Vegas and other Adventures

  The end of september was a busy time for me, I had to go the Vegas and display at the Interbike show, had to finish up a couple of new projects and finally got to start running again, that was a ugly event.

When you’re gone from Vegas you tend to forget how crazy that place is, as soon as you get off the plane there are slot machines everywhere.  I have a theory that one of the main reasons the local economy sucks in Vegas is because there are slots everywhere.  You go to the 7-11, the gas station, the grocery store and there are slots. I’m not against gambling at all but I think this constant surrounding of slot machines, electronic Black Jack, etc.  drains a whole lot of the local money that might should be going for groceries.  But Vegas is amazing, there are beautiful canals, very fancy shops and much glamor every where you look.   We set up our nice Cobb Cycling display booth and visited with many, many , industry friends. I think we got a great reception to our new model Mountain bike seats and our new SHC road saddles.  These are long days and when they are over your feet are cooked, your back is stiff and your ears are ringing.

   Once Interbike was over we decided to do a little tourism of the area. I had been to Hoover Dam many years ago so Ginger and I loaded up to go see it again. Seems like it has changed a lot since I was 10 or 12 years old. The water level is about 20 – 30 feet lower, the traffic is non stop and there is security everywhere. It was fun and I have that checked off of my bucket list now.

 We returned home and after I rested a couple of days I decided I would go race my slot cars on the new track we built. I think it was the first night of racing on the new track so everyone had to do a lot of car chassis work. Unfortunately I was still a little tired from vegas and I couldn’t get my brain/finger to communicate so my night was a disaster. Tuesday night will be the next race and I plan to do a whole bunch better.

This past Saturday morning was just beautiful, we got up and did a 45 mile ride, came home and planned to nap all afternoon. Planned was all because the phone rang and my riding buddy James was having a car problem and needed a little help. James had spent the last few months completely rebuilding a 1956 Porsche 356 car, he and his brave wife were going to drive it to Utah on Saturday AM, for a Porsche ralley. When he went to fill the car up with gas, the clutch started slipping and he barely got home, my job was going to be to adjust the clutch. After a little study I decided that we were going to need to pull the motor, James’s wife was a little concerned about now. Out came the motor, we found a new clutch and put the motor back in, except that it wouldn’t fit.  The new clutch was slightly different so we had to pull the motor back out. We found another clutch, James’s wife was a little more concerned but I said “no problem” as we continued working. Then, we broke this key motor stud off the motor which was a big problem, so, we pulled the motor back out.  We had to go to my house and I machined up a new stud, drilled and tapped the old one and got everything ready.  It was 5 o’clock now and James’s wife was a little concerned, I told her everything would be running by 6pm.  We got the motor back in and got everything hooked up, we fired the motor, 6:15, and we’re high fiving ourselves.  James went to go for a test ride when we discovered that there were no gears to be found, something was bad wrong that we obviously missed.   James and a much less concerned wife, loaded into the Honda and left for Utah, maybe in a couple of weeks we will figure this out.   In a very wierd way, this was a lot of fun except that in the end the car didn’t work but getting into a last minute mechanical crisis is fun every now and then.

  Next week I’m off to the wind tunnel at Texas A&M for a couple of days of testing, I plan to film a lot of smoke to help better show how air goes over riders.  Going to the tunnel is always a great learning time but I always leave with a huge headache.

~ by johncobbresearch on October 4, 2010.