Base touching

Boy, it sounds dirty when you put it like that doesn't it? Anyway, I'm doing some more photography and I have a few things lined up. Been talking to some old photography friends and I'm closer to actually acquiring that old Honda. 75' CB400f. Gotta go, but keep watching....

A pair of zircon encrusted tweezers.

I never thought that this point in my life would be like it is. I'm not complaining. Well, not right now to you, dear Reader. Working lots of hours on a challenging project, training a couple of little boys to be men, trying to stay in shape, and just generally trying not to go koo-koo bananas is quite harrowing work. Never mind the marriage and the other family stuff. It's starting to get close to the end of the year and the reflections that come with all of that. I've been learning about things this year that I hadn't thought of in the past. Probably a post or two in that content if I try hard. Really, I just wanted to say I'm still here and will continue blogging but I just have to focus on higher priorities right now. Keep checking in, I'm not going away. "Steady by jerks" as Joey B. used to say.

I'm considering selling my two motorcycle projects, Gymi or Red if you guys are interested or know anyone hit me up. 75' CB400f and 66' HD Sprint 250. At least I think it's a 66, I'll have to look.

On the facial hair front, I had decided to let my hair and beard grow for the winter. I'm balding, or already bald or what ever you call it. A little hair does grow up there however. I thought I'd give it one last chance to see if I could eek out a proper haircut and not look like a blond George Costanza (not that there's anything wrong with that). Coincidentally, two friends from work decided to have a beard off. That is to day, see who could go the longest without trimming their beard. Loser has to wear a mustache for a full work day. Big deal, right? I figured I'd get in on this. It's not that big of a deal to walk around a machine shop looking like Ted Kaczynski. Unless you figure in talking to the women in the office who you need to help you with shipping and accounts payable. I'm pretty sure I was creeping them out. It's a good thing I'm one charismatic mother fucker. Another consideration is the vendors I have to meet with occasionally.  Of course, I need to talk to the owners from time to time. And the plant manager. Head of Engineering. My department head. Hmmm... Probably not all that professional considering some of the big projects going on. The kicker was the wife mentioned that I looked crappy. She never mentions that. Like never. Of course looking in the mirror was no picnic. So after some deliberation about what style of 'stache I was going to sport, it hit me.

Yeah, that'll work. So after my run this morning I broke out my new Wahl balding clippers and went to town. Just for kicks I left the beard and just shaved my head. Captain Spaulding. Not a good look, sorry Sid.
Actually now that I have the Zappa stache, it's kind of growing on me. Pun only sort of intended.

I lost six pounds of hair, and about twenty years off the way I look. In the immortal words of Prince... "Sexy mother fucker". (that link is decidedly NSFW) Perhaps I'm over stating it. Let your conscience be your guide. Anywhooo...I got rid of the homeless look and now I've got a Mr. Clean meets Sam Elliot thing going on. All this self deprecating has me exhausted. Have a nice Thanksgiving. Now I'm gong to go get a cup of coffee...and give my foot a push...just me and the pigmy pony over by the dental floss bush.  

New rolling stock

1975 Honda CB400f. What a sweetheart, eh? Super Sport. Hey, how ya doin' buddy? Well gee, I'm super...sport. O.K. I apologize for all the cheese. I'm just a bit giddy about my new acquisition. The entire time I owned the CB550K I resisted temptation to chop it up and turn her into a cafe racer. A Velocette she would never be but I dig the look. I sold the bike to one of my neighbors and he rides the crap out of it and seems quite happy with it. It's also cool that he rides it past my house twice a day, weather permitting, so I get to see and hear it. When I sold it I was thinking someday I'd like to get a CB350 four and build a cafe racer. I don't know why but I have a thing for small bikes. My choice of a 350 rather than the 400 was easy; 400's are superior in pretty much every way to the 350 thus making them more pricey. I figured I'd never find one in my price range that wasn't all cut up. I was chatting with a guy I work with and mentioned that I'd like to find a 350 etc., etc... He says he has a 400 that he'd like to unload. I figure it's real nice and he wants two grand. He says he was asking $200 but he'd come down on that. I was completely geeked at that point. I could do nothing but bug him about it until yesterday. He said I could come look at it and he'd pulled it out of the shed. Well, I always have a ramp and tie-downs in the truck so I followed him home, and the 400 followed me home.

That should probably buff right out.

This thing is about as complete as you'd want it to be. All the hard to find stuff is there. The carbs are in pieces laying in a pile of their own filth. Sad really. I have a plan for her but it will probably be a very long time before this thing is running and anywhere near what I'd consider cool.

The guy threw in the pink milk crate for nothing.

I was shocked at how small this thing is. I hadn't seen a 400 in the flesh in a very long time and it's much smaller than the 550. It's about like the RD350's. I've got a love for the early 70's roadracers and this thing will probably get the look of Kaz Yashima's so called Z-1 killer.

Apparently, Kaz is still around but is not on the internet. As nice as the stock pipes looked on the 400's I might have to talk the Old Man into builidng a set of pipes like that to anger the neighbors. The seat is decidedly Laverda SFC. Oil cooler, giant NGK sticker on the tank, Z-1 steering damper. I like it. I've got a set of clip-ons I think I can make work. The bike in the picture has a Lester mag on the rear. I used to have an aversion to mag wheels on bikes. Now I think I'd sell a kidney for a set of pristine gold Lester's for the little CB. I won't be racing or anything and I'm not going to put 10 grand into a bike to make it half as fast as an R6 but I could certainly achieve that look for a reasonable price and that's really all I'm shooting for anyhow. More or less reliable, fun, and aesthetically pleasing in a very 1975 wabi-sabi sort of way. That's it for now. Rock on.

The Chief and his Superbike PT. 3

Let's see, where were we? Ah, yes...the formula. So far we've got wheels, brakes, swing arm. Bodywork. Stock tank, ducktail where applicable. Sidecovers...lots of variation here. Stock, none, custom fabbed aluminum. As I said earlier, we've got that covered. The seat. Stock style seat cut down in the front.

Beautiful Honda. All bases covered. Photo from here. 

Handlebar. Why do you think they call them superbike bars? Not a lot of explanation needed here. They all need a superbike bar. While we're talking Hondas...

 Oh baby. Lot's of groovy bits here. This is a CB400F that's been given the treatment. No gold wheels but some gold covers on the engine. Looks like a high-cap oil sump. Nice. Mikuni CR carbs. Ver cool but not necessarily crucial on a streetbike. That's arguable, however. Custom aluminum motor mounts. I can make those for you. Rearsets. Yeah, you've got to have some kind of  rearsets. The Old Man's bike has those. They might need to be tidied up a bit, but we're in the ball park.
Here's a little more food for thought.

Gotta go. 

CB400F Phase One

The idea with this bike is a 70's club racer style. Back before the Superbikes existed, stock looking Japanese fours had big oil coolers, black headers, gold mag wheels and contingency decals on their stock bodywork. Outfits like Moriwaki, Yoshimura, and Race Crafters were building these bikes for guys like Reg Pridmore