Life (mostly)

Well I just got back from Will's house, that was a good time. We went for a long walk down the railroad tracks, hung out at an Air Force Base (outside the fence), and watched some movie with subtitles that was both really good and quite odd. Hanging out was supposed to be Tuesday, but he txted me around 6pm asking if a change would work, and I was game, so that was a fucking excellent night, he is one of my favorite people.

I have also come to an idea about a roadtrip next summer, Will if he has time is game, and I'm pretty sure Liam will be game. It pretty much revolves around getting to Colorado somehow to stay in this caboose out in the wild that is $35 a night. I think it could be a real adventure - though its worth remembering that almost any road trip is an adventure.

I'm watching The Sentinal and just noticed that one of the actors is played by a guy who was one of my favorite cast members in Homicide: Life on the Street. He played Meldrick, and I think you can agree if you watch this clip, that he is (and has been for a long time) one hell of an actor:



I'm only watching this because I didn't feel like sleep yet, and this is an "On Demand" free movie.


I have been informed by some older folks on forums that I may need different yokes for the Atlas if I want to mount a sidecar to it, which incidentally, I do. I could mount it to the KZ, but I think the Yam engine will be much more appropriate for winter use. Doug from Sidestryder who used to hang out with and ride with Steve McQueen and Bud Ekins (as well as others) sent me a good packet of information on how exactly to mount my sidecar to the featherbed frame.

So all in all, a good day.

And with that, I am done.

Pills

3 Times a day. What they are specifically doesn't matter, but Drowsy is the big side effect for each. The big yellow ones are 300mg each. I take 4 of those 3 times a day. The second little blue one is new, and that multicolored pill is new.

Why show you this? Why not?

I hate pills. HATE. But we discover things are necessary to move.

Anyways, I'm done.

Bliss

Bliss is laying outside in a folding lawn chair, feeling almost my age, smoking one of my favorite pipes, in a good temp, listening to old live Pearl Jam. This is what the world is all about.

Mom left for Ohio yesterday? I think it was yesterday, I'm not really sure to be honest.

I really am going to miss this house. It wasn't, isn't my style, I prefer old New England homes, you know, wood structures that are inherently simple in design, but still manage to look good. A nice vertical two family, and old triple decker, a nice 1920s single family. This house is none of those things, this house was built by a millionaire in the 20s. It is elegance personified, which is glorious, but I don't belong here hahaha. Dad loved it though, and that is what really matters. But now that he's gone, its time to move on. Besides there is something funny about laying in the courtyard and seeing Rudy, my 3 colored 86 Olds with its padlocked shut hood in the driveway. Its almost like a private joke.

I had my first shower in four months just a few minutes ago. Now I can see you more clean people beginning to curl up in absolute horror, but showers hurt and baths do not. So I take baths. But if you only take a handful of showers a year, then a shower becomes a magnificent thing. Its easy to forget those things we take for granted until we give them up.

I just looked over at my neighbors house, and watched a bird fly in through an old dryer vent and can now see it sitting inside the window. Part of me wants to go knock on the door and tell them they have a bird in their house, but the rest of me doesn't particularly care. Besides they yelled at me a few days ago for playing my records in the garage at 11am, so you know? Karma. Feel kind of bad for the bird though.

A friend of mine commented on my ability to take joy out of even the simplest parts of life the other day, and to turn almost anything into an adventure, and I took a real sense of peace from that, because he's right, I do do that. I can sit out here and watch the world move by, watch the birds fly around and land on the iron gates and just smile and admire them.

There's a lot that needs done over the next week or so. There is some house work that I really should do, and I want to build a motorcycle or two. Don't know where I will find the energy, but hey, we do what we can.

I suppose one of the first places to start would be to really clean out the garage again. I don't know how, but that room can really get away from me sometimes. Once thats done I can begin to shift more things from the basement out there, I need to bring out the Norton chassis, and also some bicycles.

I also have to wash off these outside walls, the walls around the courtyard. Anyways, I'm going to smoke one more bowl, then go sit in the house and doze until I decide to find some dinner.

Damn.

OK, never made it to Truro, instead my chest locked up and.... I drove off 495 into the grass at about 60mph. Car held up well, didn't hit anything, alignment seems alright. Well, more later it seems.

Truro Tomorrow.

So tomorrow I am going to drive my 1986 Olds from Worcester to Truro (the Cape) in 90+ degree heat with no air conditioning, over 2 hours in each direction... why? To hang out with my married Aunts, their daughter, and grandson. It should actually be quite a good time, except for the sheer heat of getting there, and probably the heat of getting back.

