Grey

I got her all in primer and everything went well. There is one small spot on the tank where I may have a low spot in the filler. There were only a few small dings in the tank but I may have gotten carried away with the sanding in one spot. The lighting is not great in the garagemobile so I'll check it out in the daylight tomorrow. I have gloss black paint so I'm going to shoot that. If it turns out bad I'll clear it with some satin clear. When I was wet sanding the sidecovers they looked badass as I wiped the water off and had a nice satin sheen. I have a theory that flat black is for actual ratty things and satin is for things that are going for the look but are actually nice. I'll keep you posted. I have an idea or two so we'll see if I can overcome the urge to make it custom.
Rock on people.

Nude photos

Well, the bike is naked. I've got the tank off and it's all sandblasted. I got a quote from a local kid to paint her for a few hundred bucks and while that's a good price I can't justify spending anymore money on this thing. I just don't love it enough to put more money than it's worth into it. I'm being drawn to the darkside. A place where no light can escape, a place where the word gloss does not exist. Yes, the rattle can death star. Where the run is welcomed and orange peel is a thing of the past. Think of how much I'll save on wax. (Yeah right, like I ever wax the bike) I've got some time this weekend and a shelf full of cans. I'm really torn here as to try to do something cool or just go ratty or go back to stock. The stock option seems to be the right thing to do so that is my least favorite. One of the problems I'm having are the gold emblems. Nothing really goes with gold except black and other shades of gold. And brown, but brown sucks and is why I sandblasted it in the first place. Flat black has just become too cliche however. I picked up the new issue of The Horse the other day and there are two flat black bikes in there that look exactly the same. Not that the Honda is in the same league as custom choppers but you get the idea. It's cool and all but I think it should be used selectively. I've said this before so I'll try not to get all redundant on your asses. Well, tomorrow I'm going out to the garagemobile and maybe I'll get inspired. Or maybe I'll just stare at the pieces for a couple of hours drinking coffee and listening to Saturday Morning Flashback. I'm open to suggestions. Please help the most indecisive motorcyclist ever. The weather is nice and I have to finish the Honda and the bully bike so I can get to work on restoring the Ducati and perhaps actually ride a motorcycle. Colors, combos, sheens, etc..??? I have a few pics for inspiration. I dont know who the guy on the green bike is but he's got good hair. Me, not so much.

You've come a long way baby

I've been quite redundant in my complaining about my lack of time. This cuts into my posting time and I've noticed that the qualipy of my posts has gone down dramatically. Well, too fucking bad. Read about someone elses shitty life. Just kidding-I've got to live up to my name every once in a while right? I'm going to concentrate on quality rather than quantity so the posts may be once a week or less. I'll get something to write about instead of how I have nothing to write about.
I found this "before" picture of the Honda. Notice the seat and dangling carbs. Sweet.
Rock on people

Steady by jerks

The Honda's almost together. Yes, two weeks later and almost together. I did get some household things done but I managed to make a little headway. Getting the cam in was not as tricky as I was making it out to be. I had it chain, sprocket, cam and it should have been sprocket, chain, cam. Strange, it seems like it wouldn't matter but the difference is immense. One way sucks, the other is cake. I think I found my carb problem or one of them, anyway. There was a loose set screw that holds the bellcrank on the throttle shaft. Can't see that too well when it's on the bike but on the bench it's glaring. I got the carbs cleaned up and back on. Getting the boots that go from the airbox to the carbs is daunting, but that's the next step. Pipes back on, and then paint. I've got the tank just about down to bare metal. I started to strip the paint with chemical stripper and it wouldn't work. The stock Honda paint must be some sort of space-age polymer. Yeah, that's it. I started to sand-blast it but ran out of time to finish at Dad's. I should get the rest of it blasted this week. I need to decide if I should remove the headlight bucket to paint it as well. That's always fun getting the wires all out and then back in again without the turn signal switch triggering the taillight and the horn button killing the engine. I decided not to post pics of the Honda because there's nothing to see, really. Instead enjoy a nice Douglas Dragonfly.

Flyin' solo

My lovely wife, Mrs. Surly, took Potato man out of town for the weekend. I'm here all by myself to wallow in my own crapulence. Seriously though, my plan was to get the cam chain tensioner fixed in the Honda. As of right now I got it apart, and got stuck at the "install cam from right side with timing mark aligned as shown" part. This was about 11:00 last night so I just came in the house and finished watching Antonio Banderas on SNL. I love that guy but the show sucked..I digress. The fambly will be home soon so I've got to tidy up the house and a couple of quick honey do's so when they get home my being in the garagemobile will be justified. The wife took the digicam with her so I could not take a picture of the bike in pieces so I did an artists rendering of what the scene actually looked like. No wonder I never get anything done. I'll do a follow up on the procedure and the progress later.

Daylight savings time

Just a quick rant. Stop bitching about the time change. It sucks or it doesn't. It's one fucking hour, who cares? There's a war on people.

Holy crap I'm tired

I started the new job and having to actually work is a bit of a rude awakening. I did expect this, however. I'll try to post some of the progress I've made on things when I get a chance. I started working on the bully bike again now that the weather has turned for the better. Someone gave me another parts bike so I've got a new seat for it and there's really not much left to get it all together. If you're eleven feet tall and want a free Raleigh with no seat contact me. I need to mount a brake and get a few things adjusted and I can tear it apart and paint it. I'm going flat black with some red and white accents. No need to overthink things right? The link on the sidebar to Bike Rod and Kustom was to an old page so I corrected that for any of you who dig the custom bicycle stuff. I think alot if it is over the top but playing with bikes is fun and alot cheaper than motorcycles. Also, check out the Bicycle Forest there's some cool stuff in the homebuilders section. I also started stripping the tank on the Honda and I bought some paint so I have no choice but to finish that project. It will be black. The picture is of a cool two-speed Western Flyer I used to have for about a week. Rock on.