Happy New Year

My Bologna has a first name...it's H A R L E Y

When I was a kid the word motorcycle was synonomous with Italian. I still tend to think that way but to a lesser extent. I remember going with my Dad to look at a motorcycle for sale. It was on the back porch of a house that sat on the property of a well drilling company. It was yellow and long and looked exotic. It was a late 70's Ducati 750 Sport. That bike is in the Chief's shop today. Every bike I have ever owned I instantly pictured in my head what it would look like as a cafe racer. That 750 Ducati is what cafe racers all strive to be. Once I got to be the age that I was interested in wrenching on things I took an interest in this little white motorcycle in our basement. It was a Harley Davidson Sprint. That was basically the impetus for my love of motorcycles. In 1960 Harley Davidson went looking for a company to build small entry level bikes that they could throw their name on. They went onto a 50/50 partnership with a company named Aermacchi based in -you guessed it - Bologna, Italy. Ducati's raceshop is currently in the same building that these bikes were built. Aermacchi was then and still is an aircraft manufacturer. From the 50's to the mid 70's they made cool little bikes. You can read all about the history of the company and other neat info at the links over there in the sidebar. The H-D Sprint is all Italian; Tomaselli, Dellorto, Veglia. It says Harley on the side but they were all built in Italy. There were many models made by Aermacchi for H-D but the ones I am interested in are the single cylinder four-strokes known in the U.S. as Sprints. They were born a few years before the union with Harley. There were 175,250, and later 350 models. I won't go too far into the details but there were road-going models and full blown racebikes for roadracing, flat-track, and less common - motocross. I could geek out and ramble on and on about these things. I have been dreaming of building a cafe racer out of that little white bike since I first discovered it in the basement. My Dad's first new bike was a Sprint that was unfortunately stolen right out of his parents garage. The white bike had been a replacement for that purchased many years later. The chassis from that bike wound up as the red racebike shown above at Daytona for the vintage races in the 90's. The one in the pic has a late model 350 motor in it that I found in a junkyard. The racebike crashed at Daytona the next year and was dissassembled. The 350 motor found it's way into a new chassis the Chief built and the bent frame is hanging in his barn. All the parts are still around for the white bike and someday I will fix the frame and build that cafe racer.

Now, My Sprint. The little gem with the silver tank there is a 68 SS250. One of the least desirable of all the Sprints that I got from a buddy for 50 bucks and it has a title. The green seat is just for mock up, it won't be on the bike. My Dad has one of these also. (There's four or so all together). This one is going to get the bobber treatment. The Harley guys tend to ignore these things as they are Italian and not as testosterone laden as a big twin. You see a few done in a chopper style but I have yet to see one that looked good. Usually, they are restored, made into racebikes, or made into cafe racers. I, being the contrarian that I am, am planning to do this in a Crocker, 30's bobber kind of deal. I believe I can pull it off. We'll see.

Minor update - I ran across some cool Aermacchi stuff over at LoudBike. There is a 69 350 that looks like what this looked like when it was new and a racebike. Lots of pics- check the sidebar over there for quick links to the Sprint/Aermacchi stuff.

Only one trip to the hospital this year...

The big weekend came and went with only a few minor incidents. Friday morning I started to make the big ol' weekend breakfast. I had the oven going, I was cooking omlettes things were good. Until my infant son decided to stick his hand in the gap between the broiler door and the regular door and cooked his fingers at 500 deg, or until screaming. Luckily, we never got to "golden brown" and He's going to be just fine. We gave him some Tylenol and took him to the doctor. By the time we got to the doctor he was feeling much better and actually was asleep while they wrapped up his hand. He never made a peep about it the rest of the weekend and managed with one hand quite well, suprisingly. I would have pissed and moaned about that for weeks if it was my hand. He's a trooper, that kid. My brother-in-law noticed the bandage looked remarkably like a potato so his new name is Potato Man. An old roof leak re-opened itself too, but this was a 10 min. fix and it was warm out so no biggie. Potato Man got a ton of brightly colored toys that make noise and blink. The Wife got everything she asked for and I got some cool garagemobile goodies. A bench grinder, a bench vise, and the heater that I had my eye on all fit down the chimney quite nicely and I actually spent an hour or so in the garagemobile working on the Sprint. I got bits of chrome stuck in my thumb while removing the bars but this doesn't count as an incident because this was just your normal metal splinter. It felt good just to be working on a bike again. I'll have some project updates soon as things get back to "normal". The Sprint ideas are starting to flow and I'll write something on that as promised. I should make some real progress on the bicycle forks tonight and I have a neat painting project that is a gift so it's still top secret. I tosseed up another random chopper pic. for ya'll too. I got it from Choppersandpunkrock. I've got a chopper/bobber rant swimming around in my head so I'll post that as time allows as well. Rock on.

