STREETBIKE USA

Our Fateful Canada Trip 2013

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 12:21:00 -0800

This story is the compilation of video photos and thoughts from our infamous “Canada Trip” during August of 2013 of which I had been planning for many years. After Tinker and I and our great friends John and Vicky did the Colorado Rocky Mountain ride trip back in 2009, we all believed that it would be very hard to ever experience anything as beautiful as we had for those 10 days on the road. I had heard many great stories of the Canadian Rockies and thought well we will just have to see how they compare.

The plan was to spend another 10 days on the road and ride up through Nevada, Oregon, Idaho and then into Banff and Jasper National Parks in Alberta Canada. On the return we would hit Glacier National Park (B.C.), Revelstoke National Park and then down through Kelowna using the ferries of Okanagan Lake. I love the waterways!

I had mapped out and setup some great byways up through Idaho to see some of the beautiful back country of all the National Forest lands and Canyon lands that this great state has to offer ending up in Sandpoint along Lake Pend Oreille. This is a great little town to just hide-away and enjoy before our excursion into “Americas Hat”.

The trip was sort of doomed from the beginning as the plans didn’t quite work out as we had put down on paper. First off, this trip was not going to include our riding friends so they would be really missed; it was just going to be Tinker and myself on the road on our own. Second we had to ride through Northeastern NEVADA!.... yuck!... Third, weather became a constant peril that we just couldn’t avoid by any detour in the high country. And fourth, WEATHER conditions became the ultimate end to our fate for travelling to all the beautiful parks in Canada and getting us home safe. I will explain further as the story goes on.

Here is our first leg of the trip from Sacramento, California up to Sandpoint, Idaho.

This explains some of the places in the pictures of the video:

Leaving Sacramento on Hwy 49 to Placerville, then to Hwy 50 to South Lake Tahoe. We went around the lake and out the east side near Carson City and out 447 around Pyramid Lake to 49 again which would take us up to Winnemucca. From there we hit 95 to Mc Dermitt, (Tumbleweed Junction) Nevada for the first night.

Day 2 would be 95 North through Jordan Valley with unbelievable skies that looked as if God was leading the way before us… We would cross over into Idaho somewhere in the desolate countryside of cattle and hay growing wild and along the way many river crossings. Caldwell would be the first city we would see since leaving Sac and found our way to Hwy 55 North which would be our road of choice for the next 100 or so miles around Lake Cascade and Payette Lake in McCall. From there it would be up 95 through Salmon River Canyon and Hells Canyon up to Grangeville for the night. Great little town and people!

Day 3 started pretty ugly coming out the backside of town on a very winding Hwy 13 all downhill to Kooskia. The fog was so thick you couldn’t see but 20 ft in front of the bike and it was wet fog and about 45 degrees out. We stopped and had breakfast at some awesome home-cooked -food-place! By the time we got out of there the sun was out and it was just … well beautiful!

On down Hwy 12 (Lewis and Clark Trail) along the Clearwater River Canyon – this is one of the most beautiful roadways in the west to Orofino where we would catch the cutoff to Hwy 3 through the backside of the Saint Joe National Forest and up to Lake Coeur d’Alene. We hit some big rainstorms along this route as we came upon the lake. There was nowhere to stop and dry out so we just plowed through it and kept on going. Our goal was to get to Sandpoint for the night and dry-out there and eat and sleep well, and we did. We were soaked through all our riding gear but there was no laundry at this hotel we stayed at… so our room became a steam bath with all the drying leather and clothes with the heater turned up to 90 degrees. We found our dry clothes and made our way to the bar and the restaurant and made merry!

Day 3 ended ugly.

Weather and news reports in Alberta, Canada ranged from torrential rains in the valleys to blizzard snow conditions in the higher elevations which is exactly where we were headed… we decided to wait it out a day in Sandpoint and see if it would clear out, but the reports were pretty much that a “system was blowing in over the next 4-5 days” and that would pretty much waste all the time we had to go up and come back from all the parks we wanted to visit. And with the weather socking everything in, there wouldn’t be anything to see! Canada at this point was a bust.

PLAN B!!!! With all the bad weather up north we decided to go south and then over to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands of Washington State. These islands are in the “Banana Belt” of the Pacific Northwest and always have some good sun shining on them. Being that our plans had all changed now, we still had time to enjoy life however it was dealt to us. We were a bit saddened by the change but I think we shook the doldrums by the time we got headed into some sunshine…

Here is the second leg of the trip from Sandpoint, Idaho to Anacortes, Washington.

That sunshine wouldn’t come very quickly, as we headed out of Sandpoint we were under dark clouds along Hwy 2 down to Newport where we would catch Hwy 20 across Colville National Forest lands. Hit some more POUNDING RAIN… and then into Colville where we would go south along 395 to Addy. There we would continue across the mountains to the Columbia River where we caught the ferry across to Inchilum.

Once here we didn’t really know which direction to head so we mapped out some more back roads and continued to traverse our way across the mountains to highway 155 and then headed down to Grand Coulee. We would spend the night there with some good food and a laser light show on the dam, it’s pretty cool. They release and run white water down the face of the dam and use it for the screen.

Breakfast was at a local dive place where the staff pretty much lets you help yourself… and then onto the road again up through the mountains on hwy 174 to Brewster and then connect up with Hwy 153 North to Hwy 20 to take on the Cascade Mountain Range heading toward the coast of Washington. The Cascades, the high mountain lakes and rivers are just awe inspiring to witness. I wished I had taken some better pictures of the entire landscape but we were on a trek to meet a ferry by 4:00 and time was wasting!

We made it into Anacortes with enough time to sit at the bar at Anthonys in the marina and have a few drinks and some good food and recall the days memories… in beautiful SUNSHINE! We didn’t have to wear any rain gear for the first time since we left Nevada! The ferry ride over to Friday Harbor was late afternoon and the waters were calm and it was just a great end to a very long day.

The LAST LEG video contains our time on San Juan Island which is the largest of the 8 islands in the area. The photos include a visit over to Roche Harbor, Smallpox Bay, Lime Kiln Park and around to the southern area known as Cattle Point. It also includes the ride from Sydney B.C. down Hwy 101 through Washington and Oregon to our ultimate fate in Crescent City, California.

Our trip over to Roche Harbor on the far north end of the island is always an enjoyable time of taking in all the history, grandeur and the feast the place has to offer. The harbor was used as bulk lime loading facility back in the late 1800’s of the lime that was mined on the island. The place is now known as a stop off point for the huge Million Dollar luxury ships that navigate the inside passage of Vancouver Island and into the Puget Sound for a place to dock, re-fuel and re-supply before heading to sea again either to the north or south. Some pretty nice vessels in this place! Had a visit by a sea plane too! and the best BLOODY
MARYS in the world!!!!

We also stopped into Smallpox Bay where many kayakers begin their journey out into the Straights around all the islands and points beyond!... My brother and I did a 7 day Kayak trip many years ago from here, what a great adventure that was.

We then went to Lime Kiln State Park where there is a lighthouse perfect for a backdrop of pictures. The waters are so blue and the lush greenery of the island makes for much color. We then made our way further down the west side of the island where you can pretty much just look across to Victoria, Canada on the opposite shoreline. Lots of clouds over there, here? SUNSHINE!

We spent 2 days in Friday Harbor before finally leaving (against our will). It’s always hard leaving the islands and it was a bit sad again because we knew that at this point of our ride we were now turning the handlebars towards the direction of home and we would soon be back and this vacation would be over. Little did we know the beauty that was still ahead of us.

The ferry ride to Sydney was a gorgeous day to ride upon the waters of the Straights and the ride down into Victoria was very nice along the shoreline. We parked the bikes at the ferry terminal and walked out through the city to see all the local stuff going on, catch some food and tried to find a cigar store. Things were looking up weather wise as the day was shedding its warmth upon us. The ferry ride from Victoria over to Port Angeles Washington is about an hour and half tour across the Straights of Juan De Fuca and it was a bit windy out there so we were chopping the seas. Good thing the bikes were strapped down below with about 20 others a couple hundred cars.

The city of Port Angeles sets right at the base of the north side of the Olympic National Park. Onto good ole Hwy 101 again and riding along we came upon Lake Crescent in the mountains of the Olympic Range. Wow what a beautiful site to see. It was getting pretty late in the day so we decided to find someplace out on the coast and bag down for the night. We rode into the town of Sekiu which is still on the Straights heading out to the point. We found a great little place to stay and some great neighbors to sit and tell stories with of our travels. In the morning we packed up and rode out to Neah Bay about 18 miles up the road to look around at Americas Northwestern most point. We watched a couple Eagles fight for some food on the banks near the marina. As we ate our breakfast meal together, it occurred to me that they were probably another husband and wife team out on an adventure of life together too.

