Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT Mid-Century Moto Mecca Makeover

[sakurama]

So months ago we decided that Judiaann would take the kids for spring break and so I made plans to visit some friends in India - a country I've never been to. To even get into the ballpark of getting this finished I'd need to make sure things were in process while I was gone.



The only change I made to the subframe, additively, was some offset tapped mounts for the new low mount titanium exhaust. I'd already cut off the luggage racks so I'd accidentally cut off half of the mount anyway. This will be slicker and I'll get to make my first titanium part - an exhaust hanger. Small, low consequence and a good use of material.



I called about 10 plating places and all of them had a 12 to 20 week lead time. Finally I found a place in Vancouver that said they could do it for me in two weeks - with a rush charge. Okay, but the frame needed to be stripped. I found a local place that stripped the powder chemically instead of burning it off and they turned it around in a weekend.



It is nasty process but also a very cool one. And the place was pretty dramatic.



All the way to bare steel.



I welded some small braces to the headlight mount which has failed in some situations. Probably not needed given the stout mount from Aurora, but it's a belt and suspenders deal.



The right way to do this would be to mock up the bike with the stripped frame and see what else can be stripped or cut off. The steering lock, the small mount for the electronics on the headstock. But I'm just going to accept it.

I dropped the frame at the platers right before I got my flight. I'd ordered wheels and a seat and so I was hoping that when I came back in a week I'd have parts.





Wheels showed up - Dubya turned them around super fast. On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday I called the plater getting more nervous each day as they never answered and their voicemail was full. On Thursday I drove out there and my frame was done but in chrome, not nickel. They apologized for the mistake and said come back in two hours.

Two hours later...





This is going to be out there - different. They did a great job on the plating. It's up to me now.

Gregor

 

[sakurama]

I haven't mentioned this because it was a last minute thing but I'm teaching tomorrow with MotoCorsa. I honestly did not want to let people know because I wanted it to be small and manageable for my first "real" class. I was hoping it would 8-9 students. It was on Thursday. Friday was 16 and I think they now have 20 which is... too many!



This started as a "women's class" and benefit for "Rally for Rangers" and they wanted a women instructor. They couldn't find one and since I'd said I wanted to teach they came to me about two weeks ago. I've been working on a class structure and curriculum for months now (maybe years?) but like the tours it's taken a long time to finally pull the trigger and in this case Shahin (of MotoCorsa) pulled the trigger for me.

When I was in India I taught a small women's class and that was illuminating. There is a lot to learn about teaching and I sometimes feel like I shouldn't be doing it because I'm not the greatest rider (Jimmy Lewis raced at Dakar - he deserves to teach) but teaching riding and riding are different and the one thing I'm good at is learning and improving. I think I can do this well.

Not sure if anyone here is signed up for this or not but I'm excited - the new path that I've talked about is taking shape. Slowly and not exactly like I'd planned but I'm changing my life and doing what I set out to do.

I'm happy about that.

Gregor

 

[Seagoon]

Gregor
I'm so pleased to hear that you are enjoying the new direction your life is taking and I'm so glad that it includes teaching. I'm sure that you have the right personality to do that successfully. Good luck to you.
As an afterthought can you tell me the name of the 890 thread on ADV? i'm subscibed to all your others on there so I want to add this one.

 

[jlevers]

I'm so pleased to hear that you are enjoying the new direction your life is taking and I'm so glad that it includes teaching. I'm sure that you have the right personality to do that successfully. Good luck to you.
As an afterthought can you tell me the name of the 890 thread on ADV? i'm subscibed to all your others on there so I want to add this one.

I was reading it when you posted... https://www.advrider.com/f/threads/890-bdr-build-the-perfect-adventure-bike.1515074/

I just finished re-reading this entire thread (first discovered it during early covid), because I'm in the process of building out my first workshop, and was even more impressed by the breadth of topics covered and depth of knowledge that are covered than I was the first time. I've learned a crazy amount here.

