I just finished a blog post on our success at the Doo Dah Parade on Saturday.

http://www.danielbusby.com/kinetic-sculpture/taking-it-to-the-streets

We've got a little more tweaking to do, but we'll probably start scheduling the rides and meals very shortly.  It looks like May 20th will be a good day for a party celebrating all of the support and hard work everyone has given to this project.  We'll mix up some delicious drinks and we'll do laps in the parking lot.  Details will come soon.

Recently, I went back and looked at pictures from when we began this project.  They seemed so long ago.  We had some rough ideas, but most of the details had yet to be thought about.  Our team started working on the wheels in mid-December.  Finally, in late April, we are doing laps in the parking lot!  A rough tally of time spent on the project put us at over 1000 man-hours.  Of course, that time was spent hanging out with friends, drinking beer, puzzling over problems and learning new skills, so it was definitely worth it.

Here's a photos of the latest drive. 

We did a few laps around the parking lot with smiles on our faces.  Not everything worked, but we're going to spend some time tweaking it today.

I spent hours polishing the silver this morning.  We'll be ready for a fancy meal on the feast tomorrow for the Doo Dah Parade.  Come out and cheer for us!  The rest of the parade is just as bizarre and fun, so it's well worth it.

Thanks to everyone for your monetary support of this project.  Without that we would've had to really cut corners, and it wouldn't have been nearly as interesting or amazing.  From the bottom of my heart, thank you!

Soon, we'll start arranging the dinners/bike rides for the summer.  I'll be in contact with you individually.  I can't wait to enjoy some fantastic conversation while we cruise through the city.

We made some great progress over the past few weeks.  I've been trying to keep up with my blogging, but I'm a little behind.  We've got things to this state right now:

We've got a lot of things to finish up, from the drivetrain to the steering and brakes.  But, we can almost taste the delicious food we'll be enjoying!  We're on pace for the Doo Dah Parade!  Next month we'll start distributing rides, meals, and smiles.  Once again thanks for all of the support!

Thanks so much everyone for your amazing generosity.  80 of you guys pledged $5088!  I am humbled and a little overwhelmed by the outpouring of support.  It means so much to have friends and strangers alike support this crazy idea.  It's a contraption of pure whimsy and fun, but you each threw in hard earned money to support it.  I'm even more pumped to get it finished and share it with all of you.  Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!

Well, we didn't sit on our laurels this weekend.  We plunged ahead with working on the drivetrain.  We're limited a bit in what we can do until the rest of our chromoly steel comes in.  So, we decided to start welding our sprockets to our hubs.  Holden figured out that our transmission could be brought under main pilot's gearing.  We had to move things around just a little bit, but we think we can get it to work.  This will make many things easier, our bike will get shorter, stiffer, and stronger.  And it will be easier to build our rear suspension with the transmission out of the way.

We made so much progress that I'm not going to document it all here.  Let it be known that things are progressing!

We also went to the flea market and brought home a huge pile of plates, cups, serving dishes, wine chillers, etc.  We've got enough for multiple tables of stuff!

Thanks so much, everyone!  I'll be in touch with you guys as we make more progress.  We'll arrange for the rides and dinners to take place this spring and summer.  I'm about to purchase copies of A Moveable Feast for our group to sign, so we can hand those out.  If you'd like to get a book, but didn't get one with your reward, let me know soon.  They're about $12 after shipping.

Thanks again guys!  We're tickled pink by your support!  We're going to start working every weekend and a few weeknights to continue on our accelerated progress.  Woo Hoo!