Gone Gone Ghetto Glide

Buy low sell high. Everyday I'm hustling. Sold off the Ghetto Glide last night for a tidy profit. I may be sorry someday, but with the California trip coming up this summer I wasn't gonna be getting in another big bike trip this year and couldn't stand to have that much money tied up in something that wasn't gonna get used. Sooo, the glide was picked up by a body man here in town who's sure to scrub the ghetto outta that glide like Richard Gere. Her new name is Pretty Woman.

 

Gonna put some money here and there, but a good chunk will go into the Panhead and a few bucks into paying off the F150, but I should have a decent nest egg squirreled away for maybe a sporty or something reliable come spring. Knowing me I'll probably blow it on a truck load of greasy half broken bobbles and trinkets. 

Night Bag

A couple seconds of fun from earlier in the summer with Cole (Hate_Machine) and Brian. Night was cool and carbs were breathin'.

Bagg'n it from J.Epp (I_am_10_ninjas) on Vimeo.

American Made

Went to ride the Ghetto Glide about a week ago and found that it wouldn't shift. The rear linkage off the tranny shaft was stripped...suddenly. Turns out this is a very common problem if you don't tighten that arm like once a month. So no problem I'll just pop it off and get a new one.....see pictures below

 

 

Turns out there's not enough clearance between the rear primary cover and the tranny shaft to get the lever off. So you need to remove the entire primary drive assembly which means you also need to remove the floor boards, the rear peg mounts, and yes even the starter to access this tiny lever. Now that's some good money making engineering for the stealerships. But I've bested them and done it all myself.

I talked to the guy at Redline when I picked up the overpriced replacement parts and he said I got a bargain. If I'd had them do it it would have been a $1200-$1300 job. Holy crap!!!

Lunch run...

...interrupted by beer sign.

Ride the Lightning....

  ...turned into a bit of an ironic name for this trip considering all the rain we rode through. But other than one short lived torrential downpour we smiled through the showers as we made our merry way.

First of many ferry rides.

Day one started with a side trip to the Great Sand Hills this was accompanied by quite a few miles of gravel and about 2 or 3 miles of sand road 3-4 inches deep in most spots. Who says you can't off road with a bagger? Joel had the most fun as he was cruising his Suzuki DRZ400SM with the enduro tires. Loved it.

Here we are at the end of the sand as it begins to turn back into gravel.
You couldn't have put the stand down about 10 meters past Joel's bike.

The Ghetto Glide meets his match in girth.

 Day two found us in Kimberley with my homeboy Lee. Lee put on a killer BBQ feast at his place before we went to check out his new shop and his latest amazing genny project. Killer bike. Gonna b a ruler fo sho. We had a great time catching up and shooting the shit proving once again that he shoulda stayed around here....except that he's lovin it out there. Sooo... God Bless. It was great catching up dude. Let's make sure we do it again super soon.

 

  

Day Three was the best day of riding I  think I've ever had. If you've never done the Kaslo to New Denver run you are really really missing something amazing. And from the Needles ferry to Vernon is pretty wicked too. Interior BC is just made for two wheeled machines. Beautiful. Beautiful. Fast. Beautiful. That night we landed in the land of richy rich, Kelowna, and got a taste of the high life. Kip's father-in-law took us out on his boat (which was so big we spell it with a Y here on the prairies) and then took us for a medieval feast of MEAT and grog at some posh place in Peachland. We got rock star parking at the dock out front and walked off the boat, past the massive line of people and gorged on 20 types of dead animal until we were too stuffed to move. Sooo good. Wish I'd taken a pic of the whole boat.

 Day Four was a nice leisurely run through the mountains. A little cooler than before, but a fine day of riding (obviously) through some beautiful country. We landed at David Thompson resort near Nordegg which was straight outta the '70's and far enough from everything that no one had much for cell coverage or anything else. We lost Joel for a while, but he rejoined a few hours later no worse for wear. Poker, drinking, eating and a good night sleep, finally.

Beard casualty.

 Day Five started off with a quick look at some beautiful falls and more proof that off roading and Harleys go together fine. Wet muddy sharp shale roads and washed out roads make for excellent conditions.

That night was spent in Dino-land, Drumheller.  Drove in through the Hoo Doos vai the Cowboy trail. Steak dinners at the Last Chance Saloon in Wayne and a soak in the hotel hot tub that night. Today we rode home and ended off an epic fucking trip that I think we'll all remember.