Gregor, do you have this thread backed up somewhere? Text + photos together? If not, I'll make one. I would be super bummed to see it disappear someday for whatever reason. (I created the browser extension that people used to see Photobucket photos again when Photobucket initially nuked them all, so I have some experience working with forum data.)

 

[sakurama]

Gregor, do you have this thread backed up somewhere? Text + photos together? If not, I'll make one. I would be super bummed to see it disappear someday for whatever reason. (I created the browser extension that people used to see Photobucket photos again when Photobucket initially nuked them all, so I have some experience working with forum data.)

I do have this backed up - at least the photos portion. I'll thank you in advance for making that.

It's a frustration to me that, as much as I love this forum, this format, I have zero control and zero knowledge of it's reach and breadth. I asked the forum moderators once if they knew how many subscribers this thread has and they said they did not. I was told once that I needed to not post on forums - I'm generating "content" for the forum and not "profiting" from the views or subscriptions. Much like you when I share here I'm not doing it with the idea that I'm going to make money somehow. I suppose the fact that I've been sharing on forums for the last 20 years has helped to build a "brand" but it was never the goal.

So, thanks. For following, commenting and making this a forum of back and forth rather than a blog. It's better that way.

Gregor

 

[trytochaseme]

Man I can not wait too see that nickel frame built up. that thing is gonna be so rad!

 

[gasgas17]

I'm with ya on getting rid of the orange. How that colour has become a marketing success is beyond me. I refuse to buy any parts for my 790 in the colour orange. Down the road I could see me doing the frame in black or a silver/grey. We don't have access to an affordable plating shop around here, so nickel would be out.

 

[sakurama]

Man I can not wait too see that nickel frame built up. that thing is gonna be so rad!

I'm very excited. Aurora made my side panels in carbon and I mentioned that the only panels I couldn't find in carbon were the tank shrouds. Dimitri then said, "Okay, now we have a goal" so with any luck I will be able to replace all the bodywork with carbon fiber. Fingers crossed.

I'm with ya on getting rid of the orange. How that colour has become a marketing success is beyond me. I refuse to buy any parts for my 790 in the colour orange. Down the road I could see me doing the frame in black or a silver/grey. We don't have access to an affordable plating shop around here, so nickel would be out.

So when I went to India I took an entire bag of parts - things they couldn't get. Most of it went to a pilot who builds bikes and we talked about the build and how hard it was to find plating. He said, "Just send me the next one - we have tons of options for plating because... well, it's India, there's almost no restrictions like you have" so I have two more frames that I want to have nickel plated and the next one will go to Josh to see how that works. Shipping might be expensive but the plating should be much cheaper.

Gregor

 

[Baroquenstrings]

Gregor, I just got caught up with this thread and I'm curious approximately how much time it took for you to strip the frame enough to powdercoat it in terms of weeks or simply hours? It's probably in your ADV thread, but I haven't had time to go through that yet. While I certainly appreciate KTM technology, I refuse to buy them because of all that gotdamn orange they saturate everything with, but if I could strip a used 790 down and powdercoat the frame white or blue or really anything but ORANGE, I might be much more inclined to buy a used 790/890. Then again, I'm looking hard at the new Tuareg!

 

[gasgas17]

Gregor, I just got caught up with this thread and I'm curious approximately how much time it took for you to strip the frame enough to powdercoat it in terms of weeks or simply hours? It's probably in your ADV thread, but I haven't had time to go through that yet. While I certainly appreciate KTM technology, I refuse to buy them because of all that gotdamn orange they saturate everything with, but if I could strip a used 790 down and powdercoat the frame white or blue or really anything but ORANGE, I might be much more inclined to buy a used 790/890. Then again, I'm looking hard at the new Tuareg!

Don't let that stop you. The 790 is worth putting up with a bit of orange. Once you get rid of the brick of a stock seat it really tones down the orange effect. It's way too good a bike to be overlooked for that. It's the closest thing to a true do it all bike that exists imho.

 

[sakurama]

Gregor, I just got caught up with this thread and I'm curious approximately how much time it took for you to strip the frame enough to powdercoat it in terms of weeks or simply hours?

