ahem, introducing....Miles Ray Landman

Definitely the most amazing experience in my life. His Mom and Miles did great the first week of his life! Ups, downs, victories, frustrations, sleeplessness, 2 hours of sleep a night, learning. We wound up trusting our instincts and leaning on each other for suggestions when things weren't going as planned and with the teamwork of the great nurses and doctors I can say that it was/is an all encompassing joyous feeling. All worth it. I can tell we have some amazing times ahead of us, even if it is unconventional.

Without further adieu, a few iphone pictures:

this shot was taken during his first 6 hours of life outside of the womb....damn....he's a good lookin' boy.

he did a little bit of this sleeping thing when we were still in the hospital. Its pretty crazy/great that within 5 minutes after they are born, its like, here you go, all yours, have a good night, we'll be back in a few hours to check in on you!

they say that babies cry for a handful of reasons; hunger, gas, poop, pee, tired.

But I can tell you first hand that it takes a little while to figure out which one it is, because once they wake up from those short lived 1-2 hour naps of utter cute and cuddliness, comes this:

(yes, he is practicing his hardcore metal breakdown scream/face)

I had posted on facebook if anyone had a hookup for kids sized glasses to get Miles started as young as possible...I mean, if he's gonna be a Landman, glasses are a key feature. Kim came through with a pair of vintage Rivets. They are proudly displayed on the shelves with a few of the great prints that Leigh Anne picked up for his bedroom.

so precious. so incredible. This picture was taken when he turned 1 week and 2 days old. Here's what I keep doing; scroll back up to the first picture from a mere week earlier, then back down. It's crazy how much babies will change/grow in these first few days. Yeah, yeah, this may be old hat to some of you, but its my first time really sitting with it and observing it.

and finally for now. Yes, he loves his glasses even if he has to wait a few years to grow into them. Look at that baby smirky smile.

making bars from bars

with no bike here and completely slacking on getting Chris's sportster running, I need some sort of project to keep the few hours (read:1 hour) a day of free time busy. I had talked to both Chris and Kim about using the bends and bungs from the 70moto Gentleman's Bars and changing a few things ever since the shovel was getting finished. brought some pieces by BCM and we've slowly worked on it.

so....some heat, some patient coping, some tacking, back to coping, tacking, welding, heating, smoking, yes, a good amount of smoke was coming out of the ends of the bars, bending, heating, bending, and mounting. Kim was on heat duty while I was on the bending duty and I will fully admit that we went with the "art, not science" style of fabrication which can get interesting when bending stainless steel tubing. tip:use some science with your bends. bend it once, bend it right. whoopsie!

they are not the right style for maximum Bob's bike, but it's what we had to make sure the bars were perfectly in line with the front end. that was my biggest want for these. oh and a nice tight radius in the vertical sections of the bars....I think that they will look quite mounted up, especially after I spend some time behind the polishing wheel!!!

now, back to waiting!!!!! almost there!

It's the weekend...

Surfing is the best. It just is. Checking the surf report, picking the right board from the quiver, checking out the waves as you suit up, paddling out, standing on a floating log and traveling 100 yards down the line in the open sea, yeah, pretty much an amazing series of events. And following a few hours in the water with burritos is the topper.

Last few days were the 9' longboards. Today was a 5'10" twin fish kind of day. Caught a few with young Aiden and even ran into Gouldie and caught a few with him as well.

Swap Meet Finds 2

picked up this great panhead brake set up. All original parts, but not sure if/when I can actually use it. The mounting plates for the master cylinder and brake pedals changed for the cone shovel motors and this one won't truly fit on my bike without modification. But the pedal got me thinking about how to improve my current set up.

Plust the asking price was way too good for everything you see below including the Wagner master cylinder. besides, if I don't use any of these parts on my bike, I now have the first few pieces of my new panhead that I don't plan on ever having...just in case though, I've started collecting these parts first.

some fun stuff right there. It looks great.

Swap Meet Finds 1

very fun and successful day at the Long Beach motorcycle swap meet on Sunday. Seeing old friends, talking (be it talking the talk, talking shit, or just talking about nothing), and checking out all the great old parts.

Chris is working on a new build and has a few very distinct details in mind. The first of which, maybe second after the motor, was that he wanted to use an S&S L-series carb. Yeah, the ones no longer in production. Well, lucky him, he found it. and got it for a great price. After bringing the aged and dirty fella home, he immediately headed to the polishing wheel and here's the look after the first pass...

yep, it looks like a foghorn. awesome. Anybody know anything about that G.E.M. cast velocity stack? Let me know. (yes, it says GEM, not G.M.E.) share the knowledge, share the love. One man's junk is another man's treasure. One man's swap meet purchase can equal another man's monthly rent.

cast carb, cast velocity stack and came with the cast S&S air horn cover. He polished that up too.....not too much, just right.

Ok, I'm tired.

is it bad to miss a machine?

maybe I'm just being sentimental here in socal, but I miss the shovel...all the way back in Brooklyn. (I'll be home soon enough, buddy...).

In the meantime, I'm slowly gathering little bits here and there that I've needed for it; new main crankshaft seal, UNI foam filter for my BCM air cleaner, spring for my brake pedal, and hopefully a straight kicker arm after the swap meet this weekend.

Also saw the *new and improved* Sreamliner bars from Pangea Speed and may have to pick up a set of those, and in some downtime going to work on some bars with Chris and Kim as well. You gotta have options and with the sportster almost sold, I think I need to move on from the modified window bar look alltogether...Lastly, looking forward to helping out some more with the Maximum Bob shovel seat set up!

Pannikin Coffee Run

Took the truck down to Pannikin for a few double lattes and to meet up with Chris and Dustin for some good conversation. Ran into mr. Todd Richards and caught up on life, his morning 'drop the kids off at school' routine, (that's literal, not the figurative dropping the kids off at the pool style joke), and we each started on our first coffee drink of the day. We assured one another that we would run into eachother again throughout the next few weeks.

I think I've got the solution down for the coffee to go when driving this beast. Bag up the coffee cup, tie a knot in said bag, drive the key through the knot and into the ignition and voila! Coffee cup holder.