The Avro Arrow (or “Two Days in Wetaskiwin”)

Of the many really great museums I’ve been lucky enough to visit over the years, one of my favourites is the Reynolds Alberta Museum which is about two and half hours north of Calgary in a place called Wetaskiwin (which among other things is known for its water tower which reputedly is the oldest one in Canada !). On the same site is also Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame which is also well worth a look see. This weekend was the annual Wetaskiwin Air show and so we took my father-in-law up to take in both the air show, as well as to take a look around the Reynolds Alberta Museum (or as it is often referred to – RAM) which I always find fascinating. The museum focuses on mechanical equipment used in Alberta prior to probably the late 1950’s with many of the finer pieces on exhibit clustered around the early 1920’s through the 1940’s – cars, trucks, planes, motorcycles, tractors, combines etc., as well as the more basic sorts of mechanical household items from the early days, such as milk separators. There is lots to see, but for me personally, I find I tend to spend a lot of time in the area of the restoration shop where you can watch restorers slowly rebuilding the equipment to be put on display – currently they are working on an old 1955 Chevy Nomad. This is quite literally a full ground up restoration effort, with many of the body panels having to be recreated by hand. Beautiful work.

Hidden away in one of the buildings on the museum grounds, is a warehouse stuffed with aircraft and vehicles awaiting restoration, and the one I particularly wanted to see was the full scale replica of the Avro Arrow, built by Allan Jackson also of Wetaskiwin, which was used in the CBC film called simply The Arrow. The folks at the RAM were kind enough to let us take my father-in-law behind the scenes to take a quick look at it, and in doing so made him a very happy man for which we are very grateful. The photo at the right was taken by Chris Gainor who has written several articles about RAM and the Avro Arrow.

The family connection is that both my father-in-law, and also my father worked for Avro on the Arrow back in the 1954 through 1959 time frame till the Arrow project was canceled in 1959 by Conservative Prime Mister John Diefenbaker. While the reasons for the cancellation were many and varied, doing so had a huge impact on high tech employment in Canada, which lasted well into the 1960’s – some would argue even longer. In the immediate aftermath of the project cancellation, roughly 14,000 direct employees became un-employed, together with several thousand indirect employees – or roughly the same number as the total population of the city of Prince Albert in Saskatchewan (about 24,000 in 1961) that Diefenbaker was elected to represent ! However you look at it the negative impact on the high tech segment of the Canadian economy in 1959 was huge. The fact that it has now been almost 50 years since the cancellation, and that people are still talking about it is probably the best indication of just how big an impact that was.

To cut a long story short, as we rolled my father-in-law, who is in his 80’s, up to the full size Arrow replica in his wheel chair, the look on his face was a study in both joy and grief all at the same time. Joy at seeing something that meant a lot to him personally, and grief over its cancellation and all that it might have been. While it isn’t the ‘real thing’, it sure looks real, and it was a very special moment.

The air show was great – but seeing the Arrow was definitely the high point, and more than reason enough to justify a visit to Wetaskiwin again in the future.

Amazon S3, Backups and Other Things

Most folks these days have a digital camera, and as a result have hundreds and possibly thousands of digital photos and videos littering the hard drives of their computers. Certainly this is true for me and of course it highlights one of the dilemmas if living in a digital age. Crash your hard drive, and your photos are gone forever. Admittedly not all of them are ‘perfect’ shots, but out of every hundred or so there are bound to be a few that are precious to you and which you really do not want to lose.

In prior generations, there were generally lots of ‘hard copies’ of photos either in photo albums or boxes stashed away in closets, and copies of the more memorable photos would be made and sent around to relatives etc. This was a good thing, and back then, if I were to lose a copy of the photo of my great aunt Lulu (I actually don’t have an aunt by that name, but you get the idea) there would have been a good chance I could either dig through my shoe box full of negatives and have a new photo printed, or perhaps could ask a family member for a copy of a photo they had and I’d be back in business. That was then, and this is now.

