Latest vintage Bicycles I have added to my collection.

 I have acquired three more vintage bikes to my collections,two of which are shown here. The above bike may not qualify as a vintage bike as I not sure how old it is but guess it only about 7 years old. It a Dahon Foldup bicycle. I had to do some work to get it into a good rider and it now just like new. I got this bike to take it with me camping as it folds up and I can put it in my car trunk easyly. 
My first time riding it I felt like I was riding a toy bike but since I now gotten used to it I think it a really fun bike to ride and probably could ride it on long distance rides. So far I only ridden it for distance of 10 miles and that was no problem.

 Taking break while riding my Dahon out in the country

The above Bike is one that I bought back in the early 1970s and sold after a couple of years. I recentlly contacted the person that I sold it to and bought it back. Actually I had two bikes that I sold one for me and one for Leila. I bought both of them back but only have one of them posted there. I need to do more work on the girrls bike before I take any picature of it.

The bikes are made by Hulfy and are not particularly valueable, I only got them because I used to own them. The cost to restore them I expect to cost more than what they will be worth.  I hope to find some Huffy's for sale that I can use for parts especially the chrome parts.

I hope to get a couple of more vintage bikes to add to my collections and I am looking for them now.

I am planning or thinking about doing a bike ride called the Blue Ridge Breakaway this year around August in the mountains. It only a one day ride but it probably will be the most strenuous one day ride I have ever done, that is if I do it. It is to start near Maggie Valley and go into some very hilly mountain terrain. In past years I pretty much avoided doing bike tours that involved a lot of hill climbing as I never been good at this. Certainly since I injured my leg I really my hill climbing was really bad. However since moving back to Lancaster I had to ride on very hilly roads whether I like it or not, that is if I wanted to ride my bike at all. This has made me stronger at hill climbing than I have ever been so much that I now considering doing the unthinkable. It is a metric century ride however I do have the option of doing a shorter ride but the climbs will be steep no matter what.



I can’t believe that I am even considering doing this. But since a few months ago I found out I could stand on the pedals to put more power in my pedaling I am better at hill climbing now. Since my accident back in 2005 I have never been able to stand on the pedals until a few months ago. I never thought I would be able to do that again as the pain was too intense. Still is but I am over coming it.


I am also considering doing a couple more bike tours as well. One in Charleston that not far away and who knows maybe I will try and do the Katy Trail ride again. If I do that it will be my first bike tour that is longer than two days since I injured my leg more than 6 years ago.


This time of the year is always dream time. I don’t always do the bike tours I like to do but dreaming about them helps me sort out the tours that can be realty from the ones that will just remain dreams.

New kind of hobby like I really needed another one.

The top photo is of my 1947? Shelby Airflo bicycle. When I received it I was a bit disppointed as it look terrible. However with a little spit and polish it now looks great and does not need much done to it. Only the headlight was in bad shape but I am now working on restoring it.

So far I have obtain four antique bicycles. I love bicycling and collecting classic bicycles goes well with my love of bikes. I am hoping to at least add a couple of more bikes to my collection. However when I do find vintage bikes that are in good shape and the price is right I may just add them to my collection as well.

If you know of any please let me know where and how to contact the owners of such bikes. I am currently hunting for old ballon bicycles made in the 1940s and 1950s

The upon two bikes are indian made bicycles. One is a Indian scout and the other is a princess Indian bike made in 1961. I am happy to be able to add them to my collections. Indian are rare bikes made by the company that also made Indian Motorcycles. In fact The Indian Motorcycle company made bicycles before they started making motorcycles.
To get a pair of Indian bicycles one a boys bike and the other a girls bike is indeed rare especially in the excellent conditions these are. The boys bike as a dyno hub in the front wheel to make electricity to run lights with. I hoping to adapt it to charge my iphone.



Wow this is indeed a rare find that I have. It is a Spalding chainless driveshaft driven bicycle made in either 1895 or 1896 which is the only two years that they were made. It is in great shape except the wheels are not correct. Some one also painted it and did a terrible job.



