Indian Hiawatha

[fasteddy]

I had forgotten that there was a request from Microsoft that I upgrade Widows and now the photos ect. work. Well, it was a bit more than a firm request. The computer stopped working and a demand that I click on the message or else, showed up on the screen.

I'd forgotten about it until I just looked at the photo storage and it worked.

Steve.

 

[fasteddy]

Here's a flash back. The start of Bike Camp.

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

Great effort Steve, creating a continuity between The Indian Tadpole thread which you fleshed out and SB;s Indian Hiawatha thread. Your photos post bucket are archived on the Tadpole thread for all posterior.

Tom

 

[fasteddy]

Tom, the photo of the Hiawatha seat was on Photobucket. I was able to post it on the forum without the usual problems. I'm going to look into cleaning out Photobucket as soon as I can.

Steve

 

[silverbear]

Here's a flash back. The start of Bike Camp.

View attachment 109522

I didn’t recall the Worksman frame ever being blue, but that must have been how it was when I bought it… through eBay I believe. And in the picture the front down tube has not yet been through surgery with an implant from a 1950’s Schwinn girl’s bike giving it enough room for the Sachs engine.
Interesting how one thing leads to another. If Fasteddie had not stopped in to say hello, that sidecar might not have ever been finished and all that happened at bike camp thereafter. Glad you stopped by, Steve!
SB

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

Ever since I saw your sidecar I have been on the lookout for a canoe with one good end.
No white water around here to mangle canoes.

Tom

 

[silverbear]

Silverbear,
As you requested.

Steve.

Wow! Your Indian is fantastic, Steve. You’ve done yourself proud. I keep looking from one photo to the next and then all over again. Even if you never did anything more to it… just stand back and take a look at what you accomplished…from a wild idea to this! Well done, sir!
Tell about the horn and lights. Will the head and tail lights be the brass ones from Aliexpress or are those for the electric tri-car? At least in my mind it isn’t much of a leap to think that a day may come, perhaps this summer when we fire up our Indians and ride off down Bear Head Road at long last. May it be so.
SB

 

[silverbear]

Wow! Your Indian is fantastic, Steve. You’ve done yourself proud. I keep looking from one photo to the next and then all over again. Even if you never did anything more to it… just stand back and take a look at what you accomplished…from a wild idea to this! Well done, sir!
Tell about the horn and lights. Will the head and tail lights be the brass ones from Aliexpress or are those for the electric tri-car? At least in my mind it isn’t much of a leap to think that a day may come, perhaps this summer when we fire up our Indians and ride off down Bear Head Road at long last. May it be so.
SB

Tom, up my way chances are good that a mangled Grumman will be retired for scrap aluminum. If you should make it to bike camp this summer I have a candidate you might find suitable. Some years ago my big sister wanted to celebrate her 80th birthday with an overnight canoe trip down the Kawishiwi River which was part of our extended playground as children. She had given the 15’ double ended to my oldest brother who later passed it on to me and later yet I gave it to my next oldest brother. He and I were in my 17 footer with most of the cargo and Aaniimoosh the wonder dog riding on top of the Duluth packs and my sister and her newly married second husband were in what originally had been her 15 footer. There were many rapids to either shoot or portage around and at the end of the second day with daylight and elder energy nearly gone we had one last rapids, a mean one my brother and I decided to shoot, first in one canoe emptied of cargo and then the other which would leave us having to carry just the cargo, paddles and such. Being the youngest at 70 I was the mule. So we shot the rapids in the 15 footer. I deferred to my brother, being the elder between us to navigate and shout orders, with him at the stern and me in the bow. Fast white water with car sized boulders to avoid, it was a fool hardy thing to do. In short order we were pulled into a boulder which mangled the bow as it threw me out of the canoe heading feet first down the rapids. So much for that bright idea. I carried the second canoe. It was getting dark as we paddled hard to make it to our destination, the Kawishiwii campground where we had a ride waiting for us. As we paddled water in the canoe slowed us down. We had a serious leak in the bottom and had to go to shore to dump out the water. And we ran out of light. What to do? In the distance we saw a light come on at the single cabin we encountered on the whole trip. We shouted and waved a small flashlight, The light blinked a couple of times and we paddled hard for the cabin. Gracious and kind elders helped us ashore and welcomed us to their cabin where we were given hot soup and sandwiches, dry clothes and kind words, wanting to know about our adventure.
That was just seven years ago, but seems much longer. My sister just turned 87, a wonderful girl who has mastered the fine art of right living. Earlier in that same canoe trip she and her husband capsized in a smaller rapids dumping her out of the canoe and off into the rapids. As she sailed feet first down river she saw me…flashed a smile and called out “how many girls get to do this!” More than once I have declared to anyone willing to listen, “…someday when I grow up I want to be just like my big sister!” It’s a a funny thing but each of us remembers that last hoorah canoe trip with fondness.
Anyway, Tom. I believe the stern end is still in pretty good shape on that Grumman, but after making a few repairs we determined that it no longer tracked right and has been set aside. You might want to take a look at it if you come up next summer. Once the snows are gone I can take a few pictures for you. Might make a dandy sidecar and if you have any trouble I’m sure that fasteddy can give a few tips.
SB