On down the road along Hwy 101 south and we were into the typical Washington fog and mist of the Olympic coastline most of the way down to Astoria, Oregon where we stopped in again for the night. From there we continued on down the coast highway through the Oregon fog and mist and saw whatever we could of the Oceanside communities along the way. We ended up stopping in Gold Beach for the night with possible plans to head inland in the morning to get some relief from the cold and damp dreariness of the Oregon coast which is hit or miss, sometimes it can be fantastic out here.

The next day we hear news of a huge fire raging through the mountains where we planned to ride through to the Rogue River Canyon so the inland route was a no-go. We decide to keep on going down the coast and make the best of it, besides we were headed for our last stop which would be the isolated little secret village of Shelter Cove on the Lost Coast of California to spend our last night in peace and quiet with one another, it had to be special.

Well it was special alright… about 5 miles outside of Crescent city headed south we started to pass an 18 wheeler driving through the mountains at a pretty good clip and we come to the passing lanes and he doesn’t move over. So I went to the right lane trying to see whats up? Well there’s a car there and he’s trying pass on an uphill grade and I’m just thinking WTF! …. All of sudden I see his right turn signal and he starts coming over so I move out to the left lane and start going around him just as a right turn starts banking I lean the bike over harder to lean into it and the front wheel begins to slide across the pavement (which is damp by the way)…. I slide across the double yellow trying to straighten it out and I see cars coming at me. I can see the ladies face (in disbelief) in the front car looking at me heading at her in her lane and I twist the handlebars one more time to try and get the bike to go right, the back wheel starts to slide now and do the wiggle thing, so at this point I know the only way to keep from going down in the road is to straighten this thing out and go off the left shoulder. Well there’s about 12 inches of pavement past the fog line on the road, about another 12 inches of dirt on the edge and then a canyon past that… is about all I can see. So I let it roll out to the left and let that front wheel down on the dirt and thinking to myself this is gonna hurt… and BAM! I am on the ground rolling my way down the grade…. trying to breath, hurting.

I hear people, sirens, Tinker yelling. My bike ends up about 80 feet down a gorge. I am able to crawl back up to the road from about 20 feet down, can’t catch my breath can’t stand up, can’t lay down. It’s a mess.

I thank you Lord for sparing my life once again and although we never made it to Shelter Cove I still was able to spend the last night of our trip with my best friend and partner in life… in the Crescent City Hospital. Thank you for her too!

Happy Trails!

A New Victory....

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Fri, 25 Jul 2014 08:24:00 -0700

Introducing the all new custom.... XR-"Hammered"

This bike build came out beyond my wildest dreams and ideas! The pub napkin drawings and computer renderings fail in comparison to what has become reality. It has now come to life and runs and rolls down the road again. This thing is a beast! which is what I was trying to create, instead of a skinny little tired, spoke wheeled chopper bobber, I wanted a fat tire, low slung, stretched out bulky wide cruiser 'bobber' that just looked like "Brutus" coming down the road.

The lines of the old XC come to life as new world "Big Bike", sporting some cafe styling with the extended chin spoiler and the new bullet fairing to enclose the front end. The 6 degree raked front end and the lowered rear shock strut bring the whole bike down to earth and gives it that finished Pro-Street look I love so much.

The Hammer rear fender has been all welded closed into one piece and provides a large deck area covering the 200mm x 17" rear wheel/tire combo. I added the new LED brake/tail light and the MBW LED turnsignals to the rim of the fender. The license plate bracket had to be custom made to fit under the assembly. And the exhaust?.... well just look at it! it is big and fat too... It is a shorty 2-into1 header into a 4" collector with no baffle at this time. Im having a reverse cone baffle made for it that will quiet it down and and give it some required back pressure. But for now - it's OBNOXIOUS!

The body and paint work was done by Mike Wilson Auto Body and the pinstriping by Eggie Foust - just phenomenal work done by both to make this bike just 'pop' with color and detail. Both of them have done work for me before but this has gone over the top. Great work guys!

Here are the rest of the pics

Pauls 2011 XR-"HAMMERED"

More Final Assembly

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 12:40:00 -0700

OK so final assembly has come down now to just some semantics waiting on parts that the supply house have screwed up but they are forgiven .... unless I cant ride this weekend.... All kidding aside I am so ready to get on this beast again and go do some road riding my body is aching! Its been almost a year! A few more Aleve and I can calm down a bit.

All the major parts are on the bike, I am waiting for a speedo harness to completed the front end headlamp wiring and assembly and a much needed 2-into-1 header that my exhaust Guru Guy has spent more than 5 weeks trying to put together and should be done TODAY as promised for the 10th time. Tired of promises just get the damn pipe DONE! - see I am getting irritable now...

Pics will be up as soon as I can roll her out into the sunlight and get the good camera out, because these phone pics are just horrible and dont do it any justice whatsoever. So sorry for the lack of Photos - I know its much better to see it than to hear about it.

Almost Done!

Final Assembly

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 14:45:00 -0700

Parts are starting to come in from my painter - Mike Wilson Auto Body (the same one that did the Dyna paint job) and they will be going on piece by piece. The paint color was a bit of challenge as I wanted to keep with the dark look of the original XC due to the lines of the bike, I think it is very Darth Vadar looking! - I know I'm aging myself with that comment! So I looked around for something dark but something that had some 'color' too instead of just stark black. I was reading a speed magazine (shocking!) and found a report on the Hennessey Venom GT, (the worlds fastest motorcar) and as I looked at the gallery of photos, the color just came alive to me and.... well that was it!

The color was called "Dark Knight Grey", how fitting to my Darth euphemism...

I decided to add a bit of my own splash to it and used a HOK black base coat and then a HOK Anthracite Metallic Grey candy and layered it until it had some depth. It came out sweet as pie!

At night or in the shade it will look almost near black and when in the sunlight, the metallics pop and the grey comes out as vivid as the sun itself. It screams beauty!

STEP 1 - I needed to get it 'rolling' again so the first order of business was to get it back on two wheels and have that part all done. I decided to reuse the stock OEM 10 spoke sprocket, but I had it polished and then had the spokes painted the same color as the body of the bike to give it some contrast. I think it came out perfect.

The new rim is a billet Arlen Ness Evil 7 wheel that is now wider and larger than the stock wheel. It is a 17" diameter x 6.5" wide to handle the new Shinko 005 Advance 200mm rear rubber.

With the new rubber and the new wheel all installed on the bike, its ready to come off the jacks and set its print on the ground once again. It's gonna feel good to burn all those 'new tire whiskers' off that brand new tire!!!

Next will be the front end, getting all the new shrouds and front grill onto the bike, the front fender, the headlight and all the turn signals and wiring completed. Then back to the rear.

Next Stage to Begin...

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 14:09:00 -0700

Well all the pre-construction mock up work is done at this point. The body parts are going out for painting now, the color is going to be a Titanium Grey Metallic with some Cherry Maroon highlights in it. The one-off custom seat is off being upholstered and the exhaust parts are off being made into a new custom stainless steel 2-into-1 header with a shorty megaphone.

I think the bike is going to come out pretty nice and although it will resemble some other models, it will be mostly different from anything else out there. I didn't want to stray too far away from the norm.

Here's some update photos:

"Cross" breeding with a Hammer

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Tue, 8 Apr 2014 16:19:00 -0700

Well the work has been going on for a few weeks now, getting a hold of parts from many suppliers across the country retail, wholesale and just people selling their own stuff! Have found some great deals, people on forums selling their stuff and willing to make me some good deals, I thank them for their time.

The biggest thing (I thought) was getting a rear fender off of a 2008 Victory Hammer to fit onto the 2011 Cross Country rear frame section.

The XC has a wide aluminum forged hunk of frame at the back, where the Hammer is a tube frame and simply has struts out the back just like any other bike might have to hold up the back seat and fender. This is a shot of the underside of the XC modular frame where the wheel basically goes. The 4 bolt holes on the left bolt to the engine. The orientation should be vertical.

The fender was more than wide enough to fit over the frame but the front had to be modified to sit down onto the frame. At the back edges of the fender where they met the frame mounting points, I used some steel tubing cut down to make a stand-off between the frame mounting holes and the fender. At the ends of the tubes I welded a 5/16-18 nut and welded them to the fender. The bolt then threads from the inside of the frame into the fender tubes and nothing shows on the outside. Here is a shot with the stock wheel still on the bike.

The chrome side struts have front mounting holes that aligned perfectly with the frame holes, and again I used the steel tubing welded into place to make up the distance between the fender and the frame. A chrome socket head cap screw will mount this end of the fender on each side. The struts lay right on top of the side covers and look somewhat smooth. So that was it!

Next was fitting a larger rear rim and tire with the stock swingarm assembly. The new rim is a 17" x 6.25" wide billet aluminum wheel by Arlen Ness. Very Nice!

