There are always plenty of things to do when you have the ultimate bug-out retreat in the woods. Especially when the Global Banksters are gathering around the US Fed and crying poor…moving us closer to the bail-in that I described in a recent Peoplenomics report.
This weekend, however, it was a time to work on many inside projects. The heat has been turned down a smidge, but with highs in the upper 80’s, the comfort temperature in mid to high 90’s. The 120-day stretch from the middle of May is why air conditioning was invented.
While trying to avoid the zillion and one real tasks, I managed to get back into the “inventing mode.” I human brain is a terrible thing to waste, goes the saying. Although it hasn’t stopped TV or video game sales, near as I can figure.
Since we live on the borderland of uncivilized out here (no TV to speak of) it leaves a lot of time for conversation and invention. Here are some of the ideas I came up with this weekend that sounded pretty good at the time.
MountainPed
This is a truly different kind of off-road vehicle. Unlike the traditional 40 horsepower high-speed, partly airborne, noise make and hill eroder, the MountainPed concept is way different.
It would be a mountain bike frame with a seriously geared down four-stroke small gas engine that is totally muffled and noise suppressed. Top speed would be all of 15-MPH.
In practical use, I picture this thing as bumping along about 7 MPH carrying a pack and so forth. Getting decent mileage and making no noise (it would be able to sneak up on wildlife, too) this would add a new dimension to outdooring for people who aren’t interested in the heavier work of hoofing it.
Got the idea after watching “A Walk in the Woods” with Robert Redford and Nick Nolte – on Amazon and probably Netflix.
PedalPed
This one came about just because I was reading on some home-built car forums how Texas won’t license home-made cars anymore. Yes, seems the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has gotten its hooks into everything. No federal number means no license.
Well, phooey. Except…
So I set to work trying to design my way around the problem.
A Moped is legal in Texas (subject to state approval and such bureaucratizing because we don’t make real jobs in America anymore…jujst m ore bullshit regulating one-another and stifling creativity) but even though legal, a Moped still requires an M class license.
Oh…and this means you have to take a motorcycle safety course, because there are forces lobbying the state legislature all the time in order to “make up business models.”
Being a cheap old screw – not willing to part with the $235 bucks it costs to get the motorcycle (or M class for moped) endorsement, I figured that if I too TWO mopeds and put them together with about 4-feet of square tube between then, then it could really be a terribly under-powered four wheeled….er…but it’s not a car you see. It’s just two Mopeds and they can be disconnected in a couple of minutes.
I don’t think the Department of Public Safety is going to buy it, but then again, if I junked an old Fiesta and pulled the VIN off it and tack-welded it to one of the Mopeds, I could argue that it’s a NHTSA legit VIN.
Since (while connected) it would not be a two or three wheeler, so Ure’s theory is I could dispense with the M class license since these are TWO mopeds and there is no law against driving two at a time that I could find..
The reason for the M-Class License is nominally to make power cycling safer. By bolting two mopeds together (and wearing a helmet, lol) I figuring I am in compliance with the desires of the state legislature.
Of course the plan ended on in the round file when I reminded myself that as a practical matter, law enforcement is more about writing revenue (as in tickets) and has little to do with safety. I have yet in 50-years of riding (off and on) to meet a rider who has been pulled over to have an officer give them a fine point or two in riding gravel or riding off the lane center to avoid oil patches in hot weather. Nope – like speeding tickets – it’s all about writing revenue – under the cover of “safety.” Exceptions do exist like DUI and such, but they are few and far between. Mostly money-trolling. And with the new computer-linked license plate readers, an alarm goes off and says “sick-em” if your insurance didn’t get paid on time.
Glare Reducing Sunglasses
This one is easy. A flip down piece of darkened plastic that would put an adjustable angled shield between you and your lap.
I came up with this one on vacation. I was wearing a white shirt and kakhi pants. With the sun blazing down, there was a good bit of glare.
Why not have a flip-down?
It would be great on a fishing boat, too: You look down at the deck and are blinded by the light. But with the flip-down, there you have it: Glare elimination to perfection.
Try it some time. Just hold your index finger pointing sideways under your eye so you can’t see the white pants you have on sometime. Very simple and cheap invention.. .I just can’t find one, is all.
Snake Chaps
These would be worn by motorcycle riders in the desert. Not sure how hot they would be, but it’s something I’d have to build if I were going desert riding.
