So that's to be my new fiddle, or violin, or what ever you want to call it. I like the term fiddle, it suits me. I wanted a black one, but they weren't going to have any in for a couple of weeks. Between the available choices, I decided white was good. I could have gotten a classic stained one but I figured that for the price of the fiddle, including rosin, bow, and hard case... the stain would be utter shit, where as with white at LEAST it would be well laid on.
Liam is learning the guitar. He'll probably pick that up quicker than I pick up the fiddle, BUT we figure that we can bring them on camping trips and have some music. Camping via motorcycles. Thats the way to do it. Thats the only way to do it.
Tomorrow (today) is going to be a solid day. The Harley fork tubes arrive, as well as the new Master Cylinder for my car. That project will be either tonight or tomorrow. I'll get a tow out to Brent's and then after he gets out of work at the Fire Department at 5pm we'll go get brake fluid and what ever else... brake line I suppose, put the car on the lift and have at it. There is also a belt that needs tensioned, and I think just maybe we'll have to do wheel bearings soon.
I also had an idea for the sidecar.
Oh right, you haven't heard about the sidecar yet. I want a sidecar. Not really the body so much as the frame. I want a motorcycle that I can ride 4 seasons if I was so inclined. Now the bike is a small engine, so I don't Really need this big heavy chair. What I need is a frame, ballast, and that third wheel with a mud flap and turn signals and such.
I figure I can make the frame out of Gas pipe. I'll need Walter's help (Walter is a friend of the family and a restoration plumber) I might need threaded gas pipe at a rather random set of lengths.
Ok so let me see if I can describe this for you in a good way. The basic frame is a rectangle that is just slightly longer than a square. So for that you need 4 lengths of gas pipe and 4 elbows. Now if you're looking down on that, say you were to sketch the rectangle on a sheet of paper.
Now choose one of the two longer sides of the rectangle and count that off limits - THAT is where it bolts up to the motorcycle. Now what you want to do is look at the other side, the long pipe running parallel to the pipe that hooks to the bike. THAT is where the wheel goes.
So now it gets sort of complicated. So the view you should have drawn is what would be called a "Gulls eye view" which is an old Navy expression.
Now draw a single line the same length as the longer portion of the rectangle some place.
THAT line is the side view of the rectangle. That line is that outer pipe that will hold the wheel. Now wee need a suspension - so that pipe is actually going to be made up of 3 pipes. The two that thread into elbows, then a center one that will be bent inwards (into the rectangle) slightly (if you're looking at a clock then the amount of a curve say from the 2 to 4). These 3 sections will on the inside thread into two T with the lower portion of the T aiming upwards.
Now there will be Another rectangle jutting up from that side view closer to the rear of the bike, which we're going to say you're looking at the right side of the bike. So the new rectangle will be closer to the left end of the side view which you drew as a single line. This will be a slim rectangle Imagine (I am assuming you are totally not tech savvy) a Pringles can. Thats about the same size as a motorcycle shock. So there has to be a few inches clearance on either side of the shock which is centered in the new rectangle. The shock is about 13" high. So the new rectangle scaled down from say 13" high by 7" wide.
So That essentially is my frame - shouldn't be hard to draw that 3D.
It is slightly more complicated than that. Off that outer frame rail (with the bent in bar) I need a swing arm that will hold the wheel. It has to jut out from the front end of the frame on a spindle inside bushings - The bar that holds the wheel is shaped like a T and is called a swing arm. The bottom part of the T is where the wheel goes, and the bar across the top of the T is the spindle which has to some how connect with my frame. That lower portion of the T is my arm. At the end imaging a fist that holds the wheel.
The Fist has to not only hold the axle that the wheel is on, but it also has to grab that shock that is hanging down from that second rectangle we drew - that you drew ( I am doing all of this in my head ) - and that is why that rail needs to be bent - otherwise the fist would SMACK the sidecar frame as it absorbs the bumps with the help of the shock.
If I want to get even more complicated I would be running a couple of cross rails through the inside of the frame to give it added strength. That would of course require more T unions and cutting the original rails into shorter units.
Once the whole thing is together and I have it so that it will take a wheel - I will bring the sidecar down to Worcester City Welding (or to WPI) and have someone who knows how to weld cast iron, weld all my unions and elbows so that nothing EVER comes unscrewed. Then we primer the whole thing and give it about 8 coats of Rustolium shiny black, until it stops looking like the gas pipe that it is to the untrained eye - which I suspect would hinder inspection.
I need ballast which could be in the form of a steal plate, a thick steal plate. Thats another reason I would like to have those cross members inside - something to rest the plate on. I can then clamp it to those, and maybe have it welded in place.
I want to drill holes in it for "Eye Bolts" so that I can ratchet things to the plate - such as maybe a Christmas Tree one year, or lumbar, tool chests, etc.
Another consideration that I hadn't mentioned is the wheel I use (I have one in mind, already have it) has to be the same size as the rear wheel for the bike, so that the frame isn't too much higher or lower than the motorcycle frame. Stemming off of that consideration is another. That second rectangle (the one that holds the shock) has to be just over half the hight of the Wheel that I am using - and with a tire included on the wheel the entire sidecar frame isn't more than a foot longer TOTAL than the wheel.
I plan to buy an old Triumph or such rear fender for it off Ebay and run a second brake light to it with my right hand blinkers on the sidecar fender front and back. This also will be painted Shiny black.
If I ever wanted to make the bike into a "True" cafe racer (except with a sidecar) then I could use the sidecar to my advantage. You see with the old school kick start cafe racers you didn't need a battery compliments of either a Magneto or a serious capacitor in the wiring. I have no kick starter - so I NEED my battery.
I could mount a Craftsman tool box on the sidecar (painted black) and inside it I could mount my Battery as well as all my electrics - fuses, Rectifier, Regulator, etc) so that I could have the true "cafe" look which essentially means the only thing behind the engine are the carbs, air filters - then open space to the fender.
ANYWAYS... its almost 6AM and I have a doctor's apt at 10:15AM.
So I'm going to smoke and catch a few hours of sleep.
I realize the above was boring to 95% of the people who might read it, and only 6 people that I know of do read this - and I don't think any other than Sean get motorcycles hahaha. But this is how my mind works, and this is my blog. This is where I come when I can't sleep, and when no one I know is awake.
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