You gotta get some toys son.

Well we are back. Survived the round trip from here in Utah to So. Cal and back again. The trip itself was pretty uneventful. Lots of hours on the road. We took my little car since it gets almost ten miles per gallon better than T's Jeep. It adds up after a few hundred miles. Especially with gas prices the way they are.

Though over the course of the week a "Check Engine" light did come on. Oh well, I will dick with it when I got some more cash.

We spent the week visiting friends and family and running around. The boys were off and visiting grandparents and T's son spent most of that week with his dad. So it was nice, T and I got to run around. The only responsibility we really has was the dog.

We did have one big project for the week. We decided to re-do the lawn at T's folks. I guess a few years ago the grass died thanks to some very bad fertilizer. (note: never buy it off a truck that is going door to door. ) And has basically turned into a weed incubator. Her folks have treated me and the boys well and I was happy to help dig around. So in between that and running around we stayed decently busy.

Also, last week I stated getting some more tattoo work done. Had to drive into 29 Palms to get it worked on. I have gone to the same person for the last few years for the tattoos I have. And really haven't found anyone I would have work on me. Plus you can't beat the friend discounts either.





Step one has begin and it healed up very quickly. It kinda sucked that I got it worked on the Sunday we got there. That meant I had to spend the week covered up and have a worse farmer's tan than I already had.

Since I haven't work on the motorcycle since before I left, I figured I would put this up instead.

Saturday there was a yard sale down the street. And as I was looking down in the direction I saw that they had a little dirt bike. So I wet with the boys and took a gander. I originally thought I was too late to get it. Some guy was handing a twenty to the people to hold it. So I just gave it a once over and got gone.

Well luckily for me, the locals can't turn a wrench to save their lives. So they walked from the deal since it "needed a pipe, chain and a tune up." And $40 later, we had a cheap Chinese pit bike.

Now here was what I found wrong with it. It pulled a spoke from the hub and that went into the tube, causing a flat. Loose spokes on the rear rim. Rancid old gas. The pipe lost the muffler, but who cares about that. I don't like to be quiet anyway. Though it did need a exhaust gasket and a brace for what was left of the pipe.

So I picked it up at noon. And by 5 or so I was romping up and down the street on it.

PICS!!!!!!!!





So when I get the chance I have taken the boys around on it. And trying to talk T into playing around with it as well. And hopefully in a few weeks all four of us will takes turns riding it around the neighborhood.

Just to tide y'all over

A few videos to kill time.

Let's start here.



And to prove that my penis has not fallen off. Some Dead Kennedys.



And this is just because I fucking can.





Be back after the 4th!!

Gettin' gone!

Friday we will be on the road and heading back to California. Are we moving back? Tail between the legs?

Fuck no. It is vacation time!!!!

Hot damn, a vacation! I can't tell you the last time I took an official vacation. And a vacation with someone I really want to be with to boot.

News Time

Jarod is off of training wheels. Finally got him to break down and do some practicing the other day. And all it took was a day with steadily higher training wheels and then a few more passes on the bike the next day and off they went.



So tonight we are heading out to Wal Mart, the evil slayer of small business everywhere to get a bigger bike for him. His choice between affordable and cheap.

Now that means that T and I are also starting to ride bikes around the neighborhood. Now don't get any wild ideas that I might be becoming some kind of health freak. Though, I am a bit more conscious of the idea. By no means am I suddenly gonna start eating strange health shakes and shit.

Just today T came home from lunch to find me testing out my bike. Riding up the block, Camel hanging from my mouth. What? Doesn't everyone chainsmoke and ride bikes? No? Ya fucking pansies.

Here is my bike. It's an older Trek. I had to scrub it up and sandpaper off a lot of rust. I also had to lube the cables as they were pretty rusted up. Actually one of the shift cables ate it and is no more. But otherwise it rides straight and the seat is only kind of uncomfortable.


And here's T's bike. It is too small for her. It was a hand me down from an aunt of hers that IIRC was something like five feet tall. So her kneecaps are thumping the handle bars. So we are gonna shop around for a new bike for her too.


And we got a dog. He's a Border Collie, Wirehair Pointer mix; aka a mutt. The boy named him Jack.


Freecycle fucking rocks too. I was shopping for a lawnmower a couple of weeks ago. we were digging through the classifieds looking for a good deal and then this showed up the next day in a Freecycle message. cleaned the carbs and it was running like a top. I also got a wild hair and checked the Lawn Boy website for this thing. It is 25 years old?! Hot damn. This is one damn good mower to be kicking around 2 1/2 decades after it was built.


Still With me there?

Now it was Father's Day a couple weeks ago. And I got me a little die grinder set from Costco for here at the house. Not a fancy Dremel or anything, but decent Kawasaki set.Came with a shit ton of accessories and was a decent deal.


