God bless America...

And full faced helmets. And giant gun safes. And the 2nd amendment.

Well, can't get 'em for false advertising...

Vinegar rust removal

I recently got a box of rusty old horseshoes from a buddy. Many still had the nails in them and most were covered in rust and crap (literally). My wife planned to use them for a project, so I needed to clean them up. I remembered reading that vinegar would work as a natural rust remover, so I decided to give it a try. Here is a sample of the shoes before I started, pretty crusty.

I knocked off the loose debris and nails and put all the shoes in a five gallon bucket. Poured three gallons of everyday household vinegar over them so they were submerged and walked away. Five days later, I poured the vinegar out and hosed them off. Here they are after a rinse and quick blast with compressed air.

All surface rust was gone. There was a little left on a few of the shoes, but it simply washed off with the hose. I pulled out the remaining nails, and gave them a quick squirt of WD40 and a once over with a wire brush.

I know most people couldn't care less about horseshoes, but this technique would work for anything that needs rust removal. As long as you can build a leak proof container, you could remove rust from just about anything (although, I'd be careful about different types of metal).

Desert Sunset - Niland, CA - Sept. 2011

If you don't love it, leave it

Four of these old timers flew into the airport on Sunday

I'm not much for geeking out on planes, but it was pretty neato to see them come in flying formation and peel off one by one for landing. Then they took off two by two in formation.

Spotted in the LBC

DUCATI

Pretty spectacular what can be done with the somewhat older Multistrada 1100S. A restrained nip and tuck here and there and...very, very appealing. Sexy, light, industrial. PIMP. Anyone seen a newer, water cooled 1200S stripped down in such a way? I haven't, but I can't wait.

Shoulda bought this one...

Oh, that's right, I didn't have any money. Thinking really hard about something like this as my next project.

Random picture

Ashamedly, I just saw this yesterday

6 Over - Teaser from Wild Honey Productions on Vimeo.


Show's you how involved I am!

{ { { SERIES } } } My eBay Obsessions

It was listed like this:

103" S&S cases, lightened and balanced Drak Horse crank, Mackie port and polish on the Screaming Eagle heads, .630 cams, Fueling oil pump and cam plate. The paint was just crazy spectacular. I still obsess over it. I often think of doing something similar to The Pig.

Anyway, I couldn't scrape together the money to buy this thing and ended up waiting until my bike sold. When I started the hunt for my current Dyna I looked in Ventura quite a bit. Low and behold, upon what do I stumble?

I borrowed a truck and a ramp and took a pocket full of cash to Ventura. Still a pretty boss ride, but he wasn't moving on price, so I had to bounce. I hope it got a good home, it was a really cool bike.

You gotta ask yourself one question...

...Do I feel lucky?

Well, do ya, punk?

- The incomparable Harry Callahan

NEVER FORGET

The Twin Towers, The Pentagon, The field that was the final resting place of flight 93. The men and women that died that day, the police and firefighters that ran into danger to help. The men and women of our military that have fought the brave fight everyday since. We should still be pissed. We should still kick some terrorist ass. Don't forget. EVER.

Let us stand together as one and remember this tragedy so that none of the great sacrifices have been in vain.

GOD BLESS AMERICA.

LOVE IT OR LEAVE.

True-Track Update

So, today was the first day I had a chance to test out the recent True-Track installation. Hot damn! I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting, but this is better.

My main concern was high speed riding and the oft reported "rear steer" or tail wag. Gone. Not even a trace of a wiggle. Solid as a rock.

I wasn't too concerned about cornering as this bike handles pretty well. Guess what? The handling is even better now. High speed turns are effortless.

The bike feels more solid, like everything got stiffened up a bit. Really, really geeked on this thing. If you're thinking about one, go for it! You won't regret it.

Photo credit goes to Bill Bryant of Chop Cult fame.

Club Style Street Bob

This guy's done a few really nice Dynas over the last few years. Up near the Dublin area outside of San Francisco. Very nice details, love the Pro Taper bars.

Installing a True-Track on The Pig

I recently scored a new True-Track chassis stabilizer, model 20-30, off the Jockey Journal for 280 bucks, shipped. I've been wanting one since day 1 with the Dyna, but the nearly 400 dollar price tag was just too spendy for my broke ass.

