Pete and Laz

Pete and Laz
Yeah, Pete it's rough...but it's a runner.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Chromium Baptism...


                                                       Stay off my damn lawn...


Thonk!, thonk!...the sound of an old fashion telephone receiver, makes an interesting sound as it bounces off of a human skull... at least it was interesting to me at that time, particularly because it wasn't my skull that was making that sound.
Memories of days at the old motorcycle shop...sparked by pictures of a chromium plated swing arm at an Australian blog....
Stories, yeah I got a few. Love hearing them too. I'm easily amused, and the older I get....the more I'd like to sit around campfires in places I've never been...
Memories of traveling with a dawg...sparked by tales from a blog currently 'on the road', searching for warmer air...
The shop I used to work in was an all makes kind of place. A motorcycle wrecking yard, a Chrome plating and polishing shop, and in the back was the repair shop I worked in. Hodakas to Full Dress Harleys, Dirt bikes...choppers...all kinds.
It was the seventies...but it felt like the sixties...fifties even. The shop was old...one of those old corrugated iron clad structures you used to see more of in old sections of towns...a dying species these days...replaced by tilt-up concrete warehouse units...this one was really old, and had a 'store front' that was surely a later addition. It's gone now, replaced in the 80's by a modern building. Never took any pictures, maybe I'll try to remember it with a sketch...for now words will have to suffice...
Speaking of sketchy...my local McD's is full of ...shall we say interesting critters tonight....a test of an old guy's resolve to just be cool and keep typing...
There was a ritual at the shop...if it was your birthday it was felt you needed a dunk in the 'rinse tank' of the Chrome plating shop next to the mechanics shop...a 'baptism' of sorts. I was never interested in participating... as some nasty and noxious stuff was rinsed off of various Pan head covers, springer front end parts, primary covers and the like. As participants in this ritual were about to be dunked, the plating shop guys would yell out, "Make sure you close your eyes and mouth!" Yeah...I'd decided early on that I wasn't interested in taking part in the festivities and made my intentions to not participate known by all concerned. Another guy that worked at the shop felt the same way as I did. He was an ex-Marine and was our main Harley mechanic. Nobody messed with him.
I'm 6' 2" , and in those days I probably weighed about 25-30 pounds lighter than I do now. Yeah about 170 to 175 pounds of gristle...no fat in those days...One fine day, evidently one of the guys up in the front had found out when my birthday was, and proceeded to hatch a fool-hardy plan to gather up all the squids that worked in the parts department...and dunk me.
As I was surrounded and grabbed at by 5 or 6 of them, I uttered some sort of oath, in the foulest language, about how this was going to hurt them worse than it did me. I gave the fools fair warning. They managed to get me about 15 feet from my work bench. Now picture 6 or 7 people trying to squeeze through a narrow doorway at the same time. By this time I was landing some solid blows and at least two of them backed off. A couple of the 'tougher' ones didn't. Next to the doorway was the wall hung shop phone. As I was grasping for the door jamb and anything else, to stop the progress of the melee of arms and legs, I came up with the receiver of the phone. Ah, a nice little molded phenolic resin weapon...a club as it were. Thonk! Thonk! Thonk! Such a lovely sound I thought then , and now...hehehe. That was about the time the owner of the shop came running back in response to the screaming and yelling. Like most fracases....it was over quickly.



I'm not always grouchy...a mess of books makes me happy...gives me something to organize...feel like smiling today...cuz the weekends here...and coming up....

Dirtquake U.S.  as in United States. This summer, in Washington state.

Which means I gotta get busy building a 'race bike'...    






Friday, January 17, 2014

More Monkey Business...


A 350 Honda Vintage Racer on display at The Vintage Monkey <-----click here
Check out the video of the 350 racer in action
Paid another visit to The Vintage Monkey to check out a race bike they sponsor.For your perusal...a CL 350 turned race bike....













Sorry about the fuzzy pic of the spec sheet...don't know if blowing it up helps any...any way the pertinent data. Some high zoot stuff , like Italian built needle roller bearing cam support and custom oiling and oil cooling stuff....I like it. Looks like they had a good year racing.

Back to the shed, and my little SL 350 project....weather cooperating , a little rattle can custom painting perhaps...carb rebuilding....and some exhaust design work...






Monday, January 13, 2014

What goes round....