So here is what I have been doing with all those pieces. Scraping paint off the motor. Once the paint is gone I will wire wheel it and see if I can make it sorta sparkly. Cuz everyone digs the shiny stuff.


Also a couple of weeks ago I caught this ad on the local classifieds site. 1500 for a Harley. Might be a Panhead. Panhead?? Holy shit! So I booked it up to Salt Lake and took a gander at it. Met up with a guy Pat I met through the Jockey Journal. And we rolled up into the heart of town to take a gander.

Well it was no Panhead. Instead it was a cone Shovel. All in pieces. Maybe there was paperwork. The heads and jugs were off and it had been stored in a storage shed that leaked. So corrosion was the word of the day, boy and girls.

Was it a good deal? Fuck yeah it was! But I didn't do it.

Now before anyone bites my head off.

I have never owned a Harley. I know one guy that owns a Harley and it is parked. He prefers his Yamahas. I don't know where I can get parts for Harley's, don't have the spare change to buy parts for a Harley. And didn't know what the innards of this fucker was like.

Yeah it probably would have fetched double, maybe triple what the guy was asking for it. But I have a project. And I really am not so hot on the Shovelheads. Now if it was a pan, I would have sung a different tune.

But while I was out I got a hold of a flat fender for $20. Too bad the fucker is too wide for the sissy bar. Son of b....

Decision Time.

Since the last posting, I have been doing some serious thinking. I got my income tax refunds and "stimulus package" in also. So over the last week here I have gone back and forth. Do I just replace the parts I need, do I buy something that will get me by, or do I buy the parts to do it myself?

Over and over. I have scoured the ads and ebay for stuff. Even asked about this on hondachopper.com. It has been kinda tough to decide for me. I really want to ride. But I am actually making enough money not to be hungry at the end of the month. So now my need to ride is in direct battle with my need to do stuff the way I want to.

So today I finally came to a decision and I am going to stick to it. I am gonna get tools.

"What the fuck!" I know some people may be saying. "You have dicked around on this thing for almost a yearn and a half and what have you got? A pile of shitty parts and nothing to show for it." Here's the deal. The fucker is too low, some of the repairs, while I believe are perfectly strong, look like ass. And you know what? I have got a neutered toolbox that looks like the shit you give to you kid for their first toolbox to dick around on their bikes and skateboards.

I have maybe 10 metric sockets, most of them for a 1/4" drive. But I don't have a 1/4" drive anymore. So I had resorted to using an adapter for my 3/8" drive. And that fucker snapped the other day doing the brakes on the car. I have no welder, no hood (After only 14 years it took a shit and broke) no body tools, no air compressor (Gave it away a couple of years ago) none of the stuff I took for granted.

So welder, and compressor and a basic Crapsman kit for the house. It will get me back on the road to being able to do real projects.

Then I can get back to doing some real work again.

Now let's go over to what else is going on.

I bought some stuff for doing a rattlecan job on the chop. A can of primer and a test can of the Duplicolor brand black flake. It looks more glittery than a metal flake. And with a little test run over some black primer, it gives a definite gunmetal color.

And I have been scraping off paint from the fins on the motor. so hopefully I can get it cleaned up and either hit it with some hi-temp paint or leave it bare. Really that will depend on how it looks when I get it cleaned up.

And we picked up a dog this weekend. A little mongrel mix between a Border Collie and a Wirehaired Pointer. Cute as a button right now, but from looking at what the adults of each breed look like, probably gonna grow up to be pretty damned homely.

So keeping moderately busy between potty training and the motorcycle tweaking. Plus I am now gonna get my wish list started. Time to piss away some money!

I've been working on my choppuh....

All the live long day....

OK, so I was out of title names.

But since I have been scrubbing off the motor, I could have instead titled it "Rubber ducky, you're the one..."

Last week I bought me a big ol' can of Easy Off to get a few years of old oil and crud off the motor. The great thing about easy off, is that it's cheap, i can get it when I go to buy stuff for salads and pork chops, has lots of lye in it, and stinks up the neighborhood. All in all convenience and annoyance all wrapped up in one neat package.

And a side benefit of this? It munches paint like nobodies business.



Post dousing. I was able to just rub a flat head screwdriver on the paint that is still stuck to the motor and it flaked off. Then I took an old wire wheel to it and the paint just went flying off. So I plan on getting me a couple of new ones, so I have better bristles to work with. The one I tested with is pretty worn out and I wouldn't get everywhere I want.

I had mentioned when I first started that it looks like the motor had seen the wrong end of a chain failure. So here it is.



Ugly, but hopefully it will hold and I can get a few miles in it before I have to do something.

Now this one goes into the "Dumbass!" files.

I cleaned the motor up and was just going over it. And begin checking out the fins and stuff, to see how the paint was doing and also to inspect for damage from the move. That's when I see this.