Haven't been on much recently, but I'll get back to long rambles about nothing in particular soon.

Car, Life, Beauty =p

Alright so my car... I had been planning to sell it and start riding the motorcycle sort of as soon as possible, but right now there is no money for the motorcycle.

Now a little history on my car... My friend Stevie who has a history of wrecking cars bought this 1986 Gold Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera from this old priest with about 50,000 miles on it. He then drove it for a while before hitting a tree with it and crunching the front right corner. Jon, Brent, myself, and Stevie got a 1989 Red Olds of the same model and took the front panels off as well as cutting the front right corner off both cars (frame) and welding the good one onto the Gold car - so if you pop the hood you can see a Gold frame become a red frame hahaha. Well after a while Stevie sold the car to Jon for 1 case of cheep beer and a steak dinner. Jon sold the car to his friend Ernie for 2 cases of cheap beer, and Ernie sold the car to me for 2 cases of cheap beer last summer.

Since then the car has gotten chinese snow tires, a new steering rack ($80), a new master cylinder ($30), and a few other things. The lower sides are painted with cheap black truck bed liner to prevent rust, and there is an AZ motorcycle license plate bondo'd to the passenger front door on the bottom covering a rust hole. There is a toggle switch on the dash to turn on the cooling fan. She's.... a classic. =p

So the other day when I realized she's gonna stay with me a while longer, I changed the oil, oil filer, and spark plugs. The car flexed slightly on jack stands and now the hood won't close completely.

Solution? Pad Lock. 0.o

It would have been better spent in the middle but the front nose is fiberglass and I was worried about it pulling loose. So its currently on the passenger side. I have taken it out on the highway for a field test and discovered that it needs a second padlock on the drivers side which will be a tomorrow or later today project. I put down a strip of gorilla tape where I was going to mount to save the paint and prevent rust from the screw holes.

The Car by the way is named "Rudy" due to it's Red Nose.


Another quick project of the day was the steering wheel.


You see a few days ago the rubber nice little fake leather looking cover simply fell off. On the bright side the horn works now all the time. But besides being ugly (which I don't really care about) that little metal strip rattles. Now the instant thought is remove the strip, but you see... thats what activates the horn when you push on it.

So we come back to my standard fix for anything... Gorilla tape. It doesn't look too bad, it has fixed the rattle, and it gave me a way to put the Olds badge back on.

And of course the horn still works!

In other news for the few gay people who actually scan this.. (shuddup Brent, I know you aren't one of them) here is someone delightful to look at, and he's 19!

-
-
-
Mom just came in and grilled me about my doctors and my pain levels and my medications, and all of that, kinda shot a solid hole in my good mood which wasn't all that strong to begin with. *sigh*

Sidecar, Norton

So I wrote to Jay Giese at Dauntless Sidecar asking him about an idea I had to mount the sidecar, and what I should do. I sent along this picture demonstrating my current idea, and asking him if he thought the bracket might hold under the stress of riding the sidecar rig, it was a longshot, but worth a try.


This was his reply:

John,
Do not use the lower rear mount how you have it set up. It will fail.
What we would do for the lower rear mount if it was in our shop is to
build a sub frame. The sub frame would attach to the center stand mounts,
go under the exhaust pipe and also attach where you have the ball now
mounted. This would put the ball under the exhaust pipes as far back as
you now have it but would be much stronger.

A frame clamp should work on the upper front just down a bit on the tube.
Rarely will we weld on a mount, usually only if the bike has been welded
on before however this is a less expensive way to get your upper mounts.
We will not sell just the body. We really want people to see the overall
quality of our product and as such really need to control all aspects of
the final product.

Jay Giese

So I got to thinking about using the center stand mount and thought well I could find some steel bar the same diameter as the frame and then another that would fit through the center stand mounts. I could connect them at a 90 degree angle with a solid bolt. THEN I could run another bracket up to the mount that I had been using before. I could then Take it together to a local shop and have it all welded together so that it was strong and had no chance of randomly coming apart from vibrations.

Well then I glanced over and remembered the front frame rail that the fellow who sold me the chassis had handed me that has a mounting ball on it already, and this frame rail has through holes for mounting the engine in the bike... and I thought for a few moments and this is what I came up with:


THAT is not Quite what Jay recommended but it will work, and it will work well. So what I'll do is get a Die the right size for that bar that I have and I will thread it in the right places, then I can run a bolt down on either end so that it will mount to the center stand brackets.

