I need a seat cover like this!

Life goes on. No real progress on the '71 build to report, I did pick up a rebuilt set of connecting rods & bearings/pin for it. I've been chasing Gremlins on my '82. Been pissing me off really, but I'll figure it out. Hopefully I'll get some new tools for Christmas that I can put to use. I've been up to my asshole in little Chinese 4 wheelers at work. Felt like one of Santas elves putting the little fuckers together, I don't feel too bad about selling them cuz' we actually work on them & can get parts for them too. In general I'm not a fan of the Chinese stuff though. Whatever, keep chopping everyone!

Yule is just around the corner.

So chop that fucking yule log & get to burning! I haven't ridden my own chopper since Thanksgiving, but I've ridden alot of 4 wheelers, dirtbikes, scooters, & rice burners. Work is interesting, I pretty much have the run of the shop & can make my own hours. I do miss having weekends to go for a ride, well Sundays are still open....but I usually spend the whole day with the kids. Anyway, I wish everyone a happy holiday. Feast, ride, enjoy life. Don't buy into the bullshit, no need to spend yourself silly. Sorry, I know this really doesn't have much to do about choppers. Later.

Holy hell, sorry y'all...been busy.

Man, it's been a bit since I've posted. I blame work, life, & Instagram. But it was beautiful out today so I had to go ride.

Been slowly making some progress on the '71, the neck was all ghetto so I've been adding,welding&grinding away.

Looks way better, still not done yet. My good friend Justin from Canada sent me a bolt on he knew I needed(Thanks brother!). I'm keeping the budget for this build as low as possible with as many friend bought/donated parts as possible. I still need a solo seat and p-pad & some bars if anyone has something they think would work.

Works been good, it's nice I get to work on a variety of bikes. But I tell ya this ethanol shit has got to go! It's fucking hell on carbs and small engines in general. Shit turns to snot after only a few weeks of sitting, clogs jets, eats gaskets/o-rings, it's horrible. Anyway, I'll try to keep more up to date. Hope everyone is having a good holiday weekend!

Missed the Swap, Got a Job!

Well, things change. I popped into a local shop on Thursday to ask about some parts & walked out with a job. In fact, I was wrenching on a Sporty within 30min of me being there. It was pretty unexpected & cool. I've been looking for a job for awhile, mostly to pay for the kids daycare, but I've been holding out for something I'd actually enjoy. Working on bikes fits the bill just fine. Sucks I missed the Swap & Drag, looks like everyone had a good time. Glad to be doing something I love though.

Swap & Drags coming up!

Come & see how Bama does it. Good times will be had by all. See y'all there!

Old ass hookers don't give a fuck!

These Q-Tips rule! Anyway, so I finally decided to start working on the frame for my '71. I scored it off Ebay for $50 plus another $50 to ship, so not bad. Seemed in decent shape when it got here, but there was alot of Bondo moulding around the neck(the only place on the frame with Bondo). So after hours of chipping & sanding with a wire attachment on my drill, I uncover the shitty nightmare I was hoping wasn't under there.

Shit. Now I get to cut it off and do it right.....just like everything else with this build. Oh well, at least the rest of the frame looks good, well, except for that the mid mounts have been hacked off.

I'll get it sorted & make it rideable...even make it a cool scoot. Just more time & money. Thanks to Larry at Garco for answering some questions for me, I know your busy & I appreciate your help!

Living in the country ain't bad...

You never know when your hot younger cousin is gonna invite her friends over and have to much to drank...then the beer box modeling starts. You also might be lucky enough to live next to a farmer who was a machinist/welder for most of his life. One who's very friendly & will happily weld up your '71 Ironhead cases for some Natural Lite. He might even give you old tools every time you stop by cuz' his vision is going & he "just don't use it no more". I live in such a place. I have this type of neighbor. He rules, & knows more about machining, welding, building engines & frames than I probably ever will. When he started it was all hands on trial by fire training, not like today where you have to take 6 seperate courses at the local vo-tech school & they don't even let you use the machines until your almost graduated. At 75yrs old he still gets out & cuts his 50acres, fixes his own farm equipment(including re-building tractor engines) , works on his own cars, & helps out his neighbors. I hope to be half as knowledgeable & active at his age.

