We have a Kettler Tricycle that we bought used on Craigslist for our 2 year old son. When we purchased it a while back, I went through the whole thing and lubricated and reinforced what I felt needed lubrication and reinforcement. I noticed at the time that the method of connecting the handlebars to the front wheel was a little chinsy, but I didn’t dwell on it too much. I tightened the nut on the “handlebar clamp” as they call it and called it a day. Recently, the bike is all cattywampus and the handlebars go all over the place and the front tire doesn’t follow. I decided it was time to fix the problem for good. I’ll show you how to re-tighten the “handlebar clamp” if you want to do that and call it a day. I’ll also show you my super-insano fix that goes way above and beyond, but will permanently fix the problem. Hopefully kid #2 gets some use out of this thing!

Here is a link to an assembly manual that will help you out if you are trying to follow along:

http://www.kettlerusa.com/manuals/toys/tricycles/8152-599.pdf

First, lift up the knurled plastic cover thing covering the handlebar clamp.

I eventually used a piece of masking tape to hold this wonderful plastic piece up and out of my way during re-assembly. I could have used this during disassembly.

The nut they use on the handlebar clamp is a nylon lock nut, 10 mm. It’s not very easy to get a good ‘bite’ on the darn thing with a box-end wrench. This may be part of the reason the clamp loosens up so easily down the road.

If the thing is loose, and you just want to tighten it up and go along your way, all you need is a 10mm wrench or socket. Make sure you line up the wheel and handlebars, and then tighten the crap out of the nut on the handlebar clamp. Your wrench will probably slip off the nut 5 times and you will get pissed and go grab your vise-grips (which will round off the nut even more.) The problem is as you tighten the nut, it gets closer and closer to the handlebar clamp, which reduces the surface are available for the wrench to ‘bite’ onto the nut. If this is a far as you go with this repair, you should be done. Check the alignment between the handlebar and wheel one more time to make sure it didn’t move.

If you’re super-pissed / OCD like me, then you will want to fix this stupid thing so it just works. I decided to drill a hole through the handlebar and wheel shaft so I could bolt them together. Sounds like a pain right? It is. The key to doing this is SHARP drill bits. I spent 10 minutes trying to muscle my way through the steel in the wheel shaft with a dull drill bit. As soon as I changed to a new sharp bit, I cut through it in under a minute. Wear safety glasses and start with a small drill bit and work your way up.

For the drilling evolution, I removed the plastic cover (one less thing to get in the way.) I aligned the wheel and handlebar and tightened the handlebar clamp as described above. Hopefully this keeps things straight while you try to drill. I also lifted the handlebars up about 1/8″ so that they wouldn’t be rubbing against the handlebar bushing after the two parts are bolted together later.

I used an automatic center punch to mark the hole / give the drill bit a place to ‘bite’ into the steel.

I used wheel bearing grease as “cutting oil.” Cutting oil helps cool the drill bit and provide some lubrication. If the tip of the drill bit overheats, it can cease, break, dull, or weld itself to the metal (usually only happens when drilling stainless steels.) Use real cutting oil and not bearing grease like me.

As I worked my way through the steel (with my dull drill bit) I stopped many times to clean the metal shavings from the drill bit and to apply some new cutting oil to the tip.

After switching to a brand new bit, things went very fast. I slowly increased the size of the drill bits until the hole was big enough for the 1″ long flat head machine screw I was using to fit through.

After the hole is big enough, “counter-sink” the hole with a large drill bit (I used a titanium nitride stepped drill bit to do this) to remove any burrs and to allow the flat head machine screw a space to nestle into.

Size everything up with the machine screw, washer and nut and then take everything apart again.

Clean out all the metal shavings and lubricate the shaft below the handlebar clamp. Note: when assembling the wheel shaft back into the handlebar bushing, look at the arrow that is part of the fender plastic. The arrow points towards the front of the bike.

Place the plastic cover back on the handlebar shaft and the handlebar clamp. I used a piece of masking tape to hold the plastic cover up while I assembled everything. Connect to the handlebar to the wheel shaft. I added a lock washer and Loctite thread locker Blue to help keep the nut from backing out.

Tighten up the machine screw and the handlebar clamp.

Make sure the handlebar and wheel are still straight. Try to hold the wheel and turn the handlebar.

Depending on the size of the hole you drilled and the size of the screw you used, you might still have some slack (or is that slack in there coming from somewhere else? I don’t really care at this point – the thing isn’t going 100 mph.) Remove your handy masking tape and you are done!

