Sunday, 2 November 2008
Bruce Sterling looks at the Steampunk Sub-Culture
Just stumbled across this great essay by Bruce Sterling, who some would credit with birthing Steampunk, (though he is humble enough to credit earlier influences), on where Steampunk came from, and where it just might be going.Ruskin wrote an extremely influential and important essay which changed the world. Everything Ruskin says in that essay is wrong. The ideas in there don't work, have never
Datamancer's Ergonomic Steampunk Keyboard
Man, is this thing gorgeous!This keyboard was commissioned by a female client and has some elegant, feminine design features such as violet LEDs, an acanthus-leaf pattern etched into the brass, and a soft burgundy wrist pad that is removable for cleaning. It also has a built-in "buttonless" touchpad mouse in the center (tap
First order placed
For my 35th birthday, my wife got me started on my restoration. She started me off with a membership to Lambretta Club USA. She also bought me the Spanner's Manual, which I have heard is a MUST own.
I have never rebuilt an engine before and I asked Stu Werner what he thought of this "how to" DVD. His thought is that all resources will help. This DVD covers the removal, full nuts and bolts engine rebuild, and how to get it running. It covers all three series Lammys, which is nice since I would like to buy my wife a Series I or II. I have two TV engines to rebuild and this will be the first step I take in restoring the scoot.
Seeing as we just bought a house this month, things are going to be tight for us for a while and therefore it will take me quite some time to restore this bike because of budgetary issues. So it goes. Good things come to those who wait. I ordered all my parts from Scooters Originali, NJ, and instead of paying shipping I decided to be smart and order the gasket set for one engine now. I only needed to spend $8.50 more to avoid the shipping fee and why not just get something I know I need anyway.Here's to the long haul ahead of me.
Total for order: $114.00
Scooter Camping Stove
Note: The stove top fits over the fuel/burner section and is the size of a large soup can in your scooter. You can see how it slips over the top of itself.
Unless your a hardcore backpacker, you probably don't have a hardcore backpack stove and you probably don't want to shell out the cash for a super high-end one, but you should enough to get one that will last and also runs on multiple fuels -- even the gas from your scooter. My dad owns the stove picture above. It's a "Optimus SVEA 1-2-3". He is a backpacker and his college buddy who backpacks with him bought the same stove back in 1970 and the stove still works perfectly and the design has changed very little. It's a solid little stove. You can buy it for under $80 brand new and under $50 used.
If you want to live the high life while camping, you can also buy an espresso maker, like this one pictured above.
In my scooter camping slideshows you will see that I have a different stove and espresso maker. My maker is cheaper and less hardy. You can buy mine fore a few bucks at Ross or Marshalls. My stove is more complicated than my dads and costs me about $70, but I also had to buy a fuel tank to use with and it takes up more space; therefore I recommend the Optius SVEA 1-2-3. If you have a Coleman Outlet store or similar you may luck out -- I once saw a similar stove to the Optimus for $20 refurbished there and picked it up for a friend. That was a bargain.
Unless your a hardcore backpacker, you probably don't have a hardcore backpack stove and you probably don't want to shell out the cash for a super high-end one, but you should enough to get one that will last and also runs on multiple fuels -- even the gas from your scooter. My dad owns the stove picture above. It's a "Optimus SVEA 1-2-3". He is a backpacker and his college buddy who backpacks with him bought the same stove back in 1970 and the stove still works perfectly and the design has changed very little. It's a solid little stove. You can buy it for under $80 brand new and under $50 used.
If you want to live the high life while camping, you can also buy an espresso maker, like this one pictured above.In my scooter camping slideshows you will see that I have a different stove and espresso maker. My maker is cheaper and less hardy. You can buy mine fore a few bucks at Ross or Marshalls. My stove is more complicated than my dads and costs me about $70, but I also had to buy a fuel tank to use with and it takes up more space; therefore I recommend the Optius SVEA 1-2-3. If you have a Coleman Outlet store or similar you may luck out -- I once saw a similar stove to the Optimus for $20 refurbished there and picked it up for a friend. That was a bargain.
Moving your scooter with your house
I'm a huge fan of Penske trucks when I make a move and I used one each time my family and I moved from coast to coast. On our move back West we rented a 26 ft truck (largest available) and a trailer for a car. We had to put all of our belongings in the truck, including three fully assembled scooters and my Lambretta in boxes. We had to leave a lot behind, some of value, but the scoots were priority. While I felt safer having the scooters in a covered truck for the 2,800 mile drive my big concern was the fact that there are NO tie down straps in these trucks. You are not allowed to change the truck in any way without it co$ting you.