I am now workng at getting it restored. The original had wood wheels and I trying to get some to get the wheels like it originally had. Then I will have to strip the paint off and have it repainted the way it look back in the day. When completed I will have a true gem that should bring a good price. I only seem one other bike like this one and that was in a museum in Michingan. I will more news about my bike and restoration of old bikes as time goes by.

A dirt road to far

This morning I went on my what mostly has become a almost dailey bike ride. The picture showing a old dirt road was taken on todays bike ride.

Now the story. Last week I was scouting a route that I thought would be a safe route from home to liberty hill SC, a distance of around 15 miles. Part of the route went over this dirt road. I had a feeling that this road was going to be dirt that is the main reason why I scouted it first before attempting to ride it. Good thing I did. The road is very steep even though it does not look like in the photo. It has a lot of lose gravel which would make roads tires not do well on the steep climbs. I marked this road as very unsuitable for biking unless it was on a mountain bike which I seldom ride now.

You think that after I scouted this road I would be sure and not put it on any of my cycling routes. Wrong I inadvertly added it to my todays route, a big mistake. This road name Rocky Creek Road is 2.1 miles long and it was uphill almost all the way, I mean really uphill. When I got to the start of this road I realized my mistake but it was to late. It was the way home unless I travel unfamiliar roads which I did not want to do. Doing so I would have extended my bike ride by several miles the distance to home. I was tired to do this and so I started up this road. My worst fears had materialized. Some of the climbs was so steep that my rear tire was slipping out from under me. It was so bad that I feared that I would crashed and get hurt. So I resorted to something that I have never done before. I got off the bike and pushed it up the hills rather than take a chance on falling and hurting my already bad leg. It was humilating to say the least but sometimes you have to what have to do.

By the time I got to the end of this dirt road I was totally exhausted and my neck started to huring real bad like a it did a couple days ago. I now was only three miles from home but I could no longer hold my head up to see where I was going. I did the only thing I could do and called my wife on the cell phone to come and get me. Thank goodness for cell phones.

Biking again and it about time.

A self Portriat

It been a while since I last posted to my blog so I am catching up now. I started back riding my bike on a more regular basis and I been at it for about three weeks now. I put a lot weight so getting it back off is a additional incentive to keep biking. I have a new iphone with bike navigation and workout which I really like. My wife can follow me on the computer where ever I go. She knows where I am riding all the time now. Others can view me as well that are on my approved list to view.

Last week Idid have a big scared while riding my bike. A truck sideswipe me but luckly it was not hard enough to knock me off my bike. I was hit in the side and my mirrow on the bike got hit but did not brreak it. For reason I do not know it made a huge noise when it happen. My side was hurting but after a while the pain went away. The driver did stop to see if I was OK and to help me if I needed it. I was mad a heck about him hitting me but he was very apolgetic so much so I couild stay mad. I was going to call the police but decided against it since I did not see any damages to my bike and only some pain in my side which went away.

Although I am still riding my bike I am now more leary about vehicles approaching me from the rear. Yesterday riding i even got off the road completely because I felt vehicles was getting to close to me at times.

This is a new country road that I have never ridden on before. Hardly any houses on it and is beautiful ride but just not long enough.

A country home at the end of the above road.

Yesterday I rode down to Hanging Rock Battleground. This a battle fought during the revolutionary war. Years ago there used to be a fairly good road by where my bike is parked. The road has since been block and has eroded badly and over grown now. Couldn't even ride my bike on it so I push it to get where this picture was taken.

Another view of the road. It looks fairly good in this picture but believe me it is not serviceable anymore.

A marker has been placed there since the last time I was there back in the eary 1980s. It tells a little about the Battle of Hanging Rock.

I am gradually getting back in shape to ride long distances again. I probably will never be as good as I used to be before my leg injury but I still enyoy riding a bike. Doing a week long bike tour is questionable so I am not looking to try to any of them except maybe for the Katy trail next year.. I hope to do some day tours next year.

