Keeping the parts washer busy at work. Keeping them gears turning. A little spray gun, some DA action, and CNC ported heads. In a glass cabinet they go until I can do something with them. Better than sitting on my garage floor.

Interweb randoms

xlCh. maybe the "C" stands for cracked??

Jake spent all day cleaning and blasting parts, which uncovered all the flaws. I'm gonna be busy on the heli-arc for awhile cuz these cases have been around the block, and by the looks of it they got there first! Or broke trying. No worries though. They will be better than new!

Fuck this, lets split.

Went to the shop tonight with my bottom end. Made some good progress and got the cases split tonight, even without the raw hide hammer the shop manual recommended. Pat got some aircraft stripper shit to get all the old wrinkle coat paint off the jugs and heads. He warned me the shit was pretty harsh...turns out I had some on my gloves and I had to scratch my ass, now my ass cheek is on fire.

Looks like the piston to wall clearance is a little out of spec and we will be going .040 over on the new pistons. Time to make a parts list!

Progress

Pat came over on Saturday for some breakfast beers and top end removal. Today I got the bottom end out. I was a little leary to tear the old girl down without ever even having a chance to see if it ran. Everything on the top end looked pretty good, but we did find a wrist pin bushing was spun on the front rod and some wear was already starting on the wrist pins. Tomorrow we will split the cases and see what we find for the bottom end. Hope nobody gets sick of these posts cause I think there will be a lot!

Reunited

So Friday after 20 some years my old man was brought face to face with his first bike. There were a lot of smile and holy shit, what the fucks, and disbelief. It all came back to him when he saw it and he pointed out a lot of things that were good to know. He said hell or high water this thing needs to be exactly the way it started out and he brought a pile of pics for reference. Ready to get started!

Born Free 3

The day of the show we woke early in this ditch just over 200 miles away. We had already gone 1700 in 2.25days, so no biggie. We were gunning hard to make it there on time with no idea what roads we needed to take once we got close to the show. An old gentleman at breakfast drew us a map on a napkin. Somehow we beat nearly everyone there. I laid on the grass expecting droves of bikers to roll in with all their belongings strapped to their bikes, weathered from the road, glory shining on their face, but very few did. Most came in freshly showered, clean clothes, chrome shining, bike so clean they must have come from down the street or on a trailer. I kept thinking...where are the bugs, the dirt, the oil, your tools, your shit?? Are we the only ones that didn't plan anything other than to make it here?

Get Loose...

Its Friday and I finally get to reunite my Pops with his first chopper. Gonna be a good day.

Give Thanks

For good family, friends, health and weather. Don't forget cold beer and motorcycles too.

He lived.

Found this story about this guy in the 60s on one tough Sportster. This guy lived. Things to note, look at the dent in the tank, the sissy bar whipped forward and caused that. Look at the bars, dude clearly held on through the impact. Also the frame looks pretty much in tact. Cars in the 60s were not made like today, that was a heavy piece of steel.

They Drink HarleyDavidson Beer....

Mine was a Z50 Honda

Tell Your Ol' Lady

If you want more inches, Stroke It!!

Johnny Paycheck - Ride On Sonny

Crank Her, Sail On The Wind!

Different Strokes

for different folks.

So Happy

For Jordan. Brought home his dads old '59 XLCH this week. Can't wait to see this thing glisten under the street lights!

Wonder how it rides...

Im in love.

Real Boots

Next time you are in the market buy some American boots. When you wear them out they will rebuild them just like an old Harley. I wear mine a minimum of 12+ hours a day, 8 of which are spent on my feet fixing motorcycles. The models with a stiched in white tag are made here. They are more money but once you own a pair you won't care what the cost was. They are the BEST!

-Jay Leno

It's why I'm doing what I do.

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FlyBy

Fall Flood Run 2011. Seem to always have a great time on that run.

Chopper Gods Be With Me.

How it all started with the 6 bends, gold leafed tank, rectangle headlight, and rocker spikes. Today might be the day.

Swapmeet Special

I found this over on Irish Rich's APPLIED MACHETE If you don't frequent Rich's site you should. He is always building cool things and sharing motorcycling history. Check it OUT!!

BRrrr

I was trying to put my arm around Jordan to get a real gay cheesy photo for all you internet homophobes but he thought I was gonna crash into him or something. So you get this instead.

UNFUCKINBELIEVEABLE

Tonight after literally 2 years of searching and another 8 hours online tonight I think I found my Dad's 59 Sporty for sale. The ad says it is in Benson, MN and only has an email address. If anyone knows Kyle Reinke fron Benson or Danvers Minnesota I could really use your help getting in touch with him. The bike has been changed a little but not a lot. I called my Dad and showed him the ad tonight. I think his heart stopped. He could not even form a complete sentence for a while. Here are the pictures....you be the judge

Here is how I know it is the same bike.
1. Its listed as a 1959
2. Still has the same front end, head light, and invader mag
3. The rear shock has a gold cap on the top of the shock
4. The sissy bar is the same trident as original
5. The neck has the same gusset
6. The frame is the same purple, orange, maroon color. It looks different in all lights
7. The tank and oil bag are different color but still horseshoe and the peanut tank
8. My dad painted the fins on the jugs a purple maroon orange color before he sold it, you can still see it in the pic

CASH REWARD IF ANYONE CAN HELP ME GET THIS BIKE!!!

UPDATE: FOUND THIS ON CRAIGSLIST AS OF OCTOBER 23RD.
http://marshall.craigslist.org/mcy/2638658771.html
CHOPPER GODS BE WITH ME ON THIS ONE....PLEASE

Interesting Statistic

Thought this was worth sharing. The number one and number 2 keywords searched on google to bring viewers to this blog was......can you guess???....

1. Vagina Cake
2. Roast Beef Vagina

I think of some fucked up shit but I cant see how many people put Roast Beef Vagina into search terms on Google.

Either way glad you found us!

+10" = +48hp

This is the dyno plot from that 106" I posted the other day. This is a super simple, mild, reliable setup that runs just awesome. A stock 96" twin cam makes 70ft/lbs and 55hp on this dyno.

This bike on a dynojet would make right around 119tq/113hp

Dreamin...

Keep gettin these images in my head and dont want to get them out.

Name that Problem!

Winner gets a special prize. Be sure to include your mailing address!

1 together, 1 apart

Got this other 106" all together. Just waiting on some cables so I can get it on the rollers. Tman 555 cam with ported heads, 1.900 & 1.610 valves. Should make nice power. Also tore down the '39 today to find the mystery tick it developed on the Davenport trip. I decided to make it my winter project. Go through it and do a little nicer job on the fabrication and change up a few things. Maybe make it a little more period correct so when I ride it to all the shows the hipsters give me more props. lol.

Back in my veins too. Have my license exam Thursday morning so I went out for 3hrs of "practice" on this 68degree day. Ran into a guy with a rigid shovel and was waiting for him to stand on that bitch and kick it. Then he reached for the button. Pretty fancy!

My students have been putting in some work these days! Check out the s10 tear down. We're going to inspect the motor to see what's rattling. Plan is to put it back together with the bare minimums. Race truck?! maybe....