tinworm-wheels: one wheeled skateboards and tanks

Monday 31 August 2009

one wheeled skateboards and tanks

Crikey, you really must see this! April 1st 1980-something I remember a hoax in one of the broadsheets about a one wheeled stretcher which had a gyroscopic balancing device, allowing it to motor up or down mountains without falling over, while carrying a patient. Like all great hoaxes, it was feasible because there was enough credible science included....

Meanwhile, way back in the 50s and 60s, this chap was adjusting the centre of gravity to achieve something which Dave Southall had been working on before he found these films, a one wheeled skateboard principle...a tractor which hurtles along with no hint of a wobble.

Incredible!

Who knows, if the principle had been turned inside out, this 1930s tank might have been possible...even without the stabilisers.

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Tinworm's Other Wheels

Here are some links to some of my other vehicles. My Lamb Chop (Lambretta Chopper), a re-modelled LI frame with 150cc SX engine rebored to 175cc, with stage two tuning and custom seat made from a laminated office chair by yours truly. The pic is the sweetheart photo I keep in my wallet. I prefer to think that I wouldn't do something like this to a scooter but I suppose the fact that I enjoy someone else's handywork makes me a bit of a hyporite. It won best scooter at the Bristol Bike Show 1999, before I rode it to the Isle of Wight for the annual rally. I got a heat seizure on the way back but got the clutch in quicky enough to save the engine.

Here is a slideshow of a bike I have put on a back-burner until the 101 is finished. The restored engine is in my livingroom but the rest of it is stored in the airing cupboard, etc. It is a Francis Barnett Fulmar, 1962. I won it in a pub bet when I was 16. Later, I gave up all worldly belongings to join an ascetic religious order, returning the bike to its previous owner. Years later (now apostate), I found him again and did a deal to get it back.

This is my Ford Prefect, which is on the road and starts every time. Last winter a mate came round and we sat in it with the heater on because it is warmer than my house! Since taking these pictures, I have had the number changed. For some reason when the original number was sold DVLA gave it the wrong period plate, an A reg. They corrected the error for free. It now has authentic black and silver plates.

I restored my Cyclemaster in 1994 and found a 1954 Tax disc under a 1980s one. The bike is a 1940s one and when petrol was rationed and motorbikes, let alone cars, were prohibitively expensive, autocyles (early dedicated mopeds) and cyclemotors (engines for bicycles) were the popular solution here. You just replaced the bicycle wheel with one of these with a 32cc engine in it (made in the early 1950s) and could run for a couple of hundred miles or more on a gallon. I loved riding mine until I dropped it downstairs. I am in the process of replacing the buckled front forks and sorting out the coaster hub which is locked-on. I am hoping to ride it in a forthcoming NACC rally. (the close-up pic is of someone else's engine. Mine has a cover-plate over the carb)

tinworm-wheels

Monday 31 August 2009

one wheeled skateboards and tanks

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