Archive for March, 2007
I know you have seen the commercials with for the Mac with the guy in the suit as the PC and the casual guy as the Mac. The commercials are pretty funny. Some guys on YouTube have put together a few spoofs of the commercials and they are hilarious.
A Few Great Books on Build Custom Motorcycles
Thinking about building your own custom bike? Maybe you are looking into on of the popular Bike-in-a-box kit? Here are a few books to help get you started.
How to Build a Cheap Chopper
Choppers don’t have to cost thirty thousand dollars. In fact, a chopper built at home can be had for as little as five thousand dollars. The key is the use of a donor bike for most of the components. How to Build a Cheap Chopper documents the construction of four inexpensive choppers with complete start-to-finish photo sequences. Least expensive is the metric chopper, based on a 1970s vintage Japanese four-cylinder engine and transmission installed in a hardtail frame. Don’t look for billet accessories or a fancy candy paint job on this one. Next up, price wise, are two bikes built using Buell/Sportster drivetrains. The fact is, a complete used Buell or Sportster can be had for five thou or less. Now you’ve got more than an engine you have wheels and tires, brakes, hardware, lights, harness, and some sheet metal. Bolt all that stuff to a simple hardtail frame to create an almost-instant chopper. Most lavish, but still cheap by comparison with many of the bikes built today, is a big twin chopper built from carefully chosen aftermarket parts. A RevTech engine and five-speed tranny set in a Rolling Thunder frame. Accessorize from the swap meet and add a simple one-color paint job to create a bike no one needs to be ashamed of.
Billy Lane’s How to Build Old School Choppers, Bobbers, and Customs
Billy Lane is the fastest-rising star among the high-profile custom chopper builders, and in this book he offers many of his secrets for building a chopper that will stand out in a crowd. This is the ultimate resource for any chopper builder, a book designed as a step-by-step guide to building any type of custom motorcycle. This book also covers custom-building beyond the chopper genre. Including the building of bobbers, an old-school style of custom that has been revived as a hot trend. Predating choppers, they are on the cutting edge of current biker cool, for real riding, and much safer and more functional than choppers.
How to Build a Kit Bike
Scratch built motorcycles remain very popular. In order to simplify the process, many companies in the American V-twin aftermarket are selling kits. Three of these companies, Custom Chrome, Arlen Ness and Biker1s Choice, have excellent programs. All offer very complete kits that allow the builder to assemble a complete motorcycle without any additional purchases. All that1s missing is labor and paint. The book will document, with detailed photos and copy, the assembly from beginning to end, of three motorcycles from the firms mentioned above. Because of the technical nature of this book, there will be more images and less copy than in other Wolfgang Publication books. Each sequence will be illustrated by at least 200 images. Approximately 60% of these images will be in color. This book will also contain side-bars on tools and basic assembly techniques, all designed to aid the first time builder.
If you did not already know day light savings time has changed beginning this year (2007).
It will now run from the 2nd weekend in March to the 1st weekend in November. That means that this coming weekend you will need to “spring ahead” one hour on Saturday night.
Your computers clock will also need to be updated so that it will adjust to the new DST.
If you are running Windows you can find information about what you need to do here:
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928388
If you are running Linux just do a search on google for your distro +DST and you will find what you need. I am running Fedora and I was able to update the tzdata using yum.
#yum install tzdata.noarch
Use zdump to check you system to make sure the DST changes have been applied.
My timezone is Eastern so just replace the EST5EDT with your timezone (man zdump for more info).
#zdump -v EST5EDT | grep 2007
It’s funny how the news media is reporting this as another possible y2k. Anyway get your systems patched up and you should be fine.
Building a Bike from a Custom Motorcycle Kit
By Christine Harrell
For many, off the shelf bikes just won’t cut it and a custom bike is the only way to go. For years, the idea of having a custom bike was out of the range of most budgets and most custom motorcycle kits were poor quality. However with the rise in interest in customized choppers, the custom motor cycle kit has become a great option for those who won’t settle for any thing but a custom bike but either can’t afford a Jessie James or desire a more intimate connection with their bike.
Choosing the overall style The chassis is what truly sets the overall style of the bike. When searching for a custom motorcycle kit, focus on the shape and design of the chassis to find one that fits your style. Try not to let the paint designs on the photos sway your decision on chassis style as the paint can be completely customized later.
Customizing details With a custom bike kit you don’t need to settle for a mass-produced shelf option, you can build a chopper that is completely unique to any other bike. There are literally thousands of nuts and bolts and hoses and tubes that come with a custom bike kit, giving you the very important base design of the bike. Items like mirrors, foot pegs, gas caps, etc can be purchased individually to create a completely custom flair.
