Hanging Out At GarCo On A Saturday

Gonna be a light week for posts this week. I spent most of the weekend hiding from the pollen. ALLERGIES SUCK! I guess this is a good time to post these pics from a few weekends ago. Just some random shots from hanging around on a Saturday playing with the new camera.

Moon, Pickett and Nick hanging out around the Weed Steed. That's my Sporty in the foreground.

Duane and Moon dealing with a stubborn carb mount. This was eventually fixed with a new aircleaner set up that Ross made. You can see pics of it on the Haints blog.

Duane and Moon again.

Trying to decide on classes and trophies for the Dixie Roundup bike show. Spenser's dog Luke is trying to figure out what the hell all the ruckus is about.

Nick and "Big Pink" outside checking out the new saddlebags on his ironhead.

Just looking across the front of the building.

Looking at the shop from the intersection out front.

Spenser took this one with his camera. He has a G11 and he is the one that convinced me to go that route too. By the time i had the money the G12 was out, so mine is a little newer. I've been acting like such a little kid and being all enthusiastic about my new camera that Spenser has started to get a excited about taking pics again. The man is not just a super talent with metal, he also has a damn good eye for photography too.

As you can see I am lucky to have the friends I have. From Larry who makes the whole place possible, and Ashley his significant other who livens up the place and is showing me up more and more about graphic design everyday, to Spenser who convinces me I CAN do that even if I think I can't and even Nick who knows exactly what the hell a classic choppy is supposed to look like and won't hesitate to tell you. Life is Good!

Triumph Sneak Peek

I've been working on the Triumph this week. I was going to do the paint scheme I've had in my head for awhile, but decided that I still plan to get a "real" paint job done on the bike next year so I'm saving that idea and just went with a solid color this time. I used a different brand of paint this time so it is a little different. Once I get it finished I'll post some good pics. In the meantime here is a teaser ;-)

Enjoy!

Just Some Pics I Like.

On the way back to the shop Sat Spenser and I stopped to pick up some "adult beverages". While he was inside getting the beer I played around some more.

Spenser's shovel and my Bad Boy.

Can you tell I like these low angle shots?

My primary form of transportation. I LOVE this bike, it suits me well.

I want to get a shovelhead one of these days.

Lunch Ride Saturday And I'm Playing With The Camera Again!

The weather here is starting to be consistently nice so we've been able to have some nice rides for the mid day grub on Saturday. This week was no exception and once again I had to play with my new toy during the ride.

Spenser looking through Patrick's arms.

Leaving the shop.

Spenser riding in front of Larry and Ashley.

Spenser goes for the lead!

Patrick's Dad owned this FLT years ago and Patrick was able to get it back and has now rebuilt it into his own ride. As you can see I still haven't quite got the hang of getting the shot while moving. I kinda like how it worked out the time though.

Still trying to get the hang of the riding photos, but once again I think I like how this came out.

And here we are at Charlie's Chitlin's for lunch again.

Ridng Pics with the New Camera

Got a new camera recently. The old one was about used up and was ready to retire. This new one is WAY better and does so much more. I've been playing around with taking pics while I ride and decided to take some on my ride to GarCo Sat morning.

The street I live on.

More of my street. I'm lucky I live on teh edge of my neighborhood so I get all the benefits of being in the community and at the same time I can head the other way and I'm more into the countryside.

On Morgan road watching the train go by. This was fun to take because I was riding through a curve at the same time.

As Rev. Tramp says..."One for the Troops!" Helena City Hall.

I really like this house, maybe because I see 5 garage doors on two different levels on it. I would LOVE to have that much garage space.

Crossing the Cahaba River.

Caretakers house at a golf driving range I go by. I like the pond, not the driving range. Golf does nothing for me.

Makin' Stuff!

Over and over again on a chopper you need to make stuff. Saturday was one of those days and I needed spacers to offset the shifter side forward control on the Photochopper. Spenser came to the rescue and whipped me up some parts on the lathe (I gotta learn more about machining).

Drilling the hole n the center of the spacer. It messes with my head watching this because the bit stays still and the part spins around it. After using hand held drills all these years that's just not right to me.

Feed that bit baby! After this we cut off the amount we needed for each spacer and then Spenser machined the faces of the spacers to make them even and smooth.

More Progress on The Photo-Chopper

I'm slowly getting there. I hope to have this bike ready to ride to the Bastard Bash at Deals Gap this August. SO far I'm on track, but you all know how that goes sometimes.

Got a new sprocket cover so I can mount the rear master cyl. The cam cover and sprocket cover WILL get cut down, but I need a master cyl mount or I wouldn't even use a cover for the sprocket.

Trying to make forward controls from a 2000 up Sporty fit. This is a 4 speed motor and a Flyrite frame so of course this couldn't be a simple bolt on. I did finally get it figured out and it turned out to be a simple spacer change on the shifter side to let the mount clear the frame. Still have to fab a brake rod to connect the pedal to the master cylinder.

Got the dam things on!

Close up of the shifter side.

Good view of the new set up.

All her chopper glory!!

That is some fine chopper goodness right there!

CB 750 Goodness

One of the recent projects I've been following is a cool CB750 chop. The donor bike was a mint bike that any purist would have cried to see chopped. This chop has been done in a way to maintain some of that purity while at the same time creating a BAD ASS chopper. The front half of the frame is original and the stock tank with original paint is still being used. From the middle back however, it's all chopper goodness.

The overall bike in progress.

Custom made from scratch oil tank with the main tank mount fabbed.

Check out this beautiful mount set up for the custom oil tank. This is only part of the mount. There are of course more than one mounting point.

From below.

Sorry About The Lack Of Posts Last Week

I had issues with a tooth and it had me feeling like crap. Gonna have a lot of updates this coming week to make up for it. In the meantime here's a sweet Ironhead to make up for it. You can see more pics of this one HERE.

Playing in Photoshop

I got a new camera and was playing with it at the shop Saturday. It is SO much better, the pics are sharper, the colors better and it has some cool built in filters. I used an "aging" filter to take this pic of Nick sitting on Stewie's Shovel.

Basic untouched photo except for resizing to fit the blog.

Desaturated and adjusted the contrast. The clarity of the original makes this SO much better than what I was able to do with the old camera. Cropped a little as well.

Cropped for effect.

Adjusted the threshold to make it look like a drawing sort of. I like doing this, it is how I make the bike pictures I use for my t-shirt designs.