Clifford 7941X Remote and DAPPNANOLI01 Battery

I searched all over the internet for replacement batteries for my Clifford 7941X Responder 2-Way Remote Control when it started losing the ability to charge. The remote is for the Clifford 590.2X remote start system installed on our Honda Accord. I was disappointed when I found no where to buy a replacement battery – Danionics DLP 513040 3.7V 560 mAh 2.07wH. To make matters worse, a replacement remote control would be $175. And Clifford said you have to take it to an authorized dealer so they can replace the battery (for $100 I’m sure.) So, being super-pissed, I decided to find a suitable replacement Li-Po battery and do it myself. Taking measurements of the original, I found the battery with the max mAh that could still fit was a Gen 1 iPod Nano replacement battery. I picked up 5 of them since they were $5 a piece at eForCity.com (Now they’re $7.49? http://www.eforcity.com/dappnanoli01.html) At 1300 mAh, they should more than do the trick. First, you should turn off the power on the remote. To do this, you push the thumb wheel thingy on the right side straight in like a button for 3 seconds. You have to do that with a blank screen first. If you accidentally push up or down, wait until the screen goes blank again. This puts you in the “Settings” Menu. Scroll down 2 screens and you will be on the “Options” screen. Press the scroll wheel button thingy in once to select. Press the scroll wheel thingy again to select “Power Off.” Now remove the screw from the back with a really small Phillips screwdriver.

Use 2 small flat head screwdrivers to pry the silver back housing off.

I was super-scared that if the remote lost power at all during the procedure it would no longer be paired with my car’s system (EDIT: This ended up not being an issue as I later unplugged the battery and it “remembered” my car no prob), so I soldered the new battery in parallel with the existing battery before I cut the wire. I did this by carefully stripping the insulation off the wires with an exacto knife. After stripping each wire, I put a temporary piece of electrical tape to prevent shorting the wires as I worked.

Once I got all 3 stripped, I put shrink tubing on each wire of the new battery, then twisted the ends on the exitsing wires. I soldered the wires together…

…then cut off the old battery.

I then shrank the shrink tubing…

… placed the new battery inside the remote where the old one was…

…screwed the screw back in an I was done. It works very nice!

Wonderful Moments

In order to promote the site, I thought it would be a good idea to advertise on other Pixel Ad sites. I will be supporting other sites like mine and hopefully reaching people that are interested in this sort of thing. Here is a list of the websites I placed ad on (or tried to):

Pixel Pagina http://www.pixel-pagina.com/index.php They have large, easy to find ads. Signing up and adding my ad was easy

Infinite Dollar Homepage – Bad! I was a little worried since there were so few ads on the site, but I thought “We all start out somewhere! I’ll get in on the ground floor!” Well, after sending my $40 via Paypal, nothing. A greyed out placeholder was on the homepage for a while, but after 3 days it was gone. I e-mailed the receipt as proof to the administrator several times, but got no response. I am now disputing it through PayPal (first time I have ever done this.) There has been no response from the webiste / PayPal account holder. I’m assuming the person either moved on from the website or something happened and they are no longer around or something. I like the idea, but sadly, no one is home.

Rhizome 50K Webpage http://50k.rhizome.org/index.html Support the arts! Right? I think it’s a good cause, so why not? The only issue is that I paid $40 for 800 pixels on 12-19-11, but the ad is still “pending approval.” Writing this wonderful blog post actually alerted me to this, so I just e-mailed them to see if they can approve it soon. Cross your finders!

1-milliondollarhomepage.com http://www.1-milliondollarhomepage.com/index.php?pa=3 Free advertising! Plus it’s a milliondollarhomepage! We were made for eachother. It was easy to post an ad and I can’t complain about the price. PLUS they have a neat advertising directory: http://free-advertising.1-milliondollarhomepage.com/index.php?cat=337 I added The Mil under “Internet & Websites / Advertising Websites.” We are currently the 12th ad on that page. I also added www.steelbinders.com for fun under “Internet & Websites / SHOPPING.” Apparently they are MASTERS of all-caps just as I am: http://free-advertising.1-milliondollarhomepage.com/index.php?cat=809. We are the TOP freaking ad currently!

Million Dollar Free http://www.milliondollarhomepagefree.com/ I think this is the first site I placed an ad on. Very easy!

Finally: OMG Alex I found you! Alex Tew started Maggies Hope Page http://www.maggieshopepage.com/index.php I blew a large amount of money to advertise there seeing as it’s my man crush Alex and it’s for a good cause. The website is a fundraiser for Alex’s cousin, Maggie Thomas, who is battling breast cancer.

