Pete and Laz

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

Sunday, December 30, 2012

2013....

Hear..... it's going to be an odd year....about a day and a half to go, thought I might as well go out with a little cornball humor.

Been going through pics on the 'puter, realizing what a mess this thing is. Some of these I've posted before. Some of them reminding me of unfinished projects...


A pic from two winters ago. Standing next to about a 12 foot drift of snow. Hoping this winter will pile up like that one did. Maybe find out next weekend if the weather cooperates...


An old pic from years ago in my back yard. This pic or one similar to it, was in "Classic Bike' magazine, in the little feature they do about peoples future projects. Well here we are, in the present, and they remain 'future' projects. I want to get back into riding in the dirt....have a few dirtbikes...


A pic from 6 or 7 years ago. My once trusty Ford Ranger...another project...and two of my trusty Hondas. A CX 500 and a CB 550.  


The Ninja 250...waiting to have a paperwork snafu untangled....


And yes, the British bikes, Triumphs, BSA's and Nortons ...and somewhere a Villiers powered Cotton...

Did a post about the 'Thompson' . Still have two of these actually...might be hitching one to the CB 550. Have had two different 350's and a 450 hitched to one. After driving a friends 750 Honda powered rig, have decided bigger is better... The pic with Pete in the side car was when I had a CB 350 attached to one.


A pic from about a year ago, of the original record store that begat 'Tower Records' down on Broadway here in Sacramento. I did a post on that too...maybe I'll get back here and add a link...
Kind of a nice festive pic, have to drive by later and see if they have repaired the neon..

Been an interesting year, here's to another one fellow bloggers and blogger followers:

Happy New Year!!  









Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Leo, a very rare motorcycle.

While cruising the net over Christmas I ran into a blog post about a rare bike made in California...oh about 107 years ago.


A 1905 Leo

It was found in storage at a museum in Massachusetts. It was built in Oakland California, and is possibly the only one left. Little is known about the history of this particular bike.

Click here for more info------>1905 Leo Motorcycle

There is a possibility that the factory or shop where this bike was built was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.

Old footage of aftermath of the 1906 earthquake.

It'll be interesting to see what this bike will bring at auction. It will also be interesting to see if any other Leo motorcycles will appear someday.  

Friday, December 21, 2012

Time to...


...Say,     Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to ya out in Bloggerland.


From 'Old Larry' , young Larry, and Pete. Pete is the one with bigger ears....

I was at my friend Jack's place and spotted this pic he had snapped, oh 'bout a quarter century ago, of Pete and I, when Pete was alive and young. It wasn't until I'd snapped a pic of the pic that I realized I had caught my present likeness....looking over my own shoulder...looking like a father and son shot.

Sometimes people think I'm 'Pete', which doesn't bother me. The 'Hairy Larry' handle comes from my days working at a bike shop where everybody had a nick name. (Probably everyone named Larry has been called Hairy Larry at one time or another...)

Like most of you out there, life is about to get busy for me, this time of year. Looks like we survived to live another one despite the 'end is near' chatter. Been an interesting year. Had a good time following other blogs. One of my New years resolutions is to get busy with all my MC projects, and try to 'blog' regularly about them. 

See ya next year....ride safe.



Note: I've added another link to the previous post about the various Enfield V Twins. The outfit in the UK .

Monday, December 17, 2012

Musket V Twin...new version is alive...



Borrowed these pictures from the Facebook page.  "The Musket V Twin'. If you go there you can see video of his latest engine running. If you aren't familiar with this project, it is two Royal Enfield 500 top ends on a custom made lower end.Click here for a link-->Musket Twin    There is a link to the Facebook page at this site.

Aniket Vardhan has designed this motor from the ground up, and I believe is going to produce the bike in 'kit form'. I think it has turned out as quite a stunner visually, and if it runs as good as the first prototype, should be successful.

Already in production is a similar concept produced in Australia, by Carberry Enfield.
Click here for a link to the site-->Carberry V Twin
This bike has hydraulic lifters, modern oiling, electric start, and a host of modern upgrades, yet still is designed to use the stock Enfield top ends.

There was another similar concept done in the UK, (for some reason I couldn't find info on that one today...). Also while on youtube looking at videos of Aniket's first engine I saw another version built by someone else from India.

I'm thinking that a bike like these would make a good sidecar tug. Nice work all of them. Aniket is really pretty amazing to take on a project like this by himself, apprenticing at a machine shop to learn to run the machinery to do all the machining himself. Created his own casting patterns to take to a foundry. I've done a little aluminum casting, but nothing on this scale.