I took it to American Metal Cleaning and Greg, the owner, was very helpful. I knew I didn't want to try to strip it myself - it's way too complicated. Normally powder is stripped by burning it off but he has his own chemical bath and the frame sat for a few days in a tank and came out paint free. The cost was pretty minimal - I think it was $150.

...Then again, I'm looking hard at the new Tuareg!

It's a really good looking bike. I haven't seen it in person yet but I like the look.

G

 

[shirk]

Looking forward to seeing more of the bike build.

I love the adventure bikes that get a proper "custom" treatment like the WR450 that Le Motorgraphe did.

 

[sakurama]

Looking forward to seeing more of the bike build.

I love the adventure bikes that get a proper "custom" treatment like the WR450 that Le Motorgraphe did.

That was the one custom build that I thought did a stellar job and was creative but also functional.



Yesterday I called Ben. I knew I was going to need physical help to get the frame onto the motor but more importantly I needed emotional support. While most of the wires can only go one place the routing has to be perfect.



We cleaned the engine and swingarm with Scrubbing Bubbles, water and a paint brush and then finished with some Pledge. Because Pledge. Scrubbling bubbles is now my other favorite cleaner.



With the motor on the lift we threaded the frame on to the top of the engine and pulled the various connectors through the openings. It's a super tight fit and while I'd done a fair job with the fasteners in bags there were still questions.



I found all the photos I'd taken while we took the bike apart, printed them out and taped them to the cabinets and we referred to them to route the harness back into place. Between the photos, the wire memory and the zip tie anchors we got most of it into place. Way more than I expected. My big fear is getting the bike together and finding a wire that is outside or inside and the only way to fix it is to take the frame off. I think we're good.



While the bags seemed very organized there were still some fasteners that got mixed up and we puzzled it out with the photos, the shop manual and a bit of common sense. As an old friend used to say, "It only goes back together one way..." and that's mostly true.



With the harness in place I wanted to have Ben help me get the forks and swingarm on before he left. Mentally, having a rolling chassis is the key to getting the bike back together. Physically it was going to be hard to do on my own but if you can get the frame up on wheels it becomes a motorcycle instead of a sprawling collection of parts. I needed a win to get my enthusiasm back.



A big part of that is putting on the new suspension which is very special. This is actual factory rally suspension - 300mm or 12" of travel. I was offered the choice of standard or the rally and I did not hesitate getting the longer legs. Getting this took pulling some "inside the industry" favor's - this is the only set that came to the USA this year.



Anodized accessories can end up looking like costume jewelry - tacky - but if you're careful and they have purpose it's a detail that works. The tiny bit of red on the suspension is a nice accent. The big open tube above the shock normally has a black plastic cap but I'm going to make some aluminum caps that match the shock knobs.

One of the reasons I chose nickel - aside from the historic aspect that many racing frames were nickel (Champion, Star, Rickman...) - was that the warmer tones are just much softer and prettier than chrome but also, the body of the WP suspension is a soft gold anodize that works well with the nickel. The mix of warm and cool neutrals is really pretty.



The nickel also draws attention to the frame being steel and not aluminum. You don't see too much of the frame but you see enough to make it worth it. I'm clearly not one for restraint but when it comes to builds I keep in mind the whole of the bike and try to make sure that nothing detracts from the whole.

The rally tower was left silver, the frame is silver - I'm keeping the stucture, the bones, light and the body black. If I don't want you to think about it then it will be black. The wheels for instance; I really wanted to try polished silver but that would draw too much attention away from the frame. Black disappears, becomes function.



The Outex tubeless conversion kit showed up (two days shipping from Japan!) so I'll probably clean the shop tomorrow and spend the day sealing the new wheels (these are the stock ones). Building can be frenetic so I like to stop, clean the whole shop and put all the tools away to reset as a way of keeping things (and my brain) organized. It also makes you feel good to walk back into the shop and it's neat, clean and ready to go. That is a Scott Kolb lesson.