My bike has a 95" motor from Makie. On the Dyno it put out 116 horsepower, 115 pound feet of torque.  I've done Works dual rate rear shocks and Race Tech front springs. It's pretty dialed in, but at high(er) speeds, it would wag a bit. I heard that these True-Tracks can take away that tail wag, or "rear steer".

Anyone that knows me knows that I'm not a master mechanic, but whatevs, I'll give this a go. Here's what you get (sorry for the stock photo, forgot to take pictures of mine):

Two parts, one front, one rear, and four bolts.  The one that looks like a "T" attached to the little bracket on the left is the front unit.  Obviously, the part on the right is for the rear. I heard/read that the rear installation was the hardest, so I decided to start there. I began by getting the bike up on the lift.

Remove the lower belt guard on the primary side of the bike (if you still have one). Three 3/8" bolts, quick and easy. I also needed to pull off my primary side rear passenger peg assembly. Instructions say to loosen the two nuts on the rear motor mount, but to leave the bolts inserted so the motor doesn't drop. Pretty easy, but you're gonna need a long extension for one ratchet and two 9/16" sockets. I had to flip my bolts around so that the bolt heads were on the primary side and stuck through to the brake side. If you need to do that, just make sure to do one at a time.

Now you need to get the True-Track threaded through the tiny little space between your rear master cylinder and swing arm pivot. There are some wires and lines back there, too. Just be patient, takes a little twist and turn and it slips right in.

You can see the True-Track laying just behind the rear master cylinder. This is where it got a tad tricky. You need to align the two threaded holes in the True-Track with the motor mount bolts that you just removed the nuts from and then get them started into the True-Track.

I removed the shocks from the swing arm. This allowed me to move it up or down and actually gave me some extra room. Notice my super high tech wheel jack. Getting those bolts started into the True-Track took the help of my lovely wife. Girl can turn a wrench with the best of 'em. Don't forget blue loctite! Now, you need to get the other end of the True-Track lined up with the rear frame bolts. It doesn't say in any directions, but just unscrew the two pieces, which would have made getting part "one" in, aligned and threaded a lot easier, and it DID make getting part "two" aligned and bolted up easier.

Take the bottom rear frame bolt all the way out and replace it with one of the new, longer units supplied by True-Track. Get it in far enough to hold the motor up. Pull the top bolt out. Now you can insert the True-Track bracket over the top of the lower bolt and lock it into place. Then insert the second bolt that was provided by True track. Torque each to 30 ft./lbs. Reattach the two pieces of the True-Track, using the adjustable threads as needed. Tighten down the button heads on the True-Track. Lock down the jam nuts. Done.

Then I moved to the front.  This was a little more straight forward, but it was still tight. I hit my big ol' bald head on the brake caliper about 17 times.

There are four bolts and two nuts (Ha!) involved with this. Start by removing the two nuts on the motor mount.

Thread the small bracket of the True-Track onto the bolts you just exposed. Again, blue loctite.

Then remove the two motor mount bolts. Kinda freaky, and the motor did drop a tiny bit in the mount. Enough that I couldn't get the new bolts lined up, even using a slave drive. So, GM Motors bottle jack to the rescue.

Insert the new, longer bolts through the True-Track bracket and torque to 30 ft./lbs. Tighten the button heads on the bracket. Snug the jam nuts. Make final bracket adjustment to factory specs, 3/8" between bracket and adjustment bolt. Done.

While the bike was up on the lift, I did a safety check, made sure everything was snugged up as it should be. Double checked to make sure nothing was binding and that all the new stuff was tight and right. I had to come inside and feed the kids, so no ride report yet. Hopefully soon!

Someday, son, someday. Anybody wanna trade?

Tight spaces, Hoss. Real tight.

Pan fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, cornbread. Monday night treat.

The Pig, hiding out at Biltwell. Thanks guys.

I have a friend that some would call an "Industry Insider"...

We were speaking the other day about our mutual love of motorcycles. Of course, the current motorcycle culture came up, as it often does whilst speaking with friends. He said something that really struck me as comforting and prophetic at the same time.

He said, and I quote, "Dude, the 70's are over. This scene's lame. I just like to ride."

Dude's a pimp. Screw the scene....just ride.

Someday, Hoss, someday...