Paint!

I went over to the paint store today. I had them go over some colors with me, they all look the same to my untrained eye. I have the theme in my head, nothing elaborate but very clean and nice. The quote on the paint was about 3 hun. Not bad I guess, but can you believe a QT of paint costs more than 100 bucks? WHEW!

My plan today was tear down the rear wheel, shocks and tranny. Well, I am getting pretty quick at working on this bike. I got everything taken off except for the engine and the front forks. I still need to work on my handlebars, so the forks are staying on until I get the part from BBC. Shouldn't be long until I take it over to the powder coater.

Tear r down!

Today I am going to make my motorcycle a pile of parts, once again. I will get some pics up later today, headed to the shop to make a mess!

Early morning snow

I went fishing today.

Most of you probably don't find that very unusual. It was 37* when I left this morning at 0400. Man that was cold! When I summitted the coast range, it was a nice even 32* and there was snow all over the place. My first snow crossing of the season.
The rivers were super clear, and so was the sky. We launched the boat 0530 and waited for the sun to come up. It came up close to 0700 and I think the temp dropped even lower when it did. Propane saved the day, without it, I don't think my fingers would have lasted as long as they did.
We did not catch a single fish. For about 12 boats surveyed, there were 0 fish. One bankie had the only fish we saw or heard of all day.

Now I have to start tearing the bike down, and begin body work. The real work begins now.

A qoute

"just because I think everyone hates me, doesn't mean they don't"

My current favorite qoute.

End of week four

Well another week screamed by. I spent it working and putting the final touches on the rolling chassis. The kickstand went on, and after a little coaxing, worked. I took it off the lift, and got to sit on JUST the bike for the first time. Man, I am in love. This thing is low and mean, and ready to go. I rolled it out into the sun this morning for a couple quick photos.

Click photos for a larger view.







It is getting my blood boiling. I have been thinking about paint and color lately. Despite some warning against what I wanna do, I think I am going to go for it. I am not going to say anything about it, you will just have to see it here. I think it is going to look grand.

Today I had to grind down the bungs on the oil tank, so it would sit more flush with the frame. I caught a 4.7 MB quicktime video of the sparks flying. (sorry dial-up people!) 4.7 MB video

I have a couple custom things I wanna make for the bike, and after that it is going to sit in my garage until I can come up with some $duckets$ for the color. Man am I excited.

MY wish list

Buddy of mine, Richard to the right, posted his Christmas wish list. I am gonna give it a shot.



The Matt Hotch V lux. This bike is THE baddest bike I have ever seen. I would love to see it close in person, man what a sweetheart. It sold for 225,000 dollars. So if you are looking to spend that much on me this Christmas, I am sure he would make another one. (the rear wheel alone was $15,000)

More detailed pics of the Vlux and his other works of art can be seen at
Hot Match Custom Cycles.

Week four, very close

Week four is winding down. The only things left on the list are the kickstand, bars, and license plate/tail light.

This week I put on the pipes, headlamp, shift linkage, and oil tank. I have to make an adjustment to the tank, so it will fit better. The seat is a bit of a problem, I am not exactly sure what it is I have to do to fix it.

I really wanna ride this thing.

Winding week

This weekend I am on call, so that means I am potentially working 7 days straight. Kind of a mood killer. But despite that, I finished putting on the pipes, headlamp, shift linkage, and oil bag. A few more bolts and I can roll the damn thing out into the sun and get a couple good pictures for the blog.

Eat it

End of week 3

Just a quick note today.

I clocked in at 0900 and finished at 1500. Long but good day. My goals today were the primary drive and the front fender. The front pulley for the primary has been giving me problems. I don't think the tolerances were exact when they machined, or maybe they were TOO exact. The thing wouldn't go on there. So I filed away steel micron by micron until it slid on there. Quite a chore, but it works.



The front fender was next. Although this looked like a really easy task, it proved to be the hardest thing I have done to the bike yet. Lots of cussing and groaning, and walking around thinking was done, and it finally got done. I want this bike to be ALMOST perfect, so I am putting a lot of effort into it.



I think it is turning out well right now.

According to my list, I only have 6 more things to do.

Boot? Not really...

OK.........now when you become an official boot hunter, there are certain things you have to understand. Even if a fish appears to be a boot, it may not be a true boot. Today's hunt found the boot scootin research project a new twist, Chum.
Chum, also known as dog salmon, are a certain species of salmon that spawn in the lower reaches of a river thus they are rarely found in the chrome state we all love and cherish. In fact, the fish pictured below are very nice specimens of chum.


First up is T, with his chumero uno chum. T has caught a ton of salmon in his life, but this was apparently his first chum.


Batting second was Furious D, the boot hunter himself, doing battle with what turned out to be the nicest fish of the day.




And finally fat boy, your author, got a chance to do some fish wrastlin', and thanks to a daring net job by Furious D, smiles were caught on camera!





