No more eating out

more ebay shopping.

I get surprises at my door more often than I used to. More time to think, more time to dream.

This is what I got today.

The most beautiful blue tank from a 60's honda cl160. This has the perfect amout of scratches, dents, and rust. I couldn't paint a more interesting tank so I plan use it just like this (the inside will be cleaned of course). The petcock looks like its going to give me some trouble though...... Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, right? Those cracked rubber side panels are so good..

I was checking out the rust inside and noticed it came with an extra surprise! Still stuck to the inside/top of the tank. Put a lid on that boi, I'm allergic to them thangs....
It is almost spring and with the trail behind my house and a new pup to ride with, I have to be ready. The plan is to rebuild the bike I inherited from my brother that I road around Bloomington for 4 years. It needs some tune up I guess. First time working on a pedal powered bike (besides a flat tire or two). Didn't you hear? 700c coaster brake is the new fixie. I hope not....speaking of that......I have a fixie for sale. Flat black, rides good, flip-flop hub, bought it new a couple years ago and just rode it to Broadripple and back. Hit me up if your into that sort of thing.

piling up

bitten off corners of freezer bags, bellybutton lint, what am I supposed to do with this stuff now?

kick?

I have always kind of wondered what one of these would look like on my bikes....

Pictures look okay but look up close and you will see they are poorly crafted..... oh well. It is going to get modified anyway.

Cooler in the summer, warmer than the garage in the winter. If i can't build a new garage soon, my basement will just have to become one.

模様アップデート

Here she is. I have her on a new food and potty schedule. She is showing improvement with bathroom habits but unfortunately she still loves to do whatever she wants while i'm at school....when i can't do anything about it....arg....

She jumped out of the fence today again but this time hurt herself. I have to cover it at night too i guess.....

We (she) ran over two miles on the monon today. (I was on the zipzinger) She is so tired!

She was nipping at my right calf while we were riding today (only a few times) I guess she must be a little scared.....?

Nosy nosy..
pleasestopwiththeflashdad!

Cookies!

It's been a minute since I've made cookies.

Here are some rules I always follow.

First, get a really good recipe that works when someone you know has made them.

Next add things to make it "healthy" (substitute whole wheat flour for some of the white,etc)

Next add the walnuts that have been in the fridge for longer than you can remember.

Next add way to much of one of the wet ingredients so the cookies will be way too smooshy and probably burn.

Next add other random stuff from your cupboard- flax seeds, almond butter...

Okay. Now put them in the oven, over bake them and eat enough before you go to bed to get a stomachache.

Yes! You win!

Rewiring Ben's cb500

Headed over to Ben's house to re-wire his bike which used to be Brett's bike and before that Justin's........I feel like I have been helping out with this bike for years....... these old Hondas never die! I was there from about 8 to 3 Saturday morning. Special thanks to Grant for all the skate video distraction and Ben for listening to my endless psycho-babble about whatever was on my mind at the time. Please never take me seriously or you might end up like me........

It was really fun. Being a high school teacher I see and hear my share of messed up sketchy crap. It was nice to spend an afternoon with a family and some kids that have their business together.

Grant spent the night apparently and hung out in the garage, later joined by Frownie. Candy, donuts and mountain dew from 8 till three.......must be nice to be a teenager again. I had my tea and a fruit smoothie.

My hands hurt after a few hours of this, do they make more comfortable tools for stripping and clamping wire? ..........nice beard.......　

I ran all new wiring throughout, kick only setup. The new regulator/rectifier combo made things much easier. I didn't finish the headlight and the turn signals were not installed and i didn't have a winker so they didn't get wired in. Bike starts and idles fine. Hopefully the charging system won't have any troubles.
This was our main heat source. It actually worked amazing. Make a mental note......
Brookes is the pug that lives here. I have a soft side for pugs.........bonzai where you at?
And of course my little lady was curled up on my coat in front of the heater most of the time. She also got to hang out with the family for a while! Thanks! Her and Brookes might have exchanged numbers...... Brookey boy rockin' the cradle.... Better watch out, Georgie might track you down....he's part pit.....

また模様だぞ！

いよいよ模様マニア

We went to the skatepark and chased geese, explored the bmx course and spent most of the day in my garage and back yard. She has had back to back busy days! I hope she lets me sleep till 530 tonight.........

I made this bed for her out of a round pillow cover I bought on mejiro douri in Tokyo about....8 years ago. See, I knew it would come in handy!

more もよう

moyou (pronounced mo yo-!) orもよう（模様)

she will go up to the third step but that is her limit. When she makes it there she finds herself in a bit of a dilemma and then yelped helplessly for a few minutes. She cannot do stairs over 3.

Thank you Maggie! Moyou got hooked up with some hot threads. I am used to Mozzy who would never let me put anything on him. She loves it!
Modeling the new threads
"Thanks dad for hanging out with me all day."

"No, thank you Moyou for being such a well behaved young lady."

Moyou is so sweet!

模様

my day was better than yours

雪＋氷＋雨＝どこにも行けない

Udon4life just didn't sound right but I don't discriminate.

My roommates. a few months later.

Forks

I have been putting off doing this for as long as I can remember. Watched Rick do it and hate his life, then Tim....... At the end of the season my CL started leaking fluid. It was one of the two things I didn't go through when I built that bike because it was fine at the time and I knew I wanted to shorten them but not how much... blah blah blah I didn't do it...... Now I have a new project bike and the forks from this donor bike are also leaking so I decided to use this snow day from school (forth in a row...i am going to hate June) to not only rebuild but shorten them by 1.25 inches to match the height of the CL. I will take the forks currently on the CL off next and shorten and rebuild them for my new project as soon as I get the rear end completely figured out. .. . . . ANYWAY...here are some pictures.

Kitchen table cleared off and covered. Drained forks on the chopping block.

Removed the circlip, old fork seals and bottom bolt. I struggled with the old fork seals until I found a 1 inch diameter pvc tube that popped them right off.
A lot happened between the last picture and now. I went to cyclerecycle for advice from Rob and finally decided to cut off the top of the rod about 1.25 inches, then rethread it (7mm 1.0). Then I used a vice to get the top cap off of it. I also ended up cutting the springs down almost and inch on each side. I wanted more load from the springs in the front since my travel went from about 3 inches to 1.75. The picture below is everything cleaned and ready for re-assembly.
New fork seals were not as bad to get in as I thought they would be. I used the old ones to slowly guide them in with a mallet. Locktite in all the appropriate spots. Specs call for about between 5.8 and 6.5 ounces of fork oil. Keeping in mind that there is less space for the oil to hang out in because I shortened things up, I added 5.5 ounces.

The main thing I did not do was add the locknut under the cap. Space was tight and I don't think it will cause any problems. I will keep the locknuts aside just in case I need them later....

Thanks to Rob at cyclerecycle (http://crc2onlinecatalog.com/) for the advice. No thanks to the 19mm open end wrench that decided it wanted to be a 20mm wrench while I was taking the cap off the second fork.

I have to do this to at least 1, probably 2 more sets of these in the next month or two. Not too bad but definitely a few hours worth of work.

Thanks!

Nick D. with the save. . . . . . .I have been putting this off for too long.

Time to get down to brass tax......and shortening my forks.. . .

Skateboarding

Is on again in Indy.

J-front 5-0

F frontside over G ollie fakie
Fisheye photo......

* Disclaimer about my skate photos- I don't put them up unless the trick was landed. I do the best taking these with what I have, don't have the fancy flashes etc. Plus, I don't even know what I'm doing. Thanks for trying and landing it so many times for me G and F.....

Honda 360T

If you know where I can get one of these, any condition, let me know.