First Ride

After checking everything again and again, I took the latest cafe racer for the initial ride. Everything is great.
I need to install the passenger foot pegs and fabricate a license bracket and I can take the kids and Tami for a ride. I will put about 100 miles on it to make sure it is roadworthy and ready to sell. Then I will list it on Ebay.

CB750 Cafe Racer Ready to Ride

Another CB750 ready to ride. I hope its nice Saturday morning for the initial ride. Check the website early next week for some good photos. I know I built it, but I think this one looks great. I like the seat so much I will probably never use the seat cowl.





Custom Cafe Racer Seat

I had been wanting to do a custom cafe racer seat for two up riding on a recent build. I used the stock pan and cut the foam down quite a bit. I had a plan of how I wanted it to look but wasn't if it would turn out as good as I hoped.

I took it to a local  upholsterer Bob Snively and he finished it today. It turned out great. I am going to pick up the tank and sidecovers tomorrow, and it will be ready for a show on Saturday.

Red French Stitch

Black Leather

 Link to Bob Snivelys' website. http://www.rasnivelydesigns.com/

Suzuki S32, let the build begin

I have two projects almost complete and I will start on the next two this week. The Suzuki S32 that Noah will be heavily involved in is next up. Earlier we got it running and have picked up a few parts since, so I think it is time to get the ball rolling. We hope to have it ready for Mid Ohio vintage days. We will post some photos along the way.

Easter Sunday

Spent the day with my family.  We went to church, hunted Easter eggs, then watched Source Code.
A great Sunday.

Another CB750 lives again

The Honda CB750K series never ceases to amaze me. I find these old bikes, in barns, garages, setting outside neglected and unridden for years. I always tear down the engine and check everything out, new gaskets, check the valves and install new seals, but I am always a little nervous when I get ready to start the engine.
Today I finished another one. I hit the starter button and it fired right up, like it just ran yesterday. I need to finish up the minor details and I will be ready to take it for a ride.

Rainy Day Shop Work

Today was a good day at the shop. I got quite a bit done, and had several friends stop by the shop. Mark just about finished a 1980 TS100 for his son to ride this summer. I made some braided stainless steel oil lines for CB750s and did some wiring on one of my projects. All in all a great day even if it rained.

Honda CB750 Carbs

I had some carbs I needed to put in the ultrasonic cleaner and a gas tank to seal. I like cleaning and rebuilding the carbs on my project bikes, because they start out neglected and crusty. Then after some time in the cleaner and some polishing they look better than new.

Not bad for 37 year old carbs

Tour of the U. S. Capital Building



Entrance to the tunnel back to the Cannon House Building

 Indiana 6th District Congressman Mike Pence had Tom from his office give us a tour of the Capital Building on Friday. Tom is from Columbus IN and gave us a great tour. He told us some interesting things I had never heard about the Capital Building. We finished it off by a visit to the House Gallery.
We also went to the Smithsonian American History Building. Rebecca did a project about Julia Childs, and the Smithsonian has her kitchen on display. We also saw Archie and Edith Bunkers chairs,and some other cool stuff from television, movies and day to day life in the US.
I would like to go back in the winter when it isn't as crowded and spend 4 or 5 more days seeing all the sites.

Washington DC and History

We spent the day in DC checking out the sites.



Made in California



Made in Indiana

 The historic part is the possible shut down of the government or at the least the non essential stuff. Glad we decided to do this now and not over the weekend, since it is possible that some of the museums and galleries might be closed.

P.S. The lamb was born happy and healthy early this morning.

Pontiacs and Sheep

Tami and I have 5 kids. My friends Ryan and Beth also have 5 kids. Believe me they keep us busy.Then they become teenagers and the work doubles. We are alway taking them somewhere or fixing something for them. Yesterday we took on another job, we swapped the engine in their daughters Grand Am.  We left the shop at 11 PM after starting at 8 AM mission accomplished.
This all began about 5 months ago, when someone drove the car about 15 miles with no water in the engine.( A teenager from Ryan and Beths herd). How this happened was not explained to me. The first time I heard about was when Ryan said he needed me, my truck and a tow strap to meet me at the Hagerstown exit of I-70.

After some throwing of tools and ranting (Ryan) and wondering if the engine we picked up at the local junk yard would actually run (Me), it does.  I now know why I don't work on cars for a living. They are nearly impossible to work on. This said, this is the type of thing you do for friends and family.

I left for Washington DC this morning after about 5 hours of sleep, I thought I was tired until  I called Ryan to see if he was going to the shop. He said probably later, he needed to take a shower and get some rest, he hadn't been to bed yet. He had been in the barn all night with some of their sheep that were having trouble giving birth.

Now that is a full day....

The Endless Winter

A couple of weeks ago, I thought winter was almost over. I was wrong. Then this weekend it began to warm up. I went to the shop early Sunday morning to try to get something done on a Cafe Racer project. I was inside for a few hours and then went outside and couldn't believe it was 70 degrees, although very windy. I had heard a few motorcycles outside, but had no idea it was 70 outside.
I did get quite a bit done, and I need to set some time aside and finish this project. Last year I built the blue Honda 750 cafe racer in less than 5 weeks, but I was able to work on it nearly every day and all through the weekends.
Another sign that summer is coming is a few guys I know got their dirt bikes out and went riding yesterday. Lee stopped by the shop and said he is just about done going through his Honda CRF450 and reminded me to get some new riding boots and a few other things I have been threatening to buy.
Then this morning there was more talk of riding yesterday.

Yep its official. Winter is over. Time to ride.