Rants and comments on the world of auto repair, cars, and motorcycles from the other side of the wrench. Funny stories, apocryphal legends, and other shit too ...
This has a lot of potential and my hat is off to some very smart guys.
MIT Undergrads Create Shock Absorber That Generates Energy by David Chandler, MIT Massachusetts, United States [RenewableEnergyWorld.com]
A team of MIT undergraduate students has invented a shock absorber that harnesses energy from small bumps in the road, generating electricity while it smooths the ride more effectively than conventional shocks. The students hope to initially find customers among companies that operate large fleets of heavy vehicles. They have already drawn interest from the U.S. military and several truck manufacturers.
"Simply put -- we want this technology on every heavy-truck, military vehicle and consumer hybrid on the road."
-- Shakeel Avadhany, MIT Senior
They say that the average heavy truck that has six shock absorbers on it could generate enough electricity driving down a normal road with these installed,up to 1 KW, to eliminate the alternator.
The rest of this fascinating article can be found here.
I would like to thank the fabulous Phoenix Woman who originally put this up at FireDogLake earlier this morning.
Blick auf den Ventiltrieb - von wegen Ölnebel! Öltropfen!
Which I think translates something like:
"Ve got ein bissel high und vent to die garage und took off die valve cover yoost to see das valvenbitzen of zis fine Deutsche motorrad fly around, nicht wahr?"
The screwdrivers, ratchets and sockets are the same way. The Eye-talian's box looks like a plane crashed in it. It's tough being me but I gotta have my shit where I can find it ... blindfolded ... in the dark.
Update:
My sockets (1/4" & 3/8" drive. 1/2" shit has a drawer all its own):
This is a fascinating video from about 1966 or '67, narrated by Murray Walker of the BBC.
As motorcycles go, this is pretty literally from the Dawn Of Time, before such things as suspension travel were invented. Watch these things bounce around under the Iron Men who (barely) controlled them. Keep in mind that long travel suspension was not introduced for the comfort of the rider but rather to keep the rear wheel on the ground so it would produce forward drive. All the horsepower in the world will not make the machine go faster if the rear wheel is in the air.
This race is also at about the point in time when lightweight two-smokes started to take over from larger displacement heavier four-strokes in competition as you will see. It was in 1965 that Gary Conrad on a 250 Greeves beat the 40-cubic-inch twins and 30.50 singles for the overall win in a SoCal desert race for the very first time. Opinion was divided amongst those who said it couldn't be done and those who said it was a fluke and would never happen again. Heh.
Do not miss this, and particularly the sorta spectacular race to the finish line. Enjoy.
This video brings back a personal story. Jeff Smith, a World Champion and prominent in the video, came over to the U.S. to race in the late '60s. He gave an evening school on riding motocross which I attended. It was free. Motocross was just getting going in those days, so most of the attendees were desert racers. He gave a lot of good tips and advice, like yelling at the rider in front of you to get him to move over. I've tried it and it works!
He also said to never ride faster than you can see to stop. Makes perfect sense, but it brought the house down! When the laughter stopped, there stood Mr. Smith with a really puzzled look on his face. He had never ridden a desert race and was giving this piece of advice to a roomful of guys who were completely comfortable riding as fast as they could go in dust so thick they couldn't see their front wheel! I didn't say we were smart. Someone explained it to him and he grinned and shook his head. I don't think he thought we were very smart either.
