Labor Day weekend looked to be cool and comfortable, but then shit started to happen. I was still getting reports from the Bonneville Salt Flats. The salt conditions seemed good, but Hero crashed.
This was his 4th crash and a bad one. He broke both shoulders, both hands, ribs, his collar bone, punctured a lung, you name it.
There was a streamlined sidecar vehicle out there, a German crew, with lots of gear, lifts and trailers. They popped a parachute during one of their runs. Then they had a decent run but couldn’t back it up.
I got an email from Graeme Lowen the New Zealand, Goldwing Iron Butt rider whose been on the road for 60 days. He was heading back and would be at the headquarters with his lovely Cindy (from Yuba City, California) for four days. Plus, he needed to have a crate made to ship all of his Xmas toys and American stuff back to New Zealand.
The odyssey began with the crate purchase. He needed a 36 by 36-inch crate. The company across the street from the headquarters didn’t understand his accent and built a solid 44 by 44 crate, a fucking monster.
I failed to mention, last Wednesday the Redhead’s Honda Odyssey was being worked on, and she was driving my new Nissan Van. She drove to Trader Joe’s for some groceries and crashed the van into height warning in the parking structure. She’s been in this parking area a thousand times.
The van currently has 800 miles on it. Friday, I moseyed down to Vasquez Body shop and asked him to pop it out, no paint. He said $850, “For You, senor.” I swallowed hard and drove over to Mr. Patino, who is my local mechanic. Everyone in this town is Hispanic except me and the growing homeless population. He steered me to another joint on Anaheim Street, Reflections.
A scrawny, old white, blonde scrambled around the office like a house mouse should. She said, “I need to speak to Manuel,” after she looked at the van. Hot, even in the shade I waited, then went after her. She still zipped around her scattered office with its piles of papers and an air-conditioning unit cranking. Cranking, I thought and looked at her. She pulled an official document out of the copy machine and handed it to me: $2100.00 and $500 for paint.
I immediately thought the dealership would charge me $3000 or more. I went back to Mr. Vasquez quickly. He said he would have it finished on Monday. As it turned out, he was finished Saturday afternoon, but that didn’t mean a price reduction.
Friday, I helped Graeme cut his crate in half and I worked on the Salt Torpedo firewall puzzle. For some reason I needed to have a particular mental attitude. This was a tricky, unknown operation. I sorta finished the pieces on the right last week. Then I made patterns with the other pieces for the left, but it had additional obstacles. I needed to run the shift rod through the wall.
I bought 3M red firewall sealant for the edges of the firewall where it will hit the fiberglass. I also bought some sheets of fire putty for between our pieces and the frame.
Like the Redhead, Cindy can’t handle the heat and constantly searched for air conditioning. Saturday, she went to the movies and saw a flick about a kid with downs syndrome, to get away from the heat. It’s not that hot here. We are block from the ocean. I kept telling her to ignore it, as I scrambled around the shop, grinding pieces and cutting chunks of 1/8-inch aluminum with a rattling jig saw.
The trick with this bastard was clamping the metal down, and then the clamps get in the way. The bastard cuts like butter until the vibrating saw gets the metal to resonate with it. Then it stops cutting and starts to box with you jumping around and bending the blade. At one point I used a 25-pound weight plate to hold the aluminum sheet down. It helped.
Since the heat about the Bonneville deadline receded, I started to handle projects around the headquarters that needed attention. I will get to that word attention shortly.
Once I had all the firewall pieces in place, I stood back and patted myself on the shoulder. Not bad. I shifted to a housewarming present for Zack and Suzie who just got a new home on the Pedro bluff overlooking the Pacific.
Zack, an old outlaw, who did considerable time, had come around in life and does his best to stay calm. He likes Buddhas and the notion of Buddhism. So, I decided to make him a serious Buddhist patio chime with another old welding tank. I used defunct Circuit City railings, Harley exhaust pipes, old machine tools from Bobby Stark’s yard, and an old Brass Buddha from and antique swap meet, with some smaller Buddhas and brass Confucius from my lovely Chinatown connection.
While I worked on this magnificent piece of Bandit art, Micah called with tips and rules from Bonneville. We need to make a plate to run between the roll bars and line it with foam—WTF. We couldn’t find anything of the sort in the rulebook, but now we know.
He also discussed El Mirage test runs and came in touch with a secret connection, who knows of a desert solution with a ¾-mile straight track/road. I’m going to start looking for a trailer today. We could try to run at El Mirage, but the SCTA doesn’t have a trike category. That could be an issue.
I scrambled around the shop cleaning it. Micah returned from Bonneville on Sunday and played golf on Monday with Ron Bartels of Bartels H-D. Then he took his street glide to the shop. He’s been running a performance Vance and Hines exhaust system and experienced multiple problems with the baffle system. It broke three times, in fact he just replaced it before riding to Bonneville.
It rattled loose and split, so this time he replaced the entire system with a CARB compliant S&S exhaust system. We will bring you more on this install in the near future.
I also received the wrist restraints on Friday and installed the belt system. I’ve been bugging Frankie about getting his wrecked Dyna out of here. I needed to back off. I was stressing the kid out, who is running all over the country to tattoo conventions to pay the bills.
I want to build a rack in my van to carry leathers. I need to make a run to Lifestyle Cycles. I needed his bike out of the way, but whatever, here’s the greater lesson.
I’m watching a series of lectures about meditation and mindfulness, something the Buddha initiated about 2500 years ago and now science is proving it to be amazing. You can change your mind. Science is also discovering that through placidity your mind can improve. This women’s code is, “What you practice grows stronger.”
She tells wonderful stories about mental experiences where mindful practice makes a major difference. Here’s one: A soldier comes back from Iraq and he’s pissed, but he tries studying mindfulness to relieve his stress. So, a couple of months into this experience, he’s at the grocery store.
When he gets in line, the elderly woman in front of him has a small child and just one container of ice cream to buy. He noticed the express lane was empty and wondered why she didn’t go there. He gets a little frustrated, but takes a breath to calm himself.
When she steps up to the cashier. The kid turns and gleams at the cashier. A lively banter begins and the cashier reaches across the counter and takes the youngster in her arms. Now, the soldiers gets pissed. He wants to bark at the broads and the rug rat, but takes another slow breathe and tries to relax. Soon, the old lady and the kid depart and he pulls up to the cashier.
“Cute kid,” he says to the smiling cashier.
“My husband was killed in Afghanistan two months ago,” she said. “I was forced to go back to work. My mother is kind enough to bring my toddler to the store everyday so I can give her a hug.”
I’m going to start to work with Gene Thomason on a feature about the bikes he built for movies. I need to launch Rogue’s article on the Chip Michael Lichter exhibit and I need to work with Gearhead on his bike feature.
We need to keep working on the firewall and install the fire suppression systems. Then we need some test runs.
See ya later this week with the Bikernet Weekly News. Until then, Ride fast and free, forever.
–Bandit
Do me a favor and get your friends to join the Cantina.
We need to sell some leathers to pay the bills.
And consider becoming a sponsor of the Salt Torpedo. We know it works now, and we will be in Bonneville in 2020 for sure. So far, it’s the first Streamlined Trike, amazing.
