Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Lawlessness and Despair...the existential truth...note the vintage Mountain Dew can!
Best Biker Movie Evar! Weird enough and strange enough...the guy who wrote the script must have really ridden and had the real life experiences that riders really have.
It's not just Ben's great Photography...
This is just RIGHT! And I am sick of flat black...sick I tell you, because it supposed to represent old skool or hardcore...but this thing rocks...a great engine with a great aftermarket support system, great brakes and suspension, the ability to tour and curb jump, and probably follow Tom Rose into the deepest darkest reaches of Wyoming (or my driveway,)...well if I was riding it anyway...great caprture Ben! (hey we've been Ben heavy the last couple days...I was working and Ben took up the slack...) Plus it rolls with floorboards!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Dang Ben, you found all the cool bikes today!
If I can get some sleep tomorrow...I will be installing my brake pedal and shifter on my mid mounts that I got from Elvis and post some pictures of FXR's that Elvis built...I plan on installing some floorboards on my FXR this winter...I love Floorboards!
Really Nice Guzzi Ben sent me pictures of...
My buddy Mike Cooke has one like this that he rides the hyde off of...we will be doing some Kentucky touring with Mike!
Sunday, September 27, 2009
The road to redemption?
Nope, just my driveway...heading to work. I work at a steel mill. I work a swing shift, one week days, take one day off, work another week of nights...something like that, I worked last night I can't remember. 12 hour shifts will screw up perspective. I never know what day it is. I never know what time of month it is, you just memorize the schedule and carry on.
It poured down rain last night, like it has for days. I have to get some gravel and limestone down in the driveway before winter or it will be hell just getting out to the road. But there are far worse things than riding in the cold and rain...like not riding at all. A jacket, full face helmet and windshield should do me fine for winter...may look into those heated grips dealio. Mid-Mounts work great, thanks again Jesse, as does the handlebars Tom! (new brake pedal and shifter coming soon thanks to Elvis...yeah Elvis baby!)
My road to work is brutal, deer, pot holes, school buses on the way home in the morning on narrow back roads, people late for work in the mornings, gravel roads, and last night I ran thru a batch of green smashed walnuts in the middle of a blind curve, talk about pucker factor...that would have been an embarrassing way to wreck, sliding due to salad topping officer...But I am sure everyone who commutes on a motorcycle has their own crosses to bear! The Joys of motorcycling indeed!
FXR or Die!
Headin' for the Zee hills...
I just heard a guy yesterday say that if the G4 Summit leaders promise to give any more of his paycheck away to non-productive members of this planet that he was heading for the mountains. We all say stuff like this, but this guy doesn't bluff! Nice capture Ben!
Ben said he had New Jersey plates...in Nebraska folks...get on your bikes are ride folks...kind of makes those hardcore challenge contest seem a little silly now doesn't it!
Ben said he had New Jersey plates...in Nebraska folks...get on your bikes are ride folks...kind of makes those hardcore challenge contest seem a little silly now doesn't it!
Saturday, September 26, 2009
I clearly remember that...
When I was a kid hanging out at the biker bars with my Uncles in the early eighties around the east side of Cincinnati, the music that was being played on the Jukeboxes was not the Southern Rock stuff that gets played now at most mainstream biker get togethers...this photo triggered a song in my head. There was a little bar on Rt. 50 heading toward Batavia Ohio, it was the last bar on 50 before you got to Georgetown, but it seemed everytime I was in there, Bob Segar's "Firelake" was playing on the jukebox...I loved that song. I am glad it never became Chevrolet commercial.
This is funny, (turn down the volume with kids in the room.)