Barbers Bound!

Well, all of my friends are anyway. I was holding out hope that I'd make it up at least for Friday...but the wife's out of town on buisness, & I'd feel like a real tool rolling up in the Caravan with the four young uns' in tow. So, I'm asking my friends that are going to keep an eye out for a few things. Well one of two things actually. Either this:

KR style bolt on hardtail fits '67-'78 XLH-XLCH


 

Or this:

Santee/V-twin bolt on hardtail fits '57-'78 XLH-XLCH

Now, the bottom one I can get pretty much all day on ebay for $180 shipped. The top is harder to come by...but if you see either shoot me a text 334-315-1876 & we'll talk about it. I wish I was going. Yet again being a responsible parent is affecting my social life. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Have fun my brothers & sisters! Oh, & congratulations to my homies the Inbreds RC for getting into the Alabama C.O.C. I used to have one of those patches but alas, it was turned in when I turned in the others. Proud of y'all!

Wrenching/Chasing Gremlins...

Choppers man. Fuck. They keep you on your toes. As I said in my last post, I've killed 2 AGM batteries in 1 year. It could possibly be that I have a draw somwhere in my wiring...but I've been reading up on trickle chargers lately. You see, for the longest time I've been using a trickle charger on my batteries when I'm not riding. Now, from what I've read that's all good on a lead acid battery that needs to be maintained...but AGM & gel cell batteries are "maintanence free" as in once the acid is in them you don't fuck with em'. You see, a typical lead acid battery can discharge as 30% or more of it's charge in a month just sitting. But AGM/Gel cells are only using around 3% in that time...now of course temperature changes can cause that to be more or less. So apparently if your using a trickle charger that is putting out 2amps, even going into a float mode, it can overcharge and kill a good battery. They make special trickle chargers for AGM/Gel cell batteries that put out between 900mil amps to 1.5amps to keep from cooking them. The trickle charger I've been using is a Yuasa(not a cheap Wal Mart or Harbour Freight) supposedly a "smart" trickle charger...only puts out enough to keep the battry at full charge. Should be fine. Well, when I put a new AGM battery on it the "charging" light came on...I let it sit for a bit, still said "charging"...took it off & hooked it to my full size charger on full charge setting & the "charged" light came on....tried it on the float charge setting, still says "charged" & reading the correct Volt/Amps. Hmmmmmm....could I have been cooking these wonderful batteries while thinking I'm doing what's best for them? I'm thinking fucking maybe. I know it's not my badass Cycle electric Genny, I rode 2hrs home with no battery & the headlight/brakelights working. They would dim when stopped, but it kept the bike going. Oh by the way, I was 97mi from home when I left Conte Kustoms at 5:22pm on Sat. I got home at 6:28pm...on a dead fucking battery. Who was hauling ass? This guy! Here's some more pics of me wrenching.

I rode today!

I'm feeling better about life.......for now. Got out & rode today. Went up to the 'Ham to meet up with some Inbreds. Saw some chopper photo shoot action. Bike decided to have electrical issues...after replacing the ignition switch, & spending entirely too long trying to chase down my Gremlins...I get home (doing the Fred Flintstone push start)& the battery is stone fucking dead. Less than 2 months old. Hmmm. I've replaced 2 AGM batteries in a year, something ain't right. Anyway, I finally got to go to Conte Kustoms...Raf is cool as hell & a good dude. Met a fella named Rex, he says men touched his penis & gave him a boner. Than he kissed me on the beard. I'm not sure how I feel about all of this. As always is was a pleasure hanging with Jeff & Ian...(Jeff, I need to look up a cerimony to kill this off this curse!). It'd be nice to do it more often, but life for me is hectic. There is always some family thing to do. No real progress to report on the '71. I'll try to get back to posting regularly. Go chop & ride y'all...life is too short.

