| Author | Message | ||
     1313 |
That's absolutely striking John! Congrats on reaching this milestone, and may the remaining items to complete your ultimate vision fall right in line! | ||
| Ebutch |
John   Altogether how many miles have You got under your belt ? | ||
| Crusty |
Altogether how many miles have You got under your belt? I'm not really sure. I have roughly 370K on Harleys, 180K on Buells, I Think about 200K on Moto Guzzis (the odometer died on my V7 Sport about two years before it got stolen), about 30K on BMWs and about 20K on Hondas. The other bikes, I never kept track of mileage. I guess about 800,000 miles total. | ||
| Pwnzor |
Great picture in front of the tank... Here are my two favorite details of the bike, having not yet seen it in person in it's current state:   I love it when attention is paid to the small things, really makes it pop out at you. | ||
| 86129squids |
Cool beans, RoadCrust!! I'll be heading out for my 1/2/2021 ride in a little bit- rained all day yesterday. We spent the day cooking, eating, and finished up with an epic game of Rummikub. More killer food and Rummikub on the agenda this evening. | ||
| Ourdee |
First time I saw the fender and brace test fitted before the bolts it knocked my socks off. The look in person is way better even. | ||
| Pwnzor |
The look in person is way better even. I can't wait to see it... RD, I'll let you know when I'm coming through and maybe you can meet up for lunch again. | ||
| Ourdee |
FOOOOOD! Better than a sharp stick in the eye. | ||
| Crusty |
A Spit Shine and Chineseum After yesterday’s ride, I needed to go over the Express to get it ready for a photo session. I’ve had a black crash bar that was waiting to go on, and I figured I’d clean the bike and put the crash bar on. So, at 9:45, I went down to the garage. I really wish my camera would convey the beauty of the Soul Red paint. The bike looks so much better in person than in the photos, you’d have to see it to believe it. So I stared at the paint for a minute, then grabbed some tools. I started by removing the chrome mustache bar. Then I grabbed a small bucket of warm water and a cleaning sponge, along with a red rag and a microfiber polishing cloth and spent a couple of hours making the bike look prettier. One thing about doing a close and personal cleaning on the bike is that you get to see any problems. Usually when they’re small; before they get big enough to really cause trouble. I saw the first little chip in the paint on the rear fender. It must have happened on the ride yesterday. I would have noticed it if I had done it when I was putting the fender on. At least that’s what I honestly believe. It’s a pretty small nick and I have the touch up paint that Joe gave me. It’s not readily visible; it’s between the saddlebag and the fender, but I saw it and it bothered me. Now, I’ll have to try my hand at paint repair. Anyhow, I went over the whole bike. I’ve got everything looking good. Then I grabbed the crash bar and tried to install it. It doesn’t fit. if I get the two top holes started, the bottom holes are over an inch off. They gave me four Socket head cap screws that were the wrong size and the wrong thread pitch. I spent a little over an hour determining that it will not fit. Hell; the front forks would hit it at full lock even if I was able to make it fit. It’s a bit of a disappointment, but all the changes I’ve made to the bike seem to have fought me. I’ve given up on installing that crash bar. I don’t think I’ll reinstall the mustache bar. At least, not while it’s chrome. Maybe I should get it sandblasted and have it powder coated gloss black. No; I think a real crash bar would both look better and would offer more protection. I’m thinking that I’ll be running over a lot of dirt road on my way to Tuktoyaktuk. If I go down; and the odds are higher that I will on dirt, I want to have as much protection as I can get. So, for now I’m going to run without a crash bar, The bike looks a good bit better without the mustache bar, so I’ll leave it off. I will eventually get a crash bar that fits. I’m a little bit pissed off, but not as much as I would expect. The crash bar is Chineseum. Poor quality goes along with the origin. I’ll eventually find a crash bar that does fit. The bike is going to look really good on Monday when David takes those pictures. That will be nice. | ||
| Crusty |
