| Author | Message | ||
     Pwnzor |
Sweeeet | ||
| Tootal |
With all that black and red, next year you need to get a Santa suit and ride around on it! | ||
| Crusty |
That's a good idea! I'll let my beard grow so I'll look more like Mr. Clause (it's already almost white), I'm definitely round enough and I'll just need to get a red & white Santa suit. | ||
| Ourdee |
Just put that old red riding jacket on. | ||
| Crusty |
About That Paint I got a reply to my last little missive: Must not have happened, no pics. So here's my response: Once all the parts are on the bike, I'll take some pictures. The rear fender is on. If it was just the fender, it would have been done pretty quickly. However, I also have to custom mount both the detachable sissy bar and the saddlebag mounts. That's why it's taking so long. I trimmed my fingernails before I started the job, and within an hour, my index and middle fingers were bleeding from the quick, as were both thumbs. I guess I trimmed them a little too much. My knees feel like somebody beat on them with one of those meat tenderizing mallets. I doubt I'll get a lot accomplished today. But just wait; the finished bike will be worth it. | ||
| Ourdee |
Yes it will. | ||
| Crusty |
New Year’s Day 2021 I go out almost every year on New Year's Day. The only years I didn't was when I was in Australia and didn't have a bike to ride and in 2001 when Terri slipped on the ice and threw her back out. I stayed home to take care of her. The warmest ride was at 59º F (15º C), back in 82 and the coldest was 8º F (-13º C) in 2008. The length of the ride varies with weather conditions. In 1983, it was 15º F (-9º C) out with 40 MPH winds and I don't think I went five miles. In 2006, the temps were warm when I set out and it was raining, but the temperature dropped rapidly and by the time I was 25 miles from home, the rain turned to snow. In 2008, it had snowed the night before, but the main roads were down to wet and salty pavement I have a photo of me in a quarter car wash that was close to home washing the salt off the bike. In 2013, the belt to the alternator on my Moto Guzzi Norge broke, and I barely made it home before the battery died. For a while, when I lived in Medford (MA), I used to go to Redbones and have BBQ for lunch. On New Year’s Day in 1999, Leslie Prevish took a photo of me and my S3-T across the street from there and printed it in the BRAG Newsletter The Road Ahead. That was my 10 seconds of glory. I just read where SportsterPaul likes to go out on New Year’s Eve and ride until after midnight. That way, he gets to ride at the end of one year and the beginning of the next. It has to be tough for him, as he lives in Michigan. While the concept is pretty neat and I salute him for doing it, I’ve developed a real distaste for riding in the snow. It takes way too long for me to recover from crashing. The last time I crashed, it took months before I could get around pain free. This year, the weather is supposed to be warm but wet. The temps are supposed to get up to the high 50s. I’ll be out; probably on the 05. I had hoped to be riding the Gentleman’s Express for my first ride of the year, but I don’t think it’ll be ready. My finger tips are still very tender and the idea of turning screws and bolts by hand make me cringe. Plus, I don’t want to get the bike that dirty yet. I’m hoping to convince David to take some pictures of it with his camera. He’s into photography and his camera is an order of magnitude better than my crappy little point-n-shoot. He also has much better skills at photography. I’d like to have at least one nice picture of the bike before I take it out and let rocks, bugs and road phlegm start giving it patina. But you never know. My fingers hurt a lot less today than they did yesterday. I should be able to work on changing out the gas tank tomorrow. If I get it done, then maybe a ride would be in order and I could put a spit shine on it before it gets photographed… Well; the bottom line is that I will be out riding on January 1, 2021. I wonder if Velvet Smoke will be open? Burnt Ends and a motorcycle ride would be a really good way to start the year off right. | ||
| Crusty |
It's Alive!!! | ||
| Pwnzor |
I got the email and immediately came here for pictures... ...you're killing me here! | ||
| Adrenaline_junkie |
Same here Mathew | ||
| Crusty |
Any pictures I take tonight will look crappy. It's pouring rain outside and my garage is about the size of a shoebox. But what the hell.... Stay Tuned. | ||
| Ourdee |
Where's the popcorn? (Message edited by ourdee on December 30, 2020) | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
 | ||
| Crusty |
Crappy pics taken with a crappy Point-n-Shoot by a crappy photographer:     | ||
| Ourdee |
wow | ||
| Buellish |
Damn John that's gorgeous! I think you hit a home run! | ||
| Adrenaline_junkie |
Absolutely Beautiful! | ||
| Zane |
Just flat out beautiful | ||
| Court |
That looks awesome ! | ||
| Tootal |
Needs a windshield!  Seriously though, that's a home run! Well done John!  | ||
| 1313 |
I bet it'll look even better in sunlight! | ||
| Pwnzor |
You had better be ready to spend extra time at every stop explaining to awestruck bystanders exactly how you came to own such a beautiful piece of rolling art. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Very nice!  | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
Looks GREAT John! Can't wait to see it in the sunlight. | ||
| Crusty |
