Happy Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving weekend is drawing to a close and it was pretty nice having four days off. Had to use up a vacation day for Friday. My job is one of those where taking time off is a sign of a complete slacker. The owner thinks if your wife isn't pissed off because your at work all the time your not trying hard enough. I went to a family thing on the wife's side, and went to a friendly thing which had better food and was more comfortable but they were both nice. I got the Sprint home and stuffed it in the garden shed. The garagemobile is a mess. I brought the workbench home and set it up but I am still working on the walls. I need more insulation and some more paneling but it's coming along. There is sawdust, bicycles, tools and motorcyle parts as far as the eye can see. Well, if your eye can only see 22 feet that is. It's a small garage. Anyhoo, we put up the Christmas bush, ate a lot of food, showed off the baby, watched 7 episodes of Monster Garage, and I shaved my head. Cool green chopper eh? I dig green sparkle. Gobble Gobble.

Past bikes #2

This lovely green piece of Japanese artwork is the Suzuki GT380. I wish I had a "before" picture of this one. This bike had fizz can turquoise paint, runs and all, with yellow lightning bolts on it. Very nice. I took it (mostly) apart and just cleaned it up and my Dad painted it this dark emerald metallic. The GT380 was one of a series, they had the GT550 and GT380 that were air-cooled two stroke triples and the GT750 which was liquid cooled. In the states we call the 750's the "water buffalo" and in Europe it was a "kettle" or some such shit. I can't remember what year this was but I think it was a '74? It had three cylinders and four exhausts, and a digital gear indicator that looked like the old TI calculator numbers and if I remember correctly it had a short and would not indicate third gear. Quite novel. It ran pretty good and I liked it.

The bike in the background is an H1 Kawasaki 500 two-stroke triple that Joe Dirt used to own.

This bike I only had for a short time and I also do not have any "before" shots. I got it from a schoolmate when I was in high school, he lived down the road from a pig farm and this thing was stored in a barn. It was very rough but more or less complete. I traded it in that state to a friend who got it to the condition you see above. The bike is a 1966 (I think) Ducati Monza Jr. 160. It's not quite original, not that it matters, but that gorgeous pipe was custom made for this bike. I wouldn't have put a cheap plastic face shield as a fly screen, nor that ugly Honda speedo. It's a cool looking bike though, no? I can take credit for the photo however and if you'd like a nice print of it leave your email in a comment and I'll contact you with the info.

Dont like the weather? Wait a minute

Steve giving Mother Nature what for.....

Just a couple quick points for today -
1) Last Sat. I went for a ride on my bike. When I got home about 10:30 am it was 70deg. Last night driving to my folks' house in the truck it was 26. It was freakin' snowing! I dont usually complain about the weather until at least December, but can we at least gradually ramp into the cold? I was going to load my Sprint up and bring it home and I couldn't get the rubber covers for the tie down pockets off. They were frozen in place! The wind was blowing like four thousand miles an hour. I said "fuck this" and I was not dressed for the weather anyway. O.k. that's enough, I feel better. When I do bring the Sprint home I'll post some pics and give her a little write up.
2) I almost have the workbench done. I forgot to bring the camera with me or I would have taken some pics. I'ts ugly but it should be sound as a pound once she's all installed. Steel I-beams and 2x8's, but bolt-together construction so if I move won't take an eighteen wheeler to move it. I just need to drill some holes, tidy up some missed welds, and grind all the ugly stuff. It needs a paint job but I may leave that until spring because I'm too broke to afford an $8.00 can of Rust-Oleum. Not complaining, just the facts.
3) I scanned a couple of my black and white bike photos and I'll post some here. I do black and white photography as a hobby (like I need another one) and I may offer some for sale if anyone is interested. More to come..........

Past bikes #1

I'm going to do a little show and tell with some of the scooters I've had in the past. They won't be in any particular order. I put these here because Lucky had never heard of an SRX and I just happened to run across the pictures a couple days ago. The first one is the first bike I ever customized. Come to think of it, it was the only one I ever customized. It was a very cool looing Yamaha RD350. It was kind of a "bitsa" as it had a '70 R5 bottom end, a '74 top end, most of it was a '74, but it had '75 body work. I put a big headlight from a Z1 on it and it had black powdercoated aluminum rims and hubs with stainless spokes. SpecII pipes, N.O.S. Guliari seat. Lots of stuff was black on this bike. It looked cool but was/is slow. I had another one that was a complete piece of shit but ran like a raped ape. It would barely idle and had a hinge in the middle but it would slam your eyeballs into the back of your skull. It left me stranded once and I sold it shortly thereafter-devil bike. Back to the nice one. Funny story-One of my buddies has a '75 RD350 that is all stock. He decided he was going to paint over that gorgeous orange paint and put on some gay custom shit (he was 16 at the time). I says to him, I says "give me that nice orange paint, and take the scratched up purple stuff from my '74 and paint it instead." I knew that someday he would want that orange paint back. Fast forward a few years. Guess what? He says to me, he says "Man, I wish I hadn't given you that orange paint. That's all that is keeping my bike from being totally original". I'm a good friend ain't I? So me and his brother in-law stole, that's right, stole the bike from his shed and swapped out the paint and did a top end job for him when he graduated apprenticeship school. I bought another set of bodywork and it was in primer when I sold it. My buddy kept the gay custom paint too. The new owner painted the bike yellow and put a tuning fork decal on the tank. It looks ok, but to me all these should be orange.

