Early Xmas Present

I went to Four Aces in Pacoima to drop off the Triumph crank with Wes. While I was there I brought one of the rockers that had some boogered threads for the cap to see if he had the correct tap to clear them out. He took the rocker, asked if I realized it had a couple flaws (cracked bolt hole and a broken fin). I was aware but didn't truly mind, it was an old chromed out set I had. He runs upstairs like a bearded elf and starts throwing parts in the air mumbling. He comes downstairs with a set of nicer chromed rockers (with internals) and plops them down in front of me. "How much?" "A Christmas special of $20." Let it be known that I had recently spent just $10 on a set of rusted cap clips. Thanks Wes the Elf!


Now I'm not a walking encyclopedia of knowledge. I don't know how you can be unless you have had one of everything to compare bits to. But when I get parts I like to compare them. The rockers don't have part numbers, but you can clearly see the rear bolt mounts are much beefier on the new set, which makes me think they are a later design.

Sheena's Bone

No Sale

FULL COMIC
From http://www.mcfumunda.com: "Written by me and illustrated by the ridiculously talented Matthew Roberts. I was hoping to use this as a pitch for Dark Horse when they rebooted Dark Horse Presents. I had plenty more story planned out, to be presented in 10 page chunks, but I lost Matthew to Robert Kirkman. Plus, I guess by now, zombies are pretty played out. Oh well, on to the next project. (Please forgive the horrible lettering job. I did it myself just so I could share it with people when we knew it wasn't going to go anywhere.)"

All the colors

Time for the fun part to begin on "Lily the Lizard" illustrations. Join my Facebook art site, click the link on the top right.


Initial coloring on the "Dedicaions" page

Watch the sap

My buddy has yuletide spirit.

Purdy Lights

Christmas Tree Lane, Alameda

Cap it

My birthday present from my bad biker-mama-in-law, a set of rocker caps from Choppahead. They are very nice and polished aluminum. The thing I like the most about them is they are a good simple design and you don't see too many of them... yet. Everyone has the same cheesy finned hex nut ones or the finned Webco repops. Those repops are over $100, while these were less than half that. Good work, Choppahead.

New Design Direction

Silly and typical me, always thinking about the next projects before finishing the current ones. Ever since I got the 53/55 Tbird basket case I've been telling myself I wanted to do a mild restore, that I want it to look like a stock '55 Thunderbird. There were so many nickel and dime pieces I needed. As I started putting my feelers out and seeing prices, it just no longer made sense. I'd be dumping tons of money into a bike that is in essence a mutt. A non-matching bike that is not worth the amount of money it would take to make look "right." So new plan. I want to do a nice early 60's custom. Factory rigid frame, girder front end, spool front, 19's front and back, cobra/Schwin-style seat... very simple, nothing revolutionary, but timeless. I have some good key pieces already: the motor, gearbox, wheels/hubs, oil tank. I need 2 big ticket items: the rigid frame and the girder. The frame should be fairly easy, especially since it doesn't matter if it's not a pristine uncut frame. I see them periodically. The hard item is the girder. No real girder works well on a Triumph except a Triumph... a Speedtwin girder. The only real option is to get a repop by Jake Robbins which is very expensive, but totally worth it and key to the whole thing. I want this bike to be even better than my '62. Deceptive in its simplicity.

Chase Hawk | Bad IDea

Backstory of "Fred"

Interesting

Happy Birthday to me

Lori got me this 1968 iron on for my birthday on the 4th. The amount of things I need framed is reaching critical mass!

Confirmed: America Loves Turd Sandwiches

Fuck. This. Guy.


I wish I could have motorcycle babies with Aaron Kaufman's Shovel


The only solace I get is hopefully, HOPEFULLY, this is the end of the these parade float motorcycles having any sort of presence on television. I totally expected middle America to vote for the turd.

Christmas Card Photoshoot

Silver is the new Black

I blasted and cleaned up the barrels. I decided to paint them a cast silver instead of the typical black. Here's a slapped together sneak preview...

