Barber, the sequel

By the time we got all the way to Alabama, Squid had still managed not to fix itself. I spent a lot of my weekend like this.

But not all of it. While I had broken my bike, Kate had broken herself, so I rode here bike

...and she, didn't

Kileys place

Patrick spent most of the weekend making his son Zeke into a celebrity

While Junior did what Junior does...

...make awesome happen.

Matt raced the van. Not sure who won, but I'm pretty sure the van didn't know it was racing.

We all made some new friends:

I pinstriped some helmets, Skyler pinstriped some boxes

Mad gringos out the woodwork!

I bought cool, useless stuff at the swapmeet

We tried to fix 2 strokes, as it goes

Kate threw some motorcycles, and won a motorcycle.

And eventually, the 3RM bike came out of the boxes

Can you think of anything better to do on a weekend in October. Next year... riding Sqiud.

Cutting frame

This all happened before leaving for Barber, but I forgot to mention it, so here goes:

     Over on the SOHC4 forums there's a guy who  used to make a frame kit for the 750. This kit allowed you to remove a section behind the neck so that you could pull the valve cover and head with the engine in the bike. This would be extraordinarily useful if you were to have a mysterious and massive oil leak somewhere in there after a fresh rebuild. That kit was The Gordon Frame kit, but sadly, it is no more, so I made my own.

Steel slugs off the lathe

Slug blank in the foreground, all the rest are finish milled and tapped

 All grade 8 M8x1.25 hardware (I think it was 1.25, whatever "fine" is)

Tried it with a hacksaw... but then I remembered power tools

Clearance!

 The front left one needed some cleanup inside the tube to knock down a factory weld bung

And this is how she went to Barber, pretty, and broken.

Although I hate to say it, no. I have no plans to make more than one kit. Demands of work and family always push projects like that to the side and I end up disappointing buyers or myself. Also it's a conflict of interests where I work.

Barber, the sequel (part 1)

We broke down a lot less this year, let me just say that right at the beginning.

But that doesn't mean nothing happened...

This year the group grew a little

Jay, his wife Alice,

myself,

Thanks to Iron&Air for taking this picture

and Junior

Packed ourselves into Jays truck between the bikes

While Matt,

Kate,

Tori,

and Skyler,

I think he's been drinking, that must be why he's blurry.

packed into the Big Blue Beast

Which they then attached a port a potty to, filled it with motorcycles, and drove across the country.

The in flight entertainment CB required constant fettling

When we arrived at Jay and Alices hotel (apparently they prefer comfort) it was time to offload some bikes.

So much Retro Moto metal

That first night, when the bike in a box was still in a box:

Running!... away

I'm city Cycles

China

Bike Bandit (how do I love thee)

Shiny new parts in the mailbox always make the day better

But Sometimes:

Old dirty parts from the junk yard are even better!

That's a nice bottom:

...and top:

She runs, and runs great. After syncing the carbs though she has developed a major oil leak somewhere around the bottom of the head. One way or another though, this is how she' going to Barber.

The storm

There's your' problem, these cases ain't screwed together.

Kevin, in the midst of some lapping action

Jason shining up some valves

Skyler and Jeremy working, and working, and working on fitting up the swinger. This one should be sweet.

Anthony being artsy with the camera

Me playing with the gear stacks, looks like it will work out just fine.

My favorite poster

Junior attempting to straighten an intake valve. It was a valiant effort, but by the time he got it straight, it had shrunk too much. New set ordered and on its way from DCC as I type this.

The only type of beer you're likely to find at my place. But at least there's lots of it.

Done for the day and a beautiful day to ride.

...I wish I had a motorcycle.