Well that all for now folks.

The tall Ship Gloria and one very nice cadet

The Gloria

A tall tale but so very true

The Gloria is a tall ship from Columbia South America. In February 1992 she came to the port of Charleston SC for a good will visit. While in port the public was invited for a guided tour of the ship. The guides were all naval cadets from Columbia. I arrived there too late for the tours. However the ship's Captain did permit me to tour the ship and assigned one of the naval cadets to guide me. His name was Cisar Montengro and he could not speak a word of English and I of course could not speak any Spanish. However that came to be only a minor handicap as he was very good at being a tour guide. TThe Gloria dockside

After the tour was over I asked Cisar commanding officer who spoke English if I could take Cisar out sailing out in the harbor of Charleston the next day. Of course the had to translate all this in English for Cisar to understand. Permission was granted and Cisar was eager to go sailing with me on my sailboat the "Rambler".

The next day I arrived early in the morning for a day sail in the harbor with Cisar. A cold front had moved in and the winds where really howling at about 25 knots of sustain winds with higher gusts. A good day for racing but not a good day for a pleasure cruise. Worse was how was I going to tell him what needed to be done and when. Winds this high is no time to explain how to handle the sails especially when we needed to tack which is often in the harbor. I did not need to worry about that as Cisar just started to doing what needed to be done without me telling anything. He turnout to be a very good sailor and even though he had never seen my sailboat he knew how to do things as well as I did. I thought he would like sailing past his ship so we set sail to do just that. As we went by the Gloria all the grew recognized Cisar and started to hollering at him. He was easy to recongnized as he was dress to kill in his navy blues.

Looking down on the deck of the "Gloria"

That is me in the bar room aboard the Gloria. I never have seen a boat that was so well appointed as this was. No I didn't have a drink. I think this was only for the officers





(This is the Rambler named after my high school annual. Cadet Cisar and I went sailing on it out in the harbor when the Gloria was in Charleston 1992)





We did have one exciting time while returning to Ashley Marina where I kept my sailboat at. The knew Ashley River bridge was under construction and there was no way I could go under it where the channel was. Too much stuff dangling of the side of the bridge for me to clear it. The bridge height from the water to the bottom of the bridge is 55 feet at high tide and guess what my masked was 55 feet high and it was high time made even higher by the high winds blowing the water up the Ashley river. I had to get Cisar back to his ship before 5:30 PM or he would be in trouble with his commander.

I had no choice I had to get under that bridge even though it was too low for me to clear it with the mask. I sure did not feel like losing it either. Since the wind was very strong I adjusted the sails to capture the wind enough to heal the Rambler over to about 25 degrees thus lowering the over all height low enough to clear the bridge, I had to inch my way and watch to be sure I did clear it. Only my radio antenna hit the bridge but no harm was done. The only real worry I had was if the bridge piling block the wind enough for my boat to pop back up straight and then hitting the bridge. But I am a good sailor and was pretty sure I was going to make it.

CADET
Cisar Montengro

My tour guide

Cisar is in full navy dress ready to go out sailing in the harbor. Not the kind of clothes one would wear to go out sailing in rough weather. I guess that still had to wear their dress uniform to look good for the public.

I often have wonder what has happen to him over the years. Could he now be a admiral in the Columbian Navy?

The figure head on the tall ship Gloria

I think all tall ships had to have a figure head for luck or something like that. I always wanted one for my sailboat but then again it would have look sort of stupid on it.

Did a little woodturnng

I finally found time to do a little woodturning, Some years ago I bought a hour glass with the intentions of turning the wood for making hour glass clock. For one reason or another I never got around to making it until about a month ago. It looked simple to make but it there was more to making it than meets the eye.

I did make a mistake that I can not explain why I did it except to say I just got unusually careless. The spacing for the spindles is not right and I failed to notice it before I drill the holes and even then I did not notice it. It sure was obvioius and I don't see how I could have overlooked it. It not noticable in the picture of it but I will correct it by making the tops over again, dumb me.

