Dumb and Dumber

 Well, It is project season. Not unlike any other season around here but project season for sure non the less. A very nice customer donated me a cool old Sonic Weld that he saved form the scrap. It belonged to a fellow who bought it new and lived it's whole life in the same little north west colorado valley I grew up in which is cool since there is no such thing as flattrack up there. Nor here for that matter. nearest track is 5hrs away. And that is just the short track at IMI. Kansas. some 10 hrs away... or Californa.... To be honest I don't know how much flattrack racing I am going to be doing in the for seen future. Who knows? God knows? Greg T Nelson knows! Ride With The Wind mother fuckers! Maybe it is movie night.... Anyhoo, digressing, degreasing, as always... What the fuck to do with this peice of proper flattrack machiner? I have some air cooled 250cc lumps out in my bone yard. Or even a liquid cooled on to continue on my treck of sacrilege. Fucking hell! Why not see if an XS650 would fit in it... Ah... what am I doing? Not what so much as why. WHY?

Maybe I'll drag something else out of my bone yard. I'd like to save the ol 1976 YZ125 from another cold season out in the elements. I think it has only been sitting out side with out a spark plug in it for maybe 30 years...

I do enjoy a challange and I must admit a little pain with my pleasure goes a long way. Lets break out the nipple clamps and bend over for a flog. How bad could it be...

HA! I've sledge hammered out pistons way worse! Lets start with some melting wax and a bit of blow torch! 

Ok, a lot of blow torch and maybe it is time for a re-hydration beverage. I think I can only take about an hour on the tower of power before I need a little golden shower.  Jeesus dick. It will run again. It is just a little old dirt bike engine. It will run again...

OOOO, this is fun. Somebody welded the kick starter onto the shaft. More whips and chains, please don't stop!

This is getting out of hand. I forgot to make a safe word. Knuckle down. Buckle down....

When the going get tough- the tough get going...

At this point I walked away. I just left the shop. It was time to go pick up the little one from day care and meet mom for pizza. return to the real world and forget all about the filthy little hobby of mine.   Tomorrow morning I am going to come into the shop to make some money doing honest work but first I am going to have to face up to my affliction to pain, mop up the mess, and throw a towel over it until I feel ready for more...

But in less questionable news I have made some pregress with the dyno so there is some hope for wholesome things to come about. In the mean time: Happy holidays, hail satan, watch out for santa and krampus, they are all probably one and the same. As the old Cosmic Cowboy, 5 years gone now, would always say: FAST AND CARELESS!!!!

 

World Vet MX at Glen Helen

 Get off the couch and ride. The long spell since the last time I raced motocross has been a long one. Some vintage mx once or twice in the previous few years but the gate drops at Glen Helen were full and intense. I saw bodies slammed, hurled and ground into the decomposed granite like dog shit on the sole of a commando boot. And one of those bodies was mine. Two classes in three days of three moto format was tough but not as tough as the off camber square edge bumps. The random mogul whoops. The ledges in the landings and worst of all the holes right before the lips. I loved it in morning practice but by noon the 1200 entries had the pristine moist loam turned into a mine field of wrist popping back breaking neck whipping agony. It was great and I had a lot of fun. I had originally signed up for 40+ and the 125cc class but I was not able to come up with a 125 bike so I thought about switching to the 40 pro class but then in practice Mike Brown made me his bitch and honestly the track scared the shit out of me so I opted to race 35+ Expert and 40+ Expert. In the first 35+ moto I did good with a 7th out of a full gate but I was completely pumped up, wrung out, and broken. The track required someone of my physical condition some restraint. I settled into a more subdued rhythm in the first 40+ moto with a 10th. Then next 35+ moto found me in the first lap a bit too hard on the front brake while blitzing down the steep Mount St Glen Helen hill while the rear wheel hit a kicker of a breaker bump. I went over the bars quick and hit the ground hard with no time to prepare. I think my 2006 CRF450 landed on my elbow and knocked the wind out of me. I cruised around for a lap and went back to the van to knock the sand out of my helmet and straighten my bike up. Before the blood and sweat dried from my face and nostrils I lined back up for the 40+ and took another 10th from a full gate. I slept like a lamb with a bag of ice on my swell-bow that night. I awoke Sunday morning, I wolfed down cold mexican leftovers from a Styrofoam, had two cups of motel room coffee and strapped on my cold wet dog smelling helmet. I ended up 12th in 35+Expert with 7,20,11 motos and 8th in 40+Expert with 10,10,8 motos. Not bad for a 19 year old bike I plucked out of the trash bins and an old fart who remembers getting holeshots and having a head of hair to pomade up. The best part was riding in a van with Mick. Something we haven't done together in many moons. Our friend Jason aka: Pussy Feet, who talked us into this race blew up his KX500 in his first moto but he shook it off and had fun anyway keeping us in good cheer. The Lambrick Bros who helped me at the flattrack AM Nats last year kicked us some gas money and tagged along in spirit so I reckon the older I get the more I enjoy some comradery despite being the lone desperado I have played for so many years. No trophies were won at this race but a lot of heart was felt.

