An odd yet cool little trike

I've come across this rather odd little tricycle. It was donated to re-Cycles, and when it came in we stared at the rusty frame and noticed the missing parts and went "what the heck are we going to do with this?". So I took it home to assess what was needed, and decided it could be revived.

It's a bit of a mystery as to who actually made this thing, but more on that later. For now we look at photos!

Here's how it looked when it was donated:

Nice, eh? The interesting thing about this little beastie is that the front half of the frame tilts! The pivot for the tilting mechanism (situated on the axis of the two rear wheel axles) was quite seized up, and the rear drum brake was also stuck.

Here's the back end:

Oil was applied to the tilter in a few doses, and after a few days and some wrestling it eventually broke free.



The 16" drum brake wheel was replaced with an identical unit, as through a stroke of goofy luck I'd had one lying around for a few years. It had come from a similar trike whose owner had left its parts at re-Cycles while he took the frame home to repaint, and never came back (one reason re-Cycles had to adopt a policy against bikes or parts being left overnight) .

Yes, that is a Shimano 3-speed hub with extra-long axle. Both chains had to come off for a good scrubbing.

Close-up of rear underside, showing pivot. The rubber sleeve encloses the U-joint the connects the central front chain to the right-side drive chain:

Here it is all apart, ready for some sanding and painting:

Since I was only painting with a spray can, I was not going to be anal retentive about making the finish perfect. I got most of the rust off, and the downtube is still a bit bumpy under the paint. I decided to go wit two strong colours, and settled on a dark green frame, with yellow fenders and chainguard. Of course I realize when I'm about to paint that those are also the factory colours for John Deere tractors...

So here is everything painted and awaiting reassembly:

The only original paint showing its robin's egg blue is the steerer tube, and a bit underneath the U-joint area.

And here's the assembled little beastie:

Yes, the entire front end tilts!

Halloween pumpkin and groceries fit nicely in the big Wald basket (it was missing its original one):

Now, back to the mystery. The head badge said "Sears" (of course the trike was not actually made by them), while the front fender flap says "Miyata". But there are no photos of a Miyata leaning trike to be found on the Net, outside of a few photos taken by my friend Richard of another local one here in Ottawa:


Note the design of the rear basket, as we'll refer to it later.

There IS a similar trike called the Bridgestone Picnica Wagon (and a newer Picnica that is a 2-wheel folding bike), and its rear frame, fenders and chainguard look to be identical to this Miyata / Sears. But the drivetrain is different, and from what I can tell this one does not tilt.

Here are two photos, one from eBay, and the other from random surfing (they look like twins, don't they? Maybe it's even the exact same trike in two different places.)



Now, recall the basket on the blue Miyata. It looks identical to the one on the above trikes! And so the plot thickens and I'm still going to presume that Miyata made my trike. Of course maybe Bridgestone made this trike for Miyata (not uncommon in the bike biz), but that does not explain the differences in the frame and drivetrain.

Mike Plummer and Kundstadt Sports recently confirmed for me that this was inded built by Miyata in the mid to late 1970's, as they sold a few of them back then. Since there's no info on the Net about a Miyata trike I'll perhaps become the main web resource for this little thing, just as my website seems to have the only info on the Auto-Mini folding bike (Google it and you'll see!). :)

I'd like to keep this trike for oddity's sake if nothing else, but it's way too small to ride comfortably. Its design really doesn't make much sense to me, but someone (or a design committee) put a lot of thought into it, and it got corporate approval to be manufactured. The tilting feature is cool, so it doesn't act like a regular trike and one can go around corners with ease, but then you also lose the stability while stopped that a conventional trike offers (because of course the frame will flop to either side if you're not paying attention). So all I can figure is that one gets the cornering of a 2-wheel bike, with the ability to carry a small load out back, and that's about it.

Oh, and just to make life interesting, Bridgestone makes a trike called the Minna, with two wheels in front!

"May you live in interesting times" - pt. 4

And further on the subject of living in "interesting times", this 4-page (screen?) article from the Atlantic:

The $1.4 Trillion Question - "The Chinese are subsidizing the American way of life. Are we playing them for suckers—or are they playing us?"

Music and technology

The past six months have been a tad hectic, and I recently went through my photo collection and realized I had taken photos for blogging but had yet to blog them!

This post is about an ongoing exploration into using technology with my music.