Hope to find more time to do at least a little more woodturning after all that is why I bought a new midi lathe.

New woodturning lathe.

Last year about this time I saw the new designed Delta Midi Lathe. I new then that I would like to get one although I really didn't have a need for it, I just liked it. My older Delta Midi is working fine and there was no way that I could justfiy buying another Midi since I really only use it for small turning and doing wood turning demostrations which I haven't done since injurying my leg that left me with a handicapp.

Last week I saw that Woodcraft had this lathe on sale. That was all I needed to know and so I bought it even though I didn't need it. I have the lathe all set up and did my first woodturning on it today, It not finish but I was very impress with how good the new lathe worked.

Well the truth is I needed some inspiration to get back to woodturning more which I have neglected for the past year. I even considered just giving up woodturning and devote most of my spare time to my Bee Keeping and Photography. Finally I dicided I could still do all of them but I know I am going to have to manage my time better.

In my next blog I expect to post some pictures of new woodturning and I like to know what you guys think of them when I do.

Snow and more snow

I can't beleive the snow we are getting this year and the winter has only just begun. The day after Christmas we got about 5 inches of snow and yesterday we got about 8 to 9 inches of snow with about a quarter to a half inch of freezing rain and sleet on top of that. I just tried to go outside and it is extremely difficult to walk in that stuff. There is no way I can get my car out of the driveway. I expect tomorrow too even be more slippery. I did manage to get a few pictures but I wish I could get around to take more but it ain't worth the risk.

A day trip to the mountains.

I drove up to the mountains to see the fall colors. I don't think the colors was near as good as in past years but I think I got there after the peak when the colors are at there best. I did not take very many pictures as I lost a adapter that I needed to take pictures using my tripod. Never the less I did take a few hand held pictures. It was only a day trip and a long one at that (448 miles). This really did not leave much time to take pictures anyway.

One good news is that I now have my large format printer back operational again. I now can print pictures to look at rather than just a image on the computer.

Dreams

This year while watching the Tour de France and the beautful countryside in France I was reminded of a dream I had for riding in France. In 2005 I had ridden my bike about 14,000 miles on the three bikes that I own. I was planning on doing a lot more tours in 2006. One was to ride all way across the USA from coast to coast, one was to ride cross country in Thailand to raise money for cancer of the blood research, Another one was to ride my bike on the west coast of France to see the WW ll battlefields. All of this was possible I had the money then and I was in the greatest shape of my 63 years of my life.

Elsewhere in my blog I posted a little about my accident on December 23 rd of 2005. That accident ended my dreams of bicycling touring. I broke my leg at the knee in 40 places and I have never recovered from that. For the first few months after that I did not give up my dreams of bike touring but after a while it became apparent that I would never be able to do the bike tours of my dreams. Although I could still ride a bike pretty good my walking left a lot to be desired and it still does.

It been about 5 1/2 years since that accident and watching the Tour de France has awaken my dreams of bicycle touring again. Riding across the US is out of the question and so is biking across Thailand but I have begun to feel touring on the west coast of France is a possiblity now. Riding the distance involved is the least of the problems that I will have to accompish this. The tour is much shorter than I am use to and I actually would like to ride for a much longer distance than the organized tours has on its schedules. Perhaps I can work this out and do more miles or kilometers as they say in France. I like to do about 300 miles but then that is all the way cross France. It not much bigger than South Carolina acording to the map, so I will just be content with staying on the French Coast.

Last summer I rode my bike sometimes averaging 35 miles a day in Lancaster on hills that I thought I would never be able to master. I did very well although hills was never easy for me even when I was in great shape. My average speed was actually a little higher on the hills than it was before my accident. I don't dred the hills as bad as I once did. France should be a piece of Cake to do on a bicycle. Sure as heck a lot easier than riding the hills in Northwest Kansas.

I have decided to do some research on bike touring in France to see how much it would cost me to do it. I would love to be able to do some bike touring in France. I know my wife will think I am crazy but if I don't do it in this life well I will never be able to do it.

