Reid Welch
1 MW
image courtesy of http://www.schwinnbike.com/usa/eng/Prod ... rs/Landing
Talk about stealth?
Skip over the pale-colored paragraphs to follow because they are mere personal introduction.
First, a bit about me for any new folks who might look into this thread.
I am member #5 of this 3800 member place; A.W.O.L since not long after our beginnings here.
I was getting ill with something fatal, a condition rarely found in males. It is called SLE for short.
As the effects of the condition worsened I had to withdraw from the e-bike hobby, withdraw from real life, practically,
and had to avoid all stress: no adrenaline rushes, no sunlight, and even forgo all exercise of any kind.
I lived as a slug in the dark in a Lafuma reclining chair for about two years past, until just recently, when
I found a "cure" for what ailed me. I am fine now. In fact, I could almost say "cured".
Time will tell if "my" cure is permanent. Google terms " valium SLE ", and for their lives' sakes,
tell any of your SLE / Lupus friends to do the same. Generic Valium, a.k.a. diazepam has saved my life, not for its being a tranquilizer, but for its mysterious, yet, effective (for me) quieting-down of my body's hyper-active immune system---
that vital, mysterious biological mechanism which had grown so vigilante that it was trying to kill the body--and nearly did so. Diazepam therapy costs me only $25/mo, and no doctors doctors doctors needed once legally prescribed.
Diazepam is the only med I employ.
Addendum of July, 2009: I have enjoyed nine months of nearly perfect remission.
The remission afforded to me by diazepam is falling away, slowly, slowly.
The "tranquilizer", for it is that, and a muscle-relaxant, the best, and it is not toxic
if used in moderation, is only a calmer-downer of my immune system. It does not make me "drunk".
NOTE WELL: WHO famous just dropped dead?
That creepy, but talented musician, MJ, that's who. He was an SLE patient.
Heart failed suddenly. He was on Prednisone.
Prednisone may have hastened his death, directly or indirectly.
I feel bad even when an unpopular, could not be any other way, person dies.
SLE is not a "woman's" disorder. It kills men, older men in particular
Ray Walston, "My Favorite Martian", dead.
"On the Road", Charles Kuralt: dead.
Treatment of these three dead men was by the standard, fifty year-old regiment of PREDNISONE.
MJ would have been on Prednisone, a wonder drug, but to be used in extreme moderation, and only pre-op for a few days.
But the doctors who HAVE NO IDEA how to manage Lupus, or its more severe form "Systemic Lupus Erythromatosis" (sp. error for sure) "SLE", and the docs put almost every patient on a steady intake of Prednisone.
Prednisone, long term, more than a few weeks: you go bald, woman or man.
You gain perhaps forty pounds of fat.
You develop a sort of from-the-insides-rot: your arteries and connective tissues gradually go to goo,
along with your bone-ends, which go soft, and your spine, thus, collapses s l o w l y. Two years or twenty years with Prednisone:
you will be dead, if not of SLE 'nephritis', then of a sudden system failure CAUSED BY THE LONG TERM USE OF PREDNISONE.
I won't take Prednisone for this condition, which I refuse to term as "disease". "Disease" is, imo, usually curable. Cancer. Broken bones, etc. "Disorder" is a better way to think of MS or SLE or Rheumatoid Arthritis (all at root, related!).
WE DON'T HAVE A CURE but we, the patients must not be SHEEPLE of the medicos. They mean well, but damned few are progressive enough to offer a =proven= safe, alternative that =may well work for many SLE people=. It does not dope me. It might dope you, that Valium/diazepam, 30 mg per day. I am not adversely affected by my legally prescribed diazepam. I think and move clearly all the time; am never "high", like anyone gets from even two beers. I can write, think, and my hair is not falling out, and I am 150lbs, as always. And though, lately, my physical energy level has dropped, I am no where as sick as I was last August, when I was truly dying: you can just tell. The first Valium tab dropped my BP by twenty points on the systolic side! And I woke up the next morning, and no pain! And I felt like 30 again!
ALL THIS IS ADDED BECAUSE NO ONE IN THE WORLD BUT FOR ME IS PUTTING OUT THIS MESSAGE OF HOPE:
diazepam may possibly be your aid, if you get this natural disorder called "SLE". I am prescribed it, actually, for the known
use of the drug in combatting "labial hypertension". But that's not all it does. One more thing: diazepam/Valium sure does not shut me up or slow down my writing speed, ha ha.
