I'm a leeeeeaviiing on a Jet Plane...

I'm off to Las Vegas for the SEMA show, leaving on a 4 o'clock Midwest Express flight. Will be there until late late Friday night arriving home at about 1 or 2 AM depending on everything. Should be a good show...lots of cars...different Hotel...change of scenery.
LBS fixed my bb on my mtb and trued up the rear wheel of my roadie. Rode the mtb w/ the group on Saturday morning...I do not have a computer on my mtb so I'm not sure how many miles, doesn't really matter but it's cool to keep track of. Will have to buy and install one later. Kinda depressing as I was just starting to find my place/pace and keeping up for the majority of the ride on the Saturday morning Road Rides but now that we've switched to MTB 's and Trail riding, which I have never really done in this group high speed all out type of manner, I am once again getting smoked hard. Yesterday I thought my chest was going to explode again. Was not impressed w/ myself for that but was impressed that I did the second long lap in the woods even thought I was the last guy, but about a third of the group didn't do it at all, so that was cool. But doing that I burned out super quick once we got back to the road ride. It was getting really windy and I had to help out Larry w/ some TV/Furniture moving so I broke off the pack once they started heading south and I rode home north than west than north again against some really strong winds. It took forever just to go about 5 miles.
Once I got home and showered up I noticed that I missed a call from the motorcycle guy. I called him up and once again the amount that he's gonna charge me has gone up. I told him that was it and to stop right where he is. Plus he wanted to add a battery, battery box, more wiring and so on for more money. I said that I have gone way over what I wanted to and he understood. He fired it up and had it running. So now I'll be able to jump back into it and finish it up. I'll have to do the battery thing myself, but that's ok since the heart of the cycle is done, rebuilt and will make it all better in the long run. So I'm kinda pumped. I'll pick it up Monday of next week when I get back. It needs a couple of things but is for the most part done. Can not wait to get that project behind me! And ride it! Maybe even save some money on gas next spring and if I don't love it or really need the cash for the Stang's paint, then I'll let 'er go, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel for the Triumph.
Pictures of really cool cars, cycles, chicks, famous people (hopefully, last year the big one's were Carol Shelby, Chip Foose and Boyd C.) next weekend when I get back. I wonder if I'll have enough sleep or energy to do the Saturday morn bfast ride next week Saturday. We'll have to see but I doubt it.
Don't forget to vote on the paint color poll (b re-vote cause I added a color) just click here.
Thanks in advance for your help.

Friday

Well it's Friday which is good. I haven't ridden my bike since I broke it on Saturday. Did the elliptical machine on Tuesday at South but I don't think this was enough and I've been kinda drained otherwise. I think the lack of riding/exercise makes my mood swing a bit cause right now I'm not feeling it at all...plus I woke up super early today as well cause I have a 2:30 haircut appt, which may not help the overall mood.
Stopped by the motorcycle shop after work yesterday and the motor has been reassembled. New Head, new valves, push rods, exhaust lobes?, springs, ignition system, gas lines, oil lines, seat mount, key ignition mount. It's really coming together pretty nice. He's ordering the cables and I'll put those on as all this motor work and parts has once again put me over the amount of money I was told it was going to cost but this is the heart of the bike and having a motor running at tip top is what it's all about as the remainder of the stuff like cables and paint can be done later. He said he should have it done tomorrow - wired and fired. More on that as it becomes available.
I'll stop by the bike shop tonight and see if my mtb is ready or hopefully at least my rear road bike wheel will be trued up so I can ride that.
That's going to dictate if I can ride w/the group tomorrow morning, which would be nice and normally makes me feel better. I really could use that now.

Take the poll

Take part in the paint color poll on the Mustang blog...

http://www.mustangrestomod.blogspot.com/

Shermann & I at Sunrise

"You do not own the dog, the dog owns you" Anonymous

Photos by Tori

Weekend Recap & Specific Blog Pages

Bulleted Wkend Recap List (how lame) during lunch on Monday...