10 days, how depressing.

Man, I've been in a real funk lately. I haven't been posting. Sorry, life just get's to you some times. I fucking hate Montgomery, it sucks...the only "Choppers" you see here are the kind with Ultima or Rev Tec engines and beach ball tires. Fucking gay. I tried to get up to the 'Ham this weekend....seems like everyone is busy, so I just rode around here. Drink a beer at a bar, ride, buy a magazine, ride, eat lunch, ride. Boring. Flat. Blah. Fuck. Not gonna make Barbers, family obligations. Fuck. The '71 engine I picked up is a real shitbox. Fuck. Got weed? Nope. Fuck. We just spent $6,000 having our pool redone, now that it's finished it's too cold to swim in. Fuck. Mother fuck. I need to kick it with some friends, y'all need to move onto my 3acres, it'll be like a biker commune. Bring a trailer, a tent, a fucking tee pee. Grow weed, make shine', ride choppers, shoot guns. Fun right? Fuck.

My kids make me happy... yes honey, that is exactly how you wear a stethoscope!

Slacking....go figure.

I know I've been slacking on posts, sorry. I have been busting my ass on this '71 engine I picked up. Have it completely torn down with the cases split. While working on it I've got some ideas as to how I want the end result. Heres some pics borrowed to share my ideas.

Just a cool short chop, it will be rigid. The other stuff is kinda up in the air. We'll see what I come up with.

The Bash report.

I left home at quarter till' 6am Thurs. morning. 60mi. into the trip my battery died. Got jumped off & made it to WallyWorld & got a new one.Lost about 1 1/2hrs altogether, met up with Jeff & got to riding. Made pretty good time, no real issues other than a delay waiting to meet up with Nate & Andy, they apparently decided to keep going & not eat lunch with us, but we caught up with them in Tennessee.

Their Ironheads were having issues all weekend, one ended up bunching the primary chain & had to be towed home. We partied hard, rode hard, and had a great time with our friends. the Bigwheel race was insane, our French Canadian friend Justin went down the Dragon on his!

& of course we cut Robs bike in half, then it was a long nights work to get it back to a functioning chop.

I crashed out so I didn't get the finished bike pics, it was all done but the wiring/plumbing. I have alot more pics so I'll space them out. I'm off to work on the '71 XLCH engine. Later.

Bastard Bash 5 was unreal.

I'll write about it later...for now, here's some of the bikes.

I'll post more later...I took well over 300 pics.

Sooo Close to Bastard Bash time!

Next Thursday morning I'm heading up to B'ham to meet up with my good friend & ride companion Kustom Jeff. From there it will be a nice ride(knock on wood) to Deals Gap for this years Bastard Bash. Last year was a blast & this year is looking to be even better. I'm having a hard time sleeping...I just want to load up & go! Last year we had a few issues(my clutch was being funky&I broke my oil tank supports,Jeffs stator died on him)but we just fixed what was broke & kept going. Once a year is too long to see the friends that I've made through the QCB forum, but it's worth it. Anyway, if your reading this & can make it up to the Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort next week, come on & be ready to ride!

Broke ass brakes.

So the last ride I took my rear brakes gave out 5mi from home. Luckly I run a front brake. Turns out 30yrs is the lifespan of a stock brake line...I'm sure the vibration from being on a rigid didn't help.

The switch junction, this part of the line is still slightly connected.

The other side completely seperated.

I had these Russell lines from my old duel front brake set up.
Thought I'd use them with the three way junction, but it was too cluttered.
So I just used one, but what to do about a switch?

I have some of these handlebar brake switches from some old Hondas.

Made a bracket to mount the switch to my brake pedal adjusting bolt.

Everything nice and small and it works.
Nothing beats a free brake line/switch set up when you're broke.