Video!

I packed the vehicle parts into the car (using the freshly made packing crate for the straight parts) and headed to Lux Lounge (666 South Ave.) Around 9:30 or so I got some help getting all the parts into the back yard. In all, I think it took about 30 minutes to get the whole thing assembled in the dark. I think about 12-16 people got a chance to try it out … I took some video and posted it on my other website a few weeks ago … same as here.

John and I took it to a nearby parking lot to see if we could get it to go straight. The traction was so much better than in the dirt that we actually broke one of the spokes on the steering wheels in back. In the end, we found it was pretty easy to get it to go straight backwards (although it's hard to get it to change direction) and it's probably impossible to get it to go straight forward (although it's easy to get it to go in circles.)

I had to take it apart in the dark too and I guess it also took 30 minutes or so. I got back home and was somewhat amused to find that my feet got the dusty clay dirt all over them. It was very reminiscent of the playa, except it didn't burn or anything.

(For a while I was using something called the Coral project to host the video, but it has apparently gone away.)

(Click to play; 12MB)
Grainy, reduced-frame-rate, black-and-white, "NightShot" footage of The Bike With 2 Brains in the learning process of hell


Make a shipping crate for some of the parts

The title says it all: I made a wood box to hold the 6 straight bars for the vehicle. It's reasonably compact and keeps the bars from knocking against one another.