Love the smell of Bel-Ray in the morning...

Elaborating on my new found pastime of cleaning out motorcycle gas tanks, I spent a good part of the day getting my RM running again. Vaughn was pretty into it and was actually a pretty good helper. It's rough switching between left & right shift bikes.



The A & B comparison of the Suzuki and the Bonnie is pretty amusing, both visually and from the riders seat...

Sandia BMW

I stopped by Sandia BMW for their show on Sunday but didn't take a camera. Thanks Ben Z for sharing your pics. Ben was also responsible for the lovely European Union photos I posted previously. I suspect you'll see a familiar pattern in the last photo.







There were a few more bikes there when I stopped by. I talked to a guy I met earlier in the day at C@D over lunch who brought a 1968 R69S. Second owner, he's owned it since 1971. Impeccably maintained and 100,500 miles on the clock. Incredible bike and owner. You meet some of the coolest people through MC's. In my experience it happens much less frequently with collector cars.

Defensive Driving

I think I just figured out how to make the Sprite more street-able for Seattle. Might be easier to implement with the Jeep. I was always fond of playing Rat Patrol...

Von Dutch Triumph

There's a great post on Show & Go (Don't read Show & Go? Start dammit!) about the restoration of a recently discovered Von Dutch Triumph:



"The bike was originally built as a bob-job by Von Dutch in the late '50s/early '60s. Los Angeles sportscaster Gil Stratton owned it for awhile, traded it back to Ekins, after which young L.A. County lifeguard Johnny Suggs bought it. Suggs was a fan/friend of Von Dutch and would sometimes fetch him "breakfast," a fifth of vodka and a six-pack of beer! In 1968, to celebrate Suggs' safe return from a tour of duty in Vietnam, Dutch treated the bike to a new paint job, a brilliant yellow/orange with gold pinstripes. A couple of years later, at the height of the Easy Rider craze, Dutch chopped the Triumph for Suggs."



Go grab a cold one and read the whole post.

It's Alive!

It probably wasn't timed quite right but Dad and I got the 80 to start and idle for the duration of a couple of full carb bowls (manual specs claim a GT 80 will get 178 MPG so we're talking a couple minutes). I gotta admit, I was even more psyched to hear it run than I expected to be. Every time I work on something with Dad I'm pretty much floored by the stuff he knows... He's pretty damn good.

Next task on my list, clean out the gas tank. I started with a couple of rounds of Simple Green and a handful or 5/16' nuts. That worked pretty darn well for the heavy crud. 4 or 5 more hours of shaking and I think it would look like new inside. Mostly just rust left. I got lazy and decided to try electrolysis. It seems like it's really working pretty well so far. I figured I'd post a picture just cuz it goes so well with the post caption.

Scallops

Mildly familiar.

Thanks again to Flathead45 for chasing down my Slimline tank, Chris for having it & selling it to him and John for completely nailing the paint. It really makes all the difference even if I does mean lots of gas station stops.

Knuck

Bob

Sometimes I wish I went with a shorter stretch and a Cub oil tank. Not losing sleep over it or anything.

CB 550

One day Joey will realize she can't live without an old CB. She'll design a killer paint scheme, no doubt about that.

Harem of Leno

I don't think there was ever any dispute but the guy knows how to spend money in cool ways.

Yamaha GT80

"LATE 70s EARLY 80s YAMAHA GT80...........NEEDS A LITTLE TLC BUT DOES RUN PRETTY GOOD.. $175.......CALL"



I was initially thinking parts but quickly started thinking matching mini hardtailed bobber for V. Called 15 minutes after it was posted and still missed it. I fricken HATE CL!

Picture...

is worth a 1,000 words. A few words might go a long way in terms of context though.