this past saturday

was way too cold. Thursday was around 50 and Friday was in the low 60's. I had checked what the weather was going to be like last monday and when I saw the forecasts for the nice days ahead, my plan was to call in sick or take a personal day for Friday. But it seems that EVERYONE else at my work doesn't schedule their lives in such a way and sent out 3 meeting requests for said Friday.

Don't people check the fucking weather and then decide if they really want to be at work on nice days around here? In southern california, sure, no need to check, its gonna be nice. You can actually sit around inside ALL DAY on a saturday that is 75 outside knowing that it will be like that tomorrow again, no biggie. BUT here in NY, if its nice outside, you gotta take advantage of it.

Instead, Malcolm and I tooled around Brooklyn on Saturday in the freezing temps. Sunset Park, Red Hook, and Gowanus. Then he got back on the train to hang with his girl after his day "at work".

Great pictures of the day here at Malcolm's site.

Artwork - SilenceTV - for the shop or home

Jon B. turned me onto to the amazing website of Gianmarco Magnani, and I must admit, I'm loving his work.

Rather than me babble about the amazing prints and quality of inks and papers used, the textures achieved and the amazing imagery, browse these few images from his Riders and Villians, Thieves, and Sixty Watt collections below and then head over to the website over yonder and webstore here.

Oh, and be sure and check out what Jon B. has going on here and here. He's got a wife and kid now to take care of so feel free to support him as well.

shavin' grams

I've never liked the stock sportster pegs that came on my bike, but at the same time never just took the time to make something different. Yesterday I finally just went to the shop with the goal of using the passenger pegs instead of the stockers. But when I put them on, I noticed they were way too wide, so out came the grinder and the shortening began.

the left side stock peg.

I removed the rubber from both the stock front and the passenger peg thinking that since the actual casting is shorter on the stock piece, I could just cut down the rubber from the passenger peg and slide it on and maybe be done with it. Problem is the offset from the clevis mount on the stock peg with the passenger rubber would look shitty.
lopped of about 3/4" to start.

Since I was getting rid of the mushroom end shape that was on the peg's axle, I then broke out the hammer and started working the end back into a slight mushroom end to help capture the rubber. This was about 5 hits into it. there were about 20 more after this.

In total, 5 ribs worth were cut off of the width of the rubber.

unfortunately, my first pass wasn't short enough for my liking, and Henry easily talked me into going shorter so the picture below shows the first shortening (3/4") of an inch and then my final product which is about 1 1/2" shorter than stock. sorry, no stock length picture.

the two pics below show the two different lengths. Shorter and ShorterER below.

much better. quick, easy, fun saturday project is done. There is still plenty of surface for my feet being that the clevis mounts stick out a good deal as well. Now if only my battery weren't dead, I could actually take it out for a ride. Pressed the starter button and all I got was the click, click, click sound. Could be the battery, the starter relay, or the starter itself. fun times.

June 23rd 2010 - a look back

I do love New York City as a city on the whole. There is probably no better place in terms of accessibility, culture, history, and design. BUT I can see this whole cold thing getting old. I'm not complaining, its just the facts.

I'm looking forward to the spring and summer though and hoping to score some epic rides that can come close to the old stomping grounds, albeit with a change of scenery. Green leafy trees instead of palm trees. Grass instead of sand, hills instead of mountains, and old historic battle fields in place of barren deserts.

Here are some pictures that Chris Collins took after a day of working on his panhead's redux.

note the white/grey sky in the pics right near the beach and the beautiful blueness as you ride 1/2 mile inland. ahhhh.

Boot Week (and a half) Day 7 - Boot Loser Mike D.

unsuccessful play on words in the title???

this final set in the first "_____ Week" comes to us from the county of Orange, Where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano and off of the feet of Born Loser Mike Davis.

I've heard that he's been busy these days working on his own bikes, blog, the Cyclelodge, and something called Born Free 3.

Here's what Mike had to tell us about his favorites:

Model: Old Redwing Loggers

"My grandpa ( 98 year old Italian ) used to wear loggers to make him taller so they bring back a lot of memories."

"These boots have been the same for 100 years and will never go out of style..."

"....and you can't hurt em."

thanks for sending these in Mike. The bear skin rug completes the series very well.

non vintage full face

I've been thinking very seriously about one of these. Probably remove the visor (peak), so it still has the dirt moto-esque jaw saver, but also can have the flip down face shield without trying to rip my head off over 70mph....

safety is radical. too many people go down. It's inevitable.

tu250x - small not mini

Chris forwarded me the link to the suzuki site to check these out. He knows that I've always wanted honda to just re-release the CB series and this is in the same veign...

at 250cc's it would be a fun little city bike. And it got me wondering who/when will the cafe style bikes and chops come to this model?

Then I just searched this on the internet "TU250 Japan", and of course, they are on it...I think its called the st250 over there and there's also a few pages I saw that were newer bikes but had the kickstart on them as well. an option maybe?

a few links for parts and fun stuff:

Kijima

ChicDesign