Oh Hi......don't mind me, I'm just sweeping out the dust. Peek back in in a couple weeks, mayhap you'll see something new!

Hideho you lot! It's been a wee bit lonesome here, not a lot going on unfortunately. My internet time is quite limited these days as my only regular access is on my miserable phone so updating the blog and searching the toobz is pretty tough. Also important; for some reason my phone doesn't like to play nice with several forums I normally peruse, as such PMs maybe unanswered for a while longer.
There's hopeful news though...

Barring any silliness (or perhaps the fickleness of Providence) I should be in an actual house again with a comparatively voluminous work space, hopefully by the end of June. Timing, Providence, The Grand Plan....who knows, who cares....but things look like they could fall into place. Miss Kitty's folks have a lovely lake house at Fishhawk lake that they are moving into full time...well mostly. A few nights a week Dad B will stay with us as he still goes into the office. I imagine that won't last long but we'll rock it while it does, he's rad! Dad B is an recovering hippy, now mechanical/manufacturing engineer so he's really REALLY smart and is also loads of fun. So that'll be a good thing methinks.....
Ma B will be up at the lake full time being crafty, social and painting up a storm, she's a very talented painter of watercolors and I anticipate no end of things for her to capture.

The house we'll be moving into is pretty sweet; 4bd/2bth, pretty good size...I'm gonna estimate at something like 2200sq. with that good garage, a couple sheds out back and room to spare. The front yard is pretty small, especially since the county widened to the road out front so not much to take care of but the backyard is effing huge. I anticipate a lot of BBQs and shindigs out back. more on this to come......

The most important to me though is the ability to work again. These last few weeks have been for shit, very tough to get stuff done, logistics are what's playing hell on things right now. My small machines are 40 minutes away in my cousin's garage. Mostly set up but a pain to get to and as much as I built out her garage and organized to the best I could there's still stuff all over it. My big mill is 30 minutes the other direction.
You can maybe see where this has lead......though my hands have definitely been full, not in the way I need.
I haven't made anything but a mess in two weeks. Weird how addictive it is to make stuff...to be ABLE to do so.

Let's see....bike stuff..

Done loads on the backside of the business that needed to be done....I just had to be forced into it haha.
Some projects are hanging, most have been ok but I've refunded a few...that's ok though there's little money left over right now.

Got my tank back from Andrew, he did nice work so that's been taunting me for a week. I can't wait to get back to working on Sakura, I've had time to really work out some details that should push the bike over the top. Coming up are a few frame mods I hadn't figured to do this time around but will because she'll be even better after. I came up with a pretty nifty setup for the brakes that will clean things up visually and I've settled on a front end mod I've been mulling over for a while that'll also serve to really set the bike off.

Haven't done anything to the XV this month, was my intention to continue rewiring it but I simply have no space left in which to do the work....yay.

Anyway, I had a chance to pop in so I thought I'd do so and say hiya.
So.......hi!
Tell anyone who cares to know...I'm not dead, nor am I living in the tropics writing crap novels....someday though!

Invictus Maneo: Life Lessons part two

First, while I won't delete it I'd like to apologize to those of you who were moved to send me angry mail. I know this is a motorcycle blog of sorts. I know you want to come here and see some bike stuff, some pretty girls and laugh at my buffoonery.

I'll be back on track sooner than I'd have imagined so keep your pants on, M'kay?

The dust hasn't settled, but it's thinned enough to see that I'm not sunk. I've kinda felt like I was going it alone these years, a filthy product of someone's personal brand of horseshit. Thing is...when you're treading water in a lake of shit...there's no way to not get some on ya. I drank the koolaid, ate the cookie and bought the souvenir teeshirt too.

Needless to say, I was totally caught unawares by the people coming out of the woodwork to come to my aid. I'm humbled and more than a little shocked. I had my big milling machine all but sold and was close to despondent over it, it's my "One Good Thing". Within moments of almost letting it go, I got an offer of space to store it where it could be used too.

For free.

...blink. blink-blink.......for real? Andrew from Little Horse Cycles who's done the work on the tank for Sakura has room, and is down to help. W_T_F!!??? So, shazam...crisis one averted. One ginormous machine will have a safe home until I get something permanent. On top of everything else, he's coming out in the morning with his giant truck and I'll have a forklift here to load it so it really couldn't have gone much smoother.
Andrew, thank you my friend.

