Chapter 263 New Object
The next morning, after explaining everything that needed to be explained, Zhou Xu left Grassland Village on horseback and returned to Black Moon Village.
As the distance got closer, the first thing that caught his eye was the vast tracts of cultivated fields!
Now that a series of equipment such as oxen, plows and water wheels are in place, although the number of manpower in the farming team has not increased, the overall work efficiency has increased exponentially.
During the time that Zhou Xu went to Caoyuan Village, the fields had basically been cultivated. Zhao Geng was now commanding two subordinates to control the oxen to start cultivating the fields.
At first glance, everything looks prosperous.
Without disturbing them at work, Zhou Xu rode his horse all the way back to the village.
"Xiaoshan, has anything happened in the village during the time I was away?"
He habitually went to ask questions to Zhang Xiaoshan, the village chief, and while listening to his report on the situation, he completed a simple inspection of the village.
Zhou Xu then went to the Equipment Department to discuss something with Zhuang Mengdie.
"How's the research going on with the drawings I sent you earlier?"
When Zhou Xu was resting in the grassland village before, he was obviously not completely idle. He drew a blueprint and then asked the messenger to send the animal skin blueprint to Zhuang Mengdie for her to study.
Now, seeing Zhou Xu coming over, Zhuang Mengdie, who was fiddling with the mortise and tenon structure in his hand, immediately pointed.
“Just finished it yesterday.”
Looking in the direction Zhuang Mengdie pointed, Zhou Xu was surprised and delighted at the object leaning quietly against the side.
But Zhuang Mengdie was still a little confused.
"Chief, this is called Zi, Zi..."
"bike!"
"Oh yeah, this thing called a bicycle, can it really move like you said? I don't think it can even stand steadily."
Zhuang Mengdie actually had no doubts about their leader, but the bicycle was indeed unstable and she couldn't figure out how to operate it, so she asked this question.
Hearing the question, Zhou Xu smiled.
"Of course it can be moved, but it requires a little bit of skill."
While speaking, Zhou Xuxian squatted down and turned the wheels to confirm that the wheels and pedals could rotate smoothly.
During this period, of course, I had to take a closer look at the bicycle.
With the idea of exercising at the same time, bicycle had always been his main means of transportation before the time travel, so it was impossible for him not to be familiar with it, so he was very comfortable drawing the blueprints.
The gear plates and chains of this bicycle are cast with copper after the mold is opened, and then manually polished by the equipment department.
The frame and wheels are made of wood.
During the research and development, Zhuang Mengdie also appropriately added mortise and tenon structures to improve its firmness.
"Let's go and give it a try."
After confirming that the wheels and pedals turned smoothly, Zhou Xu pushed the bicycle and enthusiastically found a relatively flat ground to test it.
Although I haven't ridden a bike for a long time, skills like riding a bike are semi-permanent skills. Once you learn them, you will basically never forget them.
After climbing onto the bike, Zhou Xu tried to get a feel for it, then started riding amid bursts of surprised exclamations.
“It moves! This bike really moves!”
Their leader really always manages to create something beyond their imagination.
Every time, they thought, "I have seen this kind of thing before, so no matter what the leader makes in the future, I will not be surprised."
As a result, the next time, what their leader created would always refresh their cognition and make them fully aware of how naive and short-sighted they were in the past.
Riding the wooden bicycle, Zhou Xu was a little unfamiliar at first, but he soon became familiar with it. After turning around, he stopped steadily in front of Zhuang Mengdie.
At this moment, looking at the bicycle in front of him, Zhuang Mengdie's eyes were shining with surprise.
Although this bicycle was made by her herself, to be honest, its performance was beyond her imagination.
After all, she just followed the drawings provided by their leader, made each component as required, and then assembled them together. She had no idea how the bicycle would perform afterwards, until now!
“It’s well done, but some areas need some tweaking.”
At this moment, Zhou Xu, who turned over and got out of the car, couldn't help but touch his butt.
This bike is really bumpy to ride and it also really hurts your butt.
There is no need to explain the reasons. On the one hand, the road is bad, and on the other hand, it is a hardware problem of the bicycle.
Normal bicycles have inflated rubber tires, which have a certain degree of shock-absorbing effect. Under this premise, shock absorbers will be installed on the seat and even the body to further improve the riding comfort.
But on this bicycle, there is definitely none of that, and they can't figure it out, so they can only think of solutions in other aspects.
"Mengdie, do you think we can wrap a circle of straw rope around this wooden wheel to increase its impact resistance so that it won't crack if it's bumped around."
"In addition to this, there are also benches, which can also be filled with straw and then covered with leather."
Since Zhou Xu often discussed these issues with Zhuang Mengdie and developed some new objects, Zhuang Mengdie can now understand words like "impact resistance" and what Zhou Xu wanted to express.
"I think it's worth a try, but the straw rope is not wear-resistant. You can wrap a layer of bark rope around it to increase its wear resistance."
"Okay, let's follow your idea for the wheel."
The straw rope itself still has some buffering capacity. As long as the thickness is uniform, it is definitely better to wrap it around than not to wrap it around. If you wrap it around with a bark rope, you are worried that the straw rope will break during the friction of the wheel's rotation. The bark rope is much more resilient.
Next, there is the issue of the height and angle of the various parts of the bicycle.
After some discussion, Zhuang Mengdie confirmed the problems and quickly got busy.
Although these adjustments were all small, when added together, the workload was not small at all. It took me almost an entire afternoon to complete the adjustments, and it was not until the sun set that I finally finished.
Riding the bike again, the change in the wheels made the whole riding experience very different, but what is certain is that with the straw rope tires and seat cushioning, the riding experience is much better than before.
After riding around, Zhou Xu was overjoyed.
"This is it. We'll make it according to the adjusted version and make ten of them first."
"yes!"
(End of this chapter)
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