The Tao of Walking Ridge

This panel has 11 links and 4 hidden gems - click on the airplane.

I’ve owned old farm tractors in the past and enjoyed running them.  It’s great if you have a use for them, you get to use old retro art.  I really missed my old John Deere Model 40 (circa 1954 as I recall).  But it was a bit big to sneak into the garage (required removal of the muffler sticking up out of the hood) and I had to remember to duck.  I had an International Farmall for a while, and it made me miss my Model 40.  I never quite warmed up to the offset of the Farmall, sitting to the right of the engine. So, I figured I’d try a Ford N series tractor.  They have a wide front axle, which was a must for the hills where I now live.  There are a lot of them, so parts are common.  They have 3 point hitches, which make them really versatile.  And the exhaust is low, which makes garage storage just a bit easier.  I went up to Paul’s Tractors in Clio Michigan and he had just finished restoring a 1952 Ford 8N.  I quickly learned that the 1952 8N was the last year for them, and the best year for them (side distributor and tach).  The 8N had a 4 speed transmission.  The 8N has a bit more horsepower than the older 9N or 2N.  This one was set up for trouble free operation with a 12 volt system and alternator.

A bit of trivia I learned to make sense of the model designations.  The 9N was 1939.  The 2N was 1942.  The 8N was 1948.  I had always assumed the 8N was a bit smaller than a 9N, but actually it was the latest and greatest of the N series. With a fresh paint job, they are really useful art where form follows function.  Here in Michigan, you see so many of the 8N tractors that I tended to dismiss them.  But a couple of trips around my yard and I realized that once you put one to use, there is a reason they made more 8N tractors than any other model in the history of the US.  You can stand and drive it, and the clutch and brake are easier to use from standing than my Model 40.  The exhaust note is very pleasant.  The engine fires right up, much easier than my Model 40 did in cold weather.  It is a very handy size for a few acres. Mowing with the 8N will be more like meditation than the chore it is with modern stuff.  An activity to savor, rather than rush to get over with.  The machine inspires you to acquire a more relaxed pace.  No ear plugs required.  A simple pleasure that can be lost with modern machines.

Nearly every MP3 player on the market interfaces with the computer through a proprietary software interface. An IPOD I used to own worked great. Great until I had to replace the hard drive on my machine. Suddenly I as not authorized to play “muse” music, as it belonged to “muse”, and “muse” cannot share. Yes, you cannot make error messages like that up. Though the name was the same, the digital signature changed. I was not in the mood to reload all of my songs, so I gave it away.

So when I finally decided to replace the MP3 player, I looked for a Linux compatible one.  I already have folders and folders of MP3s, so I wanted to just be able to drag and drop my MP3 files into the MP3 player.  I didn’t need, and did not want a “media manager”.  While I wasn’t quite sure exactly what the interface of the Sansa Fuze would be, the price was right and I took a chance on it.

What a pleasant surprise.  Plug in the USB to charge it, and a file manager window opens in my Ubuntu.  Just like plugging in a thumbdrive.  I grabbed my entire MP3 folder, with subfolders, and expected the device to choke.  It did not.  In a couple of minutes all my music was loaded.

More surprises.  The screen is spectacular for its size.  Very clear, and with great resolution.  I dragged and dropped some photos into the device.  Always handy to have some pics along.  The player is small, but not too small.  It includes an FM radio if you get bored with your own music.  And the whole thing easily pops into the ear but case that my Bose ear buds are stored in, making a very handy package.

I really like the ability to use the device without installing another application onto my computer.  The only thing that didn’t work was the video function.  The screen is so nice, that videos would be cool, but installing videos is not as easy.  There is a need to convert them with a converter downloaded from Sansa’s website.  It is a .exe, so before I tried Wine I just went over to the dark side to try it out.  While it would see and play videos, I wasn’t able to install them after conversion.

If you get the device for videos, you may be dissapointed.  But if you get it for MP3s and photos, you will be happy with the 8 GB of memory, easy to use menus, and non-proprietary compatibility.  It even has a record feature I haven’t tried out yet.

Time to check out the new shift linkage.  All went well, except the camera suffered a bit more vibration than I was hoping it would mounted on the back of the sidecar.  Shifting was much better, with much lighter efforts.  The angle of the pedal was perfect, allowing for all toe shifting - no need to use the heel.  Since I never had a bike with a heel shifter before, this was the most comfortable.  Though I am still getting use to the Guzzi shift pattern of 1 up 3 down.

