interzone

by the way..

2011-05-19T10:51:00.003-05:00

to the couple people who actually come here to read whatever nonsense i can muster up, sorry for the lack of posts. i contribute to the evilspirit blog, my food blog and my club blog - vice grip , so with all of that this personal page gets neglected sometimes. im not ready to kill it yet though so dont give up on me just yet!!

evil sporty

2011-05-19T10:47:00.004-05:00

evil sporty is in the news again. sweet! heres nice little interview i did for biltwell courtesy of rob rouser. thanks again bro.

this just made my day.

2011-03-14T10:44:00.002-05:00

this bitch...

2011-02-24T13:50:00.003-06:00

was bad ass.

snows bbq. lexington, texas.

2011-02-23T15:38:00.002-06:00

sunday ride

2011-02-15T17:55:00.004-06:00

rolled out to herberts taco hut in san marcos over the weekend. took the long way home. really nice ride.

scott kelly/wino acoustic - Austin - 2-8-11

2011-02-07T14:04:00.003-06:00

scott kelly and wino doing acoustic sets tomorrow at emos. shit is more raw that their metal sides any day. go check it out!!

ride to work today...

2011-02-04T11:33:00.002-06:00

the show must go on. reminder, this is texas y'all.

2011-02-04T11:30:00.001-06:00

couple more shots from the ride out with my bros matt and nick last week.

metalicious

2011-01-31T10:50:00.002-06:00

took some pics with my buddy kMack last week. some real cool shots. heres a taste.

painted my belt

2011-01-28T10:22:00.002-06:00

i tried to use transfer paper to get the outline on first, thinking i would just color it in with paint pens. that turned out to be a disaster. there was one big solid chalky blue splat on the belt. then the shit wouldnt come off so i ended up having to cover it with black paint. next the "red" paint pen i was using for the lettering was actually pink. someone at the sharpie paint pen factory needs to get their eyes checked. i ended up using one shot instead and silver paint pen for the outline. untimately its pretty sloppy, but i still like it. i never claimed to be an artist or anything so we're cool.

he died shouting..."how many more lives"!

2011-01-22T14:57:00.000-06:00

anyone have a line on this seat?

2011-01-17T09:55:00.002-06:00

let me know, im on the hunt. dont feel like dealing with an apholsterer right now.

thursday nites in austin...

2011-01-10T15:20:00.004-06:00

are our bike night. home slice pizza on congress. 8:30-9: or so. Greg Giannukos showed up and snapped a couple pics before we burned out. incredible shots. heres one of the shovel, complete with new set of bars by craig at front st. cycle.

a pair of new tattoos

2011-01-10T15:13:00.004-06:00

courtesy of mr. thomas hooper. great guy. incredible tattooer. worst pain i have ever felt, but i couldnt be happier with the result.

rocka rolla

2010-12-28T09:46:00.002-06:00

so when i suggested i was going to name the shovel "rocka rolla" i actually had someone suggest it wasnt a good song. not a good song?? damn. to each his own i guess, but its one of my favorites. and this early clip is the jam. floppy hats, platforms and all.

this post isnt about a motorcycle...

2010-12-23T15:41:00.003-06:00

it is however about a sandwich known as the buffalo bill, whom i invited to lunch today. bill is a 1/2 lb. burger stuffed with bleu cheese and jalapenos, completely wrapped in bacon and topped with sauteed green chiles and a nice ranch/wing sauce combo. needless to say, i ate the whole thing. but i didnt have time to mess with all that fried stuff, im watching what i eat.

thin lizzy jams with granny

2010-12-23T14:48:00.002-06:00

apparently this lady wrote a letter to bbc in 1982 about how down she was with thin lizzy and that it was her dream to jam with them. they set it up. crazy.

new bars for the shovelhead

2010-12-21T13:44:00.000-06:00

rocka - rolla

the evil one.

2010-12-14T09:41:00.002-06:00

everyone has those records that you listen to over and over (and over) and they never get old. the ones you sometimes over the years might forget about once in awhile and then you find it and put it on and its like you reconnected with an old friend. you know all the words to all the songs and dont even try not to sing along. i listened to "the evil one" on my way to work this morning and i can honestly say in my opinion its one of the greatest records of all time. ever. a friend of mine in los angeles gave me the cd in the late 80s, i didnt have many at the time, and i thought i was going to wear it out. there is not one song on that record that isnt totally amazing. and today although its only been a couple of months, i was so stoked to hear it, almost as if it was the first time. fucking stoked. i met roky at the austin airport once, i was getting off a plane from colorado from a fishing trip and walking off the plane i saw him sitting in an empty terminal all by himself. just sitting there alone. smiling. i went up to him and just waved remembering a friend of mine told me years earlier he didnt like anyone touching him so i didnt try to shake his hand. we talked a couple minutes about nothing in particular and at one point i told him i saw him play a couple months back and was blown away by the show and he asked me "oh, at the one in sweden?" haha, seriously. sweden. "no the one here in austin, billy gibbons got up and played two headed dog with you at the end". he just smiled and said "oh yeah, that was fun". i was so starstruck i didnt think to ask him for a picture. one of the guys i work with had been on the fishing trip with me and hes standing there watching me talk to this crazy old dude, so confused. i tired to explain it to him on the way to the car, but im sure he didnt get it at all which is fine with me really. i didnt feel much like talking after that anyway. ive heard hundreds of stories about him over the years, and all of them are so great. thanks for making my morning dude.

i look forward to meeting you again one day old man.

cuttin a slice.

