Ola Hijo

Wasn't gonna write for few days, but it's 3pm and need to stay at work till 5pm so need to kill couple of hours. I did go to Harbour Freight to check out mobile crane and they got one that seems ok. 179 bucks for 1,5 mob crane ain't too bad.

Did not buy it though. Am in process of buying a house so if I show up at home with over 100 dollar purchase, there is a high likelyhood am gonna have to give some explanation and can't be bother those days. Anyway, so went into my garage last night and looked at what I could do. First I needed to pick up the motor which was still laying on the floor. So with help of my son I brought it up on the bench.

Then I said to myself, let clean the fucker...

and so I started.

For some strange reason the previous owner has painted the cylinder and made a mess of the lower case. It really looks bad.

So I decided I would try my miracle product. This tips was given to me by some BMW builder who used Aluminium BBQ paint color to pain cylinder. It does f..g work and make parts looked like they have been sanded or repainted. So I tried on the XS. and yeahhhh, it works too.

So I put the engine up and cleaned it some more. Now I wait to receive the engine stands so I can put it up and start working on it.

Alternatively, I will buy the mobile crane, put the engine in and work on the mock up. The purchase of the house will dictate.

Ola Ombres

Just a quicky today. Decided to go back in the workshop and cleanup my mess. Picked up the motor and made it stand up and took the grinding machine and chop some of the leftover from previous owner, so I could start with a clean sheet.

It took a while to get this s.. out, and even longer to grind the frame to clean state. But aftre couple of hours of hard labor, looks like the frame is ready to start the mock up. I have kept the back fender plate holder in case I need it but if not I will just cut it and toss it away.

Now am face with same issue. I need to get the bloody motor inside the frame. Considering I got no life; hence no friend, looks like I'll have to buy one of those mobile crane at Harbour Freight to get it in. Let me sleep on it.

Ola Companeros

There you go, could not wait to be back in the US. Vacation in Europe was a nightmare. Am not longer used to sleep without AC, I sweated like a pig over there. Luckily weather wasn't that nice. Anyway, next year I will try to stick around and ride my bikes. So what has f.. happened since I left. Not too much am afraid... I did sell my Redneck chopper in France to get some quick cash.

I sold it for a bargain (for France that is) but need to get rid of the thing. I was not gonna ride it and my wife felt it was too much for her. So, without regret I let it go. So long my friend and have a good life. The guy that bought it is fully in love with that type of machine, so at least I made someone happy. My happyness comes from the fact that it wont take anymore space in my garage. So, as I said I flew back to Houston. First thing was to check with Southern about the Stator change. As usual, when they opened the primary

they found out, one of the Rivera primary belt drive part was cracked and that it was only a matter of time until it came apart. So here it goes again, gonna have to sell one kidney to replace the bloody part. But worst part of it is the bike won't be available for a while. One other thing, was that my welding of the safety gas tank and on the licence plate holder was not as good as expected and that it was already showing some signs of weaknesses. So much for my welding skills... At least I was happy to present Shovel #2 to Madam.

but as I was expecting it was not exactly what she had expected. The colour was nice and all, but it was simply too heavy for her. Indeed it was. She sermoned me to look for a sportster after selling the shovel. So, I will wait to get Shovel #1 back, and probably sell shovel #2. We'll see. So I was left with my longhaul XS650 project. To start with, it wanted to get rid of the tank holder.

So I used the angler grinder to get it off. And then I took bits and pieces off which I know I won't need

And as you can see, I try to put the engine back into the frame and fucked it all up. After approx one hour of battle, I gave up and decided it was time to go to bed. I will need to figure out how to put it back in or alternatively buy a mobile crane. This was the sad story of my evening. will get back to you with new adventure