A while ago I subscribed to the RSS feeds for a few hotrod Volkswagen groups on Flickr. I’ve been marking my favorites and decided to share the selection on a gallery page here. It’s mainly air-cooled stuff, beetles and transporters, with the occasional ghia and golf thrown in. I even found a few very cool Type 34 ghias. You can find it in the main navigation under “Photo Galleries.” I also moved my cool bikes gallery, my 2007 California trip gallery, and my cool bikes gallery pages under the same tab.
I am doing a bit of consolidating in my Twitter world.
I won’t be posting any new content manually to the friarsride account.
Friarsride will only be updated automagically from this blog and twitpic via my camera phone.
Henceforth I will be only posting to my johnbedard twitter account.
I’ve updated my sidebar here to show tweets from the johnbedard twitter account.
I won’t be deactivating my friarsride account but it will remain on “autopilot,” inexorably linked to this blog.
I won’t be un-following anybody on friarsride and I will approve or follow back anyone who follows that account.
I’ve already re-followed everyone from friarsride on my johnbedard twitter account. If I missed you there, let me know.
Confused? No? Then can you explain it all to me?
I’ve gone about this course of action for a number of reasons, chiefly because it’s cumbersome keeping up two accounts. The split focus ended up being a hindrance to rather than a help. So we’ll try it this way for a while.
I’ve been dealing with a serious infection in my right leg since the 9th of April. I was in the hospital for 12 days, starting out with a 104+ temperature. I’ve been out for a week but after seeing my doctor today I’m not exactly out of the woods yet.
So the weekend before that all went down I did manage to remove the belt drive belt and sprockets and reinstall my stock chain (with about 8k miles on it so plenty of life left). I also installed a new “cush drive” in the rear hub, a tighter model from the Triumph Thunderbird Sport. It was very snug but I managed to get it together and get the rear wheel reinstalled. Now I have to go back through and make sure everything is good-and-tight and install my Scottoiler and I’ll be back on the road (oh, and my leg has to finish healing, of course).
As time allows I’ll get the dual disc front wheel and associated parts installed and hopefully make some progress on the bobber conversion. These health issues have really thrown a wrench in my plans.
A few weeks back Ken asked about doing a Triumph show and asked if I could help find some guests. Episode 71 is the Triumph show. I helped point him to Jeff York (thanks to Dwight Argo on BonnevilleAmerica.com for pointing me in his direction), Kevin Cook (Midget11 on BonnevilleAmerica.com) and Big Al of Bitter End Choppers (Ken already knew Big Al but didn’t know he builds Triumph choppers). Links mentioned during the show:
The Triumph Bonneville is a name that we have long been aware of as bikers and the Triumph chop has been coveted by many. If you can find an engine that hasn’t been mashed to bits over time you too can build a very cool looking ride or you could choose a newer model and take the engine from that. This route has it’s benefits. This week, Ian Huntly who gives us Isle of Man coverage and info tells us how new pictures will help us get the feel for this year’s IOM-TT, Jeff York who works on and builds Triumph bikes, Kevin Cook with a great looking chop and ‘ Big ‘ Al Wilkerson of Bitter End Choppers with insight on this build and how to deal with a shop when you need parts made. This is Edition 71.
Thanks for the nod (just before the Jeff York interview), Ken. Looking forward to my interview when my bike’s makeover is done.
I’ve finished scouring through my old posts and cleaning things up, except for a few broken images and image links that point to Flickr. The former I need to hunt down. The latter I just want to re-link to Picasa or upload them to the blog directly. But I’ve deleted off-topic posts, fixed broken links and added categories to all the remaining posts. Some of the early posts from 2002 are just a single link or they’re about the BMW R1150R – the bike I originally wanted before I saw the Bonneville America, and some of the single link posts are for products I’ve tried and didn’t like. I decided to keep those, too. I’ve also fleshed out the post categories, shown for now over in the right-most column.
UPDATE: All the photos and/or photo links are fixed.
I just figured out how to import all the motorcycle-related content from my personal blog, about 161 posts. I still need to go through and clean them up, since many are undoubtedly generic posts that happen to mention motorcycles and that’s probably not the sort of thing I want to post here.
Now I need to update my WordPress motorcycle theme and import it into here as well. I do have the theme but it needs to be updated for the latest version of WordPress.
Everything here is still very tentative. The general plan is to extract all the motorcycle-related content from JohnBedard.com and insert it here to get things going. The theme from that site will also be migrated and updated for use here. I’m still debating whether I want to continue using Picasa for photos or install my own gallery software.
I’ve successfully moved my Wiki content from the johnbedard.com domain to this one. I never got around to adding a custom design to the old wiki, but I’ll have to get after that once Friarsride.com is all set up.
I just spent the Xbox360 money on this little goodie right here (dual disc brake front wheel for my bike). Paying $370 is chump change compared to the $810 they are brand new. However, it’s going to cost me another $630 for the rest of the brake upgrade parts (right lower fork leg, caliper, brake lines, master cylinder, etc.). And there’s the labor to have Jeff swap the 17″ hoop for my stock 18″. Here’s a pic:
In regards to my previous post about the property tax refund, I ended up spending that on my cat’s final vet bill and some on the work clothes I mentioned in yet another previous post. ::sigh:: This blogging crap is getting complicated.
UPDATE: I was able to swap parts with a guy who wanted spoked wheels on his bike. We swapped master cylinders and right fork legs, and he gave me his right brake caliper (I sent him $50 anyway – I mean why not? He saved me hundreds). Later he sold me his 18″ rim and spokes (after having a 21″ rim mounted on his hub) for $20. So I don’t have to have my stock wheel cannibalized for this upgrade.’
UPDATE 2/17/2009: This winter I had the 18″ rim and spokes laced onto the dual disc hub. There is a brand new Avon Venom tire on the front, this time, for the first time, size 130/70-18. Looks bitchin. The Avon Venom 170/80-15 rear tire is just waiting for me to pull the rear wheel off the bike (weather is the problem).
