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#tricycle manufacturers
funridetoy · 2 years
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Buy the best and the safest toys for your kids from Funride Toy manufacturers.
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sweeperrimwheel · 11 months
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Go to the West Rim is you are looking for thrills and attractions
Making a choice on whether to visit the Skywalk or Grand Canyon National Park while staying in Vegas? That's a tough one. Both attractions are worth the trip. However, there are several logistical and budgetary differences amongst the two that can help solve the dilemma for you. For your consideration:TimeDriving from Las Vegas to the West Rim takes 2.5 hours and from Vegas to the South Rim takes 5.5 hours. Both trips take a full day. West Rim bus tours will have you back on The Strip by 6.p.m. while South Rim bus tours will get you back to your resort-hotel by 9 p.m. DistanceThe West Rim is 128 miles from Vegas; The South Rim is 279 miles. Both are relatively long trips. Luckily, today's tour buses are packed with amenities like personalized A/C unites,Tricycle rim wheel manufacturers oversized seats, head rests, and ample leg room. Most tours include plenty of rest stops where you can get off the bus and stretch your legs. Some include a photo stop at Hoover Dam. ActivitiesHere's where the two Rims begin to separate. Go to the West Rim is you are looking for thrills and attractions. Visit the South Rim if you are looking for spectacular scenery. The South Rim is also more developed and features more dining, hiking, and shopping opportunities. Here are specifics: South RimView PointsThe National Park is loaded with famous lookouts like Mather Point, Yaki Point, Hermit's Rest, Yavapai Observation Station, and more. DiningLots of casual dining here. The Bright Angel Lodge restaurant serves up home-style cooking that's affordable. Go to Maswick Lodge for cafeteria-style dining. There's a small snack bar behind the the Lodge. High-end dining (and cocktails) can be had at El Tovar Hotel. Near Mather Campground is a supermarket with deli, fried foods, and pizza. Gift ShopsSomething for everyone. Hopi House specializes in Native American crafts (can be pricey). The gift shop at Bright Angel Lodge, Verkamp's, and Lookout Studio are good for souvenirs. Visit Kolb Studio for fine western art. West RimSkywalkThe Glass Bridge has become Las Vegas' hottest "off-Strip" attraction. Since opening to the public in 2007, more than 1 million people have experienced the Bridge. The structure itself is a marvel: It's made entirely of glass and lets you walk 70 feet past the edge of the rim whereupon you will be suspended 4,000 feet over the Colorado River. Hualapai RanchIncludes a traditional western town with live gunfights. Grand Canyon river rafting and horseback riding adventures are staged from here. Helicopter flights take visitors to bottom of the Canyon. Over-night accommodations are available for longer stays. LookoutsThe most popular lookout is Eagle Point. Magnificent views are to be had. Be warned - There's no guardrail. The area includes an Indian village and outdoor amphitheater for talks on local culture, flora, and fauna. Souvenir Shops/RestaurantsThe West Rim continues to be evolving. So far, there's a souvenir shop. Inside, the facility is nicely supplied with souvenirs and snacks. Bus tours include a delicious BBQ lunch prepared by the Hualapai. WeatherElevation at the South Rim is more than 6,000 feet, which is 1,500 feet higher than the West Rim's, so expect cooler temperatures. That said, both rims are home to extreme weather conditions. Here's a quick look at annual temperatures for both rims: Glass Bridge/West RimElevation is 4,700 feet.Jan. - March Average high temperature: 70 degrees. Avg. low: 43 degrees. April - June: Average high temperature: 96 degrees. Avg. low: 65 degrees. July - Sept.: Avg. high temp.: 105 degrees. Average low: 76 degrees. Oct. - Dec.: Average high temperature: 76 degrees. Average low: 46 degrees. South RimElevation is 7,000 feetJan. - March Average high temperature: 45 degrees. Avg. low temp.: 21 degrees. April - June: Avg. high temp.: 69 degrees. Avg. low: 39 degrees. July - Sept.: Average high temperature: 82 degrees. Average low: 52 degrees.
