Steve is a program manager with Pilatus Aircraft and a person with a broad life experience. He has passions for woodworking, bicycle frames and anything “Do-It-Yourself” as well as a desire to share these interests.
Phew! I think we’re ready to take the plunge…..
So with the major cutting complete on all the parts of the frame and panels, it is worthwhile to take a moment and consider some final actions that make sense to complete before we go past the point of no return (glue).
(Groovethang is actually a reference to a cover band out of St. Louis that does a great Steely Dan set. Quite good if you like SD).
Now that all the mortise and tenon joints are finished (Phew!), it’s time to cut the grooves that will hold the panels.
Now that the panels are finished (but not yet cut to width and length), I start on the frames. As mentioned previously, the stile is the vertical member of the frame and the rail is the horizontal member……..
Now that the e-bike conversion is finished, and I’ve replaced the brake discs and pads on our car, it’s time to get back to Monika’s sewing center. The pieces I cut weeks ago for the rails and stiles are ready to be milled to final dimensions but before I start that, I want to have all the center panels re-sawn so they can “acclimate”.
So the bike has been in operation for a little over a week. Monika has taken it to work 4 or 5 times and I have tested it quite a bit myself. We are both very pleased so far. Here are some details:
These bad boys are getting mounted to my wife´s bicycle, if I can get them here….
Getting everything to Switzerland was the next challenge. I could have shipped the motor kit and battery directly to my house but that would have cost about $260 in shipping and $330 in import duties. As luck would have it, my son in the Army had just received orders to Stuttgart, Germany….
While some of the wood for the sewing table acclimates to my garage, I turn my efforts to another project. We live on the outskirts of Dallenwil, about 2 km up the mountain towards Wirzweli. The road is very steep and while I can get to work by bicycle in about 15 minutes, it takes about 30 minutes to get home again. When it comes to bicycles, Monika has a very simple attitude toward steep hills; they make her angry.
While I consider the hill a workout opportunity, I can understand my wife’s perspective. If she didn’t have to think of muscling up that hill at the end of every trip, she would ride the bike more often. Hence, my Christmas present to her this year: a promise to convert her bike to an electric one. It is time to keep that promise…..
Click on most pictures to see a larger view.
This project will begin with a visit to our secondary garage in Wolfensschiesen, just up the road from where we live in Dallenwil. Even though we have a double garage (Swiss standard, which is equivalent to a single garage in the U.S.), it made sense to rent another one due to the fact that I was given a lot of nice wood from a friend of the family, not to mention storing our tandem bicycle, tandem kayak, snow tires, etc. (who parks a car in a garage anyway?).
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