Some of the Lego Star Wars figures I made before there were officially licensed figures: Princess Leia, Darth Vader, Gonk droid, IG88 (now missing an arm) and Boba Fett.
Original Star Wars figures
29th August 2018 09:35Karl Marx sees your shit and is having none of it.
28th July 2018 21:34
DR-Baureihe VT 18.16
15:40I love the look of these East German high speed trains.
This is at the Sächsisches Eisenbahnmuseum Chemnitz-Hilbersdorf e. V.
Trabi trip
21st July 2018 14:17Had a ride along in a very nice soft top Trabant, with 26hp it’s very similar to a 2CV (with 29hp) in that it’s all about the conservation of momentum!
This car dates from 1983 and the soft top conversion was done in 1994. There are rails down the side of the car that were added during the conversion and you have to step over them getting in and out of the car. Numerous parts in the interior are from a Golf – including the front seats.
The engine is a two cylinder, two stroke – inline and transverse.
The black box at the back with the red diamond is the fuel tank, it’s gravity fed and there’s a control inside that turns a stop cock on and off for the fuel flow and a third position for reserve which opens a lower fuel pickup. This has an additional fuel level sender behind the fuel cap.
On the left of the bock it has a crank driven fan that’s blowing under the jacket and out through the heating system. Seems that the main causes of overheating in a Trabi are under maintenance and/or over driving. back in the day K’s grandad drove his to Romania for a summer holiday with no issues.
It’s not got the magic carpet ride of a 2CV but it’s sprung to ride rough surfaces and the owner was similarly loading it up into corners. As an air cooled two pot it has a similar rasp but being in line and a two stroke it doesn’t have the whirring hum of a 2CV. Bit hard to see but it’s got a transverse leaf spring across the two front wheels.
Loch drive
8th July 2018 14:35
Climb classifications in the Le Tour de France
6th July 2018 13:59Apparently the climb classifications (4,3,2,1,HC) in the Le Tour de France are based on the gear you’d need to use in a 2CV to get up that hill. This is quite clearly horse poop and – as the owner of a 2CV – I have a 100% subjective personal anecdote to prove it:
The Le Tour has been past the village were I grew up twice (’94 & ’07) and both times there was a 4th cat near by. There’s no way you’d get a 2CV up those hills in 4th – they’re solid 3rd and maybe a quick dip to 2nd near the top if you didn’t get a good run at them on the way in.
As for HC (which is supposedly impassable to a 2CV) I similarly call horse. 1st gear in a 2CV is so low it won’t even get you half way across a set of traffic lights without needing to change up – you’ll run out of grip on the tyres long before you torque stall the engine. (Admittedly the grupetto would be faster up the hill but that’s not the point.)
Generally your biggest problem on hills in a 2CV is some idiot in a modern car in front of you that slows down for the corners – it’s all about conservation of momentum, as this person ably demonstrates.
FACT.
Lego Boba Fett
20th May 2018 15:48
Aberdalgie War Memorial
28th April 2018 16:36
Saints Etienne
21st April 2018 14:48
Cat Tactics
14th April 2018 10:23Good work by my cat this morning – only his third day of being allowed outside and he is already showing an admirable grasp of tactics in an encounter with the neighbours’ cat.
- My cat doing reconnaissance in his garden spots…
The neighbours’ cat, sat in its garden.
My cat advances and occupies the high ground on the border of his territory.
After a prolonged staring match, the neighbours’ cat retreats to a hidden position.
My cat uses the dead ground in the next door flats’ car park to flank the neighbours’ garden.
My cat occupies the high ground in a position to observe the retreat route of the neighbours’ cat.
At that point I can only assume that the neighbours’ cat was nowhere to be seen as my cat went off to explore the interesting smells on the lids of the flats’ bins.