About The Express Yesterday, I finished a major step in transforming the 2016 Roadster into the Gentleman’s Express. The parts that Joe painted for me are on the bike and it looks beautiful. I took a few photos, but my crappy little Point-n-Shoot camera produces an image that’s washed out, compared to reality. The pictures make the paint look almost orange. the depth and richness of the color is lacking. I want to get some pictures taken in bright sunlight by someone with a good camera and who has good skills. My brother David has a good camera and he takes some nice photos (I have one of his pictures of the Roebling Bridge on my wall). I’m going to ask him to take some photos of the bike in sunny weather. The bike isn’t done. There are still a few items that I need to get. Some are minor, like finding black front turn signals and a couple are major, like fitting a large detachable windshield. Also, I still need to have the saddlebag mounting brackets modified, then powder coated. Those are in the future. For now, the bike is glorious the way it sits. Now that I’ve achieved this much and the bike is this transformed, I need to slow down and concentrate on paying down my debt. Building the bike cost me a lot more money than I anticipated. I look at the bike and I marvel at how much help I got from friends. People have donated several parts to help me make this dream a reality and I had to turn down offers from other friends. Some people have invested time in helping me. R.D. drove to Cheviot to drive me up to Canton and back so I could get the parts once Joe had finished painting them. That was a 700 mile run for him. And I lucked into finding a true craftsman in Joe who came up with a way to modify a fender bracket from an XR 1200 and who also did a stellar job on the paint. He also found a seat for me at a extremely affordable price. He has made many helpful suggestions ever since I began talking about building a Gentleman’s Express and has been a major part in it’s creation. The Gentleman’s Express is not an original name. back in the 70s, Cycle magazine built a bike by that name. They took a Honda 500/4 and gave it comfortable ergonomics and better suspension, while keeping the stock appearance. It was a Sport-Tourer before anyone ever coined the term. I’ve enjoyed riding Sport-Tourers for most of my riding years. Once I got the Roadster, I started transforming it into a Sport- Tourer and was fairly happy with it until I took a newer Roadster out for a demo ride at Daytona in 2018. That’s when I knew what my next bike was going to be, and how it would be modified. I had a dream and I’ve been extremely fortunate in finding the people who have helped make my dream a reality. Tomorrow, New Year’s Day of 2021, I’m going to take that dream out for my first ride of the new year. | ||
| Whisperstealth |
I'd ride that! Seriously, that's one fantastic looking bike!!! Congratulations on your great work! I see the 1800 on the timing cover, that doesn't represent engine size does it? | ||
| Crusty |
That's 1200, not 1800. Like I said, the Point-n-Shoot takes crappy photos. I just spent the day grocery shopping with David and he's willing to take some pictures of the Express this week. It's supposed to be sunny both Tuesday and Wednesday, so there's a pretty good chance of that happening. David wants to do a shoot on the other side of the river in a park so that Cincinnati is in the background. That sounds good to me. | ||
| Whisperstealth |
>>>That's 1200, not 1800. Like I said, the Point-n-Shoot takes crappy photos. Gotcha! Thanks lol! I was trying to rap my head around 1800, as far as I know a kit that big does not exist. | ||
| Pwnzor |
Could be a cleverly disguised VW engine shoe horned in there.... | ||
| Crusty |
A Short Ride I went out for my Annual New Year’s Day ride, today on the Gentleman’s Express. It felt like the universe was conspiring to keep me from going out. It was pouring for most of the day. It started out this morning as freezing rain and the temperature when I woke up was 31º F (0º C). As the morning wore on, though, it warmed up and it was just rain. That “Just” rain turned into very heavy rain. I knew that the forecast was for temperatures to continually warm up until they reach a high of 50º F (10º C) and that the rain would quit, so I was just biding my time. Then I started getting Visuals. I haven’t had a Migraine for a few weeks, so I shouldn’t have been surprised. However, that put me into the recliner for a couple of hours. Along about 3:00, the rain had stopped and the headache had dimmed and the sun came out. I looked at the thermometer and it read 40, so I said screw it and put my gear on and went out for a short ride. I took the Express because I’d attached a bit of significance to taking it out for both its and my first ride of the New Year. I didn’t go far and I was only out for a half hour or so. As I knew would happen, the poor bike now has a bit of road phlegm all over it and I’ll be cleaning it over the weekend, but the ride was still worth it. I wonder how long it’s going to take for me to get used to seeing a Soul Red gas tank? It really jumped out at me. I rode in a circular route. I stopped in a small park along Harrison Ave and took a photo of the bike beside a tank so I have a picture as proof for the forums. It’s pretty obvious that everything in the photo is wet, but the bike and tank do look good together. After that, I just rode home. I hadn’t worn my rain pants, so the legs on my blue jeans were soaked, but I didn’t really mind. It wasn’t much of a ride, but I did get out; and I kept up my tradition. Tonight, it’s supposed to get windy, so everything should be dried out by tomorrow. Maybe, if I get the bike cleaned up in the morning, I’ll get out for a longer ride tomorrow afternoon. We’ll see.  |
