So here "she" is with the completed seat support, rack and panniers:
This photo was taken in front of our library, which means I peddled almost a mile to get there! It was great: very comfortable and shifting was smooth (I finally got the skipping problem solved: a friend diagnosed it as worn rear cogs and an old chain; he was right--I switched the rear wheel with the one from Abby's bike just to test and, voila: No more skipping!) I'm still learning to adjust to the pace of going up hill (recumbents handle very differently when climbing) and I'm planning to weld the bearing cups on the fork to the head tube (they came from a different frame so when you use the front brake or steer there's a disconcerting wiggle in the steering column).
Here are some close ups:
View of the rack with panniers: Close-up of seat support/rack mount: Front view:
It's ridable! I've still got to adjust to get this annoying skipping to stop but, as that was happening on my upright, I'm trumping it up to a mechanical adjustment problem rather than a design problem.
Here "she" is: (click on any image to see a larger pic)
Some close-ups:
Side view and front view:
Close-up of part of the drive train and of the handlebars:
Close-up of crank/front derailure and rear-view::
... and another close-up of the crank/front derailure:
Well, after 17 books, 11 book reviews, four minor projects, three major projects, two tests and three finals, I'M DONE WITH MY FIRST SEMESTER OF SEMINARY!
Actually I've been done for about five days now, I've just been bust catching up on all the stuff I've been putting off...
So today I got to do some more work on the recumbent. Here's the new stem (steering column) and a sprocket guide for the return chain (it's the one-piece bottom bracket and crank from the main bike frame I'm using with the pedal arms cut off).
While I'm probably being overly optimistic, I may be to the point of being able to test-ride it tomorrow! (Just have to mount all the components and adjust things...)
We got to visit the St. Louis Botanical gardens yesterday. It was really cool! (both in the "awesome" sense and in the literal sense--it's been in the high 40šs-low 50šs here this week!)
Here are some pics:
A beautiful Victorian greenhouse with fountains and flower beds.
There was an art display called something like, "glass in the garden" - we liked this part, baubles floating in fountains.
They've got an awesome maze, with a great observatory to look down on it from.
An "English woodland garden"
A Japanese garden with a lake:
Abby and I in front of the waterfall
Hungry fish!
A traditional Japanese bridge (While I liked some of the "Glass in the garden" I thought this peace disturbed the simplicity of the Japanese garden setting!)
Many beautiful flowers throughout...
...and a very pretty Chinese garden.
And all this free if you get there before noon!
Sorry, just testing to see if I put the right thing in the "Blog RSS" field...
But since I've already wasted your time, here's something to think about: Furman U at one time had chosen the following as their mascot:
Furman
University
Christian
Knights
They rejected the mascot for the current one, the Furman Paladins (probably as soon as they tried to make an acronym of it... supposedly a true story!)