Weather here is rain and cold, meaning snow in the mountains. Was hoping to get out and play in the snow. but the weather changed...oh well, more snow for later.


Found a link to the bike built in the UK. Click here for a link to the Norcroft site--->Norcroft V Twin

Monday, December 10, 2012

'Small world'...strikes again...

Was perusing some of my favorite blogs this morning, when a pic had me double-taking...Over at 'The Big Mama Introspection' (link over to the right and down... in 'My blogs list') She is doing an exhibit of record sleeves at a Pub in France. On the wall is an R.Crumb poster. It's dated from '09 and is in color, and looks a lot like this poster from the 70's.


This is a scan of a poster from a used record store I used to frequent back in the college days. (Yeah, I'm that old....)  It looks like Crumb redid the poster later in color.  Always loved R.Crumbs art. This poster has survived a half dozen moves and poor storage. I think a mouse chewed off the one corner...

The members of 'The Howard Arnhurst Blues Band' look a lot like 'The Grateful Dead'. The house in Haight-Ashbury that the 'Dead' lived in was owned by Crumbs mother, and for a while he lived in the basement....so the story goes...

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Surf's up! (One for Olivia)


Surfing 'Old Skool'

About the time 'Big Mama Olivia' was blogging about surfing,  I came across a nice coffee table book at a 'thrift store' aka 'charity shop'...Titled 'Maverick's' by Matt Warshaw. Some really nice shots of big waves in California near Half Moon Bay. 


Gotta love thrift stores, most of my library has come from them, or yard sales and flea markets.

.

These waves are 3 to 4 times the size of anything I've ever dealt with...


Lot's of good background on the early days of surfing, great pics.


I've only dabbled in surfing over the years, been awhile since I've been in the soup...
Last surfing experience I had was in a kayak at Seaside beach on Monterey Bay a few years ago. The waves were bigger than usual and a little unpredictable. I was in a bodged together kayak made from an old open Klepper fibreglas boat with a polyethylene river kayak top bolted and duct taped to the top of the Klepper...(wish I'd taken pics of this 'rig'...maybe I did, I'll have to look...) Someday I'd like to take a stab at it again with a proper sea kayak or Surfski.

Maybe tomorrow will be 'surfin' some snow....will post pics if that happens.









Monday, December 3, 2012

December...time to hibernate...?

....if you're a bear in California, might be a good time to find a nice spot. Been getting colder and very wet. Snow levels are kinda high right now...rains are too warm. In fact, I hear some of the earlier snow is melting and causing possibilities of too much water in the cricks, streams and rivers...


I left off with a shot of this formation at Loon Lake. There are some caves in this area. Having seen bear paw prints in the snow in this area at various times, I've always wondered about the possibility of a sleeping bear in them, Not about to venture into one anytime soon to find out..
Was hoping to do some skiing up there during the time I had off recently, but the weather hasn't cooperated. So, have just been trying to get my 'tool-room' organized. My 'shed' or garage is very small and has a very low ceiling. Many years ago I moved a lot of my tools into the 'laundry-room'. which is itself not all that spacious. They are probably safer in there. I have a carport area that is now packed with stuff that is in my way. No getting away from it, some major re-organization is in order.

Yeah, got too much stuff. Maybe it's time to crank up an E-bay account. Probably not, I'd probably go with Craigslist first...Problem is, I used to have a huge space at an old stucco factory. Before that I had  an old Carriage house, which a friend of mine used to refer to as the 'Barn'... It dated to a time when people were still getting around in horse-drawn carriages in this town. That's what I like about this city, there are still a lot of the older homes around. Sadly a lot of them were destroyed to make room for the massive Freeway system that barrels through town....So where was I headed with this?

