Sea Dog Hazelnut Porter

While not as roasty as the Eel River Porter (which has become my favorite porter), it is very yummy. It does indeed have a nice nutty bold flavor throughout. Not harsh, but not shy either. Full bodied might be the best term.

Cisco Brewers Whale's Tail Pale Ale

So work with me here. This is in no way shape or form a "Pale Ale." There is pretty much zero hop aroma, or flavor. But it is super yummy, with really strong malt flavor. Kinda of like a traditional Steam beer. So I like it, but it isn't a Pale Ale.

Ballast Point IPA

Pretty good IPA. Decent hop aroma and flavor, with light bitterness on the back end.

More booze gifts from my beaner inlaw

El Guapo - Fenders

I made up fenders for El Guapo over the past two days. I really liked the shape and size of the plastic front fender on the Hodaka, so I decided to use that as a mold, and run some fiberglass. I had just enough cloth to do just that.

rushing on the last bit of resin:

Side view showing both front and rear fenders mounted:

Quick shot of the front fender mounted. It only took about 10 minutes to get it trimmed into shape, and sanded:

Now I must shower off the fiberglass dust.

Big Sky Trout Slayer Wheat

A nice tasty wheat ale, with a malt forward flavor.

Chico sports boosters brewfest

Spent a great afternoon with some friends at the Chico Sports Booster brewfest. MUCH quieter and far less crowded than the Chico Homebrew fest, so we actually had a place to sit and enjoy the brews. Excellent food too, with tri-tip, sausage, pizza, and tacos. I devoured eight tacos.

Ovilla Dubbel

Widmer Raspberry Russian Imperial Stout

Brewing - Robust Porter

I brewed up a Robust Porter today, and after only two hours I had some excellent krausen forming. Likely thanks to the recaptured S05 yeast I salvaged from my last batch of Pale Ale. Pretty simply recipe, with munich as a base, and some chocolate, special roast, crystal 90, and some roasted barley.

El Guapo - Rear Shocks

A set of Honda XR250 Twinshock rear shocks, all cleaned up and painted for El Guapo. These have a 16" eye-to-eye length, and a nice spring rate. They also have fantastic rebound valving.

Pyment tasting

Tasting my pyment (grape mead) for the first time. One word: STRONG. I had an OG of 1.104, which is where many of my meads start at. But for some reason, this sucker finished off at 0.994, instead of 1.030 or so like other meads. That works out to 14.2% abv. , It is also very dry, since it finished off so low.

So if you ever see me throwing back some pyment, just assume I'm pre-gaming for a night of karaoke.

El Guapo - Seat Pan

I was able to modify a stock CL90 seat pan to fit El Guapo. Since the Hodaka fuel tank is longer, I was trying to get something to fit to the length I wanted. As it happened, the stock CL90 seat pan was easy to shorten up front, kust long enough for the rear shock cutouts to fit, and the rear pan mount bolts to line up.

Starting to look like a bike!

El Guapo - Rear Tire Mounted

I managed to get the rear tire mounted tonight, using the cool living room as my garage. These bigger tires are a bit more difficult to get on the wheel, so I used lots of tire lube (soap and water mix) and my incredible strength. The only thing missing was a headband.

I brought out the big guns:

mmm, so knobby:

Close to the ride height I want:

I found a set of shocks from a Honda XR250 twinshock. 16" eye-to-eye measurement, with found spring preload adjustments via a little c-clip under the lower spring seat. Excellent condition, with tons of rebound dampening. They just need some paint:

El Guapo - Rear Tire

One of the many reasons I love those crazy orientals. Tires named "Goldenboy."

El Guapo - Tank stripping

Sierra Nevada Imperial Pilsner

So far, so yummy.

El Guapo - Rear wheel

I was up and going first thing this morning, to take advantage of morning temperatures. I built several brackets to mount the seat, cleaned up the rear wheel spokes and nipples, and polished up the hub and wheel rim. After a late brunch, I settled in on the couch and watched some Indycars while I assembled the rear wheel. The stars were aligned, as this was the most true wheel I have ever assembled. I simply didn't need to do any truing at all. I just got everything snug, and it was spot on.

Wheels for El Guapo

I needed a wider rear wheel rim for El Guapo, and I found a local selling some on ebay. I ended up purchasing an Aluminum DID 2.15x18 rim, and picking it up from him. He has a little side biz selling parts for 1970s big bore Euro dirt bikes. He commented that the market is big oversees for these bikes. And because of that, he tends not to worry about the smaller parts that a guy like me covets. So by the time I left his place, he told me to take some extra chrome wheel rims, and a pair of shocks for free.

He invited me out afterwork or on a weekend day to grab more parts. He said it would just go to the scrap yard, so anything in that pile over there you can have. There was lots of stuff in that pile.

My bounty: