My wife was working late last night, so I took a little time to get started on ElectroPigeon 1. Stage one is the dismantling. For years now I have worked mostly on Vespas and bicycles, so it was great to see how something else was built.
A very Teutonic pigeon on a Japanese horn
The reason I have wanted to build a Mitsubishi Silver Pigeon is that it is an interesting melding of Italian Lambretta styling (The Lambretta LD has always been my favorite scooter design.) with American Cushman drivetrain layout all through the interpretation of the Japanese who were beginning to emulate German design principles. How's that for an international mouthful? Also, it has lots of room to work and lots of room for batteries. My first scooter conversion was a Vespa and there was little room for either.
Handgrip and light switch - great branding!
So, there I was down at the shop. It was a hot evening, but the shop had a nice cross breeze passing through. Mosquitoes were absolutely absent. Through streaming music I heard Joe Jackson's "I'm the Man," Elvis Costello's "Allison," and Colin Hay's acoustic version of "Overkill" back to back. I try to keep my dreams pretty simple, and I realized that I had spent a lot of time lately daydreaming about being there doing exactly what I was doing. I figured out that the dream has not been to have an ElectroPigeon (or two) - the dream is to build an Electropigeon.
The holder for the D-batteries that ran the original lighting - with Mitsubishi logo
FIG - Farmers Insurance Group
Original Wards Riverside 4"x8" tire
It's funny, I don't care to be a hermit or lock myself away from family and friends, but a few occasional hours alone and working toward a goal sure feeds the soul.
May the journey be at least as satisfying as the destination for you too, and may the destination be a better place for us all.
(I'll keep you posted on Pigeon progress as it happens.)
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