Now....what to do with the rest of this shit?
Enter cousin Jenny; stage left
She bought a house just recently and has a more or less empty two car garage with nothing to hold. Well now, I think I can help fill'er up! I made a decent living out of a 1 car garage for a period of time. I can do it again. I will do it again. Plus she's the coolest person I know and always has a smile for me.

I've officially got nothing but what I have my hands on. I have no money to speak of, been a slave for too long to have anything like free spendable cash but.....I'm able, I'm pissed and very motivated.

Invictus Maneo!

I REMAIN UNVANQUISHED!

My buddy Andrew who's the brain and the hands behind Little Horse Cycles has worked some majik on one cheapo 60's Wards minibike tank for the Sakura build. I can't say thank you enough my friend! Just a handful of pics I ganked for a sneak-peek.....

Gone is the horrible pinchweld along the bottom and a threaded ring in place of the OE fill neck for......something nifty!

I needed something upbeat this week.....

Life lessons and shit like that.....

( WARNING: Personal shit)

It's been a shitty, destructive, depressing, grinding, sad 11 years.
It's over, I'm done. I accepted all the shit, all the blame, all the angst. I did without pay while you bought a new car you didn't need, a new bike you definitely didn't need, a house when you could have rented like the rest of us poor fuckers just trying to make ends meet. You bought that giant TV, the carpet, log splitters, a car for your girlfriend........and you look at me like you've done ME a favor.

Karma is a bitch. 
(...the last stripper I dated was named Karma....for real....but she was kinda nice)
I am done with carrying those who won't carry themselves.
I've lost almost everything I could possibly lose, my self respect is the last thing and you can't have it you dirty worthless cur.
I've sacrificed and gone without for you and your 'gotta haves'.
I've lived knee deep in shit you've caused and I ALWAYS clean up your mess.
I've withstood your insults, your humiliations, short paychecks, bad business decisions and narrow, bland, uncreative "plan". A plan that somehow included me carrying you to your moldering demise while I pave the way with my own dreams.

For every scar on my face and every scar inside where nobody can see.
For every time you found a way to try and undermine me in front of women.
For every time you put someone else ahead of your own son.

You reap what you sew and you love to kick me when I'm down.
Remember....I'll get back up soon and then you're fucked.

OK, personal shit aside for the time being.....

I'm out of my shop space as of the end of the week at the latest. I'll be setup in a few days in a very temporary spot where I can do small machining and such.Those that have projects with me, please get in touch so we can work out details. I have little to no money to throw around but I'll be able to finish up what I have going if I can beg just a little more patience. However like I said before when things started going down the tubes, if you want your money back let me know and I'll do what I need to.

I'm sorry for any inconvenience the causes to you or your projects. Last thing I ever wanted. I also apologize for airing my personal dirty undies here, but it's my outlet at the moment.

What the hell?

Well, it's sorta bike content....
Yesterday I had a stainless exhaust put on Miss Kitty's Jetta by the good kats a HM Motorsports. My buddy Jordan is the manager there and went the extra distance to get it right and it is! Sounds good, a bit more pop...a bit, it's a 2.0l single cam motor so it's not gonna be a barn burner but then she doesn't need a baby eater. I also added a K&N filter with a healthy airbox mod that not only added to the growl, especially off the line but also helped nudge the ponies up just a bit more.
It's a good setup for a daily driver like this, just enough audible presence to be fun, stainless won't rust away and it woke it up a bit. We may add a cam and possibly a header at some point too. I ordered a throttle body off ebay that I'm gonna bore out for a bit more intake flow and we'll look into a chip for it as well.

At this point though the spongy OE suspension HAS to be addressed. The little motor now grunts enough to throw the body back ie; lifts the front and squashes the rear as it takes off from a stop and even does some when you mash it below 35mph.
I've looked online at various options and it's either bargain KYB struts and shite springs or high buck coil overs. I won't put shit parts on her car and she doesn't need race suspension so I'm going to source my own middle ground solution likely in the form of KYB's step-up AGX adjustable struts, some machining here to convert to coil over springs which I'll source thru Eibach to suit. Not too stiff, but definitely firmer than stock. I might look into bending up some bigger swaybars too at some point...yeah I make custom swaybars...it's a long story.

Here's some crap pics:

A nice inline-resonator also in stainless. Teutonics Tuning doesn't mess around.

Nice stainless construction, not ricer flashy just good solid performance. Slightly larger diameter pipe too.

