Monday, March 11, 2013
Shovel luv
Putting some time into the shovel. Rebuilt the oil pump, finally! And I reapplied the tank badges that have never really been straight. Also did a little rewiring just to clean things up a bit. Gotta get her all tickityboo cuz she's currently my only bike. That's a little scary but also awesome.
Taking spring by force
Elliott and I dug the Mule out of about a thousand pounds of snow on the weekend. It took some muscle and ambition to get it freed from it's icy bear cave (four flat tires made sure of that. I let it thaw in the sun for the morning, but couldn't resist a little run to the beer store today just to test'er out.
With no plates, at a time when I should really have been at work, and on my way home from the beer store with a 2-6 of whiskey and a case of beer riding shotgun, it was only natural that someone had to bust me. I'm just glad it was Dirk and not the po po.
Friday, March 8, 2013
Candy paint
I had to match the base color on Brian's vintage tank and it ended up being a candy. A metallic gold base with 4 coats of transparent red over top. And then eggshell clear to finish it off! It was a lot of fun trying to get enough color on the frame tubes.. Keep an eye on the fiftys haze blog to see this project progress..
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Friday, March 1, 2013
Joe King is the King
Chances are if you've seen a 3/4 helmet in the past couple years and said, that thing is the sweetest little lid I've ever seen, it was likely a Joe King Speed Shop creation. Paulo has been hand making these lids literally from scratch for a number of years now and pretty much rules the market. No one makes a higher quality head hugging mini lid than Paulo. Today mine showed up in the mail and I AM STOKED. the craftsmanship is incredible. Definitely the most comfortable helmet I've EVER worn. It kinda feels like boobs on your ears. Amazing. Check out more at joeking-speedshop.blogspot.com .
Thanks again Paulo. See you at Born Free.
Thanks again Paulo. See you at Born Free.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Pan Parts Update
Looks like I'm going to be building every part of this beast from the ground up. Assembling the motor and the tranny, lacing the wheels and rebuilding the star hubs, assembling a Linkert m74B carb, and then all the other stuff that I've done before like rebuilding a clutch, brakes, wiring, yaddy yaddy yadah. It's actually pretty awesome, because by the time it's all together I'm hoping to have my first stage brown belt in Mule Wizardry.
Here's where we're at:
The Tranny is inventoried and cataloged. Just a few pieces to find at the swap meet and it can all go together again.
The motor is waiting on a different sized thrush washer so I can set the flywheel endplay and finally button up the fly wheel assembly safely inside the cases and start working on the cam gear assembly.
The heads are still in Toronto with Jason Parker getting turned into something awesome. Oversized valves, new valve springs, guides and a few repairs should make these things pound as hard as any shovel out there. Matched with a set of 9:1 compression Wiseco pistons we should make some smoke.
The wheels still need to be laced and I've decided not to use the late panhead, early shovelhead mid-star hub and drum brake and run the other older starhub I have instead. Need to find an older style brake now, but I want to keep this thing as Pantastic as possible.
The linkert carb is really just a chrome body with the venturi half sticking out, so I'm hoping to find a donor with all the right parts I can strip off at the swap.
Here's where we're at:
The Tranny is inventoried and cataloged. Just a few pieces to find at the swap meet and it can all go together again.
The motor is waiting on a different sized thrush washer so I can set the flywheel endplay and finally button up the fly wheel assembly safely inside the cases and start working on the cam gear assembly.
The heads are still in Toronto with Jason Parker getting turned into something awesome. Oversized valves, new valve springs, guides and a few repairs should make these things pound as hard as any shovel out there. Matched with a set of 9:1 compression Wiseco pistons we should make some smoke.
The wheels still need to be laced and I've decided not to use the late panhead, early shovelhead mid-star hub and drum brake and run the other older starhub I have instead. Need to find an older style brake now, but I want to keep this thing as Pantastic as possible.