• Mower's all fixed up
• Tire/bottle cage/seat bag swap Fri nite complete
• up early went to see sunrise w/ Tori and Shermann Sat morn at Terry Andre...very nice
• geared up and out the door at 8 am for Sat morn bfast ride (woo hoo!)
• wrecked Presta valve at sunnyside; said screw it and left rear tire semi soft
• 10 minutes into ride my bottom bracket snaps and my weekend riding is over (Sucked!)
• take both bikes to bike shop later on Sat morn (more $$)
• go home and start raking/cleaning up yard
• 1 pm baby shower for Ali...fun
• back home and continue yard work
• Dad stopped by w/ food from shower and gave Tori a hand w/ flowers and planters Exterior decorating
• shot and posted first vid w/ camera - Dad's Stang
• Sunday up early, made bfast (eggs bacon toast ham hi cholesterol bfast)
• Cut grass, Sears, home depot, fixed back garage door and primed
• That's it in a nutshell

I've grabbed two more blog spots for the major projects to better document them...check my profile and go to bottom to see "other blogs" - I won't have time for a while to get started on either, so check back once in while to see if any progress has been made and feel free to remind me if I forget. Also feel free to leave comments for me to read. It'd be nice to read some once in a while to see who's around and what's going on. have a good week.

Shoe's Stang

30MB took a while

Today's useless info & humor

Stop by the Triumph last night...not much further than last week due to parts needing to be ordered for the motor. I believe exhaust lobes? Could be blinker fluid for all I know cause I've never ripped a motor apart...he did show me the part that had flat spots. The license plate/back light mount has been attached to the bike which is cool and he is going w/ a different ignition system so I guess progress is being made. He said he'd jump back on it today and if no more surprises pop up he should make real good progress. He's also doing some hardcore shop cleaning/organizing before the real cold sets in.

Saturday morning MTB ride at Shooting Park tomorrow...washed my riding gear last night. I have to buy/swap my tires around and lube up the ride. Forecast is windy, but hopefully not too bad in the AM. Maybe I'll have a photo of the group later on.

And for something I found in a bike mag that makes me smile is this picture....have a great weekend.

MISHEARD LYRICS - Pearl Jam - Yellow Ledbetter

PJ is one of my fav's...came accross this and thought I'd post it.

Quick & meaningless

No miles on the bike last night - rest and recovery - looked at the tires on the mtb and I'm thinking of getting some new ones that are inbetween my smothies and knobbies.
So my mower deck lifting unit broke last week causing another two brackets to snap, or vise versa. I go on Sears.com and look up and order parts. The parts were delivered by UPS and Cory Martin was the driver! Holy crap. We chatted real quick and he was off in his hot rod.

"Can't let 'em down when you're wearing the brown" as JVDP used to say. Pretty cool. And they had a baby girl. WTF is in the water around here? Baby's falling from the sky or what?
I had to call and reorder since one of the parts sent to me was incorrect and I noticed that I needed another bracket. Hopefully here by Friday since this weekend looks like it's going to be semi nice.
Today at 3 I go back to the dentist to work on my #2 moeller that I snapped. Strong Jaw I guess. Not looking forward to that. Getting Capped. If that fails...possible root canal they say.

Unimportant

Quick post to log my 18 miles last night...to B & T's and back...I'm giving my legs a break tonight (otta shape) and I'll just walk the dog.

Here's a comic I've had for some time. Enjoy and have a good day.

Ups and Downs of Life - Luv 2 Mia

Life can be and quite often is a roller coaster. Sometimes you'll go through these spells of time where day in and day out are almost the same and nothing worth speaking of happens, then there are times when lots of good and bad things happen. This weekend was the latter.

Friday night did 20 miles and Tori and I went to dinner.

Saturday morning did the last breakfast ride, 55 miles total.

Saturday afternoon we were hit w/a tragic accident, more in a sec, and that did it for that day.