I've owned all kinds of stuff, bikewise, in my time. The Yamaha SRX-6 was far and away my favorite. 600cc four-stroke single, four valves, two carbs. This was the perfect bike for me. This one was an '86. Of course they only made it for one year so they are all 1986's. It came in red or grey. I sold mine to pay off my wedding. Yeah, yeah, I know. She's a good woman though. This bike handled really well and had great brakes. It had a big stainless Supertrapp on it and it sounded like a Hughes UH-1B when it idled. It would wake up my neighbor Bill and he'd say "Surly's riding the helicopter to work today". Oh, how I miss it. I'm broke as hell right now too so there is no chance of buying another one. If you know someone who owns one, take it for a ride.

Had a little crow for breakfast.....

Today was probably the last nice riding day of 2005 and in anticipation of this my buddy Joe Dirt and I went for a short breakfast ride. It was about 40 deg. at 8:00 this morning and sunny. Not bad for the 12th of November. The Honda was on the battery tender overnight but was a bit hard to start in the morning. Nothing new. Gassed her up and put some winter air in the tires and we were on our way. Now a little backstory-I don't ride as much as I should. There are several reasons for this but they are all just excuses. I'm not a morning person so I get up at the last possible second every morning and the extra time spent dragging the bike out of the garden shed (this was pre-garagemobile), warming up the cold- blooded beast, the whole helmet/gloves ritual, etc... would make me late as hell for work. This is a bullshit excuse and like my old man always said I should just drag my ass out of bed on time. In February my wife had a little baby and free time is quite scant now that "Dad" has become my new job title. Getting time to whip the Honda into tip top shape has been quite difficult. Joe Dirt actually did alot of the work as I posted awhile back. O.k. I guess I need to make my point here. It was a beautifull day and warmed up quickly. Joe was riding the KTM Duke which has gobs of torque-a really fun bike to get tickets on. Anyhow - we went up to the local twisties and enjoyed the fall leaves and dodged the hedge apples blah blah etc etc.... Everytime we hit a straight piece of road Joe pulls away like I'm dragging an anchor. The Honda is not being all it can be but that's mostly my lack of wrenching. Can't blame the bike for that. It is however a 28 year old 550 Honda and not what you'd call fast. Then it hit me. The other day Lucky posted that he was looking for a new bike that he and Lady Luck could ride together. I told him not to buy a V-rod because they are so ugly. As I'm riding along on my Honda with the bad coils and slapping timing chain and sputtery carbs and my buddy on the modern bike is a diminishing dot on the horizon -I realize that if I had a V-rod it would really be a much nicer deal than my current (but loveable) piece of shit.
I still think the V-rod is one of the ugliest motorcycles ever made but they do what they are supposed to do. If I had a big pile of cash to drop on a new bike I dont know what I'd buy, but I would not buy a V-rod so I stand behind that. That being said, who the hell am I to tell someone not to buy a motorcycle that works when I dont ride half as much as he does and my bike is a steaming (but loveable) pile? Luck says the V-rod is out of his price range, and to be fair he's never even met my dumb ass, so it's not really an issue. I still think it's ugly.
So Mr. Dirt and I had a nice ride and a tasty Denver omlette (I decided not to have the Western Union breakfast). I also decided I really need my SRX back. I am planning a post about some of my past bikes so I wont go into further detail but suffice it to say there is a lot to be said for owning a modern bike and the oldie but goodie.
That's all I've got to say about that.


V-Rods are ugly.

News Flash - A movie (perhaps) actually worth watching

Today a co-worker said "Hey Surly, this is right up your alley" and told me about a new movie starring Anthony Hopkins - The World's Fastest Indian. I went to the website and watched the trailer. Wood. I got motorcycle wood. Like most American's, I like movies. However being the contrarian that I am, I'm not crazy about your standard "blockbuster" affairs. I don't go to see movies with that smarmy Leonardo Diwhatshisfuck. I do not care what happened in a galaxy far far away. If you like Star Wars - good for you, I just dont get it. I've seen On Any Sunday a million times, and if you think that's a football movie your life is lacking Bub. I could watch that footage of Mert Lawill wrestling that XR750 around the dirt oval in slow motion every day for the rest of my life. Hollywood seems to completely devoid of original thought lately. Making a movie of the story of someone's life is hardly original, but you dont see too many cool movies with a motorcycle as the center of interest. The World's Fastest Indian is about Burt Munro, who took his Indian Scout and turned it into a streamliner and brought it from New Zealand to Utah to the famous Bonneville Salt Flats. On the movie website it says "If your a Buddhist, you go to Tibet. If your a motorhead, you go to Bonneville" I thought to myself "Why have I never gone to Bonneville?" O.k., so now I have another goal in life. By the way, if your a Buddhist you should stay out of Tibet. It's a crime to be a Buddhist in Tibet, I digress. I've seen the Rollie Free Vincent in person, but I had never heard of Burt Munro. Shame on me. Burt not only went to Bonneville but set the world speed record as did Rollie a few years earlier. Check out the website for the movie and, if you have a fast connection, watch the trailer. If you dig motorcycles, and I know you do, maybe you too will get motorcycle wood. The movie drops in U.S. theatres 12/09/05.

