Let Your (Seven-)Freak Flag Fly

[pethier]

... and hope they see you.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pethier/53932561666/in/album-72177720319624972

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pethier/53932561661/in/album-72177720319624972/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pethier/53931658517/in/album-72177720319624972/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pethier/53932804638/in/album-72177720319624972/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pethier/53933008540/in/album-72177720319624972/

 

 

In Bob's Cycle Supply in Little Canada (yes, you folks in New England, here in Minnesota we have a city actually named Little Canada) to pick up an extra helmet, I saw they were selling dune-buggy flags for less than twenty bucks including sales tax. I had just been wondering where you go hereabouts to buy such things. This ain't Pismo Beach.

 

The inside cut that I had had to saw out of the 1/4-inch aluminum plate for the cone-redirector (the outside cuts were all sheared by Metal Supermarket to my pattern) yielded a chunk from which I could fashion a place to mount it.

 

When I first road-tested the flag (which is sold in two halves that the user is to simply press together) I wanted to test it on the freeway to see if it would stay together. it didn't even get to the freeway. I was cruising through Cherokee Park at about 25 MPH and it separated. This suggests the question: How slow do they think dune-buggies are?

 

Did a U-turn, picked up the top section and headed for home.

 

I made a little wooden block to drill a hole for a hair pin. I was astonished at how accurately it came out. The drill was only a few thousandths larger than the hairpin, yet I could rotate the shaft 180 degrees in the coupler and the hairpin still fit.

 

I road-tested it again. At 30 MPH it waves all over the place, and I was a little concerned about the freeway. I needn't have worried: At 70 MPH on the freeway, it calmed down considerably.

 

I have since knocked off another 5 inches so it clears the trailer and also is not too high for folks in pickups and vans to see.

Edited August 26, 2024 by pethier
typo

[Croc]

Getting a note I need to be signed into Flickr to see these photos?  Maybe me but....

[pethier]

I forgot a step.  Give it another shot.

[Croc]

 

That seemed to work.  Thank you!

 

You can also share the image by embedding just by copying and pasting the link. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[theDreamer]

I’m colour blind and didn’t understand the first photo with the white pick-up or why you chose to mount your flag at the front. I've seen them on the rear one even added a light on the top. Then I went back to the first photo and saw the flag and now understand why it needs to be at the front.

[pethier]

1 hour ago, theDreamer said:

I’m colour blind and didn’t understand the first photo with the white pick-up or why you chose to mount your flag at the front. I've seen them on the rear one even added a light on the top. Then I went back to the first photo and saw the flag and now understand why it needs to be at the front.

 

I only had two places I could mount it.  The rollbar was out, because I often have the top on.  Either on the front or on the license-plate assembly on the rear.  Because I wanted the flag to me seen from a car I was beside, the front won out. 

 

The parameters are not the same for a Seven in street traffic as they are for a buggy in the dunes.  For a buggy in the dunes, the priority is lots of height, not placement on the buggy.

[Christopher smith]

I usually fly a Union Jack mounted to the rear of the roll cage and sometimes add a flag of Scotland - the yellow one. Too many stupid SUV drivers around here and I want them to at least notice me.

[pethier]

25 minutes ago, Christopher smith said:

I usually fly a Union Jack mounted to the rear of the roll cage and sometimes add a flag of Scotland - the yellow one. Too many stupid SUV drivers around here and I want them to at least notice me.

I have a big Red Ensign.  I would like to say my Great Great Grandfather John Cavanagh nicked it when he was a merchant seaman working out of Liverpool but that would be a lie.  I really got it from a Lebanese-American school librarian.   I once left the flag at the TRF Summer Party, and a kind LBC guy mailed it to me.

 

The bit about my Great Great Grandfather John Cavanagh serving under the Red Ensign is 100% true, though.  It's on the 1864 birth record of my Great Grandfather John Cavanagh.

 

The flag I got for free.  The birth record i had to pay for.