Recent content by spokewrench

I think it was the first week of August, 1966, that my marksmanship instructor jumped up and down on my back as I lay prone at the 500-yard line. I lost all respect for him. I'd been alternating between bullseyes and missing the whole target. Then he told me to reset my rear sight for that...

1968.

I deviated from the truth in three places. I figured the rifleman had spotted me with binoculars, but if he'd had a scope, he would already have shot me. I figured that in that light, he was having trouble seeing me with iron sights. 300 yards would be an easy shot in broad daylight. I was...

Here's my only model. I keep a ruler in front of it to avoid confusing it with the original, in case I forget that I traded it in, in 1972. The original had a Bates bicycle seat (a rusty steel pan) bolted to the frame in front of the fender. Sitting with my butt pressed against my heels was...

A general rule is that the inner rim width should be at least 40% of the tire width, which would be 30mm or more. Maybe the tire manufacturer knows more specifically what range or rim widths will work. Naturally, you need room between forks and chain stays and under fenders. The bike will be...

Isn't that a photo of Michael Caine, the Korean War veteran? ☺️ We had a two-finger salute in the Cub Scouts. In the war, I used a one-finger salute. Mine was the first battalion in history to be flown overseas directly into combat. It took 37 hours, and for some reason my plane wasn't...

Here's a local store that fell down this week. That's how much damage brick termites can do in 150 years! I don't even remember the last time I rode on a brick road. Brick termites turn them into red powder! They were wise not to build brick railroads. A bucket of termites will make a steel...

Richard Clyburn and Edwin Beard Budding (inventor of the lawn mower) invented the English mechanism on the right. BAHCO, a Swedish company, improved it in 1891. In Shop class in 1959, we were told it was a Crescent wrench. On his 1927 flight across the Ocean of America, :rolleyes: Charles...

I want step-through so I can put a high tub on the back. When the original Abound came out, the youtube influencers praised it but said they were glad it was Class II because with 100 pounds on the back, it was wobbly at 20 mph. By improving the handling, the shorter bars have made me more aware...

Within the last year, that happened to me on a new handlebar device. I think it was something where the screw was harder to reach than on a mirror. I think Torx was a worthwhile invention. Fewer sizes, and a fit loose enough to make it easy to connect.

Hmmm... the set skips both 15 and 16mm. They're 12-point rings, so a 16 might have worked on an M15 nut. It's nice that Torx isn't Metric or American. That way you don't need 2 sets!

In the US military, a step has been 30" for generations, I believe. A meter is just about 40", so a step is 3/4 meter. Often, a pace is 2 steps, or 5 feet by military specs. The military quicktime cadence 120 steps per minute, or 100 yards a minute, or 6000 yards an hour. 18,000 feet/5280 is 3.4...

In my wrench sets, M16 is the one they may skip. And M12. That's why I love 12-point. A loose fit can give a solid connection. Torx seems to be the same. In one case, T20 worked fine to break screws loose. Then I discovered that they were T25.

This explains a lot. Riding no-hands requires "balance" in the sense of keeping your spine aligned with the bike. That's easier coasting than pedaling uphill because each stroke down on a pedal pushes you to the far side and the bike to the near side. Alternating seesaw pressure on the bars can...

That's why I quit using inch tapes in the 1980s. I wanted a replace a rotted clapboard with one accurate to 1/32". Converting a line on the tape to a fraction was so distracting that I cut exactly 1" too short. Mm numbers are also easier to remember than inches and fractions. A few years later...