The stock airbox is fairly voluminous, but terribly restricted and the air path takes a circuitous route. Fuck that....I hacked out the bottom and got rid of the joke of a stock intake snorkel. There's now a large opening that draws from a largely protected void that's also nicely supplied with fresh cool air from the bumper area. I'll add a diverter tube if it's really needed....doubt it.

Nice K&N panel filter. Once the lid's on nobody will be the wiser other than the small "Do Not Shitcan!!!!" sticker on the top. Ah yes FYI: her Jetta is green so was dubbed Kermit.

Choke point!! This looks ok huh? At the indicated location however, the internal opening is approximately 15mm x 45mm! WTF?? Plus, there's a screen up near the grill opening that keeps crap outta the airbox...nice idea except that it clogs badly and in this case was only flowing maybe 40% if that. GONE!!!!!

I'm generally against stickers declaring aftermarket equipment but Miss Kitty got a giggle out of it so on they go!

Oh yeah, on top of everything else they were blazing fast and had the car ready to go in less that two hours. No muss, no fuss, no rattles, knocks or funny sounds.

Minor Bike content below:

Whilst out to retrieve said car I took the opportunity to meet Andrew from Little Horse as his shop is right my HM. This kat's one helluva fabricator and has deigned to take on the sheetmetal rework for the tank on Sakura. SEE!!!!! Bike Content!!!!

I love the shape of the little minibike tank I'll be using but there was some areas I wanted tweaked just a little. First is the bottom edge, it's in truth a pretty cheap tank from a cheap department store minibike of the 60's, the sheetmetal is kinda thin and there's an exposed pinch weld along to bottom that I want gone, reworked, covered....whatever. All the really nice tanks have a nice rounded bottom edge too and I want that. The other thing I want is some nutserts added around the OE filler neck as I've got something really REALLY neato planned for it. So neato in fact that there will be some of you who may experience a slight burning around the package. Have some beer around to douse the flames...ok? I'll feel bad after I laugh....

Blame Canada

I stole this from Trent at BikerMetric because it's fucking rad! You should go there and absorb his stuff wholesale.

Be good you troublemakers...

Oh hey....a GOOD one on ebay......

So those of you who've stuck around have probably seen my recent aggravation regarding a recent eBay debacle. Well, my faith was bolstered a bit today.

I had a deal set with a kat on ebay but there ended up being a problem unforseen by the seller who promptly contacted me and offered a refund. Bummer that the deal didn't fly, shit happens but I am very happy with Mr.Monkeyclaw's communication and willingness to work with me. I've added this kat to my 'search first list' and will be checking his inventory for goodies when the time comes.
Thanks mate!

Check his stuff out, loads of good parts at good prices!
http://stores.ebay.com/mistercsmotorcycles?_trksid=p4340.l2563

Well that worked out.......

not.

So as the more astute(read as: less stoned, drunk or bashed in the dome) of you will have noticed that things are still a little wacky here, those 'big changes on a personal level' are still going on and are likely to for the foreseeable future, though 'things' around here should get back to normal by the end of the month. I took March off of new business and it looks like April will be the same. Money's getting squeaky tight but that's just the way it goes. I can do with a few less big dinners, cheaper beer in the fridge and a little generic ramen never hurt anyone right? Right?!? 

Truly though, for those of you who aren't comfy waiting just drop me a line and I'll throw a refund your way. Right now there's only a couple of you that are drastically overdue for goodies and I am really sorry. though I gotta say, everyone has been very cool and I thank you. Hit me up if ya need to fellas, I'd rather lose a little money on a couple deals than have you kats pissed off out there in intertoob land.

Ya dig?

Here's somethings that are pleasant to look at......

You wanna put that.....where?

Just I like'm; nekid, happy and stacked up to make room for more!

Classic.

Kim Novak circa 1955 or so.

Beast

Put her up top of the goddamned stair-master at the gym and I'd follow for HOURS!!! Motivation!

blah blah blah...you know, be good humans.

Oh what the hell one more fir the road.....

Been a helluva week thus far, load happening on a personal level and a slow creep forward for the bike stuff. I'll have more to post this afternoon, so for now enjoy the fruits my latest bout of musical schizophrenia.

Jon Itkin.
I discovered this guy by accident whilst trolling youtube for something else entirely. Good find.....

The Refreshments.
Man there are times when I miss the 90's...not many, but there ARE times....

