Blade Runner

My favorite film. I can watch it over an over just for the cinematography and soundtrack. I've seen it 7 times in theaters, plus countless times on video. The Original release twice, two times watching the non authorized Directors cut when it was only released in Santa Monica back in the late 80's .. once in Milan in Italian.. no English subtitles. Twice in Paris for the Director's Cut - french subtitles. Once a friend and I couldn't afford to go home for Thanksgiving when we were living in LA. We couldn't find anyplace open around our place so we got Hot Dogs at the 7-11 down the street and watched Blade Runner. Not the worst Thanksgiving I ever had!

2010 doesn't seem all that futuristic to me and the movie time period of 2019 is not that far off. I don't think we'll be flying around in those cars unfortunately.

The one thing that seems so different is communication. I routinely talk to people all over the world in real time. Email,text message, Skype, this blog. Knowing and sharing common interests with people from all over is one of the best things to come from technology in my opinion.

Remember how long it took to dial a rotary phone? Watch a movie from even the 70's and someone goes to dial a phone.. and it's a 1 minute lull in the film waiting for them to watch the dial spin back and forth. Compare that to your cell phone.
Which brings me to why I am so drawn to old things .. like motorcycles. Part of it must be that you can see the machine in them. With technology things are getting smaller and you can't see how they function anymore. Looking at a cell phone or a computer it's just some plastic and a screen. Nothing too remarkable. No gears turning .. oil dripping. Things can't be torn apart and rebuilt that easy. They're not made for user maintenance, they're just made to be replaced. There is always something on the horizon that's faster, smaller, has more bells and whistles. With the early motorcycles any mechanic or farmer with tractor knowledge could tear the whole thing apart and rebuild every single piece of it. It's become a rare thing to have things that last like that, that can be rebuilt and maintained. My granparents have things in their house that they've been using for 50yrs. My friend Bill uses a 110 yr old lathe that belonged to his father everyday. I wonder how many of the machines and everyday things around us now will be there in 10 yrs let alone 50. I'm sure the old bikes that have made it this long will still be being rebuilt in the future. What about the ones being made now.. will they?

Finally got my panhead going again. Spark might be kinda weak or I'm just not used to it as it's still harder to get the bike started. Plugs at .018 .. points at .015.. leg at a million kicks

try this again

My friend Bill and I made a stainless nipple insert for the head. Slightly oversize thread. Threaded it in. First time it was too wide .. intake wouldn't fit.. Lathed it down some more .. now it's about as perfect as it's going to get. It's not going anywhere. Where was I the other day before I was ready to use the head as a soccer ball?

Oculus

crepescule

Kind of looks like a big syringe on the side of the bike. When the bike rattles apart and leaves you on the side of the road...use this.. forget about the bike.. forget all your problems son.

purgatory

Got the Pan back together only to notice as I was tightening the manifold that the nipple moved. Not good. Off came the carb and intake .. sure enough nipple threads in head are stripped to gone...previous owner could have just stuck the nipple in there with RTV sealant I don't know. who knows how long ago. So off came the head again. I was about done with old bikes when I saw this.. but txdennis turned me on to a possible replacement for my Shovelhead so I was thinking more of that than the Panhead blues that were being played out in the garage. Plus it was raining hard all day so wasn't really missing much. It'll be sunny tomorrow though.. can almost guarantee it. I may as well sell my helmets because I'll probably just be working on these janky piece of shit bikes forever and never actually end up riding any of them. What's that phrase for the definition of insanity? Keep doing the same thing expecting a different outcome?

Cote D' Azur

In late 99 and early 2000 I lived in Nice, France. The roads around the Cote D'Azur and over on the Costa Azzurra, Italy were some of the most amazing roads I've been on. My friend Cookey lives in the South of France and I asked him to send some photos of the area with his bike. Now I miss it even more. Thanks Cookey.. send more photos!

Bye Bye Battery

Got my Panhead back together for the most part. Need to hook up the reduced wiring to the capacitor, adjust the front pushrods and set the timing on the mag.