Just what I need

I think we could all use some of these, somethimes. LOL

Something I found

I can't remember where I found this, but I like it so much, I've decided to put it here.



I'm putting it permantly at the bottom, so it's always here. LOL

The middle of the week

Well, it's the middle of the week, for most people that doesn't mean a whole lot, but for me it's my day off. When you work for a bike shop, you usually don't work 9 to 5 monday to friday, most bike shops are open tuesday to saturday, our's is open mon, tues, thurs, fri, and sat. So this means I get wed. off. It does mess with life a bit, since I don't have off two consective days in a row, but it's how we're set up so I live with it.

Anyhow, it was a balmy 45 deg outside today with only a mild breeze, so I did what any crazy motorcycle rider does, I got a bike out and rode it around today doing my errands. Yep, everybody thought I was nuts, got a few stares from people in cars most likely wondering what kind of nutcase would ride in this weather. LOL I don't care, it was a nice day and in my leathers I was warm as could be.

Oh well, not much else happened today, just another normal wed.

Another day in the life of a motorcycle builder

It was one of those fun days at the shop, I got to the shop a little before opening (my normal time). I already knew what my project list was for the day - make the spacers for Tony's handlebars. Little background on Tony's bike, I reworked his factory fat-bob set, adding a filler panel down the center and fitting a custom mini speedo, relocated the key switch and coils to a custom made mount on the left side of the engine where the horn is normally, made a curved backpack carrier for the rear fender, and a few other odds and ends. Well, in relocating the key switch, I changed it to a universal type setup, it basicly works like the one in your car now. Since his bike didn't have turn-signals to begin with, this left only the hi/lo beam switch on the bars. So, we decided to relocate it and toss the control housings all together, this ment making a set of billet alum. spacers to fill the gaps left to make it all look good. Normally on a bike with 1" diameter bars I make a spacer that tapers straight from the hand control left to the bar. On this bike it has a set of fat Carlini T-Bars, so this means they have a taper on the ends where the bar drops down to 1" in diameter, Tony happened to show up at the shop just as I finished cutting and boring the slugs for the filler pieces and I described how I usually make the spacers, after looking at the bars for a bit, we decided that instead of the usual straight taper, I'd cut the slugs to match the diameter of the brake and clutch housing and do a slight round-off taper on the ends. So far, I've got about two hours in cutting and boring the basic slug, add another two hours to cut the clutch side slug down to size on the lathe and taper the end, throw in a half hour for lunch and you can see how my day has gone so far. After getting that one ruffed out, the boss and me stood back and took a look at how things looked, we both said it looked like crap. A little over four hours work down the drain, I ended up making the filler pieces out of 1-1/8" OD tubing that took me about ten minutes to make and look a hell of a lot better. Oh well, that's life in a custom bike shop. Well, at least one good thing came out of it all, I've got two slugs already bored for the next job and I'm now two days ahead of schedule since I don't have to make alum. spacers. Gotta luv it, ROFLMAO !

The Day the World Changed (at least for me)

Feb. 18, 2006

This day will live in my mind forever.

This is the day I got married.

People talk about the nervious jitters, butterflys in the stomach and various other things. I myself was stone cold solid about it all, not a jitter or anything, until about 30 seconds before the actual ceremony started. LOL, I get to laugh now, because I've done it, I've experenced the moment. It's not something that you can really talk about or share with someone unless you've done it yourself. I've been a groomsman in my cousin's wedding and I've helped plan, arrange and work the weddings of my two neices and a nephew, along with a few friends, but until it's you standing there in the spotlight, the feeling can't be realized. Two things got me through it, my military training about standing watch kicked in, in other words I did a very slight roll of my shoulders and I unlocked and relaxed my knees, the other and I feel most important thing was looking into Sweety's eyes, seeing the love and commentment there.

Well, it's the day after, most of the out of state friends left early this morning, trying to get back home before the weather get really bad, the last two will be flying out this afternoon. We're all just sitting around the house just unwinding, it felt like a drain plug had been pulled out of me this morning, it was just a top down feeling that came over me as I was sitting there drinking my morning coffee. I knew at that moment, despite the bills and other bs that was waiting for me come monday morning, that all was now right in the world.

One day to go

It's friday morning, tommorow is the big day. I'm getting married.

Not much else to say at the moment, it's too fricken early to think. LOL

In the Beginning

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