Reckless Kelly.
Worth a trip to Austin to hear'm live.....I have a scar from that show, it was great!

be good humans

Meant this one for Yesterday........

Things being what they are, it's late by a day but here's the latest from workin' slob Mike D.

Well, it’s been a little while since I’ve been lucky enough to share with you fine miscreants, but I’m back now so you can all relax and stop planning the mass suicide. I promise I’ll never leave you for such a long time again. Ok, now that we have gotten that out of the way. Let’s get onto the meat of this glorious meal for the mind.

How in the hell are all you minions of His Glorious Shining Appendage? Beautiful physically and full of Christ love I’m sure. Since you were wondering (but too shy to ask), I’m doing well also. I just picked up a pretty rad XS650 chop.

Does this smell like love to you?

Always wanted a proper hardtail and through some creative horse trading and general bartering I ended up with what will be the first bike I’ve owned that I have no plans on getting rid of (I say now…). It’s a little dirty and way too loud but for some reason, that’s just perfect
for me. I’m pretty stoked.

Anyhow, throughout the year or so long journey that led me to this bike, I’ve owned and traded/sold a pile of scoots and parts. Yamahas, Hondas, Harleys… The list goes on. In all the “business” being handled, I was really lucky to get to spend some time with a few guys who really live and breathe this vintage motorbike “thing”. What a bunch of absolute weirdos. I mean complete loons, and I’m proud to count myself amongst their ranks.

In all honesty, there’s some of the best sumbitches ever in this odd little world we have all plunked down our flags upon. Through the web, and in particular the venerable
DOTHETON.com I have been lucky to meet some absolutely killer people. You all know who you are, so Ill leave the name dropping for self righteous dick bags who were
ignored by some TV tart at an overpriced nightclub, but who act as if they and Ms.Vacant stare fucked in public.

Which brings me to my next rambling “point”; Barber Vintage Motorcycle Fest is this upcoming October and hell or high water I WILL be there. That much is for sure. And when I get there, I will be surrounded by great people, great bikes, and hopefully some umbrella girls. And dammit, that’s wonderful. You see, like most of you, I live in the real world. The real fucking boring world. Its full of shitty jobs, horrid people, and empty checking accounts. There’s a healthy dose of shitty weather thrown in for us North
Easterners as well. So, when an event like Barber happens, we as humans (well, those of us who get sexually aroused at the sound of vintage race bikes throttling up after turn
three) owe it to ourselves to take time out to enjoy things like this. We need it. I need it. You need it.

You see, in this ass backwards world of metro-sexuals, where everyone gets a trophy, political correctness bullshit is everywhere, we’re bombarded with the notion that waking up one day and saying “fuck you, I’m getting on my bike, riding away from here and hanging out with a bunch of hoodlums because it makes me fucking happy. And, oh yeah, Ill be really drunk at one (or more than one) point too” is somehow a bad thing. We might offend someone, or god forbid, hurt somebody's feelings. Well ya know what? Good. That’s a great way to separate the people who actually give a shit about your mental health from the jackasses who would trade your happiness for six pack of Blatz.

Fuck those people man. Total wastes. And there’s a TON of them out there. Trying to bring you down to where they reside, fat, docile and useless. I think that’s somewhere behind your shitter by the way. You know the place. That spot you can never really get clean. It’s a sticky and piss soaked dump. Yeah, they live there. Don’t go there. Its gross, and there’s no beer or dirty magazines.

You should be hanging out with the motorcycle weirdos. Doing cool shit, feeling good, starting trouble, but not too much trouble, getting sun burnt in weird places, sleeping in a field, listening to music that your old lady/man hates, talking to people you’ll never see again about seriously heavy shit, and so on… Just fucking do it. You’re
going to be in a pine box before you know it so have a little fun. Fuck Tipper Gore and the rest of the PC crew. Live while you still can. And make sure you call me before hand. I'm always down for a hootenanny.

At a dead run, purloined brew under one arm and someone's banner in the other hand Mike's always down for the hootenanny!

 

Something fell off.......

I'm pretty sure, something fell off back there.....

This is a pretty good illustration of just how 'modular' this bike is, both the chain and shaft drive versions have essentially the same chassis with the exception of the swingarm and possibly some variation of the lower section it bolts to but I haven't compared the two side by side. 