Not that I have ever been to any strip clubs, but I once had a conversation about theology with a stripper who wanted to discuss Moses with me as she tried to sell me a lap dance...yeah...uh...no...Oh I feel sorry for the girls, they can't be expected to be all sexually fueled and want to be treated as a person that can have a normal conversation...but it is a strip club and they are naked...and...(Okay I once dated a one eared stripper and hung out at the club, after a wek or so, you get used to talking to her nude co-workers and not feeling awkward about it, and sometimes I would catch myself talking to a hot nude woman about drywall, or her stock portfolio, or she would want you to listen to her car and even she would forget she was naked and would start out the door to the employees parking lot with all her co-workers in tow to hear her car make a funny noise...yes this actually happened, we were ten feet out the door before the bouncer realized there were four naked chicks and a dude heading out the back door...the funny thing was the girls would hang out afterwords at parties and I would catch myself checking them out when they had clothes on...being around naked people screws with your head. Do it anyway!)
Bill Dozer continued! (More FXR of influence shots!)
I kind of like the Sporty tank on this one. I am hoping one of my aftermarket tanks will fit over the backbone of my bike so I have a tank to run while I paint my parts...although we are having typical sever thunderstorms, I am not tearing my bike down for thirty seconds...you just never know when you may to head for the hills to avoid the infection. I pulled into work last night, (I work night shift this weekend,) and the EMT/Security guard said, "You know it is raining don't you?"...here's your sign. I told him that he was a fair weather rider...well I had to explain what fair weather was...A couple employees from the reliveing shift told me it was a shame that I let my bike set outside in the rain last night...I said, it was a shame that their bikes are setting at home in a garage...hell my driveway is worse than anything most those guys will ever ride on...hell my driveway is worse than most adventurer rider types will ever ride on!
I was never a fairings type guy, but this kinda grows on me...I used to hate fairings when the Hamsters wearing yellow and Rd sneakers used to ride FXR's with fairings...do teh Hamsters even exist anymore? I bet they ride choppers now!
The Birdman cometh...
Yeah...The Birdman and his lovely wife enjoying a cigar in the basement of his Nebraskan compound! (What a way to enjoy the Tornado season!)
Just do it!
That is Utilitarian! Ready for third world traveling! Room for a whole family in India!
Just do it!
That is Utilitarian! Ready for third world traveling! Room for a whole family in India!
Flame on!
This a station wagon I owned years past. It originally was pale yellow and had huge surface rust rings all over it. When my oldest son was four, we sanded it down with 180 and painted it with house paint and brushes. My wife was eight months pregnant at the time so I had to put the car up on jack stands so she could paint the flames. My wife does great flame jobs I think!
People either loved or hated it after it was painted. Some people couldn't believe I ruined a perfectly good car...ruined a pale yellow rusty Olds station wagon? I had a couple friends who hated riding in it. It was obnoxious and people took pictures of it while you drove down the rode and gave you thumbs up all the time...except for the girl who gave me the finger. Maybe flames offended her. I miss that car!
People either loved or hated it after it was painted. Some people couldn't believe I ruined a perfectly good car...ruined a pale yellow rusty Olds station wagon? I had a couple friends who hated riding in it. It was obnoxious and people took pictures of it while you drove down the rode and gave you thumbs up all the time...except for the girl who gave me the finger. Maybe flames offended her. I miss that car!
Friday, September 25, 2009
Bill Dozer
Bill Dozer gave me permission to post some shots of the FXR's he has taken pictures of and collected. There are so many, I think I will spread it out some for your FXR lovers! (I have some feelers out for some other great FXR shots!)
Craziness on the Prairie
I clearly remember growing up in farm land when a local farmer bought a Kubota tractor. The ridiculing he received at the feed store and farm meetings was over the top. But the farmer just went about his business and worked as we found out with a superior tractor. It didn’t matter to him the history or significance of owning an American made tractor, he just needed a tractor that performed ike he needed it to. He had enough of dealing with the local tractor dealers and having to settle for their prices and limitations. Now Kubota…well you get the picture. Now off-brand tractor companies advertise that their tractors are really “Kubota’s” with different labeling. My how far we have come.