Yeah, had the 10 days off...a good bit of that spent on Thanksgiving festivities, fighting with a Pit Bull, not getting along with a few neighbors...what was that? fighting with a Pit Bull?  Yeah, I love dogs...miss my old Pete all the time...but, there seems to be a problem with stray dogs these days. A lot of them are abandoned after the owners who should have never gotten them realize what a handful a big dog can be in the city...   Was sitting on my porch before Thanksgiving Day, contemplating my collection of motorcycles and other items, when a piercing sound of a dog being mauled by another came to my ears. At some apartments around the corner a woman was holding her dog up, while a friend was bravely attempting to pull a huge Pit off of the other dog by grabbing it by the neck...not a good scene. Told him to hang on tight, as I laid into the big dogs ribs with my foot, hitting him hard enough to lift him off the ground....The whole time I'm worried about the dog letting go and then going for one of us. Some bystanders mistakenly thought the dog belonged to a neighbor just across the street. So after giving the dog a few more kicks,( aiming a little closer to his more tender region...sorry pal...)I run over to the neighbors and pound on his door to get his attention,grab a chunk of 2 by 4 off his porch, and then back over to the scene of the fracas...to find that the dog let go after the last few kicks and is now acting like he's the other fellas best friend. The woman and her pooch are now safely in the apartment, although needing attention for it's wounds. Well, all's well that ends well I'm thinking...until my new neighbor pops out on his porch and starts reading me the riot act for banging on his door. My explanations that it was a case of mistaken identity  concerning the dog are going no where. Joe...I'll call him that...is about half my age, 40 pounds heavier, and just coming off like a total nut-job. I'm standing there with a 2 by in my hand all amped- up from dealing with the dog scene. So...I pull out my......cel phone. And in a calm voice I say "You got 5 seconds, Get back into your house or I call the police department, O.K?". The other neighbors are surprised that the bully-guy backs down. Turns out I know more of his history with the police....
The animal control officer shows up a bit later, collars the Pit Bull, cleans up the little dogs wounds, and the peace of the 'hood is restored. Saw the little dog today, it seems to be back to it's old self. The Pit Bull was probably destroyed because of it's attack, which is a real shame. In the US it's been a real problem with people breeding dogs to fight. 30 years ago I knew people with AKC 'Pit Bulls' that were just the nicest dogs. Unfortunately there are a lot of dogs out there with bad bloodlines that will never make good pets. 


So....'Don't ask me what I think of you...might not give you the answer that you want me to...'. That song has been goin' round my head for days , thanks to 'Big Mama'..hahahaha. 

Is it my imagination, or is Blogger different every time I'm in here playing with this thang..? I want my Blogger to be like this 1958 Chevy truck...simple.


                                                      Nice simple 6 cylinder

Stopped by Jim's house, he lives in a nice older Sacramento neighborhood cross the tracks from my part of town. His old truck. We got it running after figuring it did have spark, and traced it to a minor carb fault. Nice and simple, unlike todays vehicles.


Jim and his friend Mike visiting from Australia, working on the Christmas decorations.


Jim is the fella with the Moped/Cactus garden I've featured in the past...
He also sold me his old Honda 150, a project for later...


Back to sniffin' out some old pre-unit stuff...


An update....Jim and Mike's handiwork lit up, for the holidays.








Thursday, November 22, 2012

It's thursday, in the US, it's Thanksgiving day...

Got a 10 day stretch off from work, it's cold and damp so far. But the weather is looking up, no rain for several days in the latest forecast. Maybe I'll head up to the mountains, and with any luck find some ski-able snow.....but for now it's headed in the other direction to the Monterey area for Thanksgiving...


                           Where I'd like to be....Chipmonk Ridge ,near Loon Lake California.
                            Maybe later in the week...


                              In a few hours I'll be on Interstate 5, heading to the coast.
                              Hopefully a little sunnier than in this shot....

Been having a good time trying to organize my tools, parts and projects....all neglected for too long.



                              Got one of these in the garage, sorry about the out of focus pic.
                              Mine has a long way to go before it looks like this again.
                              Known as a 'Rocket' or 'Spitfire' Scrambler depending on the year.
                              Then I believe BSA confused the issue by using the 'Spitfire' name
                              during the Unit construction era... 


                              Been gathering up what cub parts I have, to mock up a Trials
                              build. This bike is close to what I'd like, minus the lighting bits.
                              Anyone out there got an engine for sale?


Sunday, November 11, 2012

Veteran's Day 2012 P-61 Reconnissance Aircraft Version (AKA F-15, and RF-61)





A Northrop RF-61 ,click here for a link to Wikipedia article------------>P-61 Article




Veteran's day again. Thinking about my departed father and his still living brother and their service in the US military. The pic above I posted last year. Some Sgt. stripes my father wore. The round patch was off of one of his bags. The matchbook from the base in California he retired out of.
My father started his service at the end of WW2 , serving as part of the Japan occupation, and also serving in Korea and Viet Nam. He was in Photo Reconaissance.
My Uncle who lives in Canada was in artillery during WW2 and was part of the D-Day invasion. When I see him at Christmas, if he doesn't mind I'd like to talk about that time. He's about 85 I believe, and still driving.



