Do you ever have one of "those" days

Sunday was like that. I got the dirtbike up on the stand to do a sidestand swap.
I don't like sidestand swaps as these involve springs, under tension
with lots of eye popping force. And that sketchy go anywhere it wants to go when it lets go kind of thing.

So I donned me geek glasses and went to work.
After a bit of a struggle and no flying springs it was done.
PHEW!
However that was not to be the end.
The dirtbike was on one of those bike stands that you use this little lever and it lifts both ends off the ground and the lever kind of locks in place with the weight of the bike.

I couldn't lower it
So I used my hand.
And my hand on top of the lever hit the underside of the foot peg...

I now have 2 stitches on my right index finger.
And it still hurts
the painfull part was getting the son of bitch cleaned out at the doc's office.
Where the next part happened
You know you are getting older when the doctor treating you is younger then you are.
Ehhh I hate that.

Overall I moved forward but I've got a scar to show for it.
almost 20 years after i tried to cut the same finger off.

Oh yea and i didn't go to the best damn site ride this year.

boots

Why in Dog's name is it so hard to find a good pair of motoboots

All I have been looking for for is full grain leather, not made in china, protection, durability. Make em so you can get a new sole on the too and I'd be happy.

Well it looks like i've found a pair.
Not cheap but made in the EU out of real dead cow
(with a thick ass hide no less)

These look like they will be around for at least 10 years.

They are sold.

It's been a busy few months
Most noteable of late is the sale of yet two more bikes
sadly it was the GB500s that had to go.

More to come....

It's sold.

It's always a sad day when a bike leaves the fold.

Today I'm one less flat black bitchy curvey and fun to ride Italian.

She's gone to a good home. The buyer was very excited.

He's an owner of a bevel head and wanted something a little more modern.

I hope he enjoys the new bike.

Korp cycle south bay vintage

Sam Korp is having his south bay vintage thing.
It should be cool and the weather is looking like it might turn out ok.

Selling off the herd

Why is it such a freaking headache to sell bikes.

I've been getting nothing but the run around and superlow ball figures from people on the ducati.

I had a nice woman look at the GB's but she's not the got experiance or time to build herself one bike and sell the other
(She did have a good idea about building herself a the worse of the two bikes)

SO I'll have to find another way to off load the GB's

All three bikes I'm going to miss.

Now that the Duc is getting close to going I'm learning how I need to ride it.
and I'm kind of enjoying it.

Oh well.

Guy Websters

It's only taken ten years of living in SoCal to finally make it to Guy Websters
Garagmahal

It was overwhelming.
The cool bikes that were out.
Real MV's Ducati 851, SFC750's V7 sports
and that was just the parking lot.

His barn was pretty impressive. but smaller then it looked in photos.

His compound was also very nice, not over done.

The ride up was great clear and empty freeway and then nice twisty bits.

Overall a good day to be out on the bike.

The F&$^*%& Guzzi

Well, it seems bikes can hear.
At least this one can. Not second after I said to myself
"wow this has been a great ride so far, the sun is out the bike is running with out a hitch"

POOF

It's dark, no lights, no nothing. I call the better half
I've had a bad day but was having a good day on the bike until the bike stopped
We had words, I was not a happy camper. She was not a happy camper.
She came to my aid.
I called someone from the group I was to meet he came and tried to help.
Here we are two very white guys in a very not white 'hood
One with a non running Guzzi the other a Cobra replica with about 500horsepower and pipes to match.
To say we stoodout would be an understatment.

He pushed but the bike would not light.
We tried to jump it
The bike would have none of that.

I called the other half she came.
I had time to look into the problem.

Oh I almost forgot to mention the fuel line was leaking
I got that fixed pretty quick however.

I pulled the bike apart. Tank off, seat and rear fender up,
Battery out.
I looked all over, I found nothing.

So I decided to put it all back together.
Just as I got the last battery line hooked up I noticed.
There was a wire loose.
A nice thick wire
With a big plug on it.
The wire when to the battery.
But the other part was not connected to anything.

Hmmm it had a big spade style connector so it shouldn't be to hard to find.
And it wasnt' but I had to pull the battery back out.
So I did got the cable hooked back up and was just about to start hooking the battery back up when the other half showed up.
Here hold this I think I might have found the problem.
Sure enough the bike started right up.
Rode it over and put it in the car and bike show. And it won best paint.
On the way home the bike was running really good.
My guess is that connector has been bad for a while.

Bikes You can't ride them and if you toss em off a cliff they sink.

The Ducati 750 sport

While i've come to decide that it's now time for the duc to move on and live with someone else.
I just can't ride sportbikes anymore so it's up for sale.
Hopefully the money raised by it's sale will give me enough to get both BMW's back on the road.

Good weekend

Ahhh got to go for a good weekend.
up the 'crest. Nobody fell down. No wait one rider toppled over right in front of me (and everyone else)
as I was weeding my way past the bikes to ride down the hill.

Great weather the day started out a bit chilly but warmed up to damn near hot by mid day.
Got home and managed to get the oil changed on both comfy bikes.

Nice.

AMA

I decided to join the AMA about three years ago
I'm still wondering if it was the right thing to do.

