DogBike Upgrade: Goin' Fishin'

Brandy and I like to play in upper Manito Park, at the south end that borders 25th. It's close and convenient and there are no arterials to cross on the way there, so when we go to and from, I ride and she just runs off-leash. Trouble is, the soil drainage is pretty bad there and during the wetter, cooler months, it gets pretty swampy. When that happens, we like to head over to Comstock, where we have another fave runway. Problem with that, though, is that we have to cross two arterials to get there. I can't let her off-leash for fear that she'll get squashed and we're sure as hell not walking 'cause well, that's just not how we roll. So we take the truck, which sucks. We tried to solve this problem once before, but it didn't work out in the long run. What we really wanna do is take our dOGbiKe, and I've had a marble of an idea rolling around in my head for several months. I finally got around to doing something with it.

Here are the parts for the project. Yep, that's a fishing pole alright . . .



I needed to braze to the frame, so I took the torch and burned the paint off . . .



After cleaning it up, I cut a short piece of 1/2" OD x ~3/8" ID tubing, fixed it in place and brazed it on . . .



No way in hell I was gonna take the whole bike apart so that I could soak the frame to dissolve the flux, so I decided to take a very wet towel and wrap the brazed area and let it soak overnight . . .



Worked like a charm. In the morning I was able to easily brush the flux off with a wire brush . . .



Here's the end result . . .



My beloved Lifetime Member for Life decal got a little hot. I decided it's very accidentally artistic. Check out the "roots" on the 'l' and 'i' "trees". If you don't see it, you just haven't had enough to drink. Far out. Further proof that scars rule . . .



In the meantime, I cut the fishing pole in half. I can make you a killer deal on the short end . . .



On the right is a piece of 3/8" OD tubing with a piece of the same 1/2" x 3/8" tubing brazed on as a sleeve. I took the end of the fishing pole and roughed it up with some shop cloth so the JB weld will stick to it . . .



Then it got glued together, with a screw running through as a dowel pin. I'll cut the ends off later . . .



So I ended up with this . . .



And hooked it up to my spazzed-out bike like this . . .



Are you starting to get the picture?



Sorry to say, my dog is too. We took a walk, not even a ride, around the driveway and she is pretty well freaked. I think I overheard her talking to her agent tonight about what it might take to get traded. She's still under contract, but that's what lawyers are for. Crazy bastard of a master. Enough is enough.