2010-12-11T23:25:00.003-06:00

went out to marble falls tonight to hang with the folks and see some lights. stopped at the bluebonnet cafe on our way out of town for a bowl of sourkraut soup and a slice of this bad ass banana cream pie. yeah it was the bomb. i also snuck in a pic of briza looking all angelic under some light tunnel type thing.

vice grip winter run

2010-12-06T13:09:00.009-06:00

we rolled out of austin saturday morning. stopped off in lockhart for some lunch at smittys, one of my favorite places on earth, and after refueling, we took some sweet texas back roads down to the coast to camp. we met up with some great folks along the way, and slovy, rob rouser, reg, mike, and a few others met us when we got to camp. the chili was great, and it was some great hang time. stanley from dallas is the fuckin man! always a blast to hang with that dude. somehow i managed to get to sleep with not one single grain of sand in my tent, but all for nothing since when i woke up the all the fine grain primo sand managed to make its way through the mesh. i will think twice before deciding not to use the tent fly. i run a bad ass expensive o-ring chain on evil sporty and somehow the damn thing broke on the ride home. it hit me in the back too. there was already one bike down and it just went downhill from there. i understand the 50 year old bikes not making it once in awhile, but kinda embarrasing to have to put this one on the truck. needless to say a spare master link is now in my toolbag. most of these pics were taken by matt, since i was being lazy and not taking many myself. plus hes way better at it than i am anyway. i forsee a new camera in my future...

yeah, it was that tight.

necessity is the mother of invention. or some such bullshit...

2010-11-27T13:12:00.003-06:00

i wasnt into the huge hole i had in the side of my bike since i removed the battery so i made this bag to put there. i suppose i would have taken the easy way out and just bought one if i could have found one the right size. turned out pretty cool and i spend about 5 bucks to make it. still on the fence about painting it a little or adding some trim or something. for now its doing its job.

tamale house #3

2010-11-22T14:07:00.002-06:00

i first started going to tamale house in the late 80's. we would hang out at the cue club across the street the night before (its hard to imagine a place as shady as that was in austin today. even with 3 times the population) and ultimately end up back there for breakfast the next day. i remember "taco wars", competing taco places were trying to undercut the competition, fine with me when the breakfast tacos were 45 cents. the migas plate in the picture was 2.85 back then i think, but cheese was .30 extra. good times. the lines were always long, my buddy ingeniously discovered that if you just walk over to the payphone and call your order in, you could skip the line entirely, take out orderes had a seperate line. of course you would end up with all the same people you were partying with the night before, the place was like a singles bar in restaurant format. the 3 tables were always full so if you werent takin your food home, you had to sit on the sidewalk to eat it. yeah, good times.

so i just ate this plate of migas with cheese and bacon. it was a little more expensive, but still tastes the same. i dont hit up tamale house too much anymore these days, but i still love it.

never gets old

2010-11-19T12:27:00.001-06:00

Fatty's

2010-11-19T12:20:00.002-06:00

was in san antonio, tejas yesterday (remember the alamo?) and made a little trip into the hood for some grub. this might look like your average burger, but dont be fooled. shit was off the hook!

fo' sho.

vice grip winter run

2010-11-19T12:13:00.002-06:00

yeah its gonna be cold, but you can handle it. more info here.

big sandwich

2010-11-08T12:18:00.003-06:00

pork tenderloin sandwich, breaded and fried. from Tenderland in austin. that is a large bun too.

lone star river run report.

2010-10-19T10:48:00.011-05:00

so my only complaint is that it was a little short (of course we could have made it out on friday and that would have solved that problem). i met a few new folks, and got to see several people i hadnt seen in awhile. i wasnt as social as i usually am so there were a few others i wished i had some time to bullshit a little with, but theres always next time as i dont plan on missing another one of these.

the weather was amazing. the roads were nice and twisty and we had a couple cool pit stops too. some sweet bbq at rileys in blanco, and lukenbach, texas. while its sorta like disneyland for texans now, its easy to imagine how that place once was. its a shame how the coolest shit always gets bastardized in some way or another. some guy there had a huge plastic scorpion he put on the seat of his bagger so noone would sit on it. jesus man, really?

the campsite was perfect. the most amazing view and campfires by the riverside with a couple of old dudes who have been doing this shit for 50 years was a blast. waking up 10 feet from the water, i wish i would have brought a fishing pole. my buddy stretch was the only one of the austin people with the forethought to bring shit to cook. thats what saddlebags will get you.