Tom Rose and I have been chiseling on Ben to get an FXR and join the ranks of owning a functional motorcycle that handles well, runs well, and can haul and drag zombies like no ones business. Hell we said, “ There were no other Harley’s built after the FXR was discontinued.” We laid it on pretty thick and Ben wrote back…(we were just kidding Ben, we here at the Chronicle don’t care what you ride, as long as it can survive the apocalypse and we don’t have to hire a huff truck to go riding with you….Huff truck, I thought they died out with Poker runs and forward controls.)
Here is what Ben wrote:
“If I had 5000$ to spend on a motorcycle, then I would consider an FXR to be a viable option for a project But, the most I have ever spent on an initial bike purchase has been 800$. So that leaves the Evo powered FXR’s out of the equation.This is my Project Vulcan. AKA : Project “I’m broke. What’s your excuse?” The initial goal was to get a v-twin powered jap cruiser wrecked for dirt cheap and make it work really well. And to make it do everything I needed:
Haul myself and a passenger easily, Go fast, Handle good, Stop good, Start every time reliably, Not break down every time I went for a ride, Be comfortable. I got this one for 600$ and some labor. It had 800$ worth of new parts that came with it!New fork tubes, new front rim, spokes, bars, covers, ect.
As it sits now I have about 1200$ into it. I was pretty disgusted that I had to buy a 200$ used gas tank since mine turned out to be completely rusted and could not be repaired. But, that was the biggest expenditure.
I chose the Vulcan over a few other wrecked cruisers for a number of reasons:
4 valve heads, single carb instead of some insanely wacky double carb setup, chain drive, the rear tire was only a 130 series. (I don’t like fat bikes or huge fat tires.) , I had heard from some guys I know that the 800 Vulcan’s pepped up nicely with pipes and jets. Once it was up and running I was pleasantly surprised. Everything works fantastic. But of course there is always room for improvement.
I went off the deep end and tried it make it TOO practical and ended up adding a lot of weight and making it REAAAALLLLY ugly. I was pretty content to have it just be an ugly, heavy, practical motorcycle until one day Tom Rose gave me a really severe tongue lashing and told me that there was no way I could have such an ugly motorcycle
So, I started to strip it down to lighten it up and change a few things. Lowered the rear fender 2”, changed to 883R bars, (much lighter and better bend), and tossed the seat. So far I have lost 31 lbs (not including the front fender, the turn signals, the taillight and the headlight since I never had them to weigh them in the first place.)
Changes to come still:
I want to switch to a 16” front wheel for less lateral flex under hard loads, and more bump absorption. Figure out some sort of front fender. Four piston caliper on the front disc,Cut off some more heavy parts of the rear frame and move passenger pegs. Lighten up fender struts and rear fender. Move battery down low, maybe run 2 separate 6 V batteries so I can mount one on either side of the monoshock mount at the lowest possible place on the bike. Possibly lighten up the swingarm …it weighs 24 lbs now, so that’s not bad, but Tom Rose assures me it can be made at least 30% lighter. Find a lighter rear wheel with a nice disc brake setup. The forward controls are working good right now, but maybe work on mid controls.Toss the dash and speedo and run a Trail tech digital unit for much more info and weight loss. Get my headlight fixed back up … (my nice H4 headlight broke last night and I had to run that crummy rectangle one to get by.
I was told by many, many people that the Jap cruisers were worthless motorcycles that did not work, could not work, and should never be considered as an option for discerning people that wanted to use their motorcycles. This bike has blown away all of my expectations and made a believer out of me. Nice low center of gravity, good usable 45 horsepower (about the same as most stock Harleys with a lot less weight) with good torque, great ground clearance, very good light handling, much better brakes than I had ever imagined, very good useful suspension, roomy for two people, sounds nice with straight pipes, runs beautiful all the time, no reliability issues, easy to work on, one carb, two plugs, and a battery and oil filter you can get to easily.
