Well weather and DART scheduling. The restaurant that’s giving me a free huge hamburger for my birthday, doesn’t have bus service on Saturday, which is my birthday. So we rescheduled for tonight so I could still get the free burger and also share dinner with Mrs. the Poet. Weather forecast for dinnertime is flooding of Biblical proportions with temperatures around 80°F. Obviously Mrs. the Poet is not going to walk the 0.4 miles (0.64 km) to the bus stop in the rain, wait for the bus in the rain, wait for the bus for the trip home in the rain, then walk the 0.4 mi home from the bus stop in the rain. Ain’t gonna happen, Mrs. the Poet is almost 5 years older than I am and has suffered through more physical jobs than I had, and her body just does not work that way anymore. It hurts her and she won’t put up with it anymore.
Now this offer can be redeemed until the end of the month so we might try to do this next week, when the weather forecast is better. I have a card that is good for the place we are going that will cover her meal and my drink and dessert so all I need to cover in actual money is the bus too and from.
I stopped thinking about the engine for the Sprint-T, because I was thinking about the aerodynamics. Specifically I was thinking about the underbody aero, and the design requirement that nothing hang lower than the tire bead at normal ride height to prevent damage in case of a flat tire. The specific issue is streamlining the center section of the rear axle while leaving room for the axle to droop to full travel. I have to leave room for 1.5″ droop plus a little extra for the drain plug or access to allow the gear oil to drain when changing the quick change gears. According to my catalog of rear axles of the likely choices the Ford 9-inch is the one that comes furthest from needing a hole because it already hangs 5½” below the axle centerline eating up the entire 2″ travel and clearance, but everything else is worse. The V8 QC center section hangs 5.75″ below centerline, and the standard sprint QC center section hangs 6.0625″ below axle centerline. The belly pan hangs just 7.5″ below the axle centerline and the axle droops 1.5″ so anything hanging more than 5.9375″ below the axle will need a hole to pass through or it will make a hole on its own for me. The other alternative is to let the bellypan terminate where the center section would protrude, or use a different rear axle.
Witch on a Bicycle 