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Slammed Clydesdale

Still ghetto...

 

...just with style now.

Ghetto paint

Brother Cole put some luscious liquid black gold down on my Glide fender last night. As promised he kept the scene ghetto by not wearing a mask during the etching process. Thanks again man. It looks great.

Hap'nings

 

Put some new bits on the glide today. This bolt on customizing is the shit. Catalog ordered, on in minutes.

 

Also tracked down the brake bleeding issue on the dual disk of the shovel. Turns out it was the shitty Taiwanese master cylinder. Scrounged an old crust OEM harley one outta my parts boxes and bammo! Brake action.

Where's Nick?

Finally got the call from Redline to say my new badlander seat was in for the ghetto glide. Got it home only to find it was the wrong one. This ones for the road king and is too short leaving these cables showing on my tank. Dumbasses. I never had many dealings with Redline when Nick owned it, but I feel like there was a bit more quality control. I could be wrong. Anyway now I gotta wait for another 10-14 days for the right one.

Barf

No no, not Lee for scoring a cheap as chips tight as a sphincter genny. I'm spewing over the amount of bolt on foolishness on my Glide. After adding up all the Willie G. Skull action on my ride I decided to add up all the other H-D add ons that grace or graced the Ghetto Glide. We're talking blacked out components, chrome this and that etc. Looks like some dork payed over $2700 for bolt on custom glory. That's not including the after market pipes, passenger pegs, highway pegs, stage one kit, and a few other goodies that are not H-D brand. This also does not include the $72hr shop fee that Redline would charge to put these golden nuggets of shit onto the bike. Now I ask you. We're probably looking at close to $5000 worth of time and shit that didn't make your bike ride any better, faster, or even make it one of a kind, because I can find all this stuff on the harley site and buy it, soooooo....????? and that's when I puked. Because Lee just bought a complete '66 Shovelhead for less than this guy (and man others like him) spent on blinging out his Glide.

I know I know. I shouldn't judge. Honestly it's just not my style. So I'm gonna put all the Willie G. Skull stuff up for sale on Kijiji as soon as I find suitable, more tasteful, replacements. So if you know anyone looking to skull out a bagger send them my way. I promise not to laugh as I take their money.

Unskull

Been removing skulls from the glide. Kip and me counted 21 offensive skulled out decorations. I'm down to 7, but they're big ones. Lookin to lose the rest ASAP. I added up all the Willie G accessories on this glide and it looks like some dweeb payed over $625 plus tax for the Skulled out Glide look. wow.

Cole has my new fender for paint and I got a shorty windshield and a bad lander seat on the way. Gonna be a clean ride soon.

Goodbyes

 

Well I had what is probably my last wrenching session at HamBone's garage last night. A lot of great shits been built behind that door. I hope the new tenants appreciate the oil stains.

Fixin' in the rain

So the Spot lights on The Ghetto were more than a little busted up and not really salvageable sooo...

I cut up the existing light bar and altered the mounting plates so that I could bolt the signal lights to the sides of them and position them similarly to the Street Glides.

Before

 

After

 

 

Yes. It was pissing rain and there I was wiring signals and bolting shit together. Dear Lord how I need a proper garage.

Bagged me a bagger

Not really sure how to say it, but I bought a big ol' Winnebago of a steamboat. Aaaaaoooooogaaahhh!! Lee hooked me up with the 411 of a guy he works with who had this SGI Salvage special. He'd bought it and rode it around for a year or so all banged up and then dumped it again breaking even more of the chomey bits off. Enter 10 Ninjas. Hey how the hell else do you expect a single income family man to afford to buy two Harleys in the one year? So I sold off the Honda and basically traded that bike straight across for this 2003 Harley Davidson FLHT Electra Glide Standard. She's not much of a looker just yet, but with a little elbow grease and some help from friends it'll get me sailing in comfort this summer. So without further adieu let me introduce the latest horse in the 10Ninjas stable, the Ghetto Glide.

 

First order of business was to remove some chrome. Chrome won't get you home so it's gotta go.

Next was to glue the right side bag back together. Had all the pieces so I glued it all back and then reinforced it with some plastic slabs bolted through the pieces. Hoping that'll hold it all together. Soooo Ghetto.