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richajain11 · 2 years
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parthfibrotech · 2 years
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Tricycle Rickshaw Manufacturers In Nagpur India - Parthfibrotech
Tricycle Rickshaw Manufacturers In Nagpur India, Find a wide Range of Waste Handling Products Such as Wheel Borrow, Litter Bins, FRP Small Container, HDPE Wheeled Dustbin, FRP Wheeled Dustbin And many More
https://www.parthfibrotech.in/tricycle-rickshaw/
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weird plane time!!
since i have a random unusual aircraft generator and see a severe lack of any fun airplane facts (especially on the obscure/strange ones), i decided "fuck it" and step up to give tumblr some fun little airplanes.
and for the first post....it's a helicopter.
the Bell YAH-63 (aka Bell model 409).
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(link to wiki page)
this fine fella was an experimental attack helicopter created by Bell Helicopters, and it was to compete for the Advanced Attack Helicopter (AAH) competition.
bassically, the AAH competition was exactly what it sounded like; a competition between aircraft manufactures to see who could create the best next attack helicopter for the US Army. more specifically, as wikipedia states: "the Army's broader concern was the task of protecting Western Europe from the numerous Warsaw Pact tanks to the east"
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what the army wanted was an attack helicopter that was better than the AH-1 Cobra in both range, firepower and performance. the YAH-63, alongside the YAH-64 (which would later become the well-known AH-64 apache), competed for that title.
unfortunately, the YAH-63 lost. why? well, the Army said that the two-bladed rotors made it "more vulnerable", and believed that the tricycle landing gear was less stable than the taildragger landing gear that the Apache had.
three helicopters total were made. the first one crashed a few months after it's initial flight. the other two were the ones that actually competed.
wikipedia doesnt state were the other two prototypes went. however, searching through google, i found that both examples of them ended up as the United States Army Aviation Museum near Daleville, Alabama:
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and as an avigeek who advocates for the preservation of historical aircraft (and especially the rare and weird ones), i always love it when prototypes like these are spared from being scraped/destroyed. they really are a one-of-a-kind.
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The Aeroprakt A-32 is a two-seat, high-wing, tricycle gear ultralight aircraft that was designed by Yuri Yakovlev and is manufactured by Aeroprakt in Ukraine, Limbaži, Latvia, June 10, 2023. Photo by D.P.
P.S. Aircraft is registered in Lithuania...Despite the efforts of the Russians and their hired "useful fools" to destroy the economies of the Baltic states and Ukraine, the countries of the region are developing mutual economic relations also in such a technologically demanding sector as aviation...
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transmutationisms · 5 months
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i am not asking advice i am just complaining so feel free to delete or whatever. but caden i went off ssris a couple years ago after half a lifetime on em, and am planning to wean off a predictably useless anxiolytic soon (still taking an antidepressant for sleep and stimmies for fun and profit), only to find out the first line treatments for my pain disorder are. SNRIs and tricyclics. im so mad about this. they don't even work for that many people lol there's just not much else. pain n suffring
this is like when they put me on a tricyclic for jaw pain lmao it's literally so annoying. it didn't even do jack. and like 75% of the time the reason antidepressants are even recommended in the first place is because the manufacturers will just do clinical trials for like any named condition that insurance companies will cover and if they can get a few positive results then bam, drug market expanded. i read they literally just did one of those with ssri's for long covid it's so dogshit out here
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Antique advertisement for Eames Tricycle wheelchair.
Tan square with Eames Tricycle Co. Title across the top of the advertisement. Underneath the title is the following:
"Manufacturers and patentees of the very latest designs of Tricycles for the crippled. Also Tricycles for those who would" the sentence is cut off and a large photo of a man in an antique suit sits cross legged in the Tricycle wheelchair wearing a bowler hat.
Beneath the photo is the continuation of the paragraph from above the photo. The words read: "like the pleasures of cycling and ride the bicycle. Wheelchairs for ids, and Hospital Appliances...Illustrated catalog." Below the paragraph is the reiterated title of Eames Tricycle Co. And their address.
