Indian Tadpole

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fasteddy

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Feb 13, 2009
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British Columbia Canada
Hi Tom,

Thank you for traveling through the whole thread and for the likes you left.

If I had started with a Sportsman Flyer kit this tri car would have been finished in a month. Pat did the heavy lifting getting it sorted out and putting it together would have been easy.

I wound up keeping the temporary knee replacement so I dodged the 4th knee operation. The doctor was happy with the way it was and I just wasn't up to another operation at my age or for that matter any age.

Have to make a parts run tomorrow. No matter how many boxes of bit and pieces there are you never seem to have what you need.

Steve.
 
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Tom from Rubicon

Tom from Rubicon

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Apr 4, 2016
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Hi Steve,
I have a 3D in a box, bought about a year ago thinking to use it on the Sportsman 80. Pat nix'd that said the only motorbicycle in his line up compatible is the SF160. I might go there yet.
3D stresses the point about a long enough clutch lever. Am I reading right that your clutch will not disengage?

Yes, it took some time and effort but I have read all
120+ pages. Wish I had taken more notes.
Keep up the good work.
Tom from Rubicon, WI
 
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dogcatcher

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Nov 11, 2016
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Tom from Rubicon said:
Wish I had taken more notes.
Click to expand...
My note system is electronic, I copy the post and the link. When I decide a thread has good info that I may need in the future, I start an email to myself, each important fact is copied and the link copied and pasted in the email. When I am finished with the thread, I send the email. If it is really good stuff, I sometimes create a document and a pdf and save it that way. Just have to remember to "tag" it with key words so searching for it is easy.
 
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fasteddy

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Feb 13, 2009
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Hi Tom,
My clutch was heavily modified to work on on Pat's pedal crank by a bike builder/machinist in Pennsylvania so anything that I have to do doesn't have anything to do with what is normal 3D..

I used a motorcycle sized clutch lever but the clutch isn't working properly. I keep working at trying to find out why but now it's time to double up on the effort or find another set up. I do have a Bully clutch and may have to figure out a way to adapt it.

Steve.
 
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Tom from Rubicon

Tom from Rubicon

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Apr 4, 2016
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Rubicon, Wisconsin
fasteddy said:
Hi Tom,
My clutch was heavily modified to work on on Pat's pedal crank by a bike builder/machinist in Pennsylvania so anything that I have to do doesn't have anything to do with what is normal 3D..

I used a motorcycle sized clutch lever but the clutch isn't working properly. I keep working at trying to find out why but now it's time to double up on the effort or find another set up. I do have a Bully clutch and may have to figure out a way to adapt it.

Steve.
Click to expand...
The Bully clutches are nice. Pat gets them set up for low RPM lock up. I can engine brake at virtually all riding speeds. For my purposes 3D for slow 4th of July parade
duty more so that a centrifugal clutch.
Tom from Rubicon, WI
 
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fasteddy

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A curse and a pox upon a working mans life indeed Rick. The old girl starts and even more importantly stops like it should now.

I will however miss those adrenaline rushes every time I stepped on the brakes and had to guess just which direction it was going to pull. I find as I get older that I take my excitement where I can find it. However my fellow motorists don't seem to share my joy and the pedestrians on the sidewalks proved equally hard to convince.

Steve.
 
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indian22

indian22

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Dec 31, 2014
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I learned that an old beat up Ford pickup was just the ticket to threaten and procure space among the rush hour yuppies of Houston driving their status symbol BMW and Mercedes, no eye contact just drift over & they would give way. Of course the aluminum baseball bats on display in the gun rack was a nice touch I felt as well. Let 'em honk! Of course I'm a bit more responsible at this point in my life but it was grand in my mis spent youth! Rick C.
 
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fasteddy

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Feb 13, 2009
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Rick, that is priceless. The baseball bats are the perfect touch. I'm sure there was the odd individual who wasn't going to be intimidated until they unintentionally did the rapid mathematical equation in their mind and discovered just which one of you were going to lose the most.


Explaining to a member of the Houston police department that they were hit by an old Ford truck who didn't stop would have narrowed the list to under a few thousand suspects.

Priceless indeed.

Steve.
 
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indian22

indian22

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Like the legendary Datsun pickups of old; this pitiful Ford was seemingly indestructible. I bought it at auction for a few hundred bucks. It was an old Brown and Root construction company vehicle with untold mileage but the odometer had turned over at least once before giving up life. It had been rolled over and the body rebuilt, more or less, and painted a delicate yet tasteful shade of rust brown. Viewed from behind it appeared to run down the road like a crab, but tracked perfectly. I added a bumper sticker as an accessory that read " my other vehicle is a Porsche" (true). It had it's rear tag held by a single screw & the tag rode at an acute angle. It's straight six ran super...no air or power accessories and it was so ugly that I had to park it behind a privacy fence at home to avoid a neighborhood conventions fine! It was so ugly that I could park it over night in the "wards" of Houston, unlocked, running and with a full tank of gas & it would still be there the next morning. The Bandidos M.C. Pasadena chapter gave it thumbs up, mostly...a few middle finger salutes notwithstanding. It was soo fundamentally ugly that I can't possibly convey it's visage with mere words!

I miss it more than the Porsche & that's fact....plus it had a gun rack for my bats!

Rick C.
 
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fasteddy

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Even better than I imagined it. So nasty only the connoisseurs of fine old vehicles would appreciate it. The boys as they rode by were saying the truck was number one in their books.

My favorite was a runner up. A 1953 Meteor 4 door. Seldom seen even in Canada but it was a Canadian Ford. Just had different chrome, grill and tail lights. It also came with the 255ci Mercury flat head engine from the factory. By the time spring rolled around each year it was about 20 pounds lighter to due the rust falling off it since we had pretty rough roads when the snow was on the ground.

I also owned a Porsche. A 1953 Cabriolet that was one of the first two in Canada. VW wanted to introduce them to Canada and they sent a coupe and the cabriolet over with a mechanic who was factory certified to work on Porsche's. I met the mechanic and he steered me to the owner of the car who wanted to sell it.

The price was a princely sum of $125. I sold it to the chap who owned the coupe after a while but I often think about it.

Steve.
 
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