If it’s got an engine . . .

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The vast majority of motorcycles out there use a chain to transmit power from the transmission output to the rear wheel.  However, there are other options.  Most (all?) Harley Davidson motorcycles use a belt for the final drive, and there are quite a few (mostly touring-style) bikes that use shaft drive.  Each has its pro’s and con’s. 

Chain

• Pro’s
  • cheap
  • easy to mend with master link
  • easy to change gearing
    • changing the number of teeth on the sprockets changes your final drive ratio
• Con’s
  • messy
    • must be kept oiled to minimize wear
  • adjustment required to remove slack
  • replacement required approximately every 20,000 miles

Belt

• Pro’s
  • cheap
  • quiet
  • clean (no oil)
  • adjustment rarely required (compared to chains)
•  Con’s
  • more difficult to change gearing
    • belt drive sprockets are not readily available in a variety of tooth counts
  • cannot splice together if it breaks

 Shaft

• Pro’s
  • almost no maintenance required
  • quiet
  • clean
• Con’s
  • almost no gearing options available
  • changes in throttle position affect suspension geometry
    • getting on and off the throttle in mid-turn upsets the bike

 All told, if you’re the kind of guy who doesn’t mind a bit of maintenance, then the chain’s benefits greatly outweigh it’s detractions.  If, on the other hand, you’re the kind of guy who just wants to get on and ride, then a shaft drive bike is the way to go.

I’m not sure why belt drives even exist.

A recent Car and Driver magazine article (Mileage Myths and Misconceptions, December 2008) mentioned the myth that warm water freezes faster than cold water.

They received many letters patiently explaining to them that it was not a myth, but a fact.  My favorite “proof” was in the letter by Edward J. Muhr from Littleton, Colorado.  He writes:

“Talk to people experienced in cold-weather building maintenance, the people who unthaw frozen water lines with a propane torch while lying on their backs at 2:30 am in 10-degree weather.  They can provide multiple examples of adjacent hot and cold water lines, where the cold-water line runs freely and the hot-water line is frozen solid.”

I wonder if Mr. Muhr considered the fact that anytime anyone in the building flushes the toilet in the middle of the night, water flows through those cold water lines, while the hot water lines sit stagnant?

 I saw a truck today going down I-85 through Atlanta.  This truck had furniture stacked precariously in the bed, reaching about 6 feet above the top of the cab.  The whole lot of it held by a single, thin piece of twine.

It reminded me of the time I bought a piano.  I was living in Silverdale, Washington, and I didn’t own a truck.  In fact, I’ve never owned a truck, but that’s another story.  My neighbor had a truck - a Toyota Tacoma - and offered to take me to pick up the piano in Bremerton, Washington, about ten miles away.  Old upright pianos are heavy.  Like, eight or nine hundred pounds heavy.  We managed to get it loaded into the truck and headed home.

We made it to within about 200 yards of my house.  While negotiating the very last turn, I felt a thump and looked behind me.  I turned just in time to see the piano roll over the passenger side of the truck bed and crash into the sidewalk.  It did not make a pretty sound.  It, too had been held by a single rope.

With the help of some astonished joggers, we managed to get the piano parts back into the truck.  We put it in my garage, where I proceeded to ignore it for the next two weeks.

Eventually, I looked at it.  It didn’t look all that bad, but only about 1/3 of the keys worked, and they didn’t sound right.  After putting the structural parts back together, I had 3/4 of the keys working, and they sounded much better.  But I was at a loss as to how to fix the rest.

To the library!  I hoped that there would be a book there that dealt with repairing pianos.  There turned out to be a couple dozen books dedicated to piano repair/refurbishment.  I checked out the ones with lots of pictures and went to work.  When all was said and done, the piano sounded good as new, and you had to look closely to see the scars.

I’ve moved pianos at least four times since then, and each time have used many strong straps (often borrowed from Stephen).  No problems.

Joe Sherlock over at The View Through the Windshield posted the first sentence from the first post of each month of 2008.  The results were quite interesting, and made me want to read the rest.  I’ve taken the idea and applied it to my own blog.  The results are below.  Click on the month to read the complete post.

January ‘08 - Well, it’s official.

February ‘08 - According to the good fellows at Jalopnik, the CB1100F will be in Honda showrooms as early as next year.

March ‘08 -  This is the coolest thing ever.

April ‘08 - It’s been a bit hectic here.