Comes round they say. Last winter a homeless gentleman I met at the McDonalds I often frequent, ( for the free WiFi, and the delicious food as well...in case they are monitoring me...)...suggested as a blogger I should make sure I blogged at least once a week. I've tried to heed his advice, and probably because of him I have blogged as often as I have. He always had his laptop with him-and his bicycle. He said he had a storage unit with his belongings, except for his car which was in L.A. He was one of the 'regulars' here, along with about a half dozen others. We could all trust each other, to watch out for computer gear while running off to the men's room to take care of nature's call...There was another older gentlemen who was homeless as well. Both of them were black, which did not matter to me, as well as to the rest of the 'crew' here, which is a pretty good mix of ethnicity and all...  The older gent said he was trying to get some V.A. paperwork done , so he could apply for some temporary housing to get set up... to start attending the local college. Both of these men related tales of the rigors and dangers of being out 'there'. Like so many people in this country, as well as most anywhere I suppose, a lot of us are that 'one paycheck away from homelessness' you hear on news stories all the time.

And then of course, there is an ever revolving cast of scumbags in this burg....that occasionally drift through...'spare-changing'...trying to pull scams...stealing cokes...purses...laptops...the usual... 

The older gentleman had his back pack with all his paperwork stolen one night. I ran into him a week later and he had recovered his pack and some clothing, from the guy who had taken it, who had been stupid enough to keep it. The fact that a security guard was at the supermarket he was at, when he located his property... probably saved the young fool from a sound thrashing from the older gent, who was ex-Army and looked like he could take care of himself. Unfortunately the kid had dumped his paperwork...so he was back to square one with that process...

The younger gentleman, was robbed of his wallet. Having no I.D. or his credit cards for awhile put him in a pretty good bind for a bit. I bought him some food and loaned him 20 dollars and told him to pay me back someday, no rush. He disappeared from the scene sometime before Spring...I figured he'd gone back to L.A. to re-group. 

A few weeks ago I ran into the older gent. Hadn't seen him in a while. Turns out he got a place to live and had just finished a semester at City College, where he is studying computer programming. He had come back to this part of town to look up some of his buddies from last winter. Back in the day he had ridden a Honda 750, and a Goldwing. So he liked to talk bike stuff with me. I was glad to hear things were going good for him.

On the way over here this evening I stopped to buy some groceries and ran into the younger man, who says I got that 20 for you. We talked a bit and it seemed as if things had turned around for him as well. He drove off in a Toyota sedan. It was good to hear it was going good for him. And, seeing him reminded me it had been a week since last I posted...

Sooooo....children, the moral of this story is....many things actually...and you can take what you want from this little tale of life in California's state capitol. All of us, myself included can think it's been a rough year....but as I look back....I'm blessed, I am....and hot dang I got some cool motorcycle projects lined up.


Here's a pic of a cool model T Ford....found on the web (This is to remind me I need to get crackin' on that project and blog as well)



Monday, January 6, 2014

Yeah, I've got some projects...







Some views of my spare 850 Norton Head...which looks to be in pretty good shape. I'll have to check the valves, guides and seats. One thing that makes me happy is the condition of the threads in the exhaust ports.One of the threads is stripped out on my other head. Have this idea of doing a modification to the original head and coming up with a slip-on exhaust system with stubs mounted to the head....we will see...





Looking back.....looking forward.

With all the time I've had off from work lately, I've been spending way too much time on this infernal machine...and the new-ish communicator . Blogs are work, and I started this thing for my own amusement , and hopefully as a way to get focused and keep track of what I'm up to. I've noticed that there has been a fall off of posting, at many of the blogs I check out from time to time...a few, I've fallen behind on reading... myself...and oh yeah....did I mention my new blog? It had been sitting in the 'can' for awhile, and with the new year decided to launch it.

Yeah, a few are virtually at stand stills, yet others manage to truck along at frenetic pace...lot's of cool and interesting stuff going on here and there around the planet... my television expired a couple of years ago...haven't missed it. I have a couple others I could break out of the 'okie-bank' and get set up....but being old tech as they are...why bother. I do have a nice flat screen that I occasionally hook up to the little mini-puter, someday I'll break down and sign up for TV service again....but for now I have enough to keep me entertained.

Was a little skeptical of Instagram at first...but, once you ignore all the silly stuff (OK I'm guilty of posting a few 'selfies' there...) and latch on to some cool people to 'follow'....see some good stuff, and get a feel for what life in other parts is like...This morning I ran into a couple in London, who are building a 27 T on an 'A' frame...which is where my T project may be headed...? If it's ok with them, I'll put a pic or two of their project on the other blog, or at least a link. Facebook, well...(anyway, taking a cue from a fellow blogger I'll try to be nice)...there are some good 'groups' over there.....and a lot of keeerappp! sigh, it's hard to be nice sometimes...

