Thanks to a friend of mine called Kim, I've had a couple of
great visitors here in the workshop lately.
Kim btw. is a Nimbus nut-job ( and I mean that in the most positive way possible ).
A few years ago he gave himself a 50 years-birthday present:
a 2 month tour around Japan on his Nimbus.
Shipped it to Tokyo and had an epic journey.
Here's a brilliant picture of his bike with a couple of Japanese cops
sporting, what appears to be Startreck uniforms:
First visitor was a guy and his wife, from Vermont USA, dropping by on the way to the airport
after a visit to Sweden and Denmark.
He's a brilliant engineer and a Nimbusnut.
He and his wife have started the " Intergalactic Nimbus Club / Vermont Chapter ".
They, and their dog, are the only members. She is the 'President and Grand Vizier'
and he is CEO ( Chief Engineer Officer )...not sure about the dogs position.
Top Dog, perhaps ?
Got meself' a t-shirt:
They claim that the spelling-error on the t-shirt is due to the fact
that their dog 'Radar' edited the graphics ( 'due to lactose intolerance issues' ..
he made the error.... I don't think they claimed to be 'normal'...or maybe it's just the dog
who's a bit wonky
.-)
Don't ever let your dog near the 'puter !
Mr. CEO, among other things, makes an improved clutch for the Nimbus:
The Nimbus has a ( car-like) dry-clutch, which isn't the best set-up the world has seen.
His modification addresses some of the problems, like the fact that the springs
do not place an 'even' pressure on the clutch-plate and therefore this tends to
warp given time. He fabs an aluminum-ring in which the springs sit
so as to give this 'even' pressure.
Anyway; a little time later I got this absolutely freaking unbelievable email from the
CEO:
"...
I will offer, if you like, to install my last remaining aluminum ring into your flywheel. I might also like to offer that if you were to send me your flywheel and crankshaft assemblies, I can have that all dynamically balanced for you as a unit after the installation. In addition, I have a technique to balance the large end of the con rods so they are all identical to less than 1 gm. IF you want we can also look at balancing the smaller ends in conjunction with the piston you will install on each. All you need to do is to let me know. I can make that contribution to your efforts!.."
SERIOUSLY: what can I say, except for being totally in awe that
such kindness still exists out there.
Gotta' fill up my Karma-account to put things into balance again after this, don't I ?!
...then some days later I had a visitor from Sweden.
Showed up on this:
Turn out he wanted to make new parts for the frame-assembly.
( They are running short now )
Then, why not, make a complete new frame ( the black'ish one at the rear )
...ride it to bits to test it...and then start fabricating the bits needed.
That's what he's done.
Simple ...erh ?!
We had a long talk about my two main challenges :
..
One: having someone make a 4-speed, but HI-geared set of internals for the gear-box.
Long story, but LO and behold; turns out he's the man behind the
fabricating of the new 4-speed boxes, and he'd be glad to invite me up to his place
in Sweden and we'd go talk to the guy who actually makes them,
and surely we'd work out something.
..
Two: I need an 'extended' cam-shaft , so that on the extension I can
mount a pulley that will drive the blower.
No problem: he was just starting up the fabrication of new cam-shafts
( running short of them as well ) and making one with an extension for me
would be no problem.
The world is still a great place with an surprising number
of good and kind people !