Hawt Motorcycle Talk
Comments
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Having your house/shop/dildo collection burn down is a surreal experience, for sure. Nobody expects it to happen to them. At least it wasn't on my radar. In my case, it was my shop, about 20 feet away from the house. Which is a bummer, as I'd have much rather had the house burn down... If you haven't experienced a big fire and the aftermath (dealing with insurance and investigators and rebuilding), I found it to be really fascinating, and my fire in particular had a lot of funny elements (my wife's response to discovering the fire definitely had Yakety Sax playing as the backing track). Not gonna tell that story here, though, because it's longer than three sentences and that sort of thing doesn't fly... (@swaye, I believe I passed you a link to where you can read all about it if you want when were were talking Porsches.)Swaye said:If my garage burned down and took out the 85 Jeep Scrambler and the 911 I'd kill everything. Mostly for the 85 Scrambler. 911s are easily replaceable. Your Dad's prized Jeep you spent countless hours doing trails with him on is not replaceable for any amount of money. I'd fucking lose my shit. I hope you didn't have any heirloom grade stuff in the fire. That's awful.
Luckily, there's not much about my childhood to be sentimental about, and I'm a way more practical than sentimental person anyway, so nothing in the fire was irreplaceable. In fact, the fire gave me the motivation and opportunity to replace a decade and a half of random tools and toys collected over my adult life--from cheap, shitty tools that were all I could afford in college on up--with a more cohesive collection of tools and things that I'd buy now as a decently-paid adult. It also gave me the motivation and a little seed money to finally get off my ass and rebuild that shop into something much bigger and better, which I'd already planned on doing but things kept getting in the way. It was a five-year process...
Closest to a sentimental loss was a 1980 Yamaha MX80 that I found in a shipping container on my FIL's property while my wife and I were still dating. I drug it home, removed the rodent's nest from the airbox, replaced the carburetor, threw a new piston in it, cleaned out the tank, and it became my yard bike. It was my brother-in-law's bike when he was a kid, and it became the bike I'd ride my kids around on. It was the only thing I was really bummed about losing at first, but I replaced it shortly after the fire with a new KLX110, rode it one time, and changed my tune to, "Fuck that old Yamaha; this is WAY better!"
So, yeah, no killing spree from me. Ended up being a pretty positive event overall, and, getting back to the thread, allowed me to build yet another track bike, the experience gained from which I can pass on to @PurpleBaze! -
They Balla Twins had their place burn down a couple of times. I think each time they turned it into a go fund me grift.1to392831weretaken said:
Having your house/shop/dildo collection burn down is a surreal experience, for sure. Nobody expects it to happen to them. At least it wasn't on my radar. In my case, it was my shop, about 20 feet away from the house. Which is a bummer, as I'd have much rather had the house burn down... If you haven't experienced a big fire and the aftermath (dealing with insurance and investigators and rebuilding), I found it to be really fascinating, and my fire in particular had a lot of funny elements (my wife's response to discovering the fire definitely had Yakety Sax playing as the backing track). Not gonna tell that story here, though, because it's longer than three sentences and that sort of thing doesn't fly... (@swaye, I believe I passed you a link to where you can read all about it if you want when were were talking Porsches.)Swaye said:If my garage burned down and took out the 85 Jeep Scrambler and the 911 I'd kill everything. Mostly for the 85 Scrambler. 911s are easily replaceable. Your Dad's prized Jeep you spent countless hours doing trails with him on is not replaceable for any amount of money. I'd fucking lose my shit. I hope you didn't have any heirloom grade stuff in the fire. That's awful.
Luckily, there's not much about my childhood to be sentimental about, and I'm a way more practical than sentimental person anyway, so nothing in the fire was irreplaceable. In fact, the fire gave me the motivation and opportunity to replace a decade and a half of random tools and toys collected over my adult life--from cheap, shitty tools that were all I could afford in college on up--with a more cohesive collection of tools and things that I'd buy now as a decently-paid adult. It also gave me the motivation and a little seed money to finally get off my ass and rebuild that shop into something much bigger and better, which I'd already planned on doing but things kept getting in the way. It was a five-year process...
Closest to a sentimental loss was a 1980 Yamaha MX80 that I found in a shipping container on my FIL's property while my wife and I were still dating. I drug it home, removed the rodent's nest from the airbox, replaced the carburetor, threw a new piston in it, cleaned out the tank, and it became my yard bike. It was my brother-in-law's bike when he was a kid, and it became the bike I'd ride my kids around on. It was the only thing I was really bummed about losing at first, but I replaced it shortly after the fire with a new KLX110, rode it one time, and changed my tune to, "Fuck that old Yamaha; this is WAY better!"
So, yeah, no killing spree from me. Ended up being a pretty positive event overall, and, getting back to the thread, allowed me to build yet another track bike, the experience gained from which I can pass on to @PurpleBaze! -
I fancy myself as more of a motocross guy.