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pwlanier · 1 year
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Racing Star High Wheel Bicycle
American, circa 1887, manufactured by H.B. Smith Machine Company, metal, vulcanized rubber, and leather, velocipede with large back wheel (over 50 in.) and small front wheel, overall approximately 60 x 65 x 25 in.
Comes with photocopy of an 1889 "Star Bicycles and Tricycles Manufactured by H.B. Smith Machine Company" catalog.
Brunk Auctions
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usafphantom2 · 1 year
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VS-27 Grumman S2F-1 Tracker 136615 (AU-10) by Wing attack Plan R Via Flickr: Grumman S2F-1 (S-2A) Tracker/Bu.No. 136615 -Upgraded to S-2F. -1961: VS-27 as AU-10. -VS-32 as AT-42. - 1966: VS-32. -8/1966: Put into storage at MASDC. -Converted to US-2A. -1968: MCAS New River Base Flight. -11/19/1968: Written off. Photo Credit's: Unknown to me (Reprint). Photo date: 1961-62. Location: Aboard USS Essex (CV-9)? The Grumman S-2 Tracker (S2F prior to 1962) was the first purpose-built, single airframe anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft to enter service with the United States Navy. Designed and initially built by Grumman, the Tracker was of conventional design — propeller-driven with twin radial engines, a high wing that could be folded for storage on aircraft carriers, and tricycle undercarriage. The type was exported to a number of navies around the world. Introduced in 1952, the Tracker and its E-1 Tracer derivative saw service in the U.S. Navy until the mid-1970s, and its C-1 Trader derivative until the mid-1980s, with a few aircraft remaining in service with other air arms into the 21st century. Argentina and Brazil are the last countries to still use the Tracker. Design and development- The Tracker was intended as a replacement for the Grumman AF Guardian, which was the first purpose-built aircraft system for ASW, using two airframes for two versions, one with the detection gear, and the other with the weapon systems. The Tracker combined both functions in one aircraft. Grumman's design (model G-89) was for a large high-wing monoplane with twin Wright Cyclone R-1820 nine cylinder radial engines, a yoke type arrestor hook and a crew of four. Both the two prototypes XS2F-1 and 15 production aircraft, S2F-1 were ordered at the same time, on 30 June 1950. The first flight was conducted on 4 December 1952, and production aircraft entered service with VS-26, in February 1954. Follow-on versions included the WF Tracer and TF Trader, which became the Grumman E-1 Tracer and Grumman C-1 Trader in the tri-service designation standardization of 1962. The S-2 carried the nickname "Stoof" (S-two-F) throughout its military career; and the E-1 Tracer variant with the large overhead radome was colloquially called the "stoof with a roof.". Grumman produced 1,185 Trackers. At least 99 and possibly 100 aircraft carrying the CS2F designation were manufactured in Canada under license by de Havilland Canada. U.S.-built versions of the Tracker were sold to various nations, including Australia, Japan, Turkey and Taiwan. Sensors and armament- The Tracker had an internal torpedo bay capable of carrying two lightweight aerial torpedoes or one nuclear depth charge. There were six underwing hard points for rocket pods and conventional depth charges or up to four additional torpedoes. A ventrally-mounted retractable radome for AN/APS-38 radar and a Magnetic Anomaly Detector (MAD) AN/ASQ-8 mounted on an extendable rear mounted boom were also fitted. Early model Trackers had an Electronic Support Measures (ESM) pod mounted dorsally just aft of the front seat overhead hatches and were also fitted with a smoke particle detector or "sniffer" for detecting exhaust particles from diesel-electric submarines running on snorkel. Later S-2s had the sniffer removed and had the ESM antennae moved to four rounded extensions on the wingtips. A 70-million-candlepower searchlight was mounted on the starboard wing. The engine nacelles carried JEZEBEL sonobuoys in the rear (16 in early marks, 32 in the S-2E/G). Early Trackers also carried 60 explosive charges, dispensed ventrally from the rear of the fuselage and used to create sound pulses for semi-active sonar (JULIE) with the AN/AQA-3 and later AQA-4 detection sets, whereas the introduction of active sonobuoys (pingers) and AN/AQA-7 with the S-2G conversion saw these removed. Smoke dispensers were mounted on the port ventral surface of the nacelles in groups of three each.