Like many people, I starting burning CD copies of my photos, and then as the numbers and sizes of the images grew and video clips were added to the mix, eventually DVD copies which I keep in a safety deposit box at a local bank. This has the advantage of it being a relatively cheap option and also of the photos being kept off site so if the house burns down they will still exist. Of course it has the disadvantage of me having to constantly update and replace these discs as new photos are added, which is time consuming and like most people, I’m not quite as disciplined as I should be.

Off site storage for a few photos in something like WebShots is an option which many people use, and there are many others like it, as well as the various ’social network’ solutions such as Facebook, but in general the advertisements drive me crazy, so I refuse to use them for photos. To avoid all the ads, and for displaying a handful of photos that you really like, there is the option of putting a few photos up on your own web site as I have done, or as a friend of mine has done. But what do you do to replace the shoe box full of negatives you used to keep filed away, ‘just in case’, and how do you ensure it is not computer dependant as well as being easy to use ? Well, I’m not sure what you are using, but I am using Amazon S3.

Before retiring from Shell, I did a writeup on the various Amazon Web Service offerings, and I like what they have done – they have platforms for applications development, commercial platforms for managing and running applications, collecting money etc., and they also have a bulk storage solution. The storage solution (called Amazon Simple Storage Service, or S3 for short) distributes your data across many servers, is highly fault tolerant, is accessible from any computer (Linux, Mac or Windows) anywhere that you have a decent internet connection, is hugely scalable, and is pretty cheap (you just pay for what you actually use). All of this makes it quite attractive.

By itself Amazon S3 is not even slightly user friendly, as it is targeted toward developers, but there are a few companies who now offer beta (of course !) software you can use as a user interface for the S3 service to allow you to store all your ’stuff’ on the Amazon S3 servers. I actually have about 17 GB of files sitting up there ‘in the cloud’ and other than a couple of horrible moments which I’ll get to in a minute, I recommend it. For me at least, as a back end storage service Amazon S3 has been stable, reliable and accessible. But you do need a front end interface of some sort to use it, so read on.

Before starting, you need to decide what it is you actually want to be able to do – in this instance, although you can use Amazon S3 as the storage location for the data displayed on your web site, what I was looking for was a replacement for the shoe box I had for my negatives. I admit only a few of the photos are masterpieces (to me at least), but on the other hand saving everything gives me the freedom to pick and choose whenever I want. Having decided on the ’shoe box’ approach, there are quite a number of commercial alpha and beta products out there – many of them are listed in the Amazon Solutions Catalog. Some of these are good – some of these are frankly awful, but all of them demonstrate the possibilities and will get better with time.

Three of the interface solutions that I tried out to allow me to just be able to drag and drop files from my hard drive into Amazon S3 buckets (which is what they call the storage locations you have access to in S3) are S3Fox, Bucket Explorer, and Jungle Disk.

S3Fox looks nice, but I (and many others) could not reliably get it to work – no idea why. For the moment, I’d suggest it be avoided till it has a few of the kinks worked out. It also requires Firefox and does not work with Microsoft Explorer, which I think is OK as Firefox is what I’d recommend anyone to use if asked, but it does freeze them out of a large part of the market

Bucket Explorer and Jungle Disk are roughly similar to the casual eye, but did offer me a few stressful moments. After creating a bucket with Bucket Explorer and filling it with my photos, I then tried to open it with Jungle Disk – no go. Everything appeared to be gone, other the the top most level which only had the bucket name. Likewise when I created a bucket in Jungle Disk, Bucket Explorer could not read the name of the bucket, or the names of the files it contained. I’m sure things like this will get fixed over time, but for the moment – for the casual user – I’d suggest picking one or the other and not to try to mix and match.  By themselves, both work and are good choices.

I will continue looking at new options as they become available, but for anyone looking for a digital shoe box for their digital images, I think the Amazon S3 product with the user interface of your choice is definitely a good option. For the moment I’m happy – and sticking with Bucket Explorer !

