Friday, November 11, 2011

Holiday Day

Hope you had/are having a safe and happy Veterans Day!
Yes it's a day to remember those who have sacrificed so that we, you the reader and me, can ride our bicycles without worrying about stuff like improvised explosive devices and other dangerous things.
With all this APEC stuff going on, and all the security measures being taken, it isn't hard to imagine what other folks in other countries go through and what us Americans take for granted.
I mean we got like military folks stationed on freeway overpasses and all sorts of places are off limits and traffic is like a major PITA.
Fortunately/unfortunately I got some things to work on here, namely glazing more stuff, so I'll be busy here at Flat Tire Central.
My box of goodies remains pitifully barren:



All this work and I got four stupid bowls.
Four.
Bowls.
Boy, I better get on it.
I'm finding that with all the taping and such these things are taking me way longer than expected!
Let's see, I got like four there in the box, I just put four in the kiln, so that leaves like twenty eight more to go!
Wait.
Make that twenty seven:



One of them blowed up in the kiln.
Ooops.
So anyways, to keep this bicycle related, I've been watching these kids in welding class make a bicycle.
Make that a bicycle frame.
They started of with one of them cheapo bikes for kids, with 12" tires, and they decided to stretch the frame.
So they cut it up and used some square tubing to do the stays, and the top and down tubes:



Right now it's only tacked together so I'm not sure if that's the final configuration.
I was going to explain to them about why the down tube should be welded to the bottom bracket, but seeing as how the cranks are only like six inches long, I didn't think it was going to be a problem.
Here's a close up of the rear triangle:



Most of that was done by the instructor, but the kids caught on pretty quick.
Still it's interesting that in talking to them, even though they ride bicycles, it's pretty obvious that they don't understand the design that goes into a bicycle.
For them, image is everything.
Ooops.
I mean awesome!
I must be rubbing off on them.
Anyways, they're MIGing it together as they haven't had too much time on the TIG.
We'll see how this thing turns out.
Right now, it's looks like another hapless victim for the Celeste Devil and I.
Should I crush it's soul now or later?
I guess I should wait until it has some wheels.

2 comments:

Steve A said...

They gonna put "Ciocc" decals on after the paint? That is REAL image!

limom said...

I think I got some Gary Fisher decals around here somewhere.