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funridetoy · 2 years
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Funride kids Product Manufacturer
Many times dealers, wholesalers, bulk buyers and businesses look for brands that are best kids product manufacturers in the market. Some can find them, some are not, like most of kids product manufacturers are not very active online, dealers and manufacturers are often unable to get in touch with them through social networking sites, but Dash baby toys manufacturers are available on all the platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and more. Since the brand is highly active on these platforms, anyone concerning the business of kids product manufacturer. Be it baby swing manufacturing, baby car manufacturing, baby trike manufacturing, we always try to deliver our best to our end consumer as baby toy manufacturers. Over the years Dash toys have been constantly working on developing its network and engaging with more and more businesses. Over 4 decades, we have realized as baby toys manufacturer, our end consumer wants to get only the best, be it with quality, innovation, safety, durability or designs. Recently, Dash toys attended baby toys expo and fair in Hong Kong and it turned out to be a very interactive opportunity. Interactions like these are very beneficial for brands like ours, and fairs, exhibitions allow us to be more aware of the market requirements. Dash toys are a baby car manufacturer, baby swing manufacturer, baby tricycle manufacturer and other kids product manufacturer. If your business involves selling baby products, Dash toys baby toys manufacturer can be one of the best choices of the market. Dash toys is also a preferred name when it comes to baby toys exporter in Delhi due to the high-quality products available. For building a strong name in we constantly work on creating products that will be durable and innovative. Know more about dash baby ride from our website www.dashbabyrides.com
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gsbowman3 · 6 months
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The Good Life
Should I start to count The fingerprints on my glasses? The glasses I see through Or the ones I drink from? Should I play A hand of pinochle With my grandpa, In the sunroom of his Manufactured home In Barefoot Bay, Thirty years ago? Once around the neighborhood On my grandma’s tricycle, As contentment rises From each wheel. A sunny day by the pool, Playing shuffleboard— Yeah,…
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lonestarflight · 2 years
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Space Shuttle Construction and Subcontractors
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To build the Space Shuttle Orbiter Vehicle, Rockwell International subcontracted out several parts of the Space Shuttle to several other companies. Here's a list of the individual major part manufacturers and where it was constructed:
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Center fuselage: General Dynamics Corporation (San Diego, CA)
Forward fuselage: Rockwell International (Downey, CA)
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Rear fuselage: Rockwell International (Downey, CA)
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Crew Module: Rockwell International (Downey, CA)
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Auxiliary Motorization Pods (OMS): McDonnell Douglas (St. Louis, Missouri)
Main Engines (SSME): Rocketdyne (Canoga Park, CA)
Auxiliary Engines (OMS): Aerojet General (Sacramento, CA)
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Wings: Grumman Aerospace Corporation (Bethpage, New York)
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Elevons: Grumman Aerospace Corporation (Bethpage, New York)
Landing gear doors: Grumman Aerospace Corporation (Bethpage, New York)
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Vertical tail: Fairchild Republic Company (Farmingdale, New York)
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Cargo doors: North American Rockwell divisions (Tulsa, Oklahoma)
Fuselage flap: Columbus Aircraft Division of Rockwell International (Columbus, Ohio)
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Tricycle Landing Gear: Menasco Manufacturing Company (Burbank, CA)
Wheels: BF Goodrich (Troy, Ohio)
Brakes: BF Goodrich (Troy, Ohio)
Tires: BF Goodrich (Troy, Ohio)
source, source, source, source, source, source
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parthfibrotech · 2 years
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Tricycle Rickshaw Manufacturers In India - Parthfibrotech
Tricycle Rickshaw Manufacturers In Nagpur India, Find a wide Range of Waste Handling Products Such as Wheel Borrow, Litter Bins, FRP Small Container, HDPE Wheeled Dustbin, FRP Wheeled Dustbin And many More
https://www.parthfibrotech.in/tricycle-rickshaw/
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papermoonloveslucy · 1 year
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TOUR DE LUCY!