I added a 200/30R-17 tire to it and mounting it up with the new fender and it looks real good!

I did find that the wheel well is very tight so it will have to be taken back apart and milled out to be safe. The swingarm is ready for welding and then it goes to polisher for final finishing. Next will be the front end!

Rebuilding the Victory for Another Run

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 10:49:00 -0700

So after contemplating what to do with the bike after wrecking it and then getting half way through parting it out I finally decided on rebuilding it. I had most of the the major parts left; basically a rolling chassis with the motor and trans and all suspension still intact. This XC (Cross Country) bike is a perfect platform for any custom rig so I figured what the hell! I decided not to go back to the original design of a bagger bike this time and go for more of a performance look with the option of adding bags if needed for long trips.

The bike used to look like this in its basic stock form, I loved it and it worked great as-was: 106 Cu. In. EFI engine with a 6 speed trans, 2 into 2 exhaust, inverted front suspension, mono-shock rear air/hyd suspension, and aluminum forged frame. 18x3 front wheel dual disk brake and 16x5 rear single disk brake. Tires WERE Avon soft compound 130mm front and 180mm rear and WERE not good for riding in wet weather.... most likely the root cause of my crash, I should have changed to all weather tires before that trip!

The wreck destroyed the entire fairing and the left side bag mostly. The rest of the bike was pretty much untouched by the grace of God! So off came the wrecked parts and what was left was this base bike:

The new design is going to follow after the Victory Hot-rod model called the "Hammer". This bike has a mono-shock suspension and inverted front suspension also like the Cross Country but with a tube frame chassis. The Cross Country is a forged aluminum modular frame chassis with many better attributes.

So mostly what I was looking to take from this model was the rear fender and seat design. The picture below is a custom designed Hammer with a 250mm rear tire installed. But this is way too much for my XC swing-arm to handle. So I will be limited to a 200mm on a 6.25" wide rim that will be added.

On the front of the bike I am looking into changing the rake of the front suspension to get a more stretched pro-stock type look out of it. With the handlebars raking back so definitively it just seems this bike needs that addition to make it all come together. I will have to go to a 21" front wheel too, which I don't want to do but the rake requires it to keep the proper steering geometry.

I will be adding the bullet style headlamp and single gauge in place of the full fairing and no windshield again like back in the old days of eating bugs and the wind in your face feeling! ...

The other thing I really want to do is tye in the front chin spoiler and enclose where the crash bars used to be and cover the bottom frame of the bike like a cafe' style racer valance would do. Roland Sands did a phenomenal job on a Hammer Salt Flat racer and I really like the combination he came up with.

Nothing as extreme as the Sands bike, but this is a blacked out version, of my idea and it will be painted whatever color I end up going with. So that's where I am with a basic design.

A "XR - Hammer"

McCloud Anniversary Ride 2013

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 17:43:00 -0700

Celebrating our 10^th Anniversary, my wife and I rode out to the little town of McCloud, CA which sits on the southern slope of Mount Shasta on Highway 89 at about 3,200 feet above sea level. The mountain gives this picturesque little town so much personality as you ride into it from all different directions. The backdrop is that magnificent snow covered peak standing like a proud warrior in protection of its surroundings. Mount Shasta or as the natives knew it as Uytaahkoo literally means “White Mountain” in the Karuk language. The mountain has so much information about it I could go on for days, but basically it is 14,179 in height, it is the second tallest peak in the entire Cascade Mountain Range and it has 7 named glaciers on it. It is Northern California’s pride and joy.

Our ride to McCloud, we decided would consist mainly of riding only back roads we could find north up through the central valley and staying completely off the slabs. Once out of the hustle and bustle of all the city limits (in our way…) we headed out onto the Oroville Hwy or otherwise known as Hwy 70. Up and around Lake Oroville we rode out into the Feather River Canyon area which has got to be one of the most scenic of highways in the Norcal area. It was also the most scenic of railways for travelers in the 50’s riding the California Zephyr between the Pacific Northwest and our state.

This is such a wonderful ride for all the scenery; the terrain and elevation changes and contours of the turns and the smoothness of the roadways. You can really ‘run’ these roads and enjoy them. We left the canyon at Highway 89 towards Lake Almanor with our sights set on seeing the lake from the eastern side. (A turn on Highway 147 allowed us to do just that!) If you choose to, Hwy 89 continues on across the front of the dam and goes into Chester which we have been through many times already, but we were going to try a new direction this time and find our way back to Hwy 89 again further on up the road a piece.

We took 147 around the east side of Lake Almanor with so many beautiful views right from the road and headed for our little lunch break in the town of Westwood. There we had some pizza and salad at Buffalo Chip’s Pizza & Pub.

Was very good with homemade pizza dough and all the fixin’s. Leaving there we found some local fuel and headed on down Mooney Road out the back of town. This would take us out to Highway 44 around the backside of Mount Lassen which was still pretty well covered with snow at this time of year. I doubt we could have gotten over the pass there without some snow mobiles. Highway 44 would eventually lead us back to Highway 89 and into the Burney area. From this point on Hwy 89 opens up and has a lot of straight long roadway through the open forest lands. It’s an area where there’s not much to see for awhile and not many cars or people around. A good testing area for Bonneville runs if ya know what I mean. … Oh finally I see the White Mountain coming into view… that means we’re close…. Well not so fast…. It just means you can see it from very far away…. I think we rode another hour and a half after first sighting the Big White Behemoth in the distance. Then we saw a town sign…. WE are HERE!!!! And HERE was awesome!

We stayed at the McCloud Mercantile and it is really an amazing place with all kinds of little shops, a couple cafes, and just plain friendly country folk to make acquaintances with. We had dinner that night in town at the local Café and enjoyed some conversation with the owners about the town, their business and all the good things that makes it such a great place to be. Small town folk are just happy that way and enjoy expressing themselves to people that wonder and ask.

The next morning we had breakfast at the Café and ventured off on a day ride around Klammath Park. We took off up Hwy 5 to 97 and went to the east and then circled back around into Yreka via some farm roads. We found our way to Hwy 263 and made our way north out of town into big canyon country along the Old Shasta River. We turned west on Hwy 96 after crossing the Klammath River and began our river ride. Hwy 96 winds it way alongside the river for miles and it’s a great road, very minimal traffic, actually none! I think we saw one car in 50 miles. We stopped along the way and took a little stroll along the river and got a few pictures. At the confluence of the Klammath and Scott Rivers is Scott River Road; theres where we turned and headed south on our days journey towards…. Lunch.

Now Scott River Road is a 1 lane goat trail for the most part that traverses up the side of the Trinity Mountains in that region. The overhead bluffs that you look down from are majestic although harrowing for someone with any kind of fear of heights… which is not me.

Once back down from the mountain peaks it runs along the river and back out into the farm land which it supplies where it runs into Highway 3 at Fort Jones. Instead of taking Hwy 3 south at that point we crossed the two-lane and continued on Eastside Road which would take us into the town of Etna where we stopped in at Dotties for an Extreme Burger and some mega fries! What a great burger!... I forgot a picture of it, but it WAS good.

We left Dotties and headed south on Hwy 3 and made our way through the farm lands of irrigation districts and lots of stuff growing green and lush. After a spray or two, we made our way to Gazelle-Callahan Road and cut off towards the snowy peaked mountain tops in the distance. This road was another very nice find and it meandered its way through the canyons and up the peaks of some of the Klammath Forest area (I believe). There was one downhill section that almost every turn had dirt and gravel strewn across the apex and so couldn’t do much but try and make it safely through. Must have been a heavy rain there a few days before us, but on this day the sun was out and the sky was a full blue with no clouds to be seen in any direction. Gazelle-Callahan Road ends at Old Hwy 99S and that is where you come into full view of The White Mountain and she follows in every direction to wherever you go from there.

We stopped into Mount Shasta City for a walk around town. This is where the headwaters of the Sacramento River actually just bubble out of the ground from the aquifers below. We stopped into a local pub and had some refreshments as it was almost 90 degrees outside. It was beautiful! Talked with a few locals and continued our little walk around and then hit the road again for the few miles back to McCloud. Since it was so nice out we decide to run on out to Lake McCloud… how creative a name! This is a reservoir in the absolute middle of nowhere. But there were fisherman that had found it and they were out doing their thing. We rode around the paved side of the lake all the way to the dam. It was about 5-7 miles maybe but was a nice place to be cool in the late afternoon heat.

Nice day ride!

We took a few pictures by an old Fire Engine hook & Ladder Truck that was just outside of town. I would say it was from the 40-50’s era but it must have been a beautiful piece of machinery back in its day. It still was in my eyes. Love this old stuff!

For dinner that night we ventured across town… (across the highway) over to Aarons Steak house and met the nice people that run the place and had some good laughs with the bartenders there. We all told storys of our travels through life… ours being a little more literal on that trip.