Amal Polish

Hosting Issues

I'm once again having hosting issues and in process of moving to a new host asap. In the meantime this is what's happening in our life:

Max:
He's standing, he's taken 2-3 steps so far, but falls on his hands. He's climbing up on everything possible. He eats anything he can get his hands on. On top of milk every 3 hours, he eats 3 meals a day of real food. He particularly loves yogurt, bananas, winter squash, pinto beans, chicken, and his favorite: sweet potatoes. He's been teething like crazy for months and we're expecting his top 2 teeth to pop out any second. He becomes more and more toddler like every day. Slow down Max!

The Triumph:
The chassis is all but done. I'm having to send the crank back to Wes @ Four Aces to solve some issues. In the future, I'm not even touching the crank on any bikes. I'm hoping to have a running bike in February.

The Children's Book:
I have 27 pages of line art just about done. Soon I will be water-coloring and then it's just scanning and putting it into a book form. My clients will be self-publishing on Amazon.

The Dogs:
Severely neglected.

Goodbye Desoto

Off to South Australia. She was a good car.

Level Up!

We graduated to the next level this weekend. No more walking distance only or having to use the car. I feel like a whole new world is open now. unfortunately raining season is beginning, so not much time to ride for the next few months. This is the closest I get to riding motorcycles for now. I definitely need a new bike, this one is a little old and tired.

Starting off right

Max Catchup

The little fink is on the verge of walking. He can stand up all by himself. He's tried a couple steps, which usually ends with him grabbing onto something. He is in a hurry for sure.



When Mommy works from home...




Part Spider Monkey

The Triumph

I am so behind in updates.

I got my crank back from Wes at Four Aces. Journals are ground to .020" under, and the rotor keyway has been fixed. I put the sludge trap together and put on the connecting rods with new .020" shells. I'm having some problems with the timing side having tight spots. I was told the con rod bolts are one time use only, so I guess I'll try ordering a new pair.



I put in new main bearings (roller bearing on the drive side), and put in the camshafts and timing gears. Just waiting on the crank to be finished so I can slap them together.





Possibly the coolest thing ever, I got my chrome back. Craig at Front Street hooked me up with his polisher and plater. I got a pretty damn good deal and some damn good quality.







Finally, I got the front end together. Because the forks are lowered 3", the tightening seal is up in the fork covers, and I couldn't get my home made tightening tool in the divets... so I had to pre-assemble the forks and I used a ratchet strap to suck them up. Pretty sexy.



As soon as I can get the connecting rod problem resolved, I am hoping the rest of the motor rebuild goes quickly and easily. Everything is ready to go, I'm right there.

8 months!

Happy 8 Month Birthday little dude. I can't believe 8 months ago you were this helpless, jaundiced, puffy-headed creature. And 9 months before that you were 2 cells. 2 CELLS! Now you're giving us zerberts and babbling nonstop, running around our house in full-on little boy mode on the verge of walking! This is all so crazy and all so awesome and we love you so much little guy.

Beat A Dead Horse

I helped start the trend, I would like to help kill it.


Jeebus, I've aged

Gramma Silly visits

Mom came all the way from Ohio to spend a week with us, I mean Max.

49 Mile Ride 2012

Again a lack of updates. It's amazing how if you miss one or two updates, you just get backlogged and then it all snowballs. So let's start with the best one: The 49 Mile Ride. I managed to get my XS running and riding great. I only had one blown fuse during the shakedown ride the day before. It rides like a new bike. I had to make a few time-restraint related concessions, but at least I have a running bike again.

Lori, Max, and I have been Popeye a few times so far for Halloween, and we showed up in costume for the ride. Lori and Max met me in the morning to see me off.


We won best costume, and our prize was a box of Rice A Roni.


The tshirts came out great!


I didn't take a lot of pictures, as I assumed there would be plenty out there. For a great ride recap go to Occhio Lungo.