Above, we're unloading the scooters in San Francisco. My original thought was to use three skids and strap the scooters to them and then strap them in place, but my father-in-law had a far superior idea.
He suggested that we buy a star wrench (like an allen wrench) and remove the screws from the floor and replace them with eye hooks, washers, a lock washer, and a nut -- all of which is a hair smaller than the threaded hole in the frame of the truck. It was so easy.
My father-in-law also built rear wheel chucks out of the scrap 2x4s from Home Depot. The idea being that there would be no forward/side movement of the rear end. We strapped down the scooters using Canyon Dancers around all three handle bars (my preferred method). This method worked very well.
Congrats to the blog . . . over 26,000 visits in one years ten months.
Above, we're unloading the scooters in San Francisco. My original thought was to use three skids and strap the scooters to them and then strap them in place, but my father-in-law had a far superior idea.
He suggested that we buy a star wrench (like an allen wrench) and remove the screws from the floor and replace them with eye hooks, washers, a lock washer, and a nut -- all of which is a hair smaller than the threaded hole in the frame of the truck. It was so easy.
My father-in-law also built rear wheel chucks out of the scrap 2x4s from Home Depot. The idea being that there would be no forward/side movement of the rear end. We strapped down the scooters using Canyon Dancers around all three handle bars (my preferred method). This method worked very well.
Being anal, I kept the cowls and glove box of the SS180 wrapped up the cab of the truck with me for added safety.
This truck was the Vespa's home for nearly a week. Sadly, I forgot the camera to take a picture of the scooter our 10x25 ft storage unit as that was her temporary home for a few months.
Congrats to the blog . . . over 26,000 visits in one years ten months.
Saturday, 1 November 2008
Yamaha dual fuel motorcycle revealed - Motorcycle News
Yamaha dual fuel motorcycle revealedA conventional full-sized fuel tank is fitted above the engine like any other bike, but tucked tightly behind the cylinder and below the fuel injector body is a second tank designed to contain either ethanol or a petrol/ethanol mix such as E85 (which is 85% ethanol mixed with 15% petrol).
Moving your scooter with your house
I'm a huge fan of Penske trucks when I make a move and I used one each time my family and I moved from coast to coast. On our move back West we rented a 26 ft truck (largest available) and a trailer for a car. We had to put all of our belongings in the truck, including three fully assembled scooters and my Lambretta in boxes. We had to leave a lot behind, some of value, but the scoots were priority. While I felt safer having the scooters in a covered truck for the 2,800 mile drive my big concern was the fact that there are NO tie down straps in these trucks. You are not allowed to change the truck in any way without it co$ting you.
Above, we're unloading the scooters in San Francisco. My original thought was to use three skids and strap the scooters to them and then strap them in place, but my father-in-law had a far superior idea.
He suggested that we buy a star wrench (like an allen wrench) and remove the screws from the floor and replace them with eye hooks, washers, a lock washer, and a nut -- all of which is a hair smaller than the threaded hole in the frame of the truck. It was so easy.
My father-in-law also built rear wheel chucks out of the scrap 2x4s from Home Depot. The idea being that there would be no forward/side movement of the rear end. We strapped down the scooters using Canyon Dancers around all three handle bars (my preferred method). This method worked very well.
Congrats to the blog . . . over 26,000 visits in one years ten months.
Above, we're unloading the scooters in San Francisco. My original thought was to use three skids and strap the scooters to them and then strap them in place, but my father-in-law had a far superior idea.He suggested that we buy a star wrench (like an allen wrench) and remove the screws from the floor and replace them with eye hooks, washers, a lock washer, and a nut -- all of which is a hair smaller than the threaded hole in the frame of the truck. It was so easy.My father-in-law also built rear wheel chucks out of the scrap 2x4s from Home Depot. The idea being that there would be no forward/side movement of the rear end. We strapped down the scooters using Canyon Dancers around all three handle bars (my preferred method). This method worked very well.
Being anal, I kept the cowls and glove box of the SS180 wrapped up the cab of the truck with me for added safety.
This truck was the Vespa's home for nearly a week. Sadly, I forgot the camera to take a picture of the scooter our 10x25 ft storage unit as that was her temporary home for a few months.
Congrats to the blog . . . over 26,000 visits in one years ten months.
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