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Airbear wrote:

Major Softie wrote:I dunno, that bike sure looks like it coulda used a nice ebony rack.

Major, let me assure you that if I stumbled upon a sufficient quantity of nice ebony, well ...

The yellow wood is in-stock, milled from an army tent pole that has 1942 stamped on it. I used the same stuff to make the spars and oars for my boat. It's an old-growth, north american softwood, similar to spruce, but more yellow. It will darken comfortably as it ages further.

Sitka spruce perhaps. http://vancouverislandbigtrees.blogspot ... sitka.html

It was the gold standard here for spars till aluminum took over.

Garnet wrote:
Sitka spruce perhaps. http://vancouverislandbigtrees.blogspot ... sitka.html

It was the gold standard here for spars till aluminum took over.

I reckon you could be right, Garnet. I googled some pics of Sitka Spruce, and the info states that there is a wide colour range. It's strange stuff to find in WW2 army tent poles, particularly in Australia. I was very pleased to find a bunch of these poles for $5 each, just when I was looking for spar material.

Airbear wrote:

Garnet wrote:
Sitka spruce perhaps. http://vancouverislandbigtrees.blogspot ... sitka.html

It was the gold standard here for spars till aluminum took over.

I reckon you could be right, Garnet. I googled some pics of Sitka Spruce, and the info states that there is a wide colour range. It's strange stuff to find in WW2 army tent poles, particularly in Australia. I was very pleased to find a bunch of these poles for $5 each, just when I was looking for spar material.[/quote]

Wow ! I bet you were , quite an amazing find so far from the Pacific NW of the USA!

Boy, I don't look in for a couple of days and I miss a lot. Charlie, what's the joinery between the rails and end pieces on the rack? It has a very nice design. I think the color will enhance the bike. Keep the ebony for accents and making knobs out of.

On the back of the rear fender would be a dandy place for a propeller. You know, where the reflector normally goes. You could put a red LED bicycle light inside the fender with some holes to shine through and then as the propeller goes around, it would be kind of a strobe effect. I wonder if some extra holes would let enough air through the fender to make the propeller turn?

Also, with your sewing skills, you could make a really cool looking bag to top that rack with. Check out what they have for bicycle bags in that style. They're usually called "rack toppers". A matching low profile tank bag could be just the thing. Maybe canvas. Very jaunty.

Chuey

Cheuy, We are not riding Gold Wings.........BMW means understated cool.

The only comment about the rack is that I think it might look better if the seat is a tad higher

Chuey wrote:Charlie, what's the joinery between the rails and end pieces on the rack?

Chuck, there are ten mortise and tenon joints, epoxy glued. I made router jigs to do this sort of thing for chair making a few years ago. In the interest of thread drift and because I think you might be interested, I'll explain that when designing such things I like to make a CAD drawing first. Since the pieces for this were milled from a 65 diameter tent pole, I had to work around that.



I'm certain you will understand how doing this sort of thing takes me to a nice place. I plan to use the rest of this tent pole for some other features.

Chuey wrote:On the back of the rear fender would be a dandy place for a propeller. You know, where the reflector normally goes. You could put a red LED bicycle light inside the fender with some holes to shine through and then as the propeller goes around, it would be kind of a strobe effect. I wonder if some extra holes would let enough air through the fender to make the propeller turn?

Hmm, a propeller at the rear? A push prop, I think they call it. I will give that some thought.

Chuey wrote:Also, with your sewing skills, you could make a really cool looking bag to top that rack with.
Chuey

Brun does get used for shopping expeditions, so there is a rack top bag in the pipeline.
It might even look like a 'cafe hump'.

chasbmw wrote:Cheuy, We are not riding Gold Wings.........BMW means understated cool.

Charles, I don't think I've ever seen you use humour in a post before. Should be more of it.
Don't get me wrong - I enjoy your posts for their crisp informative style and wealth of knowledge.

chasbmw wrote:The only comment about the rack is that I think it might look better if the seat is a tad higher

Ah now, this is a case of function defining the form. I am a person of 'sensible' height, and this is the first time in my affair with BMW that I have been able to get both feet flat on the ground. I'm really enjoying the strange feeling of security.

I am also a shortarse and with advancing years it all gets a bit more difficult. A decent side stand really helps!

Thanks for the compliment, I'm not beyond trying to Troll FH on ADV rider, but he is getting better at ignoring the bait.

Charles

chasbmw wrote:I am also a shortarse and with advancing years it all gets a bit more difficult. A decent side stand really helps!

Thanks for the compliment, I'm not beyond trying to Troll FH on ADV rider, but he is getting better at ignoring the bait.

Charles

Yep, loving my far more precise side stand.
And I've noticed that FH/SS is almost mellow sometimes nowadays. Keep up the good work.

Airbear wrote:

chasbmw wrote:Cheuy, We are not riding Gold Wings.........BMW means understated cool.

Charles, I don't think I've ever seen you use humour in a post before. Should be more of it.
Don't get me wrong - I enjoy your posts for their crisp informative style and wealth of knowledge.

Oh no, are Chas's humours coming out? Now he's going to be all out of balance!






We just don't get that many opportunities for a nice Hippocratic joke here at BW.