Its Lively !

I’ve taken a 60 minute break from the motorcycles, and have been playing with Google’s new offering called Lively which is a new entry into the virtual world space similar (but also quite different) to Second Life. Unlike Second Life in which there is a whole virtual world within which you are free to roam, in Lively it is a series of user created non-contiguous ‘rooms’ which you visit. These rooms can be open (visitors can add, delete and move elements), interactive (visitors can move around, but not add or delete) or private which is self explanatory and requires a specific invitation. Second Life of course allows private areas also, which owners can restrict access to, but the spaces created are closely linked, whereas in Lively each user actually builds many standalone interactive virtual experiences.

I’ve created a room here, which is nothing special, but on the other hand it only took me a very few minutes to set up – this is a very easy to use application. To create and interact with Lively virtual rooms you must download the Lively application (I’m using the Firefox plug in), but it appears that you can visit any room to at least see a screen shot of it, having just the URL. The application frequently crashes (it is beta after all), but when it is running, the response using my internet connection at least is quite good. There is an interesting Facebookconnection which I still need to look at, plus the code to allow you to embed your virtual space in your personal web site is provided – I expect I will be able to play with that sometime in the next week.

IBM has done quite a bit of work in the virtual world space, and business use of this technology appears to be growing in companies like Shell, where pilot sites are well advanced. Shell actually took first place in the R&D section of the TEC Intraverse 2008 competition in Paris this year for its Second Life pilot. In contrast to the sorts of business focused testing that you see major companies working on, the offering from Google seems to be more of a pure consumer play. At this stage at least it is difficult to see how it fits in as a longer term product within the Google universe (Docs, GMail, Sites etc.), and what it might be best used for in a business context, but it is intriguing.

Quite a number of rooms have already been created in Lively by other users who are much more creative than I am – it will be interesting to see how this evolves.

GT750 Restoration Continued

Things are moving along. As per my previous BLOG entry, I have the rear wheel and disc brake assembly, exhaust, and a dummy engine fitted, and have been looking at options for fitting the rear master cylinder and its brake fluid reservoir. Space is tight on the right side of the frame due to the injector oil tank and also just the way the frame is designed.

I was originally thinking of using a long link from the underside of a modified brake arm, to a remote mounted master cylinder as per the photo to the left. There is enough space to run the link back from the underside of the brake arm, under the frame member which supports the rear passenger foot rest and exhaust pipe mount, to the clevis of the master cylinder, as the Gibson pipes allow quite a bit more room that the stock Suzuki exhaust. After discussing this with a few folks in the local Rocky Mountain CVMG chapter, and looking at a bike here in Calgary with a similar conversion, as well as searching the web for photos of other completed rear disc conversions on GT750’s, its obvious there is no ‘right’ answer as each one seems to have been done differently. For my conversion, I’ve decided to use a mechanical linkage from the existing stock rear brake pedal, to a bell crank which will be attached to the master cylinder. This installation has the benefit of preserving the same ‘period look’, preserves the stock mounting for the rear brake light switch, and also gives the same mechanical advantage to actuate the braking action as is found on the 1976 GS750 that I’ve been using for donor parts. Preserving the same mechanical advantage will ensure maximum brake pedal effect on the master cylinder, which is not a bad thing when you are trying to stop ! You can see the mocked up installation in the photo to the right.

The linkage is salvaged from an old CB350 Honda front brake assembly and the master cylinder and remote brake reservoir are off a 1980 Suzuki GS750EC, all of which I found at TJ’s Cycle, I cleaned up the surface rust on the linkage with that old standby – Coca Cola (traditional, not the diet version !) – and it now looks quite nice ! To ensure sufficient clearance between the master cylinder and the swing arm, I will need to modify the injector oil tank reservoir slightly, or use something off a different model of bike, or possibly just make a new one as I want everything to fit properly under the stock right side cover. The plastic used in the stock injector oil tank is soft – possibly ABS or perhaps a urethane. In any case, with a bit of luck (and a lot of cleaning !) I should be able to solvent weld it using one of the newer adhesives on the market used for automotive repairs, or possibly just deform it as required using a heat gun.

