Quantum Mechanics demystified, a try
In 1970’s motorcycles were cheap(est) way of motorized transportation here in Finland. Thus I could afford a couple of ones at mid-decade to commute with, just when I got my driver’s license. A Suzuki T250 and a Suzuki GT550. See Take a ride or go to Guggenheim’s
Then, all of a sudden we were three to travel together. Had to find another way of transportation.
Ended up on bying a Citroen 2CV4, second hand, white in colour. 2CV’s were the second cheapest way of transportation after motorcycles. It had similar feeling as to ride with a motorbike.
Also it was easy to maintain, e.g. I was able to do cylinder head repair by removing just front fenders to give space to do the job easily. It had a two cylinder boxer engine, you see.
Turned out there was quite a bit to repair over the time. It was somewhat rusty, the bottom was a bit like a cracker, you could almost see through. Luckily my brother was good in welding.
Once in the yearly vehicle inspection, the engineer was quite a big one. Everything was fine so far, only the final test drive had to be performed. When the huge engineer was trying to move the double front seat backwards to make room, it suddenly popped of the floor. Engineer kept calm (me too), performed the test drive and stamped my car!
All in all, I would say it was a decent buy.
2CV’s commonly had personal names those times, I guess they still have. If somebody has one nowadays, it must be even more respected. Mine was named Pomppiduu. It was after contemporary French statesman Georges Pompidou, only in a bit Finnish way :-)
In a few year time passed Pomppiduu and I got hold on another one. Red one this time. It didn’t have a name, so I baptized it to Pomppiduu II.
Nice cars both, bit chilly in winter, but warmer than a motorcycle anyway. For some reason I went from there on to a bit more conventional cars. Which do not deserve mentioning.
After a couple of decades, old salt started to make me thirsty. And I needed a second car anyway. Unfortunately there were no suitable 2CV4s available. And my eyes got nailed to a orange coloured Renault 4. It felt a bit similar to 2CV4, even if it wasn’t a cabriolet.
It had just passed the yearly inspection. I thought it is a good bargain if I can ride it for a year. Price was something like 2500 FIM, would be like 500 Eur nowadays.
It also had a name! ‘Harley Davidson’ was stamped in black on the right of it’s after-hatchway. I was sold!
The name was due to the prevoius owner, named Tane, who was a HD enthusiastic. He was restoring and tuning older HDs as a hobby. Tane must have been friends with somebody at the yearly inspection center at Karkkila. You see, after a couple of weeks the left back wheel started to slouch badly. It was about to get loose. The hub-axle was badly rusted. No way this car could have passed the inspection without good relations. Luckily a friend of my son’s was a good welder as well, he tacked the feel back whole. I drove it for the year and managed to sell it as spare parts for a Renault 4 hobbyist.
This Renault had another interesting fault also. It’s light got brighter when the clutch was pressed. Pretty strange.
Eventually got it debugged. It had a cable operated clutch. Whenever clutch was pressed cable got tighter and ground connection better. Actual ground connection was poor due to oxidation. Cleaning the connection and lights got bright as the sun.
This Renault was not quite enough to quench my thirst of the old salt. I got back again involved with motorcycles. Have had ten’s of those by now. Currently riding with three bikes. One at a time fortunately. More on those at nyfors.fi/hybrid.html