Track Gang

 

The track gang came by this morning about 7:00. I'm still curious about the long term plans for the track. I think the only thing it services east of me is the power plant and it was scheduled to shut down a couple of years ago. There are solar fields now in place that took heaven only knows how much productive cropland out of production that was supposed to replace the electricity from the coal fired power plant. Apparently, someone's calculations were a bit off. With all the track work they're doing, they must plan on keeping the line running for at least a few more years. Since I like trains, I'm glad to see the line staying in operation, but more importantly, I'm a big fan of dependable electricity. 

I just read in the paper "Slow Joe" and company are using wartime powers to manufacture heat pumps and four other alternative energy technologies. This goes along with the war on gas stoves, water heaters and other appliances that will create increased costs in new construction and who knows what costs for existing homes and businesses. I've got no idea how this is all going to shake out but I really wish the government would back down a couple of notches on the green energy/climate change front and come up with way to balance the budget and erase some of the debt. This country is in big, big trouble on all fronts. Heat pumps aren't going to be the solution.

It's been unseasonably cold the last few days - night time temps in the teens. Between my cold and Mother Nature's cold, I haven't ventured out to the shop for a few days. I did feel well enough to go to the health club yesterday. I needed to go out anyway in search of a heated chicken waterer. Two different farm stores and all I could come up with was the bottom half of one. Fortunately, it matched the one I was replacing so I could use the old top with the new bottom. They cut me a good deal on it, so I came away satisfied.

The Missus has come down with the cold now. She's hacking, coughing and feeling like death warmed over. The grandson has it, so we had to cancel our welding lesson and the sister-in-law has got covid. I hope the cold weather has killed some of these nasty germs so the rest of the winter will be better from a health standpoint. 

In the meantime, here's a couple more shots from the AMA Museum:

Moto Guzzi cut-away and an Indian service vehicle. I enjoyed the museum visit, and now there's two others on the list to go see: Wheels Through Time in North Carolina and the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum in Alabama. I need to get the map out and see what kind of a trip I can put together for North Carolina that would include motorcycles, steam trains, an open wheel race or two and the Buc-Ees  Travel Center in Richmond, KY.

Stoicism

 Epictetus was telling his students that there can be no such thing as being the "victim" of another. You can only be a "victim" of yourself. It's all in how you discipline your mind. Who is your master? "He who has authority over any of the things on which you have set your heart. ...What is the result at which all virtue aims? Serenity. ...Show me a man who though sick is happy, who though in danger is happy, who though in prison is happy, and I'II show you a Stoic."

I just finished reading this one. I'm looking for some help dealing with all the craziness going on in the world. The Stoic philosophy looks like it could be helpful. Of course, reading about it and implementing it are two totally different things. It's going to take some work to "get my mind right". 

I bailed out on the 5K Saturday morning - still fighting my cold and it was cold. It was only about 32 degrees at starting time and I saw no reason to suffer through the cold while hacking and coughing.

Back at the AMA Museum, a Ducati 900 SS. This one ranks right up there with a Jaguar XKE on my personal wish list. Probably should just finish up the Sportster and count my blessings.

Husky 400, but not just any Husky 400. This is the one Malcolm Smith rode in the movie On Any Sunday. I've got my Malcolm Smith signed autobiography that I haven't read yet. That's on the list for the winter.

The Triumph X75 Hurricane designed by Craig Vetter of Windjammer fairing fame. Vetter's an interesting guy. Besides the fairing business he was involved in a high mileage contest years ago. He put on a presentation at Mid-Ohio years ago that Brother Johnny and I attended. I talked to him after the presentation and explained that my high school class was involved in an annual high mileage contest and he gave me his contact information. I was hoping for a bit more money from him for sponsorship, but he did send us a little something. 

It snowed most of the day today - not cold enough to accumulate but it put a lovely coating on the pine trees. I spent most of the day sitting on my ass reading and watching old cowboy movies. I'm going to have to start moving again or I'm going to get bedsores. If it's not too cold tomorrow, I'll try to get the brake pads fiddled so I can get the Sportster front wheel bolted back up. I need to get it out of the doorway so I can close the curtain and get some heat up front. It's winter for sure now. 

Thanksgiving

 Happy Thanksgiving one and all. Looks like it's going to be busy traveling, so be safe out there!

I'm getting over my cold after a week of hacking and coughing. I'm signed up for a 5K Saturday morning, so I'll tackle that one for sure. There's also a new event at the golf course by me tomorrow. I'd like to do that one as well but don't know if that's feasible - I'll see how I feel in the morning. 

Here's a couple more shots from the AMA Hall of Fame Museum:

Harley pumped out a lot of these things. You could buy a street bike in a couple of models as well as motors all set for competition usage, both 250 and 350 cc displacements. This one is a typical setup - spool front end, hardtail rear, solo saddle and a remote float Dellorto carb. The Bultaco and Yamaha two stroke bikes took over from the pushrod Sprints. Harley did have some two stroke single racers. Even won world championships on the road courses.

You can see Springsteen's leathers with the number 9 to the left of the photo, but this one was ridden by the other famous # 9, Gary Nixon. I would guess Nixon was probably more closely associated with the Triumph brand, but he, like most all of the professional racers of that era, raced whatever gave you the best chance at the title and paid the bills. I've got a signed photo of him racing a Kawasaki in the World Formula 750. He would have won the championship had it not been for some hinckiness with the scoring rules.

Flat track, road race and drag racing: Leo Payne's Turnip Eater. '57 Sportster powered drag racer ran 9 second elapsed times with speeds of 150 miles per hour in the quarter mile. He also set a record of 200 miles per hour at Bonneville. Somehow or another he managed to get the weight of that thing down to 300 pounds - my Sportster weighs 500 pounds wet and had a rated top speed of 111 mph. Leo knew his stuff.

I'll see about posting a couple more photos. In the meantime be thankful for all you have and Peace to all of you.

Motorcycles

 Cuzzin Ricky and I took a road trip over the weekend. We went to Ohio on Sunday to pick up a family heirloom from my brother and met up with him, his wife and another cousin for a lunch date. We had a great get together - haven't seen my brother in quite some time. 

We met in Pickerington, Ohio, which is the home of the AMA and their Hall of Fame Museum. Rick and I spent Sunday night in Ohio and then went to the Museum Monday morning. They had a nice collection of motorcycles - many more MX bikes than I would have displayed  if I was in charge, but that's just a personal prejudice with me.

They had a little display on Evil Knievel including these x-rays of a few of the broken bones he managed to accumulate during his career. It wasn't an easy way to make a living, obviously.

Heavily modified Harley 165 that was a giant slayer. I've got one of these and it looks nothing like the bike in the photo. The head looks too big for the cylinder. They either cast a new head or shaved the fins off the barrel. It's been converted to a twin shock set-up also. The original suspension is a single spring mounted under the engine. Cool little bike.

Cal Rayborn's XR750. Rayborn was one of my motorcycle idols back in the day. He was one of the best road racers of all time in my book. Rayborn died in '73 in a crash when the Suzuki he was racing seized up. 

I'll post a few more photos from the museum in the next few days. 

Brake & Light

 

I took the front caliper apart to get it cleaned up prior to replacing the pads. If you look closely, you can see a couple of grooves in the one pad. I'm not real sure how those got in there. There's nothing on the rotor that would do that, as far as I can tell. The other pad had about half of it covered in grease, as were the rest of the caliper parts and the fork leg. It's hard to imagine how this thing could have been so screwed up with less than 5,000 miles on the clock. Regardless, I need to get the front wheel back underneath it so I can close off the front part of the shop so I can heat the space. It's getting colder and my old bones and fingers don't care for working in the cold.

I got the outside light installed on the south wall of the shop Wednesday. I still need to run the wiring on the inside but I can do that most anytime, regardless of the weather. 

I seem to have caught a cold or something - all the classic symptoms. I don't actually feel all that bad but my chest is sore from all the coughing. It's slowing me down a bit but other than getting the front wheel back on the Sportster, I don't have anything pressing going on.

Muscles

 

I occasionally look at The Art of Manliness web site. He put up a post on Mike Mentzer who I remember from back in the day. When I worked at the Career Center, several students were into weight training and there was always a muscle mag of some sort floating around the classroom. What little training I've done over the years has always focused on body-weight exercises and humping heavy things around in fab shops. Nothing like a 9" hand grinder to give you Popeye forearms. 

Bodybuilding was more mainstream back then. In addition to Mentzer, most everyone knew of Arnold, of course, but also Franco Columbo, Lou Ferrigno, and Chicago cop Sergio Oliva. I saw Sergio in person once. I was in Chicago for a ball game or something and he was working a corner. There were muscles on top of muscles with that guy.

I'm working the weights now a couple of days a week to continue with the shoulder rehabilitation, and to gain some muscle mass. The shoulder specialist recommended weight training not only for the shoulder but as a way to lower my A1C number. As those of you who have read the blog for any length of time know, I'm always doing some sort of exercise, but it's mostly the aerobic suff. I've lost quite a bit of upper body muscle over the last couple of years, so I'm going to be trying to get some muscle back without irritating my mystery chest ailment. I'm not ready to try body building, but I am looking into becoming more of a "stoic warrior" - "get your mind right, Luke." 

We'll see how it goes. 

More Parts

 

Shocks and brake disc came in last week but I didn't open the box until yesterday. I like the looks of the new drilled disc. The holes are not chamfered, which would lead to rapid pad wear. However, it insures that pads never get glazed. I'm contemplating doing a light chamfering on the holes with a countersinking tool. Maybe yes, maybe no.

I bought this light to install on the new pole in the back yard. The pole man brought me a new light, so the one in the photo is left over and it's been long enough I can't return it. I'm planning on installing it on the south end of my shop. I've got an identical one on the north side of the shop and I'm quite pleased with the amount and color of the light it gives off. It turns on automatically at dusk and the installation was pretty easy to do. I should get the outside part done before it gets too cold. In fact, I should have done it when I had the ladder and the tools out when I replaced the window trim. 

I made another pie last evening. I had a hankering for a pie of my own after baking the other two and giving them away. I was a little short of apples from the original batch, but I had some still on the tree that were useable. There were three different varieties of apples in the pie - don't know what they actually are but the pie tastes good. 

Spending some time in the shop today. The weather is still unseasonably warm - need to get out and get some things done.  

Fight Night!

 

A group of us associated with the boxing club went to Louisville for the fights Saturday night. We know the promotor and several of the fighters on the card. Had some good fights and a couple of turds. This was the first show by the promotor and Nick had a good turnout. There were several 1st round KO's, two coming from the guys we were rooting for. We spent the night and came home Sunday. I took a couple of the guys home but I was still back at the shack by 1:30 on Sunday. Didn't do much the rest of the day but planning on hitting the gym, doing some grocery shopping, and tinkering on the Sportster a bit today. 

Pies & Vets

 

Friday was pie day! A pair of apple pies, both of which are for friends - took quite a bit of restraint on my part to keep from cutting myself a slice, though. I had planned on baking three of them but came up a bit short on apples. Maybe Monday I can scrounge a couple of them still left on my trees so I can bake one for here. I usually bake a couple of loaves of persimmon bread this time of year but I didn't get enough fruit for that - it goes in cycles, so next year probably.

Off to the boxing matches with Coach Jen and Nikola, and a few more. Long drive, so it'll be an overnighter. Should make for an interesting experience, regardless of the boxing matches.

And of course, it's Veterans Day. Thanks to all those who are still around and a moment of prayer in remembrance for all those who are gone now. 

Busy

 

Actually it's 20 minutes, but then there's 40 more minutes of the work out. 

Busy day yesterday - picked up the veggies, went to the doctor to get the big toe checked out, Menards, Aldi, and the college. Got home and piddled around a bit, then put in my 30 minute drive to the health club, hour workout and then to the boxing gym for a sparring session to get our fighter some work before the Silver Gloves, home by 7:00. 

The brake disc showed up yesterday but I didn't even take it out of the box. I'm baking a couple of apple pies today - might get out to the shop later.

Brake Pads

 

This lady has a beautiful voice and I especially like the piano work at about the halfway point in this number. I took piano lessons a long, long time ago. We've got a piano at the house now and I started playing again a couple of years ago but the piano broke. There's a little piece that transfers the energy from striking the key to the string to make the note. The little gizmo looks to be made from plastic of some sort. When I stuck my head up in there to see what was broken, I could see that a couple other of the keys had suffered a similar fate and had been repaired using hardwood. Getting the piano useable is on the list of things to get done this winter. Either fix it or send it down the road. 

The brake pads and the rebuild kit for the master cylinder came yesterday. I didn't get to do anything with them - busy getting caught up on the mail, paying bills and welding with the grandson later in the day. We started him on TIG welding aluminum. He did well. Surprisingly enough, he didn't stick the tungsten down into the soup even once. Usually, the first couple sessions are spent more on the grinder cleaning off the tungsten than on actually welding. New shocks and brake disc should be here on Friday. 

I get the front wheel and the pipes back on I'll put it away for the winter, do a little shop clean up and get back on the jitney, the vintage trials bike and a project or two in the basement workshop. I'm going to be plenty busy this winter - teaching a class at the college once again, working with a couple of boxers, hitting the gym a couple of days a week, and keeping up with all the chores around the shack. Better than sitting on my ass doing nothing, though. Lazy Boy is definitely a good name for that recliner.

Front Wheel

 

Front wheel cleaned up with the new tire installed. I had a helluva time breaking the bead on the old tire. I finally resorted to using a couple of "C" clamps to squeeze the sides of the tire together which broke the bead loose. Again, the install went fairly smoothly with the drop center rim. New brake pads and master cylinder rebuild kit should be here today. I'll get the caliper and forks cleaned up. I'm going to order a new rotor and some shocks also. Even if this thing never runs, the chassis will be sorted and the bike will look good while sitting in the shop. I'm still thinking about replacing the drag pipes - good wintertime project. 

Political Post

 

When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

I started this blog with the intention of posting student projects, commenting on educational issues, Black and White photography, and any and all things I monkey around with or find interesting. I hadn't really planned on making political statements. But as it says in the Declaration of Independence above, when in the course and all that.

The Bill of Rights, or the first ten amendments to the Constitution, should be our guarantee that the federal government will be held in check and the people in Washington doing us the most harm have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. However, if you read the 10th amendment, they seem to have either forgotten about their oath, or have just chosen to ignore it in order to have more power over we the people.

I don't know what I can do personally to change what's taking place or correct what has already happened - no point trying to list those things, there's just too many of them. I don't see how we can vote our way out of this mess, either. We can only vote for who's on the ballot, and at this time, we don't get much to choose from. And there's now plenty of evidence the outcome of the last election wasn't exactly on the up and up anyway.

I have a relatively small audience here, so I'm not going to be able to have much effect on changing things with this post, but I urge all of you to do whatever you can to stop the madness that's destroying our country.

OK, I'm done for now. Regular programming will resume shortly.

Jammin', Wrenchin' & Cookin'

Jammin' in the shop yesterday - moved a few things around so I could pull the front wheel off the Sportster. I've got a stout screw-eye in the beam separating the front and back of the shop. I installed it originally to hang a heavy bag from and since I tend to always go overboard a bit on most of my engineering, I figured if it would hold an 80 pound heavy bag bouncing up and down, it would hold the front end of the bike. A couple of soft ties and a come-along and up it came. Since it will be hanging for a few days, I put a pipe across the bottom of the forks supported by jack stands, just to be on the safe side.

Easy enough to get the wheel off - shouldn't take too long to clean it up. The brake rotor could use a little clean up but I don't think it's feasible to get it machined. There are several types of rotors available - different hole patterns and materials. As long as I'm in this deep, I'm giving it serious consideration.

Casting number on the wheel hub. It's an old bike but not that old. Revolutionary War Commemorative model maybe?

About the time I was washing up, Surly and a few of his buddies stopped by on their bikes on their way home after enjoying at least one last ride for the season. I should have gotten a photo of the bikes - nice looking machines. Glad they stopped by. Good people all of them.

Some of the tomatoes I salvaged from the frost killed plant. These were buried in the foliage so they weren't affected by the frost. I only got a few that ripened up this summer. Not sure why, the plant had all kinds of growth and several more green ones on it. The ones that ripened up made a beautiful slicer - lots of meat inside, very little water.

And they make really tasty fried green tomatoes. There are lots of recipes for these things but these are about as simple as it comes. Dip them in an egg and milk mixture, dredge them in a corn meal - flour mixture with a little black pepper, and fry them up. Down south they'd fry them in bacon grease, but as a consideration to my arteries, I used vegetable oil. A little dash of Frank's Red Hot, "I put that sh*t on everything" sauce, and yum, yum. 

