4/12/12

I've been thinking about that Goldwing Trike idea… a lot. Gregg is on board and had some ideas. John, I think, is on board and I'm sure we’ll discuss it at length Saturday. I've been trying to come up with a way for the thing to “lean in” to turns but haven’t had any inspiration. Sway bars are reactive; I want it to be proactive. I want it to hunker down on the right side when I turn the wheel to the right. I have a few ideas but all are heavy, complicated, or both. I guess we’ll just have to live with mediocre handling. It will be spritely for sure, and otter handle well enough for our porpoises. Ok, on to “details” which, in truth, are only speculations. So I'm thinking that we’ll just run a tachometer, fuel gauge, and maybe oil pressure and water temperature. Why just those and no speedometer? Well, I know the ‘Wing has an electronic fuel gauge and imagine an electronic tachometer. There are probably ports we can tap for oil pressure and water temperature. However, I believe motorcycles read speed off of the front wheel. We won't be using a motorcycle front wheel so no speedometer. I know I can judge speed from the tachometer, I did it all the time in the Chickenhawk. I don’t plan to let just anyone drive the thing and I'm sure anyone I would allow in it would be capable of such a feat as well. Besides, fewer gauges make for a simpler dash. Hell, I might forego oil pressure and water temperature gauges for warning lights. We’ll see. Speaking of lights, I'm thinking that we’ll mount headlights similar to The Seven's off of those shock tower thingies on a VW front suspension and run regular motorcycle lighting on the rear. I'll probably opt for turn signals just to make my life easier at inspection time. As for bodywork, I'm thinking mostly flat panels at various angles in a “Stealth Fighter” sort of arrangement. Of course the thing will have to be painted a garish color so it won't be invisible to dumb assed bitches texting and driving. And by “bitches” I do mean male and female because when you text and drive, you ain’t nothin’ BUT a bitch. Bitch. Well, it is approaching lunchtime. I guess I'll go meet Larry and Scott so we can go to Rosa’s. I'm sure I'll be back later to say more to y'all. I'm weak. At Rosa’s I order the Taco salad… with sour cream. Yeah, bad. But I than add to the badness with a couple flour tortillas which I eat with honey. Well, turns out one of the dudes didn’t want his tortillas… so I ate them as well. Yeah, really bad. Then, when we get back to campus, he hands me the leftover beef burrito he couldn’t eat from his order. I just ate it. Yeah, really REALLY bad. I'm so stuffed I can hardly move. I should forego the birthday cake in the War Room at 1400 h… but I probably won't. I'm destined to be a fat fuck forever I guess. Oh well, at least the doctor didn’t see any current issues with my heart after the nuculer stress test. But back to the trike! I've been debating with myself over whether or not to have a nose cone. I can envision the thing with the blunt nose of the VW suspension being the furthest forward part. If I forewent bodywork, it would kind of resemble a crossbow. Hey! Perhaps we have a name for the thing! The DLR Crossbow! Hmm, interesting. I suppose bodywork, minus a nose of course, might make it appear more like a hammerhead shark. A DLR Hammerhead perhaps? I don’t know, we’ll see. Feh, I'm so full I'm getting sleepy. I think I'll go take a quick nap. Talk to y'all tomorrow… if you’re lucky!