Now we need to get one thing straight, for all the people out there in the internet fishing world that I have blasted for having boot pictures, there is a difference in what you do and what we are doing here. Boot hunting, and the maniacal pictures that ensue, is totally different than you average numb nuts that catches a boot and holds it for a picture like it was the most beautiful fish we have ever seen. I will admit, in my early days of fishing, I have a very bad boot picture, when I look at it I nearly puke and am embarrassed to no end with it. The difference between that picture, and our new series of pictures is I was dead serious about the boots back than. They would have fit into the "NOT WORTHY OF A PICTURE" category.

So fellow boot hunters, carry on the mission, but don't take your boots to serious. As you can see by these pictures, we don't. When it was all said and done, we wrastled with 7 fish, which I thought was pretty darn good considering the muddy conditions we were in.

And just in case you thought I have forgot about my mistress, aka choppa........I completed the rear end yesterday and things are starting to look like a motorcycle around here. Here is a shot of the rear end as it sits right now.



Tomorrow I am going to do the front fender, and work more on that darn front pulley, until than............................may your dreams be filled with boots.

Time for some boot hunting

Took some time off the motorcycle build to get back to my REEL passion.

Met the boyz at 0500 and headed out west. I had a good feeling about today, what with the rain and all. I was half wrong. On my mind today were BOOTS. Now boots are fish that were once chrome. They have entered the river and begun changing into a sexually mature adult. They turn red and black signifying their status and need to breed. They also begin to rot. Lovely huh? Well these fish are very undesirable fish. Up until this year, I have always looked down on the boot. We all catch em, but the rule is you let them go and don't even think of taking a picture. Pictures are for chrome fish!!! Hell, I have enough pictures of chrome fish! Trust me, check my webpage to see for yourself. So my buddy, Furious D asks 'what about the noble boot?' I scratched my head and stroked both of my chins, and said alright. Let's boot hunt this Fall, take pictures with them donning some of the weirdest faces to hit the digital media of fishing pics.

One minute into today's fishing trip yielded the first one. Man was he a dog! After a great battle this nasty, skunk of a boot was lead to the net by the skillful hand of T and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it.

Note the black sides and gaping mouth, indicative of a true boot. The kype, or curved jaw tells us that it is a male. A fine specimen of bootdom!

Not ten minutes later, my rod doubles down with a small boot that was promptly released, not worthy of a picture. Now if a boot is "NOT WORTHY OF A PICTURE", you know there was something wrong with it.

Of course it is nice to get a keeper on a day of boot hunting, and B Rad Gluckman decided it was going to be on his rod.




Overall a great day with good friends, my cheeks hurt from all the laughing. We came up with some skits on the boat that would make just about any sick minded fool like us split a side from laughter. Good times!

As I sit here and type this, the rain is coming down in buckets. I think we got some good fishing in just in time. Back to my regularly scheduled bike build.

End of week 2

Things are progressing nicely. Tonight I removed the rear wheel and got the brake bracket and correct spacers put in. It is running smooth and true. Next project is to get the darn front pulley to slide on to the drive shaft nicely.

Scratching head.............

Closer to the goal

Giving the crummy weather we have been having, fishing was out of the question for me this weekend. What else is there to do but build a custom motorcycle. Got up early both days and got a lot done. Yesterday was all about the front end. Still not totally pleased with the end play on the front bearings, so I will redo it when I do the final build.
Today I worked on the rear wheel and the primary drive. Here is a picture of the stator, I just thought it looked kinda neat up in there and worthy of a picture. Click the picture for a large view. Maybe I am a dork, but it makes a cool desktop wallpaper.



So, end of weekend 2 and I got the following done:

Front forks
Front wheel
Primary
Charging system
Rear Wheel
Tranny shimmed
Regulator



Things are progressing nicely, I will work on the tins this week......and than find a place to get it powder coated.

Told ya Jodi!

Little girl..............

I'm as happy as a little girl............got home today and my DVDs were here. Let the building begin. Muhahahahahahahaha!

Waiting

Waiting IS the hardest part.

No DVDs today, so I took the liberty of buffing the tank, frame and oil bag with steel wool. Took 90% of the surface rust off, and now it is looking like something. I also took the wheels and tires over to Schwab this morning to have them mounted. They did the rear one, but they didn't want any part of the front wheel. They said it was too skinny and weren't allowed to do it. Yet another adventure.

I finished the design on a leader holder for the boats, and have joined a conclave of metal fab guys to get them into production. Things are moving along at a snails pace.....

Didn't the turtle win the race?

Didn't he? Through slow and steady progress? I hope that applies to motorcycle building as well. Not much has been done since day one of the build. I got home today and was trial fitting some parts. I put the forward controls on so I could see how they were gonna mount and look. I am enjoying building this monster, and will enjoy it more once my DVDs get here. That way I can actually install some stuff instead of staring at it on my workbench.

I can already feel the wind in my hair, the freedom blowing against my face...........of wait, that is my dog sniffing me as I lay next the build with my eyes closed. Damn dog!!

I put a background sheet up for picture purposes, it makes it easier to see.

PS Any of the pictures can be clicked on to view the full size version.