More motorcycles, less back yard

Always do a leak test

Well, that sucked. I got home at 2:30 from work and immediately started trying to fix the XS before I had to leave. I discovered that the pin hole leaks in the gas tank were still wicking out through the gas tank sealer I had put on. This would never have happened if I just did a leak test before any off this. I assumed it was fine. I'm dumb.

So I got home, put some back-up JB Weld on, and ground down the engine bracket bolts that were still rubbing the tank. I got everything else in order and left at 4 to go to Grass Valley. It was one of the windiest days in quite some time. I made it 40 miles, just before the bridge to Isleton, when I stopped for gas.

I looked under the tank and saw that the tank had shaken around and STILL rubbed the bolts I ground down. This had completely torn apart the JB Weld and Gas Tank sealer. I touched the slow drip and it became a gusher. I had to stick my finger into the stream and push the bike to the side. I sat there, with my finger stopping the pee stream, and tried to figure out a solution. I finally ended up taking the tank off, turned it upside down, and used some electrical and duct tape to try to use pressure to stop the leak.



I went as fast as the XS would let me go and charged home 40 miles. As I pulled into the house, the tape looked good still and was holding. I went inside, kissed my wife, and went back outside to see that the tape had dissolved into a goo puddle.

The culprits.


I need to do a bit of modification to completely clear the bolts. Our new electrical panel gets here May 19, which means I can finally hook my welder up and fix it. Yes, I am completely removing any fumes in the tank first.

Yup

Throwin it back

Headin up there el solo loco. Get me some fried tacos. And a 3 hour shakedown run. I'm smart.

9 out of 10

This dog toy is rated a 9 out of 10 for durability. It lasted about 5 weeks. That's the longest we've ever had a "plush" toy last with these guys.

Persistence pays off

Somehow this one fell through the cracks. "Good, Used working condition." You can even see the red Yoder wolf whistle sticker is still on the top. They've been going for $75 - $125. Hah! MUAHAHAHAHAH! Finally! I can finally make my Desoto whistle at all the hot dudes!

Operation Backyard: Phase 4

We didn't do too much this last weekend except spend money. I did remove the weed barrier from around the trees and make the border look nice.





But the big deal was we got our patio furniture.


It's getting there.

Front St Cycle Shirts

Craig over at Front St Cycle is printing some shirts of an illustration I did for him. It's been 6 years since I had a tshirt made, so obviously it doersn't happen very often anymore. Go get one!

Only took 4 years

Had this '72 XS tank kickin around (yes, the lizard tank). It was side side project to put it on my '80 XS. Thanks to buddy Ted, he got me 2 petcocks, a right (ended up being a left one with right side parts) one which went on here. After buying a left one and rebuilding both, it became apparent my petcocks are sort of a hodge-podge of parts. I think they are actually both left petcocks, with the right one having a right-hand lever. So the left one reads correctly, and the right one reads opposite, on is actually reserve. Anyway, I ended up having to run them backwards to fit right.

To get the tank to fit on the rear mounting post, I drilled a hole in the rear mounting bracket of the tank about 1" forward from stock. A few "unnecessary" brackets needed to be ground off the frame. I also had to notch the seam on the bottom of the tank to clear 2 engine bolts. This bit me in the ass when I had everything connected and discovered I had a pin hole leak. Some gas tank repair fixed that.

The tank was missing the gas cap lever, so I made one out of aluminum. And finally the seat had to be positioned back another inch as the tank is longer than the '80 stock tank.

Before:


Stock:


After











Next I'm working on a front drum brake front end, different front tire, smaller headlight, and a replacement tail light.

A lowbrow move by Caffeine

Mr. Rob "Caffeine" Timko is simplifying his life by ridding most of his material possessions and moving from Jersey to Colorado to become an ultra-marathon and trail runner, cocktail connoisseur, and foodie (minus shellfish). I received a surprise package yesterday from him filled with pinstripe memorabilia from various pin stripe artists, plus a really sweet 1963 motorcycle drag race poster. Guess I owe him something cool, like a subscription to the "Crab of the Month" club or something. Thanks Roberto!

Some detail shots

Photos From “Big Sur” Movie Shoot on Haight Street

Haighteration just posted some cool movie stills of the Jack Kerouac movie they are filming on Haight Street.

Why I Ride: Low & Slow

Jimmy from Royal Jokers posted the absolutely fantastic San Francisco lowrider documentary. It's 25 minutes long, details some of the police corruption and activism involved in the 70's and 80's La Mission lowrider scene. Very cool.

Why I Ride: Low & Slow

Cafe Cowboy - Dustin Kott

Vintage cafe and chopper/bobber builders are so deep nowadays.

Cafe cowboy from benedict campbell on Vimeo.

Happy 420

Here's some pictures of our garden seeds after 4 days of pregermination. Green. From mother earth. Crazy, man.

Eddie Hascal in da house

Lori's mom Sandy has been visiting from Arizona. She loves me. Cuz I'm awesome. We have been living it up these last few days. We've gone to Homeroom for some mac & cheese and awesome homemade Oreos, The Bank Club to get cranked and listen to old soul, Lois the Pie Queen for chicken and waffles, and last night was PF Changs for some chickity-chinese chicken. She and her friend BeBe will be exploring the city tomorrow, on 4-20, wink wink, nudge nudge, if you know what I'm sayin'. And Wednesday night we're going to check out Yoshi's Jazz Club. All in all, we hope she's had a great trip. And she'll be back in a month to do it again!

She's lump

I had put about 1000 or so too many mile on my KLR's rear tire and finally got it changed to an old stock KLR knobbie. I took it to Oakland's favorite old bike mechanic Tyler at Hayasa. The road tire had practically squared off. Riding to work this morning was an interesting experience; I had pretty much forgotten what a knobbie tire felt like on the highway at 80mph.


The worst part of this whole tire change was getting the tire straight and tensioned correctly. The KLR's axle adjusting ticks on the side are sloppy sloppy sloppy. You can move the bracket back and forth an 1/8" or more, enough to go from one tick to the next. What good does that do? I had to eyeball it best I could. I'm pretty sure they fixed that on the '08 KLR models.

Operation Backyard: Phase 3

The big day had arrived. Saturday morning we had 3 ton of Salmon Bay pebbles and 1/2 ton of Red Luster delivered from American Rock & Soil. It was not cheap. Lori's mom is visiting from Arizona so we had her snap some pics for us. We spent Saturday morning putting the rest of the weed barrier on. Then around 11AM Lucas, Francisco, and even Doug came on his Triumph chopper to give some muscle. After a couple hours, it was done.

All the pics



We finished planting the trees on Friday evening.






Sarurday morning the weed barrier went in.




The troops arrived






Adding the Red Luster








Big thanks to EVERYONE that came by and helped!!


What's left? I meed to finish digging the trench for the water and electrical lines. And of course add the new water line. I need to build a control box for the spigot, drip irrigation control, and electrical outlet. We need to then lay the stone in that area. We also need to finish the tree borders. And finally we will be staining the concrete patio and get some patio furniture. We now feel we are at a point where we can kind of do a little at a time. 3 solid weekends of work, a few thousand dollars, and we have a good start.

Richard Dawkins reads fan mail

Reminds me of...

Stick it up your ass and "blow"

I've been trying for 2 years to get an old Yoder Wolf Whistle off ebay. I've watched time after time these things going for way more than they should be worth. IS it gold chainers with too much money on their hands? The Japanese? The Swedes? Whoever they are are really starting to chafe my ass. I just want my Desoto to go WOOO WOOO!



HAS THE WHOLE WORLD GONE CRAZY!?

Elephant revised

Sketch idea for community sale