I own a Kawasaki?

Well yes, as matter of fact, I do! It is a 1978 Kawasaki KZ650 C2, referred to back when it was new as a Custom. I actually bought this bike just before Christmas last year but because I failed to mention my purchase to the BSU until April, I hadn't mentioned it online. Yes, I got in BIG trouble with the spouse. I have made amends though and she is no longer upset with me.

Why a Kawasaki? Why this Kawasaki? Well, Kawasakis have generally been my favorite Japanese motorcycle brand since I first became aware of motorcycles and, believe it or not, I actually sold Kawasakis at 2 different dealerships in 1977 & 78 before joining the Air Force. And the KZ650 was one of those bikes that I sold that I really liked. This particular bike is beautiful, nicely cared for and very close to original condition. The color is original even though it is very attractive, the handlebars are slightly shorter than stock and the seat has a step in it the factory seat didn't have. I actually found it on night browsing through Ebay but the seller was just 10 miles down the road from me. It was too good to pass up! This bike is 33 years old and as you might imagine, the few that remain in the wild have seen plenty of "improvements" by 3 decades of owners. So finding a clean and (almost) original bike is pretty rare.

With a little help from the credit union I bought it and tucked it away in the shop for the winter. I had some small repairs and improvements to make that kept me busy for a few weeks but when riding season arrived, I had to face the music and spill the beans.

I've been riding it a couple weeks now and it is wonderful! It rides and acts like I remember motorcycles acting. It isn't a race bike or a cruiser or a long distance touring bike; it's just a motorcycle. It starts, stops and turns just as it should and I'm mighty happy with it. Being 33 years old, it does have a few minor things that still need my attention- the lights don't work in the instruments and the turn signal indicators are intermittent but that's small stuff. I've already installed a much brighter headlight assembly and added some electrical relays to the electrical system to make things run more reliably. A new LOUD horn may be the next modification I make to the bike as the stock one is really puny.

Want to see it? Take a look!





Ain't she pretty? As always, click the thumbnails to see the full size pictures!
Have no fear, Sleek Black Beauty still has a proud parking spot under the carport with the Kawasaki and I still enjoy riding her as much as I always did. Now I just have a choice when it is time to ride!

Headed out shortly

To the Cache Valley Cruise-In hot rod and custom car show. I'm going with my buddy Loc; he's riding his chopper and I'm riding Sleek Black Beauty. THe road to Logan is a pretty ride and it should be lots of fun.

Work will continue on the backyard sprinkler renovation project when I return.

Where to start?

You might guess that I'd have more time for blogging due to my current circumstances but it seems that's just not the case. In fact, I've been busier 'n hell for the past several days. So how to tell the story?

Let's see- I've had 2 job interviews that both seemed to go very well. I'm hoping for a call back on one of them in particular but could be in the running for either one. I've also applied for a job that I heard about through a friend that I expect I will get asked to interview for next week. And in spite of all the activity so far that I'm expecting to turn into an offer, tomorrow I'll dig in again to see what other possibilities I can find.

The workshop remodel continues. Noah came home again this weekend and with his help the ends of the shop have been closed in. It was only 3 pieces of paneling on each end but each piece needed to be cut to match the roof line and then screwed into place, so it was a good day's work. We also installed the 2nd skylight this morning. I did the first one by myself and that was pretty tricky so having him to assist this morning made that a much easier task.

The contractor that did our kitchen work finally made it by on Saturday afternoon to inspect our work and to see what would be required to get finished up. He had several suggestions about how to finish up the job and so he will be back later this week to assist me with some improvements and to get all the flashings installed properly. He's going to get me started on the shingling part of the job and loan me the power nail gun for the task.

It hasn't been all work this week though, there's been a little time for recreation too. Friday night the BSU and I saw Traitor, a new suspense-thriller movie that stars Don Cheadle. This is an excellent movie that will leave you scratching your head afterwards as you consider the tricky situation that Cheadle's character plays as an "off-the-books" undercover agent and the twisted thought process of the Islamic terrorists that he has aligned himself with. It really is a terrific film and it gets 2 thumbs up from my house.