BONUS: I’ve got to give a shout-out to www.SteelBinders.com. I posted a sweet binder picture on The Most Expensive Picture http://www.themostexpensivepicture.com/archive I like the concept. Each person / business spends $1 more than the last to have their picture and link posted on the homepage. I got Steel Binders in at $93. Most of the other pictures are actual art, so I felt dirty adding my crummy ad to the list, but I really like the pic I chose. Check them out!

Also, here is a list of search engines and websites that are sending traffic my way:

http://www.orangeask.com/ They send huge amounts of traffic my way. Almost as much as everyone else combined. It’s confusing because I’ve never been able to get their search to work. I love you!

http://www.celebscentral.net/ Not sure exactly why? Do they feature Alex Tew somewheres? AM I A HUGE INTERNATIONAL CELEBRITY NOW AND I DON’T EVEN KNOW?!?!?

http://guide.opendns.com/main&w=1680&h=892 Their websearch “guide” is what’s sending the traffic. I’ve used OpenDNS before and had a good experience. It’s good to see they love us so much!

Just researching this expert blog post, I found a lot of other free advertising sites. I’ve got a lot of work to do!

Here is a list of sites I am hitting next:

http://www.pixeladlist.com/index.php

http://www.kilopixels.com/index.php
Kilopixels.com |
Free pixel ads and text links. Improve your website’s search engine position and page rank.

Super Good Times!

Well, I’ve been going all out trying to increase traffic to the site, and it seems to be working. Yesterday, 12-17-11, we hit 39 visitors! 26 were unique and there were a whopping 96 page views! (UPDATE: 47 Views, 42 UNIQUE visitors 12-18-11!) I started an ad campaign on Facebook.com. The ad is pretty sweet if I say so. I wanted to make it with a lot of exclamation points and super-funny and ironic because that’s just so much fun for me, but FB won’t let me do “!!!” in the top line. I ended up WITH ALL CAPS, WHICH IS MY SPECIALITY. Check out the ad in the pic. I added a super-sweet holiday themed picture because it’s the holidays and all. REMAKE INTERNET HISTORY sounds epic and enticing? Right? Well, we’ve only had 15 clicks so far, so we shall see.

BTW my Facebook is: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003193842573

Good times.

is website on our homepage. Now I just have to figure out how to update the “Advertisers” page to reflect Steel Binders and Shot of Pride.

I did figure out how to add a Google Plus button on the footer of all the webpages. It’s not perfectly how I want it, but it works fine.

Amazingly enough, our search results are unbelievably awesome and we are only a couple of weeks old. The reason is that since our domain is the “Title” of Alex Tews’ original site, a lot of referring sites are already linked to us. I finally figured out how to insert the Google Analytics script, so that should have some data now. Looks like we had 6 visitors Tues and 14 on Wed! UPDATE: 29 Views Yesterday! (12-16-11) I think I actually started it Tues afternoon, so hopefully the 14 figure is more accurate. If you search “the million dollar homepage” (no quotes) on various search engines, here are our current spots on the first page:

Google: 3!

Yahoo: 9 (P.S. Yahoo, I love Fantasy Football Live Sunday Mornings!)

Swagbucks: 3! (I guess it’s just Google search with extra ads?) My referral link is www.swagbucks.com/refer/gstein if you want to sign up. Seems like a “Swagbuck” is worth about one penny in gift cards. I have a whole 265 Swagbucks, so I’m ballin’. It seems like if you stick with it and use it to do your daily searches, you can eventually get gift cards for useful stuff. Since  we are addicted to Amazon, I’m sure we would spend buy their gift cards!

Ask.com: 5!

Bing.com: 8

AOL: 4! I remember the good old days of AOL.com. The chatrooms were so much fun when I first discovered them. I think my favorite line was “22/M/Sexiest damn amputee u ever done saw” … SAW get it… sawed off limbs? Beuller?

I’m reaching now:

Mamma.com: 2!

WorstSearch.com: Server down I think, oh well

Altse.Vunet.org: Couldn’t find us. Very fun results though.

Cuil.com: Server down?

Well, here’s to hoping I haven’t somehow managed to destroy my search results with some of the crazy stuff I’ve done with this site. With all the traffic I hope to someday get, maybe someone will toss me a bone and buy a pixel block. Please! Actually, I’d be surprised if we don’t sell at least some space. You’d think that the traffic would be worth at least a little to someone out there.