Pikes Peak Hill Climb 2001 - Gary Lee Kanawyer / 1981 Wells Coyote Overa...

I love watching these and going back in my head to every corner. Around 9:10 is where the first corners I ever learned how to slide a motorcycle are. In practice I would think I was pushing hard near the edge and Joe Prusiano would come around me on the outside in a full bar lock slide looking over at me. I ended up finishing 2nd to him 3 times. I just love closing my eyes and going back, replaying this the most perfect race course ever in my mind. What a treat it was to have raced there.

Keeping busy

 Life is a song. I try to understand it, Sometimes it takes a few decades of it before it soaks in. Sometimes I write it, dance it. Dig it.  I just follow along best I can.

I really to try to get the most out of everything.

Plenty to work on these days. Some customer bikes too.

Slowly getting the home feeling in this shop. 

So many adventures out there waiting. Border Collie- Tennis balls; Chase them all

This race car is creeping towards my front burner.

This race car should be....

Shredding the gnar!

The 2006 450 is ready for Glen Helen. However it's rider...?

The Dyno is up and running. Needs a few things but mostly just time from me.

The real reason I am busy. Trying my best to keep the beat and just hum along, appreciating every damn bit of it.

風を抜け！ / Kaze wo Nuke! (1988) / MADHOUSE / Laserdisc / MJL-1032 / Domesda...

I Don't have to understand the words to get it.

From Ok to LA

Peekaboo

Simone should have used the kill switch long before this 

JB weld?

 How the hell did I get signed up to race the Vet MX World Champioships at Glen Helen?!  How did the Beverly Hill Billies end up in LA also? It’s been more than a couple years since I made it out to the Oklahoma Gold Rush Grand Prix. The last time I overalled, thank you thank you, enough about me let’s talk about me some more. I asked Pussy Feet if he was going this year and somehow me and Lord Mick got talked into racing some serious motocross instead which is great because I haven’t raced a modern motocross in ummm 7 years. Then I looked around my stable at all my stead’s…. I sold the Lil Goose factory Honda Team CR125 a few years back…. My 95 CR250 has been completely transformed into a pumpkin smashing trail bike, A few XR650Rs- nope, not doing that again, a couple CRF450X that would do the job just fine to my abilities but what is a challenge without some stupid hard challenges! Let’s build a CRF450R from bits I have laying around! An 06 frame, 07 cases, some 250R forks, about 116 trips out to my dark 40’ conex storage container for a bracket, vent hose, correct bolt, and a whole bunch of warm fuzzy red Honda love and here I am… 

I started putting the chassis together last weekend and it sure is nice being a Honda bolt horder. The engine was a bit more challenging and I started building it a few months ago after being talked into this whole brilliant idea of racing the fastest motocrosser with grey whiskers in California. What I thought was a good bottom end with just a stuck crank turned out to be an exploded connecting rod that managed to torpedo through the transmission and all. So I found some 07 cases for cheap and pieced together the rest from my milk crates, coffee cans, and rubber made tubs. 