Well maybe didn't see is a better term. If you fuck around with SOHC 750's you might realize what goes there. That is the hole for the cam chain tensioner... At least from my browsing ebay, I found them cheap. So it won't break the bank. Just one of those moments that you realize that you are still not even close to being done.

On to the homefront.

The boy got himself a hair cut. See T used to be a hair stylist. Kinda nice to never have to drive over to the barber. But the bad thing is with enough begging the kids can get any kind of haircut they want. Hence this...



This boy is so not punk rock. Then again, most punk now is not punk really punk. But it is kinda funny to know my boy is making his mark at such a young age. Look me, I am different!!!

The weekly update.

Or thereabouts. Can't honestly remember when I updated last time. And I really don't feel too inclined to save this, go find out, and then return to writing. I am a busy man, and I got things to do, people to talk to, shit to see. And once I get this finished up, I need to figure out a way to avoid it all.

So let's start with the news from the homefront.

Last week the boys went to the dentist. Both of them have a few cavities, my little one has 5 and T's has 3. So they are both due for return visits to get drilled and filled.




They sure look like they are having a blast. And boy, we can't wait to take them down to get those teeth drilled. I bet it will be like Disneyland. You know, the whining, blood curdling screams and all that kind of fun stuff.

And now onto motorcycle news, and me gushing on how much my girl kicks ass.

Saturday we took T's son to meet up with his dad. It is still a week until school is out for the summer, but of course the three day weekend has to come before that. Jerks. So rather than wait (plus T has some big revamp of her company coming out next weekend) we met up with his dad and did a trade-off in St. George.

Now I have known both and T and her Ex for over 10 years. Closer to 15 (Goddamn I am getting old-ish) actually. But she decided to ask him if he was willing to bring up the Honda for us when he came up to get the boy. Now I know she doesn't care for my obsession as much as I do. But she let's me rock out on the whole, "I am building a motorcycle" thing. Even encourages it. She like the sounds of internal combustion engines. But tell me, would your girl figure out a way to get your stuff to you from 700 miles away? Not many would.

So look who has moved to Utah with us.





W00h00!!!

Time to get all neurotic again.

I have started to really consider this thing in terms that aren't "let's slap the fucker together and ride!"

I have a real job. I have a garage. And I have a girl that is all for me doing this thing up.

So I am considering a slightly different direction for the Honda. No bobber shit, no I am not gonna de-rake it, put on a hydraulic fork, and then paint it to look like it was puked on by a bowling ball.

Here is the thought. I am going to clean up the motor, clean up any and all welds on the frame, replace the ratty re-welded fender and paint all this stuff up like something I give a shit about.

I mean, why the fuck not? I got this thing when I was broke and couldn't have more than a Krylon special. Now that I can actually have something a little nicer, so why shouldn't I do it? Now you people need to realize that I am not meaning that I will go and do some high dollar shit can on wheels. But I am going to do this right. Clean up the stuff that I looked at said "Fuck it, it ain't important" and make it look like it was a labor of love (Actually a labor of OCD).

The old toys.

It's morning during a work day. And so rather than fuck around on this roaming profile for a Terminal Server or check to find out why our software is b0rk3d on the new XP Service Pack 3 (Actually I am downloading it right now) I am gonna show some of my older toys.

edit: The images are looking kinda fucked. I pulled these from my old photobucket account. And it was shit like this that made go over to flickr. I will try and get them fixed.. someday.

Here is my last bike.



Yeah not quite what I am working on nowadays. But at the time I had the extra cash to spend. I rode the piss out of it. Never did much to it. I did have a service agreement. The ex-wife put me up to it, I swear! I used it once at the place I bought the bike from (Westcoast Motorsports in Perris, CA) for the first valve adjustment. The ride home the V-star sounded like it had nickels in the head. So I got it home and took it apart. Apart from the some valves being to far open for the specs and others too tight for specs, I also had loose valve covers, and a toolbag filled with water. They were kind enough to wash my bike, leave puddles and I got to drain the tool bag at my first blast over 65, right onto my face.

That pretty well taught me to never trust anyone that works at a dealership to take care of my stuff like I take care of my stuff.



It stayed around until after I split from my ex-wife and then support and rent and all the good shit that comes along with divorces forced me to give it back. Plus at the time, I was working a lot of hours, carting my boys back and forth to school before I would split to work and it basically was gathering dust in the carport. Along with being used as a jungle gym by all the apartment's hoodrats.

So here was/is my second addiction. Corvairs.






These were my toys, daily commuters, and long term project cars. I had the convertible for almost 8 years before I let it go. One you don't see from this same time period is the black coupe in the side yard that I was debating about whther it was going to become replacement panels or be put back on the road. So I guess you could say I had a bit of a Corvair addiction. Actually I still do. Whenever T and I look at classifieds (we have been looking around for a project car for her ) I will see if anyone has an early model Corvair for sale on the cheap.

Anyone around Utah county have one they will let go to a middle aged Corvair fanatic for dirt cheap (free)?