The next day was the ride home, this time outside of the confines of Hwy 5 all the way. We found the side roads that travel south on the eastern side and it took a bit longer but was sure a lot more relaxing and less stressful. Mostly on highways 99, 45, and 20 along the Sacramento river for the most part.

Another great ride, home safe and sound.

2012 South to San Diego

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:31:00 -0700

Our yearly rides have fallen off a bit due to 'scheduling issues' between kids graduating and getting married, joining the military and and and ... well finally we got a chance to hit the road and get riding again. Not that we dont ride most of the time, but a weekend ride is like a day ride to me. I like to get on the bike and go for a week or more, now thats a RIDE!

This time we decided to take a little trip down south again to some warm country area, see some familiar sites in Santa Maria, do some winery visiting in Paso Robles and Santa Barbara, trip on down thru Malibu, take a visit to the Reagan Library/Museum in Simi Valley and then end up in San Diego to see our son that is stationed at Camp Pendleton. About a 1400 mile roundtrip excursion for us to get some riding time in.

The trip down from Sacramento area took us thru Hollister and The Pinnacles National Park via Hwy 25 and that brought us out to the little tiny town of San Miquel where there is a Mission and a few other buildings, one of them being a market to get a cold one! Great open country riding with nobody else but us on the road for miles and miles and miles.

Our first night stay was in the town of Santa Maria, so we stopped in Paso Robles and did some shopping for some great foods and wines and some other junk... and headed towards the coastline from there on good ole Hwy 101. The next day we packed up and rode out to wine country around there. Its seems like every direction you go around that area is "Wine Country"!!!! Left, Right, Up or Down... we couldn't miss a winery if we tried!

We ended up at Fess Parkers Place of business and we met a few new friends in the drinking business and had a few rounds with them. We purchased a few odds and ends to add to our collection and then went about our way.

We found another little town calling out our name to STOP!... it was Los Olivios. Wow and I'm glad we did. We found Epiphany Wine Cellars and we loved the place. Found some great white wines (imagine that) and loaded up with a few to take back to our next stop in Santa Barbara to watch the sunsets with. Our ride down to SB was nice but we started hitting all the traffic that we had been away from for the past couple days.... it was back.


Epiphany Tasting Room

Our first view of the coast was staying in Goleta. SB was packed with people and the room rates were outrageous so we found a nice place on the beach and watched another day end.

After leaving Goleta we headed into the mess of traffic mazes of southern California to Simi Valley. Once we got headed up the hill area it wasn't so bad all the way into the Reagan Library. It was during the week so there weren't too many people either. What a great opportunity to see the life and history of this man as just a 'man' and nothing more. The fact that he accomplished such great things within his lifetime should be incentive to us all to be better people.

The 40th President

"Tear Down That Wall Mr. Gorbachev"

The most amazing part of the library is the "Hanger" where they have Air Force One raked in a takeoff angle and looking out over the entire Simi Valley area. Without a doubt something truly inspiring.

After leaving the museum we headed out the maze again and opted for a ride down through Topanga Canyon back to the coast. This was a pretty nice ride and then we found our way onto Mulholland Hwy and made the ride through this hot rod historic area to Hwy #1 down to Malibu BABY!

A Malibu Beach sunset... This is what every snowbird dreams of seeing and we have it right here in our backyard. What a beautiful site! We stayed the Night in Malibu and hooked up with one of my best friends who just happened to be working down in the area. We met up for dinner and drinks and hung out and caught up on some old times. When we left the next morning we were riding along and found his road crew along our route to the Pacific Coast Hwy and blasted our horns at them. We pretty much followed PCH the remainder of the way down south as much as we could. Tried to stay off the freeways and see all the little towns... man there are a lot of them!

We did have a chance to look at a boat or two while we were down in the south area.
The USS MIDWAY MUSEUM in San Diego was one of them. Quite a big boat too!

This is where the Captain sits all tells people what to do!

After having a nice visit with our son and his wife we rested up the night in SD before embarking on a long slab ride through the wilds of LA freeways all the way back up to Cambria for the night. It was going to prove to be a crazy day of lane-sharing and riding through stopped traffic like a bullet coming out of the barrel of a shotgun. But we made it thru with no scratches or bruises and found our way to the little hotel on the beach for yet another beautiful sunset - are there any others????

From Cambria we headed back up the coast on Hwy 1 thru San Simeon, Big Basin, Monterey and then Santa Cruz before heading inland to the bay area for Mountain View. Our last night on the road would be at The Shoreline Amphitheater for a little concert in the park to see Band Perry, Luke Bryan, and JASON ALDEAN - can you say COUNTRY!!!!!!

WOW WHAT A SHOW!

On Our way back we rode the Hwy 9 mountain route through all the mountain towns and couldn't help but to stop at Alice's Restaurant on Hwy 35 at Woodside Rd. This place just oozes coolness for bikers of all types and genres. The it was cross the bay at San Mateo and hit the Highway for the long trek home.

Nice Ride!

Lost a Friend

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Fri, 8 Feb 2013 16:01:00 -0800

My friend and fellow rider Sydney Sheppard (aka Fishwitch) passed away in her sleep back on Monday January 21st. This lady (and I use that term with the utmost respect) was without a doubt one of the most friendly people this old grumbly, grumpy, sawtooth, whippersnapper has ever met in my life. Her wit and just fun nature brought a smile to my face the first time we ever spoke.

Sydney will be missed, her presence on rides were always from the rear looking on and after everyone else, but she enjoyed being with and being a part of everyones world and always has a caring heart.

Thank you Lord for letting us cross paths in life, she has made me a better person for it.

Godspeed to you my friend, and you'll always have a place to ride with me and Tinker in our hearts.

Victory Tribute to Fishy

Been Away

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:54:00 -0700

Been away from riding for a bit other than the mundane riding to work and back... and some local rides around the Sierras. But its all good riding on the Vic. I've put about 7000 miles on the bike since getting it almost a year ago now and I really enjoy this bike. The handling is great and the response is unlike any other bike I have ridden over all my years. The bike really makes riding fun, the stereo lets you enjoy some music, and the bags let you take a few things along or just have space to take of some of that un-needed coverings as the day gets warmer.

I put on a Corbin seat and its ready for a the long haul to where ever the roads want to take me. Next trip we are planning is to Western Canada into Baanf National Park. Then next year we are going to take a southern route out to the Florida Keys and mark our very first transcontinental ride. Should be fun. Stay tuned!

GONE TO THE DARKSIDE~!

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Mon, 23 May 2011 12:47:00 -0700

Well I finally found my way into the realm of VICTORY MOTORCYCLES!!!

I just purchased a new 2011 Victory Cross Country model which is only the second year of this models existence. The Cross Models - Cross Roads and Cross Country are termed XR and XC by native "Vicsters" and are based on the VISION forged aluminum frame and sport the latest 106 inch, 97 horsepower V-Twin Freedom engine. Hook all that up to a 6-Speed transmission and you are gonna find some fun on the roads someplace... fast!

Victory Motorycles are produced by POLARIS INDUSTRIES and they have hit another home run on their latest design setup yet again. Polaris is doing a great job with their new bike designs, their collaboration with the Ness group of guys, (Arlen, Cory and now Zach too) has definately given them a design advantage over the "straight and narrow" ideology of Harley Davidson. I think that once Arlen Ness got involved with the motorcycle engineering teams at Polaris it was a match made in biker heaven. The new and the old coming together and the results coming out of that relationship are pretty incredible.

I really fell in love with the Kingpin and a Hammer model back in '08 when I first rode them up in Oregon for a test ride, and my best friend bought a KingPin Tour model. I was impressed. When the XC came out it was a no brainer for me!... I needed a large bike with leg room length and HD just wasnt changing theirs in any way for long legged people. The HD Streetglide (HD/SG) was a bike I had ridden thru Glacier Park and although it was nice, it wasnt comfortable without having highway pegs that I could stretch my legs out on.

The XC has floorboards that are about 14" long and I can put my feet under me, in front or stretch them out to just my boot-heels and straight leg it without taking my feet off the boards. This was my main comfort reason for buying this bike. Then being lighter than the HD and able to carry more cargo, well thats a big plus too for me. I also found that the 106 inch motor versus a 96 inch motor as the stock offerring included in the MSRP was a huge VICTORY advantage. HD wants about an extra $5,000 for the 103 inch and up to $10,000 for the 110 inch motor options making a Streetglide CVO MSRP at $35,000!!!!! yea incredible... I know. And the bike and motor design are 20 years old!

I had a chance to ride the XC thru some pretty demanding terrain (Berryessa Knoxville Rd.) the past weekends and although parts of this road didnt allow for very high speed riding it did require some very demanding changes in speed and manuevering ability throughout the ride. Conditions changed constantly with speed, shifting and braking and the XC handled it great. The rear air suspension and inverted front was a big advantage to what would have been back wrenching on a HD/SG. The rear suspension is a mono-tube gas shock with constant rate linkage that reacts like a dirtbike. it has air assist for extra loading. It is very comfortable riding on these crappy CA roads!

