Good morning Mossberg Owners.
It was hot again yesterday and it has been 100 and more every day.
I’ve been working on a little coaster brake, and it’s an updated version of something that was made for a long time.
The main difference in all of them was the wedge assembly that engaged the brakes or the sprocket, depending on which way you peddled.
So this reminded me of the story of Alvin (AJ) Musselman.
His son Morris published a book called
Wheels in His Head.
It’s a rather short but fun book, that has some very interesting history about tires, brakes, cars, bicycles, racing, airplanes, golf, & strange inventions.
My mom gave me a copy of that book when I was about seven years old, and I gave her one when she was about 87. I don’t have to read it again because the stories are still in my memory. This is one of the first things I read after I graduated from
Little Golden Books and
Quickdraw McGraw.
AJ was an early motorist & one of the tales is how he sold a man a car only because it was able to climb The steepest hill in town.
AJ Knew that the car couldn’t climb it even in low gear, but he boasted his car was so powerful it would climb it backwards.
The reverse gear was so low, that the underpowered car managed to climb the hill, and was sold on the spot.
There’s quite a bit of adventure too, touring with an automobile in the days before road maps, when you had to rely on the notes of other motorists.
People who were brought up on things like Google maps would be amazed to read that stuff.
Anyhow I need to spend some time cleaning up my junk yard today and I’ve got some bicycle parts to work on indoors where it’s cooler once it warms up.
Later I’m going to cook chicken à la Weber Smoky Mountain. It was Nitesite that recommended it to me 5 years ago, and it has served me very well.