RC77: Chapter 5 Flipping the switch. 作るきっかけ

Everyday with this kid.....

 Summer wrapping

 I can't get enough of this old photo of my mom.

This was the Triumph my dad sold to buy her ring.

 Steer Inn on the Crocker's wheelie popper.

 Hutch shot.  I can't wait to ride this again.

 Cheeks.

 Took some of my old students to Japan.

Kinkakuji in the back.

 Horizontal engine Honda policewoman.  

 Shirobai.

The most feared of all police.  

Nobody gets away.

 Midohio missed but dream bike secured.  

Good times in Ohio.

 Florida vacation!

Kisses from grandpa.

 I think this was the last Hutch ride on the shadow.  

Central Indiana no-where without a care.

 Kentucky kick down with the Crockers.
His head is so much bigger now!

 This may be what lit the fire under me to start the cb77 build up again.  

A running/riding cb77 for sale at Martinsville swap meet.

Super high miles, no rebuild.  

Sounded so good....got me dreaming....

 Seriously.  

This kid.

Love.

 Bought him a chair.

He likes the CL77 roller.

Stoked!

When I was studying in Japan in 2001, my Mom and Dad came to visit for a few days and stayed out in the countryside for a while and Tokyo for a couple days also.  I remember it was cherry blossom season, the only one I have ever been able to experience, so it must have been March.  My dad was always looking for something new to experience.  It could have been a new travel destination, hobby, license, or just a new tool to play with.  He of course loved tools.  One thing I will never forget about their visit to Japan was when dad and I went and played Pachinko near their hotel off the JR Sugamo station.  We were both new to it so he bought us both 500 yen worth of metal balls and we went at it.  I think dad lost his in only a few minutes but for some reason, no matter how little I tried, I kept winning.  I remember being so over it I tried to get some random person to take my earnings and finish playing but they of course denied me and instead cheered me on.  I am not sure how long we ended up staying but in the end I won about 80 dollars (8000 yen) from the 500 and traded it in for  Kangol boxers, Penguin socks, and a bottled water.  I kept the boxers for years even though they had holes and I didn't wear them.  I let go of them but only because I knew I still have the socks.....no holes yet but I only pull them out for special occasions.  

RC77: Chapter 4 Family.

<--love-->

Florida Fam. represent!  Jane looking good in the motorcycle den.

This will be a picture to replicate at some point.  Atlas looks so confused.

Honda Z600.

This is probably going to be too rusty to get on the road.  Picking it up was a journey.  Matt and I to Ft. Wayne.  Figuring out this crazy trailer.  Dragging this green mass onto the trailer.....

Dad was a lot more excited about me buying this car than he ever had been about my vintage motorcycle purchases.  He and his brother had been fixing up cars for fun and I was looking forward to watching him get excited about it......That was a big part of the excitement.  In the end he didn't even get to see it in person.  The conversation we had that weekend while trying to get the trailer hooked up was one of the last times we spoke at length, and probably the last time he ever taught me how to do something.  It's hard to believe it has been almost a year.

I was looking forward to leaving Atlas with grandpa for adventure time as he grew up.  It's hard to believe that this was the last time they saw each other.  It makes my role as his role as his father that much more difficult knowing I will never be able to call my dad for advice.  

Love at first cuddle.

I love you, pops.

I I had to include this one too.  Grandpa and great grandson.  Looks like Atlas is about to box.

Tell your parents you love them tonight.  

RC77: Chapter 3 Allergies, Atlas, and my dad on the baby dream

The RC77 stayed in my garage for a few months unchanged while everything else took me for a ride.

It's 20 degrees and snowing for the first real string of day this winter.

I don't feel like going out in the cold or even heating up the workshop tonight.

Engine work.

I rebuilt the cb160 engine for the race bike.  Matt did all the porting for me!

I hurt my spleen skateboarding and later found out I had Hairy Cell Leukemia.

This is from the bone aspiration.  In other words, that is a piece of bone they sucked out of me.