Once onto the good portion of roadway outside of NAPA county, it was easy to roll on/off the throttle and spend some good times traversing through the sweepers in 4th and 5th gears. The torque is well suited to using one gear and finding your way through the turns nicely. In the tighter areas I found the constant downshifting messed with the EFI brain and it stumbled a bit, but after I learned to STOP riding it like a Harley that problem quit happening. Harleys require 'rapping the throttle before every downshift, the EFI does not like that!!!!

You can lean this bike hard into corners and it feels very light, it pulls (throttles) hard out of the corners with a very light front end but doesnt feel like its getting away from you, it feels very well grounded at all transitions from decel back to accel, in downhill or uphill situations. The braking is excellent with dual 4-pistons up front and a single 2 piston on the rear. Braking is very forgiving, must be ABS(?) because I was on it hard a few times and worried that it was gonna lockup, but it never did!

Stereo sounds great! and the seat is countoured enough to keep you in the right place. What more could I ask for? just some more time on it!

Dyna 2 is FOR SALE [SOLD]

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Fri, 8 Apr 2011 13:04:00 -0700

After much contemplation and decision making I have decided to sell Dyna and move on to a bigger bike. I have owned this bike since it was brand new in 1998 and rode it home off the showroom floor in Beaverton, Oregon. It has been a great bike and it needs another good home with someone that wants to enjoy it.

This will be a big change in my 'riding life' as I have always liked chopper style bikes and have enjoyed them and all they have to offer. But my wife and I want to do some more long distance cross country rides and having a full bagger will suit my needs a bit better than a hot-rod bike.

Now dont let the chopper/hot-rod nametag fool you, this bike is a good touring bike and will handle the twisty roads better than any other Harley Davidson model out there. Thats what it was designed and built for. Its been all over the western United States and has been a joy to ride with even two-up before my wife started riding her own. This bike will pack up like the best of them and go the distance, but I'm ready for something bigger and "couch-ier".... Im getting older and my arse needs some good support!

So any takers? I can guarantee that everything is top notch on this bike because I put every part on it and know its entire history. Check out the build writeup and you can see every step I took.

Thanks for looking.

DYNA 2 Finally Completed!!!

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:40:00 -0700

DYNA-2 PROJECT COMPLETED

I want to give a big THANK YOU!!! and a huge acknowledgement to all the people that helped to make this project an overwhelming success in my eyes. I have owned this bike since it was brand spankin’ new in 1998 and when the time came to give the ole-girl a makeover the folks mentioned below came through and provided the help and things needed to make it all happen:

Thank You All for your patience in working with me and my ideas!

LOCAL FOLKS
Mid-Cal Cycle Supply of West Sacramento
Specialized Exhaust of Elk Grove
Mike Wilson Auto Body & Paint of Wilton
M-Pac Upholstery of Elk Grove
SJM Manufacturing of Portland
Davis Motorsports of Reno
AAA Plating of Sacramento
American Cycle of Orangevale
FinishMaster of Sacramento
Tri-C Machine Corp. of West Sacramento
Hose & Supply of West Sacramento

INTERNET SUPPLIERS
Demons Cycle Supply
KC International
2 Orange Harleys
American Classic Motors
Autodynamic / Motodynamic
Cyclehead
Robs Cycle Supply
Xtreme Cycle
Funk Motorsports
House of Harley Davidson
Woodstock Harley Davidson
Eastern Performance Cycles
MC Advantages
Total Performance (Formerly Daniel Boone)

CV Performance

NEW BIKE SPECIFICATIONS:

Billet Front End w/ 6 degree additional rake and 4” overstock length
Billet Headlamp assembly with HID bulb
Carllini Pullback bars
Arlen Ness Rad III Hand Controls
Billet Forward Controls
Billet Mirrors

Pro-Force Billet Air Intake w/ K&N Filter
21” x 2.15” 60 Spoke Front Wheel w/ Avon M90 Tire
18” x 4.25” 60 Spoke Rear Wheel w/ Avon 150mm Tire
Wilwood 4 Piston Brake Calipers – Front & Rear
Russell Stainless Braided Brake Lines, Oil Lines, Fuel Lines, Cables
Polished Mesh style Rotors
Billet Spoke style Pulley -1.125” x 70 Tooth
Secondary Drive Belt - 1.125”
Reworked Rear Swingarm – Shock mounts, Brake stop, Lower support
Reworked Frame – Removed struts & Passenger peg mounting points
200mm Rear Fender installed into frame, hidden struts, custom extension
Custom Rear Tail light Fixture LED with internal turn signals
Paul Yaffe Style Front Fender
Custom 3” Stretched flat top Gas Tank – Flush type cap
Custom Seat and Mounting
Custom Luggage Rack
Custom Chevrons on rack mount
Custom GPS Gauge Console with Garmin Nuvi 550

Modified CV Carburator
Rocker Mounted Speedo & Oil psi Gauge
House of Kolor Paint – Wild Candy Apple Red

THE DETAILS:

Dyna Makeover FINAL

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:06:00 -0700

FIRST RIDE

OK well Dyna "2" was completed this past weekend and I am very happy with the results. Took it out on a short road trip up to Plymouth to shake things down a bit and thats exactly what happened. All was good until about 10 miles from home when the brand new billet shifter pedal fell off the bike as I was turning into a parking lot. Oh well S-hit happens!

Then after that I come to find out that the rear caliper is leaking fluid. I tried tightening it over and over again but to no avail. It was obviously a product issue and Wilwood and their suppliers were happy to help me out.

The bike doesn't handle much different with the additional 6 degree rake and 4" overstock extension on the front. But it sure feels different looking over the front end, the whole bike just feels a bit bigger.

So a few more parts need some work and I need to get the gauges and windvest installed, but otherwise all seems ok at this point.

Heres some pics: (Click below, then click on Slideshow)

HARLEY DYNA 2 by PAUL

Dyna Makeover 7

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:36:00 -0700

FINAL ASSEMBLY

OK... So all the new parts that have had UPS and FED-EX delivering night and day to my little 'shop of horrors' is finally coming to fruition. It wasn't enough that my bike parts barely had time enough to dry in the paint booth and the painter never had a chance to see his final work product before I wisked them away to my shop. It was complete fervor working every night and getting everything together so that I could get back on the road and see my new ride twisting heads from every direction. This Dyna is going to be all that... and just when Harley Davidson decided to stop production on this model... Hmm what were they thinking???

Oh well they'd probably just steal all my ideas and make it into some new 'corporate chopper' for the metro-sexual crowd to try and take credit for in some shape or manner. Ok so I am rambling but nothing urks me more than some Wall Street college boy with a manicure, a pedicure and a "Harley"....

Back to the bike, I've decide to just leave the solid color (great decision) on the entire bike because what ever happened with this paint recipe and the application of it made it come out with so much personality that it would be a crime to cover up any inch of it with logos, pinstriping or any graphics. It is absolutley phenominal how it turned out.

So I made myself up a checklist of the installation steps and started going at it. Step 1-Wiring harness, 2)engine and 3)trans in first and connected up all the stuff.... and so on and so forth.

I got most everything put back together in about 1 week with only a couple hours here and there in the evenings. I wasn't in any hurry because the parts at the chromer would be the final holdup to this whole project due to being so busy. They weren't in any hurry to get my parts back to me. Not really a big deal to them, seen one chromed Harley part I guess you've seen them all. So I had time to burn.

Once the parts started going on and I could see the bike taking shape it was exciting to see. Alot of time was spent taping things up so that it wouldnt get scratched during the process. I used painters 'blue' tape and it works really well. It doesnt leave any adhesives or anything behind when you pull it back off.

Got all the "GO" parts on but came up a bit short on the "STOP" parts. Brakes lines were the wrong length and the fittings to make them fit right were wrong too. Had to re-order some more new parts. Had a shopping list of new chrome bolts and stuff to replace in the end and got it all figured out with my local guys Bruce and Robert at Mid-Cal Cycle.

The front end went on with all new bearings, forks went on without a hitch or a scratch... (Thank you God!) got to the rear end and got all the rear bolted up and WTF!!!! The rear pulley had zero clearance to the belt guard. It's always something right at the end, so I had to come up with different ideas on how to mount it without having to do any cutting or re-welding. I shoulda checked this on mockup but I DIDNT thinking it was no big deal. I got it figured out and actually like it better now with the bolt heads on the back side and chrome acorn nuts on the front. Added a larger wheel spacer and a new chrome axel nut and washer and No more clearance issues.

Wheels on, fenders and tank on, and all looking so damn good mmmm mmmm!

