Making Just A Little Progress

Once again this weekend I got a little more done. I pulled the primary cover off and installed the new starter that Danny from the Quad Cam Bastards forum sent me. It's even got the starter button on the solenoid so I can skip the hassle of a starter switch. While I was in there I changed the crusty clutch cable out for the new one. To get the new cable on I had to take the ball and ramp apart so I have a new lock ring on its way for me to go back in and replace the worn out old one. I just made a nice order from JPCycles.com Sunday night so my exhaust will be here Wednesday along with some other parts I need. The next time you see pics it will look like a chopper, but I'll still be short a few important pieces like an ignition system and coil. Plus I gotta get a new voltage regulator. I hope to test ride the bike this fall and then get it pretty over the winter to really ride by Spring.

The New starter is mounted.

You can see all the crap in the floor. Just so you know, puppy training pads are GREAT for catching oil spills while you're working.

The CRUSTY old clutch cable

The shiny new one.

Starting to look like a bike.

Beauty shot!

Artsy beauty shot!

Stay tuned I'll be getting more done soon and then it'll slow down while I go to the Bastard Bash, then the next weekend my work is moving to a new location and then Labor Day the family is taking a trip for my Birthday (not really, I'm just claiming that since it's happening on my Birthday).

Some Art I'm Working On

A week or so ago Allison and I went to the Museum of Art and checked out the traveling exhibit on Andy Warhol and his car inspired art. Most of what Warhol did I don't really dig, but some of it is super cool. One of the reasons I like it is that he took images and screen printed them onto his canvas/paper and painted over or under the print. All these layers are pretty cool and since I've been doing some screen printing too I kinda got inspired to mess around some myself. Here is the results so far.....

Warhol took this ad, had a screen made of it (this was in the 60's where it wasn't so easy to make the screens at home).

Then he used that screen as well as some paint to make this. What he did was do some sketching with a pencil where the screen would print then painted some highlights. Next he did the screen printing then did some more detail painting over that. On other versions he did things a little differently, but by using the screen they all have the same basic image, just done if different ways.

He also made this one and quite a few others like it too. Like I said before, the cool thing about the screen is that he could reuse the image many times and in different ways to get something new every time.

What I did was use the old t-shirt screen I made up before with Spenser riding Negra Pantaloons. I taped over the text then screened the image onto some canvas. The one on the right was my first try. I didn't have any paint yet so I was using screen printing ink for the bike and the grass. The next day I bought some acrylic paints and played around some more, but I still hated how the grass came out.  The picture on the left was my second attempt, when I bought the paint I also bought a pad of canvas that was not attached to a frame so it is easier to work with. I also did some color mixing to get the grass to look a little better to me.

Another view.

Here is the second attempt almost finished. I had all the basic colors on there, but hadn't done any detail work yet. After the paint dried I went back and added some red and black highlights.

I think it came out pretty decent. I won't have art galleries beating down my door, but it'll look cool on my man cave wall.

A little closer so you can see the details better. The screen ink likes to spread some when it's used on canvas giving a kind of ghost edge but most of the details are still visible.

So that's what I've done so far with my inspiration provided by ol' Andy. I have some more ideas to try, but you'll have to wait to see how those turn out.
Later....

Made Some Progress On The Flyrite

I've been trying to get some work done lately. I managed to get most of the parts I need, but every time I want to work on the bike it rains and once it rains here the humidity goes so high that I can't stand to stay in the garage. This weekend it stayed nice until early afternoon so I made some progress. It did start raining again, but I was almost done by then.

Got the other bikes out of the garage to make room and got the chopper up on the lift to keep it level.

Getting started on mounting the correct controls. I had some later model ones on there, but they won't work with the oil lines running from the oil pump to the filter. I now have the right ones, but since this is an aftermarket frame they still needed some persuasion.

Had to make a hardware store trip to get longer bolts and luckily I had a good supply of spacers stashed in my stuff to make it all work. It seems the spacing of the front tubes and the mounts are different than a stock frame. Nothing a little measuring and changing bolts and assorted parts couldn't fix.

It started pouring rain so the other bikes got wet, but they get wet when I ride in the rain anyway so it was no big deal. I like this picture because it shows just how long those damn forks are.

While I was at the hardware store I also got the bolts I need to attach my seat to my new Fab Kevin invisible seat mount. Now to get the mount welded to the frame.

The finished controls. It took quite a while to mount these because the instructions Custom Chrome send are copies of copies of copies so it's hard to see anything in the drawing and the words are impossible to read. PLUS I had to try different bolts and stuff to find out what would work and what needed changed. I got it done though.

