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Ross and Sue Kowalski |
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"Nice weather here in Carver,
MA, riding whenever I can make an excuse to go for a
ride. It rained a little on the way home yesterday and I
was the only bike still out, their loss!" |
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"A little spring slime from
the first ride of the year." |
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"I saw this sidehack motorcycle wrecker
on vacation. Maybe when I have some free time I can build
one of those..." |
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Ross picks up his new Beemer-Chang! (FYI,
it's not one of Jim Bryant's
conversions.) Click here for more on this bike. |
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CJ snow action video featuring
Ross, Sue and Winston Kowalski |
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"I was working on building Sue's forge
today and took my Chang. It was 47° F and
chilly, but it ran like a champ" |
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"I had an entertaining afternoon. I had
saved a bunch of timbers from a friend's demolition
project which I am using to build a forge for the wife on
another friend's property a couple miles away. Due to a
bad pinion bearing in my wife's Tacoma, I had to Chang
it. I pulled the bucket and took eight 16' timbers
at a time. The bike handled and stopped surprisingly well
with the weight, though I kept the speed to a max of
35mph. When I arrived I even had a little off road to get
them where they belonged. Try that with your Rune. The
bad part turns out was making the return trips with no
weight on the sidecar frame. It wanted to lift the wheel
on every right turn, and unlike flying the chair, was
very unstable when raised. I guess the weight of the
sidecar adds needed stability to chair flying." |
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"A friend dropped off an early VW
taillight a couple days ago. I
mounted it to the red Chang which turned out to be a
better solution on many counts. It fits entirely on the
hinged section of the fender making it possible to remove
the rear tire without removing the tail light. It is also
smaller, has a glass rather than a plastic lens and has
looks more in keeping with the rest of the bike." |
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"I used the remaining 36 ultrabright
LEDs I had left over from the first effort to make this
one. It only fits 36 LEDs comfortably but that is more
than enough. This one uses 16 LEDs for tail light and all
36 for the brake light."" |
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"I drove the bike to the Edaville
railroad/amusement park which is right down the road from
my house. I took some pics of the red bike in front of a
green caboose they have in the parking lot. The new
whitewalls still look good after 500km." |
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"Recently I was doing some leatherwork
and got thinking about making a replacement for the frame
mounted toolbox on the Chang. The original one opens down
and all the tools fall out in addition to it being too
small for the road tools needed on a Chang Jiang. I made
one and a little sheet metal cradle to support it more
securely." |
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"Here are pictures of my ammeter
installation. The meter is from an Allis Chalmers B
tractor. It is about the same vintage as the Chang!" |
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"The ongoing taillight saga continues.
After putting the Volkswagen taillight assembly and lens
on the 6V solo Chang I added a superbright LED 1157 bulb.
I was disappointed with the output and viewing angle. |
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I built one that uses 60 superbright LED 25
for taillight mode and all 60 for brake mode. It was
early evening when I took the photos, but make no
mistake, this thing is BRIGHT bright. |
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Even in broad daylight, it is very visible.
In addition to the benefit of safety, it should use a lot
less juice." |
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"I got a Volkswagen tail light on eBay
for a $1 and $5 shipping. The guy sent both so I have a
spare lens if and when I break this one. I also found a
great 12A circuit breaker for $1 at the American Science
and Surplus store in West Allis, Wisconsin where I was
"vacationing" (painting my mother's house) for
the last couple weeks. |
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I also did some modifications to the
kickstand to correct some severe geometry flaws with the
design. |
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"I finally got around to getting the
red bike inspected this afternoon." |
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"I drove 20 miles to an inspection
station in 90F heat 40mph or so the whole way. The bike
ran like a champ." |
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"I added the last set of side plates to
the tank and painted them red and white. I think they
look better painted. I may paint the ones on the sidecar
bike too." |
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"Spent the day putting break-in miles
on the new M1. I ran it for about 30 minutes varying the
speed, keeping the engine from lugging, and keeping as
little stress on the engine as possible. Here is a
picture I took of the bike's shadow when the sun started
to set. Nothing but fun." |
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Ross's gearbox repair facility. |
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"Sue had been riding around the last
couple weeks with a sign to help with the campaign of our
friend Dick Ward. She was at the polling station and when
the results were in that Dick won, she took him for a
victory lap and they apeared on the front page of the
local paper. " |
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"A TIG-welded pad to fix a leaky
tank. I dare say there is enough weld on
there! A friend of mine Shingo Furakawa did the
welding as I am WAY out of practice on welding thin
Chinese deep drawn metal to 4mm round stock! " |
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"I am finally ready to order my
[second] Chang. I started thinking that I really
like the retro aspect of these things and came up with
another color scheme for the bike." |
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"I am leaning towards the red and black
one now." |
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| "Couldn't get much better than this.
Went riding with the wife and our dog on a beautiful fall
day in New England. Sue was the monkey in the morning
session and I was the monkey in the afternoon session.
For lunch we drank pumpkin beer (really, it's not bad)
and made an office chair from the unused CJ seat from the
bike." |
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Ross's wife Sue is the actual owner of the
Kowalski Chang. He also says that recently she's more or
less assumed full control of the bike. Therefore... |
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...Ross composed this rendering that he'll
use to spec out his next bike from CJS, an excellent
idea. Of course there's also the notion of having two CJ
enthusiasts under one same roof. That sounds to me like
an ideal marriage. |
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Feast your eyes on these tank badges I got
from Ross. They're terrific! The tough choice is which
bike to put them on. |
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Ross got his bike from CJS in Beijing and
then, after some minor hassles with the Registry of Motor
Vehicles in his home state of Massachusetts, he's now in
the saddle. |
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