Unobtainium

For the uninitiated or familiar, unobtainium are things that in the course of a project such as a rebuild or restoration that are found to be missing or so knackered that they have to be replaced and then are found to be unobtainable or just down right hard to find. In the gathering of parts for "Vicky", there were three things, "The Holy Trinity" as far as I was concerned that were missing and would be hard to get in even halfway decent shape; the seat, the tank and the chain-guard. A tank in decent shape showed up via eBay. It needs a wee bit of work to get it looking right, but it's doable. A ratty looking seat showed up. The cover and cushioning were trashed while the seat pan/base was in pretty good shape though some plastic surgery with fiberglass was in order. A seat cover from eBay at a fairly decent price has been squirreled away for later, when the foam padding is purchased from one of the local car upholstery places run by Senor Pedro or one of his cousins. A chain-guard that needs some attention also came into Bodgers possession, completing "The Holy Trinity." But wait......a couple of the minor listed items of unobtainium have been located as well The piston was missing and after a local machine shop determined that it was on standard bore, a suitable piston was obtained. And there's more! Just yesterday, Bodger received in his grubby little mitts and brand spanking new, yessirree Bob, wiring harness/loom to carry that all important electrickery from the battery to the places needed to make "Vicky" operational.

This came courtesy of Hawkstone on eBay from their very real sales premises in Liverpool. The hunt for more parts continues though now it looks like it's gonna be the more common bits such as fasteners, rubber bits, etc.

77 Race of the Year

As it says in the title, the 77 Race of the year at Mallory. Can't remember if I was at this or not..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNkdZSg-m0M

A quiz of sorts...

I was watching the latest DVD addition to the film library, "The Punisher" with Dolph Lundgren, when the idea came to mind for this little quiz. Can you name any movies/TV shows that had motorcycles in them? They didn't have to be in a supporting role, just in the movie. To get started off, here's a few that come to mind: -The Great Escape -The Worlds Fastest Indian -Race of The Power Bikes -Hells Angels 69 -Hells Angels on Wheels -Magnum Force (Dirty Harry movie) -On Any Sunday -Any of The Terminator movies -Lawrence of Arabia -Waking Ned Devine -No Limit -A couple of the Jason Bourne movies -The Leather Boys Now, over to you for some mental gymnastics to see what you can come up with, and they can't be repeated OK??

Recap of 2012

Well, well, well, it's another brand new year here at Casa Bodger and now that all the festivities have died down, let's have a wee recap of the year past followed by what's to come in the future. First off, the past year, in no particular order: -a visit to the South Texas Car and Bike show which was 99% cars/trucks with associated trinkets and 1% bikes of the elongated wheelbase and bright, shiny look. -attending the New Ulm Rally and meeting Buck and Mike Carson who were entrants in the Cannonball Run, with 21 y/o Buck riding a 1927 BSA S27 (I think). Buck rode this for roughly a week from NY to SF, CA along with others. Buck's bike kept breaking down and in the end ended up being pushed the Golden Gate Bridge to the finish earning Buck the award for most dedicated I think it was. -several trips to Texas wineries getting some culture(?) by sampling and buying Texas grown and made vino. These trips included seeing/attending such things as a statue of Buddy Holly in his hometown of Lubbock, the beaches in Corpus Christi and Galveston, a medieval Renneasaince (sp) festival, a turn of the century, last one that is, Case tractor, and a local Oktoberefest. -the continual gathering of parts for Vicky, which will be ongoing for a time yet. -painting by hand of Vicky's frame and some associated metal-ware. Another sanding and coat are in order. -adding a few more interesting pieces to the shed library to include a new copy of Radco's classic "The Vintage Motorcyclists Workshop" which is a very excellent reference for restoring or just plain working on old nails such as ours. -finally getting a copy as it were on You Tube of an excellent BBC video from back in the 70s following the John Player Norton team (Peter Williams and Dave Croxford) at the IoM TT along with a privateer. Would've liked to gotten a hard copy for the video library but You Tube is just as good. -working at the main Postal salt mine as a Driving Instructor for close to three months -finding out that Scottish and Irish ancestry is on both sides of the family tree. -keeping in touch with mates via blogs and FaceAche and the most important of all, my lass Teri. -plus a ton of other things that'll probably be remembered much later on. And now for what to expect in the future: -more inane ramblings -more parts to be got -trips to more wineries -visits to New Ulm again (it's an annual thing) as well as Luckenbach for the Harvest Classic -hopefully getting Vicky on the road or at least 95% towards that end -and whatever else that may crop up during the year! Until then.....tootle pip!!!