Did I mention that it looks good?????

The rear tailight is just freakin awesome, a company named MOTODYNAMIC makes LED lights for many metric bikes but none for the Harleys... (yet). I love this little bit of attention to detail and it is going to be the talk of the town. The turn blinkers are part of the light and blink with Yellow LED's. That is why you see no turn signals at the back end.

Only problem was with Harley Davidson (of course) designing their turn signal switching differently then everyone else. Can't make it simple and easy, they gotta do things the difficult way. I had to basically remove the turn signal 'smart-module' from the circuit and install a flasher relay instead because the smart module wouldnt "blink" the blinker! HD has some newfangled way to turn the lights OFF when idiot riders forget that they turned them on and it screws with the whole system. I got it figured out though... afterall I am an "E"-lectrician.

The LED lights look so nice and I think they are going to be much safer for bikers in the future. These lights are so BRIGHT!!! Night time aint no time to be messin with the likes of this here LED lighted bike.... White LED's light up the license plate frame too.

The light fixture itself was originally made for (dare I say it) a HONDA!... but I made some creative changes and made it fit my bike. The distributor thought I was nuts when I kept telling him "dont worry about what bike its for, I dont care, I just need one close dimensionally" and I found it. Then with some help from Tap Plastics I made it fit my bike the way I wanted it. Looks sic!!!!

More coming

Dyna Makeover 6

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:22:00 -0700

PAINTING

Here are some photos from the paint booth of Dyna with her new paint-job provided by Mike Wilson Auto Body. It doesnt look like much here in the stripped down version but in person the paint looks like it is so wet you could take a bath in it.

The House of Kolor recipe is:

Basecoat: Black
1st Coat: Candy Apple Red Basecoat
2nd Coat: Transparent Candy Cherry Red
3rd Coat: Urethane Clear

This is the frame with the integrated rear fender from a 2009 Softail 200mm rear end.

Close up of the rear fender with the fender struts hidden inside the fender itself. The fender extension has also been customized as part of the fender and now extends to swingarm.

This is the front fender, it is a Paul Yaffe look alike. This came out real nice too.

This is the custom tank that was originally made for a Softail also. The tunnel had to be cut out in the rear and replaced with a square channel to fit the Dyna frame assembly. The rear mount was also added. All the mounting points will be hidden. No gauges on this tank either, just a flat top with a pop-up gas cap.

The other parts that were color-matched were the swingarm, the top motor mount bracket, the horn mount bracket and the custom rear luggage rack brackets that I hand made. The rack part is actually from the new Harley Davidson Rocker FXCWC model.

So this "New" Dyna is going to have multiple personalities from many different Models.

Coming soon.... The New Dyna.

Dyna Makover 5

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:38:00 -0700

BODY WORK AND PAINT

Well the bike has been at Mike Wilson Autobody and Paint shop for the past 3 weeks and has undergone the unbelievable.... the idea that you can simply think up a paint color and have it come out as perfectly as your mind contrives it is... TOTALLY POSSIBLE!!!!

The color that my bike came out when it was finally finished was exactly like I had imagined it. I was almost to the point of losing sleep over this paint job because I was really worried that it wasn't going to turn out like I had planned. Let's just say that I'm sleeping very soundly now.

Before the paint got put on though we had some serious body work to complete. We had to fabricate and weld on a fender extension that typically on a Softail is just a cheap plastic piece bolted onto the swingarm. I didnt want a cheap ass plastic part on this bike, it's better than a Harley at this point! I found a donor fender from a Dyna Superglide and chopped it up. I did some pounding out and some welding here and there and it looked like a Frankenstein stitch job for a bit.

Then Mike got creative and did the beautiful body work that brought it all together. What a Craftsmen!. The fender extension now flows right into the vertical frame rails and looks just perfect. He added the continuation of the fender lip from the factory fender onto the extension also. You really cant tell where one stops and the other begins.

The guys at the shop worked some wonders on the other tins and then it was all sprayed out with House of Kolor paint provided by FinishMaster who helped me get the right colors together in a short amount of time.

The Painting Recipe: first we used a HOK Shimrin Black basecoat on everything, then a Candy Apple urethane basecoat, then on top of that we put a transparent Candy Cherry and then to top it off we coated it with many layers of clear urethane.

It came out so sweet I wanted to EAT IT!. I was playing with the idea of doing some graphics over the tops of the fenders and tank with some marbelizing and flames and then pinstriping it all. But... the color just came alive on its own and I didn't want to cover any of it up. So we left it just color only and it has an insane personality all its own with nothing else to distract your eyes away from it.

Pics of painted bike to come.... Final Assembly next

Dyna Rebuild 4

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:20:00 -0700

FINAL MOCKUP:

New rear wheel 60 spoke 18" x 4.25" chrome Billet hub, new mesh style rotor and spoke chrome Billet pulley on the other side. The shock shown are stock but I am awaiting my new Ultima Billet shocks to replace them.

After getting the fender rails completed by boxing them in with 16 Gauge sheetmetal and welding everything up nice and tight, it was time to get the rear wheel assembly on along with the shocks on the relocated mounts. Just to see how it all fit.

The seat pan was being done by Steve at M-PAC Upholstery. The guy is a genius when it comes to putting anything together with fabric! We decided to use the Badlander seat bottom as a base and customize it to fit this new tank and fender setup. Should be sic!

Next was the front end. I have taken off the OEM triple tree stop that was part of the neck and used a hidden stop assembly instead. This required welding on a small piece of steel that had to be shaped to fit just perfectly to the bottom side of the neck. It also could not interfere with the bearing race installation. Quite a task, but it worked out perfectly.

These new trees are so nice. They are smooth on top and all sides. There is almost no hardware anywhere to be seen.

New front wheel -60 Spoke 21" x 2.15" Chrome Billet hub with AVON rubber on it 90/90 x 21e. The new caliper and mesh brake rotor will be added on final assembly. Still waiting for the front fender....

Here is the mocked up rolling chassis. Nice tank shape!!!!! Cant wait to hear that pipe by Specialized Exhaust.

Next we get ready for paint.... at Mike Wilson Auto Body

And I have some other very unique ideas for a back rest and luggage rack while not messing up that beautiful smooth rear fender.

Dyna Rebuild 3

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:46:00 -0700

FABRICATION TIME

OK... the last couple weeks have been very busy with all kinds of things happening and bike shows and car shows to go and get ideas from. Went to the Easyrider Bikeshow in Sacramento and also the Sacramento Autorama that was just here. Lots of nice equipment out at both the shows. I talked with a few people in the business about painting, colors, pinstriping, graphics etc. I also met Paul Yaffe at the show and talked with him about bike building overall. They guy is really original! That's the way I want to keep my bike, "original" which in my book means not a bunch of HD bolt-on-chrome-crap. It means designing something different then all the rest and making your own. Now thats ORIGINAL.

Basically Im still on track with my "original idea" with some minor changes. Nothing life changing.

BRAKES:

I installed the rear brake bracket and caliper from Wilwood and made sure it was all going to work out OK with the new wheel and tire. This type of setup is a below the swingarm mount. Nice stuff!

SWINGARM:

Since the above picture was taken I have removed and relocated the brake stop and the shock mounting points. I purchased some steel stock and crafted my own shock mounts and brake stop brackets. Everything has been re-welded back into position where I wanted it to be located instead of the Harley factory. Makes for a much cleaner installation and the welds are all smooth, not a bead. I decided to keep the OEM belt guard as I couldn't find anything else that was 'custom' and would fit a Dyna... imagine that?

REAR FENDER:

After getting the swingarm back into working order, it was time to start the rear fender makeover. I purchased a Softail 9" wide fender that is used on the 2007 and newer models with the 200mm rear tires. I really like the style and the fatness... of it.

It obviously wasnt made for a Dyna so some serious fabrication had to be done to make it fit onto my bike. I also wanted to hide the struts so that the fender was all smooth and clean with nothing protruding from it. No Blinkers, No Brackets, No Bolts, No nothing.

Here are some shots of the rear; the Dyna struts had to be almost completely removed just after the upper shock mounting points. The new fender was tack welded into place and the struts that I fabricated were fitted. I used 3/16"x 1" strapping for the new struts and welded them from the inside. They protude from the fender at the shock mounting point and then fit in behind the existing Dyna strut ends that remain.

Then I took and welded up the sheetmetal cut-outs around the struts and continued with the fitment to the frame. This fender will be hard mounted and not remove-able. With a Bob-tail style fender and a swingarm it really doesnt have to be. Next will be fabricating a boxed in cover to complete the 'frenched' in look of the entire rear fender to the Dyna Frame rails. More on this to come also.

GAS TANK:

The tank was located and tacked into place. I fabricated hidden mounts for the front and rear of the tank so no hardware will show on the finished bike. This tank was actually for a Softail also. It took some coaxing but I got it to fit into place after some 'rework'. Basically had to cut out the entire back bone channel and replace it with a square one to get it to sit down low enough on the motor.