Pretty much a lego-bike. I just picked up another upper frame section that'll be bolted on in place of this one. Once the swap is complete, I'll drop the steering head SEVERAL inches on this one(titled) and bring the static steering angle back to 25* to more suit the TL1000r front end I have for it. I have another lower portion as well that'll be modified to suit the CBR600rr swingarm that I still have to procure a top mount for......grrrr.  

It'll be significantly braced as well as I'm likely gonna chop the middle right out of the frame completely ala Herr Koch's lovely creations, feast your eyes:

Look ma! No middle!

Again, the center portion of the frame has been removed to cut weight and open up the middle visually. The engine is designed as a fully stressed member and has been raced in the same configuration so I'm not worried at all about strength. This will require a one-off seat frame but that bolts on and will be relatively easy to take care of.

I've got it stripped to actually get off my ass and wire the damned thing. I've sworn off EVERYTHING tomorrow and will be here slinging wire and hopefully NOT letting any smoke out of anything other than the engine.

More goodies for this one came this week. I did a little happy dance.

Remember that Mikuni mass buy I talked about a few weeks back? This is what I got in that run! Two brandinew TM38 flatslides for the beastie! YUM! They'll slot right into the boots on the bike now, luckily they are still quite pliable though I could turn up some aluminum manifolds if needed. They have that....'New Carb Smell'

I

I briefly considered a slight change in direction..........ok not really but it was a giggle. The tank is off an 09 Triumph Rocket3 and is so fucking large it's only 2" or so narrower than the bars themselves. The seat is from a sportster. Some 18" apes and no mufflers and.......no.  
No, this is what dumb looks like in case you missed the memo but....it's pretty interesting how different it looks with this bodywork. Definitely cruiser in nature, makes me wonder what's hiding under some other droopy choppersan rejects out there....

And in closing, something lovely to look at on a Friday night I'm spending by myself in the shop....

Quite possibly perfect

may not be perfect but I bet she's loads of fun!

There's more to see in the paddock than bikes and skinny little assholes dressed in leather!

Nice flowers.....

Fantastico!

I don't remember it quite like this in the 80's......

I like'm dirty! Beautiful and stacked doesn't hurt though....

Happy Easter you degenerates!

Filler, fluff, too much goddamned rain, the fookin' phone and a slipping schedule

What the hell, it's Tuesday and I feel like working backward.....

Slipping Schedule

I apologize to those of you waiting on 'Short term' projects; you kats on the clip-on list, Mike D for a few things, Ringo and Mr.Spacers. I way overestimated my time available and things are definitely running long. If that's not cool with you, drop me a line at homagemotoworks@gmail.com and we'll work it out. 

Having loads of work is good, it really is. Unfortunately this hit when some things outside the shop(out there in that 'real world'** place) came to sit on my chest as well haha. That being said, I have exactly zero scheduled outside the shop for some time so hopefully we'll be past this hitch quickly. Thanks for being patient, I'll make sure your goodies are spiff!

The phone.....bain of my existence

An incomplete list of people I'm supposed to call but haven't because I suck and get lost in the work until it's way too late to call. But mostly because I suck.....

Trent because he's a badass and made me a generous offer that I wish to partake of. I'd drink the Koolaid! Hell I'd dress up as BraMan and run around Nola with a 5 gallon bucket of daiquiri and a big straw. I plan to....

Caleb because he thinks big and has ideas and the wag to move on them.

Swaps because he's patient and a cool guy who's building an LSR VF500!

Jerry who does great logo work and likes scantily clad nubiles too. Nubile....that is a good word. It might be the best word.....except for blowjob. That's definitely the best word!

Troy simply because I haven't done so in far too long and you're too cool to not BS with.

Kiley because to my embarrassment.....I don't think I have.....ever.

...and the rest of you waiting on my busy ass, I'll make time for the phone I promise.

Side note: There's some scary shit for sale on ebay. I went looking for my favorite comic book character Bra-Man but google gave me this 

(umm....eww.)

http://compare.ebay.com/like/120491737426?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar

Rain. rain-rain, rain-rain, rain-rain, fuck.

(That's haiku right there)

Fuck me! Is it ever gonna quit raining? And what a stupid word. 

R-A-I-N....it's even stupid looking. The arrangement of letters leaves MUCH to be desired.

It is my fervent desire that it quit raining. Now.....

Fervent. Fervent is an ok word, not nearly as good as nubile or blowjob though.

