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.