World Of Wheels 2013

This weekend was the World of Wheels show. It's not much, but it does help us get through the cold months. As usual there were not a lot of cool bikes, but there were some pretty cool cars. Here are a few from the upstairs exhibition hall. Later I'll post some fro the downstairs area.

New version of the old Morgan 3 wheeler powered by a motorcycle engine. In this case a nice new X-Wedge from S&S.

This truck was pretty cool, the paint stood out, but it wasn't too shiny or perfect. I really liked it.

I can't believe anyone still owns one of these monstrosities. Unrideable and useless as a motorcycle, but I guess as long as he digs it I can't say much. Just don't expect me to be impressed.

A couple of pics of the flatheads Vini brought to the show. Moon from the Haints works with Vini and they out did themselves on these two.

The other truck they did This one took first place in its class. It deserved it for sure!

Another view.

I still don't understand why people would pay money to put their stock bikes in this show.

Last time I saw this car it was at the Nascar museum at Talledega. Glad to see it cleaned up and on display. It seems that back in the day the Alabama State Troopers had good taste in cars.

I just dig this wagon and wouldn't mind having it myself.

This model Road Runner is my all time favorite of the 60's muscle cars. I don't know why, something about it just gets me. I really like the taillights on this model, but I didn't get a picture because people were in the way.

I'll have more pics posted soon so keep checking back.

Ready For Warmer Weather!

The weather keeps teasing us with a warm day here and there, but I'm ready for warm sunny weekends and riding with my crew! Here's some pics from the 2011 BMR just because I came across them and wanted to post them. Hope to see ya on the road somewhere this year!

Jeremy is looking forward to warm weather too!

I love old places like this. It's like a snapshot back in time.

The FNA crew! Glad I've gotten to hang out with these guys. Can't wait for next time.

Sweet Sporty. This one ended up in a couple of magazines.

Another on that made it into print.

Bill and his bad ass XS650. This one was in the Horse and is still running strong today. Bill is planning to take it to the El Diablo Run.

Ian and his Sporty before he got knee deep into making it live up to its potential. After many changes this bike ended up super sweet. It's gone now, but it will ALWAYS be one of my favorite Ironheads.

Ross the Boss and his Winnabago. He's made racks for this bike, new storage areas inside the body and all kinds of other sweet mods. It's going to El Diablo too. Makes me wish I could make it knowing that Ian, Bill and Ross are going. But that's life.

That's it for now, I figured a lot of folks missed these pics the first time I posted, plus I was feeling Roadsick. Hope ya like em!

A Gathering Of Inbreds And Friends

A couple of weeks ago Bill decided to have a small gathering while his wife was out of town. So he called up his fellow Inbreds plus a few other friends and we all got together for some hot dogs and Conecuh sausage. When we got there we all hung out upstairs on the car port where the grill was. Once the food was consumed it was time to head downstairs to see the progress on Bills 60's XLCH. Unfortunately JT had to leave right about this time so he's not in any of the pics, but it was good to have him make it out to hang with us. We ended up hanging out for a while and basically just having a good time. This time of year little get togethers like this are truly needed to help keep sane. Check out the pics and look for us out on the road!

Gathering in Bill's work area in the basement.

The beautiful motor that Rick at Rick's Cycle Parts rebuilt and beautified as well.

Whitey is contemplating the huge empty spot in the middle of the frame. Loaf is amazed to see a drum brake and I think Ross and Ian are checking out Loaf's ass.

Ross is making a list of all the cool machine work he can do to make this even better. Ian is thinking "get your ass home and finish my triple trees before you add another project".

Apparently Bill didn't like what he heard! That or someone farted and he just smelled it.

Whitey wishes he had a new throttle cable so he could ride some.

Kick ass looking light Bill found to work with the classic sporty "eyebrow". I can't wait to see how this works out.

Loaf has finally resigned himself to the fact that I AM going to take pictures so he might as well enjoy it.

Ross is digging the tunes.

Whitey telling a story.

Ian is listening to him.

Bill modeling his new fork covers. These are some OLD ones that are made for the old sporty forks. They are actually cast pieces and not just shaped sheetmetal.

Bill picked up a cool Bell helmet with a really cool liner. Everyone wanted to try it on, but it seemed to fit like this on everyone. Just for grins I tried it on too and guess what....IT FIT! So Bill gave it to me and I'll get to style and profile with it this year.