General motorcycling rant

I wrote this awhile back and let it steep in the "draft" folder for awhile. After re-reading it, I still feel the same. Enjoy
A motorcycle is a two wheeled vehicle with an internal combustion engine. I love motorcycles. There are some things that I’d like to clear up about motorcycles for the uninitiated.
First, motorcycles have been and are made by many manufacturers all over the globe. No, really. Harley Davidson is not the only manufacturer. No, I’m serious.
There is a contingent of folks, at least where I live, that seem to think The Motor Company is the only company. I have no problem with Harley or their owners. I’ve been to the engine plant in Milwaukee and seen the motors being made by American workers-on Japanese made Mori Seiki machine tools. I’ve seen the big boxes of Japanese carburetors ready to be assembled on the new American Iron. Or is it American Irony?
Hasn’t Willie G. ever heard of Haas? How about an American carb? By the way, Sportsters are cool even if they stopped being sporty about a year after they were introduced. Stop calling them girls bikes. If your penis weren’t so small you wouldn’t need an 80inch RevTech motor in a bike that won’t turn.
Next, stop using the term crotch-rocket. It’s vulgar, but not in any kind of good way.
Come on, I don’t call cruisers “ass baskets” or anything. Why not “butt-missle” or “testicle-projectile”? See, in that context it just sounds stupid. I implore you, stop saying it. This brings me to another point about the misused term “café racer”, or even worse “café bikes”. The term café racer came from people in England, primarily, who modified their stock machines to go faster and raced each other from café to café. The modern sportbike with a fender eliminator kit is not a café racer. Perhaps it’s the evolution of the café racer, but a BSA Goldstar with clubman bars it is not.
This brings me to sportbikes. A Yamaha R6 will get into the 9’s. BONE STOCK. 101 HP and it’s only $8400. A Mclaren F1 has 650+ HP and does the ¼ in about the same time (this is a car) but it’s about 2million dollars. That’s just scary fast. Guess what guys? It will turn corners and stop too. It’s not for everyone, hell it shouldn’t be for most people. My point is most people think they need a big bike or a fast bike. You need a bike you can ride. One that wont get away from you. Most people cant handle a bike that will do 9 sec. 1/4miles. The R6 is very cool, none the less. But then again, it’s not sporty like say, a Sportster. American Irony.
Choppers-what can I say? There really is something cool about a well made chopper. Choppers have their place and I can appreciate anything that someone built with their own hands. I don’t own a chopper and I don’t have one in my foreseeable future, but I’ve seen some that really blew me away. By the way, they didn’t come from Orange County. My opinion is this; you can only ride a chopper if you built it yourself and are willing, no- want to deal with the poor handling and lack of creature comforts. If you have to put a damn deposit on one to get it or be on a waiting list- you’re a pussy and don’t deserve to ride a chopper.
These are things I’ve wanted to get off my chest for a while and I’m glad I did. I love motorcycles and I love making fun of things that need to be made fun of. If any of this gets you all bent out of shape, you should go out and ride. Rock on.

Ever feel like you're being buried alive?

Yeah, I get that alot. That happens when your'e the ADD poster child and have more projects than time or money. I'm not complaining, mind you. Things aren't relly bad and I could always just let that stuff sit. That being said, now that "big fat men dressed like women" day-um I mean Halloween-is over the realization that winter will be upon me soon is hitting me hard. The garagemobile is less than air-tight, you see. You can actually see through the crappy siding in spots. I've started to wrap the inside with plastic and I will then insulate. I need to decide weather I'm going to put in the new garbage-picked winder I have. Of course, there is no electricity or heat in there either. There is also a minor water issue I need to address. I have been fully aware of all this all summer, but with the Honda and the baby (an actual human) my time has been monopolized. I dont think I'm using monopolized correctly but hey, what the fuck.

I have been working on a workbench for the place and I was having some design issues. I think I've got that worked out, however so I should be on track with that soon. The point to all this is this: I used to complain that I had no place to work on my stuff, now I spend all my time working on the place to work on the stuff and not the stuff. No biggie, like they say at work-

"We'll git 'er" I'll post some pics of the workbench when I make some progress. It's quite unique.

Two quick side notes- 1) the red bike above is just a picture I found and thought was cool. If I owned a V-twin Harley I would want it to look something like that.

2) I figured out the picture thing - if you insert the picture before typing the text it shows up, if you type first - no dice.

Rock on with your frock on.