Sunday morning did an 18 miler, Packers won, Chezcke Factory and Blue Man Group .

I don't want to go back into my mind and rerun everything so I'll try to make it short.

Saturday around noon, a great dog's intelligent/warm hearted soul left this earth to wait in heaven for my mother and father in law, and hopefully the rest of us that loved her so. Her name is Mia. She is the mother of our dog Shermann and the big sister to Vinny, Bentley and others. She was more than a pet to her owners and a best friend in every sense of the term. She was the main star and we wanted others to have just a portion of her skills. I could go on but don't want to now. It's extremely sad but this is life. We will miss her greatly. I'll miss her flirty eyes. In the photo it's Mia (top left) Shermann (top right) and Vinny bottom.

Christmas 2006

Friday morning post

Thursday after work I stopped by Greg to see how the Triumph was coming along, more on that after this...I did exactly 22 miles (unusual) last night in a brisk 48 degree temp w/ a steady NW wind. Headed north against the wind 10 miles, went west a bit, then headed back. Was wearing 3 layers on top and two below. Was a bit chilly at first but was really nice after blood was pumpin. Good ride averaging 16.75 mph. Had to stop by B & Tskinny's to use tire pump since I felt like I was draggin a 50 lb weight for the first 20-30 minutes. Nice pump B! I want one now, a lot easier than filling up the compressor for a couple of tires that's for sure.

After that the little lady and I were going to go out to eat for our anniversary but neither of us were really that hungry so we decided to go and get some pumpkins instead. We have a couple good ones and may spend tonight carving them up. Here's little T and the big baby...Motorcycle Project

I could do a whole lotta writing on this but will try to hammer it out in a real quick manner-
This is what it looked liked when I bought it on March 31st of this year from some guy in Clintonville.
1967 Triumph T100C

I've wanted one of these for some time so when I got it home and rode it around the block a few times I started disassembling and ordering parts to make it into the bobber I wanted.

So I get the bolt on hard tail, the solo seat, new tires, seat shocks, bars, grips, light, license plate mount, chain, air cleaner, ignition switch. Then asked JZelle if he could help me w/the fab/welding needed to mount rear fender. After some looking of the OE fender he strongly advised that I get something else. I order up an Exile Choppers 6" blank and we measured and cut it up. Also got some cool rigid fender struts off ebay and we did the same to those. JZ really knows how to work w/ metal and has the equip to boot. So after being at his place for like 4 weeks I take it home and paint everything black. Assembled it back to a roller and started working on the wiring, which has to be all redone. After making a little progress off of what info I could find I took a hard look at what I had and made the decision to have an experience hand finish it up for me. I want it to be cool, but more importantly safe. So I took it to Greg. He was super crazy busy when I dropped it off on July 31st, and didn't get a chance to do a hard look at it until Sept 10th. I paid him and he started work on it the next day. And even though I know I'm missing some info that brings up to today.

So I stopped by his place after work yesterday to see how the bike was coming along. He has fabbed up the top motor mount, found a new head for the motor and was assembling it back together. He thinks he should be wrapping it up in the next week or two stating that most the past few weeks has been waiting on parts which I know is the case since I've done a lot of that myself. So here's what it looked like...

4 Years & a hoax

Happy Anniversary Tori! Oh how time is flying. Luv Ya!

Yesterday I recieved a forwarded email from Tori who recieved it from Lisa, who got it from Doug, who got that from his wife Ginny who got it from...you get the point. It was in regards to a group of black lab mix puppies that someone's son's girlfriends sister found and needed a good home. Normally I delete crap that get forwarded to me cause it's bs, but for some reason I didn't and sent it off to a couple of people at work that I thought might actually be looking for a dog. The forwarded email (along w/ pic of pups) said that 5 were available. I was able to find 4 people that wanted or knew someone that wanted puppies...long story short it was of course bs and we all got hosed. I was the doucebag that had to go and explain this and had to anwser the question of "why would someone do that?". Cause they can is what i said. Don't be fooled like us...http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/puppies.asp

Thought

Sometimes I think I'd like to try racing bikes again someday but then I see racers blogs and I'm no where close to their dedication, fitness or equipment level. Oh to live for it must be kinda cool but I'll keep on doing it for the fun, thrill, meditation, and exercise.
And for something completely different...I have lots of little friends at work these days. I think they are looking for a place to call home for the winter. A few of them had the unfortunate meeting w/ the wheels of my chair.