Saturday night was a perfect night for baseball and the BSU and I went to see probably our last Raptors game of the season. The team made the southern division playoffs this year but they have to play the arch rivals- the Orem Owlz. The Owlz have beaten the Raptors badly this year; they've beaten every team pretty badly actually, and last night was no different. It was Owlz 5, Raptors 1 at the end of last night's game. They are playing in Orem tonight- the score's tied 5-5 right now and the Raptors will have to beat the Owlz tonight and tomorrow night if they are to go to the Pioneer League championship series later in the week. So we will see what happens but chances are my baseball spectating is done for the summer.And even though the Raptors lost night, it was a beautiful night at Lindquist Field in downtown Ogden.

Today was even more excitement, as I took Sleek Black Beuty for the longest ride yet, out to Toole and Miller Motorsports Park to spectate some vintage motorcycle racing at the Bonneville Vintage GP. It was terrific getting up close to some neat vintage racing bikes and spectating from the elevated deck above the front straightaway. There was some really great racing by guys doing it just for the fun of going fast on old and interesting motorcycles. The road trip on Sleek Black Beauty was 134 miles round trip and most of that was on the highway so I got a pretty good buffeting since the windscreen really doesn't provide much any wind protection. But it was fun and Beauty performed perfectly.

So tomorrow I'm back to job hunting and working on the shop. I've got to get the skylights taped in to seal out the water. I've also got to purchase some more flashing for the roof edges in addition to the rain drip edge that I already have and there are more tasks to accomplish before the contractor shows up to help me finish. Then I can get busy putting everything back inside and (finally) removing all the sawdust and dirt that has collected. I've been doing cleanup nearly every day and it seems that I'll never get rid of all the wood chips that have collected.

So that's it. I'm not dead, just busy and enjoying the cooler temperatures that have occurring lately. Keep your fingers crossed for me and my employment circumstances over the next few days!

No shop roof work tonight-

no lawn mowing or scooter re-assembling in the shop tonight either. I didn't even go out to the shop for a smoke and to listen to the Raptor's game. I'm just too tired tonight.

I got home from work and sat down, only to have to go out immediately to rescue the BSU, clear down in Layton at her eye Doc's office. She had taken herself to an appointment, unaware that she would be having her eyes dilated, so she was in no condition to drive home. And I went and rescued her like any caring hubby would.

I left the scoot there, we both went to dinner at Jason's Deli and then I took her home. Kenny picked me up and delivered me back down to the scooter so I could get it home. That's when I discovered that the license plate had fallen off Sleek Black Beauty!

Hooverdamm! The aluminum bracket that holds the LED brakelight and the license plate frame broke at the top of the license plate holder. Its gone.

I guess tomorrow I get to visit my friendly DMV office...

I'm whupped-

beat down, tired, sore, worn out and bushed. I shouldn't be so hammered but I am.

The job is beating my butt right now with all my program funds needing to be obligated by 1 August, not 30 September, as I was working towards. Now I have to get all the money obligated, through numerous, complicated channels or risk loosing it and crashing my program. On top of all the high-level funding attention my program (and me) are getting, nothing- absolutely nothing is coming together simply and streamlined and by the plan.

So, I am burning the brain cells and energy trying to get this program on track and at double-speed before I get clobbered for not completed on time.

Do you know how hard it is to buy ~58,000 feet of two sizes of wire today? Its not easy.


The kitchen overhaul is nearing completion and is really starting to look nice. The floors are done and there is minor painting to be finished. The countertops arrived and were installed yesterday and they look terrific.

Once the countertop was installed, it was my turn to do all the plumbing of the new sink and faucet. That turned out to be an all day effort and all done on my hands and knees, or my shoulders to get everything connected.

All the plumbing is new, including shut-off valves, all the way down to the cabinet floor. I also added an electrical box to the wall to enclose the garbage disposal wiring connections that used to just dangle. I installed a new garbage disposal and all new drain pipes.

