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Temporarily borrowed some taller ape hangers from my LBS. They're still too short, but at least it's now bearable to ride around. Waiting on some motorcycle bar risers to build a proper bar set

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Between yesterday and today, I've already put close to 20 miles on it. It's almost caused a few car accidents from people snapping their necks when they see it. I've gotten the horns 🤘 from almost every motorcycle rider I've seen so far, and I love it when people go out of their way to holler "nice bike" at me. I live in a fairly small community, so the word gets around quickly when something odd or cool pops up in town.
 
Alright, after today I have a hard decision to make. The easy decision would be to print out this sticker, slap it on the bike, and point to it when inevitably EVERY SINGLE person that I talk to suggests this very thing
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The next idea is to build saddle bags for it, and whenever someone says "put a motor on it" I'll tell them it's already got one, then pull this out and fire it up
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As it is, I'm going to write on the bottom bracket "powered by size 11 two stroke" with an arrow to either pedal
 
I'd go with the model engine.
 
I guess others have had the same problems I've been having. You know, where Joe Shmoe off the streets says you should have done this, that, and the other thing to YOUR build and insults you to your face. I usually tell them if they want to either sponsor my next build or have me build one for them, then I'll build it their way. Politely, of course, I'm not a fecking savage.
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Alright, after today I have a hard decision to make. The easy decision would be to print out this sticker, slap it on the bike, and point to it when inevitably EVERY SINGLE person that I talk to suggests this very thingView attachment 236216
The next idea is to build saddle bags for it, and whenever someone says "put a motor on it" I'll tell them it's already got one, then pull this out and fire it upView attachment 236217
As it is, I'm going to write on the bottom bracket "powered by size 11 two stroke" with an arrow to either pedal
My kid built up one of those. It's really really cool to watch the pistons and valvetrain in action. The belts seem to be the weak point
 
I guess others have had the same problems I've been having. You know, where Joe Shmoe off the streets says you should have done this, that, and the other thing to YOUR build and insults you to your face. I usually tell them if they want to either sponsor my next build or have me build one for them, then I'll build it their way. Politely, of course, I'm not a fecking savage.View attachment 236272

I have an older station wagon that I drive in the summer but is mostly used for burnout contests. You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve been asked when I’m painting it. It gets annoying after a while!
 
I have cultivated an eclectic look and my lifestyle, guitars and bikes all echo this aesthetic. Be they Steam, Atom or Diesel punk. So when "normal" people question any of my choices I have come to understand they don't hold the same values I have or comprehend the vision I had when creating what some consider art and other find puzzling. What you take as an insult is your own intolerance to comments made by people who have no idea what they're looking at and are aren't qualified to judge, I doubt they were trying to insult you. The world is full of uninitiated people. I watched folks walking through the Dali exhibit at the Chicago Art Institute last week and saw them struggle to "get" what the artist was doing when he was creating his truly amazing artwork. (his skylines are amazing!) many walked away shaking their heads and I'm sure they went home to the safety of their beige walls. Don't let small minds get to you or waste your time (and karma) striking back at them. Teach them or ignore them. I can't fault folks for looking at my choices funny or with different eyes than mine.
 
I have cultivated an eclectic look and my lifestyle, guitars and bikes all echo this aesthetic. Be they Steam, Atom or Diesel punk. So when "normal" people question any of my choices I have come to understand they don't hold the same values I have or comprehend the vision I had when creating what some consider art and other find puzzling. What you take as an insult is your own intolerance to comments made by people who have no idea what they're looking at and are aren't qualified to judge, I doubt they were trying to insult you. The world is full of uninitiated people. I watched folks walking through the Dali exhibit at the Chicago Art Institute last week and saw them struggle to "get" what the artist was doing when he was creating his truly amazing artwork. (his skylines are amazing!) many walked away shaking their heads and I'm sure they went home to the safety of their beige walls. Don't let small minds get to you or waste your time (and karma) striking back at them. Teach them or ignore them. I can't fault folks for looking at my choices funny or with different eyes than mine.
I know exactly what you mean. There are works of art that do not resonate with me, but I always appreciate the effort and creativity gone into them. I always like to ask why they made certain choices and try to comprehend that thought and creative process. Most of the time that is a nice conversation, and I always forget the time.

Stickers are cool, definitely
 
Alright, after today I have a hard decision to make. The easy decision would be to print out this sticker, slap it on the bike, and point to it when inevitably EVERY SINGLE person that I talk to suggests this very thing
The next idea is to build saddle bags for it, and whenever someone says "put a motor on it" I'll tell them it's already got one, then pull this out and fire it upView attachment 236217
As it is, I'm going to write on the bottom bracket "powered by size 11 two stroke" with an arrow to either pedal
Either that, or a transparent mini jet-engine should do the trick.
But I have to agree, it is a very cool bike. The design is very consistent throughout the tubes, making the lines flow beuatifully. I especially like the fork and the downward extending fork legs.
 
Teach them or ignore them. I can't fault folks for looking at my choices funny or with different eyes than mine.
I have no problem with people not understanding my ideas or those who have different styling tastes. It's when they tell me what I should have done differently and actually want me to change my build for them, instead of saying how they would do it another way, that I take offense. People have been telling me to stick a motor on my bikes ever since I built my first frame from scratch and I've been shrugging it off for 15 years now
 
Playing around with gear ratios. The rear tire is almost 2" taller than the front, and with a 48 tooth sprocket and a 60+ pound bike hills were hell. And there's lots of hills here in my town. Swapped in a 42 tooth sprocket and now it's actually pretty easy to ride.
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Hoping to have the new handlebars and triple trees finished by Friday night. Got an early morning breakfast group ride that I want to go to and show off
 
I made the perfect handlebars for this bike once already. The only problem is that I built them 12 years ago and I haven't seen the bike in over a decade. It was the second bike I ever built from scratch and the first one after I moved to Michigan. Built it in a 8x10 shed with nothing but a stick welder and an angle grinder. This is the only photo I have left, and is what I want to build for my current bike. The big difference is that this time I'm using square tubing
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I saw the perfect answer to those comments. A guy I knew who drove a toyota corolla rally car daily. Had an early 1960s english Rover P5 as a family car. Big heavy automatic and plenty of space for baby capsule in the rear. He was a qualified engineer and rally harness was fitted in rear for baby capsule. Some antique car nuts noticed this and spoke of the ‘sacrilege’ of doing that to such a classic car.
At that point his wife got offended. Up to this point she was not a fan of the rocket red of the rally car. So the rover was standard boring grey.
She had already hand painted a mural of a tree, leaves, flowers and a monkey at home in the nursery.
So out came the patterns and another tree was added to the Rover with more vines and flowers and another monkey on the bonnet and bootlid too. Well before the family onboard stickers became popular.
Ironically the husband hard started life as a mechanic before going on to get his engineering degree. Both cars were likely better mechanically maintained than the antique guys.
As a mining engineer he did the mechanical as fun hands on to relieve stress dealing with multi million dollar machines and list production cost possibilities.
 

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