Next step will be finalizing the sheetmetals and getting the bike mocked up for final checkout.

In case you're wondering why I still have the engine and trans in the frame.... I didn't know this about Dyna Bikes but the rear swingarm actually mounts to the transmission case. It does not mount to the frame. So the engine, trans and rear swingarm are all one piece that moves together in the rubber mounted installations.

More to come...

Dyna Rebuild 2

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:06:00 -0800

This past week I have completed the tear down of the bike to the point of just the engine and transmission. The front end and rear wheel was removed after taking it down to the shop for some pipe work...

I am doing some changes to the rear swing arm which are mostly just visual more than functional, but they lend to how the eye meets the bikes design and blends the swing arm into the frame. With a Dyna Model, this is difficult. I hope it works with the under-swingarm rear brake system I have chosen from Wilwood.

I purchased a new pipe for the bike but I wasnt happy with it's fitment. The design is almost exactly what I wanted so I brought in a local exhaust shop guy that has done a few exhausts on some bikes. The Hooker Fourbidden header is a great looking design but it is made for a SOFTAIL... as usual.

He was interested in working on the project and I gave it to him to go forward. The bike came back with a totally custom exhaust system with heat shields and baffle. I think that I may do a black ceramic coating on the basic pipe and then have the shields chromed instead of chroming the entire pipe. This will match the black and chrome motor design to a "T". Thank You goes out to Specialized Exhaust in Elk Grove, CA.

Next I received some of the parts from the suppliers that I chose to deal with. I didnt received some from others... more on internet parts later. I got the new 18" 60 spoke rear wheel and the new 150 tire and had that mounted. I got the new front end and put that together and got it onto the bike and got a look at the new stretch and rake.

Next will be the braking system and the drive system to make sure everything fits before the final tear down.

Wilwood has always been connected with auto racing brake products and I have used their products on my race cars with great satisfaction in the past. I was extremely grateful to find out that they now offer motorcycle brake components. In fact I connected up with a good ole friend from my racing past to connect up with Wilwood again at Davis Motorsports. Rich Davis Sr. has been in the industry since it started many many decades ago. He got me all setup with new Wilwood products for the Dyna.

Next will be the fitment of the tins... the new gas tank, the new rear fender and front fender. I will have to find a way to blend the tank into the new solo seat and then into the fender. It shouldnt be too difficult.

Stay Tuned

DYNA WIDE GLIDE MAKEOVER

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Tue, 3 Feb 2009 13:56:00 -0800

Well it has been a long time coming in the decision making process for me to take on a new project. I have wanted to build a ground up bike for about the past 7-8 years, but the 'design' has never really come to me. I have recently really been enthralled with the idea of doing a pro-street makeover on a Dyna series bike. The Dyna models have kinda taken a back seat to the Softail models over the past decade because... well I dont know why actually. The Softail model is certainly not 'soft' for those long road trips but they look good. Thats probably why you see so many of them on trailers going to bike runs. Silly Biker, Trailers are for Boats!!!

Anyway, I scoped out the use of a brand new Softail rolling chassis from a few different places and the costs involved with doing it that way. It came out just a bit more than I wanted to spend right now. So I have decided to take my perfectly good 1998 Dyna Wide Glide (FXDWG) and strip her down and give her a whole new look. She is after all more than 10 years old and still running strong. I love this bike! Here are some "Before-the-Makeover" pictures of Dyna just taken recently for a record of where we started.

THE IDEA: Take a Wide Glide and stretch the neck about 6 degrees and rake out the front about 4" over stock to give it that low slung pro-street look. Install a bigger rear tire and wheel set which involves totally re-doing the final drive. Update the wheels to 60 spoke all chrome hubs, spokes, rims. New tins with a stretched flat top gas tank and wide rear fender and of course new custom paint... Im hoping to do the fender over the struts for that hidden euro frenched in look. Hiding all the blinkers too. (I hate Blinkers) Im doing a bit of work to the rear swingarm, new billet brakes front and rear, billet forward controls, billet open primary belt drive, Carlini Bars (already on the bike), new headlight and LED turn and brake lights just to top it all off. The engine is going to get a freshen up by pumping it out to 96 inches with an S&S kit, S&S carb, and a radically custom designed ground pounding exhaust pipe. It has to be custom made because no one makes parts for the Dynas!... More Softail parts buyers out there I guess.

Finally a totally new dimension in electronics for a bike, with Navigation and a GPS speedo, tach and trip meters all together in a bar mount billet setup. Custom again of course...

So the stage is set, the bike is apart and in a few different boxes all over my garage at the moment and new parts are arriving daily. I will keep up with some updates here and there so you can see whats going on.

Getting Dyna undressed...

More to come....

Update to Blog

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 11:58:00 -0800

Finally finished the SOCAL 2008 California Ride post, please have a look. Sorry it took so long.

We also did another ride in Northern California which included backroads of the Northern High Sierra, up into Mt. Lassen State Park, Lake Shasta and up into Crater Lake once again. We also made our way across Southern Oregon to the coast too and then home through California wine country. I will add that post and more pictures very soon.

Happy New Year

2008 SoCal Ride - Cruisers n' Curves

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 17:27:00 -0700

For 2008 the group ride became the Central and Southern Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, Southern California desert and then out to the coast at Santa Barbara. Finished up by heading North again all the way up the coast to Santa Cruz before turning inland back to Sacramento.

Day 1 We rode to Lake Tahoe (The entire loop), then out through Luther pass to Markleeville then over Monitor Pass to 395 and into Nevada to Topaz Lake for the night. Topaz Lake Casino and Lodge - Great Food and Winnings!

Day 2 we headed south on 395 through Bridgeport and Lee Vining to Hwy 120 (Tioga Pass). This is the East entrance to Yosemite National Park and we started our trek over the pass and it was inspiring to say the least. The weather was perfect, the roads somewhat clear of cages and motorhomes. Sites were everywhere and anywhere you looked in all directions. We ended up coming down into Yosemite Valley and had a late lunch at the Awhanee Hotel Dining Room, Great food! and we headed off again down the road with our sites set on Kings Canyon National Park. This is where we would stay the night in our "rustic cabins"... and yes they were Rustic!

Day 3 We Split up with our friends from Oregon this morning and they headed to Las Vegas and we were on a site seeing venture into Kings Canyon.

We followed Hwy 193 all the way to the very end and it was well worth the 37 mile trip out and back again. The canyon is awesome and more than words can explain. It has to be experienced... on a bike. We paused to stop for some food and photos along the way, saw a baby brown bear coming right down to the roadside. Didnt stay long as we knew there had to be a mother bear around too.

Once back onto the highway heading south we headed into Sequoia National Park and rode through all the big tress... and I mean BIG TREES... they are everywhere!... So many more than even the Avenue of the Giants. These are huge groves of giant sequoias and they are truly magnificent. The road down the the mountain is switchbacks one after another and they are almost perfect enough that you can setup and ride them all the same way. We found a little hamburger joint along the way and had burgers and fries that were like no other! Excellent food. We made our way down the mountain and into the little bedroom town of Porterville for the night. This was a necessary stop as it was approaching 110+ degrees and we needed a pool to sit in and relax... we found one.

Day 4 Springville via Hwy 190, this is another great backroad... out to Kernville and then Lake Isabella, rode around the lake to east and then back south down to Bodfish and Caliente along the winding Bodfish-Caliente Rd. Great road by the way. We ended up coming out on Hwy 58 near Keene and then going towards Tehachapi. We thought we were going to stay in Mojave but there's no town there to speak of so we went into Lancaster... yea well we cant always stay in paradise!

Day 5 We found a really nice road out of Lancaster called Godde Hill Rd leaving from the south valley and ending at Elizabeth Lake Rd. Then we followed that until we came to Lake Hughes Rd. This would take us through some really nice twistys and through some scenic canyons and outlook areas finally ending up at Castaic Lake near Hwy 5. We took a short jaunt south on Hwy 5 until we came to the Hwy 126 turnoff and headed west towards the coast. The climate change was dramatic from when we left early this morning at Lancaster around 8am and 75 degrees already to about 11 am and now it was down to about 60 degrees. But not for long, once we reached Santa Paula we headed north on Hwy 150 towards Ojai. This is an awesome road and drops you right into downtown Ojai. There we stopped for lunch at a sweet little patio restaurant and I had a Reuben sandwich that was incredible. I think it was the Golden Moon Restaurant. It had a huge tree covering the patio, very nice place. It was getting warm again too.