I doubt I'll use these pegs once I get the bike on the road, but they came with the kit and will work until I get different ones.

The Fab Kevin brake set up I bought is on the axle, but now I need to redo the wheel spacers and get the tab for the brake anchor welded on.

I put the rear axles of the Triumph and the Flyrite even with each other to show how much longer the chopper is. That's a helluva difference.

All the bikes back in their place so I can finally get back inside and get out of the sweat soaked clothes. Got lots more to do, but at least I'm making progress.

A Long Bike And A Lunch Ride

Larry and Ashley are finally back from Born Free and back at work in the shop. Saturday Ian was having a Birthday Party for his little girl so the guys with kids ended up at the McWain Center for the party. Since my kids are grown I made other plans so that I could keep my sanity. I got up early and met Mathew at Krispy Kreme to hook up with a guy about a "72 ironhead Mathew was thinking of buying. The bike turned out to be pretty nice and at a good price. Mathew decided to go with an Evo Sporty since his mechanical experience is limited, but I told the owner I'd post pics and info if he wanted. I guess I'll wait and see if I hear from him soon.

After checking out the bike we headed on over to Garco to see how the trip west turned out. On the way there in the middle of all these puffy clouds and blue skies of course Mathew and I found the only rain cell in the area and rode right through it getting pretty damned wet, but not for long. Once we got to the shop the rain caught up with us, but didn't last long and the bright blue skies came back and we were ready to go to lunch. The chopper Larry was building for Born Free is done of course so I was finally going to see this mythical beast roll on down the road....

THE Chopper, Mathew was taking pics at the same time I was. He's shaved his head to get in the right frame of mind to leave for Air Force Basic Training in a couple of months.

Off we went! It seems that the bike turns pretty well, it just needs a little more room to do it.

The details are where it's at. Check out how the pipes come up then lean in to follow the line of the sissy bar. Nice touch Larry!

Ashley seems comfortable, hard to believe after seeing how skinny her seat is. Check out Larry's beard, it was acting pretty crazy blowing around in the wind.

Over the shoulder shot of Mathew behind us at the stoplight. I'm getting better at taking these shots without having to look before I click. by the way Mathew is selling his CB750 to buy a Sportster. I'll have a more detailed post about it soon.

The happy couple....

I told you she was happy, I don't think she quit grinning the whole way.

I think the front wheel got to the restaurant 5 minutes before we did.

Today's lunch crew.

Ashley doing the braid for the return ride.

Look for the details, there are plenty of them there just waiting for you to discover them.

The other side of the bike. I made Larry swing over to the wrong side of the road so I could take this one.

I just liked this shot so I included it.

On the way back Larry ran out of gas so I went on to the shop to get some more. We put a bit in the bike and took off. We made it to the road in front of the shop before it ran out again. Turns out the float was stuck so the carb was pouring most of the gas out on the road. The joys of choppers and fancy polished carburetors.

We pushed the bike on into the shop so Larry can get it ready for the next ride.


Just an FYI, I have a million things going on right now so the postings will be kinda slow for a bit. I hope to get things steady soon and will resume the usual schedule.

Last Sunday's Ride

So with Larry and Ashley out in California for Born Free and the fact that it's over 100* around here lately not much happened on Saturday. Sunday however a few of us got together to take a little ride and have some fun. Ian, Whitey and I decided to meet at the old Garage Co location and work from there. We ended up heading out Shelby County 11 towards Chelsea and looping back around past the new Garco location. Ian split off about halfway through to do the family thing, but it was still great to get out and do a little riding with good folks.

The meet up at the old Garco.

Ian waiting for the damn light to turn green. He has this bike looking RIGHT. Now he can concentrate on the shovel he's building.

Whitey on the most kick ass modern Triumph I've seen waiting for the damn light as well. I'm going to do a real photo shoot of this bike one day soon.

Ridin' the back roads.

Saw this in someone's yard. I LOVE riding out in the country.

More tree lined roads.

We pulled over to discuss directions and I snapped this one of Whitey's bike.

Ian talking to Whitey about what way to go. I don't know the roads in this area so I was just following where they led.

I thought y'all might like to see my master cylinder.

Another reason I like to ride in the country. Folks are still patriotic out here. This wasn't just a July 4th deal this was a permanent display.

The driveway next to the display.

From across the street.

This was just down the road and really caught my eye. I love this stuff!

Just Whitey and I at this point.

We stopped at a cool little cemetery to take a drink and ended up walking around a bit. Really cool place that I may use for pics some other time.

So that's it for this time. I'll have more pics later. Gotta do the family thing this weekend so it may be a little slow with the posts for a bit.