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A few weeks ago, I was surfing ebay, and happened upon a somewhat distressed Bike E tandem recumbent in Buford (a suburb of Atlanta), Georgia. After some unrealistic day dreaming and scheming, Barbara and I got carried away and place a bid of $350. Fortunately someone else also wanted the machine more than we did, and I received the classic ebay message, "You have been out bid..." The second time around, I wasn't so lucky, and ended up with the ebay message, "You've won the item, Now pay for it." The concept of "winning" and then having to pay doesn't exactly seem right to me, but then then I have a relatively simple mind... At any rate, I purchased another copy of my long wheel base, under-the-seat-steering, Linear recumbent, for a hundred less than the first copy. The bike was right here in Tucson, and I had even seen it on Craig's List, but at that time the owner was trying to trade it for a trike. |
 Linear is an unusual brand and style, but this bike is unusual even for a Linear. The front crank has three chain rings and the freewheel (that I used to call the gear cluster) in the rear has 8 rings. In addition, internal to the rear hub, there are three more gear ranges. I crunched the math, and discovered this bike has 72 gears! What an Overkill! I have not had a chance to count the teeth and determine what the ratios actually look like, but that is certainly near the top of my "to do" list (just a little bit under finishing the shed and building a carport, and...). I suspect that these "surplus" gears are neither unusually High nor Low, but rather consist of numerous overlapping combinations. Still, if I ever get around to building a recumbent trike, I can use that rear wheel alone and have all the gears ratios I need. Just a thought. |
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My two Linear recumbents are very similar. They are the same model, with under-the-seat steering, and both fold (although I have never exercised that capability on either of them). |
| The differences are in the "add-ons" which are probably not factory issue. The new one has relatively long extension on the handle bars, and some one has turned the break levers "backwards" (at least they seem that way to me). And I'm pretty comfortable assuming that the 72 gears were not installed prior to the initial purchase. |
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The biggest difference (after I replace that ridiculous rear wheel/gear concatenation) is the length. The main structural element of each bike is an aluminum frame constructed of rectangular tubing (with slightly protruding corners). The length of this member on the old bike is 39 inches and the new bike measures 44 inches. The sections of angle iron in the photo are parallel, so you can see the difference in overall length of the two bicycles. It appears that I have some work to do to make the new machine road-worthy. Just what I need--another project. |
| This past week (Thursday and Friday), Nathen, Terre, et.al. came to Tucson (or Benson, to be more precise) looking for suitable lodging. We visited them at Karren's house, and I had a talk with Jim. He has his share of health problems... |
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Barbara also got some face time with a never-before-seen grandson. It doesn't look like She enjoyed it at all... |
| Barbara hosted Kyle and Ethan Thursday night and Friday, and then slept a chunk of Saturday recovering, but overall it was a good visit. On Friday evening after Grandma picked the boys up...(minus Landen) Little Kyle talked and asked questions almost all the way to Oracle Junction. Ethan fell asleep just coming into Catalina. On arrival in Oracle, Ethan went to sleep right away. Kyle stayed up asking Grandma more questions and reading a book somewhat like Where's Waldo? Come morning time...After blueberry pancakes, there was the challenge of putting together some animal cutout puzzles, then the challenge of conquering the 2ft x 3ft puzzles, lunch consisted of little cheese bacon bits, & pineapple pizzas with raw broccoli "trees" & carrots with Ranch Dressing. Then it was outside to look at what Grandpa & Uncle AJ were working on. We went to check out the apple tree and it was decided that the apples needed to be taken care of immediately. So Grandma & her two little helpers proceed to pick up the windfall apples and then also pick up the ones up on the tree. By the time we finnished it was time to go back to Tucson and a dinner at Karren's. We had a lovely time and the food was really good. |
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 I finally solved a baffling electrical problem problem with my Geo involving the lights. The vehicle has daytime driving lights that consist of the low beams being on when the motor is running and the parking brake is not engaged. These functioned as designed, suggesting that the headlamps and fuses were not burned out. But at night, when I would turn the lights on, the daytime driving lights would go off, and neither the low nor high beams worked (nor did the tail light [but the brake lights did). Pulling the low/high beam selector lever as far towards the steering wheel as possible (as in flashing an oncoming vehicle) still caused both high and low beams to come on simultaneously. I took the light switch on the column apart (and only broke one small piece) but found nothing amiss there. I could hear the relay click when the switch was turned on, but swapping the light relay with an equivalent one made no difference. Finally, in a last ditch effort prior to taking the car to a repair shop, I removed the battery, looking for broken wires from the relay box. I found none, but in a memory lapse I tried to start the car with the battery removed. It only took a couple of seconds to figure out why this attempt was unsuccessful, but then in a stroke of luck, I left the key in the "on" position. When I reinstalled the battery, I noted a spark in an in-appropriate location, and follow up to this observation lead to the discovery that one of the two wires leading to the positive battery terminal was no longer attached. In the end, the problem had a simple fix, but that did nothing to alter my long held conviction that, "if it's electrical, it's magic. |