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

As you mentioned about capsized canoe, I and a group of teens were shown how to purposely jump out of a canoe. This was before we went canoeing. Just above some small rapids we got briefing. Instruction on when to hold your breath underwater for like 10 seconds or so and also as you mention too, feet first downstream, as it usually safer that way. I also was told to swim not straight to shore once coming up from under water past the rapids, but to swim at an angle. It was over all about maybe 1/8 a mile and then our 45-day bicycling camping trip group was ready to go in canoes over a longer stretch of rapids. Nice test. Sort of like capsizing a Sun Fish Sailboat with my dad, as instruction and righting the boat as well. The canoe outfitter though did not have the canoe go over with us in it, maybe that is advanced instruction.

 

[silverbear]

As you mentioned about capsized canoe, I and a group of teens were shown how to purposely jump out of a canoe. This was before we went canoeing. Just above some small rapids we got briefing. Instruction on when to hold your breath underwater for like 10 seconds or so and also as you mention too, feet first downstream, as it usually safer that way. I also was told to swim not straight to shore once coming up from under water past the rapids, but to swim at an angle. It was over all about maybe 1/8 a mile and then our 45-day bicycling camping trip group was ready to go in canoes over a longer stretch of rapids. Nice test. Sort of like capsizing a Sun Fish Sailboat with my dad, as instruction and righting the boat as well. The canoe outfitter though did not have the canoe go over with us in it, maybe that is advanced instruction.

Canoes have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. Our family’s first canoe was a 17’ double end Grumman purchased I believe in 1947, the year my father and grandfather built our family cabin on Ojibwa Lake north of Ely, Mn.and just shy of the Canadian border at the edge of what is now the Boundary Water Canoe Area Wilderness, a million acres of interconnected rivers and lakes. I started paddling solo at six piling rocks at the stern and turning around and paddling from the bow… easier to control for a little boy. Early on we learned how to jump out and get back in and when we were big enough how to flip over a capsized canoe with water in it. And of course we were good swimmers. At13 I could get that heavy Grumman up on my shoulders for portaging by myself which was something like a rite of passage to manhood, in my mind at least. I’ve had many canoes through the years and am still enamored with the old Grummans made from WWII surplus aircraft aluminum. In my sixties I got interested in sail rigs for the Grummans and built several.. I’ve pretty well given up paddling any distance and as a compromise have a couple Grumman sportboats/sport canoes which are midway between a boat and squarestern canoe powered with 8 hsp 2 stroke Evinrudes. Canoes, outboard motors and motor bikes… that’s my thing. Could be that someday I’ll finally grow up and lose interest, but not quite yet…
SB

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

TIN CANOES & OTHER MADNESS: The Genius of Robb White - Wave Train

RudderPosts: Robb White Article (typepad.com)

Robb White, Boatbuilder, Thomasville, Georgia Pick on the titles on the left for some fun reading. If you find the story of Robb picking up an Armadillo by the tail let me know.

Tom

 

[fasteddy]

Tom, I saw it here.

Steve.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjfuJnQl9H1AhW3LDQIHRvUCk8QFnoECAkQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Findexarticles.com%2Freference%2Fnatural-history%2Farmadillos-and-dangerous%2F&usg=AOvVaw3_5PFxM1hCCS9YxxUGb4kY

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

Hope you didn't hurt yourself from laughing Steve, O'l Robb has about done me in a few times.
I finally bought a copy of How to Build a Tin Canoe, last Fall

Tom

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

SB, I'm gonna give attending Bike Camp some serious thought. Your kind offer of a lightly used Grumman is working on me.

Tom

 

[fasteddy]

Tom, the description of the armadillo capture was priceless. Went back a couple of times to reread it, I had heard that they had some natural forms of defence but spraying bowel contents is a new one. Leaping in the air is also. So bending down to pick one up doesn't seem to be a good idea.

Somewhat akin to looking into a small culvert pipe the farm dog had just chased two cats into to make sure they were OK. Apparently they were and decidedly no overly happy about it and a couple of eager young fellas looking into the pipe was a step to far or it could have been the arm reaching in. Very much in kin with picking an armadillo up by the tail only cats have teeth and claws.

 

[silverbear]

Harbor Freight Headlights
In looking over the Indian Hiawatha I see that I never adapted the headlights I intend to use, so did some investigating today. First I needed to see if I had what I needed on hand to convert them for the tri-car.
Some years ago I ran across some big honker headlights at Harbor Freight and bought a couple. $12.00 each then, if I remember right. They same thing was being sold at NAPA for around $20.00. They were supposedly for dune buggies or something like that. I was impressed with the nice chrome and tear drop shape and figured I could adapt them to my bike builds somehow or other. The price was certainly right and I do like the look of big honker headlights and I couldn’t tell you why.
I had also been fooling around with some of their cheap little flashlights incorporating the business end into copper jewel tail lights. Then I saw these and pictured them in the headlights and bought a few.

