On Any Wasted Sunday

I spent all, and I mean all, of Sunday mounting the rear fender and fitting the old hardtail's sissy bar. It was a major PITA. I'm not whining, but in the end, after all the attempts to make it work, I hate it. It's embarrassingly crooked. The old sissy bar (the second one I made) was symmetrical, but the hardtail is not, it sticks out on the chain side. Try as I could, it was like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. I stared at it, tried to convince myself it was "good 'nuff," and I can't do it. So, this weekend I'll be asking my shop assistant Lori to help me make a 3rd one. P.S. Pops, lay some of them smooth TIG beads for me, please!





Old microphone headlight I made finally got mounted.


Looks good from this angle. Trust me, it's not.


Ooh, artsy

Sketcheroo

Back from Hiatus and the Official Annoucement

The 2 people who regularly read this blog might have noticed I haven't updated in a bit. The wifey and I took a much needed holiday to Kaua'i. I will have a full report of that later, but the most important news is one I've been holding in for 2 months since finding out... I'm going to be a daddy! I could go on and on, and maybe I will in another post, but for now, I'll let this picture do the talking. Baby friend at 3 months...

Albany Bulb

Was a dump (literally) until the mid 80's, now it's a hippie and homeless wonderland.

Leave It To Clevis

Took the mold lines off the brakerod hardware. It's minor, but it's an improvement. And at least I did something.

Grocery Getter

Dirtbag Challenge 2011

The Dirtbag Challenge was yesterday. I rode in with Lucas and Ian. Judging by the cameras and phones being held up in the air, you probably can find these same pictures and videos 1000 other places online. Pretty typical Dirtbag, fun to look at the crowd's bikes, good to talk to old and new friends, amusing to watch the contestants ride in and do their burnouts, fun to watch the guy in the sidecar with the midget. But $5 hamburgers? They were $1 a few years ago. Damn cow meat is getting expensive. And the dude with the woman on the leash... Basically it was an afternoon of people who like attention. Especially the bagger guys who rode out trying to do burnouts and failed miserably. You can always tell who the posers are by how much they drag their feet.





And they arrived












Julian's forkless RZ350. The Kneeslider did a write-up on him a while ago.










I had a few people approach me because they recognized me from this blog. Thanks for stroking my ego, guys. Here's a shoutout to Robert at Dirty Thieves Chop Shop.

Welcome to Oakland

Back to work

Lots of things to make. Lots of things to buy. Lots of things to fix. Lots of favors to repay.

I love dinosaur comedy

Someone left this leaning against our house

The Dirtbag Challenge THIS WEEKEND

http://www.dirtbagchallenge.com/

Limbo

Waiting on my welding extension cord

RD me

Hammarhead Jack Pine

Friday I stopped by Triple Aught Design briefly to meet James and check out the Jack Pine he was building in San Francisco. I was there during a lull in progress as he was talking to a few other people. Very cool, I want one. The most interesting thing I learned is he only uses 2006-2007 Scramblers as they were the only carbureted models, and they're starting to get scarce. Looks like fuel injection may be in the future.

Hammarhead Industries







The end result would look like this


He (or someone did) made a quick video for their blog

3 Days, 30 Tools, 1 Man: The Jack Pine Build from Hammarhead Industries on Vimeo.

A birthday bonanza

Lori's birthday was yesterday, but I began with festivities on Saturday. I had been telling her we were going to Red Lobster (which she never believed), but I took her to Alexander's Steak House in the city. It was amazing. And also the most expensive meal we've ever eaten. It was a special occasion, we can splurge once in a while. The waiting staff was just awesome and treated us like royalty, and the food was amazeballs. I'm no foodie, but I know a good steak and I know good mashed potatoes. So that was just perfect. Halfway through the dinner, I surprised her with earrings from Esqueleto. I've become a lot more confident buying jewelry for her. It started with her engagement ring, then I got her a vintage brooch for Christmas, and now Jersey Agate earrings. She acts like she likes them at least... Last night was a Giants game; the Giants got clobbered by Pittsburgh. And tonight is an ice cream cake from Cold Stone. I am awesome.

The Saga of my RD

5 years ago this.

Then 2 years ago Larry and Diego came over and we got it running after the rebuild.

Well this weekend, she started up for the first time in 2 years. The battery, which was new at the time, doesn't hold a strong charge (even though it was on trickle charge), so I had to borrow the XS' battery. It took me a lot of carb adjustments to get to this point. It's idling rich, so I need to get some more pilot jets.

Here's where it's at:
220 Main jet
Needle Clip richest setting
25 Pilot jet
Air screw 1.5 turns out
Float is 15mm/ parallel
Fuel mix is 36:1

When I get those smaller pilot jets (22.5 and 20), I'll try those. Then I can move on to the main jet which I can already tell is too rich. I'm becoming a pro getting these carbs on and off efficiently and quickly.

