All Sizzle no Fizzle...

Hot off the grill, check out West Seattle's trick-ass vintage spatula. It's normal when you need to flip a random burger, but when you need like five burgers flipped, or an omelet or pancake...blzzzat! .... two extra bladez pop out:















(did you know that my camera phone sucks balls? It's a fact!)

Plan B is moving right along, but not in time for Polini Cup 2: The Quickening. Most of the principle parts are accounted for, just needs a bunch o' work to get it together. In addition to some technical crap-type decisions, we've decided to go with an (as of now) unauthorized Cat Fancy Magazine paint scheme. As much as we want to represent them -or Kittens USA- they continue to spurn our advances. It's pretty cool that so many shops are taking the Polini Cup seriously, putting their money where their mouth is and making racing awesome, 1977SF in particular. The whole HRY Team is going this weekend, but dollahs are exxtra tight right now. ..and taking off to go race seems extra irresponsible. But then, racing is a difficult mistress to sate. oh, decisions!

Since I don't have much to share right now, I'll leave you with this, enjoy!

"Plan B" Racer

At Team HRY, we are building some of the fastest mopeds ever conceived. SRSLY. But since they match both the performance vectors and cost of an F-22 Raptor, progress is slow in these challenging economic times. (Industrial Designer for hire, btw.) After the Polini Cup last weekend, Dean & I had 13hrs. to think about how to proceed next. We decided that with scraps of this and that laying around the shop, from Dean's pile and a small amount of scrilla, the Team could cobble together another race machine: the "Plan B" racer. It has the following criteria:

W.CHEAP!
X. Good all-around power
Y. High power to weight ratio
Z. Simplicity and durability

Unlike our plan 'A' rocket sleds, veiled in a shadowy cloak of deception and secrecy, this bike will be built with total transparency, as we're going to raffle it off sooner or later, and use the proceeds to further the plan 'A' bikes. The presence of a lot of Vespa gear at the shop and Dean's 3rd place showing on his Ciao encouraged us to go that route. Locating a seized Polini cylinder, piston and head sealed the deal. The 65cc Polini though, isn't much of a powerplant rated at 5.5hp, especially competing against 10+ hp 75cc Gilardonis, Metrakits and "W" port peugeot's etc.. But there is potential, so I had a go at optimizing the port timing and area.

Polini Cylinder Numbers-

Before:
Exhaust - 159.14°
Mains - 114.69°
Boost - 85.70°

After:
Exhaust - 186.30°
Mains - 128.6°
Boost - 131.4°

Look for more updates on the quick, we're hoping to get this done ASAP.
Also, we're looking for suggestions on a paint scheme??

Polini Cup Review (Tiny Geo of Destiny)

Before I say anything:
Hats off to Michael Mike, who pretty much made ALL of this happen. He lent us the use of his wonderful Geo Metro, and lent me the use of his 50cc Peugeot lightning rod. Despite our best laid plans, there were considerable obstacles to overcome with only a few days out til the races. Mike's huge generosity laid waste to these problems, and I appreciate it enormously. I'm going to bake you a cake, Michael.




The trip out there took us a bit longer than we anticipated but we had good weather, great gas mileage and got to have lunch with Josiah and Mike down in Eugene. We got lost several times during this trip, a side effect of not bringing a map. Duh. When we finally got to SF, we met up with the Creatures at a sweaty little dance club bustin' out Human League. It was the Danes' last night in town and Joel's birthday or something. Josh & Renee put us up at their place that night. (Rad!)