Last "work" day for some of us

I'm sure none of you reading this would ever spend a minute of your employers' time reading blogs when you should be creating spreadsheets or shoveling dung or whatever you do. That being said, it occurred to me some people may only read these things on weekdays, and with the impending big holiday weekend I thought I'd chime in with some more useless crap about my life. Of course I would never spend company time working on my blog either would I? I work in a machine shop that services the steel industry. I've spent alot of time fretting whether or not I'd have to work Chrismas Eve, Christmas Day, etc, etc,.... The big mills shut down on those days to do repairs and the maintenence guys and the repair shops get to bust ass and fix the shit before the doors open on Monday (or the next workday). I work in the office now, so I don't have to worry so much about that anymore. Typically places like this expect you to be here ALL the time. I've said this just to put things in context, not bitch. I'm very greateful I have a long weekend coming up and I hope you all do to. It will be my Son's first Christmas, and I set a precident a few years ago. I'm not leaving the damn house on Christmas day. When I was a kid Christmas was the time to travel. Luckily, we did not have to go far but we would drive 15 miles on Christmas eve to someones house, (it varied). Christmas morning we would open our presents, get dressed and go to Grandmas by 1:00, eat open presents and split. We would leave there a few hours later and go my other Grandmas and eat, open presents and when I was real little the Jolly Elf 'Hisself would show up. Grandpa would try to figure out how to work his camera and spend the rest of the night flash-strobing everyone into near blindness and Harvey, my Dad and my Crazy Uncles (all of them) would play with my and my cousins toys. Now, don't get me wrong I love my family and I got one hell of a haul in the way of presents. I come from a family of what I call light-blue collar. We've all sort of crossed the line from blue collar grunt work to stuff like shop teacher, ER nurse, draftsman, truck garage manager, and theres the overachiever with the PHD. My point is I got alot of stuff, but I wasnt swimming in expensive gifts. I had lots of new flannel shirts and G.I. Joes and lots of love. Looking back, I have very fond memories of Christmas with the exception of driving all over Hell's half-acre in 20deg. wheather to get to Grandmas. This Christmas day, I'm not even putting pants on. I'm going to hang out with my family, watch Rex Grossman throw footballs into the hands of waiting Green Bay Packers and eat like I've got two butt-holes. I hope all of you have a kick-ass Christmas or whatever you celebrate. Think of all the folks dodging bullets with sand in thier cracks and say a prayer for them if that's your thing. Give to a charity if you can. Dont get drunk at the office party and call your boss a prick. And last, when that lady grabs the last Elmo from the Mega-Lo-Mart, just smile and walk away. I will leave you with the parting words from my favorite Christmas movie, Bad Santa - Shit happens when you party naked.

It's that time once again

Time to get sick. I've got my Christmas cold. At least I don't have the flu.
Must be because I had the flu for Christmas and I'm not feeling up to par - It increases my paranoia - Like looking in the mirror and seeing a police car. But I'm not giving in an inch to fear - I promised myself this year - I feel like I owe it to someone. Hey, nothing like some obscure Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young lyrics to alienate my readers. Actually, I'm doing o.k. it's just the annoyance kind of cold. Coughing and such. Makes my coffee taste like dog balls. Enough of the whining, last night I brought the Sprint from the garden shed into the garagemobile. I swept the floor, pushed the workbench back against the wall. There are two motorcycles in there now. It actually looks like a garage and not a construction site. There is just enough room to lean on the workbench and ruminate about how cool that piece of crap sitting there will be someday. Of course it was a balmy 20deg. in there, so I did not stay long. Progress is progress. I've noticed that it's about 10deg. warmer inside the garagemobile most of the time. That's really not bad for not having heat. You cant stay out there for long, so I dont know about that top-end tear-down on the Honda just yet. More to come on the bicycle fork project, too. If I feel good enough I'll get something done on that tonight. The picture is of Wes Cooley, one of the great early American Superbike racers. No connection, just thought it was cool.

