Refers to my flights from the Peugeot flight pad Feb 16 & 17
Whilst pedaling my fat butt around in circles in Trollville here today I had a sudden revelation. I remembered that I had an experience with another Peugeot once before in the far, far past. Only this was with a car in 1961. My true love (at the time)(more about that later when I get it sorted out) and I bought a 1956 Peugeot model 403. It was a 4 door automobile with a strong 4 cylinder engine. I mean strong in that it would make a good boat anchor. It also had seats that made into a double bed (Leave it to the French to take the American custom of starting a family in the back seat of a car to a new level). It also had the racy styling of a 1951 Plymouth. It was butt ugly. We had no hesitation buying it using the logic that since our 1956 Renault 4CV designed by Porsche in the '40's was so utilitarian and reliable that the Peugeot would be also. It didn't work out quite that way.
The main problem was like the bicycle. It didn't fit. Now there are 5 controls that need to be readily available to the driver when driving. The steering wheel, the gear shift, the accelerator, the clutch and last but not least the brake. You would think that some French engineer would have sat in this car when it was assembled to see if all these controls worked and perhaps they did because it could be operated. With difficulty. The problem, for me at least, was that I wanted to be comfortable with all the controls not just one. Most cars manufactures try to set up all the controls so that they can comfortably be operated and most succeed with at least 3 or 4 out of five. Not so the Peugeot. I could only get comfortable for one. There was just no way I could get a comfortable position for two. I have owned 34 automobiles and light trucks in my short life and I think I know about this.
When I got out of the Navy in August 1962 we hit the road in that car to tour 6 western States for a month or so camping along the way. I learned about metric tools on that trip as the only metric tools I had were crescent wrenches, pliers and screwdrivers. Finally fixed the French idea of a distributor with a good old American coat hanger. When we got home we traded it for a Ford. It was still sitting on the dealers lot 6 months later.
I don't know why that came to mind today except that it was a gray rainy day and needed some gray rainy thoughts. The birds weren't even out. I decided to ride my homemade long bike to exercise some different muscle sets and boy did it ever. This bike is just before being a recumbent and either needs a seat like a Rans fusion or a seat back to push against. I get away with it by friction on the seat when not much effort is needed and pulling on the handle bars when I really need torque. It's really nice to ride and since I can reach the ground flat footed both sides I hardly ever fall off.
I have been reading other blogs for some time and there are some really good ones. They are not from around here however as I believe the majority here are illiterate. At least those who publish the local newspapers are. And the politicians they quote. Don't forget the grade school teachers that can't write a grammatically correct note.
Oh boy I can't wait 'til I can talk about Kilts, sex, the meaning of life and other things. I got a ton of stuff and pictures.
This bike is constructed from two BMX bikes. It is similar to the construction that the current batch of DIY extracycle/big dummy bikes in the Bike Forums are using. No welding was required. I have several hundred miles on this one. I intend to do a more build post on this one soon.
0 comments:
Post a Comment