lousy mobile internet at Falls Creek from Vodafone and Crazy Johns

Staying at Falls Creek.

There is zero coverage on the actual ski slopes for vodafone.

In our chalet in Falls Creek Village, we get max signal strength on our phones and voice calls work well BUT internet it very poor.  Long delays as screens refresh.  Frustratingly slow.

I have tried
Android Phone with Vodafone -> Max signal and "H"
Android Phone with Crazy John -> Max signal "E"
Vodafone "Pocket Wifi" -> Max signal 3G

All terrible.
The Pocet wifi actually seems to be worse than the phones.

Travelling the universe

On saturday we awoke from our slumber in Narrabri and began our drive South.  Someone had this inane idea to follow the planets all the way to the sun.  Well we missed pluto which be believe is north of Narrabri.

Do you feel duped?

 Dan, Sammy & Chris

 Jemma

 A line of letterboxes was seen as quaintly aussie and so in honur of our exchange student, we decided to stand behind them

Getting Hotter

High Drama on the drive to Falls Creek

After we left Siding Springs there was the usual indecision as the Thomson's turned left and and the Koning's turned right. After that was resolved, we enjoyed a scenic drive through the warrumbungles.  

We have discovered that our exchaneg student - sarah - has a creepy phobia.  It appears that Germany does not have spiders and snakes.  So each night Sarah checks her bed for rodents and even then does not sleep soundly.  So you can imagine her horror when confronted with a redback.  The Aussie (left) of course had no fear and attempted to entice the

Then Paul pulled over and we opened the bonnet and all looked.  General consensus was that it was an engine and that it was still there.  We poured all but one of our water bottles in. 

Megan had the great idea to go walkabout for water while Cybele called the RACQ.  They put us through and eventually the mecahnic in Narrabri advised that it would take a few hours to tow us and even then no one would look at it until Monday.  Hmm. 

So we hopped the fence a few times and re filled our water bottles alomg with a few that we found on the road side.  The car consumed an amazing amount of water.  We experimented with driving with the radiator cap on and off and decided that OFF was the way to go.

This wonderful little petrol station was closed but the lady opened up and we bought soft drink and sausages in case we were stuck, we figured we could kindle a fire beside the road.  Re filled the water bottles and continued.

Every so often we would stop and re check and the distances between stops increased as we traveled on.



Falls Creek - First Night

We are at Falls Creek staying at the Red Onion. We are the only the occupants.  This photo is our fst night dinner.



Fix pro50z dirt bike

There are a few problems with the Crusty Deamons pro50z pit bike

Some kind of carbie problem (I assume) that makes it hard to start.
The gear change leaver has a damaged spline and thread
The clutch is jammed in the engaged position.

And of course I know next to nothing about small chinese motor bikes.
We are going to start with the clutch.
To that end I have searched the net and not had success in locating photos or an exploded view.
I have posted a question here:


http://www.miniriders.com/chinese-minis/36849-pro50z.html

This is the bike.  Friends may recall Chris rode it into the back of Paul & Cybele's car a few years back.

This is with the cover plate removed.  When you pull the clutch leaver on the handle bars, the cable moves toward the top of the picture.  This makes the shaft turn and then the black bolt in the middle of the picture moves outward.







My plan, unless someone gives me a better idea is to
1.  Drain the oil from the crank case.
2.  Undo the bolts that hold the chrome casing on
3.  Hope that noting falls out before I get to see where to put it back in.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2-OCT-2012 UPDATE
I left for work and gave Dan instructions top drain the oil and remove the covers.
Here are the photos.
We concluded that the clutch is probably OK.

There are 4 bolt lengths

This picture shows where 1,2 & 3 go.  All the rest are size 4











The clutch housing cover pulls off over the kick starter shaft.

Remove the kick starter and don't loose the bolt.  (Put it back in the kick starter for later).

The foot rest prevented the clutch housing cover from being removed.

Remove the foot rests and stand assembly.  It's bolted to the crank case with 4 bolts.

We had to lean the bike against the table because the stand was being removed.

Foot rests and stand assembly -
The short bolts go toward the back of the bike.

This disappointing out of focus photo shows the clutch.  It looks like some kind of brake shoe type clutch.  You can see the 4 springs.

This doodad pushed against the bearing in the centre of the clutch (see pics above and below) and disengages the clutch.

This little thing popped out.  Dunno what it does.  Maybe some kind person can leave a comment.

It was not rusty and I was not game to dismantle it any further.  Suspect that we are just not pulling on the cable hard enough.

Incidentally on the other side we see the magneto.

And the chain tensioner - not tensioning.  Another thing to fix!






-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Gear changer had slipped around the shaft and the kids had used a pair of vice grips as a gear changer and wrecked the spline.

