willedoo

The kero lanterns are like a lot of gear in that you can see the reducing quality of manufacturing over the yeas. These days a lot of them manufacture to a price for mximum profit. Most older lanterns have very thick glass globes with embossed lettering and good thickness of metal. As time went by, the metal got thinner, the glass got thinner and the embossed lettering gave way to etching. Twenty five years ago, the lanterns you could buy in camping stores were generally made in Hong Kong or China, and the quality was reasonable. These days, the Chinese made lanterns are really low quality. I've got one which is a large lantern, a copy of the Dietz No.80 design, and it amazes me how they can make glass that thin and make anything out of metal so thin. It's also got a design fault in the burner which makes the flame flare a bit with any vibration like opening or closing a door. These two lanterns I have are Dietz lanterns. Dietz is a very old American brand of lantern. I think it was in the 1950's they moved manufacturing to Hong Kong but they maintained a standard of quality. These two were bought in the mid 90's and are good quality lanterns. The one on the left is a No.80 (80 hours burn time at a low setting) and the one on the right is a Dietz Junior No.20. Even though the hot blast lanterns were an earlier design than these cold blast lanterns, some manufacturers like Dietz still offered both types for quite a long time; I know Dietz still made hot blast lanterns in the 1970's. There was probably still a good market for them. Some people (like me) prefer them for the softer, more yellowish or amber type of light they give off due to their combustion design.

There's one around here that rides a Harley with drag pipes and I must admit, he's not too bright. If he has an audience he will crank the throttle extra hard for maximum racket. I guess he thinks everyone is thinking "Wow!", whereas in reality they're all thinking "Dickhead!".

A dry grass straw that is; you'll have a lot of trouble trying to get a soft green one up there.

When you stick a grass straw up a March Fly's bum and let it go, they fly off in a straight line and can't turn.

The straight-through drag pipes seem to appearing everywhere these days. Not so bad with a quiet steady rider, but I think a lot of others like to crank that throttle on just to make a racket. A mate of mine is putting Verex drag pipes on his new Bonneville, about $1,400 for the pair I think it is. He was a bit concerned about getting pulled up with them, but he's an old bloke and rides steady so should be ok. The standard pipes on his Speedmaster sound like a sewing machine. He checked up on putting the drag pipes on it and seems to think the warranty will be ok.

Bunya nut season is almost over and so far I've survived with all fingers intact. Just a small head wound to show for it (forgot the hard hat), but it's all healed now. A very bad cockatoo high up in a tree dislodged a branch and I wore part of it. At least you can survive a pine branch fall; a bunya nut pod on the head is guaranteed to be terminal from that height. It's been the biggest season in many years, bunya nuts everywhere, millions of them.

I was looking up some youtube videos last night on fans and some interesting stuff there. One mob were doing a lot of comparisons of temperatures before and after adding fans in different situations. They seemed to do the job ok. They found the highest rear cylinder temperature without fans was out on the highway with the engine working hard. Even though they were going fast, the rear cylinder wan't getting much cooling air.

Nev, did you notice any difference in sound after fitting the Thunderhead conversion?

Thanks Nev, I thought the Ironheads might be getting a bit sought after.

Nev, I was wondering if you have an opinion on the 883 Sportster engines, whether ironhead or the newer evolution version. Some of them seem cheap enough compared to some other types, and they're not a bad looking engine.

I spent 3 months in the U.K. in 1985, mainly in London. I was there July, August and September and it was beautiful warm sunny weather. I left the first week of November and the last three or four days there had cooled down to the point of wearing a coat. But before that it was three months of T shirt weather. The locals called it an Indian summer and said it would happen only about every 20 years, so I've been there but never experienced the cold rainy weather they often get.

This image gives an idea of the airflow direction. Not visible from the outside is the plenium, described here as the air gap, which is an empty compartment above the fuel tank, and receives the air circulating down through the side tubes. The air from the tubes via the plenium to the burner is force fed air, very critical to how they burn. Without that system they'd just be a glorified candle like the wall mount type lamps that are called a dead flame lantern as they don't have any forced air, just drawing it in from the grate at the base of the burner.

Some nice soaking rain here the last couple of days, 60mm so far. A mate further north at Hervey Bay has had around 175mm. January was dry, only 17 mm for the month. Usually in January here you expect 6 to 10 inches but it varies a lot. One of the wettest Januarys was 2011 with 644mm, driest was 2001 with zero rain. Usually here if the first three months are dry (they should be our wettest), it will be followed up by a wet autumn and possibly into winter.

I think that will be a big factor, the campaign. A lot of their candidates don't do well under pressure. I don't have the figures at hand, but the numbers of ON seat winners (all states and senate) that have completed a term is very small compared to the total numbers won. In Queensland in 1998 there were 11 seats won and almost none left at the end of the term.

The way I described those numbers doesn't add up. Labor down 5, Coalition down 10 and others down 10, not 5 as I wrote above. That's a combined loss of 25% and ON is up 20% so that leaves 5% missing somewhere.