The next day we met up at 1977Mopeds and hung out while they wrangled all their race stuff together. I'd never been to 77SF before, probably the best organized, slickest independent bike shop I've been to. Dean and I headed out to Atwater, and got fucking lost. D'oh! like way lost. When we finally got to the track we had missed two practice sessions. Dean got out for the last two sessions, but I only made one, due to some problems getting my bike together. Getting lost and not getting to practice much put me in kind of a shitty mood. Having only a shoestring budget for the trip, I really didn't want to spend money on booze, and between that and not really knowing anybody other than Dean & Dan, I spent the remainder of the day and night like a wallflower at the dance, picking my nose and kicking rocks around. (facts) One super-cool thing about Atwater / Polini Cup is that they pretty much let us have total run of the place and lots of Four loco* fueled silliness followed. This is in stark contrast to the anal way most tracks operate. People camped out on the track infield and Harold projected movies of wheelies & babies barfing on the wall of a building that night. Forgetting about the camping aspect of the weekend, I didn't bring a tent, and tried sleeping in the Geo. (mistake) But I did get to hear Newport fumbling around his car and somebody puke their guts out all over some tires.

The next morning I "woke up" early and had breakfast at a local 24hr. diner. Dan & I went and got some gas in the Geo. By the time we got back, more people were on their feet. Qualifying went waaay better than practice, but I still wasn't super comfortable on the bike. <--this was in part due to my skin-ass tight leathers which apparently are a bit tighter on me nowadays. .. *ahem- mcgriddles- ahem* But whatevs I was in a much better mood and it was hard not to get pumped when theres a bunch of rowdy moped people and 17 bikes to race with. Plus it was a beautiful day.

If you saw the MopedTV broadcast stuff, then I don't have to explain how the racing went. Basically, Jeff from Choke and Jimmy are from another planet. Dean (3rd place) was the fastest of all the normal people, and the average was pretty good. -definitely faster than the average of 2004. My lap time was about 5 seconds slower than the leaders, and on a track this small racing 12 laps, that is slow enough to get you lapped. Most tracks for this kind of stuff are a bit under or over a mile long, Atwater is about a half-mile. Mike's LC peugeot stood up against basically eveything there and I got passed on the straights only once. I ended up in 10th place, which sort of sucks, because I know I can race better than that; but I managed to not wreck or break Naz's bike and stay in front of a few people. I'll be back after I do some sit-ups, and probably build a bike I can wreck with impunity.

If you've ever had the racing itch T H I S is the time & place to do it. Having raced a few times in the past with different leagues, racing your bike will never be cheaper or easier or as fun as this. Seriously. do it. Lots of people were worried about having leathers and a specifically race-prepped bike, and it was not at all the case. In the starting grid I saw people pull out their cell-phones and put them back in their pockets. On the first lap, a bunch of receipts or something fell out of a guys pocket. Most racers had a jacket and jeans. Dean wore a hoodie with skate pads. Also, total race cost was $80, including a season license, transponder and Saturday afternoon BBQ. Next time it'll be $50. That's crazy cheap! And if you're worried about having a fast enough bike, don't sweat it. There were one speed puchs and daily rider bikes out there kickin' ass. It really is about riding ability, not super high-tech set-ups. I really hope some chicks come out too. Some little girl on a pocket bike posted the same lap time as Jimmy, and I know there are some killer girl riders out there. Crash the sausage party ladies!

After the races we hung out with the 77 dudez. It was cool to meet a bunch of people: Pat, Flynn, Craig, Zach/Lee, Round, Elliott. The next day Dean & I spend an extra day in SF working late at '77. Dean was doing computer shit and I was turning wrenches with Lee to make some extra 'scrilla'. Super cool shop. That night I ended up drinking a bunch of beer at Josh & Renee's and having their roommates Guinea Pig pee on me. Adorable! Then I passed out on the inflatable posturpedic while Throw Momma from the Train was playing. I kinda regret missing the movie but it was a long day of fixin' things.

The next day we headed back to Seattle, but made a pit-stop at Motomatic to check out the shop. They have some awesome stuff there, and the grande-derbi-hobbit they built up is an engineering marvel. I took some stealth photos, but there's way better ones on Flickr from the track. The trek back was long and stupid and I almost fell asleep at the wheel. Emphasis on almost. I'm glad to be home, but this was an epic quest. And I hope to do it again soon, maybe with more folks..?

Congratulations to Dean for his awesome Team HRY showing! and thanks for all his help with everything this last weekend.

