Spares Pile

I spent a couple hours in the garage after lunch and tore down the two C110 parts bikes. The red bike was a piece of cake. It seemed as if everything was alright loosened. the black bike make up for it, however, as every nut/bolt was frozen, even after I hit everything with penetrating fluid last night. Luckily, nothing broke or stripped when it did come off. I ended up with a pile of parts:




two frames:


And two more engines, to go with two I already had in the corner:


And finally, another great shot of my beard:


Yes, I got a haircut today.

C'

Parts Bike Tear Down

I made some room in the garage this afternoon to tear down the two C110 parts bikes I picked up a couple months ago for $50. I wanted to get everything stripped off, cataloged, and put in their appropriate storage box.

Tomorrow should be a tad warmer, so I'll likely get out there after lunch.

C'

Turkey Day Pork

Yes, we served pork for Thanksgiving. A 4.5 pound boneless centercut loin. Slathered in paste of stone ground mustard, chopped up olives, peppercinis, and paprika. Then wrapped in bacon.

it was yummy.

C'

Color me Plaid

After an hour entertaining our quasi nephews (Andrew and Connor) Uncle Chris needed some quality time on the road, so he took Salty out for a short ride. I had installed a 14-tooth front sprocket, in place of the 16-tooth sprocket. I was hoping this would help make second gear a bit more usable at 30mph city speeds. And it did. much better rpm range.

I also played with the low-speed mixture adjustment while I was warming it up. Usually you set this adjustment screw about 1.5 to 2 turns from all the way in. I was at 1.5. I turned it back a full turn and the idle immediately smoothed out, and it took throttle much cleaner at lower rpm. In fact, most of the low-speed stumble pulling away from a dead stop was gone. That tells me I'm running a bit rich, so I'll have to look at some of the mid and higher rpm range adjustments. This isn't a huge surprise, as the carb is much bigger than stock, and is likely jetted for 50% more hp. In fact, this is the same carb I have running on the 140cc motor in Ratty.

So what does Uncle Chris do after a successful ride? Why, he pours himself a mug of homemade Coffee Stout and puts on his finest plaid.

Cheers!

C'

New Greenhouse

With overnight temps dipping into the low 20s tonight, I decided to move some of our small citrus trees into the garage. We have a mandarin, blood orange, and a lemon tree with fruit on them, so I didn't want to risk any damage.

While I was in there, I also swapped out the 16 tooth front sprocket on Salty, for a 14 tooth. But I didn't get a chance to ride it to see if helps make second gear more usable. Maybe tomorrow, when the temps are below freezing!

Novembeard - Update 2

enough said

Random Stuff

I've been spending time on Salty, so I haven't had much to report on. I've been hanging out for the past week with my better half recovering from surgery. That means I've been sampling numerous brews, watching quite a few movies, and tinkering in the garage.

Speaking of brews, I had my first bottle of a coffee stout I brewed about 6 weeks ago. I was pleasantly surprised. The up front coffee aroma is a tad too strong, but it really mellows out in the body and has a great stout finish.

I also sampled my first bottle of what I call "Hoppy Magnum Alexander." I used a Pale Ale Mr. Beer kit, added some Alexander pale malt extract, and did a long 60 minute boil of magnum hops, which have a high 13.5% alpha content. I've been using a simple program called QBrew to make up my recipes, and it is helping me keep track of things. It's also helping me to tinker with quantities to better match up what styles of beers should be, in terms of bitterness and color.

On an unrelated note, here is a quick picture of Salty, my C110 racer bike I've been building over on this blog: http://saltygarage.blogspot.com/



And yes, I need to rake the leaves. But with the wind blowing everyday, I've decided to let mother nature have her way with the trees first. If the leaves happen to end up all in the neighbor's yard, who am I to argue?

C'

More Exciting Vacation Stuff

A four nut peanut:


My freshly painted and striped helmet:




And I'm apparently turning into the Wolverine after two weeks of not shaving:


I'm a veritable kaleidoscope of facial hair.

C'

Week 1 of Vacation at Home

Since Susan had her surgery scheduled for this past Wednesday, I decided to take a full 10 days off work, which sees me at home until after Thanksgiving. I knew the first few days would be me just hanging out caring for Susan, but I had hoped to get a few little projects finished up after that.

Luckily, Susan is up and running much sooner than anticipated. So much so, that I was off riding motorcycles this weekend, and decided to jump into a few projects early. In no particular order, here is a quick recap:

Beer brewing

I'm on my tenth Mr. Beer brew. I bottled an Irish Red and a Christmas Ale on Saturday. Sunday I brewed a new batch of Oatmeal Stout and a rip of a Anchorsteam. This is on top of the Coffee Stout I have in the bottle, and something I call a "Hoppy Magnum Alexander" which as the name suggest used some Magnum hops and Alexander Pale Extract. This led too...

Beer storage redo

I've been using an old coffee table and bookcase to attempt to organize all my bottled beer and brewing equipment. It wasn't working. So I put together three new bookcases together that will work magic for cleaning up the spare room, as witnessed below:

Kickstand and Number Plate for the Trials Bike

I used a bicycle kickstand as the basis for a new kickstand. It fits nicely under the skidplate using stock mounting holes, and is tucked up and under the swingarm. I also made a new fron number plate, since my old one no longer fit after using a different handlebar mount. I broke everything in with a 45-minute ride around a huge vacant bit of property near our house. Lots of bumps, jumps, puddles and mud.

Helmet Mods and Paint

I took an old open face helmet I had laying around and drilled some vent holes in it, lined with screen mesh, and added a bit of extra padding in key areas so it fits better. I couldn't let it remain boring white, so I decided to give it a quick paint job. I'm not quite done yet, but it is basically some simple red scallops running back and over the helmet, like a Rams football helmet. Here is me working on it:

Tune in next time for more exciting stay-at-home vacation news.

C'

Friday Lunch

Whats better than having a bowl of chili for lunch? Riding your trials bike out in the back 40, then having a bowl of chili. Im lucky to have 21 acres of property here at work, bordering a large creek bed. What a great way to test the new suspension out. And it seems to have worked. Much more cushy, and I'm capable of getting up and down much taller obstacles, both natural and manmade (concrete.) I even had a spectator, in the form of a rather large wolf.

We gets lots of critters here at work, including rabbits, owls, and the occasional small bobcat. But this wolf was apparently keeping it real out behind the cobble piles. I just so happen to ride over the coble piles to find myself about 10 feet away from Mr. Wolf. We both just froze, and he slowly walked off. I slowly rode off, then made sure to play out in the more open areas.



C'