Polls are just polls. I'll never forget that election Bill Shorten lost. The polling had Labor a dead certainty, and I saw the footage at the Labor election base where people were celebrating and popping the champagne half an hour before close of polls. An hour later they were walking around in a state of shock and dispair.

A couple of questions are: is One Nation's rise in the polls sustainable through to the next election, and if so, will it actually translate to any notable gain in seats considering we have a preferential voting system and not first past the post.

In this ABC article, election analyst William Bowe has produced this graphic based on averages of polling. It shows voting at the last federal election compared to averaged voter intention now. One Nation is up 20% which is made up of a 5% loss to Labor, 10% loss to the coalition and 5% to those listed as others. The only one that hasn't moved is the Greens steady at 12%. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-15/story-lab-one-nation-polling/106322978

Yes they do, and very loud. Not as loud as the butcher bird's but close. They wake you up at night. For years I thought the sound was some weird bird up in the roof ridge cap until I did some googling and found out it was the geckos. I originally thought they were the native gecko, dubious dtella. but with more googling and some close up inspection I'm fairly sure they're one of the introduced Asian species. They moved in here when I built the place in 1996 so are probably into the fifth generation by now.

I used to think the tubes running down each side were just part of the framework until I found out they are critical to the way the lanterns work. A bit like intake manifolds, but act as structural integrity as well. I usually burn one or two at night on the verandah. It provides a nice soft light and keeps the geckos happy hoovering up the moths attracted to the light. Another benifit is the nostalgic smell of burning kero; it reminds me of growing up with the kero heater. The kero heater was a stinky old thing and didn't throw out a lot of heat. I can't remember what year we got mains power on and would have changed to an electric heater. Before the mains power we had a 32 volt generator run by a single cylinder Southern Cross diesel. The battery bank was stuffed so as soon as you cut the motor to go to bed, all the lights went off. I've still got that generator but unfortunately not the engine.

The 5 gallon split tanks have screw in caps, RH thread on the right tank, LH thread on the left tank. The right cap is vented and the left cap solid to stop fuel spillage while on the side stand as there's a balance tube between the tanks. The petcock is on the rear of the left tnk, none on the right tank.

I thought about making a custom tank, but I think I'll use these 5 gallon Fat Bob tanks. They're old-ish and have a lot of character. The only other bike tank here is a rusty old rice burner tank (last photo) but it's a bit ordinary style wise.

The hot blast lantern like the Lanora in that photo has an air gap between the top of the globe and the chimney. In this photo the one on the left is a cold blast lantern and the two on the right are hot blast lanterns. With a hot blast, fresh air enters in the grate down near the burner. Some burnt gases exit the gap at the top of the globe while other burnt gases go into the hood, down the side tubes then into the plenium before mixing with the fresh air. With a cold blast lantern, the burnt gases go straight out the top chimney. Fresh air is taken into the side tubes from openings that are covered by the shroud below the chimney. This then goes down the tubes to the plenium. It's a more efficient design as a cold blast has only fresh air supplied to be burnt, fed from the plenium and the grate around the burner. Less smoke and a brighter light. The hot blast intake is a mix of hot, burnt gases from the plenium and fresh air from the burner grate.

I forgot to add, I prefer the hot blast lanterns. Not as efficient as a cold blast lantern, but they give off a much softer, more yellowish, glow which is a bit more old world style, more character and ambience. The others are better if you just want more light.

I got a fright tonight when I dropped one of my favourite lanterns (in the top four) onto the verandah floor from well above waist height. One of those times when you're not game to look down and see the damage. Luckily it's a strong, well built lantern and survived without a scratch. An el cheapo Chinese one I have would have been busted up badly in a fall like that due to it's paper thin constrction. The dropped lantern is a Sunlight brand cold blast lantern made in Indonesia. It's a large size, basically styled on a Dietz No.80, so a bit of weight to fall from that height with a full tank of kero. I think there's a couple of reasons it's such good quality, one is that the company's main business is making 44 gallon drums and the same gauge steel is used in the lanterns. They are also very well built and a factor in that is that I think they're mainly produced for the domestic market in Indonesia which requires a sturdy, useable product. A lot of contempory Chinese lanterns on the other hand, are made especially for the junk export market and are of low quality. The older lanterns made in China and Hong Kong were fairly good quality. I have a very old Hong Kong made Globe brand (aka The World Light Factory) hot blast lantern and it's of good quality. Of all the lanterns I have, a mix of hot blast and cold blast lanterns including brands from the USA, Germany, India and the UK, in my opinion the best of them all is the old humble Australian made Lanora hot blast lantern. They're not flash, but solid as a rock, burn beautifully and function mechanically way better than any of the others. I have two of them, the attached photo shows the yellow one burning away on the verandah. The Lanoras were circa 1940's/1950's, very common lantern and widely used by the military, railways and government as well as household use.