Of course all that took multiple trips to the big-box store to get the parts- and then the right parts and then the extended length parts I needed to get everything to fit. And only the compression fitting on the icemaker connection leaked when I turned all the water back on. Of course it slipped out under pressure, and while I was under the sink, so it really soaked me pretty good before I got the water shut off!

Today I took it a little easier, meeting Carol for coffee then refinishing the boards that were being used as a floor under the sink that I removed yesterday. I also got the swamp cooler hooked up and running, swept out my shop and re-glued the chrome nose bumper on Sleek Black Beauty that had come loose. Removing the old glue with Goo-Gone took a long time but it didn't wreck the paint so I took the time. Its glued back on tonight and the tape is in place to hold it tight until tomorrow.

And when I get done posting this- I'm folding laundry so I will be ready for this week.

Speaking of this week- we should be closing on the house refinancing in a couple days. Wednesday night is a Mark Knopfler concert and although I don't have tickets just yet, I will have tickets by tomorrow and I'm going to that show! The BSU is agreeing to go along even if she doesn't care about the music. Its a night out so she'll humor me.

And the grass needs mowed!

Oh yeah- a couple more things

Remember a month ago when I skied into the sharp edge of the halp pipe in the fog at Powder Mountain? I have to tell you, I really did some damage to my legs! While I didn't do any permanent damage, I am still bruised and sore and achy at both my knees and my left calf. Just about everything I do that involves bending or lifting really hurts- still! I can't wait for all the pains to subside so I can feel better.

I also had a fault with Sleek Black Beauty coming home from Salt Lake City yesterday. Before I got home the right turnsignal had quit working. Tonight I had time to tear it apart to discover that the connector plug for the wire harness had broken its retainer clip and it pulled apart. Electricians tape substituted for the broken clip and it went back together.

Additionally, I had to remove the left side mirror and drill and tap a hole through the mirror stem and the adapter that threads into it. Then I installed a set screw into the two parts, locking them together. That mirror won't be turning around again any time soon!

What, no weekend update?

That's right, I missed posting a weekend update yesterday and my dad took me to task for it this morning. I didn't get home until nearly 10:30 last night and I was too tired to even think about blogging. Sorry.

So what did I do all weekend? Let's see-

Friday night I took the BSU to see Leatherheads. Its a reasonably funny movie about the early days of professional football, back when it was played in cow pastures. George Clooney directs and stars in this film, along with Renee Zellweger, who while she isn't my favorite female, still looks pretty good in viintage lingerie. Anyway, this is a simple film obviously created so George could have a fun time playing football and playing in the mud in front of a camera. So its no Oscar nominee but its plenty good fun.

Saturday began with errands around town, on the scooter and a stop at the local Yamaha shop where they were having an open house. Then it was back to the driveway and almost a full day of re-installing seatbelts in the boy's Tempo. I got nearly all the job done and finished up on Sunday.

I did have coffee with Carol on Sunday and got to ogle her new Camry hybrid before returning home to finish up the work on the car. Then it was off to a friend's retirement from the Utah National Guard after 28+ years of military service. The retirement ceremony was down in Salt Lake City and I rode the scooter down there and back home after a really long ceremony for three retiring NCOs.

As soon as I got home there was more work to do on the car as the dinger under the dash wouldn't shut up even when the car was running! That involved tearing the dash apart until I found the offending dinger, disconnecting it and putting everything back together before we could deliver the car to him, back down in Salt Lake City!

It was also his birthday this week and his GF's too, so the spouse and I took them out to a mediocre dinner at Applebees, sat for quite a long time afterwards chatting and then finally, returned home.

So, I was whupped. I had to go to work today to try and rest up and the workload there didn't allow for a minutes rest either.

There's a beutiful new, gray kitten at the boy's house, to replace a cat that belonged to the GF but managed to run away, and a young ferret! They are both just as cute as can be and apparently they like to wrestle and play together when they aren't worn out and napping. And he has the car, finally, and its time to get it inspected and licensed and insured and transferred into his name. He's taking it for the safety and emissions inspections tomorrow and hopefully, (keep your fingers crossed), it will pass ans be on its way to being fully legal.