The thread in the gear changer was stripped.  So we put in a longer bolt and added a nut (can't see) and tightened it up unit it gave.  Well the gear changer cracked.  I am not sure if this is the original gear changer or another used one I had lying around.  Anyway it's now cracked!.  Blast!


these chinese engines seem to use parts from a Honda C90 engine.






This link points to a page with an exploded view of the clutch assembly.
http://www.hondatrailbikes.com/catalog/performance.php
Quote:
"If the clutch nut is not torqued on, it will result in knocking, spline damage etc. Please do not try to tighten the clutch nut with a hammer and screwdriver – use a clutch nut socket."

Sing for Your Supper

Grammar music department ran an event in the Centenary Hall titled "Sing for Your Supper".  That the music would be good went without saying.  The memorable thing was it was free.  It was a great night.  We all brought our own food and Grammar supplied tables and chairs.  One thing I liked about it was that when one goes to a school music function, one sits through many acts which whilst musically good, they do not have your kid in them and so they are just another school kid performance.  At the sing for your supper we were able to distract ourselves with some wine and cheese.  The other thing I thought was good was a short break between acts to allow us to chat as one does when one is sitting at a table with food and friends.

Marcus centre top row

LHS- Ian & Fay, Chris
RHS-Dan, Sarah, Jemma, Megan

In this piece, a number of the boys stepped forward out of the choir and danced with mothers & girlfriends.  It was really nice.

This junior choir entertained us with a rendition of "We are the Champions".  The audience were invited to join in although this photo does not do justice to the large number of audience hands that waved back and forth.

We assumed that this was in celebration of the Grammar first's victory against Nudgee in Rugby earlier in the afternoon.  We thought that it must have been a very bold move on the part of the conductor to rehearse such a song.  Some of us at our table wondered if they had rehearsed "we are the losers...." as a contingency? 

Doctors and Nurses

Well it's all doctors and nurses around here.

Mid last week, Marcus goes to the doc with a couple of rather large pimples. Turns out they are some kind of staf infection. One in his leg is cleaned out leaving a 5 to 6 mm hole and behind that a cavity the size of a marble. Apparently a whole lot of goop came out. In parallel with all of this he is on some high powered antibiotic.

Then today, chis has a bit of a bump in football.  It's the dying moments of a BGS football tragedy.  The 13C's are loosing a gazillion Nil to Nudgee.  There are seconds to go and Grammar are 10m from the line.

This is the first half.    The accident is at the end of the second half.

 Chris has the ball and he is running in the right direction. Crash and he is on the ground.  People gather round and the magic water is poured but unfortunately it does not work.  The ref blows full time and everyone gives three cheers for everyone else.  A lady with a glow in the dark vest driving a golf buggy is driving past carrying the dead from another gladiatorial encounter she advises that she is full but the smell of more death soon draws her back. 

Chris is loaded and transported to the first aid tent.  While ice is applied and on lookers express sympathy, the head mortician takes a waiting patient on their final journey.  While she is away, Chirs asks for the ice to be removed as it is extremely painful.  Upon the ambulance lady's return, we discover the ice was really a test for potential fracture and the hyper sensitivity pointing to a potential fracture.

So once again Chris and I board the buggy complete with car keys, bags and drink bottles and the kind lady drives us to the edge of the school and then walks with Chris the 20m to our car.  Megan and the rest of our entourage stay to watch the firsts.

Chris reclined in the back of the Vito with sick bag and water bottle at hand.  We proceeded down Sangate road.  The GPS advised 15 minutes to Royal Childrens Hospital but it seemed unaware of the Airport link tunnel and that chopped the time down to about 5 minutes.  Upon arrival, we were seen pretty quickly but then the waiting began. 

2:35pm
Megan text'd us and the score was 19-3 Nudgee way.  How bad can it get!

Chris's arm was X-ray'd.  No longer are films developed.  The 'plate' was some kind of wireless sensor that zapped the image into the bowls of the health department computer system.  lets hope this system is not managed by the same burocrats who manage the payroll system or we might be queued for a kidney transplant. 

2:48pm
More waiting and Megan text's us that the score is 19-6 Nudgee way.  Good to see an improvement.

We hung around the computer expecting to have a look at the X-rays but eventually a couple of nurses (I guess) turned up and pronounced the diagnosis and the the treatment was a temporary cast and some bandages.  Apparantly swelling prevents the application of a full cast for a few days. 

2:53pm and the score is 19-11.  This is good.


Half time and Nudgee turn on the entertainment.  Megan advise by texrt "A drum line and 6 bulls".

6 bulls.  What kind of auto-correct has resulted in 6-bulls.  Megan confirms 4 legged animals but one escapes and trys to take out the drum line and then turns it's attention to the grammar supporters.  Ah ha the Nudgee secret weapon.  If you can't beat em, trample them.
3:30pm  19-25

24-25  Nudgee are getting louder.

24-37 BGS takes the cake and Nudgee gets to shovel...... And the rest of us bask in the reflected glory.  (BGS vs Nudgee)