I still have to do a lot of research about cycling in France and so I will see how this goes. Maybe I will, Maybe it will not be possible but I hope not. It a dream that I really like to fulfill.

The world is full of dreamers. And rightfully so, God created us that way. But at some point in our lives, we have the choice: to keep the dream for sleeping, or to wake up and live it.

This is wooden turn box made from Cypress wood. I stain with blue gel stain. This is the first piece that I have made that I did not leave in it natural color. Cypress is not all that pretty of wood in it natural state. It looks really good to me when it is stained.


This is my last wood turning that I have made. Actually I finished it about a month ago but just now getting around to posting it on my blog.

I saw a piece that was made very much like this and like it so well that I had to make one similar to it for myself.

I not really into doing much wood turning now. I am not inspired to do anything now. The lid can come off this piece as well to allow things to be stored inside of it. However I really did not make this to be functionally, just decorated.

Honey bees and etc.

I hadn't realized it been so long since I lasted wrote anything in my blog. We have now gone from it being a frigging cold winter to a nice beautiful Spring.

I started a new hobby and like always I get into something that is expensive. I am now a Bee Keeper. About three weeks ago I went to Pickens SC and pickup two 3 pounds packages of Bees. That is about 20,000 bees which is enough to start two Bee Hives.

If wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all. One of the Hives of bees flew the coup so to speak and just disappeared. I have no idea where they went. However the one remaining Bee Hive is doing very well so far. I ordered a replacement of another 10,000 bees and will get next month which is the soonest I can get them.

I sure hope these new bees don't disappear on me as that can get quite expensive. I love honey and I am looking forward to eating honey made right in my back yard.

To change the subject I have not been able to get much wood turning done this year. I getting pretty discourage at not being able to sell any of my work in my hometown. I am for the first time since I started turning about 14 years ago considering quitting wood turning and sell all my equipment. I had expected or hope that is that I would be teaching wood turning in my home town like I used to do where I live before moving to Lancaster. So far nothing has come of this.I guess I will wait another couple of months to see if that possibility ever gets anywhere before deciding to quit but I even if I do teach wood turning I still may quit and sale most of my equipment and put the money in something else like Bees.

I have a lot of things that I love to do and it just a matter of pursuing the ones that produces the most pleasure and fun. If this Bee keeping is successful I may get a lot more hives and sell honey instead of wood turnings. Admittedly I haven't been able to promote my wood turning at any shows since I haven't been able to sell my other home and my wife is still living there until it does sale. It looks like that is going to be forever.

Bee keeping does have it draw backs as Bees are so susceptible to diseases and mites that can kill all the Bees if I don't stay on top of there health. Being new at this I have a lot to learn. However I am getting kick out of watching them at work. They really work hard.

Snow around home (This post is all screw up)

Could this be Cotton hanging off the tree limbs? I remember when I worked in the cotton mills cotton as it was being made into cloth would float in the air and get suck out of the air vents into the outside and settle on trees fences or whatever was outside. This picture reminds me of that.

It is actually snow that is clinging to the berries left on the tree.

Last summer I planted some fruit trees beside our home. They looked all covered up by the snow in this picture.

Bradford pears trees as they are so pretty when they are flowering in the spring. They are equally as pretty when they are snow covered.



Speaking of our Tibetan Terriers here are my two best friends. They don't like the snow at all. I had to persuade them to even get out into the yard. It funny because there descendant came from the high mountains of Tibet where it snows like heck and it is very cold.

Goldie all by himself. He is really laid back and nothing ever bother him. He really a good dog but it does take time to get used to anyone he does not know. Once he does he is there friend.

Shania is in a hurry to get back in the house and is looking at as if to say why am I taking my time letting her back in. She hates the snow.





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This is the front view of our home on James Island in Charleston. The Magnolia tree to the right has snow on the trees leaves and it really looks like that they are Magnolia blossoms. It sure looks pretty to me.











In Charleston we have some Grapefruit trees and orange trees as seen in this picture.