*Four loco= caffeinated and extra alcoholic stuff designed for moped rally faggotry which I had no idea about until Dean & ...some creature I don't remember(?) showed it to me.

pics, some borrowed, (I hope that's cool?)

Vulcan, God of Fire & Metal

First off:

That---> just happened.
It's a Baretta trike, and it will rule someday.

A lot of stuff has been happening recently. Notably, Dean has let me borrow his 16mm PHBG to replace the 21mm overkill I've been running. -And the Puch is running, indeed. I swapped out the stator for another one, between that and the new harness, the bike seems to be a lot stronger. and with a 16mm carb hooked up, it should be easier to manage the jetting issues. My thanks to Naz, who chopped up a helpless biturbo to make that happen. Finally I'm able to get my machine roadworthy for more than fifty feet at a time.

My folks came out here to visit, and we got to do some touristy stuff, like check out the Museum of Flight down at Boeing Field. Liz briefly trades her Vespa P200 for a SR-71. Mach 3+...not too shabby.

I've also been working on the furnace to make my custom-cast cylinder efforts actually happen.

After a few simple measurements, I modeled a piece of styrofoam to represent the hollow shape in the furnace.















After some shaping of the form, I lay out all the essential parts involved: Crucible, Torch, Bucket, and negative.















From that, I'm able to measure the location of the torch aperature















With that reference I use a hole-saw to cut out the insert for the torch















I then check the hole with the torch head. It's a snug fit.















After popping out the hole for the torch, I fit the styrofoam negative into its position.



















I then anchor the negative in place with several large screws. This is necessary to support the refractory mix later and to keep the negative in position, as styrofoam is really really buoyant and will float through the soft refractory mix. I also added 'ears' to the negative; these will be cut-outs for the crucible stays to drop into.















I also add a few footers to raise the furnace off the ground. These are simple hardware store brackets.















With everything in place, I set up out in the garage and mix the mizzou refractory. It has to be mixed up by itself to ensure proper homogenity of elements, then it must be mixed precisely with water by weight, not volume. Because it's somewhat expensive, I use a cheap home-brew refractory in 'filler' areas and only use the mizzou around the critical areas. (the homemade filler refractory is 2 parts portland cement, 1 part perlite, 1 part water, btw)






























I've been at this a few days, using different refractory types requires that I wait for them to dry up enough to be firm enough to hold their shape, before pouring in the next layer. It's all poured now, but will be a few days before the refractory will be cured enough to chase out the styrofoam. And then I'll make the lid and brackets for the torch. and then I'll cast some aluminum just in time for my 50th birthday ...weeee!
Puch Gilardoni 75cc

The most important video you may ever watch, really

Sorry for two non-posts in a row, but my consciousness is utterly leveled by the power and majesty wrought by this Master-Opus. Thanks for passing it along, Matthew... also, work continues on the furnace, I'll have a for real post when its done. But for now, I beseech thee, watch!


themostimportantvideoyoumayeverwatchreally from prettydamnnotbad on Vimeo.

Falcon Crest

On like Chakka Khan

Ah! Thank you sweet money bags Uncle Sam. I got my tax return and decided to invest in awesomeness. At long, LONG last I am moving forward with the rebuilding of my furnace and will hopefully get to do some aluminum casting in the near future. The last time I cast anything was last summer. I built my custom cylinder mold back in August, and it's been waiting since then. My old set-up was fueled by charcoal, powered by a shop-vac, and housed in a pair of christmas cookie tins. But whatevs, it totally worked. With my extra nickel I've now got mizzou 3,000 degree castable refractory, a 1,610 degree infrared thermometer, and today a propane torch. I'm so stoked. giggity!

Also, last weekend, I decided to rebuild the wiring harness in my Puch. I bought it off of an old race announcer, it had seen plenty of track days and his kid beat it up pretty good. The loom next to the triple tree was wrapped up in duct tape, but the lighting was usually very reliable. But that was the past. Taking the duct tape off, the harness was pretty chewed. Looking at the Stock layout, I knew I could simplify a few things, so i rebuilt the harness for a aftermarket three-button switch. The harness is in the bike and I should have everything buttoned up soon.