Off Topic – Hobbies, BMX, Revit

So this is a little off topic, but I thought it was worth sharing. So when I’m not geeking with Revit or spending time with my family I do have a hobby which harps back to my youth! I am 80’s child at heart and one of the cool things that came out of this era was BMX! So when I have time, I like getting knackered and trashed BMX bikes and refurbishing them back to their former glory. If you don’t know much about BMX, the craze started back in SoCal in the early 70’s, but really hit the big time in the 80’s. After dropping off the radar due to the mountain bike movement, its more recently hit the mainstream once again, with BMX heros like Mat Hoffman and Dave Mirra helping to drive the sport forward. BMX racing is even an Olympic sport.  One particular firm which I have a lot of respect for is S&M Bikes, American owned, American made, these bikes have collected a cult following over the years. Anyway, a few years back I bid for a S&M Dirt Bike frame on Ebay, the image is below. I knew exactly what it was when it appeared on Ebay and was determined to win this!

Anyway, I did win and I didn’t pay over the odds. When the frame & forks arrived I stripped it of all it parts.All the value was in the frame and forks; hand made in the USA from 4130 cromoly tubing.

I then stripped it back to bare metal.

I got the frame & forks powder coated red, as near to the original RAL colour as I could. But I also wanted to recreate the decals. I managed to get the original decals off the frame ok, which I then scanned in on my Mac. After cleaning the scans up in Photoshop, I then fired up Revit! I created a new drafting view and imported the jpeg scan.

I then traced over the scan using detail lines and solid fills to end up with this exact copy of the original artwork.

I then tracked down a firm on the internet which supplied clear decal sticker paper and printed the art work using my Epson Inkjet printer.

Then all I had to do is get the decals onto the frame!

So this is the completed bike!

So the next time somebody tells you that you can’t do that it Revit, you tell em’ that Revit can even do artwork !!! BTW, if you have old bmx bike or frame, I am particularly interested in tracking down  Skyway TA frame & forks, Haro Master or Haro Sport from the mid 80’s, let me know.  :-)

And the race is on….

When I was in Boston, Steve Stafford pointed me in the direction of Google Reader. He explained that this can be useful as it gives you some idea of how many people subscribe to your blog. Now Steve is a regular blogger as we all know and his approach to blogging is to provide an article which takes up no longer than 5 minutes a day of somebodies time. This I believe is a great approach, the average person has the attention span of about 15 to 20 minutes. So short sharp to the point articles are a great idea and is probably the way most people learn. Anyway…..Steve stats for his blog currently are….

What was a complete amazement to me was that I’m not far behind the Revit Blogger Master,  however Steve is the original and is more prolific in his articles, where he leads, others follow. ; – )

Anyway, I’m glade those that read my blog find it useful????

Windows Live Writer 2011

Do you blog? Well I have just been fortunate enough to get a new laptop, a Dell Precision M4500! So in the process of downloading and installing some of my regular web apps….I realised that Microsoft have introduced LIve Writer 2011. Well worth installing from what I have seen so far, it can be downloaded from here.

http://explore.live.com/windows-live-writer?os=other

London Festival of Architecture

Picking up on Simons blog article about the London Festival of Architecture, we at HOK London have also got involved!

 

We’ve greened our office and given our atrium area a village green theme along with real grass! hmmmm doubt it will last a week. :-)