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WINSTON-SALEM NC, Barry Stewart's house--

Good idea, Tim. I'll do that.

I saw Barry's student-built chassis, it's a cool project (which you can follow on his build log). Also picked up some side mirrors from Honda of Winston-Salem, the folks there treated me great! I got a pair of scooter mirrors cheap ("They've been in stock a long time," said the parts guy) and a couple of flange nuts to attach them for free from the service department ("Cool car," said the service manager) and everybody there seemed to 'get it' re the four wheeled motorcycle thing.

The mirrors aren't as cool as the rest of the car, definitely not period correct, in fact they're kinda dorky. But compared to changing lanes in the rain a la Helen Keller, I'd prefer to look like a dork than have my friends say, "He looks so natural, they did a wonderful job of reconstructing him for the viewing."

I'm sure you have enough offers to probably to cover the rest of the year let alone the rest of drive but I've got a spare room if weather some how chases you through Austin/central Texas.

Jack, good timing leaving the west! It was 88 Sunday, 91 yesterday, and ~94 today. Supposed to be 90 tomorrow, then back down to a normal 75 here in metro Sacramento. And probably about the same in your neck of the woods...

Have fun the rest of the trip. I'll be doing almost the same next month, but with a Europa in a trailer

Jack - it was truely an honor to get to meet you. Wish we had more time to spend talking over our various interests.
Wishing you a safe trip and a room whenever you need.

Barry

BTW - A-arms came in today !!!!

I know right. Whenever I get out of my truck my back is soaked. I got out at the gas station yesterday and noticed it was cooler outside than in my truck.

And this wont be the worst of it...

LAKELAND, FL: Made it to Sun'N'Fun, woohoo! The last day was roughly 700 miles and y'all may be surprised to hear it was a comfortable ride. The combination of IRS and a snug seat makes for a comfy cruiser, the only issue is there's no room to fidgit. But with an 8 gallon tank, no problem, I have to get out of the car every three hours anyway, and walking around and refueling loosens the knees.

One clever thing I did was put a pair of bungee cords pulling back on the clutch pedal, which makes the clutch very very heavy but allows me to rest my foot on the pedal when cruising. I'll show photos when I get a chance.

Barry, (blush) I have your 1/2" combination wrench--left over from the mirror installation. Please PM me re getting it back to you.

I can't believe that I had one craftsman 1/2" wrench and now its been absconded !!!!

You can send it back with the swedged uppers when I get a length on them. Kits are great !!!

Thanks
Barry

LAKELAND FL: These photos are from the trip so far.

The first is a photo of Barry Stewart taking a photo, thus proving this car is photogenic and it's not just Chet and me tha like it.

The second is the heel rest I made from 1/2" plywood...Chet offered me some carpet but I wanted to get moving so I skipped it, but for long trips you need something to keep your feet in place...I think carpet would do fine but wood suits me.

The third is what the well dressed Locoster wears on long journeys. I use a pink bandana instead of one in Harley Black with the grinning scull graphics 'cause I think it's less intimidating. Seriously, it's best not to look like a bandito.

I found the official Sales/Marketing vehicle for Kinetic Vehicles!



None the worse for wear after over 1000 miles



I even got to sit in it!

I love the kid's expression...thats great. He seems to understand what its all about.

I assume the blue painters tape is too keep the wind out?

I dunno...it was green when he left. Looks black with all that dust.

Seeing that parking lot hit me with a pang of nostalgia. Been a long time since I wore the Lakeland Grime.

-dave

Nope, it's to keep the rain out. It works and was worth the investment. Chet has the bodywork raised about an inch above the chassis, which was a clever way to deal with the throttle pulley fit issue (in brief, Chet built his car with the engine offset 3/4" to the right, which gave him a tad more footroom among other things, but the first point of contact between the hood and the engine is the throttle linkage on the right side of the engine and wouldn't fit any more, and rather than put a hole in the hood, he raised everything up a tad) but it made it so that rain blows back along the body, into the gap between scuttle and chassis, and drenches my left leg.

Yeah, you can find anything at the Sun 'N' Fun Commercial Exhibits--I found a vinyl cutter who made me a 1" tall web address in stick-on letters for $5.25. Next I need to find a business card printer.

Below are my two favorite aviation editors, Sharon (on the left of the photo) is Editor in Chief of Light Sport and Ultralight Flying, and Mary (behind the wheel, on the right) is in charge of EAA's publications (Sport Aviation, Sport Pilot, and some others I've never written for, e.g. Warbirds, Sport Aerobatics). Four of us had a pleasant dinner (them, me, and Sharon Westcott, who is a photojournalist as well as my riding mechanic for Escape from Berkeley) filled with sparkling conversation, mostly centered around what a pain I am to work with. We were laughing and carrying on, not enough to get thrown out of the restaurant, but definitely enough to make the other guys in the room jealous (particularly the other writer guys).

They let us park on the lawn in front, figuring (accurately enough) that a car this little with tires this wide wouldn't do any more damage than a golf cart.

Jack "Deadlines Amuse Me" McCornack

ULTRALIGHT CAPMGROUND, LAKELAND: Here's Scott, who writes on this forum in his off hours [edit--he posts as "TracAction"]. During his work hours, he keeps us hooligans in line. He's the 4th uniformed police officer I've spoken with this trip, and he was by far the most pleasant conversationalist of the group, maybe because he's building his own Locost and so we have something in common.

This was his second visit, he had a colleague with him on the first trip, but I wasn't around so they asked do-you-know-who-owns-this questions of my fellow campers, who covered for me for the most part. I got there between the visits and the neighbors assured me, "There were a couple of cops looking for you, but we didn't tell them anything incriminating."