Blood and Sweat, Paint and metal work

Jenny's sick still

On Monday night I jumped on her and went to New London, parked her, walked around, restarted her and went to Mystic, we had dinner, she fired right up and I took her home, no issues. Today I backed her out, fired her up and took her to work. Stepped outside to bring her in and change the seat, click...nothing.

We tested the battery, 14 volts, put it back in, she fired right up.  

Thar seems to be an electrical issue somewhere.

Large rear tyres

Having a BIG tire on the back of your bike...

Makes you feel

People often ask me, "WHAT"S WRONG with you?"

Inbreeding, Yup...I can honestly say that way back in the past of my family (1700s) there were some shared moments between members of the family that perhaps....shouldn't have been shared. I know this because I once asked my father about the family and he told me, Cousins shouldn't marry.

So the next time you wonder why something is....just remember...we're working with the shallow end of the gene pool here. It takes a really long time to fix an issue like that, It takes a concerted effort and progressive breeding, unfortunately...being from the shallow end...there's not much thought involved with the process. The family never went out of the way looking for Miss right, It was more like this, ..."She said yes". Simple and true. 

That was all back when the family had money, you can see why, now we don't. I guess not changing names though saves on stationary ink.

I asked my great uncle once if it were true we were inbred at all and he said , "Corse not, we ain't ever ben no bakers".


klay

Since I keep dating myself

Growing up in what at the time was "The Submarine Capitol of the World", Groton Connecticut, (We had the U.S. Submarine Base (with deep sea rescue), and the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics), I saw a lot of Tattoos. Tattoos were something sailors had, simply because they had seen the world and many the wars (In 1965 World War II was only 20 years earlier, Korea was 10 years earlier and Vietnam was Now). the only other place you saw tattoos was on bikers, because bikers were bad. Tattoos set these men apart from the rest of the world, it showed they were special in one way or another. So growing up you had no plans on having any ink unless you were to go one of the afore mentioned directions. 

Now, everyone has ink, hell even kids are pierced and inked. Ink no longer makes you a bad ass, Ink no longer sets you apart, ink doesn't mean you are a rebel or special, it just means you paid somebody to inject ink in your skin. when I was young there were "no" tattoos on women, if it were there it wasn't shown in decent areas, now it seems women out ink the guys...

So does this mean that, the rebels of today...those that want to stand out ...don't ink?

The magazines that made you cool

In our youth we believed the weirdest things made you cool, smoking of course was one of them, but they weren't all hazardous. One of the simpler ones was posters, there were black light posters (I know dating myself), there were car posters, and there were motorcycle posters. But if, as a youth, you were allowed to enter into that mystical magical world of the private repair facility you found that the coolest mechanics out there, the guys who worked on Customs, had a different type of poster, it was of a bike or a car, but...it had a girl on it. So I can name at least four fourteen and fifteen year old kids that scourged chopper and biker magazines to pull out the center folds for their basement or garage walls.  

The simple fact that they had these on the walls where they kept their bikes made them cool, it didn't matter that they couldn't tell the difference between a six point and twelve point socket.

hell, there didn't even have to be a bike

Life is different with apes

I have been riding for a few years now, (first bike 1974), and I don't know, maybe I'm anti social, but I hate waving to people. Every Bike I have ever had, be it a metric (Honda or Yamaha) or a Harley (Street Glide, Electra Glide, or Dyna), other bikers want to wave, like we're all one big happy family. 

We'll if it's a family, it's dysfunctional, and I already have one of those. So if you want to make me happy and you don't know me...don't wave, ride your damn bike and let me ride mine. If you ride by me and I don't wave, don't take it personal, it's not that I don't like you, it's that I don't know you and most likely I want to keep it that way. 

One of the best things I ever saw was a hand shaped left mirror made by a guy who, tired of waving 5 thousand times a day at rallies, created. The right side was normal, the left side was the shape of a open hand, it was black on the back. He no longer waved to anyone, but people thought he had. (cannot find the picture again).

What I have found out since I added the Apes to Jenny,

even though they are only 14".... other bikes don't wave. They kind of ride past as if you don't exist...it's like Heaven.

I have found though I get more thumbs up from the side lines now, but...you don't have to acknowledge them.

klay

Monday Monday Monday

Cars Cars and more cars, That's what was at the beach last night. There were Minis, and Corvettes, Corvettes and Ford Coupes, Dodge Challenges and Corvettes, Corvettes and Pickup trucks. yes there were more Corvettes than anything else. For myself, I found it all boring. I am not really into "Classic" cars, and have no use for corvettes "Classic" or other wise. To me it's just a bunch of people who would rather sit with a piece of machinery in hopes some one else drools over it, rather than being out actually using it. I always wanted an old Suicide shift Harley but if I had one, and as long as I have a place to carry a couple extra quarts of oil on the bike, I would sure as hell be riding it rather than sitting next to it. (Old Harleys it is said mark their territory, in actuality they are roving hazards leaving small lakes of Dinosaur squeezings where ever they stop).

Other than the cars there isn't much at the beach, if you're not swimming, playing mini-golf, or dumping change into arcade machines (Ocean beach arcade is like a time portal into the past, except the machines are rather beat up), then you are walking.  As for sights, it's hopeless, let's face it, this ain't Florida, California or Hawaii, if it is wearing a bikini here it is either older and over weight or it is 10 years old or less, neither of which do much for me. But this is nothing new, I knew this going in and still I went.

Last night I went back to the beach, as a matter of fact to show the colors I brought three other people with me. Tree, Sandwich and Amanda, we walked around, we talked to Wolf, We saw Kim, and Jon again with his Mini. But the only three patches were ours. We walked some more, then we stood around, and then walked more. (sigh). B-O-R-I-N-G. Tree and I gave Sandwich a call and said we were done, we had had enough Beach excitement. So we got on the bikes and headed for the land of Jack Daniels Honey and bowls of bacon.

We won't be going back to the beach too soon,

maybe...yeah...

The Blessing will be the next time we go there.

klay 

Flat

It's a dirty job...

Leather

Mechanical

What to do

I have heard that there are not that many things to do on a motorcycle, just ride. That's when I tell them, "Isn't that enough, riding is what its about". But then they say but "where is there to ride to"...

Well let's see... there are a lot of places to ride to...

You can ride to some place and burn stuff

You can ride to someplace that cooks you some food

You can ride to a restaurant and eat...

You can ride to some place to picnic (eat)

You can ride to someplace and drink

You can ride to some place to eat and drink

the main thing is....YOU RIDE

We under no way condone drinking while riding, I've done it, we just don't condone it.