British dirtbags

Some local history...

This is an old ad from a 1964 issue of Cylce Magazine for BMW with dealer Hank Sleger featured in it.  He ran a dealership for years and years in North Jersey, selling lots of European bikes, and later became partners with Malcolm Forbes.  Hank's son Ed took over the business and sold bikes for many years.  In fact my '71 BSA B50 MX that was given to me by a family friend that raced bikes, actually raced them with Ed, who lives a half a mile down the road from me.  It's kind of neat to know the history of an old bike from when it was new, and see where it winds up.  The guy that gave me the BSA was a good friend of my grandfather's for many years.  He told me not that long ago he threw out a bunch of old pictures of him at the scrambles with the bike back in the early 70's.  He didn't think anyone would be interested in seeing them so he tossed them.  Fuck I probably would of put the them in frames and hung them in my garage!

Garage Sale scores from this morning...

Paid 8 bucks for all, in really nice shape.  The Rolling Stones High Tide is a mono pressing  I already have all of them but two, but for a buck a piece you buy them anyway.  Good for trading or selling later.

MC5 apprecition post.

BROTHERS AND SISTERS I WANNA TELL YOU SOMETHING.
I HEAR A LOTTA TALK, BY A LOTTA HONKIES, SITTIN' ON A LOTTA MONEY, TELLIN' ME THEY'RE HIGH SOCIETY. 

WELL YOU KNOW WHAT? 

THIS IS THE HIGH SOCIETY MAN!!! THIS IS THE HIGH SOCIETY!!!

Garage Update

Got a lot done in my garage the past week.  Threw out a bunch more shit I didn't need anymore, rearranged some things, hung another 4ft fluorescent light on the ceiling, bought a new bench grinder, hung up some posters and things I never had  a place to hang up before, and so on. 

Last Friday I snagged these two vintage KLH speakers at the Salvation Army for ten bucks.  They weigh a ton and sound great.  The receiver I already had, but didn't have speakers for, so I was psyched to find those KLHs. 

Cleaned my new to me vise up and hit it with a coat of Rustoleum.  I like vises with color on them. I think it makes things easier to see when you're working on them, due to the contrast between the vise and the part itself.  Unless you are working on a red part I guess.

That's a parking block I single handily "borrowed" from the parking lock of a park down the street this past winter by myself.  Fucker is heavy!.  There was a bunch of them pushed off to the side covered in moss and dirt.  I salvaged one, took it home, wire wheeled it and threw like four coats of yellow tractor paint on it to get it smooth.  I can boardslide the entire thing, and do a half ass axle stall on it, but that's about it.  My goal is to slappy it by the end of summer.  I'm old so cut me a break. 

Still need to get an air compressor, and drill press would be nice too.  but as of now it's much nicer to work in then it ever was before.  Good enough to skate in too.

Father's Day

I'm one lucky scumbag.  My daughter is 5 now and I honestly don't know where the time goes.  Trying to savor every bit of it, but it goes by fast.

The Warlocks

Another one of my favorites.  Really trippy and dark.

H.S.T.

I read this book every summer and it never gets old.  It had to have taken some serious guts to write it.  For real. 

Representing NJ for a time.

Trying to sort my garage out...

Redoing my garage.  Goal is to make it a functional space to work on my bike or whatever project I've got going on.  I'm a mechanic at a golf course so most of my good tools, welders, and so forth are at the shop at work. I still have a lot of tools at home, just never a practical or comfortable space to work.  It's been kind of fun setting things up from scratch.

Built a new workbench to accompany the old one I had.  I like a high work bench.  Also hung my wrenches for easy access.

Redoing my garage.  Goal is to make it a functional space to work on my bike or whatever project I've got going on.  I'm a mechanic at a golf course so most of my good tools, welders, and so forth are at the shop at work. I still have a lot of tools at home, just never a practical or comfortable space to work.  It's been kind of fun setting things up from scratch.

Still getting shit organized.

Where I'm currently at.  Still got some work to do for sure.

Today's flea market scores.

Flea market was pretty good this morning!  Picked up a few cool things and only spent $50 bucks.

Found Empire and Jedi Burger King/Coca Cola promo glasses.  I've had the New Hope glass for years, now my set is complete.

Nice heavy old American made vice, $40 bucks!

Old Army Corps of Engineers topographical map of the Barneget Bay area.  My grandfather had a house in Waretown for 20 years and I've got a lot of fond memories as a kid going down there.  He was into fishing and had all sorts of nautical charts hanging in his shop, so this brings back memories.  $5 bucks!  I was psyched to find this!

Totally underrated Iommi riff. Sabotage is an underrated record.

I'm looking through a hole in the sky
I'm seeing nowhere through the eyes of a lie
I'm getting closer to the end of the line
I'm living easy where the sun doesn't shine

I'm living in a room without any view
I'm living free because the rent's never due
The synonyms of all the things that I've said
Are just the riddles that are built in my head

Hole in the sky, take me to heaven
Window in time, through it I fly

I've seen the stars disappear in the sun
The shooting's easy if you've got the right gun
And even though I'm sitting waiting for Mars
I don't believe there's any future in cause

Hole in the sky, take me to heaven
Window in time, through it I fly
Yeah

Kelly Leak

Shortened Triumph T140 rear fender

Before the whole melted wiring harness debacle, I had ordered a smaller Lucas style tail light and a Biltwell license plate bracket from Lowbrow Customs.  I've been wanting to shorten the rear fender on my bike and get rid of the original tail light assembly and make things a little less obtrusive.  I already had bought a spare stock T140 chrome fender to keep on hand in case I ever wanted to go back to stock.  The spare fender is actually nicer then the one I cut.  I didn't want to change anything without being able to go back to stock if I ever decided to. Finally got the time to do it on Saturday and this is what I came up with. 

The Biltwell bracket I got from Lowbrow

Trimmed it to match the contour of the tail light with a jigsaw and metal blade

 

Not bad!

Mocked up with zip ties.  Blue tape so I could cut more cleanly once I got my lines I wanted.

Didn't get any pics of the cut before I put the bracket on but you can see it in the background of this pic.  I welded a bolt and L bracket to the back of the license plate bracket to mount it.  The bolt uses an existing hole in the fender.

Hit it with some primer and rattle canned it semi gloss black and mounted it and wired it up.

 

I brought the rear turn signals in closer to narrow things up.  They stuck out to far with the new light.  Some aluminum bushings I drilled out and cut so I didn't have to permanently modify the stock brackets.

done

Before

After

 

 

 

I'm pretty pleased with it, makes the bike look a little bit more aggressive for lack of a better word.  Now I might find some clubman bars or Norman Hyde "M" bars. 

Fucking unreal...