Say hello to Verity Treacle
Feb. 17th, 2008 08:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andygatesGood gods, you're thinking, has he actually finished one of his crackpot projects. Well, sort of. Not so much finished as started with style.
This was a quick-and-dirty job. Scrapheap Challenge style, so everything ground by hand, lined up by eye, tacked, adjusted with a lump hammer and then welded very badly (burn through? in spades, baby). Regular pennyfarthings are elegant. If they're Halle Berry, this is Verity Treacle.
But does it ride? Well, the first saddle clamp fell off, so a quick bodge with a pair of jubilee clips meant that the pristine Brooks was secure. We added some lamps, because every skip tallbike needs luxeon lamps on its inaugural proving ride. Just like Scrapheap, it had mysteriously got dark.
Ready to go:
And then after a lot of scooting around the town square, and some nerve-raising, and basic dread and fear (it's not certain death I fear, it's likely pain), the first ride!
Judo flip! Straight onto the gravel!
It turns out the seating position is such that knees hit handlebars - so not only is it front-wheel steer and front-wheel drive, it's also front-wheel nudge-thud-argh. Behold naughty knees:
Time to change the control surfaces. Might fit a taller bar, or might go the other way and fit a fixed bar to the frame and just body-steer it. But from the scooting, the frame is stable and the high position is surprisingly ... refined. Horsey. Definitely worth more work.
My amanuensis de jour was better at posing with Verity than riding her:
This was a quick-and-dirty job. Scrapheap Challenge style, so everything ground by hand, lined up by eye, tacked, adjusted with a lump hammer and then welded very badly (burn through? in spades, baby). Regular pennyfarthings are elegant. If they're Halle Berry, this is Verity Treacle.
But does it ride? Well, the first saddle clamp fell off, so a quick bodge with a pair of jubilee clips meant that the pristine Brooks was secure. We added some lamps, because every skip tallbike needs luxeon lamps on its inaugural proving ride. Just like Scrapheap, it had mysteriously got dark.
Ready to go:
And then after a lot of scooting around the town square, and some nerve-raising, and basic dread and fear (it's not certain death I fear, it's likely pain), the first ride!
Judo flip! Straight onto the gravel!
It turns out the seating position is such that knees hit handlebars - so not only is it front-wheel steer and front-wheel drive, it's also front-wheel nudge-thud-argh. Behold naughty knees:
Time to change the control surfaces. Might fit a taller bar, or might go the other way and fit a fixed bar to the frame and just body-steer it. But from the scooting, the frame is stable and the high position is surprisingly ... refined. Horsey. Definitely worth more work.
My amanuensis de jour was better at posing with Verity than riding her:
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no subject
Date: 2008-02-18 11:08 am (UTC)I'd like to see *your* face seconds before a bail. When you're expecting the yoke or spine welds to fail in a nad-coring manner AND to fall off from epic height AND your knee hits the bars... I think I looked pretty composed thankyouverymuch!
Okay, and like Grandfather Ewok. Must cut hair!
no subject
Date: 2008-02-18 11:29 am (UTC)Thing is, dear heart, I wouldn't be riding it in the first place, and that is nothing to do with lack of balls. I simply have more sense. And less motivation.
I'm informed that my face immediately before a bail is usually one of intense concentration and determination. This is generally because my brain has come up with some half-baked plan to escape certain doom (which inevitably fails but seems entirely sensible at the time) and is hell-bent on carrying it out.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-18 12:40 pm (UTC)