Projects...yeah, I got a few. Some of these things have been going on for decades. Picked up most of them for a song...compared to current E-Bay prices....shhheeesssh E-Bay...I've not bought there yet. Several years ago a friend and I sold some stuff there. Then it seemed like everything changed and heard a lot of complaints. Might give it a try again sometime, I'm in need of some Honda 450 parts. Need a good crankshaft for a later 5 speed model, or a set of replacement connecting rods and bearings to rebuild the original crank. I use to do crankshaft re-building in a former life. Hardest one I recall, was one for a Suzuki 750 'Water Buffalo' or a 'Kettle' as they were called in other parts of the planet. The shop I worked at had a monster press that would handle it. Some shops wouldn't touch them. The old shop....yeah there are some stories I could go on about from those times....but, not now....Projects...yeah I got some.

Heard that Sideburn magazine is going to spend some time in the states this year, and there is talk of a 'Dirtquake USA'. Hoping it is on the West coast. Going to accelerate some dirt track bike projects, as I'd like to participate in that one. I have a 1971 Honda SL 100 that my brother and I built in 1971 as a racebike for him. Home brewed big-bore kit using a modified 175 twin piston. A three-quarter race cam. Ported and polished...all that jazz. (The piston was modified by Carl Crank, of Penton Racing fame, when he was working at a local shop. He was married to the sister of a former landlord of mine. We use to see him out practicing on his race bikes). Yeah, that little bike had some ooooomph....even with a big monkey on it, it would pull some monster wheelies and would power slide like a dream. I have another SL 350 that I'd like to do up as another flat tracker. Have never had the engine apart, but was always suspicious some one had 'breathed' on it. It always went like stink, compared to my other 350's. Yeah, may have to part with some money and pick up some flat track rubber....which leaves another long term project...a Triumph 650 twin, I picked up for 50 dollars about thirty years ago. It would make a nice flat tracker...think I've got a spoolie front wheel somewhere still...and a Ceriani front end...time to dive into the okie-bank...

Lot's of projects....gonna stick with the Honda street bikes for now....though I'd like to get started on some British bikes. I miss my Norton 850. Been off the road for some years now....stripped exhaust thread in the head, and it was jumping out of gear....which led to some exciting second gear wheelies. This bike has an engine that was 'breathed on' by Mick Hemmings. I bought it from a guy (The infamous 'model T naysayer'...Mr. Marx)...who bought it from a guy , who bought the bike new in the UK when he was stationed there...a Sgt. Gregory. The Sgt. broke his back when this bike ate a valve and threw him down the road. When he recovered, he had the engine re-done by Mick Hemmings... new bottom end...went for a hotter camshaft, big 'square-Amals'...some head and port work. For some reason the Sgt. swapped the Norton front end for one off of a Honda 650 Four, running the Norton wheel. It's got nice alloy rims.  My friend Grant (also known as 'the model T naysayer') bought the Norton as his first motorcycle. I loaned him a CB 100 Honda to learn on. Grant eventually had the head freshened up, swapped in a single Mikuni carb set up, and  my brother painted it a 'Porsche' red. He rode it for awhile and one day sold it to me. I rode the bike for a few years until the exhaust thread gave it up. I picked up a second Norton....a basket case. It came with a cherry head, and a complete stock Norton front end assembly. Soooo have the parts, and the Norton will probably be the first British project....well, after the Triumph 650 dirt bike project.....

Speaking of Sgt. Gregory....a few years ago he contacted me through the California department of motor vehicles...he wanted to know if I wanted to sell the Norton. Evidently, as he put it, he sold the bike during a 'divorce induced depression'....or words to that effect. Well Sarge, if you are reading this...I'm the guy that came over with the buyer to test ride the Norton that day...and it's still not for sell, sorry. Hope you got another one in the mean time.

yeah... I got some projects....




Thursday, January 2, 2014

Gonna launch a new blog....


This is not my truck...a pic borrowed from the web...but about the vintage of mine, which is at this time a pile of rusted parts....


Sooooo....the new blog will be about my Ford Model T project. As soon as I do launch it, I'll link it to this blog. I guess I'm hoping it'll spark me to get going on that very long-term project. That is all...........


Wait a second.....once again:        

The Model T naysayer....Mr.Marx