They need to spend more time on riders rights, lane sharing should no must be legal in all 50 states.
Parking cost for motorcycles should be reduced to next to nothing. at least a 1/5 of that of a car.
There should be more legal spots for motorcycles in every major city.
It's time that motorcycles be promoted as a way to decrease congestion and increase parking spaces for cars.
On top of that there needs to be more done to make drivers aware that motorcycles are a legal part of the transportation mix.
Not just a sunday morning toy for rich people to use.

And the AMA focuses way too much effort on the helmet issue and not enough on the other areas of riders rights.
Don't get me wrong i'm pro choice when it comes to helmets (it's your own damn fault if you bang your head up when you crash and I shouldn't have to pay for your choice but that's something else)

And the AMA needs to split the racing promoting away from the rest of the "stuff" they do.

Motorcycle racing is some of the more intresting motorsports in the nation. and yet the stands at daytona hardly have anyone in them.

Shops!

Why can't motorcycle shops be better?
We had breakfast with a group of riders from our "other" club the ones that ride the comfortable bikes.
And every one at the table had a story of being mistreated by a shop.
Last weekend we heard this story of someone who is a poster on yet another list.
so this poster runs a shop and he totally screwed up this womans bike.

I remember back in Seattle there was a shop that charged my buddy and arm and a leg
to do a really simply job (R&R a rear tire on a 74 CB750) And the grease chimps forgot to hook the rear brake back up.

Add that kind of crap to the junk that you have to go through when you go into a bike shop it's no wonder that the motorcycle industry isn't doing better then it is.

S@#%

Time, there is so little of it.

Again, another weekend flashed by with out nary a wrench taken to a bike.

I did get a chance to put the first few miles on a Ninja 650.

Eek gads! That was an experiance that I didn't like. The 06 that I rode to Laguna that year was much better.
This bike with it's solid red paint looks and feels much more like a cheap bike. No make that CHEAP bike.
It felt like something you'd get from one of those indoor swapmeet/produce/clothing stores that are all over LA.

I did ride the Guzzi into work on Friday and to lunch the same day.
On the way into work it performed flawlessly on the way to lunch it was a little more rough around the edges
but it still did pretty well.

Enough to make me rethink the grand plan of getting ride of it and getting a Thruxton.

The goose is just so much more intresting.

Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with the GB's will help.
Getting them gone before the end of spring is my goal.
The get the SV and move the 400 4 out of the garage and I'll have some room again.

I still need to figure out the best plan of attack on both the BM's the GS is still a big unkown
(but at least that whole debacle is over)

And I'm wondering should that bike get painted and new graphics Or restored...

The ST just needs work. I listed off all the trouble I had with that bike and diesel was stunned to say the least.

Nothing

Not a damned thing was done on the bikes this weekend.
I did make it to a travel show and picked up info about riding in the great white north.

The sweet sound of success, cubed

No less then three bikes worked on and mostly finished this weekend.
First there was the XR250L the "dualsport"
This bike has been down for MONTHS to replace an exhaust gasket, which in turn led to having to drill the remains of a stud out of the cylinder head and timesert a new stud back into place.
This was an ordeal involving no less then 5 people a two different welders and drill.
While this was going on the old pipe and misc bits went off to the spray-bomb booth.

I did find that the spraypaint formally known as hammerite works really well to make ugly forks look pretty good.

The bike finally started with only a tiny amount of fan-fare as I had to drag it up the hill around the corner and bump start it.
once running and among the living it was doing a good job of hot restarts with only a kick or two needed.

The GB (this is the first GB that I got and the one with no airbox it's called GB1 or HeBeGB) Got FINALLY put back together
after being apart for um... Three years.
The short back story.
The headlight went out on the last ride I took with it. And instead of fixing it when I opened the headlight shell and noticed the NEST of wires...
I did the next best thing. I got a second GB and rode that one instead. leaving the headlight somewhere, where I would forget it....
Well, I fixed the headlight issues (bad fuse>bad, REALL bad PO "wiring" job+ new headlight+new headlight wiring+new fuse = Headlight that lights) and a with a carb cleaning (super easy with no airbox) the bike fired right up and settled into
the mutted muffled sound that is a GB500. And there was much joy.
There still needs to be some work done. Mostly tuneup stuff now. Plug, valves, oilchange, bleed the brakes and maybe new tires and chain.

The Ducati
I adjusted the chain and put the stock mufflers back on taking off the staintunes
Man, I must be getting old if I enjoy a quiet bike more then a loud one. It's so much easier to ride a quiet bike sportingly then it is a loud bike. And a bit more relaxing.

Went for an amazing sunset ride to cap off an good, productive weekend.

The First post in the "look at me" world of Blogs

This is where I put my manifesto, Right?
I tell you why I'm doing this.

Really this will be a place where I can ramble on mostly about motorcycles
Often about cool old vintage or vintage style bikes
But sometimes nuggets of things that are away from bikes.

Like art, or being an expat Seattlite in long term exile in Southern California.

Why the name. It stems from my fascnation with cool old bikes.

Oh yea by the way...
If your easily offended by the sometimes misspelled word.
Or the incorrect use of there, their or they're
That's your own hang-up man. And I don't really want to hear about it.