General: The thinkbikes.com Van

This was first going to be a test post, to see if the bug of attaching an imaging while starting a new post was fixed (which it is). But I'm also going to use this discussion to document each change we make to our new van.

This is a 17 seater mini-bus, that was originally a school bus. We've ripped out all but 8 seats, so we have room for the demo rig, bikes and 8 people. We have a small trailer that we carry too, which has the PA and other bits and bobs in.

Dave has worked pretty hard on this and changed the cam belt and given things a fine tune. I had the happy task of ripping the seats out, which took longer than expected due to a threaded bolt, and some really awkward angles! We took it on its first drive yesterday - 7 hours of motorway travel. It was peachy.

The reason I've decided to blog this, is we are going to pimp it out slightly, from a technological stand point. Firstly, we are going to remove one of the twin seats and replace it with a single seat, which are going to weld into new spots on the floor, for a single row of 4 seats (leaving a total of 7 capacity). Then we are going to board up the "van" portion of the van. This means we can reclassify it as a van instead of a minibus, which should bring the insurance down. Eventually it's getting resprayed in the thinkbikes.com colours too. We're also going to fit a solenoid based cruise control, to save the driver's legs.

Internally, we are going to fit a TFT display and MythTV powered media center, for watching films and listening to music. I'm going to use a notebook for this, so that I can run it straight from 12V (or worst case a DC-DC converter to say 19V). Being a notebook, it'll act as a UPS, so we can leave it switched on for short stops. I'm hoping to find a broken notebook on eBay - i.e the screen is smashed. Not a problem as we'll be using an external display. The head unit in the van is pretty poor - but should be good enough to power some newer speakers and take input from our machine.

We're also going to integrate some inverters (for mains power), USB hubs for charging phones and the like, and a bank of cigarette lighters for charging things like cameras.

I'm intending on using a 750GB external hard drive (possibly NAS) for storing videos and music on and integrating a wireless hub - so other notebooks can connect and contribute. If I can sort out an HSDPA/3G internet connection, this would double up as a distribution for the internet too.

We spend a lot of time travelling while doing our demos and training, so it makes sense that we're comfortable!

7 inch? Come off it. I'm thinking a 19" widescreen. It's got a really high roof, so we can fit it just above the windscreen and it makes for a good viewing angle for everyone in the back.

OK, who drove it in to the tree?

PC - but it may well be HD resolution.

The next level is a tattoo Scopse!

Make sure you post some piccies of the renovation in progress!

Nah, the driver doesn't mind distraction But I'll mention it.

I'll see if I can get Dave to send me the photos of it now it's all prepared. It should have had its primer coat this evening!