new 7 series

BMW re-tooled their 7 series line, and today a buddy of ours in Laguna came by with one he just sold. He's a salesman for BMW up here so he gets to watch people drop loot on these things all day. This particular car's sticker price was $99,940.00

looks like they finally nailed the perfect mix of the LAST 5 series profile with the newer BMW lines. By the way this one was the 750Li which is the long body version of the car. Definitely made for the guy who has a driver that gets him from point A to point B while said owner sits in the back seat.

speaking of back seats....

Matias is modeling the amazing leg room that these long body versions have. Note that he is 6'2" and is fully lounging out and still isn't touching the seat in front of him.

new features that blew me away were:

Peek a boo cameras that look around blind corners for you automatically when you're about to pull onto a street.

Turning Rear Wheels allowing the car to have a better turning radius than my Mazda 3

Updated iDrive system that is easier to use

Blind Spot and Lane Change cameras and notifying system. When the car senses a car in your blind spot when you put your turn signal on, it vibrates the steering wheel and a yellow hazard light turns on on the rear view mirror. When you start to veer in a lane, same thing happens....steering wheel vibrates to let your driver know "hey buddy, your precious cargo is in jeopardy due to your falling asleep behind the wheel..."

sneak peak into Dane's

so here's video #2 from the chronicles of GYDOnia.

all of the stuff you see is at our band space. most of it the remnants of hot rods of yore and an amazing art space/studio apartment scary zone.

strange twist of luck

so, i may have landed the deal of a lifetime....no, i did.

Palm Springs is home to the Design Within Reach Annex store, which has a bunch of overstock, returned items.....and I guess it was all meant to be that in the corner of the back room, I came upon a beautiful Walnut Wood and WHITE leather Eames Lounge Chair. Yes the real version of the copy I bought last week. No footstool for it, just the chair.

It has some damage as the backrest was unfortunately disconnected from the armrest area, but this is totally fixable. Just some proper epoxy and maybe a called to Hume Modern for their tips as I'm sure this is an issue that DOES happen from time to time....

I'll post pictures tomorrow of my new project.

new chair

Heading to Palm Springs this weekend with the wifey, Brother Jon and sister in law Casey. we will hopefully get some good pool time, relaxation, heat, furniture shopping and house/architecture nerding on.

As a precursor to our little trip, this...

is now in our living room. ok, ok, its not really an Eames, but it is from the 70's and it is a beautiful shade of olive/brown and the plywood is in great condition. and sure maybe we'll find something similar this weekend, but this gem was waiting for me in Oceanside.

I've always lusted over the reissue of the Eames version by Herman Miller, but dropping $3,500 on a chair and ottoman just doesn't sit well with me. Plus most people who know me know that I'd rather buy preowned wherever I can in order to be reusing things that someone has already brought into this world and discarded. New is cool, but 'finding' used things and taking them into your home is where I think its at. Whether it be furniture, bicycles, cars, motorcycles, or houses even, its hard to beat the economics of buying things that have been preowned and given them a new life....

GYDO

so, over at our practice space, aka Ponto, aka Dane's Lair, aka Rocktown, we've set up a video cam with the idea of recording new songs and posting them somewhere. so i'll start here and facebook. check out the new song called Wolves. the video is nothing exciting, but it was a first try to see how everything would look and sound.

weekend check list

seems simple enough:

1. cut down frisco bars to be 5" narrower overall

2. remove all electrical controls from bars

3. trip/crop/cut electrical wires

4. make sure lights work and bike starts

5. relocate starter/lights/horn with new switches

6. install new throttle

7. cut 'ball ends' off of clutch and front brake levers

8. put it all back together

9. repeat step 4

10. go for a ride

ran into the following issues:

1. throttle holes for cables didn't line up with my throttle cable

2. had to drill out new holes to fit

3. after cutting width off friscos, throttle wouldn't turn because the bars weren't perfectly round at the narrow width due to the fact that the bars have the dimples for stock controls.

4. drove to Chris's house to get a set of the new frisco's which have a 6" rise instead of mine that have the 8" or 9" rise. his were already cut down nice and narrow and do work withe the throttle.

5. front brake lever needed some internal grinding due to interference with new throttle housing

6. throttle cable came disconnected a the carb.

7. remove air cleaner, remove carb, remove gas tank, to get to the throttle at the engine.