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That's funny. My YZ250FX is currently for sale, as I'm hanging it up in the dirt. Never been as good at it, so it's always turned into mostly me bench pressing my bike off of myself in the mountains. I've only ridden MX three times, and it's super fun but insanely tiring. No way am I fit enough for that at this point!MikeDamone said:I fancy myself as more of a motocross guy.
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The 250 dream race is today. Look it up1to392831weretaken said:
That's funny. My YZ250FX is currently for sale, as I'm hanging it up in the dirt. Never been as good at it, so it's always turned into mostly me bench pressing my bike off of myself in the mountains. I've only ridden MX three times, and it's super fun but insanely tiring. No way am I fit enough for that at this point!MikeDamone said:I fancy myself as more of a motocross guy.
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I went for a ride this afternoon and decided to swing by Ducati Redmond just to say hi. Turned out they had the remaining parts I'd been waiting for - Bar-end adapters for CRG Arrow mirrors, Futurismoto mirror block-off turn signals, and a pair of spacers for getting rid of the front tire reflectors.
Here's a before picture.
Here's what the bike looks like now.
Futurismoto tail tidy:
I don't have a big enough torx attachment for my ratchet to get the factory bar-ends off. So, the bar-end mirrors will have to wait until I go to the hardware store and get the appropriate torx.
This is what the bar-end mirrors look like.
So, here is the list of mods to the bike:
1) Passenger footpegs removed.
2) Rear seat removed and replaced with a cowl.
3) Clutch and brake levers replaced with Bonamici folding levers.
4) Rear plastic fender / license plate holder removed and replaced with Futurismoto tail tidy.
5) Stock mirrors removed and replaced with Futurismoto block-off turn signals.
6) Bike wrapped in XPEL paint protection.
It's really tempting to not install the mirrors. The bike looks way better without them. BUT, I actually do like using rear-view mirrors. Call me crazy. -
Nice work! As long as the bars don't vibrate too much, the bar-end mirrors give you a view of something other than your shoulder, too.
Already sexted you most of this, but in case anybody else is interested, my current project currently looks like this:
It's a Yamaha TT500 from the '70s, and a buddy of mine wants to build it into a flat tracker for the One Show in Portland. No way we'll make it for the upcoming show, but shouldn't have a problem with 2024. So far, the engine is rebuilt and a lot of parts are ordered and measurements taken, but still a lot to do. The major engineering problem is that this is a vintage metric bike that's going to have 19" HD Sportster front mag wheels both front and back (with different size tires). On top of that, we're converting to disc brake in the rear, and the front end is being swapped out for one from a 2015 Yamaha FZ-07 (that bike had a GSXR600 front end swapped onto it several years back).
Step one: Get modern metric brake discs spaced out properly from an old imperial rim:
Step two: New triple tree to clear the fatter tire and rotors:
Still virtual at this point, but should turn into metal soon, as I have a pile of 7075 burning a hole in my shop floor. The other advantage of this triple tree is that it is made to accept eccentric inserts to change the offset and rake angle. Apparently, you want to de-rake this bike up to 5 degrees for flat tracking, so -5 degree inserts are what I'll machine first:
After these parts are cut and the stem is turned, it's back to the rear end of the bike for sprocket, rotor, and wheel spacers. At that point, it'll be a roller, and he can take it back apart and get everything powder coated. -
Damn, dude. That's incredible. I admire the talent, knowledge, and skill to pull all that off. Very impressive!
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WC Choppers !1to392831weretaken said:Nice work! As long as the bars don't vibrate too much, the bar-end mirrors give you a view of something other than your shoulder, too.
Already sexted you most of this, but in case anybody else is interested, my current project currently looks like this:
It's a Yamaha TT500 from the '70s, and a buddy of mine wants to build it into a flat tracker for the One Show in Portland. No way we'll make it for the upcoming show, but shouldn't have a problem with 2024. So far, the engine is rebuilt and a lot of parts are ordered and measurements taken, but still a lot to do. The major engineering problem is that this is a vintage metric bike that's going to have 19" HD Sportster front mag wheels both front and back (with different size tires). On top of that, we're converting to disc brake in the rear, and the front end is being swapped out for one from a 2015 Yamaha FZ-07 (that bike had a GSXR600 front end swapped onto it several years back).
Step one: Get modern metric brake discs spaced out properly from an old imperial rim:
Step two: New triple tree to clear the fatter tire and rotors:
Still virtual at this point, but should turn into metal soon, as I have a pile of 7075 burning a hole in my shop floor. The other advantage of this triple tree is that it is made to accept eccentric inserts to change the offset and rake angle. Apparently, you want to de-rake this bike up to 5 degrees for flat tracking, so -5 degree inserts are what I'll machine first:
After these parts are cut and the stem is turned, it's back to the rear end of the bike for sprocket, rotor, and wheel spacers. At that point, it'll be a roller, and he can take it back apart and get everything powder coated. -
The Taliban loved motorcycles almost as much as they love their Toyota Hi-Lux trucks.RaceBannon said:
