A sad day...

My motor died on the highway yesterday. With close to 500 miles on my new top end, I'm a little puzzled.  If something wasn't done correctly when I put it back together, one would think that it would have failed a lot sooner. Today I plan on tearing the heads off and see what I find. I must admit, I'm a little apprehensive.  I have the same feeling in my gut that you get when you open the mail box and find a letter from the IRS when its no longer tax season. Time to crack open a beer and light a cigarette before I open this bitch.   I'm afraid my riding season is over and I just don't wanna find out for sure just yet. I think I'll go grab another beer...

On a side note, the ol' lady hated the fuckin seat. She had back surgery a few years back. About 10 miles in to her first ride on this thing, she told me she couldn't feel the left side of her body. But, this is why I love my wife, about a week later she wanted to give it another shot. She found a spot on that strangely cool excuse of a seat, to allow us to put about 30-40 miles on that thing, with only mild and normal discomfort that you notice from a rigid. I do plan on turning that seat pan that I have into more of a king and queen style seat. God knows I'll probably have time for that, since I already have the materials. I think financially, I'm not going to be able to get that motor back together anytime soon. So until next time, crack open one more beer.

Got er' did!

I got some accommodations for the ol lady added today. It's not exactly how I would liked to have done it. But it will work. And doesn't look bad. I eventually want to run everything raw, so I left the fender raw. So now I'm gonna get everything cleaned up and then try to scare the ol lady on her first spin with this beast.

Top end tore apart...

Well, I got her apart. They were .060 over and about .006-.007 over that now, with significant scoring in the cylinders. One of the ring grooves on the rear piston collapsed, see pic.  Hopefully I can use the cylinders. I see that they sell up to .080 oversized pistons and rings. I will have to forgo the head job for now since money is tight. The rods move side to side approx. 1/16". Bruce Palmer's bible says I'm good up to 3/32".  Very little up and down movement on them. Talk about carbon build up. Look at the dome of that piston. I'm glad I'm not going to be scraping those. I scraped one of the combustion chambers and that took about an hour. I'm hoping I can get the cylinders bored, new pistons and rings for under $300.  Hopefully that will get me to winter. Then all I need to do is by a winning lotto ticket and the hole thing can be gone through...

Broke ass biker!

Well, I've been working my ass off lately, and after catching up on my bills I still find myself with limited funds to throw into the bike. I'm seriously thinking about getting a sign and standing on the side of the road. It will read "will work for parts!".  I needed a new fender because I would like to add a sissybar for the ol' lady and mine is too short. I found a fender from a 1971 aermacchi for $30.  Tried to mount it, but it will hit my battery box, damnit. So now I'm looking for a cheap stock style oil tank, with a battery tray, so I can get it out of the way.
I was hoping to nurse the top end until winter, but I don't know if that is gonna happen. I'm getting way to much oil in my combustion chambers. I'm talking wiping my plugs off after 10 miles give or take. I might have to shut her down by the weekend.
So maybe the chopper gods will shine down on me soon and give me a break!  Till next time, - Toby...

Testing my feed to Facebook...

Here's a couple pics you guys might like.

Catch 22.....

Well, I haven't done much for the last couple of weeks but ride the hell out of it, to and from work. I've been working 7 days a week since the tornado hit.  So now that I've been working all of this damn overtime, I should be able to set some scratch aside for the ol' rust bucket.  I just hope it doesn't last forever. I'd like to have some time to do something good to her.  The best thing I can do for now is keep her clean and run her with what she's got. I haven't had any problems since I went over everything that was operationally questionable. That was a mouthful. I have noticed that I have to clean the plugs every 4-500 miles give or take a couple. And she burns about a quart of oil in half that time. I just hope that I can baby her topend to get me to winter. I'd hate to shut her down for a week or so. That's if the parts that I would need are even in town.  Kind of sucks, I don't know what I've got until it comes apart. Hopefully I can just wait until the next blizzard. That's only what?  6, 7 months away. Well hopefully the next update will be a little better for the few of you that are even reading this damn thing. Well, if you are, then I guess you are as sick as me. I'll see if I can find a couple of pics on my phone that I stole from somebody and at least let you see something sweet...

Got my skull knob mounted.

It's been busy lately. I'm going to be working seven days a week because the tornado put us behind about 12 days total. That takes awhile to catch up in aircraft production. I just hope it doesn't eat my summer away. One good thing is that I might be able to put some needed money into this bike. I gotta keep pluggin on this bike even if I'm dead tired when I get home. I had some extra time so I installed a threaded insert in this skull I picked up a couple months back.
I thought it might look to bulky, so I hesitated. I'm glad I got it on there. It looks pretty good.

My 62' FL...

Here are the latest pics.  I haven't done much to it lately.  I've been dealing with the wonderful idiots at the dmv trying to get it properly titled.

Wichita tornado April 14th

Here are a couple of pics of the building that I work in at Spirit Aerosystems.  It could be awhile before I get to go back to work. It should free up some time to work on the bike. But without a paycheck, I don't know how far I'll be able to get.

Ideas for the new seat...

I've been tossing around some ideas with this new seat. I'm up to about 6'2" and decided to go with a seat that is going to put me back as far as possible. The little bates type seat just keeps me too far forward. Here are a couple of pics of what I'm leaning toward. I like the nakedness with these seats, but I might stop the seat at the bottom of the sissy bar and making a matching pad for it about 6-8 inches tall. Basically just keep the seat and sissy bar pad separate. I sure dig that Swedish look! I guess it will go with my heritage. By the way check out those forks on the red bike. It has the triumph fork tins. Not sure if it is a Harley or triumph frontend though. I've heard that the tins can be made to fit a narrow glide.
......:........:
Well, after taking a second look the forks aren't narrow glides. The trees aren't right.

My new to me 2-up seat...

I was given a seat by a really awesome guy, Kevin. It's an old king and queen style seat, minus the tall back. It had seen better days. So I'm going to try to recover it myself.  I stripped it down to the pan. I'm gonna have to do a little forming and trimming. I plan on running a round 5" fender, so I'm gonna have to trim about an inch or so down the length of the back strip. I'm gonna round up the front a bit and see what happens.

Forward controls...

I got a set of universal forward controls from TC Brothers. $200 with the linkage kit. I added a tube to move the peg out 2 inches so I could rest my feet without worrying about hitting the toe pegs. That required the spacers to be turned down about .010" by the machine shop. I had to weld a tab on the clutch arm and the foot control too.  I think they turned out pretty good. I will narrow the spacers up a bit when I can get a shorter air cleaner. This was the cheapest option that I could find to have the pivot point for the clutch pedal on the same axis as the foot peg. It sure makes my introduction to a suicide clutch a hell of a lot easier. I used the Wagner style master cylinder and bracket. I had to do some grinding on the bracket and flip the mc around. I also had to add some stops to keep the pedals from over traveling, notice the bolts on the lock rings. It was either that or rig up some sort of return spring on both sides.

My 62' FL...

Chopped the pipes up a bit. Didn't care for the upswept look. Gave it a proper seat mount/ pivot. I'm in the process of modifying some universal forward controls from TC brothers. Waiting on some tubing to space them out a hair.

Holy cow!

Holy cow It's been a crazy couple of weeks. Got the bike, got sick, and had to order parts. The tranny had a gushing leak so it had to come apart. The front tire was dry rotted. And some various smaller things. Hopefully I can have all of it back together this weekend.

I dig this guys work..

Check it out!

http://www.davidlozeau.com/

Poppin' cherries!

She finally showed up!  I taught both of my boys how to kick an old Harley.they both got it on the first kick. Here's a video of my 21 year old kickin' it. I'm so proud. They're both naturals. Now I gotta figure out how to get them both into a bike.

http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid1140.photobucket.com/albums/n574/raynoslo/new/VIDEO0033.mp4

Handmade tool roll...

I've been slowly collecting leatherworking tools, because is like to start working with it and maybe even support my family with it. This was my first attempt at making a complex piece. I know that with owning an older bike, I was going to need to carry some tools with me. So this gave me the opportunity to make something useful. I didn't want a "tool bag". I had stumbled across some various tool rolls that people have made, and kinda took the idea and made this. Mounted on the bike it looks like a tool bag. Undo the buckles and it rolls out into a tool roll while staying attached to the bike. I included some spare spark plug holders and a small pouch. It took me about 15-20 hours to make, but I figure I could cut that time in half if I made another one or two. Not sure what I would charge for this basic version. I would like to start practicing tooling leather and might offer that as a custom option. The pics aren't great, but you get the idea.

The wait is killing me...

Here's another pic that I was sent. Did some effects to jazz it up a bit...

My 62' FL

Here are some pics of them loading my bike on the truck in California. It's heading for fuckin' du da!  Sorry darling, you are going to have to spend some time in the cold.....

My new bike...

It's a 62' FL with a shovel top end. I see this as a good foundation for what I keep seeing in my head. This was the cheapest deal I could find to get me back into an old school genny. Times are tuff, but the cool shit never dies.  It's going to be a slow process. But at least I have a running project.  I'll post pics as I slowly change her.  Then I'll do a before and after... Well, maybe. After all, who's bike is ever finished. I would like to ditch the tank, or put this one on a diet and narrow hear up a bit. I'm not much of a welder but this project might allow me to get some time in. I have to use my buddies because I don't own one. Is like to ditch the fender for a skinny robbed one. Don't know if the pipes will ever grow on me. If they are not in good shape I'll chop those up aswell. Gotta add a sissy bar and I'm thinking a bates style pillion for the ol' lady. The bars need narrowed on that skinny dyna front end. The riders are a little fat too. I will shave the forks, and thinking about just keeping the left brake. Don't know yet if I have the balls to run a jockey shifter with no front brake. If I do end up losing my mind I'll have them shaved up like a skinny chicks legs. (not a machinist either.) I'm not sure if I'm diggin' the tail light. I'm thinking of an old VL style on the fender. I'm going to ditch the right mirror for a left side knuckle repop (for th popo!). Speaking of those ass holes, I might add a mini speedo somewhere incase I see one of them. Plus it will make it easier to keep a maintenance schedule. I think I might mount it on the left side of the motor somewhere. I don't want to dirty up those bars anymore than they already are. Someday an internal throttle would help. And if I keep the brake I'll end up using something with a smaller master cylinder, probably one from a Suzuki crotch rocket. I would also like to ditch the battery and go with a mag. Kinda pricey though. Maybe I can find a deal on a used one. And finally the last that I can think of, I'd like to run it raw with no paint, well maybe a little graffiti on the tank, or maybe some pinstipes all around. There is this stuff called "gibbs brand" that you can spray on metal to keep it from rusting. So stay tuned and you can watch my baby slowly get polished up... Hopefully sooner than later...