I have a couple weeks left before Mick and I go pillage the west coast like the crazed coloradian hill Billy scary van punks we are!

2024 Hill Climbs Wrapped Up

 Two days after getting home from the Hill Climb at PPIR last weekend it was decided to cancel the final round. Something about lack of interest. Come next April I bet those lacking interest now would chop off a toe to get an extra race in. But that does mean that the season is wrapped up. I met my goal getting the Motorcycle class championship. The Homebrew car finished out the season strong to give me hope for next season. Will I be able to hang up my leathers and focus on the car? I don't know... probably not :)

I delivered a transmission to get built for the Coyote. I know it should be for the bug but when there is a fresh new tennis ball around I just can't help but slobber on it. 

Oh and a day after I got home the Wilwood hand brake master cylinder stopped workin again. I only used it 3 or 4 times the whole weekend. HAHAHAHAHA!

Wake me up when September ends

 

The brakes are fixed!! Dare I say this two days before the next race...

Two weeks ago a Wilwood employee told me I had been sold the wrong master cylinder by another Wilwood employee causing my trouble. Then after a long awaited reply from the motorsports division manager Wilwood employee I was told that the cylinder was not the problem. I contemplated self destruction but I siphoned what was left of my ambition out of the life sucking brake bleeder and ordered a master cylinder rebuild kit. Sure enough I found a folded seal in the brand new master cylinder I installed after the cooked brake rotor incident back in May when this whole brake saga started. So of the three Wilwood master cylinders I have bought I have had one leak externally,  one replaced, and one with a folded internal seal.... FTW! 

My old 83 Husqvarna 250 made me the man I am today.

Action shots from the last race.

Sometimes I just go out to my junk yard and meditate behind something...

This little lady just turned 3 and has the shred fever bad!

This is the Coyote now sitting in my yard back when my pal Martini raced it up Pikes Peak. I just found out it to be the same car! I have plenty of projects going but I think I better not back burner this baby too much. It might take awhile to do it proper justice but I start with delivering the 5 rib bus transmission I have to a builder at this weekends race. 

In other news I am restoring my health and an 06 CRF450R to race the Vet World Championships motorcross race at Glen Hellen Nov 1st-3rd. I have never been called the sharpest peanut in the turd. 

Also I have the $1k dyno kit ready to install but I just realized that my selfish pea brain forgot to think through how we are going to get this dyno transported back to Bonneville next time so I may need to pump the brakes on finishing out the current structure.

LETS GO RACING!

Temple Canyon Hill Climb

 The homebrew race car finally got on the podium and finished 6th overall vehicle out of 60 entrants. I'm a proud poppa.  I was able to fix all the chain derailment carnage and installed a billet countershaft cover? chain guard and a MX style chain guard on the secondary sprocket. The brakes had gone all to squishy shit again so I tried a new bleeding method involving a third hand cracking the bleeder on the front calipers allowing the balance bar to allow the rear master cylinder to get a more complete throw displacing more fluid every bleed plunge. They pumped up firmer than ever so this tells me that there has been air in the system all along. By the end of the weekend they had gone all to squishy shit again so my fuckery continues...

All Smiles after building this car from the ground up and finally starting to figure out how to drive it.

She is my everything.

The road was in great condition and I was able to feel confidence enough to push the car flat out on the straights and I think my brain and feet are starting to work together better getting me through the corners.

Also I won the motorbike class but I had to work for it and I am building a dyno.

"It is easy to do a lot of little but hard to do a lot with a little." -me half pickled with pbr and old crow...