Just Another Gray Day The sun came out today for about a minute and a half. The good news is that it was while I was outside taking down the Christmas Lights. All the Christmas lights are packed away, now; so is the Christmas Tree. They’ll get to rest until next November. The Christmas Wreath died a slow death this year. It lost one item at a time. A little red berry, or a pine cone at a time. It was looking pretty bleak, so rather than save it, it went out in the trash. Pretty much all signs of Christmas are gone. Now it’s time to hunker down and plan for next summer. I bought my tickets to the Springfield Mile the day they went on sale; which was last Monday. I’ll be in my usual seat - Section NN Row1 Seat 1 for both Miles. That won’t be until Labor Day weekend 9/4 & 9/5. I’m also looking forward to the WVBR in August. That’s when Kathryn is going to take possession of the 05 Roadster. She’s going to fly to Cincinnati, then ride to the Revival and ride some of those addictive West Virginia roads and get to meet some of the best people I know; then the two of us will ride up to Massachusetts. I’ll get to see friends there and visit with them for a couple of days before I head back to Cheviot. I’m not certain about other events. I don’t know when the Midwest Meet & Greet is going to be. There might be some conflict with the May Morons rally in Suches. Should I hit Georgia or Missouri? Right now, it’s -12º F (-24º C) in Tuktoyaktuk. That’s a lot colder than I care to deal with. If things go as I plan (and hope), I’ll be heading that way in June of 22. I expect that it will be a lot warmer when I’m up that way. I took a short ride on the Express today. I didn’t go very far; just to the Noonie. I thought about maybe going somewhere, but I just came home after the meeting. It’s hard for me to get enthused when the skies are perpetually leaden and the temperature stays close to the Freezing Mark every day. Well; I think I’ll go fix dinner. It’s about that time. | ||
| Ourdee |
Look what I found:  | ||
| Pwnzor |
I should be passing through there in about two weeks. What do you want to bet that box of Grippo's is nothing more than a memory by the time I get there? | ||
| Ourdee |
Wanna bet a box of Grippo's? | ||
| Crusty |
Bet you can't eat just one! | ||
| Pwnzor |
If, by "just one" you mean "just one bag", then it would depend on the size of the bag! One chip? Never. Those are like Long Beach Crack coated with Peruvian Flake, then dipped in MDMA with a fat joint of Lisle's bud on the side. | ||
| Pwnzor |
...not that I know what ANY of that stuff is... | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
Glad to hear you are looking forward to the WVBR. I keep thinking about that bacon Ray and Joyce cooked for us. So much so I've been looking at table top Blackstone Griddles so we can fix bacon 24/7 under the big tent. | ||
| Crusty |
A Confession; Kinda Back on November 1st, Joe found a used two up Mustang Vintage Wide seat for me at a bargain price. The idea was that I’d use the two up seat and cancel the solo seat that I’d ordered and save a fair sized chunk of money. I had to raid my Laundry money and I used my Emergency cash, but the price of the seat was too good to pass up. The seat was an even better deal than it first appeared, because I don’t think it had very many miles on it, if any. It looked and felt brand new. I had drained all my available cash to get the seat, including some of the money I had set aside for my Property Tax, but it saved me almost half the price over a new seat. I still haven’t completely recovered from that. The Tax money got replaced first, but the laundry and Emergency cash are still a little bit light. They’ll be back up to snuff next month, though. All in all, the seat was worth the juggling of funds. However; I never got around to canceling the solo seat order and it arrived yesterday. I put it on the bike, then decided that I prefer the look of the two up seat. As far as feel, the rider’s portion of the 2 up seat feels identical to the solo. So I’m going to just use the 2 up seat. I put the solo seat back in the box and put it in storage. I now have four seats for the Express. The stock seat that totally sucks, the Chineseum seat, the Solo Mustang Vintage Wide seat and the Mustang 2 up Vintage Wide seat that I’m going to use. Actually, I don’t think the stock seat will fit with the 4 1/2 Gallon gas tank, so maybe I only have three seats for the Gentleman’s Express. Then again, they will fit on the 05 Roadster whose Sundowner seat has a cracked seat base, so maybe I should put one on it. But even with a cracked base pan, the Sundowner is pretty comfortable. I’ll have to confer with Kathryn about it. I haven’t gotten around to putting the Carbonite Clutch kit in the Express yet. I bought a couple of quarts of Formula +, so that I can soak the plates in it overnight, but I still need to get two primary cover gaskets before I start. I’ll probably put the Carbonite Clutch in next month. Then I’ll put the clutch that was in the Express into the Roadster. That way, both bikes will have improved clutches. I’m not in a big hurry because the garage in unheated and it’s pretty chilly working on a bike in there when the temps are hovering around the freezing mark. I still wish I knew who gave me that Carbonite Clutch. It was a very generous gift and I’d like to thank him (or her) in person. I honestly don’t have a clue, so It’ll remain a mystery. Today is Saturday; that means that I’m having a cheeseburger with fried onions for dinner along with B&M Bacon and Onion Baked Beans. Life is good! | ||
