Dave & Teds Most Excellent Adventures 2013

[CyncySpyder]

Right tool for the job: Continued

So, for those of you wondering, that's a bit of history to help explain why I have chosen to shave Teddy. Some may think I do it for attention or cosmetic reasonings, but that's just not the case, its a practical solution to a real life issue & with him being shaved, we're both much happier.

Now I will admit, the red mowhawk, yup, that's 100% vanity and attention getting right there But I think it suits the lil guys personality to a T :doorag:like as in Mr. T, you know, from the A Teampps:WoW!!! Blast from the past.... 'I pitty the fool':doorag:

So back to present day. With him still having half his winter coat, but without his Spyder to ryde, we've been pretty much confined indoors where its nice and warm. He still needs his exercise, and he loves playing fetch, especially outside with a stick (that he tries to eat) but will settle nicely for one of his mini tennis balls bouncing off the walls and down the hall. But he's been getting overheated within about 10 minutes of play, and his collapsing trachea would kick in and the hacking wouldn't stop. So yup, its Spring time and time for his winter coat to be sent to the cleaners til next season.

It would usually take us a good 2 days for me to get him totally complete with using the 'Peanut' as they were regular clippers, you know, like for us humans. Like many things in life, much of what I get into is relatively new for me, as when I tell ppl that I grew up sheltered, I really don't think most of them get the jist of just how sheltered I was. I mean, like growing up under a rock sheltered, but hey, I'm at least eager to learn.

Not knowing any better and seeing the place where I get my own hair cut using clippers and then seeing the groomers place at Pets Mart using clippers there as well, I never knew they were using a different type of clipper. Heck, clippers were clippers I used to think and thought they were all the same, right??? Just recently did I find out just how wrong I was.

You see, they actually make a special line of clippers meant specifically for animals, especially for animals that have a much thicker coat than humans hair, just like a Pomeranian...... Go figure Like I've said many times before and I'm sure I will many times in the future, 'I'm learn'n & live'n every day'

TBC... work work work

 

[CyncySpyder]

Right tool for the job: Continued.......... Again

When i had asked the stylist that cuts my own hair about her suggestions concerning cutting Teddy's hair, she gave me alot of good info about regularly cleaning the slippers, how to oil and when, but never did she mention a word about a special type designed specification for animals. So for the past almost 3 years, we've been using these regular clippers to do Teddy's hair, and trust me, its not been an easy nor pretty process. With Teddy's thick undercoat, I'd make maybe 2 passes thru his coat, then had to stop, take off the guide, grab the little brush and clear the hair that would get stuck under the guide and blade just about every time. Well you can imagine how tedius this would become in a manner of just a few minutes. Now Teddy, he's a good dog and very compliant for most anything, but even he has his limits. After about 15 minutes of this start and stop and start and stop, Nope, I've. Had ENOUGH!!! and off he'd run. I'd get them cleaned and call him to return and he'd give me a little look, but would return as requested and once again assume the position. This would continue for a couple of hours til finally, we had both had ENOUGH and I'd give in for the night and then I would reward him by playing fetch for the next half hour or so, just to do it all again the following day til he was completely done....... Tedius to say the least, but he's worth it to me.

TBC..........

 

[CyncySpyder]

Just have to interject

ray:ray:ray: I can't help myself, I'm already a little giddy :yes::yes::yes:

:dontknow:But i called the shop last night to inquire on the progress of Teds Red Sled and the shop manager told me all the parts were in, but that he still needed to get a special tool for one of the jobs & that he would be picking it up later that night after he got off from work and that if everything goes well, as they still needed to run some tests after all the replacement parts are put on, but that if all the tests go well, I may be able to pick it up tomorrow:clap:Which is now today:clap: I know better than to get my hopes up:lecturef_smilie: but its too late:shocked: i didn't sleep last night just thinking about it:shocked: i won't publicly admit to opening my eyes this morning & looking at the clock & it reading 5:23am, when I have to get up at 3:45am :yikes: nope, won't admit that at all

I now think I know how Teddy feels, when I have a treat for him, but I make him WAIT FOR IT! & he just looks at me with those big puppy dog eyes, while drool starts to slowly ooze out of the corner of his mouth, like someone turned the faucet on. Yup, that just about describes how I'm feeling right now ray:ray:

 

[CyncySpyder]

Need HELP thinking this thru

OK folks, Teds Red Sled should be back home from the shop either today or tomorrow ray: if everything goes right. That means I can actually start finishing all the mods that we've been working on and eventually putting everything back together :clap: and dare I say it, THEN WE GET TO RYDE :yes::yes::yes::yes:

Ok, so here's where I need some assistance, thinking thru A NEW MOD :doorag: Yes, you read that right, another one:shocked::roflblack:

You see, right now as I type this, :firstplaceitBull PowerSports:firstplace: has Teddy's new (to us) Limited Seat in their possesion and they are installing a fuel door on it for us :bowdown::clap: You can probably imagine how happy this makes us & how much easier & more pleasurable this will make our long road trips.