Space was a bit tight, but replacing the shift linkage went remarkably smoothly. All the fasteners came loose and all the pinch bolt connections loosened and allowed the pedal and lever to slide off their splines. The photo shows the original clevis arrangement. The angle of the lever shows about the angle as it was installed on the transmission. The result was high forces and poor shift feel.

On Greg Benders’s Website I read about replacing the clevis arrangement with heim joints. I was able to get them at a machine shop a couple of miles from me, and it let me repair it faster. But another benefit is reduced lash compared to the clevis arrangement, which has lash between each arm and pin and each clevis and pin. Just 2 mm of lash in this linkage translates into 10 or 12 mm of lash at the pedal.

The ball joints were called “type 1″ and had internal threads.  If I have any issues with the strength of this setup, I may replace it with a “type 2″ with has external threads.  The connector would then be a tube with tapped threads that would be able to handle higher compression loads.  However, it shifts so much more easily and predictably I don’t expect to generate the high forces and bending that broke the original linkage.

I highly recommend this mod for your loop frame Guzzi.  If firms up the shift pedal, increases feel and feedback, and results in a gear shift that snicks properly into the gears with much better feel.  It greatly enhances the riding experience.  It is also a great feeling to fix your bike with a trip to a machine shop and a hardware store (for the threaded rod).

After a few hours to get the Continental sidecar well connected to the 1973 Moto Guzzi Eldorado, I strapped down the battery, fitted some after market air cleaners to keep the dust out the carbs, fabricated a seat bracket for the solo seat, and was ready for the first trial run.

A half mile shakedown had some oscillations.  I noted the tire pressure was just a bit low, so I raised it to 21 psi front 25 psi rear.  This handled much better.

After a mile or so, I got the hang of the rig. The firmer tire pressure was a great help.  A spongy feeling combined with the car tugging can be really spooky.  But with the firmer pressure, response to the handlebar input was predictable, and the only thing that got tired was my throttle handle hand fighting the return spring.  After three or four miles down the back roads at 30 mph, I decided to see how it handled on paved roads.  At 50 and 55 mph it was pretty comfortable.  I did not have to do any panic stops at that speed, but there was nothing spooky that happened cruising along.

I stopped at a local Starbucks for some morning espresso.  After my espresso, the bike fired right back up.  I took a residential road back and found a person backing his car up with the hatch open.  After a couple of weaving maneuvers, I decided to downshift to first and give him space.  Then I lost all drive, stuck in neutral.  Fortunately I could coast to a little parking spot near a walking trail.  I discovered my shift linkage was broken.  But if I could just get it into gear (after starting it, which requires neutral) I could get it home.

However, it was now that I discovered I’d FORGOTTEN A TOOL BAG.  Geeez.  How forgetful.  I was actually trying to think of something to put in the sidecar for a bit of weight.  TOOLS WOULD HAVE BEEN A GOOD IDEA!  I walked a couple blocks to a drug store and got some duct tape, but I wasn’t quite able to get 1 shift out of the bits left.  A Harley Davidson rider named Joe stopped by.  He rode home and came back with tools.  Eventually, we figured out a really big screw driver could be used to pry on the linkage of the transmission and snick it into 1st gear.  We got it started.  Joe kept it running while I held the clutch and pried it into 1st.  Then I hopped on and rode it 10 miles home at around 18 mph.  Fortunately, I knew back roads for the entire trip.

While Joe and I were working on it, a gentleman walked up from the local paper.  He “is always on the lookout for a good story”.  Call it the “sidecar effect”.  He thought it looked interesting and wondered what I was up to with the rig.

So, first ride, made it home.  A little bit of sidecar wobble in first gear, less than 20 mph.  But not enough to bother with a dampener.  (UPDATE:  The wobble was greatly reduced by raising tire pressures and improving the sidecar alignment at a later date.)  With both hands firmly on the bars, you can prevent or stop it.  I was able to relax and look around on the way home.  I saw turtles crossing the road, and watched the countryside go by.  The solo seat looks cool, and is fine for 20 minutes.  But not what I’d want for an hour long cruise.  But I got the rig for crawling back roads anyway and for that, so far so good.

Yeah, it isn’t running right now.  But the broken bit is basically a small turnbuckle.  It is very possible I can get one at the hardware store and be back out this weekend. Perhaps more importantly, I think I know why it broke. The lever on the transmission was not at 90 degrees, more like a 45 degree angle. So the lever on the foot shaft was at a similar angle. Great for high loads. Not so good for travel, which is what the tranny is looking for. I found it pretty hard to shift, and now I think I know why. To do it right will require taking the arm off the trans and rotating it on the splines. Ditto for the foot levers, which will require at least loosening the exhaust. It won’t be a 10 minute job, but when it is done it should shift much better and be fixed for good. Just part of sorting out a vintage bike.