While searching the web for pictures I found this site, Click here---------->P61 Restoration

An amazing group of aircraft enthusiasts and craftsmen in Pennsylvania, have recovered a wrecked lo-air miles P-61 from a mountain top in New Guinea. They are nearing a complete restoration of the aircraft...to a flying condition. A pretty amazing story, check it out. They are using parts from a P-61 that was being used as a fire fighting plane in California, until it suffered a 'hard landing', and it was decided not to rebuild it.

My father talked about how the time he spent in the P-61 (aka F-15 or later as the RF-61) as being one of the high points of his military career, and probably one of the more exciting and dangerous times. Not that there were not other exciting or dangerous times. He really didn't speak about it much, because for a long time this was all still classified stuff you didn't talk about. I'm finding all kinds of interesting articles on the web now.

Here's to all who served in the services, past, present and future.


Here are some links to other WW2 aircraft that have been found.
Two links about a P-38 found deep under the ice in Greenland, and dubbed 'Glacier Girl'
Click here-------->P-38 found in ice    and click here--------->'Glacier Girl'

Click here for----------->P-40 found in Sahara desert


Friday, November 2, 2012

It was a dark and drizzley night....

...in the neighborhood. Halloween night. A little Bee and her Mama and Dada were looking for something....something called 'Punkins'....
As they walked along the streets of the neighborhood they spotted some strange glowing orange orbs.....

Hee hee heee.....


Whoooooooo are you....?

I see you.....smile.


Meeeeowww, meooooww....


Wake up Frankie....

Here comes the sun...good morning....


Here's the little Bee....


And here are some punkins that the little Bee's Mama carved....Owl and the Pussy Cat.


A well known train....


Known as Thomas.

It was the little Bee's first Halloween trick or treating.   And a good time was had by all....the end.



Monday, October 29, 2012

First Snow, it's Winter...


Did several hours of cross-country/back-country skiing up at the Echo Lake/Echo summit area this past Saturday. Snow was perfect. On the road out of the Sno-Park area we spotted this old cabin, in a state of 'un-arrested decay'.


Took my Cub Magazine T-shirt skiing. As usual we were over dressed, and could have got along with just a T-shirt. The weather was very spring like. Here's hoping for a good winter and ski season.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

My first ride, again...


Over at another blog called "Thistledown" was a post labeled "Fixer-upper". You can visit that blog from the right over there, where there is a list of blogs...by clickin' on it of course...
It's a pic of the same model and color that my first bike was. I've  posted this pic before, and probably said I'd be posting some more of it. Yeah, as soon as I find them and scan them in...

It's a 1969 CL 175 K3, brand new with the temp reg taped to the rear fender. It's late 1968. The 1969 models are out. It was an interesting time to buy a Honda. They still had 160's and 175's with the slanted motors . They also still had CB 305 Superhawks,CL 305 Scramblers and 4 speed 450's in the shops for sale. And of course the mind blower was the CB 750 Four. If my memory serves, my 175 was $640.00 out the door, and I talked the sales man into a red metal flake "Skid Lid" and a very cheap pair of imitation leather gloves. I remember some friends saying you gotta talk them into giving you a helmet and anything else you can get them to throw in to seal the deal...gift of gab I guess. The 350's were about $735.00, and the 750 went for about 1295.00, don't quote me, but I believe that is about right. I was angling for a 750, had the old man convinced I could handle the payments...but my mother put an end to that fantasy. The prices on 750's started going up about 200 dollars a year after that and were always just out of my reach. I did finally pick up a 1972 CB 750 years later, which I still own.

I sold my 175 to my brother, who "big- bored" it into a 200 and ran open megaphones with a smidgeon of baffling . This is the same brother that now owns the Sportster with the Nitrous set up... He sold it on to a friend and away it went.

A while back I was given a similar bike, an SL 175. Also picked up a stack of 175 motors at a meet for 15 dollars each, 4 or 5 of them. Had some idea about racing the bike...who knows?

They were fun bikes, 20 horsepower at 10,000 RPM.....YeeeHawww!



Friday, September 14, 2012

A little Nitrous oxide for ya?



Why yes Officer, I know it's illegal to run one of these on the street...as you can plainly see, it's not hooked up...


He's got more into this front wheel than I put into a whole bike...


Note "Custom" wiring...


My brother Mike's Sporty. He wanted me to get some pics before he makes some changes. Some rear set linkages for the shifter are in the works, and as well for rear brake actuation. 


He just picked up this Ninja, so now he can get around to finishing up the Sportster.