So that's how I spent my weekend. I still don't have the grass mowed or raked, the Phantom put back together, the driveway floodlight replaced or any of the other numerous chores that need doing around here. But I'll get to them next...

I told you they were red!

Here's Sleek Black Beauty's ruby slippers. Aren't they pretty?


I can't wait to get the scoot all screwed back together and out into the sunshine so I can take a picture of the total package.

Don't forget to click the thumbnail picture to see them in their full splendor!

Sleek Black Beauty is coming back together

Slowly. It is making me kind of cranky that things haven't gone together faster.

I did get the tires and wheels put back together and the assemblies balanced- at 2 different shops. But I managed to wreck a front wheel bearing so I nee to buy a new one. And perhaps a new oil seal because I seem to have misplaced the one I've already purchased.

The paint repairs are not breezing along as smoothly as I had hoped either. I'm giving consideration to farming the work out to professionals- just so I can get the results I want.

And the weather's turning beautiful and I want to riding!

I did get the rear wheel and all the related parts reinstalled so it hasn't been a complete loss this weekend.

My dad is going to love SBB's new wheels!

See, my dad's favorite color has always been red. He likes red. He even painted one of our houses bright red, years ago when I was a kid.

When he see the new ruby slippers I have for Sleek Black Beauty, he's going to be impressed! I picked them up from the powder coating place today and they are beautiful! They turned out deep, shiny red, just like I hoped for.

Darren at Quad & Cycle is reinstalling the tires on my shiny rims and I'll pick them up tomorrow. Then I have to reinstall the front wheel bearings before taking the assemblies in to be balanced.

No pictures yet- but soon. I think you are going to be as impressed with my red wheels as I am.

Springtime means scooter improvements!

I haven't had time to keep everyone, (anyone reading this) on the work I've been doing to Sleek Black Beauty. But it is almost time to be riding scooters instead of working on them so I have been busy trying to get Beauty put back together.

Yes, I've taken the new scooter apart... Big surprise.

In the first place, she is getting a shiny new set of wheels! The stock wheel color was just a plain, boring grey color. They weren't shiny or distinctive and they just didn't do the scooter any justice. I tried some "chrome" paint but that stuff rubbed off with just a paper towel and there was no way it would work on wheels.

So, the wheels are being powdercoated. A shiny, bright silver color is going on first, followed by a transparent red color. That's right, the wheels are going to be deep, bright red, which should look really good under Beauty's black bodywork.

And its that bodywork that I've working on while waiting for the wheels to get done at the powdercoaters. In the first place, I wanted to remove a warning decal from the gas filler door, paint it black and install one of the remaining pinstripe decals in the center of the door. I had to take most of the plastic bodywork off the scooter to get the door removed and then I spent several days sanding the course, plastic surface smooth before painting it black. This week I got the pinstripe installed and the paint polished up and it looks terrific.

The scooter had a couple scratches in its shiny black paint when I bought it and I wanted to fix those while all the bodywork was sitting on the benches. I bought the most expensive can of color-matched spray paint I've ever purchased and all the other tedious requirements for paint touch-up; 600 & 1000 grit sandpaper, some prep solvent and some high-fill primer. I've been filling and sanding for a few days now and today was painting day. Hurray, painting day!

I painted one panel immediately after wiping it down with Prepsol and then a tack rag. And as quickly as I put the paint on, the results looked like I had tossed a handful of gravel and dryer lint on it! Grr! It looks terrible. The bigger panel seemed to paint up pretty nicely, right up until the paint began to run and sag! Hooverdamm! With that, I gave up for the night and tomorrow night I guess I'll be back to the 1000 grit sandpaper, making everything nice and smooth again.

What a pain...

UPDATE: Monday night: I got both parts sanded tonight and 1 of the pieces painted and this time it doesn't look like I had the shop vac blowing dust around like yesterday's work. Tomorrow night I'll clearcoat that piece and paint the 2nd piece.

Weekend update comes early today!