Fluff and Filler

Not that there's really anything wrong with fluff. Some of my favorite things are kinda fluffy:

-The warm zip in liner for my Hein Gerrick Dakar is kinda fluffy and furry.

-the fleece neck binky I bought in the clearance bin at the local Honda shop for a buck.....also similarly warm and fluffy and slightly furry.

-Kittens and puppies are fluffy and furry and cute and make me less likely to stab a banker. I want a cute Kitty&Puppy poster for the wall in the shop....I think that'd be rad.  (Mostly because women will dig it)

So how about some filler? Some filler that's kinda fluffy...

Yay indeed....

For the tan, the tat and the contrast

for her unreadable expression

***"The Real World" may or may not exist outside my shop. There are times when I'm fairly doubtful, usually because what's going on out there is so fucking left field stupid that my tools and machine are often the only things that make any sense to me what so ever.

WTF!!!??????

Somehow three posts have disappeared. I don't know why but I'll try to retrieve them.

Mostly filler and attractive females but still....

Day to day here is a little fucked and I'm a bit blue. I'll have things back up to speed in short order. 

In the meantime here's some attractive girls.

For the swallows.....

For her eyes.....

Just because it's a rad photo......

For that sexy, duckface free pout

For the negative space....

For that wee purple halo

Badass of the week

Don't know how I found it, don't really care.
Made me smile a bit on a day that was spiraling into a real face-stabber.

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/index.html

More to come this afternoon you mutants......

Bad eBay Seller

I HATE THIS and avoid this shit like the plague generally speaking but I'm a bit put out at this point.

I don't call people out often and even less often a "business", I'm far more likely to shrug off a fuckup if I think there's real effort on the other end to find a solution, sometimes even if said solution doesn't materialize as hoped.

(trying to stick with the 'I' comments here....)

I purchased a CBR600rr swingarm on ebay recently for a bike I'm putting together. It's a neat piece, one thing I really dig is that there's no need for an upper shock mount...it's part of the swingarm. Simple, clean and eye catching. Also like plankton on ebay because the vast majority of them get augered by some squid in an Affliction T-shirt so I wasn't completely stunned to find a suitable unit for what appeared to be a very reasonable price. I contacted the seller regarding the possible presence of the lower linkages not shown in the pic. What did show was the top of the swingarm, the shock and the associated bolt on shock mount. 

Our communication went like this; (cut&paste directly from ebay messages)
 

Me 2/23: I'm building a custom and am interested in your cbr swingarm assembly. It looks like the shock is there, is the lower linkages as well. If so consider it sold!
Thanks,
Lee

chop-shop-motorsports 2/24: Yes sir 

So far so good, coms and quick and friendly though that 'sir' guy is my Dad..haha

Me 2/24: Done and done, thanks for getting back quickly.

 

chop-shop-motorsports 2/24: Not a problem. We will ship your item out after we recieve your payment one the 29th. You say that your building a custom if your looking for anymore parts please contact us before you go anywhere else because more then likely we have it and for a affordable price. Thanks again

Here's a pic from their auction. Note that the top mount is in place......

More good, friendly communication...things are looking gooood! At this point chat digresses to me extolling the virtues of my project to someone who politely doesn't give a shit and an exchange of info regarding what we do in our individual shops and the like. Could be the start of a good working partnership, right?

Time passes, shipping info is in and the package is on it’s way, yeehaw! I can’t wait to get my big ol’hairy paws on it and get my swingarm pivot section designed to suit it!

Uh-oh........

The box gets to mydoor about a week after they dropped it off with UPS, pretty standard stuff, no worries…oops. Hmmm…

The swingarm came in a large box, large enough to drop the whole assembly into, well wrapped in bubble wrap and still have room for a small family of Laotian farmers. 

Ok, whatever so they didn't have a suitable box. Open her up and sure enough there's a couple bundles cocooned in bubble wrap. 'Ok, so they pulled the shock for some reason.....' I thought to myself and sure enough it was out and separately wrapped. Cool, nice touch...all that. A couple hours later when I had time to open the stuff up for inspection I find that the top shock mount had been unbolted and left out of the package. Back to ebay messages...

Me 3/7: Hi, I got the swingarm today, thanks. There are a couple issues, the scrape and bent spool mount I can deal with but it's missing the top shock mount and some hardware. Bolts and such aren't a big deal I guess but I need that top mount.
Thanks,
Lee

In some cultures this would be considered high art.