Don't ever do this.

Atlas Haruki was born.  

Best thing ever.  Duh.

I have so many pictures.  

Check out this for his first hundred days.-->

http://100daysofatlas.blogspot.com/2014/11/day-1.html

And a picture of part of the daily regiment from about a year ago.  Still going strong though a lot has changed.

I don't have many pictures of my Dad with Atlas.  This is one of my favorites.

Current status?  

Allergies

On Monday or Tuesday every I have been going up north to get allergy treatments done.  One of the initial blood tests done over a year ago revealed that my body is under a lot of stress from allergies from numerous sources.  More specific testing revealed that I was mildly allergic to just about everything I eat on a daily basis, which was alarming at first, but I later found out that this usually means you have a "leaky gut" condition.  My food allergies alone couldn't come close to counting for my total number though.  Some foods that popped up I haven't eaten since I changed to a vegan diet over 15 years ago. The other major players in my allergy profile were trees and weeds but mainly grasses.  My naturopath told me to find a NAET practitioner but I put it off for a few months (many months) hoping that with all the other treatments I was doing it would go down.....and at that time I was in a lot of pain from my spleen and still overwhelmed by everything.

NAET

NAET stands for Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Techniques.  If you want more information on it---> https://www.naet.com

In short it is a mix of computer diagnostics and muscle testing to determine what and how allergic (sensitive) you are to different substances and then treat it using acupressure points and the actual substances in question.  When I finally went in for my initial appointment a few months back, the diagnostic showed I was allergic to many foods, grasses, eggs, etc. --> similar but not exactly the same as the blood test from almost a year earlier.  Every time I go in for treatment my body reacts pretty well-->usually my lymph system swells up and my spleen and liver have even felt like there were processing the treatments.  They even have specialized treatments for my Leukemia and the CD20 antigen that my body is having difficulty with.  I have a couple more weeks of treatments then I will do the diagnostic again.  We do muscle testing weekly and this always turn out strong so my hope is that I have eliminated much of what was on my report and my body will be able to bounce back quicker (build more platelets, white bloods cells, neutrophils, hemoglobin, etc) so I the IV treatments I do every Thursday will be more effective.  Also, in February I am going to get the allergy testing with my blood done again to see if my overall number has decreased.  My initial IgE numbers in November of 2014 were 335 -->anything over 87 is considered high.  A few month ago, before I began NAET treatments, it cam back over 400...... so obviously I started treatment right away.  I can't wait to be done with this one extra thing to do every week....I just want to be home hanging with the family.

RC305: Chapter 2. What was I thinking?

   I dug deep into the Iphone archives to figure out what I was thinking about doing over the last few years with this bike.  

Fooling around, pulling the engine.

I think around this time I was still playing with the CB160 engine and did this while waiting for parts.

It wasn't always going to have a stretched swing arm and 5 degree rake.....  I was obsessed with the GN400 gold snowflake rims for a while and thought about putting them on the cb77 but in the end I just didn't want another little short frame bobber that bounced all over the road because it was too light.  I am sure there is a way it could be done but I decided to let them go of the idea in the end....and the rims as well.  Thanks Joe!  I may still use this xl70 tank in this picture but was hoping to have a little more range....

I stumbled upon tons of bike related photos from the last couple years too.  

Hutch, Nate, and the pony.

Zac battling the roach

I convinced Kuramo to take a noise spin.  Bosozoku!

The first bike my dad ever bought us (I had to use the fence to climb on and kick start it!) was an old KLR dirt bike for the yard and trails.  I can't remember that much about it because I was way to short to ride it...mainly for my older brother.  I think he got rid of it after only a short time.  I am sure my parents just figured that the 4-wheelers were safer.....

Dad loved taking us to Max Pitts when we were little so he could dream about purchasing a new motorcycle.  He may have been a salesman's worst nightmare though.  I remember we would spend so long looking at multiple bikes and he would ask all the right questions that make someone think he was truly considering purchasing his next motorized toy with them.....

One time in particular he talked about looking at a Honda Magna on the way there, and actually I think this time we went to Ehlerding motorsports in Fort Wayne.  Once we got there he played his game with the salesman, sat on all the different sizes, compared all the features, and then was debating whether or not to get the smaller or larger model.  Although I had no idea what size they were at the time, my guess is that he was debating between the 750 and the 1100 models.  This time he even had ME convinced he was going to buy one!  I even offered my advise, which was to purchase the smaller model since it wasn't as expensive and he didn't need to go that fast.  I distinctly remember what the salesman said though - a larger displacement engine would allow my dad to get out of the way faster if someone was being reckless, and you can't put a price on life.  In the end, we didn't take anything home.  My memory isn't super clear but I am pretty sure he took the "I need to run it by my wife first," route for an excuse.  I miss going shopping with dad, sometimes he surprised us and actually bought whatever he was looking at, especially as we got older.  

Atlas may never experience that with me since newer bikes aren't really my thing but at least he gets to do this while I am working on mine.

Honda CB77 Digger RC Digger

Four or five years ago I started falling in love with the 60's Honda sloper engines.  Up until and during this time I mainly worked with twin and single Hondas from the late 60's or 70's like CB/CL 350's, CB360's, CB450's, XL250/350's, etc....  

With CB/CL/CA77's, and their baby brother 160's and 175's, unlike the later model vertical Honda twins, parts are a little harder to find.....and a lot more expensive.  Engines are not quite as bullet proof either.  It's almost like Honda figured out everything with the 350 engines, which you can find pretty easily and they usually don't have much wrong with them. Not the case with these 305's....

Like the sloper 160's and 175's, however, people in countries all over the world use them as a base for vintage racing and so as long as you have a little bit of money laying around, and some mechanical ability, you can make an engine even faster and more fun that when they rolled off the line 50+ years ago.  Or at least that is the idea.....

This beauty was picked up, kind of by accident, when a friend and I went to see a bunch of bikes.  I ended up taking this long left for dead CB77 ??chopper?? wth a screwy title for $150.  8 over CB450 front end, Ape hangers, twisted chrome kickstand.....I wish I could have seen the tank that was on it.  Needless to say, it has been in the back of my mind for the last few years during other builds, flips, and restorations.  

Life threw me a few curves in 2014 and 2015 and since I can't really afford to get into a new build or search for other bikes I decided to use the parts I have laying around, sell my projects, and use the money to turn this into something ridable and fun and maybe learn a few things along the way. 

The goal is to have it road ready by the April Fuels ride this year.  If I can afford it, after the ride I would like to tear it down, paint it, and maybe even rebuild an engine with some special parts and even try to take it to a show somewhere.

None of us are promised tomorrow.

It's hard to tell how many more of these I have in me.

So I thought I should document the process just in case......

Shortly after we grabbed it, it spent some time in a storage space.

One with the engine out of it after it sat outside covered for a couple years...engine now stuck.

I don't think bikes necessarily need to have names.

Maybe this one will get a nickname with an RC in it though.  

My dad passed away about a year ago and his nickname at work was RC.  (Roland Charles Fritts)  The last motorcycle my dad built was a 650 Bonneville that he sold to pay for my mom's engagement ring a long long time ago.  Even though the odds were not in my favor, while he was alive I always hoped I would run across it on craigslist or through one of his old friends or brother and we would be able to getting it running again together........

  My dad was a fixer.  

Everything that I know, or at least the belief that I can achieve anything, came from watching my father.  Having the time to figure out everything that goes into building an old British bike that doesn't leak all over the place and fund it, though, are just not my reality right now.  So although my dream was to build one of these up, my dad did once tell me that he took a trip with a friend on 305's so I think he would approve of this...........  

I hope to post a couple updates a week.  In the off chance you are only interested in checking this because of a certain amazing toddler in my life,  don't worry, I am sure Atlas will make a few guest appearances too.