| Crusty |
Did you know that besides their regular BBQ Chips, Grippo's makes Carolina Classic Bar-B-Q Chips? They're a bit tangier, but they're quite tasty. Just an FYI. | ||
| Pwnzor |
Crusty, I did not know that. I'm having trouble imagining anything better than the original flavor, but I'm certainly open to trying them. To me, the best thing is that they are covered from edge to edge with flavor on both sides of every chip. I'm so incredibly disappointed by most chips I eat, especially Pringles. | ||
| Crusty |
Pictures in the Sunlight The sun came out today for the first time in weeks, so I called David and he came by with his camera for a photo session. Perry was with him and took these photos with his phone. David did a bunch with his camera and will put them on a memory stick or flash drive or something and give it to me in a day or two. In the meantime, here's the Gentleman's express, in all her glory:   | ||
| Pwnzor |
You are such a tease... | ||
| Kmbuell |
That red looks great! It’s come together well. Great job! | ||
| Fireboltwillie |
I can envision a small crowd gathering around the Gentleman's express at Suches.. | ||
| Ourdee |
Now if the case bolts were safety wired,..... | ||
| Pwnzor |
Crusty's bike has always drawn onlookers, because it's a Sportster doing what Sportster's don't do. The hard bags and the custom brackets were enough to bring gawkers aplenty. With this new bike, new paint, custom bits and pieces which were completely premeditated - there are going to be a lot of curious people gathering around it. | ||
| Ocbueller |
Looking good man, house looking pretty sweet too. SteveH | ||
| Crusty |
Believing Liars No; this isn’t a Snippet about politicians. I try to avoid writing about politics in these little essays. The title is about Weather Forecasters. I wish I had a job where I could be wrong as often as they are; yet not get fired and make pretty good money. For example; I check Weather Underground fairly regularly. Yesterday, the temperature was supposed to reach a high of 38º (3º C) . At 1:15 PM I was at the Post Office and the marquis on the bank next door said 26º (-3º C). A couple of hours later, I looked online and the temperature was 30º F. That was the warmest it got. The 10 day forecast called for the high temp today to be 43º F (6º C). This morning, it’s now saying that today it will be 38º and tomorrow 46º. It’s supposed to be sunny, as well. Yesterday, the sun was supposed to be out during the afternoon. I never saw it. I wonder if I’ll see the sun today? I’ll have a better idea in about an hour. Sunrise is scheduled for 7:58 AM. However, That could be wrong, too. I got that time from the Weather site. Half the time, the site itself will contradict itself. The forecast for Wednesday is for a high temperature of 46º F, but on the hourly forecast, the highest temp is for it to hit 44º at 3:00 PM. Which one should I believe? I have a little saying, “If you believe the Weather Forecast, then you deserve what you get”. In spite of that cynicism, I get caught by surprise on a regular basis. Maybe it’s because I want to believe a good forecast. I mean, if the forecast is for sunny weather with pleasant temps, I get pissed off when it’s cold and rainy. Those are the wrong forecasts that I remember. The predictions that are for unpleasant weather, but we get nice weather instead, are just as wrong; but I don’t mind them as much. My ankle was crushed at work, 25 years ago. Some days, I can tell that the weather is about to change, just by the way it hurts. Sometimes, however, it hurts for no apparent reason and sometimes it doesn’t hurt when we’re about to get a whopper of a storm. On the whole; it’s less accurate than the weather forecast. Pity. Hey; maybe I can convince a local TV station to give me a job making inaccurate weather predictions! Every place I’ve lived; people think their weather is really changeable. They all have the saying, “ If you don’t like the weather in (New England, Cincinnati, Colorado, etc.), just wait a minute. Having lived in a few different locations, I’ve found that it changes unexpectedly everywhere. I guess the bottom line is that In spite of weather satellites, computer models and even the Old Farmer’s Almanac, forecasting weather is still just a guessing game. And if you believe the Forecast, you deserve what you get. | ||
| Zacks |
Try living near a big bucket of water. I'm going to disagree on them being wrong on he crappy weather John. I plan indoor activities (aka work/honeydo's) when it's forecasted to be crappy. Then when it's nice and I could be riding or outside, it's just as bad. | ||
| Crusty |
On Sunday, my brother came by and took about 30 pictures of the Gentleman's Express. While I'm sure everybody is getting sick of looking at the bike, these are the best pictures that capture the beauty of the soul red paint. I think you'll all understand why I fell in love with the color.      |
