for the double burner cooker, a wooden box to transport the cooker in, a bespoke trailer cover, new tyres on the back of the El Cid also new HT coil and leads, getting quotes for a new hood, repairing a leaking radiator valve in the bedroom and making a treasure chest for four year old granddaughter. I have also read The Stink Wheel Saga which is all about clip-on engines for bicycles that found favour post World War Two as cheap transport was needed but by the mid fifties their popularity was on the decline and replaced with purpose built Mopeds. A very interesting read with some of the engines described be quite innovative and powerful. As good as they were they were no match for machines like the NSU quickly. 

Around last September I did a design for the windshield of a double burner cooker. I got someone to undertake the making of it. Only a few weeks was the promise. I finally collected it in the New Year. Covid had intervened. The shield required fitting to the cooker requiring use of button head bolts and washers for spacers. Not much of a job, but fiddly. 

That done a plywood box with hinges and toggle clasps to hold it all together. That took about a week waiting for glue to harden off and varnish to dry. I also constructed two lap trays from a design I saw over Christmas from salvaged bits of wood. Varnished in walnut gloss they looked quite antique so this prompted the latest project creating a treasure chest that I have just completed.

Then trailer cover was similarly delayed. Finished in bright red vinyl to match the Burton. I had done mods to the trailer for carrying large numbers of suitcases but the need did not arise as the Indian family were not able to get here for Christmas. It seems that everyone is so busy that there is several months backlog. The lead in time for a replacement hood is three months. I thought that some small business would go out of business during Covid but they seem to be busier than ever. I had the El Cid stop on me going to the off road bike show. I thought it was the carburettor, but that did not appear to have anything wrong with it so I tried the new ht coil and leads stolen from the van engine. I piggy backed them to the existing coil and gave it a go. After a few weeks of testing the problem did not reoccur. It was the ht coil overheating when I put on the grill muff for cold conditions. The coil was fine as long as long as there was cooling air flowing over it but would fail when the muff was fitted or stuck in traffic. It is not cooled by the engine fan. It took a few hours to remove the coil and fit the new in its place. Another job done. New tyres were fitted now the old ones had worn to the tread depth marker. I am testing them out on the rear to make sure they do not rub the body work and they are slightly larger than previously fitted.

On a mild day I made and fitted the stone guards to the van. They required a bit of three dimensional bending to get them to fit the bodywork. The rationale for fitting them is the rear wheels will be driving so the risk of stones being thrown up is high. The path of the stones puts the fuel pipe and light wiring in the firing line and I thought it would be prudent to protect them.