Rode down to LA again for Born Free. This time took along Allen and Chris. It was pretty crazy though. Couldn’t find a hotel the first night and then my bike broke down in the middle of nowhere.

Ended up shorting out my Antigravity battery and could not find anything to replace it. We finally found a little battery that I was able to use. Had to push start my bike at every gas station, but it ran after getting it started.

Man I’m over choppers.

Made it to San Felipe Mexico for the El Diablo Run 2017.

The trip was pretty easy and everything went well. We had a real good time there on the beach with all the bikers and bikes. I ate a lot of taco’s and watched everyone drink way too much.

We put our bikes in the trailer and headed down to San Diego and road down to Mexico from there. It was a good thing we drove the truck because on the way back it was snowing.

We made it deep into Mexico before one of the bikes had an electrical meltdown. Quickly fixed that up and off we went to make it to camp before dark. Didn’t make it, but it was OK. Don’t need lights in Mexico… or clear glasses. LOL

The rest of the trip was pretty rad and we made it home with no problems.

The Ride Fast, Take Chances chopper is all built and ready for action. Just in time for the EDR. Hope to be riding it around to work out any of the bugs before riding it to Mexico.

I was going to have the frame powder coated Black Chrome, but things didn’t work out and I ended up Plasti-Dipping it clear. Works fine. The main reason is I’m still doing work on it.

The tank came out awesome. My friend Heidi painted it and I love how it turned out. Very awesome.

Few things I need to finish up is the passenger pegs, the new foot boards, and a few nuts and bolts here and there. The bike isn’t running great either. I think it’s running pretty rich now. Might have to jet the carb. At least tune it some more. It’s not an easy carb to tune.

The new open primary is pretty cool and shifting is super nice. No jerk going into gear and finding neutral is super easy. Dry clutches are great.

It’s still pretty shaky with the vibrations. I haven’t really had it up to speed yet. Wanted to go to Carson tonight for bike night at Harley but it’s raining now. Not sure that it will clear up tonight. I’ve got a lot of work to catch up on anyway.

My March style item came early. I picked up this Orient Bambino for a great price. Couldn’t pass up the deal. It’s close enough to March.

I’ve been looking at this watch for a while now. I love the vintage look of it. Orient has this watch in other versions as well, but I like the cream color and the Roman numbers on the dial. I’m not super stoked on the blue hands but what can you do. Most of the time they look black to me anyway so it’s fine.

This wristwatch is auto winding while I wear it and it also can be wound with the crown. I like that it has the date complication on it also. I never know what day it is when I need it. With the date on the dial I can just take a quick look and be stylish while I do it.

So my Weekender is not going to be my motorcycle watch while the Bambino will be my “stepping out” watch.

Someday the perfect road trip.

The map, created by Randy Olson with help from Tracy Staedter, pinpoints a mix of 50 major national landmarks, national historic sites, national parks and national monuments. If you follow the route suggested, you’ll travel across all 48 contiguous states and never leave the country.

Planning to drive this road trip will net you 13,699 miles of driving — or about 224 hours. Doing it all in one go would take about 9.33 days. Taking 2–3 months to finish it is probably best. Olson used a genetic algorithm that found the best routes with little backtracking. The result is a map using “true distance,” which is the “shortest route by road between every landmark.”

This is definitely on my bucket list.

This film series explores many aspects of our society. To rethink what is possible in our world, we need to consider what kind of world we want to live in. Although we refer to it as civilization, it is anything but civilized. Visions of global unity & fellowship have long inspired humanity, yet the social arrangements up to the present have largely failed to produce a peaceful and productive world. While we appear to be technically advanced, our values and behaviors are not. The possibility of an optimistic future is in stark contrast to our current social, economic, and environmental dilemmas. The Choice Is Ours includes interviews with notable scientists, media professionals, authors, and other thinkers exploring the difficulties we face.

I had a bit of extra money and needed a new set of shoes so I decided to splurge a bit. Picked up some Dr. Marten’s Sussex Work Boot.

They are pretty comfortable shoes and somewhat stylish. I’m not sure if I like the look 100% but I’ve already gone out in them so they are mine now. I can say they are growing on me a bit.

The shoe strings seem a bit too long so I’ll probably change them out with something a bit shorter.

I absolutely love the gel soles though. So nice and soft. This is why I love my Doc’s.

This will be my first new pair of Doc’s in around 30 years. I still have my first pair and they still in OK condition other than scuffs and some holes in the back from where I had some spikes. They are also kind of painted on. I remember when they were new and they totally felt the same as these new ones I just received. They are old and hard now though.

This is all part of my buy one stylish thing a month for myself. There is another pair of shoes that I’m looking at buying in the near future.

The El Diablo Run is scheduled for this year. I’m totally excited to go. And I really need to get my bike dialed in before I do. LOL That means I need to get cracking on getting it rebuilt. I’ve been procrastinating it for a few weeks now but it’s been really cold outside. I think I’ll get my coveralls tonight/tomorrow and head out there and start working on it. It’s time.

Here’s the schedule: ** ** Friday, May 12: Tacos and beer upon arrival in San Felipe

Saturday, May 13: 4-5ish: yard games 5-6pm: open practice for circle of death, all classes 6:16-6:45: rigid class motos and finals

Sunday, May 14: 3-4: open practice for circle of death 4:00-4:30: bike show prize presentation 4:30 to 5ish: circle of death swingarm class motos and finals 6ish: cocatagon

Monday, May 15: Split lanes and take names all the way home

 

Tonight is Command-N at Reno Collective. They are getting setup for it and it starts at 5:30 tonight!

Formerly known as Pixels of Fury, nine designers compete mano a mano in three 18-minute rounds in this design duel of epic proportions. Each team/competitor furiously conceives and creates original posters in each round as specified in a double top-secret creative brief revealed live before each round.

Looks like a fun event to spectate at.

Hung out with Lisa Kurt and a few members of Reno Collective today to see Lisa’s latest show Somewhere in the Desert There’s a Forest.

Lisa does amazing work. I loved all of the illustrations/paintings in the gallery space today. I only wish I could afford to purchase a piece from her. It was also great talking to Lisa and hearing about her art process. I haven’t spoken with her in years. She seems to be doing really well.

The show is coming down soon so if you want to check it out you need to get there right away.

http://sierra-arts.org/exhibit/somewhere-desert-theres-forest/