I’m pretty much at the point where the next step will be to get the frame and fittings welded up, after which I need to strip the frame and swing arm down for painting.

The ‘home’ site for the project is here.  Till next time ……….

The Buff Has New Shoes !

The 1975 GT750 Water Buffalo is starting to take shape. One of the things I had to attend to first of all was to replace the right rear upper shock mount which had been damaged beyond simple repair by the previous owner. To do this I had to grind out the welded plug, and substitute a replacement from a donor frame. This took a couple of hours, but it can now be welded up and should be as good as new.

The other item I wanted to look after, was to update the rear wheel to be a disc brake rather than the stock drum brake as you see to the left. What I’m looking to create is an approximation of what a 1978 GT750 might have looked like, had one actually been built. Adding a rear disc brake is a logical assumption as Suzuki did introduce this with the four strokes that replaced the GT series. The donor bike frame I have is a 1977 GS750, and it shares many of the same components with the 1977 GT750 frame, although the actual frame itself is quite a different design due to the engine differences. As it turns out, the swing arm, with the disc brake fittings just drop into the GT750 frame. The lower shock mounts are different, as they are a clevis mount on the lower fitting, but otherwise just bolt on. The front forks, triple tree and brakes likewise are just a bolt-on fitting, with the GS750 calliper under slung behind the fork, rather than in front of the fork as on the GT. At this point I haven’t decided whether to go with a single front disc, or dual front discs.

So far so good – the interesting bit it where to put the master cylinder for the rear brake. With the GT frame, the oil tank is in the way as of course these were not required with the GS750 engines, and so space is at a premium. To check the clearances, I ‘dry mounted’ a scrap engine I keep for parts in the frame, with the Gibson expansion pipes mounted as well as the air box, oil reservoir tank and side covers. I want to use the round fluid reservoir, rather than go with a newer square style as those weren’t common in 1977/1978, as again I’m going for a look that is a natural progression from the last real GT750 model, made in 1977. The mockup can be seen to the right.

I realize that a lot of people remove the stock GT750 air box and just go with individual filters on each carburetter, but that isn’t the look I like, plus I already have a few new foam air filters that are available from either Twin Air or Moto Air - interestingly, both are Dutch companies, but the Moto Air prices are better. Both companies offer replacement filters that are exact matches for the original factory foam filter elements, for less than what you pay at your friendly local Suzuki dealer as filters by themselves are not readily available. From a dealer, you have to buy the filter mounted on the wire support frame which adds cost. Just changing the filter element and recycling the old wire frame makes more sense to me.

This evening I checked with a few colleagues at the Calgary Loyal Order of Water Buffalo sub-group of the Rocky Mountain Section of the Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group (CVMG), to see what John and Fred thought about mounting options for the master cylinder. That was a very useful discussion, and I’m glad I waited to get some additional input before finalizing the design. Now that I have a better idea of how it should look, I can move on and modify the rear brake lever and stop switch assembly, grind off a few redundant tabs, scout around for a couple of parts – possibly off a Suzuki GS1100, or perhaps a Kawasaki or Honda of similar vintage, and also have some additional welding done.

At the moment, I do like the look – with the new pipes on, the recycled rear wheel and disc, swing arm etc., it looks ‘right’. Of course there is still lots of work still to be done…

The ‘home’ site for the project is here.

1975 GT750 Water Buffalo

I have been riding, repairing and rebuilding motorcycles off and on for very nearly 40 years. When we were overseas, I was forced to take an extended break, so now that we are back in Canada it has been nice to get the shop set up and be able to once again start ‘bending some wrenches’.

