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Did a "church" ride a couple of months ago, ride through the villages taking pics of their churches, here's the results   Beckingham all saints Claypole,Saint Peters  

The weather didn't look too bad this morning so I got the trike out,filled my drinking bottle with water and put a couple of banana's in the bag and set off for Lincoln,Brayford warfe to be exact,five

Met up with a new friend today who has just moved into the next village to us,I saw him last week when I was riding back home along the cycle/footpath between our two villages,it was then he told me h

I'd forgotten that but you're correct. I did indeed have the handlebars turned upside down. 

 

I never liked the normal racing bars, they were too awkward and uncomfortable for me so I carried out a few experiments and ended up with what you see.

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7 hours ago, Cliff Ton said:

I did indeed have the handlebars turned upside down. 

I turned the handlebars upside down on my red Trent Tourist to give it a bit more street cred.

Didn't make it go any faster as it was built like a tank and as heavy as hell. The Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub was next to uselss (I never did get how they worked) but the bike served me well on my paper round for many years.

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On 3/26/2023 at 7:02 PM, philmayfield said:

‘Cyclemaster’. What a memory I’ve got! Thanks Rog.

Another one for you Phil, this engine drops onto the back wheel of the bike and away you go, not sure of the name either Swift or Swallow engine,  25cc

 

DSCF2081.jpg

 

Rog

 

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How would it affect tyre wear Rog? My elder brother had a bike with a dynamo that sprung onto the tyre and he was always replacing with a new tyre.( that is, until he realised if he didn't use the bike at night, he wouldn't need the dynamo on).

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BK, not sure about wear but unless the drive wheel off the engine wasn't slipping I don't think there would be excessive wear, I've had the dynamo bottles on some of my bikes and the way we got around the excessive wear was to set the dynamo bottle adjustment with minimum pressure on the tyre wall, we also put a rubber band around the little dynamo wheel to help grip and reduce wear, the rubber band was off one of those black bottle stoppers you used to get, don't know whether they did any good or not though

 

Rog

 

ps, you can still buy bottle dynamo's

 

 

 

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Raleigh had both dynamo hub with a back up battery for when the bike stopped, the battery supplied power to the lights without the dynamo working, the battery case was fitted to the seat tube, not sure how long the battery would last but certainly long enough for the bike to be stationary at traffic light and such as long as you didn't leave the light switched on when you finished riding for the night, as for bottle dynamo versus hub I would say a hub dynamo would be better because less drag on the bike wheel and less wear on the tyre

 

Rog

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Having experienced the demise of good old blue Ever Ready batteries in bike lights while riding at night on unlit roads, I’d definitely prefer a dynamo. Although modern lights are a massive improvement on both.

 

Even putting the battery in the oven to eke the last bit of power out of it didn’t help much.

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The lights on my bikes are very much brighter than the ones I had as a kid plus they have differing flashing modes, LED as opposed to the old style bulbs  and the batteries last for ages and the batteries are only small button cells of three volts, modern technology I suppose

 

Rog

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I have just purchased a vintage Lucas King of the Road carbide front lamp for one of the vintage bikes, it should be here next week so expect a couple of photo's, you can still buy calcium carbide so I'll either blow myself up or have a small flame flickering in front of the reflector, only time will tell

 

Rog

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My grandma put the old eveready batteries in front of the fire to get the last bit of juice out of them they would corrode so bad on my bicycle that the front and rear lights would not work was that from the humidity or the batteries not sealed good lots of blue corrosion.

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The old Ever Ready blue batteries never lasted all that long, I could just about manage two trips to work and back from Clifton to Sneinton before they died, these LED lights I have on my bikes now last for a few months with daily use of around an hour a day/evening, I do have them on in "flash" mode though so that must help prolong the life of the batteries and I do have them on during daylight riding

 

Rog

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In the 50's and 60's Winter evenings, training in the dark was a problem. Battery lights were too weak and expensive to run so I had a hub dynamo built into a racing wheel. I used tubular tyres exclusively in those days and had to get Henry Lloyd to build a special wheel on a sprint rim. Probably unique. At training speed the hub dyno generated a really good light.

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The carbide lamp has arrived, looks to be complete and in good condition, it is now in the shed getting a good clean using crunched up kitchen foil and WD40, carbide will be arriving next week,

I had to prop the front of the lamp up with my post it notes book for photo purposes because it is front heavy 

 

DSCF2103.jpg

 

DSCF2104.jpg

 

Watch this space (or the obituary column in the Lincolnshire papers)

 

Rog

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My dad had an old acetylene welder at his garage and you made the acetylene by adding acetylene crystals to water you had to drain the tank and clean it out about every six months it smelled terrible he brought the oxygen tanks and acetylene crystals from a place near Western Boulevard on the main rd left hand side heading towards Nottingham again can not remember the name this was in the 50s.

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26 minutes ago, IAN FINN said:

My dad had an old acetylene welder at his garage and you made the acetylene by adding acetylene crystals to water you had to drain the tank and clean it out about every six months it smelled terrible he brought the oxygen tanks and acetylene crystals from a place near Western Boulevard on the main rd left hand side heading towards Nottingham again can not remember the name this was in the 50s.

Might it have been the River Chemical Company?

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