Bye Bye Buddy, Bye Bye Buddy

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Tuesday December 15, 2009 · 3:44 AM PST

2009/12/15 · 03:44

It's diversion time, you dedicated kossaps, for "animals is peeple too diaries". Obligingly picking up the tale after my first ever top comment, this is a rusty Chapter Finis to the 3 month LLAMA WARS, featuring BUDDY.

It was 9 am, a drizzly, foggy Sunday. Weather similar to my 12/2008 Suicidal Goat diary. And everything is wee weed up.

Its time to call up a surge....

Poll

55 votes Show Results

What is most difficult, by degree?

55 votes Vote Now!

What is most difficult, by degree?

corralling a large, shook-up camelid, afoot, over 5 soggy acres

10 votes

resetting the date/time on a borrowed camera

6 votes

rounding up Protestants dressed for Sunday School to a soggy 5 acre dilemna

6 votes

navigating Photobucket folders at 28.8 Kbps

10 votes

trying to keep a diary intro under 1,150 words

1 vote

getting half a million Connecticutters to sign a Recall Joe petition

21 votes

other

1 vote

Intro to Motorized Bicycles Part VIII- Road Trip

bamabikeguy

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Tuesday March 24, 2009 · 2:52 AM PDT

2009/03/24 · 02:52

"In a car you're always in a compartment, and because you're used to it you don't realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.

On a cycle the frame is gone. You're completely in contact with it all. You're in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming. That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing, the same stuff you walk on, but so blurred you can't focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and the whole thing, the whole experience, is never removed from immediate consciousness."
--from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

In today's diary I'm doing the final preparations, to take Rucio the Recumbent on a 1,000-1,500 mile experiment in 2 weeks.

Let's look at the map......

bamabikeguy

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Tuesday March 03, 2009 · 2:49 AM PST

2009/03/03 · 02:49

I could have simply threw you fine folks into the MB forums pool and let you swim. I avoid sending potential customers to the online forums, there is way too much information to absorb. Now that you all have reached Part 7, armed with some knowledge, it is time to show how "you will NOT be alone", regardless of which system you choose.

I had to take a break from the series, do a flash flood recovery and some major fence repair, to greet the arrival of 107 baby goats (so far), tweak my new recumbent ride, start planning an April Adventure, plus do a couple of bike builds.

When someone calls I don't send them to online forums lest they drown, prefer they take a demo ride. 15 minutes later, and after climbing what I call "Eureka Hill", (a steep grade 1/2 mile from the driveway), a lot of their questions have answered themselves.

Heart patients and stroke victims have taken Eureka Hill like Lance Armstrong on steroids.

bamabikeguy

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Tuesday December 23, 2008 · 12:24 AM PST

2008/12/23 · 00:24

It's Tuesday, the recumbent is here, the engine is mounted. It's also 17 degrees, NO WAY can this weekly Intro to MB report a test ride.

DETOUR AHEAD-When traveling cross country, without compass or watch, diversions are part of the fun. This week's temporary route ends up in Oklahoma, explaining how that ugly t-shirt, on the front page of the Ada Evening News: Alabama man retaliates against high gas prices, got me back in the black, back on budget in 2006. Laundromats & casinos, a frugal monk & Chickasaw police...(all below)

bamabikeguy

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Tuesday December 16, 2008 · 2:31 AM PST

2008/12/16 · 02:31

WHY?

It can't be the most comfortable way to see the world, but that didn't stop Joff Summerfield from traveling 22,000-miles on a penny-farthing.

The 40-year-old engineer visited 40 countries on his handmade bike and took in sights including the Eiffel tower in Paris and India's Taj Mahal. He even crossed the Himalayas at 17,000 ft. and made it to Everest base camp on the none too practical bicycle.

Joff says that everywhere he went people had one question for him, "WHY?"

WHY? It's obvious!!

"He's tetched, tetched in the head!"

bamabikeguy

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Tuesday December 09, 2008 · 12:51 AM PST

2008/12/09 · 00:51

For 2 weeks running, by the Rescuing Grace of Grog (h/t), the MB diaries ashes have been spread more than 24 hours.

bamabikeguy continues to regale us about his tinkerer's obsession with two-wheeled, internal combustion contraptions in Intro to Motorized Bicycles Part III- Efficient Engines. (grog)

However, it is a series, dedicated portions must be technically and boringly mundane. Taking a cue from Binford's "Tool Time", the only thing that will rescue THIS chapter are snazzy pictures and wild proclamations.

"By the time you read Chapter 10 (or 52??!), you WILL be able to build one of these !!!"

bamabikeguy

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Tuesday December 02, 2008 · 12:38 AM PST

2008/12/02 · 00:38

No fancy formatting THIS week, we lurch forward with a Dec 2005 newspaper quote:

Lowell Whitehead, owner of the 430-acre W&W Farms near Baileyton, bought three to replace his trucks when checking on his 275 beef cows. The bikes are more economical and much easier for getting around than his trucks, he said. And besides being practical, the bikes are plain fun.

"You can take a ride down the road and when people see you pass they'll sling that mouth open and say, 'God almighty, there's a bicycle,' " Whitehead said.

Pretty pictures of bikes built last week:

"How do I carry my beer?" answers:

bamabikeguy

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Tuesday November 25, 2008 · 2:29 AM PST

2008/11/25 · 02:29

"LEARNING FROM MY MISTAKES"

By mid-summer 2005 I'd built 7 bikes, (3 from WalMart, 2 barn bikes, 2 single speeds), before I finally found a model reliable enough to customize. So, of these 5 pictured bikes, ONLY ONE was sales worthy, the rest culled for personal use.

But talk about timing !!

After 2 months of buying, building and testing, I was ready to roll, on the very day Hurricane Katrina shocked local motorists with $3 per gallon gas.

bamabikeguy

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Tuesday November 18, 2008 · 2:10 AM PST

2008/11/18 · 02:10

Time to reintroduce the most fun hobbies I've ever come across. Folks who try a demo ride return with a smile every time. I hope to convey some of that fun in this series.

I use Made in USA knowhow. These are the record setters in every category, (don't tell anybody, the Bonneville record this year was 46+ mph, we have one hitting 52+!!)

"Motor Assist" bicycles is the legal term to describe the topic, which has so many features and options, it will take a series of diaries to do it justice.

Follow the leader (I'm gonna show him how to get away from the crowds!!)

RSS

Bye Bye Buddy, Bye Bye Buddy

Intro to Motorized Bicycles Part VIII- Road Trip

Intro to Motorized Bicycles Part VII- Online support

Intro to Motorized Bikes Part VI-Travel:Cleaning Up in Ada

Intro to Motorized Bicycles Part V-Grassroots Activities

Intro to Motorized Bicycles Part IV- Shop Talk

Intro to Motorized Bicycles Part III- Efficient Engines

Intro to Motorized Bicycles Part II- Cruiser Bikes

Intro to Motorized Bicycles: We are IN the Bailout Bill