Start of pub crawl

Our first stop at Old Republic.

Goldie: The fun of finding parts

This is what is looks like when I start a new project, a floor full of parts:

The spare C105 frame:

My first bit of chopping.  I had to shorten the headstock, and attach the wider bearing cups for the Yamaha forks:

The front forks fit.  I think these came from a Yamaha YG.  The truth is, they came from a dumpster over at Clint's, a gentleman in Hamilton City that lets me rummage through his parts.

This is just a mockup with some flat bar, but it proves the concept:

The big 1/2" bolt is tacked to the flat bar, and essentially acts like s sliding pillar.  The lower spring is about 75# and takes care of bump travel.  the upper spring is about 40# and takes car of droop.  I used a spare 1/2" heim joint as the steady perch, which threads into a long sleeve nut welded to the frame.

The front tire is way too small, but you get the idea on the overall proportions.  And yes, I plan on some sort of handlebars that extend up a bit.  Not monkey bars, but maybe something that extends up about 6-8", with a real narrow width.  

Goldie Begins

I've decided to harness my inner chopper, and throw together another bike from scraps. This time an old derelict Honda C105 frame will form the backbone, with a lot of mods to follow. My quick sketch below shows the concept.

Lookin' Fly

Susan wouldn't let me buy this blazer. She crushed my dreams.

Scrap Photos

Honda C110 Engine Build

I have a host of spare Honda pushrods motors sitting on the shelf, so I decided to build one up for a future project yet to be determined.

I'm using a c110 bottom end that features a 4spd manual clutch. The top end will be built using a std bore 49cc cylinder with a high compression piston, a ported cast iron C100 head featuring lightened valves, and a rocker arm casting using lightened rocker arms.

I had to repair the broken kick start shaft, which gave me an opportunity to clean up the clutch plates and discs. I'll likely button it up tomorrow night with new gaskets and o-rings.

Easter Bunny

Nothing says a rising Jesus like candy and Bob Seger.

Young Einstein

She said she was channeling Young Einstein. I only questioned the young part.

Wildcard brewing sampler

Wildcard brewing tap takeover at Burgers and Brews

More work on Scraps

A few more odds and ends have been buttoned up:

Too much power

So what happens when you can actually climb up steep hills in your trials bike, thanks to triple the power? You literally ripped the valve stem off the tube :(

And no, I didn't have a spare, so my trials day was a bust. I did get to enjoy about an hour of riding though.

New tube and a rim lock has been ordered.

More Assembly

I had a very productive weekend working on Scraps.  Lots of little details got buttoned up, as evidenced by the pics below.  I've had a lot of fun fabricated brackets, covers, and mounts out of aluminum.  Also welding a few small tidbits, like a air cleaner mount, carb inlet hose mount (not shown) and some modified footpegs.  I have a few parts shipping to me this week, so hopefully I can tidy up more of the small details by this upcoming weekend.  Assuming I'm not broken on Sunday, after my first Trials event this upcoming Saturday.

Exhaust, taillight, rear number plates, and rear brake components installed

Front number plate, skidplate, bars and controls mounted up

Side cover has a mount for a clamp on air filter running through it

Some Assembly

A bit of assembly on Scraps. Hard to tell, but the tank is sparkle silver.

Scraps takes shape

Yep, baby blue.

Happy Anniversary to me!

After six long years of marriage, what better way to celebrate than a six pack of lovely brews, and some candy.  What we have here is:

Anchor Porter

Shmaltz Brown Ale

Abita Mardi Gras Bock

Lost Coast Winterbraun

Shmaltz Dry Hopped Session Ale

New Belgium Trippel

Luckily, the Mrs. know her way to my heart.  Love you Lucy!

Blonde Caliente

I brewed up my Blonde using the Caliente hops I got last week. It is going to be a bit bigger, with a higher OG and higher IBU count. I'll also be dry hopping with Caliente too.

Excellent krausen after only a couple hours.

Caliente Hops Have Arrived

A few of us went in on some hops, and they just arrived. I got some caliente, which is fairly new.

Brewing: Peche Lambic

Since I bottled the Kriek (Cherry Lambic) today, I decided to start another Lambic recipe.  This time, I'm doing a Peche, which is a Peach Lambic.  Like the Kriek, I'm doing a sour mash.

I started a basic mash of 3# of Pilsner malt, 1# honey malt, and 1# crystal 20 malt.  I held back roughly 1/2# of the grain for later.  After the 60 minute mash, I drew off the wort and disposed of the grain, and gave the mash tun a quick rinse.  Then I put the wort back in, and threw in the final 1/2# of crushed grain, and sealed it up tight, with the wort temperature still in the low 130 range.  I'm going to let that sit for 24-48 hours, allowing it to sour.  It will smell like a mixture of old socks and dead hookers.  Or so I'm  led to believe.  Susan would know.

After the appropriate level of sourness, I'll then do a normal 60 minute boil using some old magnum hops I've had set aside since my first year of brewing.  I remember reading that lambics call for old stale hops (more of a preservative than anything) so I had set some aside in a non-sealed container.    

Incredibly exciting photo of the mash starting its souring process:

Scraps - Building a Seat

I wasn't able to find a complete Yamaha YG1-T seat for use on Scraps, so I decided to build a new seat pan and mounts for a seat that could accept a new vinyl cover for the Yamaha seat.  I ended up finding a bunch of scrap metal in the "free" bin at the local steel yard, so I set about cutting, grinding, drilling, and welding.

Then I made a few brackets for mounting the fuel tank, seat, and a luggage rack off a C100.  Nothing is pretty at this point, just raw steel in the correct shape.  I'll need to spend some time rounding off corners and making things much cleaner looking.  the front bracket mounts the rear of the tank, and the front of the seat pan. Like the Yamaha seat, I used slotted brackets up front that slide over a horizontal bar.  Then the rear of the seat bolts to a bracket.

And then this morning, I started fabbing up the exhaust.  I wanted a mid-pipe, and I was able to use a bunch of different curved pipe scraps to build the thing from cylinder head back to where I plan on mounting a simple muffler.  It hugs the frame pretty tight, and I gave it a gentle turn around the rear shock.  The whole thing will likely get wrapped and have a small heat shield in the general leg area.

New seat pan, made from scrap sheet metal

Front bracket mounts tank, and front edge of seat

Start of exhaust build.  Simple mid-pipe

Site Visit

Nice little Advantex project in Felton, just northwest of Santa Cruz. Big redwoods all around.