Recent Pictures and Projects

Went to see some tulips in Washington for a weekend trip recently...
Saw some very pretty ponys along the way.

Meeting of the Broncos :)

Then on to the tulips

Saw a street artists paints all spread out on the road... How does he know what colour is in which tube???

Bought an old camera from an antique shop... Its a Zeiss and is about 100 years old and is in pretty good condition (lense is not damaged and there are no holes in the bellows)

Its a "plate" camera that was designed to expose images on glass plates... Im going to modify the plate carrier packs slightly and use it to do some direct exposure photography on printing paper. That will get me "negative" images which I will then "contact print" to create positive images.
I did a bit of "pin-hole camera" photography when I was a kid and I liked the simplicity of it. This will be pretty much the same thing... All do it your self whith minimal fuss and no "middle-man" to process the film... Just me and a couple of trays of simple chemicals and a darkened room.
Its not going to happen immediately but it'll be another of my projects for the future :))

And one more project Ive been working on is to build a new bicycle. Ive got an old rigid-frame mountain bike that I commute to and from work with during the summer months... and it works perfectly well as it is. But I saw a very nice lite-weight "track-bike" frame for sale at a bargain price, and I thought I might like something a little nicer to ride :)

Again, Ive been sufing the web and slowly collecting parts to build my "perfect commuter" bike, and its nearly done. The wheel set were very expensive at about $700 but Ive got an internal 8 gear hub on the rear with a built-in "coaster" brake, so the bike will have just a single cable on it from a gear shifter on the handle-bars and no messy external brake levers or callipers... Clean and simple and effective ... Just how I like it :)

More Tinkering

Update on the bike project...

Ive been searching the internet for parts for the project bike and over the last couple of months Ive acquired most of the bits that I want and have started to install them ... Now that I have some room to work down in my garage since Ive sold a couple of my othe bikes :)

First up, here is a picture of the old carby arangement:

... And here is the new arangement:

 I got rid of the old engine cover with built in air filter box and have replaced it with a new "lower profile" fibre-glass engine cover and external air filters that attach directly to the carbys. Ive also removed the cable assembly for the choke and built two individual choke knobs directly on the carbys... I think it looks much cleaner over all :)

 The "sleek" new engine cover.

And then I replaced the rusty old exhaust pipes and headers for some new and shorter ones (again I like the look of the new ones more than the old ones on the "cafe style" bike. Ive also added "rear-sets" which move the foot controls about 15-20cm back on the bike which helps with the riding position for this style of bike.

 Picture of the new exhaust, rear-sets, and engine cover all installed.

And finally Ive decided on the seat style that Im going to go with... Classic "cafe". Its a solo seat with a fibre-glass tail cone (The starter battery has been moved to hide in under the tail cone section). The seat is not uphoulstered yet but you get the idea of what it will look like all the same...

The rear light has been changed but the original indicators are still being used (for the moment at least)


So, here is a picure of the bike as it was when I got it, followed by one of the bike as it is now.

Still quite a bit of work to do... but getting there :)

Exercises in non-Attachment

I've been doing some "letting go" recently... Some of it voluntarily and some of it not :)

Over the last couple of weeks there have been a number of changes that have all come along at about the same time for some reason...
The first thing to "go" was my little blue motorbike. It was the one that I was going to sell a couple of months back that caused me to "accidentally" buy the old BMW that Im working on.
It was a great little bike and was the same make model and year as the little yellow one that I modified a few years ago. I had been keeping it as my "back-up" which worked out well last year when the yellow one got damaged. But since then I bought the big black one and didnt need the little blue one... It was just going to sit there and slowly deteriorate without being used, so I decided that it was better that it "move on" and be appreciated by someone who would actually use it... So, I advertised it and after a couple of weeks I managed to sell it... and Im happy with that choice.  :)

Next thing to go was my beaten-up old touring bike... Yes, the bike that I rode all through the Americas for about 200,000Km... It was a great bike and Im sure it had lots more Km of life in it too... But, Ive done the big touring that I want to do in North America, and like the blue bike, it was sitting around not being used and slowly deteriorating.
But I had developed quite an attachment to the bike despite its decrepitude and un-aesthetic appearance, and it took me quite a while to come to the decission that I should "let it go"... But at the end of the day its just another piece of hardware that I have accumulated and that no-one else really cares about.
So, I advertised it and then waited for several weeks while the occasional person showed some interest, till eventually the right one turned up and I sold it... again, for not much money but Im happy with this choice too :)

Off to follow a new future with someone else! ...The old DL650 with the new owner.