There's no way I could have done it without Ben - thanks man. Have fun in Austin.

Gregor

 

[bdking]

There's no way I could have done it without Ben - thanks man. Have fun in Austin.

It was fun to see it come back together. I’m back Monday and I’m sure it’ll be done by then, we can ride!

 

[shirk]

Looking great. Are the carbon bits going to be raw carbon or black? There is a small Canadian bike company that released their carbon mountain bike and they use Cerakote H-series on it and do an ombré fade on it where you can still see some of the carbon through the light cerakote and it looks amazing. Would be a great match to your build.

See some close-up images here.

Good tip/reminder on cleaning the shop. My garage is currently a mess and I think it's part of the reason I've stalled out on framebuilding. I have a bike frame that's 80% complete and I am struggling to get back onto it. I need to finish the seatstays and the shock linkage but it feels like pulling teeth to motivate myself to either work on it or clean the garage.

 

[GrantT]

One of my favourite things to do when my first tiny British garage was getting overrun during a project was to take literally everything not bolted to walls or floor or too heavy to move (lathe etc) and put it on the drive and then over the course of a day put it all back piece by piece. When you're in the middle of a project it seems like wasted time but I find it therapeutic and it always feels like a fresh start afterwards.

 

[sakurama]

So I'm not sure how long ago it was that I described wanting to go a different direction, to try something new. It's been a while. I've been open to how that unfolds and pushing to make it happen. I did the first tour and while I was in India I taught a small women's riding class and, last Sunday, I taught my first "real" school with MotoCorsa.








And on top of teaching I made pizza for about 25 people. I did find the thermal limit on the oven - it needs more time to recover so to do this again may mean a second pizza oven - but, overall, I think the class went very well and it was fun to do.

MotoCorsa was very happy so I think we'll be doing more classes through the summer.

Gregor

 

[Klokwerk]

Sounds like great times! Glad things are working out.....also, I love the pizza oven. Have the same.
Trick is to get it up to temp with high heat, then dial it back down for actual cooking. How many pies did you make for 25?
I can pump one out every 4 minutes. Most I'd made at one time is 4 though.

 

[sakurama]

I can pump one out every 4 minutes. Most I'd made at one time is 4 though.

I always estimate close to 1 pie per person and it's always less. I think we did 15 in an hour and we were doing them every 3-4 minutes but after a while the floor of the oven was cooling so they weren't as crisp on the bottom as I like. Just 2-3 minutes of time between would be enough I think to get the floor back up to 700-750F where I like it.

Next on the pizza front is a spiral mixer - trying to mix 5kg of 60% dough was really hard.

Gregor

 

[Kiwi Canuck]

I was inspired by your pizza making last year so I bought an Ooni oven from Costco.

Works well but I didn't do well hand kneading the dough so I bought the Kitchen Aid mixer also from Costco.

Love that machine.

 

[sakurama]

I was inspired by your pizza making last year so I bought an Ooni oven from Costco.

Works well but I didn't do well hand kneading the dough so I bought the Kitchen Aid mixer also from Costco.

Love that machine.

Hand kneading isn't too bad on smaller high hydration doughs but gets harder with lower hydrations. You can never go wrong with a KitchenAid - I'll probably need to buy another soon - but I'm looking at something just for dough. A spiral mixer is the best thing for gluten development but they are hard to find and pricey.

Gregor

 

[sakurama]

Judiaann owned our KitchenAid so I went looking for something more bread friendly.



I bought this Anakarsrum a month or so ago off Craig's List and it's decent for dough. My favorite feature is a timer that shuts it off. It's got a huge motor and larger bowl. The KitchenAid has a planetary head - the dough hook or paddle spins and rotates - while the bowl is stationary. The Anakarsrum has a rotating bowl with a stationary hook.



This method of mixing can work better than a planetary in some situations - a planetary can be stymied by a thicker, lower hydration dough. But really low hydration can catch this out too. That's where a spiral mixer shines; it has a spinning hook and a rotating bowl. They're almost exclusively used by commercial bakeries and are almost all massive machines solely for mixing dough. Only a crazy person would consider one of those for home use...

