The RL Test Ride

A bunch of welding, some Gray Hammertone (Hammertone is the BOMB!) and a couple more fabbed parts to get the fuel tank to fit again without the top triple-clamp trying to bang holes in it, and we're ready to go and see if this sucker will turn now. We headed for The Nubbie Memorial Section.

Well, turn it does friends, and the handlebars don't seem to have the leverage over me that they once did. A big hit on a log or a basketball sized rock that might of once been disaster is now shrugged off and the bike is a lot more composed in an ugly situation. Hallelujah and Mucho-Appreciado to my Mad Scientist and a quart of his favorite blended Scotch-Whiskey is in order I think. Hell, I'll even help him drink it.....

Now we just need to hone my riding skills as we get ready to head for Daytona in a fortnight. Maybe this season I can actually win an AHRMA National on the damn thing. It won't be for lack of motorbike. Crossing my fingers....

Sweet.

Happy New Year, Again

Today marks the Chinese New Year, The Year Of The Dog. According to the Chinese Zodiac people born in the Year of the Dog posess the best traits of human nature. You can read more about it HERE .

This is Casey and she is totally happy that it's the Year of the Dog, and shoot, she's always thought it was the Year of the Dog. Stupid humans.....

Progress

One thing you need to know about mad-scientists is that they really like hammers. This particular M.S. has a whole damn drawer full of hammers of all shapes and sizes and they're made out of all sorts of materials for the faces and shafts. And the only thing they like more than a hammer itself is actually knocking hell out of something with them. Then laughing like a maniac.

In this case it is the top back-bone of my beloved RL frame. We're closing in on a test ride so stay tuned.......

Kids, Don't Try This At Home!

Suzuki RL250 Trials bikes are notorious for their overly long wheelbases and a not steep enough rake to the geometry of the frame. They are the worst handling of the vintage bikes from the Big Four during the seventies. All except the Honda TL125, but we won't even talk about them.....

What to do about your RL? Simple.

Find yourself a mad-scientist. Then cut the top backbone of your frame in two with a hack-saw. Shit a brick. Spread it apart at the cut. Determine the rake and wheelbase that you'd like to end up with and do a bit of math.

Machine yourself up a sweet spacer piece to the proper dimensions. Heat your frame at various points with a torch and start bending until you get all your pieces where you want them. Shit another brick. Then hammer to and weld shut.

Here we see my mad-scientist in the initial stages of the cut. I'm off to the right here having said bowel movement.

I'll let you know how it turns out. The frame I mean...........

Graceful Entrance

photo by Vickie

Welcome, welcome, welcome to Jenna Grace, our newest addition to the crew for all family reunions, birthday and holiday gatherings. Boy, I sure hope she likes chicken and dumplins and corn-bread dressing and pinto beans and pecan pie.........Shoot, I'm sure New-Mom Kim and New-Granny Bobbie Jean will train her right.

She was brought into the stratosphere on Wednesday afternoon at 5:10 p.m. and weighed in at seven pounds two ounces and was a non-WNBA legal twenty-one inches in height. From the reports that I got Jenna and New-Mom were fine, but New-Dad Jeff was found to be wound a bit tight, and a drink was advised of him to settle his nerves.

In the pic we see Great-Grandma at the controls, looks like she's done this before folks. I can't wait to see her!

Congratulations !

Just Chillin'

I'll give you three guesses as to what's going on around here.

And, oh yeah, Thanks Bob........

Jr. Dipper

Skate buds Matt and Jake (A father and son thrash-team, how cool is that?) were down from Bowling Green for Sunday Services today. They brought a whole crew down with them, Jim and Tanner and Taylor also making the trip to Nashvegas and CWC. It was good to see them all. Even Tanner.

The city of Bowling Green's been having their Parks Department meetings for a public skatepark and it appears that they're going to go with a Wally Hollyday design and construction. That can only be a good thing.

The stick in the picture is something that Jake built just like back in the day when you chopped and channeled a roller skate and a piece of wood to make yourself a skateboard. It has urethane "Zingers" wheels and drop-ball bearings with a wheel base of all of about 12 and-a-half inches. The real damn thing. He called it the "Jr. Dipper".