8. reconnect throttle cable.

9. do the opposite of #7.

10. reconnected the old switches without their housings just wire tied to the frame. didn't have time to get new switches yesterday because we were busy with a wedding.

BUT, bike starts and runs. it works and the bars are a lot cleaner looking and nice and narrow. I do miss the taller rise of the older friscos, but I figure I can always just get a set of the old ones that don't have the dimples OR just "make" mine round where they need to be.

profile shot:

view of the bars without switches:

moving stuff around

so for this weekend, my project will be to get all of the electrical controls off of my handlebars. I've already started the process, got the new throttle put together and on the bars, but I need to get some new switches for the starter and hi/low beam for the headlight. Also, I want to figure out a good location to put these switches other than on my battery cover since that thing loves to fly off of the bike mid ride....

suggestions?

radio shack and I will be good friends this weekend as I shop for switches and a soldering iron.

good...clean...fun

these bikes have all of the above in common and make my search for an flh even more inspirational.

I love the pan in the hardtail frame, but I'm really digging what people are doing with keeping the swingarms intact on the 70's shovels as well.....probably more the direction I would go. Something the wifey and I can fit on and cruise around with. If you know of someone trying to ditch one, hit me up.

Tonight GYDO at the Saloon

See you there. Let's have a beer together. Super Sale on T-shirts.

lagging....

I am slow at times. I am usually late. Wherever, whenever. I guess I could say I'm consistent at least. My mom used to mock me when I was young saying "you only have two speeds, SLOW and STOP", which was usually related to the trek from the car to the lodge when going skiing at Mt. Snow when I was carrying my skis, poles and boot bag.

Not that I'm scarred from it at all, but mayb

e I'm late on purpose subconciously now? I mean skis (2 of them), poles (2 of them) and my ski boots, hat, goggles, gloves, lunch in a boot bag is alot of stuff for a kid.....Maybe I was just a wimp.

Well, anyways, looks like the boys captured my continual lagging in this photo. Not only holding up the rear, but holding it up by a long shot. So, I took the liberty to correct the photo to make me look less like a slacker and more a part of the group. I prefer the second version:

The Truth:

How it seemed IN MY HEAD:

hansel has nothing on me

so during our road trip from Vegas back to soCal, we decided to take a sweet detour through the desert and up and over Big Bear Lake. It was great to see that spot when there's no snow and the lake looked beautiful. We took some time to pull over and take a dip in the lake.

Being that I was 100% committed to my newly purchased leather vest the whole trip, despite wearing it through the 114 degree desert heat at 80mph when I probably should have shed that layer of extra animal skin, it was only fitting that I wore the vest into the lake.

Of course the combination of a leather vest, a lake, swimming, no swim trunks, and aprofessional photographer only means trouble, and in this case trouble is dead sexy....I present to you (as mortifying as this may seem) the new ad campaign for the newest parfum from BoltsAction scents entitled BEAR:

I'm pretty sure BEAR will be one of Jeremy's official sponsors for this year so look out for some of these stickers on his board in all next year's snow mags!

made it back

it was a great little run out to Vegas and back to meet up with the Onward Westward crew from SLC. Super glad I went and as always made some long lasting friendships with great people.

Some great quotes went down during the few days we spent together and I've highlighted them below:

man, my kickstand was scraping every time I made a left turn down the mountain.... (me to Stone) "well, you gotta break it in somehow..." - Stone

"as much as I like hanging out with you guys and standing around here, we should probably hit the road" - Jeremy

"is yours a 383 also?" - Jeremy

"i just want to warn you, I have some gnarly tan lines" - Hime

"i'm not making any more decisions this whole trip" - Jake

There were a lot more and even just some one-word quotes that were amazing as well. I can say yet again, that I wind up laughing so hard during these motorcycle road trips because you spend so much time traveling without being able to say a word to ANYONE that when you finally sit down, and start to have a conversation, the craziest shit comes out.....

Barstow

Is ghetto.

Headwinds at 80 mph is great.


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Made it

I keep trying this app. But my posts aren't really working. Or the app.

For good info, head here boltsaction.blogspot.com




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Ellie Gato


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commute home yesterday

...and pulled up behind this celebrity wife......

probably not THE Mister T's misses, but a wild style license plate nonetheless....