ready and waiting

prepped the sportster for its final night here in the BK. the new owner is on his way from PA (you see that Kim!). He is coming with a friend that is actually bringing a frame for my buddy Larry who shares the shop with me...small world. and keeping the Lancaster to Brooklyn bike quota in check.

spin around the block, power washed, degreased the motor, cleaned out the carb, lubed up the throttle, detailed the tins, scotch brited the pipes and said thank you for always being reliable and never letting me down. godspeed sporty, godspeed....(whatever that means) .

Here's to a world without the reliability of a bike that starts with the push of a button and doesn't fall apart.

5K - your next bike

that's it. 5 large? make this happen. you won't regret it. girls will think you are super cool. OR they will think you are lame. Dudes will be totally jealous, or they will think you are really weird and jumping on the bandwagon. Either way it doesn't matter. Fuck them all. Motorcycles are fun and dangerous.

that probably wasn't the best sales pitch. This bike is just fun to ride. And its waiting for you in Brooklyn.

yep. she's been getting plenty of rides...

...but she's still available.

hmmm.....

a bit more info back on this post! accepting offers!

2001 Sportster For SALE - Brooklyn

2001 Sportster 883

early 90's 2.2 gallon tank/pingel petcock

custom rear fender

custom made bars by Kim Boyle

Benchmark air cleaner

Benchmark breather bolts

custom formed, shaped, and upholstered seat

custom exhaust

chopped cam cover

chopped/polished/blasted front pulley cover

narrowed pegs

19"/16" shinko/avon tires

re-wired

new battery

super fun

reliable, starts with the push of a button.

email me for more info or if interested. mattlandman@gmail.com

clean california title.

ready to go.

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.

livin' dreamin'

these are two pictures that I took a while ago. nothing special about them, I just liked them and sort of forgot about them.

Chris wrote Hi Matt on the little metal plate on my headlight visor when I first got this bike. I left it in his garage for a weekend and when I was riding it home from picking it back up, I noticed it. I decided it will stay there. that was a long time ago. I think that what I like about this picture is all the fasteners and bolts and stuff involved with the front end. you look at it in a picture and realize...."when's the last time I checked if these things were tight?" or "what would happen if one of these little things came loose while I was riding?". perspective.

and then at one point I wrote Hi Kim on Kim's panhead rocker covers. that didn't go over slightly as well...at least I wrote it on the painter's tape and not directly on the pan.

this picture of the seat bolt I just like. the seat's mounting came out OK. the rear mounts are hidden and are not a fun task to assemble. I really wanted to polish this Stainless Steel bolt, but never got to it. Maybe this winter all those little details will finally happen.

Kim's Sportster

A great little write up on Kim's newly finished Sportster over on the Chopcult website.

You really need to check this thing out. And while it really reminds me of another certain sportster that I know really well, I gotta say Kim's has all the details covered and dialed.

Maybe the bike that I'm thinking of was a bit of inspiration for certain aspects of his bike?? I'd like to think so. And then I'm hoping that at some point I can score some parts similar to what he has going on for this build for my bike...errrr....I mean the other one I was thinking of, haha!

October Morning Ride

It was a beautiful sunny October morning. The rain had dried up and the air was clear and crisp and around 62 degrees. With the little bit of east coast moisture, 62 feels more like a west coast 55 or so. I put on my jeans and a hoodie and started the bike when I remembered that my brake light hasn't been working properly in some time now.


30 minutes later, I had this mess on my hands.

2 hours later, I was here. Looks the same. BUT at this point I had diagnosed my two major problems. 1) the 1157 LED bulb's contacts where not connecting to the brake light's terminal in the light's housing. THAT WAS IT! so I switched out the bulb for a regular 1157 and.......NOPE. OK, time to take a deep breathe and reason through it. found out I had a broken wire that was feeding power to the hydraulic brake switch's contact. stock sportster harnesses: blue is the power for your head and tail lights. BUT the orange with white stripe provide power to the accessories. swapped out the wire and we were in businesses.

An hour after that last hickup and things were ready to be put back together.

I got all my wires cleaned up a bit, reshrink wrapped, shortened, etc. Now all that's left is for me to remount my seat and rear fender. Word to the wise. THINK about and PLAN how your shit is put on your bike. My fender is a true test of patience with barely enough room to fit a wrench in and quarter turns at a time room to tighten the bolts. that will be fun.

was fun and will be fun

I was thinking about bikes, as usual, last night and how much fun I had learning about mild customization on my 883R. That was a fun bike to work on and to ride.

The shovel has also been really fun to learn about customizing, but in a whole different way.

(not the) brooklyn invitational

I had great plans to take photos of the weekend's festivities. Then I realized there were a bunch of people already taking photos and realized they would probably capture it better than me. So then I decided to just take pictures of people. Didn't do that................so I took pictures of Works Engineering on North 14th Street. They let me store my bike there overnight. I'll probably wind up using their monthly service/storage once I finally get a place in the BK. well, hopefully.

HD GPS. still works. directions heading home to temporary digs.

the rest of the pics are from inside Works Engineering. bike storage at a good rate with great people.

east bound and down...

...well...counting down the days till the trailer gets to NY.

some pics of loading up the bikes at Mike D's house with Jason Craze and Josh Conley. My bike was definitely a bit jealous being accompanied by Mike, Josh and Matt Davis's panheads.....great to have the time to check out these bikes up close and personal as well.

big thanks again to Craze for making the trek and taking the bikes east and to Mike D and Josh for the general laughter and loading up that went on sunday morning.

one last socal rip on the sportster...

...before she was loaded up on the trailer and sent on her way to the NYC

I got the phone call late on Saturday night that there was room in the trailer for my bike so at 8am on Sunday, I mounted up and rode up to Santa Ana to Mike D's place to meet the crew and load 'er up.

The weather was beautiful. I could feel the morning dew burning off and it felt so nice riding up the coast past the breaking waves and weaving through the sunday morning almost desolate traffic. Its odd to think that in moments like these, material inanimate objects seem to be alive and you feel like they will miss these things.......but the bike will be fine. I think it is me that will miss moments like these. and at the same time, I look forward to the new ones to come on the right coast.

Hideaway Ride, Chicken Tacos, Nachos

Made the time for a great little north county gem of a ride. Everyone in north county has ridden out to Hernandez Hideaway, but all the different routes you can take make it so fun. My personal favorite is to head out through Elfin Forest on the way out and then Del Dios on the way back.

Here's Carter on his newly finished and amazing TW200. His giantness covers the entire engine and any mechanical parts of the bike. Which I love! I don't care that this bike is only a 200.....in the twisties, there is no keeping up with him.

Dawley is also a champ when it comes to riding. Always claiming that his "Firestones sketch him out at speed", its hard to keep up with his tempo. "Don't mind me, I'll probably be riding slow after these margaritas...." right......

the road entering into Elfin Forest

super radical

arrivee le Lake Hodges

hauling ass down Del Dios Highway on the way home after some great eats at Hernandez Hideaway. I can proudly recommend the chicken tacos, nachos grande and their margaritas.