Oakland Cruise Night

All the pics







Jimmy's Chevy made it's 2-year in-the-making debut






Miss Maya




Terry


Tom & Joyce made it out in their flathead


Lukey was my date for the night. Chick magnet!

Golden Oldie

Picking Up Momentum

I've pretty much got the go ahead to finish my Triumph and CB750 asap. The Triumph will come first. Now that Lori comes home at about 7PM now, that gives me just a little over an hour of free time an evening to work on the bikes. If I can get a small thing done a night; it all adds up. I ordered a 50' welder extension cord last night, got my new wire spool on. My torch needs an acetylene refill. Otherwise, I'm good to go.


Triumph to do:
Fabrication:
    Finish mounting fender (need to redo a bracket)
    Finish mounting sissy bar (needs a just a little tweaking)
    Finish tail light
    Mount tail light
    Add wiring supports under fender for tail light
    Fab license plate bracket
    Fab brake rod
    Fab gas tank bolts (lathe?)
    Fab oil tank (Pops is doing)
    Mount oil tank
    Fab front wheel spacers (lathe)
    Shape foot peg welds (quicky)
    Mount kickstand (need to get off Troop)
    Exhaust (need Pops' help)
Inspect:
    Crank
    Pistons/Jugs
    Points
    Magneto
Rebuild:
    Engine lower end
    Engine head (Troop)
    Hone jugs
    Forks (after painting lowers, have all parts)
    Carbs
Polish:
    Head
Paint:
    Jugs ($15)
    Frame ($10)
    Fork lowers
    Oil tank
    Misc parts (foot pegs, brake rod, brake lever, sissy bar, tail light)
    Match fender to tank ($300)
Purchase:
    Grips ($20)
    Throttle ($20)
    Front brake cable (Bultaco, $30)
    Chain ($50)
    Bars (Craig at Front St)
    Kickstand ($30)
Wire everything ($50 for wire, switches, etc)


CB750 to do:
Fabrication:
    Bob fender (cut 5" off, weld end back on)
    Fab tail light/license bracket
    Mount front fender (make fork brace, and 4 strut extensions)
    Fab front wheel spacers (need lathe)
    Fab side cover (need bean bag and ball hammer)
    Fab front brake stay
    Shave forks
    Mount remote oil filter in front
Inspect:
    Jugs/Pistons/Rings
    Points (get CDI from Vintage Repop)
    Crank
    Oil Pump
    Cables
    Cam Chain tensioner
Rebuild:
    Engine lower end
    Engine head ($200 Steve in Alameda)
    Hone jugs
    Forks (after polishing lowers, have all parts)
Polish:
    Head
    Side Covers
    Fork lowers
Paint:
    Cases ($20)
    Jugs ($15)
    Frame ($10)
    Tins ($50 if I do it myself)
Purchase:
    Grips ($20)
    Throttle ($20)
    Levers ($30)
    Front brake cable ($30)
    Chain ($50)
    Bars (Craig at Front St)
    Cam chain ($60)
    Seat reupholstered ($120 from Florin)
    Battery ($50)
    Dual carbs ($500 Cycle X)
    Exhaust ($350 Cycle X)
    Cylinder studs ($80 Cycle X)
    Filter for remote oil filter ($15 Harley shop)
    Front brake cable (Black Bomber drum $30)
Wire everything ($50 for wire, switches, etc)

90% of carb problems are electrical

I rode my XS for the first time in a couple months last Thursday to work. It was the first real ride since putting the '72 gas tank on. Me and Lucas took her on a quicky night test ride the night before and all seemed to check out.

I headed off on the 30 mile ride at 7 AM and got about halfway across the Bay Bridge before the bike began to sputter badly. I tried my best to make it to the other side of the bridge so I could pull over, but it was buckin hard and randomly. I would stop, pull over, and the bike would idle just fine. Once I got up to highway speed it would shutter.

I limped into work. It had to be the carb. The new tank I put on had some old gummed up gasoline that I cleaned out the best I could, but there were still some droplets and sediment going into the fuel filter. Some MUST have have got through and clogged one of the jets. Like a good parking lot warrior, I rebuilt the carbs at lunch. I blew out all the jets and wiped them down. The carbs actually looked pretty good inside. My coworker got a new camera and thought it would be amusing to document some of my frustration.

I slapped the carbs back on and... nuthin. I kicked probably 50 times. No spark. What the hell!? I changed plugs, fuses, and blew on it like an old Nintendo cartidge. No dice. I went back upstairs to put some deoderant on and to think.

The tank.

It has to be the tank.

Maybe it was shorting out some wiring? I went back outside and looked at all the wiring and there it was. I missed it the first time. One of the connectors to the coils was disconnected. Just barely. The tank must have snagged the wire and pulled it out just enough to not make good contact on the way to work. And taking the tank off to work on the carbs must have completely disconnected it. 2 hours to find a 5 second fix.