They were only four or five bucks each and quite bright, powered by 3 AAA batteries. They had 32 led lights inside. I didn’t know how I woulid replace the 12 V. halogen bulbs in the headlights with these, but figured there had to be a way. Over the years I made several headlights using these harbor freight flashlight components.

I adapted the first one in a strange headlight I made from a Portuguese cooking pot. It was copper and I saw it in an antique shop. In my twisted brain I immediately saw possibilities for a bike headlight. I cut off the pot handle and made a special lens for it out of clear and stained glass (blue for the background, yellow for the rays and clear at the center in a star pattern. Lead cames hold it together with solder at the union points. That was fun and will finally find a home on the quadricycle build coming up next summer.
I made another out of an old headlight for the “kindalikeawhizzer” build again making a special lens incorporating stained glass with a copper disc surrounding the led light unit. Cool beans!

And then I made one following the original plan, removing the halogen bulb from the harbor freight honker headlight and fitting in the front end of the flashlight LEDs.

.
This was for the 1934 Elgin “Velocipede” build and I was very pleased with how it turned out. Even with just one 18650 battery cell it is quite bright. I had to take the above light apart today to see how it was that I did that. Forgot, I did.
(To be continued)
SB

 

[silverbear]

I took the velocipede headlight apart to see how I had made the conversion and also took one of the tri-car headlights apart to see how it compared.

As I understand it the 12V halogen bulb draws a lot of juice and is brighter than I would want a bike headlight to be. I don’t need to blind anyone and I don’t foresee riding around in the dark… that’s when old guys like me sleep. The lights need to be bright enough to draw attention to the ride from other vehicles, but if nobody notices the Indian Hiawatha being there then I don’t think much anything would help. So it is for safety and for helping the tri-car look right.

What you see in the above image is the glass lens housing and the rectangle in the center is where the halogen bulb fit. A screw holds it in place. That hole needs to be enlarged so that the front end of he flash light can fit in it’s place. I think (don’t really remember), that I used a grinding bit in a drill at low speed to open it up. It might have been a dremmel rotary tool with a wee grinding bit. Go easy making the round hole, at any rate. Then rinse out the grinding dust and dry before inserting the flashlight unit.
(To be continued)
SB

 

[silverbear]

And what you see here is the innards of the Velocipede headlight which has been converted from halogen to flashlight LEDs. I didn’t want to take it further apart at this point as it is obvious that it was epoxied in place. It feels quite solid. And was sealed up with electrical tape. I don’t recall exactly, but I do know that I soldered wires to the positive and negative contacts. When hooking up a battery be aware that LEDs are positive/negative sensitive unlike incandescent bulbs.. Getting it backwards won’t hurt anything, it just won’t light up.

And that’s about it at this stage. When I do the soldering on the tri-car lights I’ll try to remember to take pictures. Yesterday I attempted to buy a few spare flashlights like the ones I used for the headlights, but Habor Freight was out of stock and they are now clearance items on sale right now for less than $4.00 each. What a deal! Maybe your harbor freight still has them. Your needs might be different than mine, but these have worked nicely for me.. I did a search this morning and found two of the flashlights in my department of bike stuff, so I’m good for the Hiawatha.
(To be continued)
SB

 

[PeteMcP]

SB, Enjoying the ongoing headlight conversion saga. Here's something you might find of interest. Couple of weeks back I wrote in my forum thread about converting one of my vintage bicycle carbide lamps to LED. I retro-fitted it with a cheapo (UK£4.50 post free from China) multi-function 'modern' LED lamp sourced from AliExpress - but they sell them here on eBay too, usually in matched head and tail light (clear/red) packs. These lamps feature 12 super bright LEDs and you can select dim, half brightness, full brightness constant light or different rates of flash via the lamp's single push switch. Output-wise, it hurts to look straight at them on full brightness. Best thing about it is the lamp is USB rechargeable and comes supplied with its own USB cable - meaning you don't even have to think about buying or finding space for batteries. Conveniently, the 33mm dia. LED lamp's casing was a snug interference-fit into my vintage Powell & Hanmer lamp's internals. Or it could just be fitted using double-sided tape in any other lamp.
Footnote: Dadcat's little helper Mischa says to point out the lamp's stated brightness is rated at 80 lumens - whatever that is.

 

[silverbear]

Thank you for the tip, Pete. I just did some looking around on Aliexpress and am impressed with all that’s available now in LED lights And especially nice that some are rechargeable. If you have a link to the one you have, I’d appreciate it. I can especially see it being useful in the future. As far as the Hiawatha I started thinking about having access to the built in switch and usb connector and realized that unit probably wouldn’t work out with my headlights unless I ran an extension for the recharging and an outside switch of some sort for the light. So I suspect I’ll go ahead with what I have and run front and rear lights and maybe a horn all off of one battery box with pretty much just on / off for the lights. I like your carbide light and have kitties myself, so of course I like your cat, too.
SB