Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 827

Chapter 827: Bicycle (2/2)
The paint was left to dry for two nights and a day. Sheela, being impatient as she was, was very restless by not being able to assemble the two-wheel carriage, but fortunately, there wasn’t a complete devoid of things for her to do, as she got to spend her time by assembling each and every link of the chain drive with some small steel rivets. She also helped fit the bearings into the bearing hub. Her small hands proved to be a lot more effective in fitting the bearings into the hub than her father’s. In total, there were four hubs that she had to assemble, which occupied nearly half of her free time. On the other half, she helped her father set up the braking mechanism for both the front and back wheels, as well as helped in fitting the spokes into the rim of the wheel and installing the hard rubber on top of the rim.

In such a way, a day unknowingly passed.

Gulmarg

Like grains of rice slipping from a harvester after a fresh harvest, large drops of water began pouring over the village cradled in the heart of the jungle, Gulmarg. As the water hit the ground, the scent of muddy earth wafted in the air. The wind began to pick up, and the branches on the trees swayed from left to right. The windows of the houses began to rattle, and the wild and domestic animals alike in the forest and next to the houses rushed into their burrows, sheds, coops, or caves for shelter. Even the village, which is usually very lively early in the morning, especially on Sundays where the children could be seen running around the streets playing cricket, rugby, or football, making commotion while they were at it, grew silent, leaving only the most peaceful yet powerful ambiance of Mother Nature to be heard.

However, the duo of Suhail Karan and Sheela excitedly entered the garage wearing a new set of apparel for the third time in three days. Originally, Suhail would have been distressed as he had to clean them up, but now that the paint had dried and all the sub-assemblies outside the main assembly had been completed, he was too excited to care about cleaning the clothes, especially since the only thing left was him and his daughter to finally assemble the two-wheeled carriage.

Suhail came to the corner of the garage, which had a small storage room. He opened the door, and several bags, along with some tools and nuts and bolts of various sizes, were immediately visible. Some of the bags were already empty, while others remained untouched. Looking at them, Suhail immediately realised that he had forgotten to discard the bags after taking out the parts yesterday, so he quickly threw out the empty bags and took out a large wooden circular cylinder from one of the bags, which he had not yet opened.

Suhail pried open the shut wooden box with some anticipation because this was the first time he was personally using the high-quality grease that had only newly appeared in the empire. He saw the grease being used to lubricate the machines in the factory instead of heavy oil, and he noticed that grease was more efficient than the heavy oil, and it also lasted longer. So, although it cost a few hundred Varaha to make sure that nothing goes wrong in the carriage he had built for his daughter, he clenched his fist and bought the grease.

Sheela looked into the wooden cylinder with her large eyes, blinking in confusion like a curious little cat.

“Father, what is it?” she gestured with her hands, after which she put her hand into the grey substance, trying to feel what it was.

Feeling the grease at the tip of her little fingers, Sheela was immediately confused, “Its texture is like that of butter, but it looks grey,” she was left bewildered.

Fortunately, the next moment, Suhail took out a piece of scrap and wiped the hands of his daughter, “It is called… um… the action in sign language has not been assigned to the thing yet, but it is used as a lubricant. It works better than the heavy oil, and it even has the power to prevent rusting.”

Sheela blinked her big, round eyes and nodded in understanding.

Soon, with the direction of Suhail, all the moving parts of the two-wheeled carriage, like the wheel hubs, handlebar hub, and chain sprockets, had been lubricated with grease.

With the lubrication complete, the assembly of the two-wheeled carriage officially began. Suhail reversed the triangular frame of the two-wheeled carriage so that he could start first with the installation of the wheels. However, before he could install the wheels, he felt that he had to install the driving mechanism, so he asked his daughter to fetch the parts, and she excitedly brought over the large circular gear, which he named a crankset. In his design, the crankset would be the core part of the carriage, the part responsible for converting the energy output by humans into motion. This would also be the part to which the two pedals would be connected.

“Bang!”

Suhail had to use the hammer to get the crankset into its slot. Fortunately, as it was lubricated with an ample amount of grease, only a few hits were required to get it fitted.

“The third hub,” Suhail gestured the instructions as concisely as possible.

Sheela immediately returned with the four hubs that had been prepared and handed over the one that had three marked on it.

Suhail took over the hub and nodded; this was the hub which he had machined himself in order to fill 22 quarter-inch cup and cone bearings.

He immediately installed the hub into the crankset.

“ZZZZZ!”

He turned the crankset at full force, and to his satisfaction, it turned very well without any apparent resistance. Making sure that everything was all right, he closed the assembly with a machined-out steel plate, after which he installed the pedals on both sides of the crankset.

“The sprocket.”

He took over the smaller gear that his daughter handed over and immediately installed it into the socket at the back of the frame. Consequently, he also installed the wheel hub containing 24 quarter-inch bearings, similar to the one he installed for the crankset. Finally, he took over the 30-inch wheel with 40 steel wire spokes installed on it and installed it to the wheel hub in the rear.