You see, up til this point, everything concerning Teddy's area has had to be removable, due to the fact that every time we had to fuel up, the seat would have to be raised, therefore his carrier would have to be removed. This was a major stumbling point when I struggled to design his Sun-Canopy, but I was able to figure out how to make that work, tho its not a perfect design, it works well. Now with having a fuel door, we're given many more options that weren't viable before, like......

& this one (pictured below) really got me thinking about how I could possibly make one of these, similar in design, myself. So much so, that I even gave it half an attempt last year with using PVC tubing, but I wasn't happy with it & thought the tubing took up too much space and didn't really care for the looks of it & scrapped that idea.

Now with the new fuel door mod taking one henderence out of the equation, I'm back to tackling this issue once again, although now with new zest & ambition. Now is the time for me to do this, cause I've already got most of the byke apart, and we have a totally new Teddy-Cam system that needs to be installed, so I can get everything correct from the get go.

In starting my preliminary investigating, I happend upon some copper tubing at Lowes one day, and saw that they already have all the required fittings for the 45 & 90 degree bends that one may need in developing such a safety cage set-up for one small dog, namely Teddy. Much the same of what was available on my first attempt, but I was able to get a 10 foot section of the 1/2 inch copper tubing for about $15 & we picked up a bag of 45s & 90s along with a pipe cutter & their now sitting at the condo awaiting inspiration to make them into something usable for Teds Red Sled to provide not only safety but also style for the little guy as well :doorag:

 

[arntufun]

Before you go that route with the bottom photo, you might want to think about some sort of flat floor for the seat. IMO I think it will be tiring for Teddy to constaintly apply pressure to a curved seat to remain upright.


I personally think your set-up you have now is much better than this bottom photo design. :thumbup:

 

[CyncySpyder]

thanks for the input Randy, we got that covered

Before you go that route with the bottom photo, you might want to think about some sort of flat floor for the seat. IMO I think it will be tiring for Teddy to constaintly apply pressure to a curved seat to remain upright.I personally think your set-up you have now is much better than this bottom photo design. :thumbup:

We'll still be using one of his cushy doggy beds with a pad as the base. That way, when its really hot, we can insert the modular ice pads underneath to help provide a bit of relief & in the winter, his electric heating pad will go underneath. So the base part should be good that way

 

[PrairieSpyder]

I'd be concerned about the heat from the copper in the sun. I like the PVC idea better.

Also, if you haven't already thought of it. Use the foamy pipe insulation around the parts that abut your Spyder.

 

[Hberninger]

I'd be concerned about the heat from the copper in the sun. I like the PVC idea better.

Also, if you haven't already thought of it. Use the foamy pipe insulation around the parts that abut your Spyder.

You might want the foamy pipe insulation around all the tubing as a protection for Teddy. If copper tubing is used, it would keep it from getting hot in the sun.

 

[RTVIPER]

You might want the foamy pipe insulation around all the tubing as a protection for Teddy. If copper tubing is used, it would keep it from getting hot in the sun.

I agree with the foam pipe insulation to keep it from getting hot. Without the foam pipe insulation, that could be harmful here in AZ when Temps get 110+. pps:

 

[CyncySpyder]

test from surface

best buy

 

[CyncySpyder]

test from macbook air

ugh

 

[CyncySpyder]

Test from iPad mini

Omg, it worked

 

[CyncySpyder]

Test from big ipad

 

[CyncySpyder]

test from galaxy note

Worked but with issues

 

[CyncySpyder]

test from galaxy tab2

It worked ok

 

[RTVIPER]

View attachment 64977It worked ok

Looks like you have to decide which one to ultimately use for pic upload.

 

[CyncySpyder]

I'd be concerned about the heat from the copper in the sun. I like the PVC idea better.

Also, if you haven't already thought of it. Use the foamy pipe insulation around the parts that abut your Spyder.

You might want the foamy pipe insulation around all the tubing as a protection for Teddy. If copper tubing is used, it would keep it from getting hot in the sun.