For a few years, I did a lot of work with Honda’s – one of my early experiments (a ported, hot cam’d, over bored and overly temperamental CB350) was well known to my friends. It was dubbed by Colin Train (a high school classmate of mine), as the ‘ external combustion machine’ as it caught fire several times – once while I was riding it ! Since the late 80’s, I have tended to focus on Suzuki GT750 motorbikes – these are the big three cylinder, water cooled 2-stroke touring bikes built between 1972 and 1977, and which were affectionately tagged by their owners and the press in Canada and the USA as the ‘Water Buffalo’ (or ‘Wasserbüffel’ in Germany, ‘The Kettle’ or Water Bottle’ in the UK, and ‘waterbucket’ in Australia ). All the large bore 2-stroke bikes built by Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawasaki were phased out due to environmental concerns and legislation, mainly driven by the USA, in the late 70’s. They generally do tend to smoke a bit, although the amount of visible smoke is often controllable with the use of modern 2-stroke injection oils, careful tuning and the use of electronic ignition systems. I suspect that today with the availability of fuel injection, advanced computer controls, and clever engineering, a modern big bore 2-stroke could be made environmentally friendly, although the required investment to make it happen would be considerable. At any rate, there is a large global community of enthusiasts who keep these old bikes on the road, with really big Water Buffalo clubs in Europe and the UK, as well as in North America.

I currently have two licenced 1976 GT750’s which I ride occasionally, (plus of course the 1966 Yamaha YA6 I bought recently) and I have a third 1975 GT750 shown to the left which is in pieces, and which I have been saving for a suitable ‘quiet’ moment. Now that I’ve retired, that moment has arrived. While it may not look like much at the moment, it is all there, plus I have quite a few new parts and pieces for it that I have been collecting over the years.

While I was in Europe, I took the opportunity to track down a few Water Buffalo parts suppliers who have started to supply after-market, new manufactured parts and pieces. One of these is a small one man operation in the north of The Netherlands operated by Erik Potze, and I managed to buy a nice set of new Gibson exhaust pipes from him, as well as some other trim, water pump and carburetter repair kits . After market exhaust systems are pretty much the only option available to owners of most old Japanese motorbikes as new old stock (NOS) ones practically non-existent, and good used ones are as rare as hen’s teeth. The GT750 specifically was not known for having great ground clearance in the corners, so most pipes that you see show some scuffing or scrapes from contact with the pavement. The Gibson pipes are made in the UK and should look really nice once I get them installed.

The ‘home’ site for the project is here. We’ll see how it progresses !

The Squadron

One of my interests post retirement is to learn how to fly radio controlled model planes. I have one plane which I recently just finished mounting the servos and radio into, and this fall the plan is to actually try to get some air time in with one of the local clubs. The two that are most convenient for me are CRAMS, and the Chinook Winds clubs. Both clubs seem to have good facilities and also good reputations so it should be fun.

When you are learning, you do tend to make more than the occasional ‘hard’ landing , so having a few spare parts is not a bad idea. My Dad has been flying model aircraft for years, and in fact built the one I already have, so when he recently decided to do a bit of a cleanup in his garage I jumped at the chance to pick up a few bits and pieces. I was not disappointed – the selection was closer to being a small squadron than just some ‘parts’, and with them came a number of well used but serviceable engines, radios, servos and useful odds and ends such as extra wings for the model I have, as well as an extra fuselage. In the mix was an electrically powered R/C sailplane, which brought back many memories. Every glider I ever built and flew as a teenager seemed unfailingly able to find a tree to land in. Presumably with the radio control the odds will be more in my favour !

One plane I was especially pleased to take delivery of was one that we had bought for him as a kit many Christmas’ ago. It is a model of a WWII Bell P39 Aircobra fighter and it is pictured to the right sitting in his backyard. To be honest, I will probably make a static display of it and hang it from the ceiling of my den rather than risk crashing it, as he did a really nice job of building it and it has already had quite a bit of time in the air.

At the least, it will be a nice conversation piece, and as well also a nice keepsake.