Back in the mid-1980's I had a Simmons SDS8 electronic kit, which was cool for a bit but its limitations eventually bothered me and I sold it. Around 1990 I bought a Roland SPD8 drum pad (yes, a rather similar model number to the Simmons), and used it mainly for recording and triggering MIDI at home, and only rarely in a live context. It's still a pretty cool machine, even almost 20 years later, as it has velocity filters which allow one to change the sound by the amount of force used when hitting a pad, and some of the newer machines don't feature this.

I dug mine out for live use this past summer with the Orbiters, a group involving 3/4s of the Steve Berndt Quartet. We did this for our Thursday gigs at the Metropolitan Brasserie because we needed to differentiate our music from what the quartet played on Sundays at the same venue. I stripped my kit down to bass and snare drum and a few cymbals, and added the SPD8. Bassist Tom switched to his Baliset, and Steve ran his voice and trombone through an effects unit at times. We played a mix of 60's and 70's tunes, ranging from the silly Flintstones theme to funky RnB that many folks would call acid jazz.

One of the reasons I did not use the pad in live situations all that often was because it needs an amplifier, and I did not have one and was loathe to carry one around when I already had drums and a hardware bag to transport. And electronic drum sounds have strong transients that need more power than a small lightweight amp can provide. But I bought the Behringer amp earlier in the year to use both for this project and the rig I use for the dance class, and it has worked out just fine. I even ran the pad through the Boss loop pedal so I could be my own extra percussionist!

Here's my view:

Including the two drumkit pedals the electronic ones make for five in total. The middle one is for bypassing the looper and running the pad into a separate channel for different volume or effects, and the right one is for stopping loops (the loop pedal needs to be depressed twice to stop it, which is not all that accurate in the heat of live performance). Yes, getting used to these pedals while performing has been interesting:

Tom and his baliset, while Steve tests the PA:

Tom has more pedals than I do, and even Steve has a pedal board:

All this technology gives a musician much wider variety of sounds, but while it's great not to have to carry around a ton of extra percussion instruments I do have to carry (and wrap up and put away) a lot of connecting cables.
In a future post I'll talk about the new Roland hand percussion pad I just bought. Yes, it too needs cables...

"May you live in interesting times" - pt.3

And another interesting article, this time on the growing backlash in the U.S. to the financial bailout:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/26/news/economy/easton_backlash.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008092810

(Note that this is a three page article.)

"May you live in interesting times" - pt. 2

I've been following the Peak Oil theory for a few years now. This very interesting article on Matt Simmons, whose 2005 book "Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy", helped bring attention to the issue:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/15/news/economy/500dollaroil_okeefe.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008092216

An excerpt from the article:

He found it in the form of hundreds of technical papers submitted by Saudi oil geologists to the Society of Petroleum Engineers over the past 50 years. Simmons spent the month of August 2003 sitting on his porch in Maine and grinding his way through the minutiae of technical accounts of, for instance, reservoir pressure and water-cut percentages, trying to piece together the challenges that the Saudi geologists had encountered in managing their precious oilfields. In the end, his conclusion was clear. "I finished reading the last paper on a Sunday afternoon," says Simmons, "and I sat back and I thought, Holy crap, this is unbelievable. I've just discovered the biggest energy illusion ever in the world. We're in big trouble. I'm going to write a book."

(This is a two page article.)

New threads

I recently found a fabulous blue velvet jacket at Value Village.

It was one of those moments - I casually glance down the jacket isle and see the usual black, dark blue, and brown colours (though sometimes plaid and or tan show up in their glory). And I see this colour sticking out; not just blue, but crushed blue velvet! As with such things in life, if it fit and the price was right I had to buy it. Yup, it fit, and it was only ten bucks!

My first opportunity to show it off was at a recent IJO gig at the 4th Stage. I took it along as a gag to display in the dressing room, since I did have my regular dark jacket with me. But we had enough fun with it that bandleader Adrian Cho said "go ahead and wear it - drummers can get away with these things" (or words to that effect).

And of course photos were taken, and of each member of the 9-piece ensemble wearing it!

Here we go...

The drummer

Rick on trumpet

Bassist and bandleader Adrian

Mike on baritone sax

Trombonist Steve (he was gutted on FaceBook over this pic - hehe)

Martin on French Horn

Zak on saxes

Mike on piano

Dan on tuba

"May you live in interesting times"

The title of this post quotes a (supposedly) old Chinese saying. With regards to what's going on in world financial markets these are certainly interesting times indeed.

Here's a sampling of various articles I've come across:

The first one is from Time, titled "How Financial Madness Overtook Wall Street". It takes six web pages but it's not a long read and well worth it.

