The heart of the electric power assist turned out to be an elegantly simple device. Creating the design taxed my creative imagination for a couple of weeks. My wife, Judy, may have began to wonder if I had lost track of reality as I traced imaginary chain lines in the air and doodled increasingly complicated sketches of Rube-Goldberg devices on scraps of paper.
Son-of-Path
I have started a companion blog to our regular travel stories starting here in September. I have started building a replacement for our recumbent tandem bicycle we call “Path.” Until we dream up a new name for the new bicycle it shall be known as “Son-of-Path.” I don’t believe the gestation of the new bicycle will take as long as “Path,” (a couple years.) I do expect this to take several months and be full of adventures and indeed misadventures.
Dinsey Mark III, The Blog:
This is the story of the creation of Dinsey Mark III, the son of “Path.”
First: “Path” is the name given to Dinsey Mark II. This name was derived from Anne McCaffrey’s “Dragon Riders of Pern,” a fantasy/Sci.Fi. series about a mythical planet with mythical dragons with telepathic and telekinetic powers. “Path” was a Green Dragon ridden by Mirrim in the series.
The Terra based “Path” is ridden by Gary and Judy Dinsmore and was a participant in the 2009 Oregon Human Powered Challenge May 23 through May 25, 2009 at Portland International Raceway. At this time “Path” had accumulated 12, 121 miles in about eight years of riding. Periodically I would meditate over what the next version of the Dinsey series of bicycles might look like and what improvements it might have.
More Seals
It is Thursday and we are on our way to a church campout this weekend in Chehalis, WA. Now one of the advantages of having a home on wheels is that you can schedule your maintenance on the way to these events. We were due to have the oil changed and the chassis lubed. I scheduled this event for Thursday around noon at Pacific Power in Ridgefield. Now that would give us time to seek a campground if all went well and leaves us a whole extra day if things implode.
Mid-summer Update:
Last report left you in suspense. Does the boat still leak? Will he try to re-caulk the windows?
We will find the answer to the first question this week. We are going to join friends and sail down the Columbia River from St. Helens, Oregon to Astoria, Oregon.
Sure and be-gory, me favorite weather prognosticator, Mr. Murphy, is going to be sure that we get a good test of all systems. Apparently a low pressure system is going to camp out over our area for the next few days.