Weighing the cost The cost of a motorcycle can be valued in dollars or time. For some people, money is less of a problem than time and others have the opposite dilemma. Still others may have the funds to purchase a customized bike from a bike builder, but would rather build their machine themselves for the experience and to understand every aspect of its design and inner workings.
Repair and maintenance Because you’ll have an intimate knowledge of the bike’s design and function with a customized motorcycle kit, future repair and maintenance won’t be a costly issue. When something isn’t working correctly, you’ll know how to troubleshoot the problem and if something needs to be replaced, you’ll know exactly how to do it. When you build your chopper from the ground up with a custom motorcycle kit, there is no need to depend on any costly repair shop.
Author is a small business internet marketing consultant and the cofounder of nGenuity Solutions.
For additional information on parts for a custom motorcycle kit, please visit http://www.JirehCycles.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christine_Harrell
http://EzineArticles.com/?Building-a-Bike-from-a-Custom-
Motorcycle-Kit&id=193249
Ok so it is not really a joke, it’s a commercial for Big Dog Motorcycles. It should make you smile.
Thanks to The Beach Cruiser for finding this.
If you are down in Daytona for Bike Week I hope you are having a great time (becareful and watch out for the other guy).
Have a great week!
Take Care - Ride FREE
Biker Stickers @ ChopperStickers.com
A guy I work with went to a TWUUG meeting lastnight and saw a presentation on an opensource network and host monitoring program called Nagios - http://nagios.org/
He said it looked pretty cool and was going to give it a try this weekend. I think I might look into it a bit myself. Will let you know what I find out.
Time for March’s Super Saver promotion!
Customers will receive 10% OFF on orders of $100 or more! Use promotion code BAWBC07 at check out. Offer is valid March 1 through March 31, 2007.
JC Whitney March Super Saver Sale - Save 10%!
JC Whitney offers a huge selection of aftermarket parts and accessories for your car, truck, motorcycle, RV, ATV, and more.
Wasn’t really a problem, more of an annoyance. I love my BDL 3″ open belt drive that I installed on my Heritage. I like the look of it, the sound of the clutch plates clanking together, and the sound of the belt whirling around the pulleys at speed - it is bad ass.
The only real problem I have had is that from time to time I would go to start her and when I hit the starter button the starter would just spin. How often this happened usually depended on the number of folks watching. Not really a big deal, rock the belt a bit, hit the button agian and she starts right up. Like I said it is not really a problem, just an annoyance.
A few months ago while lurking around the forums at Club Chopper I read a thread that offered up a fix for this annoyance - the Bullet Proof BDL Fix.
Picked up the kit online from Scooter’s Performance. Just over $100 delivered.
Installation is VERY simple. It only took about 15 minutes and just about anyone should be able to do it.
About the Buller Proof Belt Drive Fix
From the Manufacturer
This amazing part will fix the “grind” associated with starting bikes that have a solid or very rigid belt drive actuation. The engineered spring and ramped teeth help integrate the teeth before the unit locks in and turns.
Stop grinding your teeth - and the bike’s jackshaft all while producing smoother and quieter starts.
Removing the Old Starter Pinion Gear
Remove the starter housing from the motor plate to expose the starter pinion gear.
Starter Housing
Old Starter Pinion Gear From the BDL Kit Installed - You can see the grind marks where it did not engage the ring gear.
Use a Screw Driver to Keep it from Turning to Remove the old Gear
Old Setup Removed from the Starter Jackshaft
Installing the Bullet Proof Starter Fix
The Bullet Proof Belt Drive Fix Kit comes with the Jackshaft bolt & washer, the pinion gear, the shaft, a spring, the coupler that mates it to the starter jackshaft, and a couple of spacers.
Bullet Proof BDL Starter Fix
Instructions Included with Bullet Proof Starter Fix Kit
Bullet Proof BDL Starter Fix Installed - Notice the bevel on the pinion gear that allows it to engage the ring gear easier.
Hope you had a great week. Now for a gorgeous blonde biker babe on a bad ass radical chopper!
Daytona Beach Bike Week starts today! If you made it down there, have a great time and becareful.
Continue reading for another great picture of this hot biker babe.
We got stock in yesterday so most of our stickers are now in stock, including our Lethal Threat Decals. We also added a couple of great new stickers so be sure to check them out.
Now for another shot of that great looking blonde!
Have a great weekend!
Take Care - Ride FREE
Biker Stickers @ ChopperStickers.com
I feel good about the progress I have made this week. I am really starting to get into my routine. Exercising in the afternoon and controlling my portions better. Still eating basically what I want just not as much.
I have also started drinking more water. It is not to bad, I still prefer diet sodas. I have cut down to only 2 or 3 diet pepsis a day and I am drinking several bottles of water.
This weeks weigh in: 226 lbs!
Thats down 3 pounds from last week!
Like I said I feel good about the progress I have made this week.