Also from Time: "How We Became the United States of France"

Some eye-opening statements are being made, such as "the total cost to the US taxpayer is now close to $US2 trillion, and Congress is expected to pass legislation to increase the Federal debt limit to $US11.6 trillion. I believe current events will almost certainly signal the end of the global leadership for the US economy and the US dollar as the world's "reserve" currency. This is an historic event." From a lengthy but good article from Smart Company, "Australia's online magazine for entrepreneurs"

"Does anyone think it’s just a little weird to be stampeded into a $700 billion solution to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression by the very people who brought us the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression?" From "A Second Opinion?" by the New York Times.

"The trillion-dollar question is where is the U.S. government going to get the funds to bail out the financial system? The Bush administration’s tax cuts and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have turned a $200 billion budget surplus into a $400 billion deficit, not counting the costs to rescue the financial system." From "Shock and Awe on Wall Street - Worst Financial Crisis Since the Great Depression" by Fight Back News.

And a quote from an unattributed source:

"The United States has touted free markets as the holy grail, and even liberal democracies have been excoriated by Washington for not wringing out their last vestiges of socialism. Today, however, much of the US economy is about to be run by the central government, which is supposed to be where socialism went wrong."

Interesting times indeed...

Upcoming IJO gig

This coming Friday night I'll be at the Fourth Stage with a nonet of musicians from the Impressions in Jazz Orchestra, performing "Rebirth of the Cool - An evening of cool chamber jazz". Full details at:

http://www.impressionsinjazz.ca/NAC-190908.html

Vagina Cycle

Just a tad startling, no? One might say it takes balls to ride such an audacious machine in public, but that would not be quite the correct term...


Details here and here.

The first link was posted to the HPVOoO irc channel. Of course, then the bad puns started, such as:

If it had windows, would it be a womb with a view?
Would you call this a Menstrual Cycle?
Of course, in taking passengers she's offering a public cervix.
Building that must have been a real labia of love.

OK, so it's not really any kind of bike because it does not have any pedals and needs to be towed. But it's a fabulous example (some would say disturbingly so) of like-like art, along the lines of Ron Mueck's work:

Cool old bikes

A neat video from somewhere in Europe, showing recumbents and tallbikes and other interesting cycling machines, but all back in the 1930's and 40's!

Thanks to Blackburn Pete for the link.

Toronto visit pt. 2

More from this trip, since my friend Richard has been processing and uploading his photos (all photos below are by him, except for the two bikes outside Urbane taken by me).

On our way from Tanya's place to Urbane Cycles via bike path, and crossing the Don River.

On Queen's Quay Blvd., passing a trailer-towing cyclist.

And two folks engaged in some pedal-powered protest.

Outside Urbane, and saw this interesting lock...

Umm, I don't think the lock was bought in this shape. ;)

A Supercycle (Raleigh) Twenty folding bike, with braze-ons. Must belong to our friend Carey Chen of Urbane Cycles.

Front brakes too. I've featured some of Carey's "hotrod Twentys" on my folder page.

At Urbane, and bents galore!

Various trikes.

Compared to most shops, Urbane actually stocks internal-gear hubs, including the fabulous (and expensive) Schmidt Dynohub!

We leave the shop and head off to meet Tanya, and pass by the Batmobile sitting in alley on John St.!

Lots of people out to see this promo event, as the movie was opening that weekend.

Bat-cycle (non-HP)

We collect Tanya from her workplace and head off to Jen and Vic's pre-wedding BBQ. Here we're riding down an alley after checking out the Community Bike Network shop.

Who needs helmets when riding in the middle of the largest city in Canada on tiny bikes with rather questionable brakes? Not us... :P

The next day, T. and I arriving at the wedding on same bikes.

Quite a few people arrived by bike, so the signposts and other places to lock were filling up fast. We found another Auto-Mini, painted black, and locked our Twenty and Mini beside it. It's fun parking your bike at a no-parking sign. :)

Toronto visit

Earlier in the month I was in Toronto, originally for the wedding of my friends Jen and Vic, and then the funeral of my father was added on to the weekend's events.

I met Jen and Vic separately when they lived here in Ottawa, as Jen was a volunteer with re-Cycles and Vic was a member of HPVOoO. They later met when I introduced them at a party at my place. So because of this (and the fact that I'm just a swell guy) they asked to be MC for the event, and I agreed, as long as I could wear an appropriate MC jacket! They agreed, so here it is:

(I'm talking with crazybikerchick Tanya. Photo by Brian Martin. More here.)