This & That

Doctor and dentist appointments on Thursday. No cavities and all clear on the oncologist report for the Missus. While spending time in the waiting rooms I was able to all but finish the Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne. While his politics is a bit left of mine, I found myself in agreement about many of the points he made, especially the role bicycles can play in practical transportation. He's an excellent writer, besides being a very successful musical artist. Highly recommended.

It's officially the end of the season. The farmer showed up Thursday evening to start picking corn. He had the north side of the lane picked when I got home from working with the two boxers Coach Jen and I are training. He finished picking Friday morning, so other than chopping stalks, that's it until spring. Lots of deer out on the move now. I had to take evasive action twice on the way home the other night. I had to slow way down for a big buck crossing the road and then about a mile farther up the road a doe ran out in front of me. If she'd lost traction when she hit the pavement, I'd have collected her up for sure. 

While he was picking corn, I was pulling up the old tomato and pepper plants. Hard freeze and snow finished them off a couple of days ago. I did salvage a few big, green tomatoes I'm going to fry up.

daily timewaster

I got a chuckle out of this one. The British taking a shot at the Americans, just about the time Mr. Honda convinced everyone world wide if you wanted to meet the nicest people, you need to ride Japanese scooters. The British and HD got their ass handed to them and it took quite a while to get the motorcycle industries in both countries back on an even keel. There were casualties, of course. The only real survivor of the British motorcycle industry is Triumph. BSA stayed afloat for a couple of years using the Triumph frames. Norton came and went several times but never amounted to much more than selling the brand name and tee shirts, and when's the last time you saw a Matchless? Royal Enfield is back and thriving now but only because they were kept alive due to the Indian market. HD is once again having financial troubles. They sold a lot of motorcycles that people aren't making the payments on and are having problems getting the bikes back, along with the fact the demographics of their clientele is working against them. Lots of Harley owners are aging out of the market and many young people don't want or can't afford a big twin. Plus, they have real competition from Indian.

Yours truly is the proud owner of a Royal Enfield, which has managed to stay continually in the business of making motorcycles since 1901. I also am in the process of getting one of those bikes that make an ungodly amount of racket ready to hit the road next spring. I'm not a fan of drag pipes, so I might have to do something about that. I'm not so sure loud pipes save lives. They do irritate a lot of people, of that I'm sure.

I used the floor crane to set the Sportster down on its wheels yesterday. The front brake is pretty spongy. I ordered some brake pads and a master cylinder rebuild kit and I'll wait to pull the front wheel off until I get those. I should have ordered those when I bought the brakes for the rear wheel. I'd like to get a stainless braided brake line as well.

.035", 308

 

I ordered a lifetime supply of stainless MIG wire to use as TIG filler rod when I finish weld the rack on the Sportster. The wire is .035" diameter which is about the same as the wall thickness on the tubing. I've got a real small tungsten, coupled with this wire, it should make the welding go as smoothly as I'm capable of. This will be one of those jobs that'll get tackled when I'm in the right mood, got some good music queued up and the phone turned off. I don't need any of the damn spam calls bothering me.

I was going to have the grandson give me a hand getting the Sportster back down on the rear wheel when he came down yesterday, but he got called out in the early hours yesterday for snow removal duty. Now that my shoulder has a decent range of motion, I can probably do it on my own. I sure as hell don't want to drop it. I need to move it though, so I can get the front wheel removed for the tire change and rim polish, then put it to bed for the winter.

Work Train

I heard this thing coming yesterday morning and had plenty of time to get to the window to take a look. It was only moving 3-4 miles per hour, I would guess. 

The reason it was going so slow was because they were spotting ties along the track. Rather surprising since they had done the same thing a few years ago and the track is just used to feed coal to the power plant and the power plant was supposed to have been shut down by now. However, in spite of all the solar panels that have been installed on prime farm ground around here, the power company isn't allowed to shut it down, for which I'm very grateful.

Behind the engine was a short string of gondolas, a flat car with a ramp for the backhoe to get up on top of the gons, and this flat car with what seems to be a generator set. It was running but I don't know what it was powering. 

The photographs look cloudy for two reasons. The window needs to be cleaned and it was spitting snow. Later in the day it started to come down pretty hard. We got enough snow to cover the ground even though the ground was warm. Definitely looks like winter's here.

I went out in the shop in the afternoon and puttered around a bit. I need to get things cleaned up so I can run the heater up front. I'm going to work on that a little more today after I put on my long underwear. That'll be standard attire until April 1st.