Half an hour later, in the same way, the front wheel had also been installed. Both the wheels had similar specifications and spoke counts.

“Chain drive.”

Suhail asked as he stretched out his hands. Sheela ran to the corner of the garage where her father had placed it after greasing it adequately. he took over the long chain that looked like a thin metal snake and started to weave it over the crankset in the middle of the contraption and the sprocket in the back.

Weaving it around, Suhail realised that the chain was too loose. So he took over the pliers his daughter handed over and removed a few rivets, thereby removing 3 links, half an inch each. He could have removed one more link, thereby making the chain truly fit snugly within the crankset and sprocket system, but from his experience, he knew that if a machine has no leeway, the likelihood of it breaking is higher than when there is a lot of leeway.

So he left just enough space for the chain to expand and contract around an inch or an inch and a half, and immediately riveted the links together, making the closed loop with the chain.

“Phew!!!”

Suhail let out a deep breath and leaned back, looking at the partially assembled two-wheeled carriage with pride.

“Come try it out,” he motioned to his daughter to do the first honour.

The two-wheeled carriage was still not on its wheels, but it was the perfect opportunity to test if the pedalling mechanism worked. Sheela, being talented with machinery like her father, intuitively understood what he wanted her to do. So she excitedly came forward, sat on her knees, held one of the pedals with both her hands, and tried to push it down with all her weight. But unexpectedly, she almost slipped because there wasn’t as much resistance in the pedal as she had hoped. In the end, she lost balance and leaned forward, almost hitting her head on the frame. Fortunately, she held the pedal strongly, and in the end, it became her support.

“Careful,” Suhail advised. Sheela let out her tongue and smiled mischievously. She tried to turn the pedal once again, but this time she didn’t try to put any downward force. Instead, she simply tried to move it around like she was grinding something on a grinding rock, and to her delight, the pedal turned almost without resistance, and driven by the interlinking chain, the wheel at the back began to turn quickly.

Excited, she began to increase the speed at which she spun until she couldn’t anymore.

Suhail shook his head in amusement. “All right, you know it is working, let’s leave it at that until the brakes are installed.”

With the main components installed, after being stopped from spinning, the two-wheeled carriage was finally placed on the ground, and the installation of other parts began.

Suhail went to the storeroom and took out the other bags, which were yet to be opened.

The first thing to install was the hub with 28 three-by-sixteenth-inch cup and cone bearings, the smallest manufactured for the turning of the handlebar, after which he installed the handlebar and a few grips on the handlebar. He even installed the nameplate, which his daughter had painted pink.

He took out a saddle which he had custom-made, and which had a spring support in it.

Installing those two finally, he installed the two brakes. The brakes he chose and manufactured were similar to the spoon brakes that were used in horse-driven carriages when the carriage needed to be stopped, but the horse couldn’t be controlled. However, they had been miniaturised, and he also simplified the brake system by removing many unnecessary parts.

The brake wire, which is a high-strength steel wire, passed through a hollow reinforced iron pipe, and it was attached to spoons that were installed around the rim of the wheel. The spoons had hard rubber heads in order to increase the friction when they touched the rim.

The wire is connected to a lever at the handle, so when the lever is pulled, the spoon tightens and makes contact with the rim, causing the wheel to slow down.

Suhail tried out the brake after he had installed it and nodded with satisfaction when the tire, which was spinning at high speed, immediately stopped. Although he had to adjust the length of the wire continuously for the last 34 minutes, it was still worth it. As he finished, filled with more experience, he installed the front brake as well.

“It’s done!!!”

Suhail gestured with a smile of contentment.

“Yeahhhh!!!” Sheela couldn’t hold it in anymore and screamed out with joy. Suhail could not hear the sound of his daughter, but he could tell that she was very happy. “Father, can I ride it? Can I ride it, please? Can I ride it?”

She immediately held his hands and started to plead.

Suhail thoughtfully looked out. The rain had already stopped, but it was already 5:00 PM, and the sunlight was beginning to dim. But maybe he did not want to disappoint his daughter, or maybe he himself wanted to see the fruits of his 4 1/2 months of labour in action, so he nodded.

He pushed the two-wheeled carriage outdoors and held it so her daughter could get on.

Sheela got on the carriage and held the handlebars with excitement on her face. Her father didn’t have to advise her how to operate the carriage since she had participated in the build herself.

She looked at her father, who was looking at her with anticipation and questioning in his gaze. Sheela immediately understood what her father wanted to convey, so she did not hesitate and directly nodded.

With a strong push, Suhail let go of the two-wheeled carriage while Sheela widened her eyes and smiled with joy. She forgot to pedal for a few seconds, but as if by instinct, she started to pedal, and she began to move forward.

However, the next movement…

“Bang!”

The two-wheeled carriage fell down.

“Whaa!”