May ‘08 - There was a time . . . when I didn’t like Harley Davidson motorcycles.

June ‘08 -  If that’s your business plan, you probably need to stop and rethink.

July ‘08 - About a year ago, I asked “Are electric cars ready for primetime?”

August ‘08 - Stand by for lots of Ford 2009 model information.

September ‘08 - One of my favorite actors/singers has died.

October ‘08 -  My buddy David went to the Atlanta SCCA autocross #10 yesterday in his Mini Cooper S.

November ‘08 -  I just received my December 2008 issue of Car and Driver magazine.

December ‘08 - That’s what these cars had as power sources, instead of an engine.

When I was stationed in New York, I lived in Navy Housing.  Not particularly nice, but I had a garage.  Winters are cold in New York.  This garage was unheated.  It was a detached 4 unit garage, one of which was mine.  The rafters were open between the units.  I tried heating it with a kerosene heater, but all that was really good for was warming my hands.  I ended up hanging tarps up in the ceiling to block the head from heating the other 3 garages.  It helped, some.

Where I live now, I have no garage.  It was cold yesterday when I was trying to work on the car.   It’s pretty much impossible to dress warmly enough and still be able to reach into a tightly congested engine compartment.  I ended up working for about 5 minutes, then defrosting inside for 15.

Car’s still not fixed.  Maybe today?

The symptoms - relayed via telephone:

• Clattering sound
• Oil low
• Added oil, still clattering
• Large puddle of oil under the car

My thoughts - on the drive home:

• Cracked block - it was the coldest day of the year
• Turbo oil supply line failure - kinda hoped this was it
• Turbo oil return line failure
• Cracked head
• Loose oil drain plug - you gotta have hope

The actual problem:

• The oil filter adapter has a crack in it.  $40.00 from a used Audi parts place down the road.

Sometimes life is good.

 So I got a great deal on a snowmobile.

It was the Spring of 2002 and I was living in Navy Housing in Saratoga Springs, New York.  A buddy of mine bought a snowmobile that came as a package deal.  Kind of a buy one, get one deal.  The one I ended up with for $200.00 was a heavily modified Polaris 700.  It had a two-stroke three-cylinder engine with nothing for an exhause but three tuned pipes.  It was - in a word - loud.  It sounded like a swarm of angry bumblebees.  I had a lot of time to listen to it, as I couldn’t ride it yet.  Did I mention it was Spring?

While I was waiting for Winter and its accompanying snow, I set about searching for a trailer.  Another friend had recently purchased a house which came with an ancient fishing boat.  I asked what he wanted for the boat trailer and he told me that I could have it if I took the boat too.

What to do with the boat?

Naturally that was a problem for later.  I pulled the boat and trailer into my parking space in the gravel RV lot at Navy Housing.  I then proceeded to tie the boat to the fence and pull the trailer out from under it.  It stayed there for over a year.  I actually had to drill holes in it to drain the water out of it when I hauled it away before moving out.

The snowmobile was fun, though.  And fast.  I sold it for $1500.  I miss it.

Chrysler has received a tremendous amount of negative criticism for their full-page ads thanking America for our “investment” in Chrysler.  This is in reference, of course, to the $4 billion dollar bailout package the company just received.

The fury stems from the fact that Chrysler paid up to a quarter of a million dollars for some of these ads (Wall Street Journal).  Most people think that this is a poor way to spend the government’s (that’s you and me) money.

I think that these people don’t understand just how much four billion dollars really is.

Let’s look at some numbers.

Full page ad ~ $250,000.00

Four full page ads ~ $1,000,000.00

A billion dollars - $1,000,000,000.00

This means that the four billion dollars we gave Chrysler would be able to purchase more than 16 thousand of these full page ads.

Now would be an excellent time to buy a classic British luxury car.  Check out these examples from Ebay

1976 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow.  Lots of luxury here for only $15k.

1987 Bentley Eight.  Less than 50,000 miles for only $17k.

1986 Jaguar XJS.  36,000 miles for only $4,000.  Magnificent 12 cylinder luxury car at a truly affordable price.

Happy Bidding!

That’s what these cars had as power sources, instead of an engine.

Why didn’t I get to do anything this fun in school?

Students at Johns Hopkins had a challenging assignment:  build a car to make it through an obstacle course.  You might ask, “What’s so challenging about that?”  The cars could be powered by two mouse traps and six rubber bands.  That’s it.  Nothing else.

How did they do?  Check out the video and see for yourself