4 Tori

My beautiful wife would like to me to tell you that we went on a 35 min walk last night.

Random...one of my many favorite Calvin and Hobbes...

It's always something

I have to make this quick.

Saturday Afternoon hit Matt & Nicky's baby shower at Tony & Jennys new bar which is at the ol Poth Meat Market on 8th. Had a good time and ate some good food. Josh & Jenny's Julia is getting big. Pretty frickin cute.

Sunday I took a nice mellow mtb ride to check out the mtb race at Everygreen. Lots of riders but didn't seem to much for spectators although I did not sit around very long. Was riding back and ran into this guy who was working on his truck. Good chat and then I was on my way.

Here's when the day started going downhill. Was cutting the grass and got about 1/2 way through and the left side of the deck was dragging. Stopped to see wtf was going on and a bracket broke. So now I'll have to look for that part and replace. Plus I think there is another part that I'm not seeing that lifts and lowers the mower deck that will need to be fixed. It was really hot and humid and I was very annoyed.
Next, I had 2 T-Bone steaks from the 1/4 steer that Dboy and I split, that was going on the grill. Well the grill must have been to hot or something, cause I burnt one side of one steak. I was pissed. And then the Pack lost against the Bears but still 4&1. Tskinny invited me to go to the game at the eleventh hour but I have a project at work that needs to be completed and reviewed today and I couldn't afford to be hung over. I'm sure they had a great time.

Saturday Morning Review

Latest and greatest...Thursday night I did my first ever night time trail ride and what a blast that was! I had a great time and thanks to this guy calling it out. Full throttle thru the kettles at night w/out knowing where to go or what was coming was real freak and had my adrenaline going. Need to get a really bright helmet light like some of the others had to make it even more fun.


Friday went golfing after work w/ Tori and some co workers. Shot like shit but had a good time. Real nice sunset afterwards.


This morning the weather is oddly Hot and Humid for an October morning, but this is SE Wisco and comes w/ the territory. Me & B did a nice mellow 30 miler as there is a pretty large mtb race going on so half of the normal group (SMBfast ride) is racing I'm sure, plus I'm pretty sore and beat. Still need to get into better shape and improve endurance.


Photo's from this mornings ride...

Phirst Photos

One of the Projects...


1965 Mustang Fastback

351 Cleveland Stroker






More of this and others another time...really nice out have to do something fun outside. Cya

Harder than a rock

Not my abs thats for sure...keeping a log of life w/ this blog. Lots of things going on like touching base w/ old friends and making new. Did the Saturday morning b-fast ride, lots of fun. Here's what's what w/ the projects:
- Triumph Motorcyle-today is the 3rd week anniversary that it's been w/ the mechanic, hope to get an update from him soon on how it's going.
- Mustang Fastback-Sent first of 2 payment to Jim the engine builder for his labor, the engine is done. I'll pick up if have to or else leave there for the winter. Next on the list of big spendy items is an aluminum radiator set up. A cool $900 just for parts and the front end will need to be modified...more $$
- Jeep needs a brake job, pads/rotors/calipers...I wish Jeep would pay for some of it since there was a deal to have them replaced for first 3 years.
- House-next is the bathroom downstairs, complete gut out redo. Then the kitchen, same thing. More $$
- Myself-still rocking inbetween 220-225 lbs. Need to get back to the wieghts as this seems to be the best way to trim off some of the fat.
- Bikes-need to get lights for night riding on the MTB
- Blog - hope to get to this way more often