Sometimes things go against you and you have to take a long walk to keep from doing something stupid. Today was one of those days.

From my last blog you know that we broke our bicycle. For the past ten days I have been working to repair the damage by creating a replacement suspension fork for Path. My goal was to create a new part that was stronger and more rigid in all dimensions. I have indeed created a replacement part that achieved those goals. I coated it with three coats of paint and it is a thing of beauty indeed: Aye! in spite of having to use “rattle can” technology.

Ah yes, this does not seem to merit a “long walk.” Well you see there is this thing called the “chain line.” Indeed to transfer power from the pedals to the wheel, the bicycle chain must flow unobstructed from the chain-rings to the cassette. Now I remember why the original design only had a brace on one side!

My exceedingly strong and beautiful-to-behold swing arm is of limited usefulness. Primarily down hill where one doesn’t need to pedal. Well actually the chain will traverse nicely from the very largest chain-ring, with 52 teeth to the very smallest cog, 12 teeth. To find the mechanical advantage in this mechanism one must divide the smallest into the largest.

This gives four and a quarter against. That is one turn of the pedals turns the wheel four and a quarter turns.

One revolution of the wheel moves you almost 60 inches down the road. Each turn of the pedal takes you over 20 feet down the road. This is fine for downhill racing with a nice wind at your back, but is sure doesn’t get you up the hill. Our normal “granny gear” is about one to one.

My choices are; one, talk Judy into doing all the up hill work and I will cover the downhill legs, or two, take the hack saw to my new suspension and revise it somewhat. I would take a pole on the subject, but I think Judy still has the winning vote.

We have finished up the Bluegrass Festival in Lake Havasu City and we are now attending to a group rally near Mesa, Arizona. In a few days I will get another chance to work on the project. Meanwhile we will still be walking.

Good Day from Gary and Judy and from strong but powerless Path.

P.S. make welcome Herb and Darlene, latest members of our blog family. We spent many hours jamming together over the past few weeks.

Herb and Darlene: If you register you can create a comment and say howdy to all the nice people.

Gary