Cleaning the Heads

WOW, those heads were greasy... I have let them soak overnight in some standard degreaser and water. I spent an hour at lunch time today brushing with a small wire brush and a sock. Kody says I need to get all the oil off of it before I bead blast it. Ok, it sounds like there will be quite a bit of taping things off too.
I'll get a pic of it either tonight or tomorrow up here for you to see how the heads look and what they look like when I am done.

Saddlemen Seats

Here are some photos of the seat that was on the bike when I got it. The seat pan is completely shot, there is no saving that without a ton of fabrication work.


Ok, I was in Daytona and I saw the perfect seat for the bike. Since I want to take my wife with me on the bike now and then, I want a 2 up seat. And Saddlemen has the perfect seat for this, it is a 2 up bucket seat. Here is a video of Stan from Saddlemen showing how to install the new Saddle Bag Chaps for Harley Davidson bags.

Cometic gaskets

Well, my gaskets got here yesterday, I'll be putting them on next week, after Kody laps my valves.



I went with Cometic gaskets for a few reasons,


1. I have only heard good things about them from most of my builder and performance gearhead buddies. I listen to these guys, Kody Wisner, Patrick Garvin, Scott Holton just to name a few.

2. Jason Moses of Cometic explained how they actually worked, what they were made of and the fact that they are made 100% in the USA.

Here is a video that Jason did at the J&P Cycles Superstore in Destination Daytona.

Did you know that the US Government is trying to shut down your background garden?

I just wanted to let you know that I have just published today's episode of The Survival Podcast.

The Survival Podcast

Helping You Live the Life You Want, If Times Get Tough, Or Even If They Don't
Episode-160- HR875, Survival Gardening and The Square Foot Garden - 2009-03-16 11:23:02-04

Well we are back from Arkansas and I have a lot to talk about today. A new bill called HR875 has come to my attention and while some are saying it may shut down back yard gardens I think the big threat is to the small farmer. If you are a gardener this still matters [...]

Lights!!!!

Ok, so the bike is going to be a little different from your average KZ1100-A2.. This bike was built initially with the specific purpose of being fast, I am taking that to another step of being funtional and different at the same time. My motorcycle will be unique, I don't want to have the same thing as everyone else out in the parking lot, so, it's gonna be different. Ammo boxes for saddle bags, body paint will be Truck Bedliner and the tail light that was missing, well, that is what this post is about. I have purchased a replica 39-40' Knucklehead tail light to put on it, it took some banging on the fender with sheet metal tools and a lead bag to make it happen but for my first time of banging on metal to make it do what I wanted it to do, it turned out nice.

As far as light, the replica 39-40' knucklehead Beehive Tail light that I put on is available through J&P Cycles for about $30.00 heck, for that much, you could put this in just about any bike with a rear fender. It is a much smaller light than what was on there originially. I have included a photo of the original and the one that I put on, I'll get a photo of it on the bike tomorrow and put it up here.

Photos of the bike?

Well, here are some photos of what the bike looked like when I brought it in from the FENCE that I got it from. The paint is in pretty good shape but the rest needs some TLC. The seat is shot, the frame has some rust but not too much, lots of dust and dirt...


I'm finding a few more things wrong with it everytime I get more and more into it.




Now the guy says that maybe one of the head bolts is stripped out. I'll have to put them all in it in order to see what is wrong with it.

Fast Hook Installation

Here is a video that I made for J&P Cycles featuring Kody Wisner of J&P Cycles.