"this guy eddie" was in full effect with the chase truck again. i look forward to riding on two wheels one day bro.

herberts taco hut on the way home sunday was amazing as usual, and the shovel held up like a champ. after a few hours of being home, i came down with some real gnarly flu-like shit. fever, chills, the whole thing. laid me up till this morning but im back at work and feeling normal now.

i did a pretty poor job of taking pics this time. i only got a few but there were several other guys takin em so i sniped a couple. plus there are more pics here, here, here, and here.

oh, and i cant wait to see the footage from one of the colorado guys. i saw that dude haul ass by me several times with the video camera. doin 100 easy.

always gotta be one showoff in the group. nothin like doing a run on a stock knucklehead. who rides one of these? this guy:

campfire bullshittin' with this dude was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

this bike was FAST. and so nice.

i had a lot of fun riding with this kid robbie. he was surfin this bike, kickin cones, wavin at bikers. you know, clownin. cuttin up.

austin. as usual, up close and personal with the chase truck.

perfect view.

lone star river run....

2010-10-06T13:19:00.004-05:00

or run to the river if you prefer. new braunfels, texas October 15-17. looks like im gonna roll out for this one. this part of texas at this time of year it should be a blast. lookin forward to it for sure. we are gonna set up a little ride out of austin saturday morning and take the loooong way out there. anyone interested find the post
on chopcult or drop me a line.
.

king kong wants his lathe back...

2010-09-16T13:57:00.003-05:00

if you have 26's on your slab and need them altered, tyler at central machine has you sorted out. stopped by on my way home from work the other day to say hi and sat in amazement for a minute at the sheer insanity of how big this thing is.

sugar fix

2010-09-16T13:46:00.001-05:00

got a whole box of these today at work. hell yeah!

bass fishin in the heat...

2010-08-24T12:27:00.002-05:00

is always a bust. i went out with my brother last saturday and we got one bass. less than a pound i sent him on his way without a mugshot. it was a nice boat ride though. in the gulf however, the fish are runnin strong. no limits on sand trout so hes having a big fucking fish fry. and theres 10 speck in there too.

rollin

2010-08-24T12:21:00.002-05:00

i found this 4o year old polaroid i took of my bike last sunday. i love the hipstamatic. the bike is on the road and things are goin well. im stoked!

who needs oil pressure?

2010-08-14T10:13:00.003-05:00

so the shovel is up and running. im taking it out on little 2-5 mile runs for break-in and shakedown. i got the green light to go out for a couple hours on thursday for bike night at homeslice and im stoked to show it off. after a few miles in the early evening im at a light and look down to notice theres ZERO oil pressure. i limp home and check all the basics and still nothing. no return flow. mag off, cam cover off, looking inside the gearcase everything looks fine.

the circlip is in place on the end of the oilpump gear shaft. it should work. so i step away and make some calls, trying to figure out what is wrong. i get a few good possibilities but as im about to start taking the gears out i look at a puddle of oil that i thought i had already mopped up and pull this little gem out:

although the circlip was in place, apparently it was slightly bent and allowed the key to slip out. if i hadnt noticed the oil pressure, eventually the motor would have blown up. its amazing how the entire bike can come to a screeching halt over something smaller than a pea. it immediately made me think of this quote from one of my favorite movies:

Where's the robot to pat you on the back? Or the engineer? Or the children, maybe? There, you see now, how all your so-called power counts for absolutely nothing now, how your entire empire can come crashing down because of one... little... cherry.

if all goes well today ill be back to shakedown before noon.

Loretta Valentine Buscemi

2010-08-12T00:18:00.004-05:00

So friday afternoon my wife called to tell me she was on the way to the dr.s office. apparently she wasnt feeling well and just wanted to make sure there were no complications. i asked her to come by my work so i could go with her and in no time at all we were sitting in his office. after some calm discussion he sent us to the hospital and before i really had time to process any of it the baby was being born. it was a totally amazing experience and im so proud of briza, she handled everything so well. Loretta was born on friday night, august 6th at 9:57pm. she was 8lbs5oz and came out screamin. everything went as well as i could imagine and the whole experience was perfect. we got home sunday afternoon and have been spending the last few days just resting and getting used to each other. she is perfect, i couldnt be happier.

liftoff...

2010-08-02T10:25:00.004-05:00

so after a little confusion over pushrods and some wiring, the bike is running. started on the 5th kick. brand new top end, never been run. new oil pump and magneto. bike started on the 5th kick. i will say that morris mag is awesome. i need to replace the throttle cable and housing, its jacked. and a little fine tuning on the carb. but i rode the bike yesterday and it was awesome. josh rodriguez killed it on the paint, im so stoked. gonna be hard taking it easy on it for the break in period. im running the battery for now until i get the capacitor setup figured out, it hasnt arrived yet, and im not sure how i want to mount it. and im going to continue to button up a few other things along the way but for now im on the road. heres a few pics.

nice and skinny.

DAMN!

2010-08-02T00:11:00.003-05:00

look at that shit sparkle.

one step closer...