The linkert carb is really just a chrome body with the venturi half sticking out, so I'm hoping to find a donor with all the right parts I can strip off at the swap.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Panny tranny
Found a bargain on a 4 speed pan tranny with a chromed case. Now all I need to do is....
The PeeWee Project
Elliott thought I better put the whole project up on the blog. So here goes.
The PeeWee came cheap and had some pretty cheesy graphics, but the guy I bought it from had a brand new set of plastics and seat that he'd bought but hadn't use yet. He also said he did graphics packages for bikes and could do something different if I didn't like the angry clown motif.
I got the bike home and assessed the project. It needed wheel bearings front and back, the neck bearings were shot, the forks were seized, the carb leaked, the throttle didn't snap closed, etc etc. A perfect mule from day one. I decided to save the work for Elliott and I to do together. "You ride it, you wrench it."
So I cleaned it up a little, put the new plastics on, and did a little cosmetic painting, mostly so that the wife wouldn't shoot me for spending $300 on a piece of shit. Got the new graphics from the guy a little while later with the #05 on it and waited for Elliott's 5th birthday.
He was obviously stoked.
That weekend I was informed that the garage was now split three ways between Carole, myself and Elliott, because if he was going to own a bike then he needed a garage to work on it. I graciously accepted this truth and my new shop mate and I began tearing the PW apart.
Elliott did all the work. I'd break the bolt for him and he'd wrench it out. When he got distracted with something else I'd start working on my Panhead or the Shovel. He'd come back a few minutes later and ask, "Now what?" I'd give him some direction as to what to do pull off next and he'd get back at it. Sometimes the music was too much to resist and an impromptu dance party broke out.
Pretty soon we had that thing stripped down pretty good.
Over the next few weeks we pulled the front end apart and rebuilt it (new seals, cleaned up the threads, new neck bearings and races, and some paint. Also did the wheel bearings and replaced the throttle cable. We discovered a few other things along the way, but the boy kept at it and did the lions share of the work himself.
We got Elliott's bike all back together and I said, "Ok now you have to kick start it. Because if you can't kick start it, you can't ride it." Challenge accepted.
The PeeWee came cheap and had some pretty cheesy graphics, but the guy I bought it from had a brand new set of plastics and seat that he'd bought but hadn't use yet. He also said he did graphics packages for bikes and could do something different if I didn't like the angry clown motif.
I got the bike home and assessed the project. It needed wheel bearings front and back, the neck bearings were shot, the forks were seized, the carb leaked, the throttle didn't snap closed, etc etc. A perfect mule from day one. I decided to save the work for Elliott and I to do together. "You ride it, you wrench it."
So I cleaned it up a little, put the new plastics on, and did a little cosmetic painting, mostly so that the wife wouldn't shoot me for spending $300 on a piece of shit. Got the new graphics from the guy a little while later with the #05 on it and waited for Elliott's 5th birthday.
He was obviously stoked.
That weekend I was informed that the garage was now split three ways between Carole, myself and Elliott, because if he was going to own a bike then he needed a garage to work on it. I graciously accepted this truth and my new shop mate and I began tearing the PW apart.
Elliott did all the work. I'd break the bolt for him and he'd wrench it out. When he got distracted with something else I'd start working on my Panhead or the Shovel. He'd come back a few minutes later and ask, "Now what?" I'd give him some direction as to what to do pull off next and he'd get back at it. Sometimes the music was too much to resist and an impromptu dance party broke out.
Over the next few weeks we pulled the front end apart and rebuilt it (new seals, cleaned up the threads, new neck bearings and races, and some paint. Also did the wheel bearings and replaced the throttle cable. We discovered a few other things along the way, but the boy kept at it and did the lions share of the work himself.
We got Elliott's bike all back together and I said, "Ok now you have to kick start it. Because if you can't kick start it, you can't ride it." Challenge accepted.
Just waiting for the snow to melt. Com'on spring!
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