Why? Because I'm bushed and parked in my chair already. I had my normal bi-weekly coffee break with Carol this morning and afterward came home for my usual day of projects, of which I have several to get accomplished.

But did you know its snowing today? Its been snowing all day! If I felt better, I should have gone skiing today for some spring powder but I'm just not up to it today. I got a little injured yesterday skiing and I'm pretty dang sore so more skiing today was just out of the question.

How did I get hurt? Blame it on the flat light and a complete lack of visibility and not knowing that the terrain park guys had extended the half pipe by about 15 feet! I had skied down to the half pipe to see some of the Spring Session activities going on there and was leaving, skiing the length of the pipe, up above it, not in it- thanks and then I turned right to cross below it and to get on the run leading away from the area. But suddenly, I was slammed up into the air and just as rapidly, yanked back to the earth as if I had just crossed over a "fat guy magnet"! I hit the nearly 2 foot high lip of the half pipe at 90 degrees without ever seeing it! My legs weren't prepared for such a huge impact so I basically slammed into a wall, disconnected froom my skis and fell face first into the pipe! It all happened so fast that I was picking myself up before I ever figured out what happened to me.

I bruised both of my kneecaps, either hitting the pipe lip or the packed snow inside the pipe, or both. The back of my boots bashed up into my calves and bruised the back side of my legs so I'm hurting like Nancy Kerrigan. It took all my professional ticket-checker work ethic to stay on the job for the rest of the day and I couldn't get home fast enough to get loaded up on anti-inflammatory meds.

So in between the cold, wet weather and my injured pegs, I just didn't get much done today. I did finish up the work on the seatbelt bracket for Kye's car but put off installing it in the snow. I did clean up the cylinder head for the Phantom that arrived a couple weeks ago and verified that the head gasket I bought is the right size, so that job can proceed shortly. That's about all I got done before deciding I was too tired and that my chair seemed like a good place to be for a while. So, here I am.

Last Friday I took my Morphous front wheel to get the tire pulled off and the bearings pressed out. I had tried to paint it bright silver, "nearly chrome", and it actually looked pretty good- until I touched it. The dang stuff wiped right off with just a paper towel and there was no way it could be used for a scooter wheel. So- its getting stripped to just the rim and the rim is going to either the chrome plater's shop or the powdercoater's shop next week. Where it ends up really depends on how much either coating will cost and how much I can justify- which means it will probably get powdercoated...

So I'm resting the rest of the day with a cat on my lap and hope that springtime temperatures return this week. And that my bruises get better pretty darn quickly!

Still working hard- on multiple projects!

I didn't even put up an end-of-week post last night due to all the hubbub going on this weekend. The eldest boy and his GF showed up, laundry baskets in hand, about 5 yesterday afternoon and so we were wrapped up with them all evening.

He approves of the Tempo. He took it out for a short drive and played with all the controls for a bit and he thinks it will be just fine. Its still not ready for inspection as the shoulder harness isn't repaired. I had to buy a plastic track from Ford and it won't be here until tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to get that system working shortly and the car out of my driveway and into the boy's parking space.

I've sanded and painted and sanded and primered the gas cap door for the scooter and finally got a satisfactory coat of gloss black paint applied just tonight. The plastic had really been scratched up with the initial sanding and it took much more effort than I expected to get it painted. And because I'm trying to paint in the laundry room because its too cold in my shop, keeping dust specks out of the shiny black paint has really been a challenge, causing a couple extra chances to sand and repaint to get it right.

Sleek Black Beauty's front tire is half painted with a very shiny, almost chrome finish. I tried to paint the 2nd half tonight and just couldn't get all the dust wiped off, so it needs redone tomorrow night. Then I can begin putting the whole scooter back together but I still need to order the color matched paint to fix the body scratches before I put everything back together.

The cylinder head I needed for the little scooter arrived today from another Scoot Dawg forum member, so that scooter needs to be put back together too!