I only hope this anecdotal information may save or extend some person's life. YOU ALL know someone with SLE; you just don't know they have it, it being a "hidden" illness: I look like a million 'uckin' bucks, only without the millions, ha ha!
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This will be a stealth cruiser bike.
It will look like a regular, boring, cruiser, just as much as possible.
That means there will be no brake caliper levers on the handlebar; no levers at all,
just a mini ding-bell on the left and a thumb throttle on the right.
Because of our flat Miami terrain and a good coaster brake, and robust, in-line, single-speed chain, and
'set back' of the rider, we do not expect to need any front brake....KWY-A-DA-WY-A-DI
*know what you are doing and why you are doing it*
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DOM (this bike's nickname in honour of a forum friend here) will go very far and
quite fast for a coaster brake ebike: 2O to 25mph, estimated.
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You are "in" this simple build project with me, in a sense. So I may say, "we are going to try...."
(the third person "we"). You're here! So am I.
Let's get to work, you and I.
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There will be text and text ad nauseum and....and more and more pictures.
Everything will be explained as if the reader were new to bikes, e-conversion, and new to the use of hand tools.
Most members here are well-experienced, of course!
Will make this project documentary-simple, although not so short to read
so that new folks, who have never worked on a bike before, will ride off, exclaiming, : "I can do that!"
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As I learn things worth mentioning I'll add and subtract data from these postings.
There will be endless edits to the texts over the months as I fine tune the new bike
and tune up my writing skills.
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This thread is image-intensive.
Apologies tendered to those of you still stuck with dial-up service.
I finally was able to get broadband last year.
So I use broadband instead of a hand-cranked telephone ,
"Hello, Central? I want to see a 30kb picture on my computer..."
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Regarding my old history here, just for background purposes:
I had, at that time of my early membership, a blue, retro-styled Currie Mongoose Cruiser,
heavily modified, made to go relatively fast on 36V instead of its OEM 24V
(with 36V of lead acid battery, it would speed to 25mph on the level in still air).
Then I (stupidly) took that retro bike all down to bits, planning to repaint the blue frame in bright safety yellow.
Uh oh, I turned suddenly as weak and sore, fatigued, with the chronic condition already told about above.
Decision time: the gussied-up Currie would never be easy for me to get back together again.
Besides its being heavy and clunky at over 120 lbs with lead, its frame was poorly jig-aligned at the factory.
The bike frame could never be fully right. We jigged the frame, bent the hi-ten steel =, but...no, it could never be straight.
That frame-fixing exercise, futile, of the low grade, entry-level Currie product, taught: you get what you pay for.
Having recently regained my health, I decided to discard the Currie and start to e-build from scratch.
I will recycle some custom parts that I had put onto the old Currie Mongoose retro cruiser.
Photos and reid-style "brief" :lol: texts to follow...
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This is a real-time build-a-very-simple ebike thread: an e-blog thread;
only black widow spiders and this spinner know how long it may spool out. :wink:
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source: http://sheldonbrown.com/gloss_cn-z.html#cruiser
Cruiser
"Cruiser" is the currently popular name for what used to be called a "balloon tire" bike. This style of bicycle was most popular in the '40's and '50's. They are usually characterized by 26 x 2.125 tires (if they have 1.75 or 1 3/4 tires, they are considered "middleweights".)
The upper top tubes and stays are usually curved for a "streamlined" look. Older cruisers usually had a straight lower top tube, later models were cantilever frame designs. Cruisers are built for ride comfort, not efficiency. Classic cruisers were spectacularly heavy, had only one gear, and a coaster brake.
This type of bike is quite impractical for hilly country, due to the weight, the lack of gears, and the low saddle position of older models. For this reason, cruisers traditionally were most popular in very flat places, such as Florida and the Southern California coast and became associated with beach resorts.
As a reaction to the gonzo image of mountain-bike marketing, cruisers seem to be making a comeback in popularity, even in places far from the beach.The new generation of cruisers is much lighter, thanks to modern materials and manufacturers who care about reducing weight. They are also now available with multi-speed gearing. The "neo-cruiser" appeals to aging baby-boomers who have nostalgic memories of the balloon-tire bikes of their youth.
The classic balloon tire bike, before it was known as a "cruiser" was also quite important to the history of cycling because it was in many ways the precursor of the mountain bike.