Segway Lawnmower
This sounded like a fun way to mow the lawn. I’m not the first guy to think of it, though. There are videos of them in operation already.
Dang.
Remoter Robotics Conversion for Lawn Tractor
This would have all the things you need to take that lawn tractor and turn it into a remote controlled lawnmower that you could run from sitting in front of the big screen.
I figure a couple of 12 V linear actuators, speed and brake control, and a remote video link ought to about do it.
I just haven’t found it as a kit, yet. But I’d bet there’d be a market in the $400 range.
Make has a really nice one over here, but again, none of these is the 23 HP riding mower conversion I want.
Between Make and www.instructables.com there are plenty of ideas. It’s mainly just a matter of time and weather, more than anything.
We didn’t get below 73 in the shop this weekend and by the time morning chores are done, it’s already into the 80’s. Call me old school (or just dumb) but I don’t like to run power tools in shorts.
To be sure, there are places in the upper Midwest were you can find good “shop weather” even in summer. Like Columbus, Ohio, for example. Low 60s most nights.
But then I’d have to put up with John Kasich…so yeah, there are trade-offs living in Texas. Another month, though, and we will be rolling through projects like crazy. For me, 55 to 70F is about perfect “working weather.” Much hotter than that and the beer cooler runs dry too fast. Much colder and I start looking at that shop heater project again…
Readers Noticing Things
This note is interesting:
Do you get the feeling that someone is testing systems out there? Washington Post is reporting that the 911 system was down yesterday in D.C. and I have read stories in other major MSM papers about the same thing happening in other major cities. Also, the recent issues with two airline companies seems all a little too suspect and too coincidental to me.
thanks to reader Chris for that…
Yeah…when Big Money6 can make more money by breaking things, including civil society6, society ain’t gonna be civil too long.
Money sez so.
Write when you get rich,
Why go the 2 mopeds way? Look at the law Bush the Lesser signed into existence – 20 MPH or less OR less than 1 HP electric bicycles. Speed regulation means as much HP as you want. No idea ATM if it must be 2 wheeled, but the 20MPH/1HP are in it.
Re your idea about the mopeds: there’s this nifty machine called an ATV – which people have been using for a while . . . and the insurance and safety issues though not stellar, are better than some ‘hand-crafted’ piece of (you get the idea).
Re the ‘outages’ at 9-1-1 centers – not good of course – but they do happen and have been happening for years. (Now I will admit that I think that the airlines got ‘hacked’ – but they were using old, out of date, systems . . .)
It’s very simple, reallllyyy simple, to restore any old car and they will have an acceptable number for the Feds. There is no law describing HOW you might restore the old vehicle. And you aren’t required to upgrade them (yet) to get antique plates. Old flathead straight 6 engines can get great mileage, run quietly and can be fixed easily due to downdraft carbs.
Most of the earlier cars were smaller as well, things built up to the mid/early 1950’s. EMP won’t get them as the electronics are minimal – coil and condenser.
Why are fishing boat decks blindingly bright when they could be photovoltaic (dark) and producing enough electricity to run a trolling motor, fish finder, radio, refrigerator, and battery charger? The deck wouldn’t have to get hot since you could solar-electrically pump cool lake water (from 5 feet down) under the [anti-slip walk on-able] cells and dump the heat overboard. And while you’re pumping cool lake water, send some up a couple of telescoping tubes to fore and aft misters to cool the air around the boat by 5-10 degrees (the mist would evaporate before getting the fisherpersons wet).
You could even market kits with various sizes and shapes of solar collectors for different boat decks.
Heck…the lumber yard here had a yard car with cab heater and radio for four thousand headlights etc..a lot similar to a golf cart..but in a SHTF scenario it’s wheels..
I am surprised that very little has been said about China and Russia running duck and cover drills and nation’s in European countries are not ooushing that everyone has a small food stock and water in case of an emergency
What good is an electric bicycle if there’s an EMP event?
You’ll get as far as the battery takes you, and then you’ll die. Great strategy.
Wrong: Remember which website has 3.5 KW of EMP protected grid-interactive solar? Ahem…you must be new to the site, lol
Exactly. Most people don’t get that EMP will wipe out the grid (long lines), not micro-electronics. So long as one has or can build power-generating equipment, all will be OK.
