Garagemobile Update and Other News

The weather here in Northwest Indiana has finally become decidedly spring-like. We've had some nice riding weather even though the only riding I've done was on the mini bike. I was in full Dad mode last Saturday. Me and the boy went over to my buddie's house where the little XR is stored. Yes, this is my bike. If you've been living in a cave or don't know any high-schoolers who are into bikes the mini craze is in full swing. My particular bike is an 03' XR 70 but the thing to have is a hopped up 50. There is plenty of info for the whole fiddy'craze to do an entire post so expect that in an upcoming installment. Back to last Saturday, I fired up the 70,propped up the toddler on the seat, gingerly eased the clutchless 3-speed into 2nd gear and putted around the back yard. He was really interested in the check valve on the gas cap. That's it. The whole story. The Potato Man was mildly amused by the whole incident but at least he didn't cry. In hindsight, he probably looked bored because we were going slow. Had I slapped it into first, pinned the throttle and started slamming gears he would have been more enthused. Yeah, that's the story I'm going with. Dad was just being a sissy. On Sunday morning Little Spud decided to get up at 5:00 A.M. so I was out in the garagemobile by 7:00 and by 10:00 I had a nice, new steel door with a window, all hung where the old leaky wood door used to be. I'm well on my way to getting an actual electrical system out there rather than the Rube Goldberg deal I'm currently running. Having an additional window makes a big difference in the amount of natural light. The garagemobile is an absolute mess but there is plenty of activity out there now that there is no snow on the ground.
The Honda (the 550) is still in a half painted state. I got right on the threshold of abandonment when I might have found a friend who I forgot used to paint for a living. I may wind up with a shiny paint job for that thing after all. Of course these kinds of deals are rarely done quickly so I'm sort of at his mercy but I can get the motor tuning done in the meantime. You can tell I don't have too many road stories to blog right now.
I've pretty much decided I'll be buying an SV650 Suzuki sometime in the future. The deal now is where to find one and most importantly, how to raise the dough. I was going to sell the XR70 but everyone I know has talked me into keeping that as an heirloom. Fine by me, I've had more fun on that bike than all the other bikes I've ever owned.
There may be some minor blog changes around here also. Don't worry they should help things be more a little on track as far as bikes go. I've become a member of Motorcycle Bloggers International as well as a co-op of bike bloggers that's still in the discussion stages and is currently top-secret. National security is not quite at stake but I can't give out any details as of yet.
There you have it folks, still a day late and $5,700 bucks short but I took my son on his first motorcycle ride so all is good. Have a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend and remember all the folks who fought and died to keep us Yanks safe and free. Rock on.