Gregor

 

[fartymarty]

That's where a spiral mixer shines; it has a spinning hook and a rotating bowl. They're almost exclusively used by commercial bakeries and are almost all massive machines solely for mixing dough. Only a crazy person would consider one of those for home use...

Ah hah..Key words (almost all & crazy person)

I saw some home models online.....so when will you share photos of yours with us?

 

[sakurama]

Ah hah..Key words (almost all & crazy person)

I saw some home models online.....so when will you share photos of yours with us?

I'm nothing if not predictable. I don't have one... yet. But I've been thinking about it for a long time. I have a mental block about certain thing and their prices. $1700 for wheels - no problem. $1700 for a mixer... I'll sit with that for a year. And, I'll set up a CL search and wait.



Lucas has been asking me to make baguettes for a long time and their complexity put me off. Turns out it's not as hard as I was led to believe and I've been getting very nice ones (probably wouldn't pass a French bakery comparison) for the last few months. The kids have discovered sandwiches - or rather their autonomy over making them - and so I'm baking these a few times a week.

Gregor

 

[driftpin]

Your food efforts look good. The proof is always in the people asking for second-helpings.

A guy who does chemical stripping we're using on a vintage car body, his father started out doing refurbishment and repairs on food processing equipment. He fed and housed the family doing it, and got some patents out of it. He showed me some pics when we met with him on the chemical stripping, and he had one of the food preparation mixing machines his father patented in his business office. He's done OK, he has a Penske Indy Car (w/a Cosworth Ford DFV) hanging on his wall (!), and a standing offer from Roger Penske to buy it, should he decide to sell.

He also does powder-coating and ceramic coating, not cheap, but good. The employee we watched that day was doing a ceramic coating on a Ducati exhaust.

Another of the racing vehicles he has stored on industrial rack shelving is an Indian midget racer, I suspect from the 1940's. He also has a few micro-cars, think Gogomobile, Messerschmidt, or BMW-Isetta. I saw auction results recently for an Isetta of $35K.

 

[TiFJ]

Gregor - I watched your most recent Youtube video this weekend. As always, it was very well done with great visuals and enough context / discussion from your monologues for me to learn something and be entertained. Looking forward to the next one!

 

[GeddyT]

Can't wait for part 2 of the new video series!

As for commercial mixer, you considered auctions? Seems like a local commercial kitchen goes on the auction block at least every month or so. I don't see any happening right now, but I've seen a ton of mixers and whatnot being auctioned off in the past year.

 

[sakurama]

Can't wait for part 2 of the new video series!

As for commercial mixer, you considered auctions? Seems like a local commercial kitchen goes on the auction block at least every month or so. I don't see any happening right now, but I've seen a ton of mixers and whatnot being auctioned off in the past year.

Yes, I've been looking. Most of the machines you find in bakeries are 220v, weigh several hundred pounds and are floor mounted. It's a lot like buying a coffee roaster or a small milling machine. The small ones aren't that great if you are looking for commercial power and the big ones are way too big for a home. It's partly why I was able to sell my Rockwell for more money than I bought my Bridgeport - crazy as that sounds.

But Marty's link to the Famag mixers seems to be the sweet spot. There's a smaller spiral mixer right now in Seattle that could be had for a good deal but it's too far and the bowl isn't removable - something that a fair number of these machines feature.

Gregor

 

[Choirboy]

I figured you'd be going to the Hobart c100, though it isn't quite the style you'd mentioned.

 

[sakurama]

I figured you'd be going to the Hobart c100, though it isn't quite the style you'd mentioned.

Yeah, if I found a good deal on one I'd be tempted but they're not as good for dough, bread and pizza as a spiral mixer.

Gregor

 

[Boostingaz]

What little oven is that Gregor ? I have wanted to get one for something fun to do on Friday nights with the kids.

