A story of tragedy and hope with Rosanna Rosannadanna for good measure.

What's there to say? I have been working piece by piece to get those damn fucking rounded off stuck ass nuts off my head on the motor. Stupid (proceeding to go into cussing up a blue streak) just won't budge. So I have resorted to going at it the old fashioned way. A cold chisel and hammer. I went over to Cycle Exchange's site and they offer replacement studs for relatively cheap. So if I bugger up the threads I will just get new replacements. This damn motor better not be a boat anchor.

Recently, one of the sites I have frequented has decided to go to a mostly H-D and British format, so while I might be welcome there still, I am not quite as interested in the threads currently being posted. But during the fallout that came from the adjustment of format, someone at the site decided to have a go at creating a forum that would be accepting to older metric bikes. The Metric Underground. is still pretty young and as of right now doesn't have quite the traffic of some of the more established sites. I do have my hopes up and keep an eye on what is going on. And I am trying to be somewhat useful, if I can be. So if you are riding or cutting up something older and metric, check them out.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of catching something from Joss Whedon called Dr Horrible's Sing Along blog. Personally I thought it was a hoot. My girl, not so much. But I decided to check out the company that hosts the video, hulu.com and found a damn nice site. It has a few current television series that you can watch on deman. Plus some movies free to watch. Damn sweet site. Now I really can't stand to watch new SNL stuff. I pretty well think they should go off the air now. And then get replaced by a show that is actually funny, I did find some gems from the true heyday of SNL. And I had to share them with you, my faithful readers. (Both of you. I really mean it. I love you guys.) So enjoy.

Still haven't learned to leave well enough alone.

So with the chop laying more or less stagnant in the garage, I look at it multiple times every day. See I keep my smoking seats there and also the bicycles. Plus it is easier to leave the house through the garage than the front door. (That fucker gets hot from the sun in the afternoons.)

A couple of days ago I figured that I may as well get to doing some work on the damn thing before it decided to rot into its base elements.

So I drug out my handy angle grinder. I am guessing this thing is not more than 15 years old. It is a hand-me-down and things are going further and further out of spec, it is still spinning along and has yet to fail me. So I took the grinder and began to clean up the stuff I had done to my Fury a while back. I won't lie, I am still not sure if I am keeping it, but I might as well take off my fuck ups in case I try to save it.



During this time I was also "cleaning up" the garage. Which is to say I was out there making a bigger mess and putzing around with all the stuff I was pulling out of boxes.



And while I was at it took a good shot of my old Davey Crockett (sp?) forward. Got a set and I need to clean them up. But since I do plan on going jockey shift, they will be getting some modifications done.



After I did the girder pieces (still not totally finished getting them flush to the trees) I put the wire wheel on the grinder to see if I could clean up the chrome on my valve covers. It didn't work. Looks like I will probably have to locate a media blaster and get them down past the old chrome and then polish them up from there.



The wheel is getting pretty tired and has begun to fling pieces of wire while it's running. So I was tagged a few times. And even had a couple pieces hit me in my angelic face (angelic HA!). But I had to get a pic of this one. I was smoking while I performed this bit of masochistic metalwork. And one wire decided to embed itself right in my Camel.



So I figure that I should purchase a new wire wheel before I do any more of that work.

Now a while back I actually had some money so I picked up a few things from Tommy over on the Honda Chopper board. ( http://lowridersbysummers.com ) So I have this snazzy set of new gaskets for my motor.



I had just assumed that the set was just the regular engine gaskets and nothing particular big. Well I was wrong. It came with new head and base gaskets and a host of other goodies that I probably would need sooner or later.

So I started thinking. Why not just tear the motor down and replace the gaskets? I can get inside and check out the motor and maybe get some other work done while I am at it.

So yesterday I started to pull the head.







Then ran into a big fucking snag. There are four head nuts that sit out in the weather. Well they are corroded, and I think that the PO thought that they needed to keep the fuckers nice and tight. Tight enough to strip the sides off a couple of the nuts. Sigh. So here I am with a half disassembled head and four nuts rusted and stripped and generally stuck. And of course they are stuffed down in the sparkplug hole. So I have to figure out how to get them off without hosing the heads. I will try to use my dremel kit to cut out the nuts, or may just drill them and cold chisel them the rest of the way off.

Why am I starting to worry about what I am gonna find inside?

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!!!