I carried this on my bicycle

[Pingu]

I encountered this geezer walking on the Cairn o'Mount road with shopping bags dangling fom his handlebars.


IMG_8055_01 by The Pingus, on Flickr

[Mr Larrington]

Do you have a known point where you cut your hair to avoid entangling the rear wheel? It's looking close.

Yeah, I am overdue for a trim.

It's a bit iffy on the trike, which I don't use very often - if I was paying attention I'd have tied it up a bit more.  My bikes have more hair clearance and an enclosed rear wheel respectively.

I once encountered in that London, that they have now, a woman whose plait was long enow that it was in danger of starting an unhealthy relationship with the rear wheel…

…

…of a Brompton

[Jayjay]

I thought that the load of dog-o-nosh on saturday was enough cargo for now, but Mum's washing machine was condemned and ferried to the tip. When I tried the machine it not only leaked from the drum bearing but on the spin sequence sounded like a jet fighter engine. Loud.

Indesit. by John Jackson, on Flickr

[Kim]

That reminds me.  Last week I took on ballast.

[Cudzoziemiec]

What are you building this time?

[graculus]

I thought that the load of dog-o-nosh on saturday was enough cargo for now, but Mum's washing machine was condemned and ferried to the tip. When I tried the machine it not only leaked from the drum bearing but on the spin sequence sounded like a jet fighter engine. Loud.

Is that a Large or Small Y-frame? (whichever, I hope your route to the tip was flat).

[Kim]

What are you building this time?

What the Occupational Therapy department claimed was impossible...





(barakta for scale)

[MattH]

(barakta for scale)

So is that a ramp to raise the height so Barakta can do a back flip out of the door? That's what it looks like 

[Cudzoziemiec]

I hope you're going to replace the path with a swimming pool before she does that!

Confused actually. OT implies something for a Barakta-mobilitational wheelchair, but while this deals with the lip over the door framey thingy, it doesn't seem to be big enough to deal with the greater step in from outside. Or are you making another for that? I'm presuming that whatever it is will be equally useful for bikes and trikes as well.

[Kim]

Yeah, the idea is to use an off-the-shelf portable aluminium ramp for the drop from the new level step to the path, and for the indoor step between the rooms.

Ramps for PVC door frames seem to be tricky, as you can't easily one-size-fits-all them.  Once I started building it I realised that the inside and outside levels are different, that there's a slope on the concrete door step, and that nothing's quite straight.  Cue trigonometry and cutting at weird angles with a circular saw.

Still to come is the ~50mm drop between the path and the pavement.  My plan is to prise up the row of wonky bricks (visible behind barakta in the photo) and molish a small concrete ramp in their place.  Hence the bag of ballast.

Bit of a faff for bikes, and annoyingly^[1] barakta's trike doesn't fit a standard doorway, so has to be rotated sideways and carried.  Same problem with the larger Carry Freedom Y-frame trailer, actually (the smaller one is specifically designed to roll through doors), but that's an easier single-person lift.


_{[1] ICE used to make a model that did - the now legendary QNT - but they discontinued it on the grounds that people cared more about cornering stability than fitting through doorways.}

[Cudzoziemiec]

Of course nothing's quite straight, it's Victorian! I hope it all works in the end, and also that it isn't necessary permanently 

[quixoticgeek]

(barakta for scale)

Metric or imperial Barakta?

J

[andrewc]

Looks like an Imperious Barakta making a grand entrance.... 

[Kim]

I think the only thing metric about barakta is the torx bolts in her skull.

[PhilO]

Of course nothing's quite straight, it's Victorian a house! I hope it all works in the end, and also that it isn't necessary permanently 

FTFY

[Cudzoziemiec]

Looks like an Imperious Barakta making a grand entrance.... 

POTD

[Jayjay]

Is that a Large or Small Y-frame? (whichever, I hope your route to the tip was flat).
[/quote]

Large, and yes Holderness only has minor bumps. Still, it is surprising how a heavy load wants to run away on the slightest down slope.

[Ham]

Still to come is the ~50mm drop between the path and the pavement.  My plan is to prise up the row of wonky bricks (visible behind barakta in the photo) and molish a small concrete ramp in their place.  Hence the bag of ballast.

It looks like you have block pavers there, and the border row is likely bedded into concrete (or at least that would be normal practice.

The easiest (?) fix is to fill the dip that causes the lip. First, break your way into the blocks which can be tedious. Choose a suitable entry point, possibly at an edge, clear the block edges as best you can, circumstances and available tools will determine whether you can do this non-destructively, a flat pry bar can be surprisingly successful. Destructive removal depends on your available tools, drilling a double row of  holes before applying a cold chisel is one option, an SDS chisel would likely be simpler. Anyhow, with one out, you can lift an area easily, going back about (1m?) from the lip. Add sand to fill the dip, level with a (1m?) lump of wood and replace the blocks. How you deal with the destroyed piece is left to your imagination.

[Kim]

They come up easily with a pry bar; what mortar is left between the blocks is holding them in manageable clumps of two or three.  No concrete underneath.

[Ham]

If you can get the pavers up, then you're on a winner. What has likely happened is that the path pavers have dropped, and the concreted edge is proud. Solution is simply to bung some more sand under what has dropped.

It's unlikely to be mortar between the blocks, just sand and crud. When you remove the blocks, you clean the sides (should just scrape) and to finish, you sweep this stuff in over the top once they are all back down to stop movement https://www.wickes.co.uk/Dansand-No-Grow-Block-Paving-Sand---20kg/p/119555 for the posh stuff or https://www.wickes.co.uk/Tarmac-Block-Paving-Sand---Major-Bag/p/131885 for yer basic

[Kim]

I think it's just that front row of side-on blocks that forms the step to the pavement that's mortared (possibly as a contemporaneous bodge to some garden wall repair), and most of it has crumbled away to nothing due to the usual weathering processes.  Hence it's easy enough to pry up.

There's similar block paving in the back garden, and it's definitely held in place (or not, as the case may be) by gravity and weeds.  It really needs re-laying, but the landlord doesn't care, so I certainly don't.

[Kim]

And with the suitcase ramp in place:



Observant readers will note the addition of some aluminimum angle to prevent the castor wheels escaping on the down-slope.


Better picture showing the wonky end-blocks that I'm going to remove:

[TimO]

... Same problem with the larger Carry Freedom Y-frame trailer, actually (the smaller one is specifically designed to roll through doors), but that's an easier single-person lift. ...

I've never even bothered to try and do that with my Large-Y, I just take the box off (normally bungeed on), pop the wheels off, and carry everything in independently. The box, two wheels, and flat-bed are all relatively light and easy to carry. I'm all for making my life easy.

[matthew]

Nicely done Kim, though it suggests that you are preparing for a wheelchair user which is worrying.

When my parents were respite caring we had a ramp installed. As with your front door the base was not accommodating and neither was the doorstep, so the simple solution was the integral garage and the internal door from the garage to the house. This had a nice wooden door step that was easily drilled to install the locating pins for the council supplied aluminium ramp. The difficulty was it meant we had to keep the bikes parked neatly enough to be able to get through the garage with a wheelchair to get into the house.

[Kim]

Yeah, they're finally going to do barakta's osteotomy.  We're not exactly sure when, because hospitals.