Bill also has this helmet with a really small shell, but no liner in it so everyone had to pose with it too.

Look at it on that big ass noggin that Ross calls a head.

That's us baby, a bunch of damn Inbred Bastards!

The work area where Bill makes the magic happen.

As I was getting ready to leave, I saw this on Bill's desk. Not only was I amazed to see an actual cassette, but it was a Sex Pistols cassette! I was in nostalgia heaven for a minute.

That's it for now. I've managed to pull some back muscles so I haven't gotten out much to take pics and can't really work on the chopper till I heal. I'm not ignoring the blog, I just haven't had much to post. It'll pick up soon.

Choppin', Makin' Sparks and Melting Metal

Got some more work done this weekend. My friend Mike has access to a "suitcase" TIG and offered to bring it over to where I'm working on the bike to help me. Since I don't have a car/truck or a trailer it was going to be a pain to get the bike over to Ross's house (plus he's in the middle of his mods for the El Diablo Run and doesn't have much room). So Mike brought the TIG and we got to work...

This is where the sissy bar was when we started. I was off to a good start, but I was using stainless steel so I needed a TIG to weld it up right.

Also this week I had finished making my battery tray. I used some angle iron, a piece of flat stock, two barrel nuts, some threaded rod and wingnuts. I think it came out pretty good considering how long it's been since I've done any metal work.

My work area is finally set up and ready to chop. I still need a drill press and a good vise, but I'm getting there.

The finished tray ready to mount.

I got there early and got things ready so Mike and I could get started....

Of course that means we didn't have something we needed. In this case it was the right plug to hook up the TIG. Mike made a run to Lowes while I cut the rod to finish the sissy bar. I started wearing my helmet to do this because it is auto-darkening and has a "grinder" setting. This is better than safety glasses because I don't get metal pieces up my nose.

Mike tacking the new pieces in place.

Doing the real welding to make it all work.

The beast that made it all possible. I'd love to get one of these one day. It will run off of 110 or 220V, you just change the plug.

More work getting done.

I love to see metal glowing red hot.

We used my MIG with the flux wire to mount the box. I'll go back in this week and make it look prettier.

The bar welded up.

The completed sissy bar. Now I can get the fender mounted correctly and finish up the rear of the bike including mounting the voltage reg and cutting/notching the fender.

Mike also machined me a couple of spacers. When Ross and I first set up the rear I had a stock HD rear brake and part of it was a spacer. When I switched to this Fab Kevin brake this side had to be respaced.

That's it for now. Mike is coming back after work one day this week so we can mount the oil tank and start to finish up some other stuff. By the way I know I watermarked these with 2012. I didn't catch it until I was finished editing them and didn't feel like doing it all over again. I've edited my watermark now so that the rest will be correct.

Happy New Year & Some Progress On The Flyrite

The first post of 2013 and I'm happy to say it's about progress on the chopper. Where I work they've let me have a small corner of the warehouse to do some of my projects and right now this is my main one. I still need to get the bike over to Ross's shop for some TIG welding and machining, but I am getting done a few of the things I can right now.

After I finished for the day I decided to play with the new flash and triggers I got for Christmas/Yule. In this one I have a flash behind the bike and nothing else. I thought it was kinda neat, but does show that I have a long way to go to learn this flash photography thing.

It's an ugly flux core weld, but it seems to be pretty solid. Hopefully I'll find a bottle soon so I can do some better looking and stronger MIG welds.

Finally got the old electronic ignition stuff out. I gotta figure out what to use for the timer cover instead of this hideous thing.

The new points set up. It still has to be timed and the wire run to the coil, but it is at least installed on the bike.

The carb is done. I'm waiting for my new faux breather bolts to finish this part (these are head breather heads on a case breather motor so the holes need to be plugged).

Got the new grips on. I have new risers and clamps, but I'm not putting those on until final assembly.

And here we have another attempt at flash photography. This time I put it to the side and up a bit. There is a flash behind the bike too, but it didn't fire. Like I said, I'm still learning how to make all this stuff work like I want it too.

That's it for today, I guess I gotta remember to change my watermark to 2013. Have a good year and I hope to meet more of you out on the road!