Lucy & Cycling
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Pedal Power!  When not motorized or on foot power, Lucy biked!  Here’s a look at bikes, trikes, and other likes. 
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Ben Mankiewicz’s podcast relates that Lucille Ball, as a young Hollywood hopeful, biked to work. 
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Broadway Thru a Keyhole (1933) ~  A bevy of costumed chorines - including an uncredited Lucille Ball, Susan Fleming and Ann Sothern - wheel around a giant nightclub stage to the tune of “When You Were a Girl on a Scooter (And I Was the Boy on the Bike)”. This was Lucille Ball’s second film. It also featured Charles Lane and Walter Winchell. 
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Palm Springs Weekend (1942) ~ An RKO short in which newlyweds Lucy and Desi rent a tandem bike to tour Palm Canyon, stopping to take snapshots. 
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“The Lost Pilot” (1951) ~ Pepito the Clown (Pepito Perez) was a good friend of Desi Arnaz. In the long-unaired pilot episode for “I Love Lucy” Pepito rides the world’s smallest bicycle, a routine that was part of his stage act.  
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“The Audition” (1951) ~ When the unaired pilot’s script was recycled into the regular series, Pepito was replaced by Buffo the Clown (Pat Moran) who injures himself trying to do a handstand on the handlebars of a (full-sized) bicycle. Resting at the Ricardo’s apartment, he tries the stunt again and careens through the kitchen door. His replacement is Lucy as ‘The Professor’, although she doesn’t ride the bike! 
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“Lucy’s Show-Biz Swan Song” (1952) ~ When the episode was running short, Desi Arnaz invited Pepito to do some of his act from the unaired pilot, including the world’s smallest bicycle routine.  
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The tiny bike (one of two) is six inches wide by ten inches high, manufactured by Anderson, Melbourne, Australia, in 1928. It was at one time entered into Ripley’s Believe It or Not. Pepito was in Australia in 1928 for an extended vaudeville tour, and he must have ordered this bicycle at that time. It is now one of the artifacts in the Lucy-Desi Museum’s collection. A special case was been constructed to exhibit it.
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“Lucy Fakes Illness” (1953) ~ To convince Ricky she is going through her second childhood, Lucy rides a tricycle through the living room! 
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“The Ricardo’s Change Apartments” (1953) ~ Lucy fills the apartment to the brim with toys and baby items to convince Ricky they need a bigger apartment. Among the explosion of tot props is a tricycle and a bicycle! 
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“Bon Voyage” (1956) ~ A bicycle is Lucy’s undoing when boarding the S.S. Constitution for Europe. Saying one last farewell to Little Ricky on the dock, her skirt gets caught in the chain of a messenger bike, delaying her timely boarding. She even tries to board with the bicycle!
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“Lucy’s Bicycle Trip” (1956) ~ When leaving Italy for France, Lucy has her heart set on biking across the border, but meets some resistance from Ricky and the Mertzes. 
LUCY: “You wouldn’t climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower. You wouldn’t ride the ski lift in Switzerland. You won’t swim in the Mediterranean and now you don’t want to bicycle along the Italian Riviera.”
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The bicycles used in the episode were provided by Arnold Schwinn and Company in return for a screen credit.
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“The I Love Lucy Christmas Show” (1956) ~ Little Ricky gets a new bike for Christmas! 
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“Lucy is a Kangaroo for a Day” (1962) ~ To buy her son a new bicycle for his birthday, Lucy takes a job at a law office - until things ‘unravel’.  Her knit dress becomes entangled in the spokes of the bicycle and unravels, causing her to have to wear a kangaroo costume to complete the job. 
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A carefree Jerry (Jimmy Garrett) rides his new bicycle through the living room! 
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A receipt from a Hollywood bicycle shop for the purchase of a bicycle basket and bike rack. Dated December 22, 1962, it was signed by Lucy. It is not known if the items turned up on screen or in what show / episode. 
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“Together for Christmas” (1962) ~ Combining their family holiday traditions, Lucy holds her favorite ornament, a Santa on a three-wheeled bike. Viv’s expression betrays her feelings about the ornament. 