2010-07-29T10:17:00.006-05:00

so at this point the motor is done and getting put in, from there everyone cooperated and everything went great. im going to run an open chain primary. the very knowledgable and helpful dude at buds got wind of this and simply stated "uhh, yeah. i dont recommend that." we proceeded to find the most polite and respectful way to ask for the parts anyway. at some point i may figure out a way to rig up a little automatic oiler, or maybe a tensioner that somehow lubricates the chain, but in the meantime im just going to watch it and give it a little love juice when needed. im down to button up now, for the most part im pretty much done. im going to build new exhaust, but for the time being i will run the old crappy drag pipes until i get around to it. waiting on the tank and fender from josh, which should be any day now. need to adjust my pushrods, cut and crimp my plug wires, connect my throttle cable, and wire it up. only running 3 wires on this bike too, so hell yeah on that, just waiting on a capacitor in the mail. im not sure if i will run the battery in the meantime or if i will just run the bike without lights. 6 of 1, half dozen of the other i guess. these are the last of the pics taken over the weekend, im gonna take some more within the next couple days as well.

hipstaprint tranny.

this is my favorite bike pic from the whole weekend.
"uhh, yeah. i dont recommend that."

all weekend in the small garage, no sleep and no AIR. it was HOT. building a motorcycle in bare feet and shorts.

boss man was tired from a marathon game of rock-em sock-em robots. he won.

my wife is going to have a baby, any day now. she has been as cool as can be about all this bike nonsense. even helping out when she could. i love you baby!

the good side.

i stole this wiring diagram and slightly modified it to fit my application. i realize i probably didnt need it, but its nice to have a reference to look at before i get started.

moving right along...

2010-07-28T09:38:00.003-05:00

so at this point the bike is clean, probably lost about 5 pounds of grease and gravel, and we are starting to put it back together full of 'mostly' bad ass new parts. we went to wild bills to use the parts washers and get the cases and tranny as clean as possible. i dont want anything on this bike to be too shiny, but theres a line between not shiny and fucking filthy. the oil pump was a bit of a mind bender, we needed to drill some holes in order for the new style s&s pumps to work properly with a 71 motor and the directions couldnt have been more confusing. while michael was deciphering the oil pump i went back to bills to mill the inside of the cam cover a bit, also for proper oil flow. upon reinstalling the lifter blocks we encountered a small problem. the front went on fine, but the rear was not going to cooperate. one bolt stripped out immediately, and another broke off in the case. bring on the bolt extractor. oh that broke off inside the bolt. flush with the case. damn. so we killed 3 punches and several bits trying to get into that disaster, and after a couple hours, yeah a couple hours, we moved on and eventually called it a night. sunday morning we came back at it fresh and with a bit more positive outlook. while we had considered welding a nut on the bolt the night before, neither michael or i thought it would work for a couple reasons. i put a call in to tyler for some advice and he gave me the genius suggestion to weld a washer the same size as the hole on first, and then weld a larger nut to the washer. success! retapped the hole with the broken bolt, and helicoiled the stripped one and we are back on track after quite a bit of unneeded hassle.

hipstaprint

2010-07-27T16:18:00.002-05:00

hipstaprint is awesome. its an iphone app that makes old school photos, kinda like polarize, but they look cooler. heres a few shots taken over the weekend. a couple by michael, and a couple by briza.

teardown and first problem

2010-07-27T10:14:00.005-05:00

so disassembly went fine for the most part, although i had the pleasure of a few more reminders of how this bike was cobbled together. upon removing the cam cover i was greeted with this wonderful discovery:

this fine specimen is the camshaft needle bearing. or whats left of it. those needles were loose, and had been rolling around in the gearcase. the inner race was nowhere to be found, and on top of that, the outer race was still stuck in there and not going to come out for me. i got some good advice from a couple friends at cowboy harley, which was to split the cases and push it out. that was the plan until our next stop to bud's for some supplies we brought it up and an interesting fellow named "packrat" said he could get it out. he huffed the cases to the back and came back in about 2 minutes with it removed. nice.
meanwhile, back at the ranch, where did that inner race go? somehow it was located INSIDE the oil breather cam. not sure how it got in there but take a look at this fine specimen:

jesus.
so ok now we are on to getting the rest of the bike torn down and can clean up and get organized and start getting stuff put together. one more pic for the road...

some shit is about to go down....

2010-07-23T10:28:00.000-05:00

tonite!

stay tuned....

2010-07-20T19:01:00.002-05:00

when i was about 10 or so my mom asked me if i wanted braces. she told me that her job gave her some fancy insurance and they would cover it but she was gonna give me the decision to make. i told her i was good as-is. im usually glad i made the right choice, but some times i wonder if i might have taken her up on it.

i found this on ftwride texas im pretty sure it was taken by my bro, rob "choose your own adventure" rouser and i just see teeth, but briza likes it. oh and that link is worth a peek for the teabag picture alone. there are some experiences you will remember for the rest of your life regardless of how incredible they were. this was one of those moments.