Para-Ordnance advised me a couple weeks back to replace the recoil spring assembly in my Wart Hog to try to resolve the feeding problems that it has exhibited previously. Brownells had the parts and those arrived today too, so I got those parts swapped out in between everything else tonight. Surprisingly, the old recoil spring was easily 1/4" shorter than the new one! I think I might have solved this gun's problems if the spring had collapsed so badly. Now to the shooting range to try it out!

And I've done laundry and a little house cleaning over the weekend as well as everything I've already mentioned. The BSU and I saw a movie, but it gets its own post. I had coffee with Carol on Sunday morning and worked all day at Powder Mountain on Saturday. Other than that, I haven't done a dang thing lately!

Ooh- Shiny!

The new muffler for Sleek Black Beauty arrived yesterday! It is beautiful and will be a great improvement to the scoot when I get it installed. I'll take some pictures to post once it is installed.

As regular readers might remember, I took the muffler and heat shield to HP Coatings way back in December to be coated with their polished aluminum color. While the muffler was in the ultrasonic polishing tank, a plug fell out of one of the muffler tubes and it was filled up with the tiny ceramic beads that do the polishing work.

HPC tried to shake out the beads, then took the muffler to a fabricator & welder that they trust to have him cut the muffler apart to get the beads out. The fabricator guy was apparently able to get the muffler cut apart, putting it back together turned out to be a much bigger problem. So, they had to buy me a new muffler, which although I know it was painful to their profit margin for the month, was the right thing to do and they did with no complaint. Then they plated it, polished it and shipped it to me, all free of charge.

It looks terrific and I'm very pleased. I'm also pleased with HPC for their efforts to remedy an unfortunate situation that was nobody's fault. I'll be getting the muffler, and hopefully the rest of the scooter put back together this weekend. Riding season is getting very close and I'm seeing lots of riders out already in the afternoons, so I am getting mighty anxious to be out riding too.

In other news- Sleek Black Beauty does not get a new muffler!

I finally spoke to the manager done at HP Coatings yesterday and it seems that his previous plan- to purchase a new muffler for SBB was a non-starter. Seems that Yamaha wants $649.95 + tax for that ugly black cannister! And it turns out that there is more than just a muffler inside that can, there is also a catalytic converter.

So HPC had sent the muffler to a local machine shop who was in the process of cutting off the welded-on end cap to allow access to dig out the remaining ceramic beads that got trapped as a result of their polishing process. Once the muffler is all welded back together and recoated and polished, HPC is shipping it back to me, all free of charge.

I wasn't too unhappy to hear the manager offer to ship it to me because at our $3/gallon gas prices, it would be a $25 or $30 round trip to go pick it up. I'm anxious to see it and I hope it comes out looking shiny and pretty. I'm just glad I didn't wait until riding season to get this done!

I need this motorcycle!

No, really, I NEED this motorcycle! Since there are a number of bikes displayed on this advert, I'm talking about the 305cc Honda Dream that is sitting in some other guy's living room right now, waiting for me to buy it.

If you don't know, my first motorcycle, purchased at the wet-behind-the-ears age of 16, and no-kidding, found in a barn, was a 1964 Honda 305cc Dream. I bought it for just $200 from a guy a few blocks from my house, pushed it up over the bridge to get it home and when it was safely in the yard, Dad took me to get my drivers license, tags and insurance for my pride & joy. I bought a set of cheap, imitation leather saddlebags for it, Mom made me some naugahyde chaps to wear in the cold weather, and Brother Tim and I rode that thing to school every day until the snow started flying in December.

In between, I rode that bike everywhere, as long as I could keep the battery charged. Some (expensive) part of the charging system didn't work and it was just outside my financial reach so I couldn't fix it properly. Instead, I complied with Indiana's "headlight on" rule by adding a 6 volt lantern spotlight to the handlebars and strapping the dry cell battery on top of the engine cases. That extended my run time considerably but I still ended up pushing that bike home a couple times when all the electrons quit moving in the charging system because I had failed to hook up the battery charger for too many nights. There was even a summertime vacation trip to Michigan where that bike and Dad's got trailered along and I got to go riding with a favorite cousin all around the area.

