Thursday, July 29, 2010

Breaded Cornmeal Sole w/Tarter Sauce and Brussel Sprouts

Mel and I made this beautiful dinner together. These are Dover Sole Fillets breaded with cornmeal and fried. The brussel sprouts are butter steamed and lightly sauted, veggie cous cous and a delicous tarter sauce made on the fly! Yum!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The Hamm's Bike Gets a New Pipe!

Since I've started working at A & A Cycles, it has allowed me more time to practice some of my other interests. Two of these interests are welding and mopeds. On July 4th, I spent a few hours of my holiday working on Mel's bike, the Hamm's bike.

I started by putting the new pipe next to the old one. I wanted to figure out where the new one was going to best fit. I think ideally you would want to figure out how far the expansion chamber should be from the engine/exhaust port, for optimal perfomance. I did not do this not only because I do not know how, but also because I was not increasing the size of the stock exhaust header. I kinda figured that with this bike, anything would greatly improve its performance. This bike is a Peuguot 102 SP. No performance kits are available for this bike as well as no specific pipes.

Once I decided where the pipe would best fit, I marked my spot and welded on the new pipe (Boss pipe). Before welding on the new pipe, I cleaned up all the seams that I was going to be welding. I also made a bracket that I would weld on later to attach the pipe to the bike for added support.

Once the new pipe was welded on to the exsisting exhaust header, I made marks for my support bracket and tack welded it on. From here I was able to test out the support bracket and correct its angle to the pipe and bike.
The previous pipe's support bracket was perfect for putting the nut into, however in my bed frame support bracket design, this would be nearly impossible to hold the nut while trying to screw the bolt in. Instead I bent out the bracket (while it was still only tack welded) to put the bolt into. Sure it will be harder to replace the bolt if anything should ever happen to it, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
Of all the improvement projects I carried out on a moped, this one, so far was the funnest. Previous projects that included welding, ususally had to be done by someone else, either because of lack of skill or facilites. This time however I did everything from putting the bike on the table to crafting a bracket. Being able to weld and to continue to improve my skills has been one of the most freeing experiences since my moped hobby/way of life began.