3rd (ish) Annual BigG.L..B's X-mas party

Last night was the Christmas party for a group of guys (and thier wives) who all have a common interest. This is hard for me to explain, you see we are sort of a loose knit "club" of sorts who all are into bikes. The guy who started putting this all together, let's call him Bob, thought it would be great to get together for Sunday morning rides in riding season and pizza one night a month in the off-season. It's a fantastic idea and if Bob hadn't started doing it no-one would have. Bob call us the Big Globs. It's sort of an acronym for big guys-little bikes. Bob is really the only one who thinks the name is cool, so no-one uses it but we humor him. Most of the guys own an older (vintage) small displacement bike coincidentally, and this being the midwest all have beer guts. This is where the big guys and little bikes comes in. All the guys are older than me, most of them are my Dad's age and alot of them were his friends back in the day. My Dad doesn't get out much, nor does he ride much anymore, but he'll show up for pizza. There is no membership or dues or anything and there are a few car guys, too. Some of the guys are musicians, and there is a drummer too. That would be me. Bob has been getting us all together for a Christmas party for the last few years. He talks a local bar owner into letting us play for free for a couple of hours and they will get a couple dozen more customers and sell lots of beer. Good deal all around. We shipped the baby off to Grandma's house and loaded the drums into the truck and headed out. Lugging drums around in the winter is a drag. If you have a choice, play the harmonica. Despite the world's smallest stage the bar was cool, the people always are friendly and we actually sounded decent enough for a bunch of semi-inebriated non-musicians to enjoy themselves. Not bad for a band that gets together once every twelve months. I forgot to bring the camera so you'll have to settle for a picture of the original big guys on little bikes - The McCrary (McGuire) brothers.

Links are back - new and improved

I put back most of the links that dissapeared when I changed the template. I had no record of what was there so I pretty much went from memory. I changed the categories a little. If you find a link that does not work leave a comment.

I figured it out!

Apparently this guy plays guitar too. The sidebar problem was caused by my World's Fastest Indian post. It was spaced funny and forced the columns wide and moved the sidebar down. It's gone so suffice it to say, go see the movie when it comes out in February.Now I just have to put my links back. Here is the Blogger help desk answer. I deleted some of my pictures to try and get things to work and I may put them back up later. Also, no progress on the Bully bike forks this week as the Old Man has a toothache so I couldn't get into the shop and I have to play the drums at a Christmas gig this week. I'm also woriking ten hour days for awhile. Busy, busy. Thanks very much to Gymi for the advice on fixing the blog and for the kind words about painting.

flamebox

flamebox
Originally uploaded by Surlycamera.

Trying out my Flickr blogging. Here is my first flame job. Fizz cans and One- Shot.

I think I'll call it the bully

I'm working on a new set of forks to start off the custom job on my new American middleweight cruiser. I've never really owned one of these but I've been collecting parts for a long time. The stock fork was bent very badly, so I either had to repair it or go Kustom. I could also just use the forks I had lying around but this thing needs some new life. Deciding to give it a tough-guy bobber look, it needed a new fork. I had a little trouble cutting the old stem out of my spare fork but it's good to go now. I didn’t want a raked out chopper thing, so I will have basically the same rake and slightly different trail. It’s rigid of course, and sort of on the small side. It is supposed to enhance the look, not be the centerpiece like some are. The headlight in there is just the right size. I’m pretty happy so far with the way it’s coming out. I’ve got two little pieces to make and I can start welding.
I’m putting those alloy rims on there and the fat tires, bobbing the fenders a little, adding a flare to the ends, etc…. I’m trying to figure out a paint scheme and making a list of cool add-ons. I think it needs some red crown valve caps. It’s hard to strike that balance between cool and over done. Of course, one man’s cool is another man’s WTF? I want to have 50’s motorcycle style with a little bicycle style thrown in but not too Pee-Wee Herman. Sort of a bully bike, or something you’d see at the Oakland Rod & Custom Show back in the early sixties. I read somewhere that the fifties that people remember were the sixties. That is to say, when someone says back in the 50’s they are talking about 1962. I digress. It should be a pretty cool scoot for very little money. I just wish I could paint.

One more thing – Today is Dec. 7th “A day that will live in infamy”. Lets not forget about all the people who died so we could fart around and build cool ass bicycles and blog about it and not worry about if the Communists or whoever are invading. Thank you, to all the soldiers and sailors who keep me free.

Can't think of a snappy title

I've almost got walls in the garagemobile. We had to take the sheeting off to move the garage and all the insulation came out. Not a big deal when it's 70 outside. When I came in from the garage Sat. it was a balmy 30 in there. I had to strip down to 3 shirts, my Army jacket, hat and gloves. Actually, it wasn't that bad. Today it's 8 outside and about 18 inside. So even though there's no heat the insulation is working. All but 3 of the studs are insulated and there is still a little sheeting left to put up. I put 2" foam insulation under the floor before we poured it, the concrete guys thought I was nuts. Around here the concrete guys don't work (as much) in the winter so they don't get the concept of being in the garage during the winter. Those of us that live here in the Midwest, which is not the middle or the west, get used to the cold after about the first snow. Hell, I even dug out my hockey skates and sharpened them. Another day or so and I'll have the walls done and I can move the workbench and toolboxes to where I want them and maybe start working on some wheeled stuff. I started building the forks for my kustom bicycle so I'll have some pics of that soon.