Taking a break

Taking an indefinite leave of my blog.

Why not both?

The Triumph Video

I had some fun and made this yesterday. A fitting finish to dad-cation.

The Last Day

Today is the last day of my dad-cation. Max and Lori left Thursday morning to visit family in Arizona. I walked them into the airport pulling the luggage and balancing the car seat on my shoulder and said goodbye. I promptly went home with a tweaked neck/upper shoulder from carrying the car seat and have spent my entire dad-cation in a bit of pain and not doing quite as much as I'd hoped. Am I really getting that old/out of shape? Thursday was clerical work and lying on the couch trying to work a giant knot out of my back. Most of Friday was spent at the DMV, followed by a night of drinking whiskey with Lucas powering through the entire Tom Petty Greatest Hits album on acoustic guitars. Saturday I took a chilly ride in the Oakland Hills and came home deaf, promptly ordering slip-in baffles. I also began to work on some long unfinished art projects, but realized my back was too sore to be hunched over for long. Today, well today, I managed to sleep in until 7:30AM, the longest yet. Today will hopefully be one last ride, hopefully more art, clean the house, and prepare the backyard for the rain we are finally getting tomorrow. All of our kitchen cabinet doors are out there getting stripped. This is it Jason, tomorrow you're a full time dad again. Back to being a weekend warrior. But I sure miss my sexy wife and little goofball.

Now I remember why I stopped painting... shit's hard!




miss this kid!!!

The Hills

Legit!

Only 4 1/2 hours at the DMV...

Bugging Me

Things I want to change, or wish I could change, on the pre-unit still:
I want to move the oil tank up to fill in the space. I'll do this if/when I take it back down for paint.
The oil tank also needs a drain plug. Very difficult to change the oil.
I wish I had the capabilities to make a matching primary side bubble on the oil tank, maybe tool storage.
Speaking of drain plugs, the primary needs one too.
I need slightly higher bars.
The gas tank will need repainted. Because one of the previous owners put the tapered bungs in upside down. I can only get 1-1/2 threads in on the petcocks.
Better petcocks and petcock placement. Having issues with the petcock levers hitting the carb cables.
The headlight is mounted too high. I'd have to make a custom lower fork bracket.
The exhaust is fucking loud, too loud. Don't know what to do about that.
I want to redo the head steady because I can't access the gas tank securing nut.
As much as I love the Fab Kevin seat mount, I want to use a lower profile one to clean up that area.
The seat still needs to move further back. To do so, I'd need to make totally different spring perch mounts.
The hardtail is a 2" drop, 2" stretch. I think the bike looks too long still and wish I had a 1" stretch (or maybe less). Too late for that.
Those that put 4" stretch or longer on their bikes are nuts
I also wish the hardtail construction matched the front loop construction. It's too "plain." Gusseting, and brazing with sleeves. FMW says they can do this.
The brake pedal perch needs redone. It was a last minute replacement and the metal is too thin and flexes. The shape doesn't work for me either.
No MIG welds.
If I could do it over, I'd find a Triumph front brake hub to use that actually stops, and is for 40 spoke wheels.

British Graffiti

Another

Chattin with Bill from Tucson

The Longest Kitchen Remodel In Recorded History

I've been working on our kitchen for probably 6 months now. One small segment at a time during Max naps and on weekends while Lori watches Max. I'm at the door stripping phase. Waiting for the stripper to eat away paint gave me a perfect opportunity to grind off the front seat mount and move it back and down 1". That completes the cosmetic changes I wanted to make. Time to slap her back together and ride her around!

Jason Lee is cool

And he probably rides more than I do.

Local Yokel

Pete in san Diego hooked me up with a nacelle top yoke for the Triumph. This moves my bars in front of the damper. I no longer have that pull-back Trophy look. Even has old nice chrome! I'm in love with this look. Now to just re-position the seat.

Halloween

Lori was Daenerys Targaryen from "Game of Thrones", the Mother of Dragons. I was whatever I could whip up with a fake mustache. Max had a blast. He was giggling after each house and just having a ball. He could have gone all night, but we filled his bucket up.







Boo at the Zoo

The 49 Mile Ride #13

Lucky 13. That was this year's 49 Mile Ride put on by Pete and Kim Young. I have been trying desperately to get the pre-unit done each year and this was the year! I was originally going to trailer it over the bridge, but I finally just decided to ride across. I met up with some buddies for a morning coffee and then we rode over. I had no real issues except some clutch slipping at higher revs and a kickstand that dropped down. We pulled into the Boat Club by the Giants stadium and I began my rounds. Amazing how many people approached me about the bike, knowing how long I'd been working on it. I got a few kudos from some old timers. It felt great to finally be there on that bike.

My biggest issue of the day was the clutch cable slackening. It had happened before on a test ride, and this time it happened just as I was going over the top of Lombard St. I almost rammed into another rider. I had to shut off the bike and coast down that crazy twisty street. At the bottom I readjusted and had a bunch of riders stay back with me while I fixed it. Much karma! The only other problem was some black smoke coming out the right side. Not quite sure why I'm running rich on that side. At Twin Peaks the weather took a serious downturn for cold and windy. I decided not to press my luck any further and headed home with no issues. I rode with my buddy Doug on his Triumph chopper. At one point we just looked at each other and smiled big shit eating grins at each other. What a perfect moment. before heading over


Next 3 pictures courtesy of Pete at Occhio Lunggo






Next 3 pictures courtesy of Paul at The Vintagent


the only picture I took


I'm going to re-torque and adjust what's needed and move the seat a little. I'm going to take a little break from bikes and try to get back into art for a bit. Then onto finishing some other projects and then the next pre-unit!

When dreams become reality

At long, long last!

Pumpkins and Smores

Had some good family time this weekend.














Lori also figured out why Max calls pumpkins "Nani."

Don't get no simpler

Wired

Black Plate Motorbykes

I started a portfolio blog dedicated just to my motorcycles and work I've done for others.  It's a little rough around the corners and still needs fleshed out, but I think it's a good representation.

Black Plate Motorbykes