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“Bob Hope’s Leading Ladies” (1966) ~ In the special, Lucy makes her grand entrance riding a large tricycle with her chauffeur (Jerry Colonna) on the back. 
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“Lucy in London” (1966) ~ Lucy and singer / songwriter Anthony Newley tour London town on a tandem bicycle. 
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Yours, Mine and Ours (1968) ~ In the film, Helen (Lucille Ball) and Frank (Henry Fonda) are the parents of 19 kids!  On Christmas morning, more than a couple of them get bicycles. 
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“Lucy Helps Craig Get a Drivers License” (1969) ~ Lucy tags along on Craig’s road test. Needless to say the back seat driver frustrates and angers the instructor (Jack Gilford). When he learns that her license has expired, he says that after he's through with her she'll be lucky to drive a tricycle in Griffith Park!
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“Lucy and Wally Cox” (1970) ~ Wally and Lucy are security guards at a toy warehouse that is robbed at gunpoint. There is a tricycle on the shelf behind the robbers (Gil Perkins and X Brands).  
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“Lucy and Lawrence Welk” (1970) ~ Lucy sends her visiting friend Viv on the  Universal Studios tour, where she is excited to have seen Doris Day’s bicycle!  All this is reported by Viv and neither Day nor her bicycle appear on screen. In real life, Doris Day was an avid bike rider. She rode to the studio on many occasions and pedaled around Beverly Hills until the police finally told her they couldn’t guarantee her safety.  
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Mame (1974) ~ Auntie Mame (Lucy) and her nephew Patrick (Kirby Furlong) bike through central park in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical.  
EXERCISE BIKES
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“The Charm School” (1954) ~ At Phoebe Emerson’s salon, Lucy and Ethel work out on stationary bikes. If you don’t remember this moment, it is because it was cut before broadcast. The press photos, however, survive. 
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“Lucy and the Countess Lose Weight” (1965) ~ At a health farm managed by Mr. Mooney, Lucy and Rosie (Ann Sothern) pedal away the pounds! 
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“Happy Anniversary and Goodbye” (1974) ~ Norma and Fay (Nanette Fabray) keep fit for their husbands in Ball’s first post-series TV special. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a masseur. 
SONG CYCLE
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“Lucy and the Generation Gap” (1969) ~ Includes the song “Daisy Bell” aka “Bicycle Built for Two” written in 1892 by British songwriter Harry Dacre.  
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The song is heard again in “Lucy’s Lucky Day” (1971). 
You’ll look sweet Upon the seat Of a bicycle built for two!
CALL ME MR. BIKE
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“Tennessee Ernie Hangs On” (1954) ~ featured Richard Reeves as Ernie’s old pal Lester Bike, host of “Milliken’s Chicken Mash Hour”.  “Lucy Saves Milton Berle” (1964) ~ featured Milton Frome as Jerry Bike, Berle’s agent. The agent’s name is never spoken aloud, but is listed in the end credits. 
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A Lucille Ball impersonator takes a carefree trike ride at Disney Studios. [photo by Lori Mundy].  
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justforbooks · 2 years
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In 1992 Mike Burrows, who has died age 79 of cancer, watched Chris Boardman win the 4,000-metre individual bicycle pursuit final at the Barcelona Olympics. Boardman was riding the Lotus 108 model that Mike had developed with Lotus Engineering, and the combination won Britain its first Olympic gold medal in the sport for 72 years.
Mike’s background as an engineer lay in running his own company in Norwich in the 1970s, producing packaging machines. When his car broke down he took to cycling, devising his own recumbent bicycles and tricycles, with the rider lying back for optimal aerodynamics and having the pedals in front, rather than below.
He considered that the bicycle’s established form was too widely taken as given, to the detriment of innovation. The increasing interest in a wide range of human-powered vehicles in the 1980s liberated his imagination to the point that he could joke: “I’m not the best bicycle designer in the world, I’m the only bicycle designer in the world.”