Din Ho

2010-07-06T13:06:00.003-05:00

went to Din Ho last night for the traditional monday dudes night dinner and as usual it rocked the house. i was way locked into the food zone and neglected to get proper documentation. for this i extend my humble apologies, however i did manage to snap one on the way out:

this place rocks. im usually the only whitey in the place, which is a good sign if you want traditional chinese food. this place really lends itself to the larger party rather than individual plates. you can tell them to just bring you food for 6 or 8 or however many you have with you, or you can specify specific dishes, which we usually end up doing. they pull seafood live out of huge tanks and bring it back to the kitchen, where you can see whole pigs hanging from hooks waiting to be cooked up. outstanding.

new clutch for evil sporty....

2010-07-04T18:32:00.004-05:00

so i ran the bike really hard on the pancho run, and the clutch gradually started slipping worse and worse as the trip went on. i made the call, probably a little hastily, to upgrade. i made the decision awhile ago, that when something goes on this bike, to not just replace it, but to make it better than it was before. little by little im getting top notch parts on this bike and constantly improving performance. so i went the barnett scorpion clutch and it didnt come cheap. ended up being a fairly easy job to replace it, with the shovel on my lift i rode over to bills house to do the work there. plus he has a press and i dont and its nice to have an old timer around for advice if i need it. oh and i had to call in a favor from al at cowboy harley since i was missing a tool to get the diaphram out of the old clutch. for some reason i expected i would be able to rig job it out of there, but no dice. it was a bummer to have to stop halfway, take the basket to the shop and ask al to take a break just to get a simple retaining clip out for me, but other than that everything went nice and easy. im stoked on how the bike feels now. i got a ton more power out of the gate and it shifts so smooth. i havent really put it to the test just yet, ive had my hands full with work around the pad, and the weather has been shitty, but within the next few days i will be riding the shit out of it.

heres one of peaches wondering how it tastes:

mmm guts:

its in the basket! last pic i got.

2010-07-01T11:17:00.002-05:00

apparently the insurance guy was inside the building when we posted up here to take a break and took over the guys parking lot. no one knew it until he snuck out the back door and took off.

a few pancho run pics...

2010-07-01T09:46:00.033-05:00

pancho run 3. but my first. it was a life changing experience to say the least. 1200 miles in 5 days for me, and it was a blast. ill take the ups and the downs all over again, i cant wait.

my bike ran like a champ. and i pushed it hard too. had a little highway race with rouser, topped out at about 120 and still had some more in it. i had a hard time sittin still at times, so i was doin a lot of back and forth between groups. made things a little more interesting for me...

we were at the campsite for a couple hours, i spent about 90% of it in handcuffs....

trying to stay dry:

always loved this bike:

chase truck in full effect. eddie fucking rules. this dude was all over the place. so helpful and a really cool dude:

group shot on the final night:

bad ass sporty:

'73. 2 years newer than mine. one of my favorites on the trip.

another awesome bike:

stopped to eat just before the ferry. this place was awesome. so were the crab nachos:

lotsa gooood long roads.

and good stops:

made some new friends, and had a blast hangin with some old ones:

he picked the bike up by that pipe:

ferry into galveston island:

this thing was awesome:

whites garage outside of trinity texas. amazing.

more than a few roadside repairs.

"who says an ironhead cant make the run"

we left a trail everywhere...

pancho run...

2010-06-29T13:50:00.002-05:00

pics and details to come. i need a minute to catch my breath. stay tuned....

got home from pancho...

2010-06-28T22:57:00.002-05:00

to find this waiting on my doorstep. shovel is about to get a makeover.

new helmet

2010-06-11T16:11:00.001-05:00

looks about the same on me as it does on stanley here...

new shirt...

2010-06-09T09:49:00.002-05:00

my beautiful wife briza just finished a new shirt design for the pancho run and i am personally totally stoked about how nice it turned out. once again done old school style with 2 simple ingredients, black pen and paper. photoshop is for pussies. i believe there will be a limited run for people attending, but afterwards there will be a full run for the general public.

troublehead and the dominos

2010-06-07T10:28:00.004-05:00

so i knew when i bought this bike that i would be replacing the heads. it ran for the time being and i was actually looking forward to getting my hands dirty and doing the work, something i havent done before. i had a line through my little brother on a place that would redo them for free too, so i would only be out some time and some gaskets whenever i got around to doing it. i spent the next couple months changing the bike to the way i wanted it and had a lot of fun along the way, and im stoked about how the overall look of the bike has turned out. fast forward to how a simple problem of stripped spark plug hole threads, dominoed into the decision to completely rebuild the entire top end. NEW heads, cylinders, pistons, rings, cam, lifters, blocks, pushrods, etc. oh... and im also adding a magneto. morris M5. Baller shit. i got good help and good advice. michael from evil spirit, and wild bill a.k.a. santa. i know its the right decision for me, just ate up my whole toy fund in one fail swoop. outside of the obvious, having a bitchin shovel, im gonna get myself a quick education on how to completely build an antique motorcycle. the right way. im gonna try to post pics here as i go, although i did a pretty bad job of snapping them so far. all my shits ordered and on the way, so right now im in teardown, cleanup, and lots of measuring. and lots of throwing shit in the corner. its good for me keeping the garage clean though. and its pretty amazing what some people will do to a motorcycle to keep it running and the bike being originally wired with speaker wire should have been a good indicator of what i was going to get into as i started to take it apart.

