Orbital First

“Poyekhali!!”

“Let’s go!” 1961 on this day (12th April) comrade Gagarin made a 90 minute lap of the globe. Historical hero!

Eyes Wide Open

Yerkes Observatory

– glorious weather for a decent jaunt around Lake Geneva WI. Stopped in at the big telescope in Williams Bay. Beautiful building that houses historical world class astronomical equipment. The dome behind the bikes has the 41” reflector.

ZX81

1k of memory

RIP Sir Clive Sinclair (1940-2021) Introducing many of us to the future.

Evening Ride

Dusk

– very nice temperatures as we rode up a fairly quiet Sheridan Road to Lake Bluff. A waxing crescent moon hung over the western horizon. A hint of earth glow countered with a bright Venus.

Clocks

Distance over Time

– I’m reading a book about the meaning of time right now. And, as we know when time is concerned, Speed is of the essence…

Rocket Man

Escape Velocity

– British Astronaut Tim Peake was loaned an Apollo-like Triumph Rocket Three which he immediately took for an orbit of the English countryside. NASA, one of your spacecraft is missing!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1..

Blast Off!

Let’s light this candle! Weekend ahoy! A Rocket 3 orbital launch vehicle: 165hp and 163 ft lbs in the 2.5 liter powerhouse of an engine.

May the Forth

Speeder Bike – Moon of Endor

– the first time I saw this chase scene in the movie theater back in ‘83 I was blown away. You were flung through the forest at breakneck speed as if you were aboard with Luke & Leia.

“You built a time machine…

… out of a DeLorean?”

– Launched 40 years ago today the brushed stainless steel paneled car with the full-wing doors was an eye-catcher from day one. Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro it earned worldwide fame in Back to the Future as Doc Browns 1.21 gigawatt powered time machine.

Tweeting

Birdwatching

– Robin Wilfred Woods (1936-2020) was a noted ornithologist and botanist who made his career based in Port Stanley on the Falkland Islands. From extensive field work netting and ringing the birds much was learned of the avians of the South Atlantic. His narrow focused Birds of the Falkland Islands is a classic of its genre. With few finished roads across the bleak British outpost a motorcycle is a usual form of transport. Here’s Robin on a 50’s BSA roughing it over the moors near Goose Green.

Repair 101

Duct Tape

– Moon River fender fix. The fine dust kicks up under spirited acceleration as the Apollo 17 astronauts venture up the slope of Taurus-Littrow valley in search of geological samples. Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmidt were the last people to venture past low earth orbit nearly 48 years ago. A damaged fender was repaired by taping moon maps together and clamping them across the mesh tires.

Invention

Science & Technology

– the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment. This publication has been in circulation for nearly 150 years so undoubtedly there has been various suggestions for the improvement of motorcycles. The tracked adventure bike looks particularly intriguing.

Lord of the Rings

Pioneer 11

– on this day in 1979 a NASA probe became the first to encounter Saturn and its impressive rings. A gold anodized aluminum plaque designed by Carl Sagan, was attached to the robots body in case in some distant future should it be intercepted by some alien intelligence its graphics may explain its origins. We’ll be long gone by then… but at least in some far flung corner a little hint of our existence will be drifting about.

Fox River

Fabyan Windmill

– standing proudly on the east bank of the Fox River near Geneva IL a mid Nineteenth Century Dutch mill offers an historic backdrop to my early morning ride along the Tri-City region between Elgin and Aurora. The all wood structure is fully functional driven from its fabric covered sails. This pre-industrial age technology was a stark contrast to the particle accelerator at nearby Fermilab with its circular Tevatron which runs its circular path around a prairie grassland.

Neurology

Of Brains & Bikes

“Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.” Dr Oliver Sacks