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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Someone save me from myself

All I was going to do was try a different set of bars on Friday...


"While I'm at it" syndrome has struck again. I just did the swing-arm, but I've had that XS front drum, new B.U.B. exhaust, and small headlight laying around for a while eating at me. I just said "F IT" and started yanking the wiring harness and front brake and wheel off. I'm going to completely redo/simplify the wiring and make the bike as stripped down as I can go. I need to make a battery box, switch panel, front brake stay and wheel spacers, and headlight bracket.

I've been studying wiring harness diagrams and modified one to fit my needs. Kick only, no front brake switch, but I'm keeping the horn. I'm hoping to kick this all out rather quickly.

Monday, January 30, 2012

34 Weeks!




Let's compare to 14 Weeks...

Friday, January 27, 2012

Rainy Day RD Jetting

Last weekend I attempted to jet my RD once again. It was raining so I stuck the ass end out the door and filled the backyard with smoke. The newborn baby next door must have loved me. But just as I thought I was making headway, everything went wonky on me. I have officially given up, and I was ready to sell it, but my buddy Julian has offered to help in 2 weeks. Julian is a RD master, so if he can't fix it, nobody can!




Thursday, January 26, 2012

Cycles South (1971)

All 7 parts are online. This is probably one of the most enjoyable and funny motorcycle movies ever made. Is it really this easy nowadays or is the innocence gone? I can only hope.




Smooth

Last night I welded and smoothed Kevin's Black Bomber shift lever for him. Not bad for a rookie. The only major problem is apparently my auto-darkening screen in my welding helmet is going out and I have burned eyeballs.




Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Joshua De Leon

I get excited when I find a new artist I really like and admire. Andres Guzman, Jason Goad, and Andrei Bouzikov all have enviable skills. When Jimmy from the Royal Jokers posted an illustration from Josh De Leon, I thought it was the bee's knees. I contacted Josh about the upcoming Unfinished Projects show and am quite happy to say he's game. Check his stuff out!






To me, sketches are often more intriguing than a finished illustration. It let's you see the artists style, line weights, thought processes, and fluidity. Josh has a classic refined cartoonist's style. There is so much personality in his character development.



Preservation Society

Cool write up on old wheels and their drivers on the Bold Italic today. Why didn't they knock on my door?

Hey, look, our resident model/vintage bike guy Sergio!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

How To: XS650 Bronze Swingarm Replacement & Adding A Grease Zirk

I put this video together on Sunday. You can judge my redneck mechanical abilities.


Monday, January 23, 2012

33 Weeks

It's the final countdown.





I made her take these pictures against her will.





Sunday, January 22, 2012

"Some People" (1962)

If you know where I can find this movie, please let me know.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Breaking Character

Watch what Stephen Colbert says about Ron Paul. Sounds sincere and like he broke character for 15 seconds.

2012

Scotty was handing these out at the Sac Swap. I added the "Unfinished Projects" show. Print this out and put it in your wallet.


Thursday, January 19, 2012

Palette Cleanser

The last video is a downer, here's an upper. This will be the cutest raddest thing you've seen this year.



It's not just old bikes...



Jets for the Forty-Eleventh TIme

I had an hour to devote to once again trying to get my RD to run properly. I put in smaller jets because the RD is still running way rich. Looks like I need to go smaller still. I'm already below the typical jetting for DG Pipes and U-boot + filter. But the bike is still running rich, lots of smoke, and lots of guilt from me for my neighbors health. I'll try again this weekend. The next size I got is 200 main and 20 pilot, after that, I'm out and have to once again buy more. But the good thing is the RD fires right up first kick after sitting 4 months.






Big Hitter Ron Paul



Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Suckramento

Went to the Sacramento Swap with some of the boys. Got up at 4:30 AM to get there by 7AM to get first dibs. We got there before 7 and there were already people swarming the aisles hauling away little Harley treasures in the dark. If you like Harleys, it was a great swap; if you like British, you felt like a red-headed stepchild. If you like beards, it was like a convention. I walked away with nothing but a good breakfast at Denny's, but I still had a good time.





Clubmans 2012

One month after the Unfinished Show is the most important show/swap of the year. I will have a 3 week old at that point, but I have already secured permission to go!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

If the swingarm is a rockin'...

... the bushings are bad. I finally dug into the XS this weekend. I hadn't touched it since riding home from the 49 Mile Ride after the swingarm shaft was sheared off at the nut. I've discovered some bad juju. More to come when the new parts arrive.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Unfinished Projects #2 - It's Official

Pics from last year

Metalmation #3: Electromagnetism.