R.I.P. Frank Frazetta

2010-05-10T17:00:00.001-05:00

gratuitous pic wednesday...

2010-05-05T10:39:00.005-05:00

including my lovely wife briza (with bun in oven)...

bike ran great at the time...
still workin out the kinks.

cookin up a new seat...

2010-05-04T12:15:00.009-05:00

so i made a new seat for the shovel this weekend. i never took a picture of the pan before covering it, but i did get a few shots after that. on to the action... i used a template out of manilla file folder and cut that out of a piece of 11g steel.i dont have a brake so i got some help bending it, and then used some very primitive macguyvering to get it formed to the frame properly. glued on some closed cell foam i got from a very expensive pool float my dog destroyed. i cut away at that with a turkey knife, and used the angle grinder with a flapper disc to shape it. i went all the way down the steel in the front, i wanted the seat level to the ground, so i used a small piece of weatherstripping to keep the pan from cutting into the leather.

i used some veg tan, still pretty raw, again with the manilla to cut out the pieces and stitched them together.

i was originally going to paint it black, but the raw seat looked pretty cool and old on the bike so i decided to leave it raw.

it took about 3 "sits" for it to start getting dirty and i realized i needed to dye it instead. i was going for antique brown but had to settle for acorn. either way im stoked on how it turned out.

shirts.

2010-04-27T12:57:00.003-05:00

my wife drew this shirt design for evilspirit engineering, the old school way... with a pen and a piece of paper. im totally proud of her, they turned out amazing. theres tons more where that came from, anyone looking for shirt or logo designs that are gonna stand out way above the rest, drop her a line, she would be stoked.

you can get one here:
http://evilspiritengineering.bigcartel.com/

new breather bolts and air cleaner

2010-04-27T11:08:00.003-05:00

so i found a nice setup to replace the shitty foam bug eye i had on evil sporty, complete with some slimmed out breather bolts. nice and clean looking. bike is running great, and i dont have to worry about anything gettin sucked up in there now either.

i wish things were going as smooth with the shovelhead, but thats another post for another time i guess...

eveyone loves clean air....

2010-04-02T09:50:00.007-05:00

ive been having some minor issues with evil sporty. i still have some learning to do regarding fuel injection. theres some sputtering and occasionally the bike dies. itll usually start right back up, but it happens enough thats its still a problem. i ran through several possible scenarios, from vapor lock (vented cap, no fix) to clogged fuel filter (not the problem) bad plugs, timing, etc. well finally i think im on to something...

to anyone who has, or is considering one of these:

so basically all you need is one backfire and youre gonna get some burnt sponge in there, to crumble up and go right into your motor, all of its black dusty goodness.

took that bitch off and its running like a champ (didnt stop me from running out of gas last night at 11:30 though

so now im runnin bare. im looking for a velocity stack and will probably just pick one up wherever. unless i get a hand-me-down before i get around to it.

ok, just one more....

2010-03-08T16:07:00.007-06:00

so this was 1975. i was 6, and it was 6 or 7 years prior to when my mom had to hide my black sabbath records because i was getting bad grades in school. but it didnt take me long to catch on and i never got to see ufo live, but i did get to see pete way's "waysted" open up for ozzy at the summit and also the michael schenker group open for ted nugent at the houston coliseum. both when i was in 8th grade. a heavy load for a kid that age, i was awestruck by all that shit. those shows are some of my best memories.

"The hand claps live is further proof how much ass these guys kick."

2010-03-08T16:00:00.003-06:00

growing up in houston just instilled "the top" in my blood at an early age. and when i was running emos we took the bands to dinner at Leo's, which was not only the baddest ass in mexican food, just a couple miles from the club, but also the tops favorite place, complete with a zz top shrine room in the back of the restaurant. tons of memorabilia all over the place and a huge photo of the gatefold pic from tres hombres, made by leo's. apparently they did the catering for all the local shows after the band got big enough to warrant it. and this clip is awesome, even if its one of their songs thats not about texas.

Steve Marriott, or, while im on the subject of 1971...

2010-03-08T14:52:00.004-06:00

i would give anything to have seen this show.

ive been seeing a ton of good live clips lately, some from blogs i watch, some just from looking around. i thought id post one of my all time favorites, for your viewing pleasure, in all of its shredding frenzied glory. this shit is amazing to watch, i could go on about them being ahead of their time but that would be too easy, this shit today would be bad ass. on with the rockin...

2010-03-06T21:15:00.003-06:00

so my shovel is on the road and operational. albeit poorly. after a little haulin around the hood i come home and notice a LOT of gas pouring out of the carb overflow. i took it off and cleaned it up a bit, not a rebuild, just a good cleaning to get the dirt out of the needle seat. the best thing about that is the realization that it needs to be replaced. its amazing that its still held on the bike. theres been so much cobbled together shit on this bike its insane. so far ive found sheetrock screws, speaker wire, endless amounts of jb weld, epoxy, so much duct tape and electrical tape, and various other tewaker garage odds and ends. but its been fun getting to this point, and i still have a good way to go. after the carb i went to take another ride and had a hell of a time kicking it over, i took a break after about 70 kicks. came back and was able to get it going after just a few more. checked the plugs and they were trashed. little by little, but im gettin there. heres some pics of where i am as of today:

so i got another 15 minutes.....