Tom Rose and I have been chiseling on Ben to get an FXR and join the ranks of owning a functional motorcycle that handles well, runs well, and can haul and drag zombies like no ones business. Hell we said, “ There were no other Harley’s built after the FXR was discontinued.” We laid it on pretty thick and Ben wrote back…(we were just kidding Ben, we here at the Chronicle don’t care what you ride, as long as it can survive the apocalypse and we don’t have to hire a huff truck to go riding with you….Huff truck, I thought they died out with Poker runs and forward controls.)
Here is what Ben wrote:
“If I had 5000$ to spend on a motorcycle, then I would consider an FXR to be a viable option for a project But, the most I have ever spent on an initial bike purchase has been 800$. So that leaves the Evo powered FXR’s out of the equation.This is my Project Vulcan. AKA : Project “I’m broke. What’s your excuse?” The initial goal was to get a v-twin powered jap cruiser wrecked for dirt cheap and make it work really well. And to make it do everything I needed:
Haul myself and a passenger easily, Go fast, Handle good, Stop good, Start every time reliably, Not break down every time I went for a ride, Be comfortable. I got this one for 600$ and some labor. It had 800$ worth of new parts that came with it!New fork tubes, new front rim, spokes, bars, covers, ect.
As it sits now I have about 1200$ into it. I was pretty disgusted that I had to buy a 200$ used gas tank since mine turned out to be completely rusted and could not be repaired. But, that was the biggest expenditure.
I chose the Vulcan over a few other wrecked cruisers for a number of reasons:
4 valve heads, single carb instead of some insanely wacky double carb setup, chain drive, the rear tire was only a 130 series. (I don’t like fat bikes or huge fat tires.) , I had heard from some guys I know that the 800 Vulcan’s pepped up nicely with pipes and jets. Once it was up and running I was pleasantly surprised. Everything works fantastic. But of course there is always room for improvement.
I went off the deep end and tried it make it TOO practical and ended up adding a lot of weight and making it REAAAALLLLY ugly. I was pretty content to have it just be an ugly, heavy, practical motorcycle until one day Tom Rose gave me a really severe tongue lashing and told me that there was no way I could have such an ugly motorcycle
So, I started to strip it down to lighten it up and change a few things. Lowered the rear fender 2”, changed to 883R bars, (much lighter and better bend), and tossed the seat. So far I have lost 31 lbs (not including the front fender, the turn signals, the taillight and the headlight since I never had them to weigh them in the first place.)
Changes to come still:
I want to switch to a 16” front wheel for less lateral flex under hard loads, and more bump absorption. Figure out some sort of front fender. Four piston caliper on the front disc,Cut off some more heavy parts of the rear frame and move passenger pegs. Lighten up fender struts and rear fender. Move battery down low, maybe run 2 separate 6 V batteries so I can mount one on either side of the monoshock mount at the lowest possible place on the bike. Possibly lighten up the swingarm …it weighs 24 lbs now, so that’s not bad, but Tom Rose assures me it can be made at least 30% lighter. Find a lighter rear wheel with a nice disc brake setup. The forward controls are working good right now, but maybe work on mid controls.Toss the dash and speedo and run a Trail tech digital unit for much more info and weight loss. Get my headlight fixed back up … (my nice H4 headlight broke last night and I had to run that crummy rectangle one to get by.
I was told by many, many people that the Jap cruisers were worthless motorcycles that did not work, could not work, and should never be considered as an option for discerning people that wanted to use their motorcycles. This bike has blown away all of my expectations and made a believer out of me. Nice low center of gravity, good usable 45 horsepower (about the same as most stock Harleys with a lot less weight) with good torque, great ground clearance, very good light handling, much better brakes than I had ever imagined, very good useful suspension, roomy for two people, sounds nice with straight pipes, runs beautiful all the time, no reliability issues, easy to work on, one carb, two plugs, and a battery and oil filter you can get to easily.
Ben is a regular contributor to The Chronicle and I will be posting chopper stuff over his blog Attackchoppers.blogspot.
I think it needs some Ammo cans and cut the ducktail off that fender, weld an extension to it and ad a trailer light!
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