He handed it to me and said, "Here, skate it!"

I handed it right the hell back and said, "Yeah, right......my wife put you up to trying to kill me, right kid?"



Here we see Jake carving the banks near the flow-bowl at CWC on the Jr. Dipper. Cwazy kidz.

L8R

Happy Friday the 13th

Here's hoping everyone survived the dreaded Friday the 13th. I usually have a pretty good FT13 and today was no exception. Lots of cutting machinery all day and I can still use all of my 10 and-a-half digits.

The things that people are superstitious or ritualistic about is a menage of psychosis that we'd need some outide assisance on. Making sure you don't close a knife that someone else opened. Three on a match, that's a goocher. Telling a performer (or a trials rider) to break a leg. Add your favorite in the comments......

I was many times the only squirrel on the ball team that didn't mind the number 13 uniform. That number is just a number. But, that's not to say that there weren't any uniform superstitions in the Adcock locker room. If we won we didn't wash the uniform until we lost a game, lest we wash all the winning luck out of it. A winning streak could get downright funky, don't ya' know.

HERE's an interesting read at snopes.com (the Urban Legend guys) about the possible origins of the phobias concerning the number 13 and Friday's.

Have a good weekend........

All In The Numbers

I don't know what the hell this is......but I thought it just weird enough to be the pimp ride for the day.

For the real car hounds out there comes THIS sneak peek from AUTOBLOG of the new Ferrari 600 Imola. Ultra-Sex. Thanks to the big boy for the link.

L8R

Metralla Sighting

I know that we alluded to a possible ride impression on the pretty Metralla Bultaco, but circimstances have thus far not been favorable. Hell, I haven't been able to get it outside for a pic. I'm hoping that it doesn't leave the realm of Skate Truck too soon for this to occur. For some more info and specs on the Metralla click HERE .

These are worth a look.....
The Captain signs on with, what else, the Captian's Log .

And the Nubster lobs in from Fairview ways right HERE .

hasta

Skate Quiver

PC.

No, not as in politically correct, but as in Paul Constantineau. Check out the reprint of his original "Who's Hot" blurbage from Skateboarder Mag and some great pics HERE . PC was the one with the style y'all.

This is my PC Tailtap from Dogtown Skates, one of the first laminates they ever shipped. Again, the Bike Pedlar on West End Ave. was skate central in Nashvegas in the 70's, and that's where we convened to wait on the UPS guy. I'm sure he thought we were crazy.

What a great stick this was to bang in the ditch over on Fatherland Ave. The set-up in the day was Tracker Mid-Tracks with red Tunnel Rocks (!) or Full-Tracks and white Yo-Yo Pro's. The tail-slide is a MURF's Super Pivot. Currently it's running Indy 159's and some Spitfire Salba's and it feels great, like an old friend. The graphics have always been fixed with Sharpie's from day one, back some ten-thousand days ago.

This PC has seen many-a-mile and yet still seems modern, kind of like Jeff Beck always seems modern. I love that shit.

Skate hard.

New Year

To start off the change of year for '06 I was kind of thinking about a skate sunrise service until Sam expressed interest in a New Year's Day motorbike ride. It's a kind of semi-traditional ride for us, in that we do it for a couple of years and then a couple years we don't. Go figure.

We were also celebrating the fact that Sam has decided that he doesn't have to go back to work after the holiday's are over. Ever.....Sweet!

We met up with the Nubster, had some breakfast at the home of the Keg Kounty Kowboys in Bon Aqua, and then proceeded to scour the backroads of the south-eastern chunk of the Mid-Tenn basin. We got lost, we got pointed at, and we laughed our asses off all day. I had the head-ache at days end that's caused by too much ear-to-ear grinning. Yes.

Mr. Nubbie was kind enough to bring Mr. Duke along to mess with my optic/spastic nerve (flinch, flinch). Too bad that the KTM guys in Austria have seen fit to discontinue it's travels here. Man, what a finely sorted, comfortable and capable piece of machinery. See there, I didn't even mention once how damn sexy it is. Hah!

Thanks for the therapy and the ride guys! Only thing missing was the Big Boy and Little Pinto. Here's hoping to a safe and healthy 2006. Happy New Year all!
L8R