Hey Man Pan

Joe – a ham for the cam manages to pop up all over the chop web. I looked at a number of pics I got from Born Free, Full Tilt, and Davenport and somehow Joe is always floating in the background. Well its all for good cause cause Joe’s for real. He’s been hiding in the shadows for a year now working on the original “Hey Man! Pan”. Look for this thing next season. He’s killing it. Big plans to drive this thing to Cali and back Flying solo like a dog in the wind. I snagged this pic from Zac’s Heavy-Clothing.com.

Next year Minnesota is gonna be blowing up with all kinds of new shit. I think at least half the guys in the scene here are working on something new for next year. Spencer, Joe, Pete, Dave, Me, Chris and maybe Gator is he’s still hanging around.

Fathers Day in Minnesota

Woke up to a little corn beef and eggs with a side of black coffee and toast. Cruised over to Back to the 50’s car show for some swap meet action. Kind of a dead scene considering it was Sunday. I did see this gem of a Gasser parked somewhere just off the beaten path. I couldnt pass up getting a quick picture.

From there I went home and got out the bike. Took a ride over to the Blind Lizard cycle rally in Minneapolis to catch up with CT. Reinhart came limping in on his Triumph. Points were well beyond useless. Pretty Rick and the Monk happened to be in the crowd and decided to do the Minnesota thing and come over and get his points readjusted. After a little file action and a few swift kicks, the salty dog was up and running on two cylinders again. New points are being installed as I type.

Came home, napped for a hour, ate a sub, went back to bed. All in all – a good fathers day.

Friday Days – Friday Nights

Been busy. Hit the shop in the morning and knocked out my days work by noon. Headed to Rick’s to drop off a Triumph frame for some fab work. Got home just in time to sign for a UPS package (Z-bars) and feed the dog. Checked the mail on the way out only to find my Born Loser T-shirt finally arrived. (will post later) Borrowed a trailer. Moved a bike out of storage. Hit up a local watering hole. Come 1 am – I’m back at the garage and I finally tracked down that damn oil leak! This is what I call a good day. If only I had found a little time to get some riding in.

chopper blog

Save A Buck ~ Fix it

The sh*t I’ll do to save some scratch is pretty low. My XS timing chain snapped on me while bombing back into the Twin Cities last September. After I pulled the top end off, I could see that the teeth on the cam were perfect. The crank sprocket on the other hand… DESTROYED. Not a single tooth left. Unfortunately, this crank sprocket is an obsolete part meaning I’m up sh*t creek. My options are wait it out for  an old xs motor on Craigs list for around $100 beans or just swap the crank and buy a gasket set on eBay.

I went with the replacement crank and a gasket set. The crank ran me $1.99 and the gasket set… $60. Other than an hour of open heart surgery, at least I know I’m running a clean motor with new timing chain and gaskets. The top end was still well within tolerances so I’m gonna let sleeping dogs lie with that one.