Richard's 1940 Ram

My buddy Richard Just about has his '40 ton and a half flatbed finished. He has a bit of interior work left to do. But he is about to set the football over the goal line. Here are a few pics of how close he is. It has the original flat six, completely rebuilt, and check out the steering wheel he hand made. The original was trashed so he made a new one out of six pieces of walnut. The truck is beautiful.







Till Next time...................

Have a Safe and Happy Fourth

A couple of Vipers from the 127th ANG doing their part to help keep us all free.
The 127th recently transitioned to the warthog. Maybe not as versatile a platform as the F-16, it is a butal tank killer and air to ground attack plane. Always a favorite of mine.

Ride 'em if You Got 'em

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Curly recently picked up a 1980 Yamaha XS650 to transform into a bobber. I took this baby for a ride Sunday night and was surprised at the performance. It was way faster than I had expected. It has the old eighty five mph speedo on it and I had it well on it's second pass around when I found out the brakes are shall I say, a bit on the soft side. It's been a while since I have rode a bike from this era and as soon as I pulled the brake lever I was wishing I had started my braking a bit earlier. I almost became one with a Ford Focus at the intersection of Thirteen Mile and Rochester Rd. The Focus driver was none the wiser, as I hauled the XS down from speed without any tire squealing. Just a bead or two of sweat on my forehead and some pretty wide eyes. By now you would think I should know better, but every now and then I still pull a bone head move or two.

Curly bought a set of the cast Yamaha wheels and they are being powder coated as we speak. He bought them not only for the looks, he wanted discs front and rear. Braided steel should improve the braking feel and performance right off the bat. He has been busy ordering parts of all description. Tc Bros hardtail kit, Biltwell black tuck and roll seat, sportster peanut tank. He is still figuring out the handle bars, headlight and a few other bits and pieces.

He has even talked me into building one of my own. I am currently looking for a suitable bike, right price, right condition. We should have the rest of the XT back together and ready to ride some time late this week or early next week. I need a hardtail bobbber like I need to be kicked in the head by a mule. Hey, maybe that's not such a bad idea.


Till Next Time..............

Un F@%$ing Believable

After all this time, I finally have made some freaking progress on the XT. I know it's hard to believe, I'm having a hard time believing it myself, hence the title of this post. After getting the bike from a friend about a year and a half ago, I set about cleaning her up and getting her into some tight fitting jeans and talking her into putting some new makeup on.

As you can see, she is still showing her bloomers, I still have to rebuild the carb, score a couple of intake boots and get a pair of side covers for her. All the wiring still needs to be done, as does the front brake caliper it needs rebuilding as well. between work, a Sportster paint job and another bike project in the works, I hope to have the XT ready for the road in about two weeks.

Bayou Boy is up from the Big Easy and quickly set about helping rebuild the forks and added new wipers and seals to them. Curly and Slug will be lending a hand, as I have completely no idea when it comes to wiring. I guess I could cobble the wiring together, but history tells me as soon as I turn the key smoke and a small lightning storm will be soon to follow. I have a friend that is interested it buying the XT, so that serves as a motivating factor. I just want to make sure that all systems are go when I toss him the keys.

Till Next Time..........

Deja' Vu

Game 1 Wings 3 Penguins 1
Game 2 Wings 3 Penguins 1
Game 3 Wings 2 Penguins 4
Game 4 Wings 2 Penguins 4
Game 5 Wings 5 Penguins 0
Game 6 Wings 1 Penguins 2
Game 7 Wings 1 Penguins 2
The Wings just didn't seem to show up for game seven and the Pens out played them at almost every turn. I have to hand it to them, on this night when it most counted, they were the better team, the hungrier team. Congrats Pittsburgh.
They dusted the Hawks off in five games a couple less then I expected. I guess dusted is a little strong. All the games where pretty damn close except for game four. The finals with the Pens a repeat of last year, will be a bit more of a challenge. The Penguins have another year experience under their belt and are a bit more seasoned and know what to expect. Crosby and Malkin both have amassed twenty eight points a piece on this years run to the finals. Fluery has been good in net and adding players like Guerin at the trading dead line only adds to their play making ability. The wings are playing with a few of their top players watching from the sidelines. Lindstrom, Datsyuk and Draper on the mend, hopefully they will be available to play in this series. The wings may have got out of the Chicago series without them in the last couple of games. They will need them against the Pens. All in all, this should be a great series. I would like the Wings to repeat, but I think this series will be too close to call.The wild card in all of this is Marion Hossa, who left the Pens lucrative multi year deal sitting on the table to play for the Wings who he believes he has the best chance of winning the cup with. It will be great to see the match ups and see Hossa play like a demon to prove he made the right move. All I can say is GO WINGS.

A Little Bit Late

I guess it's better than never. The Sporty has been done for a couple of weeks now, so here is what we started with and the finished product. This is the first bike I have ever rode with ape hangers. I have to say, to put bars like these on your bike you must have to love how they look. Because they make the bike handle like SHIT. I like my bikes to handle, in case you missed it the first time, the bike handles like SHIT. He seems to dig 'em though, and I guess in the end, that's what counts.

Till Next Time...............