His breakthrough came from looking beyond the metal – usually steel – tubes that bicycles were conventionally made of. A friend’s father in the aviation industry supplied him with some off-cuts of carbon fibre.
Impregnated with resin, this could be moulded into a strong aerodynamic shape, ideal for track racing. The term monocoque is used for a structure whose loads and forces are held together within a single skin, and Mike said that the imaginative leap needed for his novel vehicle came from seeing a sculpture by Barbara Hepworth.
When, in 1985, the British Cycling Federation put Mike’s monocoque bicycle to the sport’s governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), based in Switzerland, it was rejected. But Mike’s friend Rudy Thomann, who worked for Lotus, got the car manufacturer interested, and in 1990 approval was secured from the UCI.
Unlike most people in the bicycle industry at the time, Mike paid constant attention to aerodynamics. The wind-tunnel testing of the Lotus bicycle indicated time advantages against a regular bicycle similar to those by which Boardman went on to victory over the German pursuit world champion, Jens Lehmann.
The 1992 triumph was not celebrated by the UCI. Mike appreciated concerns that expensive bikes built for rich-world athletes gave unfair advantage, but was convinced that if an event such as the Tour de France could use his faster machines, built on monocoques and aerodynamics, for even its prologue or a time trial, it would showcase the bicycle as a cutting-edge vehicle of the future, rather than of the past. Boardman rode the Lotus to a time-trial victory at the Tour in Lille in 1994, setting a record average speed that stood for more than two decades, convincing both Mike and the UCI that each was right.
That year Mike was recruited by the bicycle manufacturer Giant in Taiwan, from where he oversaw a quieter design revolution, creating the Giant TCR (Total Compact Road) model that has influenced every road bicycle since, perfecting geometries so that the same frame could be made to fit riders of different heights. The development allowed greater standardisation and thus commercialisation of road bicycles, with no compromise in frame rigidity and power. He also worked on mountain bikes and the Giant Halfway folding bike.
In 1996, the UCI produced the Lugano Charter, in effect a formal response to the success and controversy engendered by Mike’s radical designs. It ordained that the sport of cycling should be one of athletes, rather than engineers, and so put down rigid engineering limitations that were the antithesis of Mike’s quest for greater efficiency and speed. As he put it: “I left Giant in 2000 because the UCI was stopping me building better bikes. In the pro scene they are now all production-only.”
After returning from Taiwan, Mike focused on recumbent bicycles and tricycles, seeking further aerodynamic gains. He was a stalwart of the British Human Power Club, organising race track days for club championships, and took pleasure in getting faster each year by virtue of engineering gains that could outstrip his own ageing.
For all that he loved going fast, a pursuit of efficiency motivated him more than speed, and convenience was central to his affection for the engineering opportunities the bicycle afforded. I came to know him through efforts to commercialise the 8Freight, his cargo bicycle named after an old British Rail engine and designed with a relaxed position and steering intended to ensure that everyone – couriers, parents on school runs, gardeners carrying tools and earth – could take easily to it. He believed that bicycles offered the possibility of a better, more efficient society.
Mike was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, where his father was a cabinet maker who later opened a toy shop, enabling Mike to play with model planes. After leaving school at 15, Mike worked as a machine engineer, married his wife, Tuula, and in 1969 moved to Norwich to work on boats used on the Norfolk Broads. His first engineering success was a machine that packed individual bags of crisps into multipacks, and he set up his own business. An engineering perspective that came from outside bicycle design was often credited for his future willingness to slay its sacred cows, a mission that became a defining feature of his life’s work.
All this was realised in a workshop that was a place of easels and heavy machine tools used if Mike needed to make or modify a part. He always wore overalls and wooden clogs, classical music played, and an archive of newspaper clippings, memorabilia and the bikes themselves gave the air of a living museum. When out birdwatching in the Norfolk countryside he was still open to engineering inspiration.
His book Bicycle Design: Towards the Perfect Machine (2000), went through a number of editions, its title encapsulating his commitment to the vehicle he loved.
He is survived by Tuula and their son, Paul.
Mike Burrows, bicycle designer, born 17 April 1943; died 15 August 2022
Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com
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