An introduction, attaining metric steel, a little eye candy and...I'm an idiot.

Well...what the hell, why don't I start from the bottom and work my way up?

I'm an idiot.
I try to keep things under control, I try to keep a weather eye out and a stiff upper lip and all that shit. Generally I trundle through life on a fairly even keel (I gotta dig up better cliches...these suck), I don't cause myself too much grief unless there's a woman or an engine around. They try to kill me...
Anyway, I'm making piles of parts these days which is a good thing. Unfortunately I recently shipped some parts to the wrong kat, well they were the right parts but out of sequence. He got his way before they were due to him and the original customer has had to wait.

My apologies Jack, I did however burn thru and made a fresh set or clip-on blocks for you and in doing so came up with a new design so you're getting 'Type 2' version one. I hope you dig'm, they look cool as hell and should do a fine job for you. As soon as I get your hardware together they'll be on the way priority mail. Thanks for your patience, there's a couple extremely light aluminum handlebars included. And I won't call you John anymore...that's that other guy...heh.

Metric steel
Ya know, I'm kinda pissed. I made some really nice rearset plates for a CB650 and the plan has been to make some extended engine bolts with which to mount them on the bike. I live hear Portland Oregon, a major port city. We have industry here, steel yards, fabrication shops.......why the hell is is difficult to get 4140 bar stock in metric sizes here of all places. They pounded the metric system into our tender little brains in gradeschool, saying that the entire world would be using it exclusively before we all got to middle school.
............yeah right.
Ryan, I have confirmation that the material is on it's way......no....really.
For those of you wondering, yeah I could turn down some SAE material but there are a few things I would worry on. Turning say....1/2" stock down to 12mm and isn't much more than a skinning job, but expensive as this is adding just that would be enough to basically double the cost, from steep to effing ridiculous. As well, stress-riser fractures under stress (say 9000rpm heeled over in a corner) letting the engine loose in the frame would potentially be catastrophic. I'm all for chaos and carnage now and then to keep things fresh but putting my friends and customers in mortal danger...not so much.

Perfect

A welcome and a glimpse of what's to come
I have plans. Cunning plans. Plans that involve booze and parties and burnups and a midget. I'm still looking for a suitable midge.
A part of that cunning plan is to grow this blog into something more. To that end I've enlisted the help of my buddy Mike. Known cryptically as 'VonYinzer' out there on the toobz, he'll be waxing rhapsodic for your edification and education. Mike can write him some powerful words.......

(you're on the spot now mister!)

Wisdom

"We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds, and live our lives so well that Death trembles to takes us."
-Charles Fucking Bukowski

Handcrafted in Chennai

Love'm or not, the Royal Enfield motorcycle is an icon.
Still being built by hand in India, based on designs that harken back to a finer time with a only few small updates to carry the old horse into the future.
Metal, rubber, oil and gas. I can respect that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amy8yS9OTQE

Huzzah Monday!

Oh....who the hell am I kidding......Mondays blow, there's no way around it. Whether your weekend consisted of working, wrenching on your ride, sitting around your dimly lit one room apartment in your underwear...whatever.....it's still better than Monday morning.
Unless you're a stripper.......then Monday is probably your day off. Unless you're really ugly, fat or are missing a leg. THEN you're the Monday attraction.

I saw a one legged stripper once. She got mad because I didn't want to watch her hop around the stage. That and her stump ended right where the 'bits' were.....and that was oddly discomfiting.

Definitely not a one legged stripper, Norma Jean does helps take some of the sting from a Monday.

Ok on to business........

Rich: your rearset plates are in a box and will be shipped to you this afternoon.
They turned out nice and light, lots of strength too. Let me know how they do for you. I imagine you'll need a shim or two when mounting them up, I did the best I could but those OE cast bases were....umm......organic in nature. I left you several peg position options as well so you should be able to fit the bike to yourself nicely.


This week.....it's clip-on blocks.....all week long! Woooo.......
(lots of work is a good problem to have!)

I'll have more to post later today or tomorrow. Should have a functional computer again so posting pictures here should be workable. That'll be nice.

Last bit, I'm looking for ideas here so now's the time for your input: What do you want to see here? I've got some things in mind, a weekly interview series comes to mind. I know a lot of weirdos and they all have lots to say. Should prove interesting.
I'd like to profile some of the local Portland area shops and bike related locations, shows etc, that's in the works. What else would make this an interesting place to visit for you intertoob motorcycle refugees? Lemme know, comment here, email me: homagemotoworks-at-gmail-dot-com , carrier pigeon, singing telegram...whatever.

Rambling, wordy and largely useless........

Ok time for another minor update and a couple heads-up.

I'm still trying to get this off the ground but it's slowly taking shape. I still need to deal with this neuter of a computer....hey that should be it's name 'Neuter the 'Computer'. Effing junk ass beat down piece of crap........but I digress....

>Rich: Your rear set plates are 85%, I'm down to adding lightness and cleanup.
Rich builds cool bikes and doesn't fear the oddball.....like a GR650!

>Jack: Your clip-on blocks are still only roughed in but I'll be putting some time on them and the rest this week. Hang in there buddy, I appreciate your patience.

>Jordan: The stem should be free this afternoon and we'll see about getting it crammed into the CBR bottom clamp for you. At that point the front end should be fairly straight forward.

>Von Yinzer: Your nanny dresses you funny.....

>Sean: Your foot pegs are built and they look great. Let me know when you want to come get'm!

>Dave-O: thanks for the 411 amigo, just what I needed to get this job done!
Dave is an old school machinist that had a shop space right behind mine, he was instrumental in my acquisition of my big TREE 2UVRC milling machine....for really cheap. He's happily showed me tricks and ways around problems that generally only come from year and years and YEARS standing in the chip shower. I like this guy!

>Martin: You're still a wus.

The Barbarian Horde:
I'd like to thank Bobdot and Sakeracer for joining the horde here, thanks gents.
Your mission (should you choose to accept it) as new members is to find an excuse to drink too many Jaegerbombs and run naked down the main drag of your town while singing inappropriate songs about someone else's girlfriend.

See....told ya......

From Chicks and Bikes: http://chicksandbikes.tumblr.com