Welding up the Triumph Seat Loop

Jimmy Dean hit me up that he discovered a crack in the seat loop area of his 76 Triumph so I offered to weld it back up for him.  Luckily its not a critical part of the frame so it was a really fast and easy fix.  Clean, Weld, move, Weld, Grind, Wire Wheel, Clean, Paint, Ride Home.

any time that I get to use and practice with this mig welder is a good time.  Getting more and more used to it.  Just need to keep that wire moving slowly.

Gypsy Run 6

Had some great times.

Rode the bike from BK to Manhattan for my work day.
Left work in MH at 6:30pm
FINALLY got over the GWB at 8:00pm
Rode to Phoenicia solo mission style and arrived at the campsite at 10:15pm
Woke up at 6:00am and had breakfast, took some photos, laughed with great people.
Hit the road at 10:00am
Rode to blah blah blah

All these pics were on my instagram, so its nothing new.  just fun.

Look, the bike ran great.  2 sets of plugs, one front exhaust bolt, a points cover removal, and we were golden.   I had an amazing time.  Fuck, everyone did.  There was some rain, some camping and Walter and crew did an incredible job organizing it all.

Thank you!

Thursday - See you at Indian Larry's

So stoked for this weekend.  Gearing up and getting ready.

Even if you're not going on the run, head over to the Gypsy Run website and download the run books. Both versions.  Just a great way to get it all organized.

East Coast Gypsy Run

and in the words of Walter himself:


MAY ALL OUR FRIENDS HAVE WARM WORDS ON A COLD EVENING, A FULL MOON ON A DARK NIGHT, AND WHEN YOUR REALLY AWESOME LOOKING 1.2 GALLON TANK RUNS DRY...
MAY THE ROAD BE DOWNHILL ALL THE WAY TO YOUR DOOR. 


and i'm wondering if this stranger will be back in town for the ride.....

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....