Are solar cells effected by a EMP? I’ve never gotten a straight answer.
generally no – but it depends on the length of wire feeding them – the longer the higher the risk so these have to be pr54otected with transient voltage suppressors we have discussed/. see Mouser.com for tvs supplies
Speaking of testing systems, I hit the “guide” button on my cable remote the other day and all the show titles and descriptions where changed from normal. Not scrambled, but as if someone for whom English was a second language was having fun. The movie, “The Mummy” became “Dead Mommy” and the name of a political commentator was changed to add “Monster” to her name. The cable company said it knew nothing of this but knew how to fix the problem. Right. As I said earlier, what I saw did not look like some random scramble due to signal noise or some other technical glitch.
George,
Can you update us on your anti-gravity research?
Made me nostalgic for the old Honda 90 (later the Honda 110)that came standard with knobby tires and made off road trailing a treat for all but the most uncoordinated. That small 4-stroke engine had a darn quiet exhaust note and that low gear felt like it could pull stumps. Not fast by any stretch, but darn near bulletproof.
I’ve been trying to find one…no can do
While reading this article, I was struck heavily (like blunt force trauma heavy) by the question of why do we let other people tell us what we are allowed to do?
Grown men and women letting other people interfere with their life…and why would any sane, healthy human being want to tell another person what to do or what they can or cannot do?
I mean, really, why? I’ve thought this for a long time, but this morning I think that thought just got kicked up several notches.
Advice???
“Mountainped”
Think that was invented in the 50’s George, for hunters use in the mountains.
Think it was called a “Goat”.
Hey George
You need one of these.
https://www.rokon.com/
Kinda like a small tractor too.
Now that I am “old” your age!
A Honda 90 is mighty small, I look like Jabba the hut.
Knees stick out catch brush and other nasty stuff.
Your invention reminds me of a moped I owned back in the 60’s made by Puch and marketed by Allstate through the Sears stores. It had a 2 cycle engine (mix oil & gas), 2 speed auto transmission, AND it had pedals like a regular bike. Top speed about 30 (unless uphill). Came in handy when I was within viewing distance of the local Sheriff since I was 14-15 and didn’t have a driver’s license (why occifer, I’m just riding my bike)!
I still have mine! It’s made by Daimler. Unfortunately, Steve McQueen could have run from the Nazis faster than driving a Puch.
In Illinois, it only requires a regular license since the motor is so small. That is, it’s not a motorcycle. but a “motor driven cycle.”
Have Hillary piggyback you up the hill. Then don’t vote for her.
NM and many other states(not Texas) have simple rules for requirements and registering of a homebuilt car. Generally you need to document where parts and materials come from, so the state knows they are not stolen. The states don’t promise or second guess the feds, they just register the things. I imagine you can drive them legally as long as they’re not insured and you don’t get pulled over by a federal cop. The states generally accept any out of state legal car as long as it follows the rules in its home state.
Next best is to buy a frame from a car prior to 1986, along with its clear title. Restore as appropriate, insure, and register. Best to do it in a state without an inspection, but that can be handled too. I think prior to that year the EPA and NHTSA generally leave you alone.
For a two-wheeler “mountain-ped”, I’d take a starter motor and replace the bearings with ball or roller, then mount it on an appropriate frame with deep cycle gel-cell batteries and a PWM(SCR) controller. Simple and maintainable. Drive appropriately and keep charged, and it would be silent or nearly so. Charge as necessary from any source. If you can’t find juice, you can’t find gas either. Build a trailer for it to carry supplies or more batteries, and maybe even fold up solar panels.
On first paragraph – INSURED, not “not insured”
Saw a guy on you tube or something or other the other day welding, bending and sawing large rebar in shorts and BAREFOOTED! What a doof!
“rider who has been pulled over to have an officer give them a fine point or two in riding gravel”
This is a few years back, but a cop stopped a car heading south from Kaikoura (South Island, New Zealand) a bit over the speed limit. Four guys inside. As soon as he heard their accents he told them to follow him, and drove off. They thought they were in big trouble.
When he stopped they were white-faced and shaking. They would have been killed if he hadn’t guided them.
Hi George,
A friend of mine made a square aluminum box frame that we strapped on two sit on top kayaks. A two hp outboard engine and our kayak catamaran with a used dodger was a blast in the Baja. Bahia LA.Ha! Ha!