Gypsy Run 6(66)

something is happening.  yes, right here on the east coast.  and I'm fucking stoked for it.

It has been organized by a guy named Walter.  I don't know how to put this, but he's kind of a big deal.  People know him.  He's very important and he has many leather-bound books and his shop smells of rich mahogany.

yep.  All true.

Check out the details here.  Gyspy Run.

I'll see you there!  YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jawbreaker - Want

been staring for a hundred hours
run down a spiral drain
keep mouth clamped tight, and it isn't right
three words keep running round my mind
but my tongue is hard to find
i need to let it go, because i know
dark secrets burn their vessel
tearing out to grab a mouthful
chunk of heart destroyed by quiet
yell it out before it kills you now
let it all out
i want you...

used to let rumors do my work
they got around real well
now they only hurt, it's a liar's quirk
this time i gotta say it straight
i mean to do some good
i'm calling out your name, while the chance remains

i want you...

Brakey Stayey ?

Had a great ride to Bar Matchless tonight.  The humidity even felt fine after the sunset.  Good times, great people and an amazing finish to the Moto GP race.

Bike ran amazing.  Problems are solved.  The last thing that I did was resolder my hot connection to my keyswitch from the battery.  I noticed that the old connector let the wire move around too much at the contact point.  well, everything was perfe....until my rear brake stay mount thingey snapped where it connected to the caliper.  No worries.  It will be replaced with a simple stainless piece.  At least my welds held up and it was the bung end that snapped.

NYC should really be the proving grounds for all bike fab work.  If your tank mounts don't rattle and crack from the cobble stone and your sissy bar doesn't come apart at the fender from the 18 wheeler divets on the highways, then you're good to go anywhere.

saturday xyzal light mounting day

got to the shop early saturday morning to help Jimmy Dean with his cracked '78 Triumph OIF Frame.  I have pics somewhere, I'll post them soon.  Just a simple clean and weld of the frame in the seat loop area.  As usual about 30 minutes of prep time and disassembly, 10 minutes of actual welding, 20 minutes of cleaning up and another hour of hanging out!

After that, I finally got to making a bracket for my license plate and the Xyzal tail light I made a while back.  A year ago to be exact.  A friggen YEAR ago?  wtf!   Up to this day, I've been using the $4.99 band-aid brake light from autozone and have been zip tieing that and my license plate to the sis'.

Started with some stainless plate.  Measured twice and marked the correct holes ignoring the marks that were off after the first re-measure.  Tacked into place, took the bar off and finished the welding onto the stainless sissy bar.  Then, the fun started.  cutting, notching and rewelding the center light mount so that the light would be parallel to the ground while keeping the outer two holes parallel to the sissy bar for the license plate frame.  Worked out well in the end.  Lots of welding, cleaning, grinding, filling, grinding, etc....

the key to a good joke is...

...timing!

yep, I've heard that one a lot.  I rode over to Keino's shop to talk about my issues a little bit.  What started off as a 10 minute conversation about life and why I am the way I am, it eventually moved on to talking about motorcycles.  Wait, what?  no, he's not my shrink!

So after talking about random bike things he ended with me getting a lesson in timing with points......properly.  We worked, we laughed, we swapped some spark plugs, he showed me about advancing the weights while static timing and also adjusting everything at full advance on the fly wheels.......and he gave me the age old question......"well, did you READ the manual?"

I believe my answer was "I tried?" We laughed some more.

Thanks for being a friend and a Wizard.  the bike rolled away sounding perfect.

I still plan on changing my battery, and hopefully all will be well in time for the Gypsy Run.

30th Anniversary - 1987

charge!!!!

I checked the charging system and its working.  putting out 14.5 volts at the battery when the motor is running and brought to around 2000 or so RPM.

But then after letting the bike sit for 15 minutes after going for a ride, I put the key switch to accessory to kick it over and it didn't start right away.  No biggie, it was 3 kicks.  So i turned the key back to off and checked the voltage in the off position a few minutes later.  Down to 10 volts.  While the charging system is putting out voltage and the bike starts fine when i first take it off of the trickle charger, it looks like the battery is holding the charge.

new battery time.  Oh and Walter, let me know if you wanna head to BK Thursday night!

not quite S.O.S., but help

keep chasing my tail.  motorcycles....ugh.....

Bike was running fine.  BUT on the highway once warm, started BOOM, POP, Bang, and missing.....so I'd let off the throttle, it helped a little bit.  Once I slowed down to a stop, stall.....kickstand down, starts right back up.

Today, I adjusted the valves and regapped the points, and then starting was super tough.  I thought the issue was the timing, but I'm just not sure.

Then I just checked my battery voltage and its down to 9.5 volts when the lights are on (bike not started).  Around 10.5 when the lights are off.  so its back on the trickle charger for the night.

BUT what the hell is causing the cutting out?  I was using Resistor spark plugs, but i'll get some non-resistor ones to try out as well.

so many possibilities.  as you can tell............i'm at wits end.

feel free to hit me up.

lots of love and heart broken,

matt

Flathead Find

Was up in Rhode Island and Massachusetts last weekend. Responded to a dude with some chopper parts for sale that I had been going back and forth with on text and email. It turned out to be an amazing little sidetrack to the weekend. And look what I found in the corner. Yep. Yes.

Working on it......slow and steady.....it wasn't for sale. But that flathead might get bought.

and there were more rooms all over the basement.  It was a nice thing to come across.  I went home with a bates solo seat, a nice chromed tool box that was on his buddy's 47 knucklehead and a chain guard for the shovel.  I will be back soon.  To pick up more stuff and continue my quest for 40's gold.  or green...

Chameleon continued

Will he ever be happy? Who knows. Things keep a'changin.

Malcolm.

Shovel on the Streets

Super nice. Upper East Side.