 

[Bob Heine]

Gregor, you inspired me so I decided its never too late to try. I watched my grandmother make bread by hand 70 years ago (I was ~7). She did it without any electric appliances and baked hers in a sheet metal oven on top of a wood stove. I did opt for an electric oven but did the dough by hand. A pan of boiling water under the baking sheet helped make a really hard crust. I used unbleached flour and a store-bought packet of yeast and the bread came out pretty dense but really tasted great.

 

[LaneRover]

Sakurama,

I am just catching up on your thread and know that in any divorce situation there needs to be room for a lot of grace and forgiveness for you Judiaann, the kids as well as family and friends.

I don’t know what your final decision is with the house, if you are still trying to buy it I would look for a small/regional bank that will do portfolio loans. They have more leeway when it comes to things like - the house isn’t completely finished, I am buying out my wife, I have a lot of equity in motorcycles . . . Generally this is because they keep the loan decision process local and keep the loans rather than sell them on. I won’t say that they’ll understand everything but they are more likely to. If you were considering renting a room out a signed lease can go a long way to showing you can afford to make the mortgage payment.

Using portfolio loans is how a lot of folks in New England buy homes or vacation properties/ 2nd homes when its a quirky situation for example when a cottage is on a lake, on its own island and the regular mortgage companies don’t like that there is no fire department access . . . on a lake.

I hope this helps.

Brent

PS - I am always learning something new on this thread, whether its Scandinavian firelighting techniques or that there is a mixer where the bowl spins rather than the mixing attachments!

 

[tjpavlov]

The pizza oven is a Roccbox. I bought one after reading this thread and it is amazing. Send Gregor a note and he should be able to give you a referral code. You'll get a discount and he should get some free stuff.

Gregor, can you explain how you do pizza for such a big group? The dough recipe that I am using has me make a poolish the night before and then build the dough the day-of:

Things have been turning out great for me, but this seems like a tough recipe to bring on the road. I'd like to bring my Roccbox to my daughter's softball tournament this summer and fire off 10 or 20 pies between games. What do you do for your recipe?

 

[sakurama]

This is basically a cross post from the ADV build thread. I'm a little busy...

I spent a day or so going over the wiring, cleaning and checking connections and then figuring out what to work on next. Usually I like to save the exhaust for last because it's one of the more fun parts but in this case the headers needed to go on before I could button up the front.

I chose the SC Project system because it's a low style and while I normally like the look of "high and tight" pipes I have come around to the soft luggage concept for adventure travel and keeping things small, compact and narrow. I've been running Giant Loop for a while but have loved watching Mosko evolve and I've had the chance to hang out with Pete and Ash and their crew and they are just good people so I will probably talk to them about some bags for this bike. Anyway, low pipe for luggage.

Since I cut off all the luggage mounts, tabs etc on the subframe I knew I needed to have a mount for the exhaust so when I welded the bungs to the subframe it was just an educated guess since the bike was apart. I'm pretty good at educated guesses, I guess, because the placement was spot on. There's a fair bit of movement in the exhaust meaning I can raise or lower it by maybe 10-12cm (3-4") and also move it in or out. My plan for the moment is to keep it pretty close to parallel to the subframe but a closing angle may work better. I'm going to sit with that for a while before I decide because it's a very important thing to get right in terms of the overall look.

With the headers on I could button up the front of the bike and the two solitary unmarked connectors that were worrying me were discovered to be on the top of the radiator so that was a relief. The harness is a lot like playing Wordle - you keep trying things by process of elimination and eventually it becomes obvious.

From my racing days I know to make notes about things that could prove catastrophic.

I had ordered the Rottwieller airbox months ago and never mounted it but I have been very impressed with the quality of the carbon and always impressed with their intakes. Intake, due mostly to noise restrictions, is an easy place to find horsepower and Rottwieller does a good job. The first boot was very tight and after it was mounted I felt inside and there was a slight bump in the inlet rubber at the collar. I measured the boot and the opening and the boot was 55mm ID so I opened up the airbox a few mm's to ease the fit and once I did the intake fit better and was much smoother inside. Small details count.