2010-03-04T10:57:00.003-06:00

this time courtesy of easyriders magazine. except the caption right underneath the cool picture of me sitting on the evilspirit bike "evil bobba" (although i still prefer its original name "olivers bike") it says my name is Oliver Lieber, who is the actual owner. doh! oh well, maybe im better off. except that oliver knows paula abdul, and i dont. oh wait, maybe im still better off.

we have lift off.

2010-03-01T13:17:00.006-06:00

so this weekend i mounted my tank, thanks to some custom mounting bungs courtesy of my bro tyler at central machine works, and finished up my seatpan and mount. i still dont have a working kickstand, but maybe ill just carry around a chunk of 4x4 for the time being. heres a couple little clips i got of the first start on this bike since all the work ive done to it. super fuck yeah!

home stretchin it...

2010-02-24T10:27:00.004-06:00

mount tank, finish seatpan and seat mount, bend kickstand. all i got on my short list to ride this bitch. gettin close and im pysched.

new tank for the shovelhead

2010-01-21T12:10:00.004-06:00

beauty of a tank made by barragan at evilspirit engineering. hes got a new blog hes all proud of too, check it out if youd like. theres a nice little writeup on evil sporty there too. as of now i am just buttoning up the wiring and ready to slap this tank on and hit the road. eventually this tank will get the full paint treatment too...

not much more to say about this than it says itself...

2010-01-15T14:57:00.000-06:00

i can feel the judas priest tattoo approaching.....

2010-01-15T14:55:00.002-06:00

im also considering naming the shovelhead "rocka rolla"

rewiring this weekend.

2010-01-15T14:54:00.001-06:00

made my own diagram, with nothing on it i dont need. should be a piece of cake.

rad tighty z bars for the shovelhead

2010-01-15T14:52:00.002-06:00

courtesy of my man nick at rocks chops.

new beginning

2009-12-14T09:52:00.002-06:00

a little sample...

the fat bobs are gone. new tank in the works by my twin brother evil mike. its gonna sting a little to shave off the mounts on the backbone, a 40 year old bone stock frame is hard to come by, but its gotta be. im so psyched to get a nice little high mounted tank on there. as bad ass as they are, im not using the bars ive currently got on there, i should have the new set on there within the next couple days.

2009-12-14T09:42:00.002-06:00

the sissy bar didnt work out the way i wanted it so i redid the fender struts. i guess in the end im not happy with how high the fender is off the tire. it does give it a bit of a bmx look which is kinda cool, but i think id rather have it nice and tight off the wheel. im also not happy with how tall the bungs are on the fender at the moment. either way its on there and stable. i had a hell of a time working out some kinks with my welder and now that its on there im not really feeling like doing it a third time so this is how it will stay for now. maybe ill fix it later, maybe not.

slow progress

2009-12-07T17:39:00.002-06:00

i did some work this weekend on the shovelhead, but not nearly as much as i wanted to get done. front end is on. took me 2 hours to get the right fork tube in place. i put some old school bars on there but they are temporary until i get the set nick at rocks chops made for me. new tire on the rear wheel, and lower fender mount is done, but still milling around how i want to handle the fender struts. im probably going to lose the sissy bar while im at it. the checklist is still pretty long.

beginning the teardown

2009-11-30T10:24:00.003-06:00

pretty crappy pic, im not even sure where my camera is at the moment so ive just been taking phone pics lately, i need to start shopping a new one i suppose. as parts are finally rolling in im starting to take the bike apart. i got a nice deal on a fx front end and it turns out the stem had been modified to fit since the early sportsters had shorter stems so i cant use it. i was stuck between finding another stem or getting another bottom tree with stem attatched. it definately saved me some work that i was able to find a full set of 35mm trees on ebay for 30 bucks. a new stem alone wouldve cost me close to that. im just waiting the trees and a rear fender to show up before i start on the back end.

2009-11-30T10:22:00.002-06:00

did a little fishing with my brothers over thanksgiving weekend at decker lake in austin. very good trip all around. no technical difficulties, minimal arguing, nice weather, and got 12 bass for the day. adam got the first three, and i got the big one for the day.

new wheels

2009-11-02T13:14:00.005-06:00

whats that bike you got there man? its a 1971 FL Shovelhead.

i mustve spent 2 months looking for the right project bike. daily on craigslist, ebay, etc. i finally found this one up in richardson. drove there last friday nice and early and was back by 1pm. DAMN - im so stoked. took it for a spin saturday and had a blast. it needs some work though. im gonna tear this bike down, have the heads re-done, re-wire it, new front end, new tank, new fender, new bars, foot controls, the works.

bastard bash 09

2009-10-19T13:58:00.002-05:00

quad cam bastards hosted the 2nd annual bastard bash this year in Hico, Texas. rode up saturday morning with a nice little crew. carlos, rob, austin, terrence, tyler, zac, patrick, slovy, kevin, dennis, myself, and briza drivin the chase truck. saw some real good folks, some great bikes, and had a blast. it was great to put faces to the names of people ive only previously met online. had a little tattoo-a-thon hosted by rob rouser. 1 broken oil bag and 1 blown head gasket made the ride home a little less interesting. still havent got evil sporty up all the way, i bailed out at 110 and still had plenty of throttle left. maybe next time. all in all a great trip. except for unloading the bikes - if you see carlos ask him how his huevos are doing.