So you can see why I need this motorcycle. But the BSU can't see the same picture. She especially can't see an ancient red motorcycle sitting in her living room as the current owner is doing. Which I think is mighty curious because she can get a really good idea of what it might look like since the current owner has the exact same couch and hardwood floors as we have in our living room. This bike is a classic and I wish I had a simple way to run out and pay for it. I'd suffer the spouse's disapproval to have this beauty parked under my carport, ready for a jaunt when I felt like a change from riding Sleek Black Beauty.

As a couple sidenotes, I wouldn't mind having that 77 Kawasaki KZ1000 LTD that is also for sale at that advert. I was selling those things in 1977 before I found my way into the Air Force and they were the top of the line bike back then. Also, after editing this post and applying a parental/historical outlook to it, I can see why my parents might have been so insistent that I pay for the electrical parts that I never could afford. Had that bike not been quite so dependent on a power cord and a battery charger, I might would have been tempted to wander even further away from home than I did.

Chrome!

That's right, the shiny, chrome plated master cylinders have arrived for Sleek Black Beauty! Like most of the shiny bits I've purchased for my Morphous, these new parts came from Dragon Custom. Here's what the new cylinder and lever assemblies look like.

I am impressed with the appearance of these units and they seem to be really nicely polished. I did notice that the brake fluid reservoirs are smaller than the stock units but I suspect that difference might be a Japanese vs. US specification difference. As long as they aren't leaking fluid, they should be fine in operation while cleaning up the handlebars at the same time.

It may be a few days before it warms up out of the single digit temperatures that we are experiencing before I feel like tearing into the SBB to install these shiny bits and I still have to receive the mirrors that I want ordered to go on top of the new master cylinder assemblies. But it will warm up a bit in a few days and then I'll spend a pleasant evening putting all the new shiny bits onto my scoot in anticipation of the upcoming riding season.

Now I just need to find a 2nd seat from a salvage yard that I can use as a mule for designing a new seat cover!

Sleek Black Beauty wants this!

Look what I found on the interweb tonight, dual chrome mufflers! Don't these look sweet?

Ah, is there anybody that can interpret this page for me? Hmm?

BTW, there is a bunch more Morphous accessories for sale on this website, I just can't understand any of it!

This ain't going to happen!

I've taken the muffler of Sleek Black Beauty during this down time and I thought to have it shined up by having it dipped in a local chrome tank at a nearby establishment. The other day I carried it the muffler in there to get a price estimate for the work.

The estimate was for $350 and an unsatisfactory result due to all the bracketry that is attached to the muffler! I can't afford that!

What I can afford is to have it HiPerCoated by HPC,in a polished aluminum color. They quoted me $70 to do the job. I hope to take it to them on Friday after dropping the BSU at the airport for her trip.

Call it a Christmas present from me to Beauty.

I look like Rudolph the red nosed reindeer!

Except that my red nose is stuck on the end of my left index finger. I've a dandy red bandage keeping my 3 new stitches clean after a little trip to the Emergency Room yesterday. And boy- is typing on this keybaord tough without my index finger!

It all started with another little mod to Sleek Black Beauty... I bought some of that chrome plastic, split wire cover to put over the control cables on the handlebars- just a little bit of bling to shiny things up a little bit. And on the first piece, when it was time to cut it to length, my index finger snuck in behind the plastic just as my swiss army knife sliced through. Youch!

It cut a nasty little flap in the side of my fingertip, just next to my fingernail... Of course I didn't want to stop what I was doing so I wrapped it with a paper shop towel and continued to work. Thirty minutes later it was still bleeding and dripping blood on everything so I went to get the BSU's assistance with a bandage. She took one look and declared that I needed stitches so off we went to the local ER. The folks there hooked me up with stitches and this reindeer nose of a bandage in pretty short order and I've been just Partially Mission Capable ever since.

I did manage to get the old stick-on Christmas light hangers off the house and today I need to put up lights and drag out the nativity set for the front yard. Just as soon as it gets above 35 degrees or so!