And the next change was that my cat dissapeared! :(
I think I mentioned about 18 months ago that I got a couple of cats... And that all went well for a few month but then one of them dissapeared one night (I put in a cat door so they could come and go as they chose). The first cat to go was the very "flighty" one, and I have to say that I was not that surprised (though I was dissapointed).
But the other cat was much more friendly and stable... And after over a year of outdoor access without incident I thought she had probably figured out how to survive safely... But it seems I was premature in that outlook because a couple of weeks ago, she went out late one night (after I went to bed) and I have not seen her since... And it makes me sad that she is gone (and probably gone to a Coyote's meal too!)... But again, I dont regret my choice to let her have access to the outside (despite the dangers), and I certainly dont regret having decided to get the cats in the first place... Id do it again though it wont be immediately since Im planning to go on another big motorbike tour next year so I dont want to have to find a home for the cat while Im away.

The first cat to "go"... She was called "SuDon" and was very flighty!

The second cat was called "Alergen" and I miss her :(

And then the most recent "change" is that my current contract ended... I was expecting it to end of course, but there was a little miss-communication about the date, and it was a week earlier than I expected. But I have no problem with that because Ive been working pretty solidly for the last couple of years and I am well and truely ready for a bit of a break at the moment...
The only problem is that I dont really know what to do with my break...
Talk about a "first world problem"!  :)

Yes, I recognise how fortunate I am to have the dillema of not knowing what to do with my-self  or where on the planet Id like to spend my holiday time (rather than struggling to pay for a roof over my head and enough food for my-self and my family just to survive like most of the rest of humanity! ... I am so spoiled!

So, Ive been practicing "letting go" but Im
really not sure to what end just yet ??

Bike Update

I've been doing some working on the new bike...
First I gave it an all over wash and de-grease (badly needed)...

And then, once a few parts that I ordered on ebay arrived, I swapped over the handlebars, and mirrors while I did a detailed front end "inspection/clean-up".
And then I did a full service on both the carbys and the fuel taps (all of which were leaking terribly!)...
And  then I took a few pictures... it looks a lot better I must say :)

And then I stopped work for a week or so while I had family visiting... and we went to the Aquarium and I took some pictures of jellyfish and a pretty emerald python :)

And then the family went on their way and I did some more work on the bike :)
I was working on the back end this time and trying to decide what sort of seat arrangement I want and how to position the monoshock that will replace the two rather rusty and ratty shocks it has at the moment.

Im not sure if I will go with a short solo seat or a full length solo seat with an upholstered rear tailcone piece?

I got lots of the rust off the exhaust pipes, but they will rust up again pretty quickly so they will have to be replaced.

The mono-shock fits in there pretty snuggly! This bike is a "short wheel-base" version (from 1972 and before) and that means that I have about 5cm less space for the shock than in later years... I got the shortest one I could find and I think it will work. I wanted a shock that was simple and without the fancy adjustments and fluid reservoirs of modern shocks... It feels more "period correct" this way :)

The top of the shock fits up under the tank just behind the ignition coils... I think it will just require a couple of  small plates of 3-4mm steel to be welded under the frame top-tube and a hole drilled to bolt it on... minor job.

The bottom end is a bit more complicated but I think I can make a simple "U" shaped piece of say 20mm diameter thick-walled steel pipe that will bolt onto the existing lower shock mount points and wrap around the front of the wheel. the front section can then have a 10cm high "stand-off" (made of the same material) that can "clamp" to the front of the existing swing-arm with U-bolts... It will be completely "bolt-on" and will not require any welding to the frame or other unpleasantness, and as a bonus, its completely "reversible" if I ever want to restore the bike back to the two shock set-up :)

... and thats as far as I have got so far...
Now I need to order more bits on ebay to sort out moving the foot controls back to the rear foot-peg position... and new exhaust system, and new seat (more spending as usual!)

...in progress...

Im So Weak

Im pathetic!... Really I am.

Whenever I get bored I run to the same old habit of finding a "project".... And inevitably my projects are "expensive"...