 

chop-shop-motorsports 3/7: We will send that right over we will look for that tomorrow at the shop sorry for the troubles

Oh yeah, remember that top down pic? Yeah didn't show a scuff and a badly gooched spool mount. Neat.....but nothing I can't deal with since I'll be refinishing it anyway.

But.......

Me 3/9: Hi, any word on the missing top mount and hardware? Thanks

I didn't expect it to arrive but possibly to be shipped? 

chop-shop-motorsports 3/9: We are shipping it out today sorry for the delays

Huh? Thought they were already on it....like days ago

 

chop-shop-motorsports 3/9 ~10 minutes later: the tracking number should be in your paypal

What!? Ok wow that was quick once it was brought to their attention. Feeling ok again.......

Quick check at paypal....

Nope, that was the original tracking number. Damnit. But I decide to hold out and wait, plus I have a shitload of stuff on my plate so I'll hope for the best.

A week passes and that smelly; something rotten in Denmark feeling has crept in. But I'm still guardedly optimistic.

Me 3/14: Any news on the missing top mount?

chop-shop-motorsports 3/14: The item has been shipped a while ago so you should get it any day now if you havent already also to pin point you item you can track it with the tracking number that paypal sent you

Me 3/15: Aha...that maybe part of the issue....I got nothing from paypal. When should that have come thru? I'll inquire with them. Thanks for the help, have a good day.
Lee

chop-shop-motorsports 3/15: You will have to look under the swing arm paypal notice because we sent it as a second one

Nope, still no good. BUT....in the mean time a small box has arrived from them so I'm feeling all cheery and full of not-stompiness. Fuck the missing hardware, I'll source some on my own but this upper mount is integral to the function of the swingarm so I'm back to feeling OK.....

OH FUCK ME!!! 

No they haven't sent me the part I need, they sent me what appears to be a footpeg pivot for some random bike. Hmm...can I make this work? What do you think sparky?

 

I’m a pretty patient guy, I want to be fair and give everyone a chance. I’ve fucked up before, I’ve dropped the ball.....anyone who says they haven’t is full of shit. 

So I email them outside ebay and wait. 

Aaaaand wait.

A good bit of time passes and I lose said patience. Sorry, I’ve done my best I think......

 

Me 3/27:  Hi, any word on the missing top mount? If this is as it is to stand I will not hesitate to leave the appropriate feedback. The part you took off is clearly shown in the picture.
Feedback posts tomorrow at noon here as well as the shop blog and forums.
Your call how it plays out.

chop-shop-motorsports 3/28: look man we cant find the part we can give you half of the parts money back and you can keep the part or you can send the part back and we will refund your money sorry for any troubles please dont leave bad feed back

......sigh.....I am a giant fucking pussy. I will wait for that partial refund

Me 3/28: fine, a refund will work.
I'll keep the negative feedback off ebay

I really want to be nice and understanding. I do.....

chop-shop-motorsports 3/28: ok once we recieve the part we will refund your money

Wait…what? WTF!!??! Jesus H. Christ on a soggy damned cracker! Are you fucking kidding? Seriously.....

No, seriously??

C'mon...you're not that damned dumb are you?

Me 3/28: Screw it. You keep dodging and messing around. I'm done I tried to play nice.
You 'offered' a partial refund but I'm no longer effing interested.

chop-shop-motorsports 3/28: i can do a do that but you said refund so i thought you want it all back

a few hours later......

chop-shop-motorsports 3/28: we arent trying to screw with you if you want the money back please send us your paypal email

.....the one you have on record in YOUR paypal account? The one I PAID YOU WITH?

Today is March 30^th, 2012 and I have not received my partial refund. Nor any further communication, though admittedly I would have to initiat it to receive any at all.

Ebay has a set short period to deal with shit like this, if you don’t resolve your problem within the allotted time it gets cleared off the books to make room for the next. I understand the need for expedience when you have to wade through half a million pissy customer complaints a day.Best to act within the window as I could see a dodgy seller dragging things out long enough for it to get bumped.

http://myworld.ebay.com/chop-shop-motorsports

Info@chopshopmotorsports.com

http://chopshopmotorsports.com/

I’m not gonna tell you all NOT TO SHOP WITH CHOPSHOP MOTORSPORTS of Keller, Texas. 

That would be mean.

But.....there’s loads of good safe sellers on ebay, do yourselves a favor and look to them for your parts you mugs and save a headache.