Since I was 12, I dreamt of riding a motorcycle with a sidecar.  More than 40 years later, the pieces fell into place.  I found a Moto Guzzi Eldorado with a Continental sidecar that needed some work, but ran.  I drove well into the night (there was even a full moon), got a room and slept for a few hours, then pressed on into West Virginia.  The scenery was magnificent, adding to the coolness of the adventure.

Finally I arrived and discovered a great classic looking sidecar rig. The sidecar is made in India, and is often attached to the Royal Enfields that are still being made there. The power was supplied by an 850 cc Moto Guzzi Eldorado. Imported in the early ’70s to compete with Harley Davidsons, the Eldorado was ridden by some Police, and developed a reputation of reliability for its era.

We had to disconnect the sidecar to package the pair, but my full size GMC Sierra was able to take both units with the tailgate up and room to spare. It was really nice not having to haul a trailer through the mountains, and the 5.3 L engine had no trouble keeping up with traffic.  The only disappointment was the box being about three inches too narrow to drive the whole rig straight in!

This particular bike is not all factory original, which actually makes it more fun to restore.  It opens up the creative possibilities.  It is a 1973, but has been retrofitted with later front forks and disk brakes.  Plans are for a solo seat and a new paint job in addition to the expected mechanical work.  The new paint job will be a great opportunity to try some pinstriping.

I finally had a few hours to paint this summer. I’ve been enjoying some flat track racing and was inspired by not only the action, but the events and people that surround the event. Local short track racing has many low budget weekend racers who spend their weeks working on cars and drive to the track towing their race cars, tools, and spares. The Auto City Speedway is a D shaped 1/4 mile and 1/2 mile track paved in 1986 (it used to be dirt). The cars depicted are from the pure stock class. Generally Chevrolet Caprices or similar cars brought back to life for a few more laps.

There are many different perspectives to take on short track racing. This perspective tried to capture the motion through the curve as they drift toward the wall and try to gain an advantage on the car ahead.

Car96 - Brian Kelly, 2009 acrylic on canvas board, 9″ x 12″

Ardour is an open source DAW (Digital Audio Workstation).  I tried to get it up and running ever since I started using Linux nearly a year ago, but each time I quit from frustration.  I read much online explaining many of its capabilities, but found little about getting past the very first step - getting the sound to your speakers and doing something with it.  Anything.  Basic stuff.

With renewed plans to record and mix a new album that I call the Open Source Album Project, I decided to install Ubuntu Studio on an old desktop I had sitting around.  If I could get Ardour to work, I’d have a pro quality DAW.  I thought I would write about three things that were key to getting me started with Ardour.  Once you get started, then you can build from there.
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I still consider Yeager’s Air Combat to be the best combat flight simulator I ever flew.  Sure, the graphics are simpler polygons.  But the controls, flight information and above all the responsiveness of the flight controls were the best I’ve ever flown.  The only one that comes close was SVGA Air Warrior, but that flight simulator was better suited to heads up modem play than play against the computer.  Dosbox lets you run this classic on Linux with USB Joysticks on a basic laptop with a nothing special graphics card.  What better way to recycle (old computers) and save money (on operating systems and new games).

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The simpified estimatation of hole placement for typical Native American flutes developed in method-tuning-native-american-flutes-pt-1 enabled the development of a Flash based GUI that allow for quick comparison of the hole placement for flutes of different modes and even custom scale flutes.   It shows combinations of notes that are impractical to make (without cross fingering).  It also provides a graphical view of what the hole placement will look like.

For example, on longer flutes the space between playing hole D and E is not an issue.  But for short flutes, the holes can become closer than is comfortable.  An optional 7/8″ “finger pad” gives an idea of the space between fingers to make decisions about the trade off between moving the holes closer together or accepting a slightly smaller E hole that would be closer to the TSH.

Once the length of a barrel is known, then the length can be put into the tool and starting points for placement of playing holes are easily calculated.  They are based upon flutes that typically had about 0.3″ playing holes, with the E hole closest to the TSH typically a bit smaller. The tool easily calculates the hole placement for different key flutes.  It also quickly calculates the difference in placement for Mode 1, Mode 4, and Mode 5 minor pentatonic scales.  Depending on the particular details used by a flute maker, the estimate may be high or low.  Input for improvement of the tool is welcome.  Send comments to WalkingRidge.

The GUI is avalailable on this static page for convenient access.