This past weekend I was at the cabin and took a picture of the mini bike that I restored. I'm not sure how old it is because we have had it in the family for many years. I think it came from the Sears catalogue in the early 70's. A few years ago, about the time that Super Bowl XXXI had taken place (1997), I decided to restore it with a Packer football theme, since they won the Super Bowl that season. This is pretty close to the original color.The seat was recovered in dark green vinyl and you can see some of the Packer/Super Bowl decals that were applied. Mechanically, almost everything had to be replaced, rear brake, wheel bearings, tires, and the throttle cable. A brand new 5 Hp Tecumseh horizontal shaft engine and clutch were added to complete the vintage ride. We have had several different size engines on the frame over the years, some smaller and some larger. Unfortunately, after the engine was mounted, I found out that 5 Hp isn't enough power to get a 190 lb person moving very well. So, it sits in storage most of the time and gets treated more like a rare collectible.
This week, while I'm on layoff, I have been spending about 4 hours a day working on changing the Midwest Machine Shop Network web site over to a database driven site. So far, I've been making good progress. The modular php code should be useful for similar projects. The only piece that remains to be completed is the search and search results code. I will be populating the db with machine shops that I find in the public domain, but shop owners are welcome to submit shop info. I'm hoping that more people will find the updated website useful.
No comments:
Post a Comment