The airbox fits like a glove and the alternate cable routing works for me to help keep the exposed subframe open.

The nickel and carbon is exactly what I wanted and looks better than I hoped.

I've always been a huge fan of being able to see "through" a bike - it's something that I tried to do with my original boxer and something modern bikes make very hard with the mass of wiring. I know I'll need some shock protection but this little window to the shock, framed in nickel tubes, might just be my favorite thing right now. One of the ways I want to introduce the idea of "lightness" is with transparency. Seeing inside the subframe is a form of transparency, seeing through the bike is a form as well and the rally tower is the way I balance that up front.

The soft warmth of the titanium exhaust compliments the nickel and works with the soft gold anodizing on the WP suspension. I want to try to button up the rear of the bike next and then move onto the tower. I'm not going to fabricate the exhaust mount until later as I want to see things come together but my gut feeling is that lifting the pipe so that it slightly closes the triangle with the subframe is going to be what works.

There's still a few tricks and treats to come but it's taking shape. And lest you think it's a show queen I ran into my good friend Andy DiBrino recently at a diner of all places. He's been a stunt rider for some of our REV'IT! photoshoots and he can ride the wheels off of anything - dirt or pavement. I'd been planning on calling him to see if he would ride the finished bike for a photoshoot after it was done and he mentioned that there was a plan to do an Adventure Bike race at the Portland International Raceway MX track in conjunction with the 1 Show this year. It took all of 2 seconds for me to ask and Andy to say yes to racing the bike.

The first time the bike will turn a wheel may be to roll into the starting gate before the show.

No pressure.

Gregor

 

[zmotorsports]

The carbon fiber and nickel theme looks great Gregor.

 

[bdbecker]

I've been running Giant Loop for a while but have loved watching Mosko evolve and I've had the chance to hang out with Pete and Ash and their crew and they are just good people so I will probably talk to them about some bags for this bike.

Small world... Lee with Mosko and I interned at the same company for a brief period (he was on his way out as I was coming in). I've been following Mosko since he started working there when they were just a small startup - it's cool to see how far they've taken it.

 

[Trapps]

Please excuse the drool on my keyboard!

 

[nicholam77]

Wow, the bike build is looking awesome, that frame is gorgeous!!

I'll add that your latest YouTube video hit the mark for me. I think you found a nice balance between something that motorcycle enthusiasts can drool over, but that also works for a general audience. You're definitely finding your voice on that platform and for myself (I don't know anything about motorcycles or fabrication), I found it informative, interesting, and entertaining, so nice job.

And it's fun to see your shop on video.

 

[jlevers]

I do have this backed up - at least the photos portion. I'll thank you in advance for making that.

It's a frustration to me that, as much as I love this forum, this format, I have zero control and zero knowledge of it's reach and breadth. I asked the forum moderators once if they knew how many subscribers this thread has and they said they did not. I was told once that I needed to not post on forums - I'm generating "content" for the forum and not "profiting" from the views or subscriptions. Much like you when I share here I'm not doing it with the idea that I'm going to make money somehow. I suppose the fact that I've been sharing on forums for the last 20 years has helped to build a "brand" but it was never the goal.

So, thanks. For following, commenting and making this a forum of back and forth rather than a blog. It's better that way.

Gregor

I wrote a little script to save GJ threads -- you can download yours as a zip at https://jesseevers.com/downloads/mid-century-moto-mecca-makeover.zip. When you unzip it, you'll have one folder (called midcentury-moto-mecca-makeover) with a few other folders inside it. One of those inner folders is called pages, and there's one file in the pages folder for every page of this thread (e.g., 1.html, 2.html, etc). Just open any of those .html files in your browser and you should be able to browse the thread from your computer, with all the images hosted on your computer. It'll look the same (and mostly work the same) as if you were browsing the thread here on the actual site.

Let me know if you have any issues with the backup, or if any of those instructions aren't clear. (Also, if anyone else wants a thread saved, I'm happy to do some more. I already did one for @Lyndon.)