Back on the road we headed west again for a short ride to the coastline at Santa Barbara (or so I thought). We ended up getting onto Hwy 33 heading northward into another mountain range and although it was very, VERY nice roads and spectacular views, I think we were all ready to find a cooler place to just stop and relax for abit. This little route change ended up being about 150 miles and brought us out to the coast near Santa Maria about 65 miles further north than where we wanted to come out. Hwy 33 took us to Cuyama and New Cuyama and about 30 miles of road paving work. And Oh was it nasty... and it was easily 110 degrees out there in the vast open area. We sat at a couple of road blocks for about 1/2 hour each waiting on the "follow me" car and then we had to ride on a gravel roadbed for about 10 to 15 miles at a couple different points. This wasn't fun at all and made us all the more ready to just park and drink heavily!!!.

When we finally got to some good roadway again it was very nice... long curving smooth roadway that let you just ride the throttle on as far as you wanted to pull it. and we did. We finally got into Santa Maria and found rooms at the historic Santa Maria Hotel. This place was real nice and we were treated very well. We had dinner in the restaurant that night and the service was not good, but it wasn't the staff's fault, I would blame this on mismanagement mostly. Too many tour bus people and not enough pre-preparation for all the people to feed at one time. Too bad. The bartenders in both bars were great! Nothing wrong here!

Day 6 This was going to be a day of back tracking and then running back north like a scalded cat to get back on track again. We headed south with our next stop being Solvang. We stopped in Los Alamos for breakfast and it was a cozy little place and just plain good ole home cookin food. It was ran by a guy with the name of Quackenbush, which is a name that goes way back in my own families history. He came out and talked with us all for a bit, we ate our food, and hit the road again. Solvang next!

Our day in Solvang included the girls shopping for this and that in way too many places to look through unless you have about a week to spend there. We also wanted to check out the motorcycle museum at the end of town. It was closed of course. There was a number listed to call on the door, so we called and they came down and happily opened the place up for us to tour at our leisure. What great people. We got to see like 100 + bikes and they are all in just unbelievable condition. What great history with some great bikes. That will fill another blog entry someday.

Back on the bikes we got onto Hwy 101 North and went slabbin for about 100 miles to San Luis Obispo with a stop in Pismo Beach for lunch. We turned off towards Hwy 1 and Morro Bay and made a short stop there to walk out onto the Pier and look out at "The Rock". The pelicans were dive bombing the waters around the Pier too, what a trip!... must have been a huge school of fish swimming around there. We loaded up one more time and headed north into Cambria where we decided this would be a good place to stop and make ready for the next day. Cambria is a great little town off the beaten path just south of San Simeon. This place has everything, great food , places to stay and the people are just awesome. We met a goldsmith there and looked in his shop for a ring for me to replaced my lost wedding band. He had some beautiful stuff and he had a ring that knocked my socks off. He had to re size it for me and since we were on the road he did it and delivered it to our table at the local restaurant we were having some dinner at. We awarded him with a few beers. Thank you so much!

Cambria also knows how to have a good time!... Mozzi's Bar was just reopening after having been closed for 2 years and these folks were letting it all out this night. We were fortunate enough to be there to enjoy all the fun with them.

Day 7 Cambria was a great town for visits and finding some great new friends, we went to breakfast at the local pancake house and ran into our goldsmith buddy, he wanted to make sure I had no regrets from my purchase the night before and also to check out our rides. We had a good bite to eat and hit the road again heading for Hearst Castle at San Simeon. This was a pretty short ride from Cambria and we had some time to burn so we made a couple stops along the coastline there to take in the beauty of Simeon Bay. We met another rider there that was on his way back east someplace on a Honda rice rocket that he had just bought out here. Didnt look too comfortable but to each their own!

We road up to the castle entrance and loaded up on the tour buses to take our tour. What an awesome place and awesome times to have lived in California during the Hearst years. This is really a "dont miss tour" if you're riding or traveling in the area. They have many tours all day long and you can pretty much just walk up and get on one without prior reservations. Weekends tend to be more crowded.

From San Simeon we headed north again on the Coast Highway 1 and into the Big Sur area which had just experienced the devasting fires about 3 weeks before our trip started. It was very sad to see the devastation and destruction that had occurred to a once very beautiful region of our planet. All the mountainsides were burned clean of all landscape and greenery for as far to the east as you could see, every mountain range behind another. It was just scorched earth that was left behind everywhere you looked. We saw lots of signs thanking the firemen and the crews that had come to help out. We saw a few crews still standing by some areas and gave a honk to them as we passed by. Thank You GUYS AND GALS FOR YOUR WORK!

Someplace along Rocky Point we rode into a rest stop and had some coffee and a sandwich. It was right on the shoreline and you could walk out onto the point and look out over the cliff edges to the churning Pacific Ocean below. What a great place on this beautiful coast to be and the weather was simply perfect this day.

After lunch we rode on down into Monterey and blew right on through town on the higway and around the bay towards Marina and Seaside. From there we headed into the traffic ridden oblivion of the outskirts of Santa Cruz or "Aptos" as we locals call it... We stopped at some friends for some downtime and some catching up on our weeks ride and all the things new and old that we had seen. Had a few cold ones and some WHORES-D'OVERS... and then we hit the road again to end up in Boulder Creek for the night. Had a great meal at the local grub-steak place in town and some vintners delights and then it was time for the sack. The next day would be traversing the south bay area freeways and into the central valleys heading for home.... sweet... home.

Day 8 Went to breakfast with John and Vicky and it was such a great morning in the mountains I didnt ever want to leave again. Tink and I set out from Glen Canyon Road to Highway 17 and headed down the mountain. This would be her first time on this highway on her own on a bike in her whole life. But she did a great job, held it just fine through the curves and kept up with me as well as anyone could. This road is one of my favorites, I grew up on this highway on bikes and in cars going to SC to surf. It was actually one of the highways my driving instructor took me up when I first learned to drive. I could probably drive it blindfolded without too much damage (to a car)...

We made it into Los Gatos and rode right on thru to 880 and then cut across to Niles Canyon Blvd in Fremont where it would take us to Hwy 84 towards Sunol. We made our way through Livermore and then up and over Vasco Road through Brentwood and Oakley to the Antioch Bridge. We headed north on Highway 160 or "River Road" and rode all along the California Delta Canals through some more great little towns. I would've stopped at each and every one, but this is our backyard and we see it all the time. Plus we were ready to just get home.

We made it home after many.... miles, I think it was about 1700 or so over the past 8 days discovering more of the beautiful state in which we live.

Epilogue; I have lived in California all of my life with the exception of about 10 years and there is so much to see here and so many roads to travel. There are also so many people, most of them very nice and welcoming when you're a traveller upon the road and have a story to tell. I have found and hope to find more time... time to tell these stories to many more people along my route in life.

I have so much more to see.

This is a version of the trip we made. The trip always starts as 'planned', but will always change along the way.

5 Year Anniversary Ride

noreply@blogger.com (PaulC) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:28:00 -0700

My wife and I hooked up with a few lone riders and made a ride out to Placerville for breakfast and then we went on to points along Hwy 49; Plymouth, Sutter Creek, out Fiddletown road to Hwy 88 junction and then back into Jackson with a short stop in Pioneer for some coffee to warm us up a bit, it was a bit cool. Reminding of our Honeymoon ride but without the rain!... thank you God!

We continued on our jaunt to 49 again and headed south looking for some lower elevations and some warmer weather (hopefully). We ended up in Sonora and found our way to the Gunn House Hotel. We had stayed there once before on our way down to the Laughlin River Run. It was the year of the "Great Casino Shootout" between the Hells Angels and some other group of banditos... Anyway... we found our way to the nearest watering hole there in Sonora after getting the bikes put away at the Hotel and grabbed us up a couple of chairs at Alfredo's Mexican Restaurant and started to celebrating the first five years of marriage together. (We've known each other for more than 30 years now but.... that's a much longer story)

Anyhoo... Had a lot of good drinks and starter foods there at Alex's, then we headed down to The DiamondBack Steakhouse and had us some fine dining. It was real good, had some good local Amador County Wine and then headed back to the room for some..... "TV time".... mmmm hmmmm yea right!

The next day was bright and sunny and COLDER!!!!! I think it was 44 degrees when we left Sonora at about 10 am. We stopped by Jamestown Harley Davidson for a peek at what they had in the window... nuttin special! So we headed off down HWY 108 towards the west and came to Oakdale via Hwy 120 and went around Woodward Reservoir on 26 mile Road to HWY 4 in a round-about way and then continued to head west again. We got to Farmington and met up with Jack Tone Road and followed that all the way into Galt. It's a straight shot without going onto Hwy 99 through the orchards and farmland around the south valley. It's nice if you're not in a hurry and we were not.

Stopped in for some lunch at the local TB and then made our way to the homestead again. All in all it was about 285 miles roundtrip and just a nice easy ride around the Sierras.

Happy 5th Darlin' !!!

Sorry I didnt take any pictures this time around... but if you got to look at something take a look at this!