Well, I finished reading the sci-fi books. And I finished modifying and upgrading my RC aieroplanes. And "Skeleton" season has finished, And Ive finnished working on the Bronco (my little truck restoration).
But, thankfully, Spring is about here now and although its still raining quite a bit, I thought Id try to sell that "spare" motorbike that I have in the garage... My garage is rather over-full at the moment since I bought that big new motorbike late last year, and having done that, I committed to my-self that I'd sell one of the other bikes this spring. So, last Fall, I did some final "clean-up" work on the bike I was going to sell and then hooked up a battery tender (so the battery stays charged over the winter), put a cover on it and have been waiting for spring so I could advertise it.
And last weekend, I went down to the garage and started the bike up (It fired up easily .. yay).
And so, during the week, I started looking at the listings on CraigsList to see if bikes were being advertised yet... 
... and I didnt mean too,  but,  well....

Yeah... I bought another one... Im really so pathetic! and weak... and predictable...

Anyway, this one is as I said, intended as a project, much like the Bronco was.
So, I bought an old bike thats in rough shape that Im intending to do a restoration/renovation on.
In fact its a model from the same year of manufacture as the Bronco is...
... and, like the last motorbike I bought, its also a Black BMW...

Its a 1972 R75/5 BMW

It looks pretty good in those pictures, and indeed, even though its fourty years old and has 550,000 miles on the clock; its virtually "complete" with pretty much all of the right parts in the right places (just a few "bits" Id need to hunt down to replace.
But the guy I got it from is, well, how would I put it... Shall we say,  fairly "mechanically dis-enclined"!...
Dont get me wrong, he's a great guy, and he has not abused the bike... in fact he really loved the bike and had owned it for 18 years! The only reason he was selling it was because he and his wife have just had a baby; So his life has "moved on" and he isnt going to have time for such "flippant indulgences" as motorbikes for quite a few years to come!... And adding to that, he really doesnt have any good place to store the bike either, and its just been stored out-side under a back deck in the open for the last few years...

And thats a telling factor for the bike too.
Its just so wet and humid over the winters here in Vancouver (remember those pictures of the moss covered tractors I put up a couple of posts back!) that anything thats left outside just tends to corrode and turn green!

So, when you look a bit closer at the bike you start to see how the weather is really having a bad effect on the bike and there is rust and corrosion and mildew and algae building up rappidly...
On the plus side though, he did use it as a "daily driver" so to speak and it was registered and running as recently as last August... And sure enough, once Id got it home to my place and put the battery in, it didnt take me more than a few minutes to get it fired up and running.... I was sure happy about that!

So the previous owner was not "abusive" to the bike but I do think he was taking it a bit for granted and the bike was having a pretty hard time.

But, not any more!
Now its at my place, and in the garage (which was already full!) where there is now barely room for a mouse to squeeze in! :)

So, now I have another fairly long project started... I expect it will take me a couple of years to finish this one... especially given that the winters are so long and I dont really have a good space to work on the bike (garage is small, crowded and not set-up well for winter work).
Im not yet sure what exactly I want the bike to be like when Im done... I dont think the bike is in good enough condition to warrant putting it back together as "exactly original" (If I really wanted to do that then I should spend more money and get a bike that is in much better condition to start with). And come to that, the bike is not that special or rare either... There are plenty of them out there that can be fully "restored" by any one who has the urge.
So, Im feeling rather tempted to head down the "renovation" rather than the "restoration" path...

Ive been looking on the web and there are some pretty nice ideas out there for "renovations"... I like this one the best at the moment...

but thats a while away yet... No rush to make any decissions for the time being...
Though I MUST now sell that other bike very soon...

note to self...
...I will not buy another bike, i will not buy another bike, I will not buy another bike, I will not buy another bike, I will not buy another bike, I will not buy another bike, I will not buy another bike...

More Winged Things

Its been another long winter up here in Vancouver and as Ive mentioned more than once, I get bored pretty easily, but I just refuse to spend my evenings watching TV... So, Ive been reading some trashy science-fiction books, but I cant do that all the time, so I decided to pursue some of my other childhood interests again too... or should that be childish interest??
... I guess you can decide... but actually, I dont really mind what others think of it; They are my interests and Im gonna persue them cos I feel like it :)

I got a couple more model aeroplanes... They are made of light weight expanded foam and are incredibly cheap for the amount of electronics and detail in them.. And the current technology of batteries and electric motors is, well, decades ahead of what was available when I was a kid... I would have "sold a kidney" in order to have one of these models when I was young :))

First one is a F4 Corsair

Second one is a P51 Mustang

I tend to fly one or other of them once or twice a week for 10 minutes (thats how long a battery lasts) down at a local school playing field, early in the morning before I head off to work... I quite enjoy it :))