His Blog

A Black Bomber In Oakland

Saturday was an amazingly beautiful day for mid January. Weather here has been unusually dry and sometimes warm. I decided to take the Black Bomber out all around Oakland. The Bomber's owner, Francisco, moved to Bali for an indefinite amount of time, and left it with me to watch over, protect, and ride. So, I only did what was asked of me.







Saturday, January 14, 2012

Preggo Pop

A tummy and the sweetheart attached to it.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Shimmy

I'm about to do the valves on my KLR again. It uses shims. I found this video.... very similar.

I miss this

I Think it IS piss

A Ghost



I haven't been very active on my blog recently. Nothing of any visual interest has been going on, and honestly, I've just had my mind elsewhere with the baby coming.

I've been working on the Triumph in the background. It's just a waiting game. My cases have been welded up and they just need drilled and heli-coiled (by me). My inner primary is swiss cheese so I need to find a new one. All the bearings are bad, the 2 in the case are $175 alone. And the bad news keeps coming. It's not 100%, but my cases, even though the have matching numbers, appear to not be matching cases.

Here's what Troop and his dad had to say after examining them:

"Preliminary lineup of your case halves had my pops scratching his head. The case halves don't appear to line up correctly, which lends him to believe they may have been mismatched even though the numbers match. Worse case scenario you may have been swindled with a set of mismatched cases that'll eventually crack your crank and end in total failure. Case halves are line bored at the factory to ensure the two crank mainbearings are in absolute alignment with one another, making for zero pressure on the crank while its in operation. Case halves that are not line bored together will put undue force on the mainbearing and will torque your crank until it fails.

On the upside we haven't completely tested them out. Only after the guide dowels and case hardware are in place can we be certain that the halves don't mate properly. Since we're not there yet, I've decided to go ahead with the case repairs so at least we can do all we can to ensure good operation if they end up mounting true. So cross your fingers, we do have a chance. IF they do end up being mismatched halves we have 2 options. The first option is best, but a hard pill to swallow. 1. Find another set of cases and scrap these ones. or 2. Run the cases with worn out bearings like the ones in it, you may get a couple thousand miles out of them with the extra play built into the worn mainbearings. With option 2 you would be riding a ticking time bomb, so to speak, but at least you're rolling. I know, not a good choice among them. Remember though, that's only if they don't end up lining up after we're done with repairs."

Shitty.

This Sunday is the Sacramento Swap. I'm going to Look for an inner primary there. I believe Troop is going to be there, too, so I can hand off the dowels and screws for the cases and he can find out for sure. I'm ordering pistons and such so I can get the barrels bored and crank repaired. Just money and time, money and time.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Walkabout

Lori and I got out of the house on a beautiful Sunday and walked the dogs in a richy rich neighborhood of Oakland.










Enough exercise for the day

Friday, January 6, 2012

Mech Sculptures

I took some pictures of the metal sculptures at the local *metal-recycling / homeless-person-can-exchange*. Good thing they don't have catalytic converters, or they'd be long gone.





Thursday, January 5, 2012

That's So Racist

I get all crazy during political season. I'm too liberal for my conservative friends, and I'm to conservative for my liberal friends. I've voted Libertarian Harry Brown in 2000, voted Kerry in '04, and voted Obama in '08. I subscribe to the Libertarian mindset for the most part, but do believe in socialized medicine and other other social programs. I believe we should take care of us (Americans) before all else. I'm against the wars, including the drug wars, am for personal freedom, am pro NRA, I am pro education. I am for Roe v Wade and other civil rights acts. And I'm extremely pro separation of church and state and religious freedoms (or lack of religion!). Yadda yadda. I'm rooting for Ron Paul to win the Republican nomination, though I'm still not 100% I will vote for him if so. Obama signing NDAA really pretty much sealed the deal I won't be voting for him again. So if Paul doesn't get the nomination, I will probably just stay home in November.

Anyway, a lot of my liberal friends like to stress how Paul is a racist. Criticize his political positions all you want, but you really need to get off this "racism" smear campaign. If you have any concerns, watch this video.



Judge Napolitano did a nice editorial

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Womb With A View

Last Friday we got our 3D ultrasound down and it was amazing. He's currently almost 4 pounds and 14 inches heel to head. He is currently head down and moving non-stop.

I can't believe 7 months ago he looked like a tad pole. Look at those lips!


Eyes open, laying on a placenta pillow


He gets those yawns from his momma


a smile for mommy and daddy!


a scrotum to make any dad proud