Rickati Progress

I finished up the work stand for the Rickati project. I could have made it a bit taller but both tires clear the ground, so that works. I wish my little camera took better close-ups. I would have taken a picture of a couple of the welds on the stretchers. Beautiful looking TIG welds, even if I do say so myself. I'm fortunate that my eyesight and my hands are steady enough that I can still do this kind of work. I painted the stand with left over paint from the motorbike project. I really like that red. I'll probably paint the frame of the bike that color when I get it finished. It looks good on the motorbike. 

I shined up the tank, muffler and gear gazer while I was out there yesterday. I had the filler on the tank taped off and I wanted to make sure the new gas cap was going to fit, so I had to clean off the sticky residue from the tape. While I was doing that, figured I might as well clean up the rest of the aluminum stuff while I was at it. I had polished up the sidecovers on the engine while the bike was at the school but they got a little corroded while sitting around these many years. I might clean those up later today after I get home from the bicycle race.

I'm not planning on it being much of a race today. My sore back has really cut into my training. I got a massage on Friday to loosen it up but it tightened back up after working out in the morning and working in the shop yesterday afternoon. Today will be the cycling equivalent of jogging, whatever that is.

The tubing and the fenders will be in this week so I can work on getting the back end of the bike squared away. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do about the rear wheel but it's not holding things up yet, so I've got time to think about it. I should probably decide before I send the motor out to get rebuilt, however. Pretty happy with the progress up to this point. Don't know how much I'll get done this week - lots of stuff on the schedule, including getting the wisdom tooth pulled. I'll just keep pecking away it.