junk

Snake Eyes French Fries by Jason Lee Parry and Gandja Monteiro from Jason Lee Parry on Vimeo.

Here we go again

Keno and me got out to Aberdeen today to visit a guy who had an XS650 engine for sale. Turns out this guy used to own one of the biggest Salvage Yards in BC. When he moved back to Saskatchewan a few years ago he filled 4 or 5 Semi trailers with his GAk and came Runnin' back to Saskatoon. He's got a quansit full of all the side covers, fenders, carbs, engine cases, and "complete" engines you could imagine. Then he's got two semi trailers full of gauges, speedos, tanks, and other crap. Damn. (sorry for the crappy cell phone pics)






Turned out he had about 10 XS650 engines most missing this or that, but near complete. I found one that looked pretty clean and complete and made the guy a deal. I'm now the proud owner of a '77 XS650 lump and another set of carbs. Now, although it looked pretty good on the outside it was weather seized having spent a few years in a field. Keno and I got it back to my place and we decided it'd be the perfect inaugural project for the new Tiny Garage out building.


First we tried kickin the shit outta it to get it unseized. put some oil down all the holes etc first. No Luck!

Next we put it in my old 650 frame to get more leverage and kicked the shit outta it again. No Luck!

So then we got serious and just tore the top end apart. Heh heh heh. Couldn't be helped. Our curiousity got the best of us. Mostly good news. Lots of clean spaces with oil still on them and only two mousey stashes. But... we did find the seizure...



Oh my. Well, one cylinder was pretty crusty so I've got some WD-40 working it's way down from the top'a the piston. (don't have any other penetrating oil or Diesel on hand) We'll see...stay tuned for the continuing saga...

Dave Penner's ultimately disappointing farm of chop

So I took the drive out to Penner's salvage today looking for a 21" enduro wheel with drum brake assembly. Found a decent candidate for restoration, not perfect by any stretch, no brake cable, lever. $75.00!!!! are you fucking outta your mind? if you've met Dave and his other brother Daryl then that was a retorical question, if you haven't had the pleasure then let me tell you...yes. I dickered around about the price for a while and then started taking careful stock of the wheel. If I was gonna pay that much I wanted to know it was gonna work. Turns out dirtbike wheels have a much smaller axle diameter than the XS's. Okay then I'll use the axle from the dirtbike. Nope, too narrow for street forks. Hmmm. Went back into the yard and looked for BIG dirt bikes to see if I could find one with the right sized diameter in the hub. Must have pulled a dozen front wheels off rusty forks and they are all the same. Damn. More research into axle sizes now seem necessary. I gave Dave and his brother one last opportunity to drop the price to something reasonable like, even slight unreasonable, but their slack jawed stares sent be home empty handed. Well, at least I got some pics. Enjoy



Dead Coyote sandwich.



Public Transportation just got interesting.

Trip to the Boneyard?

Anybody up for a trip to Daves Farm on Saturday for a bone picking? If you've never been you really should come. It's just outsida' Borden about 25 minutes northwest. There's acres of bikes growing outta the weeds, sheds and city busses fulla tanks, fenders, engines and others bits and bobs. I'm thinking of going Saturday sometime if you're interested.