This is actually a bit more involved than I just made it out to be. What I'll have to do is:

First I'll have to cut down the frame rail so that it ends in the back just beyond the ball mount, and I'll have to cut it down in the front so it doesn't interfere with the brake pedal - so just after the brackets where the mounting hole is drilled.

Then thread the whole rod (cut to the length I need). Then I will slide it through the center stand holes and run a nut on the end to fix the far position. Then I'll run another nut down to clamp it to the center stand outside brackets. Then there will be another nut run down to where I want the frame rail to be fixed on the inside side of the bike, slide the frame rail up against THAT and then run one last nut down to clamp it in position. That way it won't Shift at ALL.

The next step will be to make a bracket to go to the foot peg mount, which will be a bit of 1/4" x 1" flat steel that I have, maybe 5" long. and I'll clamp it down really tight to my frame rail section so that it won't wiggle.

Then I can take it off and bring it to Worcester City Welding, I will leave it all together except for the outer Nut that clamps it to the far side of the center stand mounts. I will then have them weld the nuts in place so that nothing can move, as well as to weld caps on the ends of the pipe so that it's not open to weather. I can then paint the whole thing a nice shiny black, and behold I have a poor man's subframe. The whole thing should cost about $50 between the die and the welding.


========Norton 750 Atlas=========


That is my father (you know this) in a field at Nelson's Ledges in Ohio around 1971 drinking beer in a Triumph t-shirt standing with his 1967 Norton Atlas, which he bought new when he was 21 (in 1968). I still have it, but it's fallen on hard times, the engine needs totally rebuilt, and I even considered selling it for a long time, which was a HARD choice to make, because quite frankly it is the bike I have loved more deeply than any other since I was 7 years old, which is actually when dad told me I could have it.

I used to go out to the garage from the age of 8 until he died and sit on it and pretend that I was riding it, pretend I was a racer, or pretend I was Steve McQueen in the Great Escape (Yes I know that was a Triumph). But you know what I mean.

It's also the bike I always associated with Dad, my Hero. So to me it is the champion, it is the Unapproachable Norton! I have had two 73 Triumph 750s, I have yet to ride a Norton, the Atlas my dream bike, 38 bikes in 5ish years and no running Norton! What the hell?

So I have decided again to restore, to Resurrect the Norton. I'm not going to be stupid about it, but I am going to do it right. There is a Lot that needs to be done, and yet not really very much at all.

These are simple projects that require mechanical skill. Norvil in England makes every part you need to build a new Norton, and even sell (in England) brand new Norton's like this one for example is a 2009 Norton Dominator 600:



AND THIS is a restored 1967 Norton Atlas, ie, Dad's bike (but not):


That is more or less the dream as it were. To go back to that. And I have a lot still. I have the frame, gearbox, main engine parts, fenders, forks, a wheel, gearbox, seat, oil tank, gauges....

So Norvil sell's these "Kits" take this one for example, the bottom end rebuild kit:


That kit as you can see (even if you don't understand) includes all the parts that I need to completely rebuild the bottom end so that I can re-fit the crank shaft in the cases. Next would be to put the Timing side back together so that I can seal up that case. Then I would get new pistons and rings and install them and re-mount the barrel and the pushrods. Next is the top end kit, which is basically new valves and head bolts. After that the main engine is back together again. I'm replacing the Magneto with a Boyer Electronic Ignition kit. She'll get a new alternator as the original is hammered and ancient by all rights for what it is.

I plan on splurging and getting a belt drive kit.

When it comes down to it its not too extravagant when you cost out getting a new clutch or rebuilding one, plus the chain, sprockets, oil seals, etc. The Belt Drive doesn't actually NEED oil, it just needs vents so it can breathe.

Gearbox needs rebuilt, then I'll have a functioning powerplant. The forks have already been rebuilt, I have head pipes and mufflers, tank, seat, oil tank... I'll need a new rear wheel though, and possible a new front wheel.

The company Grimeca makes great drum brakes, and has been doing so forever.


So I can either buy new Grimeca wheels or I can watch E-bay for Norton wheels that may need rebuilt. I think she'll get a new rear wheel for sure, and then I'm not sure on the front.

My goal is to have the bike finished in 4-5 years. Then I can probably give the KZ1000 back to Balducci and just ride the Norton year round, which would actually be a better suited machine for winter riding, and actually has an even better suited frame for it than the KZ.

At any rate, there is my long overdue LONG motorcycle talk.