I bought that jacket about ten years ago while on a gig in Toronto, so taking it to the wedding was sort of like returning it Home. Or something... I was at a store on Queen St. and there it was, sticking out of the rack amongst the usual black, brown, (and occasionally plaid) items. It cost $25 - do you think I overpaid? ;) It certainly is a bit of a freak show, but like my odd chopper bike it's just the right thing for a certain mood.

Anyhoo, I was staying at Tanya's place, and we traveled around by folding bikes, since she has both a Raleigh Twenty and an Auto Mini. Quite coincidentally, my folders page on my website documents these same little bikes (though not these specific ones), and in fact I think I have about the only site on the Net that has any info on the Auto Mini (Google it and you'll see).

A bunch of HPVOoOers also made the wedding trip, with Richard and I taking the Greyhound bus together. Once arriving downtown we took the streetcar east to T.'s place, where I grabbed her Mini and R. got her beater bike (she had commuted to work on her Twenty). R. and I then headed west again to Urbane Cycles for a visit, and R.'s accommodations were conveniently nearby. I had not forgotten how much fun it can be negotiating streetcar tracks!

Then we met with Tanya after her work and cycled to Jen and Vic's BBQ party. Then later headed back east to T.'s, dropping Richard off along the way. By the time we got back I had cycled long enough (party was at Dundas West, her place is east of the DVP) on a small-frame folding bike!

The wedding was the next day, and we arrived on the little beasts:

Yes, two tall people on short bikes (I'm 6'3", she's 5'11").

I also got a great shot of Tanya on her Twenty, which captures a great sunny summer look (though the day was overcast and rainy):


The wedding was really nice, taking place in an old one-room schoolhouse (the oldest and only remaining Free school in Toronto). Everything went well, though it seemed that almost everyone had to take pictures during the ceremony, which was rather distracting. It made it seem like a bit of a paparazzi event! During the after-dinner party we could not get Vic to demonstrate any Lithuanian folk dancing, but we did at least get him (and others) into The Jacket (see the above link to Brian's photos).

The next day I rode the Mini again to get to family brunch downtown, riding on the roads, but then took the Martin Goodman Trail on the way back, which was rather nice. For the Monday funeral I was on the TTC to meet up with family, then after dinner TTC'd back to the Greyhound station and then home.

Extreme Cello

I love this sort of thing:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2008/07/28/cellists-extreme.html

and

http://extreme-cello.com/

drumming and fitness

An interesting find:

Clem Burke Drumming Project - "Clem Burke, drummer with the band Blondie, has been taking part in research study for the past eight years, which will reveal the physical demands of drumming during live stage performances."

And a BBC story on this as well.

This study reminds me of how much energy put out during the shows I did with the Trevor Finlay Band for nine years, and of course in my rock n' roll days back in Toronto and Montreal. I recall doing five to six shows a week when on the road and losing weight and trying to keep hydrated. One of my reasons for quitting touring was that I just did not want to expend that much energy each day, and at that volume! But even playing with the jazz quartet nowadays means constant motion with both arms and feet, so while I don't have as much upper body movement as before I'm still putting out a fair bit of energy. It's just that doing so is a lot easier on my ears now.

Catching up

Has it really been a month since my last post? Well, just been busy, with some personal stuff on top of the usual music and bike mix.

My fabulous high school music teacher, Wally Atwood, who was so helpful in encouraging my music, passed away in June at the age of 78. Then, my father died on July 9. I'll have separate posts later on both of them.

The IJO played a great set on the final full day of the Ottawa Jazz Festival on June 30th. It rained on and off but the crowd stayed on (and even grew, awaiting the headliner Gladys Knight) while we played the music of Stan Kenton. I could not hear the sax section or even my fellow rhythm mates very well , but thankfully everyone was miced up and I could get a feed through a nearby monitor. It was interesting hearing both the trumpets very well acoustically, then the trombones a bit less so, from right in front of me, then have the saxes and others coming at me from my right side. But hey, at least I could hear everyone...

My Sunday Brunch gig with the quartet continues at the Metropolitan Restaurant, as does the Thursday gig there with Steve and Tom as "The Orbiters". The Orbiters have now picked up a Wednesday evening gig at the Foundation Restaurant in the Market, where we play on the patio if the weather's nice and inside if not.

Also, for the next bunch of Tuesdays I'm playing in Gatineau at the Restaurant Fiorentina on Blvd. St. Joseph. This is with a quartet comprising of myself, Mike Mullin on sax, Dave Arthur on bass and vocals, and Ian Clyne on keys and vocals. This too is a patio gig and dependent on nice weather.