More Seat Crap

I worked on my seat setup a little more today and rode it some. After adjusting the seat a little it looks a bit less goofy. It is certainly considerably more plush than the spring setup. Plush enough? I guess time will tell.



I was actually able to find all the wacky hardware required for the setup at Ace Hardware. I ran into "Too Many Projects" Tommy by the bolt bins. Guess I'm not the only one now driving across town for $8 worth of hardware.

And now for the portion only Flathead Rob cares about (actually, that might well be this whole post). When I was leaving Ace I asked the cashier if they knew of any place I could buy some 1/4" steel plate on Saturday. The guy in line behind me recommended Koenig's Metalmorphosis. Flathead Rob will surely recall lusting after model T's in this yard as a pre-pubescent boy.

I'm SUPER happy to find them! They sold me some small pieces of plate and plasma cut a bracket for a very reasonable fee, less than the plate would have cost at Ace/Lowes if they even had it. I can't recommend them enough for your stupid fabrication projects. Appears they also offer machine shop rentals of some sort. Maybe I can remember some of the countless hours I spent in Metals Shop dodging all else High School related...


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Sculpture

Brad Coleman posted a link to his sculpture blog on JJ. Man those things are cool. Years ago my brother did similar sculptures out of welding rod. Love the board tracker and Rollie Free Vincent.

In typical JJ form his thread was deleted so I thought I'd repost his content:
This is my first thread on this site, so i hope you dig it. Last summer I was at a local art and wine fest. and came across an artist that was selling welded steel sculptures. One of witch was a motorcycle crafted out of rusty nuts and bolts. Me being a welder,and a motorcycle nut since my mom told me they were the most dangerous things on earth and I could never have one, I thought, I should take a crack at it. And as with everything I do, there was more time and detail put into the bike than originaly planed. Next thing i know, I've built a bunch of the motorcycles, started a web site, and even sold a few of them. These are just a few of my sculptures. you can see more of my work at http://bc-sculptures.blogspot.com Let me know what you think. If you have any pics of bike sculptures you, or some one else has created, post them up. I'm always interested in seeing what others have created.



Check it out.

Birthday Bags

Thanks Rob.

Kinda dorky but it could mean the difference between riding and collecting dust in the garage. I guess we'll see...



It might look less funky with a flatter Bates style seat or something similar.

Hell. Why not embrace that I'm an old man and just run a Lycettt.

Project Hollister Update

There's some serious progress going on with Project Hollister. Go check it out right now dammit!

It's all happened in almost exactly a year. Amazing what can be obtained through a little good old-fashioned psychotic obsession. I can't wait to see it in person.

Vindian

V's rad new 1938 Indian 4 and a V self portrait. Thanks Flathead45!



Mom & Dad have spent a lot of time keeping those nostrils squeaky clean in the days since we left the hospital.

HD TT

I saw this picture of a factory HD TT bike on MC Art.



The same post references a guy's profile that lists 20 blogs, each exclusively featuring a single bike. There's some cool stuff up there. Love this '39 Knuck.



I'm throwing this photo from Magneto Zoo (a Danish blog full of good stuff) just because it sorta fits in.

Glamor Shot

My friend Stephen took this stunning shot of my 'Liv. Stephen is a super cool guy with all the right interests... cars, motorcycles, airplanes, art, music, guitars. Vaughn really likes his dog too.

Thanks to Stephen I now get away with effectively "parking my bike" in both my office and my living room. Some of the other shots he took are just as cool.



His Triumph Speed Triple is immaculately clean from a design perspective, has flawless fabrication with incredible attention to detail and is still somehow remarkably understated. His other design projects and photography mirror all the same traits. Enjoy.



Incidentally, Stephen really needs to find a Triumph Cub project. Let me know if you hear of something irresistible.

Virtual Sock Drawer

Seat Crap

This post is mostly for me, organizing some bookmarks and thinking out loud. I've now experimented enough to know I either have to come up with some sort of seat suspension or it's time to sell the Triumph to fund something else I can actually ride. The last back surgery sucked and I don't want to go through it again. Sorry, this will likely be long.

I've searched around for more compliant springs, even at a longer length and haven't really found what I think would be much of an improvement.

I considered building a setup that uses a mountain bike rear shock. The infinite adjust-ability is certainly appealing. Problem is most modern MTB shocks are 6"-8" long. Some of the older shocks are are still available (new & used) but they are notoriously unreliable and rebuild parts are no longer available.

Next thought was some of the chopper specific shock setups like Chopper Shox. I've always thought they were pretty ridiculous looking but I want to be able to ride. There are other folks building these kits too. One of my favorites aesthetically are the Performance Works built for a bike being built by Speakeasy Cycles for Billy Joel.



Almost everyone seems to say these shock setups are too harsh/stiff, probably because the travel is very short (about 1"). No good for me.

Several people mentioned that the Paul Cox Rigidaire system is almost as good as a softail or a HD pogo. I saw a post by a guy running one successfully that had had 4 disc surgeries over 3 years. The Paul Cox deal is $1200 and way more complicated than I need. I don't care to run a compressor just so I can drop the bags when I park.



Lots of guys are building similar systems themselves. The core of the system is a Goodyear air spring vibration isolator used in semi-truck seats. The air spring appears to be very adjustable and provides about 2" of travel in a 3.5" space. The springs are pretty cheap, about $30 a piece.

Rather than running an on-board compressor and all the required tubing I'm thinking I could just run a Schrader to 1/8" NPT valve in the bottom for the spring and check the level before rides. I'm not sure I'll have the room to run two springs so I may try just one. The springs are inexpensive enough I may buy two and see how it plays out when I start fabbing brackets. If I only use one I'll then have a spare in case it leaks or something I guess.



If you have any suggestions or brilliant ideas let me know.

MidAmerica 1939 EL

I guess it's Knucklehead day.

I was browsing the recent MidAmerica auction results and this 1939 HD EL caught my eye. $37,500 seems sorta low. Why? Oddly diggin' the pimpy gator bags.

Petrali

I'd never seen the Joe Petrali Knuck without it's rear fairing before. Wild.



UPDATE
I saw the top photo on the Dice magazine blog. I think it's the original bike restored as restored by "Chicago Ray" Schlee. I found this post from Craig Vetter while messing around. Aeronautics geeks, I don't know...

V 2.0

V will likely be in the hospital a least another day. Lab results are back so at least we know what we are dealing with and know we are using the right antibiotics. He's been a remarkable sport about it all. He was pretty stoked to get his Valentines from school today even though Kindergarten has somehow made him swear off girls.