2009-10-19T13:49:00.001-05:00

2009-10-19T13:47:00.000-05:00

2009-10-19T13:45:00.000-05:00

2009-10-19T13:43:00.000-05:00

2009-10-19T13:41:00.003-05:00

2009-10-19T13:29:00.003-05:00

2009-10-12T10:25:00.000-05:00

had a bad case of the vapors. i tried a simple vent hole in through the side and out through the bottom but no dice, so i went for a motocross style vent hose. took me a minute to find the right fitting, but got it sorted out this weekend.

decker lake

2009-09-08T14:21:00.002-05:00

did a little labor day bass fishin with my bro todd from san fran. i hooked up 3 blackies, and he struck out. always a bummer when i cant put my friends on the fish, but i gave it a shot. heres a blurry kitchen shot of my future (at the time) and past (as of now) dinner.

sissy bar

2009-09-08T14:15:00.002-05:00

so i made this sissy bar out of some 1/2" round stock that i cut and welded. i need to clean it up a little but overall im happy with how it turned out. its not perfect, but its my first one and im good with it at this point. i still need to weld it on the fender struts and the pillion pad in the pics is not normally there, i just had it there to hold the bar in place so i could get an idea of what angle im put it.

sweet rear view

2009-08-20T15:14:00.000-05:00

lake buchanan

2009-08-17T13:08:00.001-05:00

the legendary coopers bbq in Llano, Texas. my favorite of all time.

the pit.

the big chop. 2" thick. really fucking good.

insanity...

2009-08-04T14:54:00.004-05:00

for your enjoyment.....

lost angels

2009-07-29T10:04:00.010-05:00

made a little trip out to los angeles to see some friends and some other family type stuff. there was some hangin, some ridin, some tattoos, some good grub. you know, the quality stuff.

gas stop out to malibu:

added some pass pegs for briza:

damn it was hot:

texas chili parlor

2009-07-20T15:36:00.000-05:00

exhibit a is 2 cheese enchiladas with chili, and exhibit b is 2 pork tamales with chili. amazing.

my amazing wife...

2009-07-20T15:30:00.001-05:00

made this cool pic with the "polarize" app for iphone. makes your regular photos look old school polaroid style. pretty neat.

evil sporty

2009-07-20T15:09:00.003-05:00

i stopped for a few spontaneous pics of evil sporty on my way home recently. heres the magic (click pics for larger view):

trial run....

2009-07-20T15:04:00.001-05:00

first post. go ahead. do it. dooo it.

interzone

by the way..

evil sporty

this just made my day.

this bitch...

snows bbq. lexington, texas.

sunday ride

scott kelly/wino acoustic - Austin - 2-8-11

ride to work today...

metalicious

painted my belt

he died shouting..."how many more lives"!

anyone have a line on this seat?

thursday nites in austin...

a pair of new tattoos

rocka rolla

this post isnt about a motorcycle...

thin lizzy jams with granny

new bars for the shovelhead

the evil one.

cuttin a slice.

vice grip winter run

necessity is the mother of invention. or some such bullshit...

tamale house #3

never gets old

Fatty's

vice grip winter run

big sandwich

lone star river run report.

lone star river run....

king kong wants his lathe back...

sugar fix

bass fishin in the heat...

rollin

who needs oil pressure?

Loretta Valentine Buscemi

liftoff...

DAMN!

one step closer...

moving right along...

hipstaprint

teardown and first problem

some shit is about to go down....

Din Ho

new clutch for evil sporty....

a few pancho run pics...

pancho run...

got home from pancho...

new helmet

new shirt...

troublehead and the dominos

R.I.P. Frank Frazetta

gratuitous pic wednesday...

cookin up a new seat...

shirts.

new breather bolts and air cleaner

eveyone loves clean air....

ok, just one more....

"The hand﻿ claps live is further proof how much ass these guys kick."

Steve Marriott, or, while im on the subject of 1971...

so i got another 15 minutes.....

we have lift off.

home stretchin it...

new tank for the shovelhead

not much more to say about this than it says itself...

i can feel the judas priest tattoo approaching.....

rewiring this weekend.

rad tighty z bars for the shovelhead

new beginning

slow progress

beginning the teardown

new wheels

bastard bash 09

decker lake

sissy bar

sweet rear view

insanity...

lost angels

texas chili parlor

my amazing wife...

"The hand claps live is further proof how much ass these guys kick."