Hell Yes!

My New Favorite Mercedes Website

http://mercedessource.com

And you gotta check out these; stainless steel zipties!

For some projects, the most fitting words, the most poignant observations, can only come from a third party.  A mother, a girlfriend, a boss, an employee, or just a good friend has a message that simply strikes the essence of the whole project.  

Here is such a message, a quote from my dad upon his learning that I was about to pull an old truck from the weeds:

"You should take pictures of the truck only for the sake of reminding you (when truck troubles come along), it is a heap you pulled from under an oak tree, after 4 years of rest, you have forced it back into service, it may be ugly for a good reason, but, it seemed like a good idea at the time and (hopefully) you are no worse off than before.

If you want to name the truck I suggest you call it FERDINAND.

As you know the story of the reluctant bull, he wouldn't fight in the bull ring or be fierce as they wished him to be, so they had to take Ferdinand home.  And for all we know he is sitting there still, under his favorite cork tree, smelling the flowers just quietly and is very happy."

Project XXI

Project XXI is still in the concept phase, but this is where it stands thus far:
I’m thinking a second chain-ring on the other side of the crank driving this three barrel gatling gun. Handlebar mounted trigger (say in a bell position) will disengage a clutch in the receiver allowing barrels to spin and gun to fire.
Snail-drum magazine loading from the bottom.
Chambered for 9mm or .38 Super maybe--that’s still in the air.
Laser sight on the handle bars.

Tell me what you think.

Bike shirts from Fixed Gear Gallery

It has been a number of months now since I started following the daily updates over at Fixed Gear Gallery, and that site was one of my main inspirations for riding and building fixed gear bikes. As some of you know, I am a total convert to the whole 'fixie' thing, and ride it literally every day; (and I don't mind if you make fun of me or shake your heads---I still enjoy it every time I get on it). I submitted my first two builds as well as a few of my bicycle drawings to the site, and actually got a few emails from folks wondering how I got the frame of my Trek to look the way it does. The drawings produced a few compliments too, but I was still surprised to receive an email from Mr. Fixed Gear Gallery himself: one Dennis Bean-Larson. Now, when it comes to the fixed gear world, Mr. Bean-Larson is sort of like a benevolent godfather, organizing events and contests and feeding his fellow 'fixters' with a continual stream of bike pictures. When he asked me about making a shirt from my design, I was amazed that from all the submissions he wanted to print mine! Well, we made a deal and he has started printed shirts with my drawing on it for his clothing line, Hell Yes Clothing. Neither he or I will get rich from this assuredly, but I am stoked to have my work being produced by someone well-known! You should check out his website---in the 'coming soon' section you'll see my name(!); I don't know for sure when they will be out, but soon, so watch for it!

contemplation of four-wheel ownership

I suppose it is inevitable. That's the sentiment that looms, whenever it rains or whenever it becomes necessary to transport large picture frames, motorcycle engines, motorcycle rear wheels, or the occasional comfy chair.

While a motorcycle or a scooter is the perfect personal transportation device, its limitations as a general transportation device have been a bit under the collar of late. I'm eagerly chomping at the bit to expand my career experience in landscaping, which means taking on minor side jobs for little or nothing. I admit to having a brief, mad fling with the thought of constructing a motorcycle trailer or purchasing a sidecar hack, but the Russian hacks get about 20 mpg and require a good bit of tinkering to keep on the road, and I don't have the resources to build one myself.

So I'm facing the reality of carting about lengths of PVC pipe, shovels and rakes and occasionally a broken motorcycle, and this will place me once again amongst the huddled masses of cage drivers. I don't like the idea; I'm trying to avoid acquiring stuff which costs insurance and registration (which will inevitably cost more than insurance). And I won't be able to let the car/truck sit. I'll have to drive it occasionally to keep it alive. So between the DL650, Suzi and another vehicle, I'll have to keep all of them going - that's going to be a lot of burning gas and wearing out tires and final drives. Can't sell the DL; it is and will remain my primary transpo, can't sell Suzi, she's in pieces; and it's pretty certain I'm going to absolutely, positively need to have this car or truck about 1.5 times a month. So yeah. One man, three vehicles (four if the Motobecane is included); how obscene is that...

If only I had any friends that I trusted with an 1134 cc overbored superbike...maybe I can get crashbox to borrow it periodically just to keep the juices juicy. Ideally, I'd like to sell it to someone who will properly appreciate it, but I don't know anyone like that, and I have to put at least a few miles on it myself before it goes.

There is also the thought of having the right tool for the task; and that is also part of my approach to life. I absolutely HATE using the wrong tool for the task, an aversion probably running somewhere deep in my old-world wood-carver ancestry. That thought makes things easier, but...still...I'm all out of carport space....

I think it is time we actually printed those 'Recycled Vehicle' stickers you saw on crashboxing a little while back. As I said before, the lowest price I can find is $90 for 250, from the same company that printed the imperfectd stickers for us. We are all tight for money I know, but if there are at least three of us in on it we won't have to spend to much and we can divide the quantity.

Who's with me?

On the Road Again

Well, I bought a new-to-me recycled car here in the Bay Area.

The scrap man was going to give this fellow $500 for it, but he'd rather have it go to a good home.

Ol' girl needs a few things before we get on the road to PDX.

We did have Fernando come out and put a new windshield in, and Paul hooked us up with some new tires, too.

I changed the oil -- didn't realize synthetic was SO expensive. The AAA discount at Napa's helped, I think it was 10 or 15%.

Luckily the previous owner left a new windshield gasket (~$50), a new oil filter (~$8), and a couple of glow plugs (~$20-30). That and an assortment of specialty wrenches, which probably cost a pretty penny. A shop manual (Haynes, but still) and a Mercedes Benz A/C and climate control systems manual.  In fact, I'll bet I could just sell the excess parts and so forth and recoup my money!

Things left to do:

• Fix the water leak in the thermocoupler valve
• Put in a new speedo cable
• Fix the dash lights
• Plug the rear speakers back in
• Get rear headrests?
• Get sidemarkers?
• Get one more hubcap?