I agree with the foam pipe insulation to keep it from getting hot. Without the foam pipe insulation, that could be harmful here in AZ when Temps get 110+. pps:

The copper tubing will ultimately be coated in some manner, not left bare metal & most probably color matched to Teds Red Sled. The ideas floating around my head right now are that the bottom side portions of the safety cage would actually be 'wrapped' in a matching red vinyl fabric that I picked up a while back when I tried our first attempt with using the PVC.

I'm not wanting a full safety cage like in the picture, that was just for illustration purposes only & to give a general idea of what I'm thinking. My main reason for attempting this, is to come up with something that allows Teddy the freedom he enjoys now, but also having a way of providing complete shelter for the little guy when we're ryding in bad weather conditions, be it freezing temps or like when we were ryding in the rain with The NY Gawkers at last years SITA. Even tho I had an enclosed carrier for Teddy, the poor lil guy was soaking wet. I'm trying to come up with something to help prevent that from ever happening again, as best as possible.

If you can't tell by my ramblings on here, my head is a very cluttered and scary place, but at least I know this. Here's my thinkings on this so far.

I was originally thinking of using the Ram Mount Ball bases that I already have installed on the passenger elbow pads, but another idea popped into my head & going that route wouldn't provide enough structural support for it. Maybe installing a set of the Ram Balls on the hard plastic side walls of the passenger area would be better. You see, we have a full seat (now with fuel door) & also another passenger backrest on the way. The passenger backrest we have now is fine & doesn't need to be replaced. The same can't be said for our Utopia drivers backrest however. It works perfectly fine, but thru the years of trial and error with properly setting up the Teddy-Cam system, I've had to cut wholes in the back leather cover to accomodate one of his cameras, so the rear of it doesn't look all that good. That gave me the idea of using the new Passenger backrest that we'll be getting with the new seat and somehow incorporating it into this new safety cage design of Teddys, much like how we have his set-up now, just using the new passenger backrest basically as the front of his new safety cage, replacing the existing Utopia backrest. I'm just trying to work out the mounting of it in my head. I'll need to wait til we either get Teds Sled back from the dealer or the new one .............................

TBC....... work work work

 

[Hberninger]

Dave,
I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoy reading your posts. Your creativity and inventiveness are an inspiration to those of us who are sometimes too timid and overly cautious to tackle modifications. It took me three weeks after I received my Bajaron sway bar to work up the nerve to install it, but I received inspiration from your posts and did it.

 

[CyncySpyder]

Reminds me of that line from Jurassic Park about standing on the shoulders of giants

Dave, I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoy reading your posts. Your creativity and inventiveness are an inspiration to those of us who are sometimes too timid and overly cautious to tackle modifications. It took me three weeks after I received my Bajaron sway bar to work up the nerve to install it, but I received inspiration from your posts and did it.

I really appreciate your acknowledgement & am Happy that we were able to provide you with the inspiration that you needed at the time. If you've had any chance to take your Spyder out & give the new RonBar a try, I'm sure you're likely to agree, it was well worth the effort, no??? :thumbup:

Inspiration can be a funny thing & I for one would be lost without this Fantastic Forum, so full of knowledgable people, most of whom, like myself, are more than willing to share whatever we can with those that seek it. Thanks for letting one of many know that our time and energy spent here isn't a wasteful thing after all :bowdown:

 

[CyncySpyder]

Uh Oh.... I went dig'n around my brain & look what came out

Ok, here's a very crude napkin rendering of the beginning of what's floating around in my nog'n
This is just the beginning of my thought process. Basically replacing the Utopia with another stock backrest and then replacing the multitude of Teddy's portable carriers with a 'built in' unit using the copper tubing mounted to the rear passenger area using Ram Ball Mounts. This much pictured I have pretty well figured out. The problem that I'm having with my thought process is continuing this upward to support either the Sun-Canopy we are currently using, or coming up with a new one. Then along with that challenge, I'd like to somehow devise a way, that when we get caught in bad weather, that I could somehow affix something to the open areas to in effect, close them off and protect Teddy from the elements, be it cold or rain. I'm thinking of possibly using either some form of clear Vinyl or maybe even a sturdy plexiglass surround that could be removable, so he could have it open when its nice and warm, but closed off, yet still visible when in bad conditions. I know I'm reaching here, but if I don't try I'll never know. I actually had bought a large sheet of plexiglass for this purpose, but I ended up using it on Louis cage, to help with all the valcano dust going everywhere everytime the lil furball would take a bath. But I can always get another sheet, but I'm still far from needing it at this point. Sooooooooo.............. any ideas out there?????