we done it

After going thru a snow storm,high winds and lots of rain we just pulled in to sandy hut,ordered some food and sippin on some jameson.

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Group Photo...minus 2

Pearl, Erock, Feat, Slick, Slappy and Slim in Boulder before Pearl and Slim took off to Oregon. Dic and Pistol were in Leadville when we were here I think.

Thanks to jason weeks at pacatello honda dealer for staying late and helping me weld my sidecar back on.

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still running

Id like to thank lambert performance cycles in jackson tn for the piston and letting us swap it out in your parking lot.

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made it to union motorcycle shop

Going to do a valve adjustment and hit the road.

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just got to boise id

If anyone would like to track us live go to cyclestoponline.com

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I'm just a doin my job, I'm the ...

Apparently drafting old buckets of junk is frowned upon in Wyoming! 

Slim figured out how to beat the Wyoming headwinds...

Idaho

The boys have made Pocatello, Idaho. They are flying without passengers in the sidecars!

Pearl getting his exhaust fixed near Ft. Collins I think... Thanks a million Ed and Cindy!

Pearl riding the cow

And as for the rest of us, we're freakin great. It was an awesome time. We all wish we had 2 weeks instead of just 1 to do it, but regardless, it was amazing. We'll definitely plan a bit more time to do it in next time. Who knows what contraptions we'll come up with!

Here's a video of Pistol and Dic's adventure up to Leadville.

Quartered and halved

Wednesday morning or afternoon, we all assembled in Dodge City and decided that Dic and Pistol could work on their bike and that the rest of us would press on. If they got it fixed, they would catch up. So we left sometime Wednesday afternoon and headed due west. Got into Colorado and had some mexican food that night. We  rode all night...and it got cold...but we pressed on. At about 100 miles outside of Denver/Boulder, Feat and Erock's rear wheel bearings started 'making some noise'. An inspection of the chain revealed copious amounts of metal...but we pressed on, trying to get to Erock's brother's house in Boulder. Eventually the thing was howling and dragging the engine down...all we could get up to was 3rd gear....and the Boulder early commuters we're not very happy with us. Eventually we made it to Scott's house about 6:30am and got some sleep. Pistol and Dic did get their rig fixed and decided to head to Leadville to see a friend. I think they made it there last night (Thursday night), and then they were gonna ditch the rig there (since both have to be at work on Monday) and then get to Denver for flights back to Knoxville today. Just heard from Pistol that he already landed in Chicago....so obviously they made it to the airport today in Denver. Good work boys!

Reality set in when we woke up and realized that we weren't going to make it to Portland by Friday. Erock has to be back to Knoxville on Saturday, so he was 1st to say he was ending his part of the trip at Boulder and flying back to Knoxville out of Denver. I thought about going on without him, but Speedball has the trashed rear wheel bearing and also is burning through the tires on the sidecar and rear of the bike like crazy. So I'd need to get all new stuff before pressing on...and I didn't want to weigh the remaining guys down and I need to get back and open up the Public House, so Speedball is staying in Denver. Hopefully, a friend of Slick's will trailer it back to Knoxville sometime in or before December.  Slick and Slappy both have to be back at work on Monday, so they decided to stay with us in Boulder and fly back to Knoville from here. Pearl and Slim are our remaining 2 on the road. Neither one has the pressing Monday deadline that the rest of us do...so they are gonna make it to Portland!  Both have their own rig...just with nobody in the sidecar now. They are making awesome time now being 200lbs lighter! They left Thursday about 2pm and are already near the border of Wyoming and Utah.  Go get em boys!

On the way to Boulder we stopped in the middle of nowhere  southeast of there and ran across the Portland 555 guys sticker. Unbelievable! 

View from Scott's front yard 

Speedball's sidecar tire....just a little chewed up 

Last 2 guys leaving Boulder 

Speedball's resting place in Boulder

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rolling

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Tuesday maybe

So we tried like hell to get out of oklahoma but 2 machines (feat/erock's and dic/pistol's) kept screwing up just outside of woodward. Pearl and slappy actually went ahead to look for parts and the rest of us worked on just about every system of both bikes. Limped them into fort smith and worked for more hours into the night. Pearl and slappy went on to dodge city. We moved on to buffalo, ok where we worked into the middle of the night...like 3or 4am. We readjusted the valves, timing, carbs, and lots of other stuff. Ours finally started working but poor pistol rode their bike that was bucking like crazy...and after 26 hours of no sleep and tons of work...slim, slick, feat, erock, dic and pistol finally made it to dodge city at dawn. A few hours of sleep and off again west today. In lamar, co headed north towards boulder probably.

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New wheels 4 2 sidecars

Slim/slappy and erock/feat had 5 snd 4 broken spokes respectively so we searched for new wheels in a junkyard nearby. After rummaging through mosquito infested poison ivy for an hour or 2, we bought the best crappy ass rusty wheels we could find. The guy's at the junkyard told us about Dave and sons shop in town so we headed there to see if they could help us put the tires in the new old wheels. Dave was awesome and did us 2 better by giving us Much better wheels that already had good rubber on them. Dave and his family earn a huge high five from the 555.
We made it a bit further before the effects of no sleep in 2 days got to us so we slept for 6 awesome hours in front of some under construction church. Up today and into the rain for 3 not so awesome hours. Dry now though. To the panhandle we go!

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Spokes

Yeah baby. We're shedding 4 broken spokes from the sidecar wheel. Less weight. Woohooo!

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Getting a new sidecar tire for feat and erock

We were just too damn fast in the corners and have already made our sidecar tire extremely bald.
We're at a cycle shop now getting a new tire in sallisaw, ok.

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Another gas stop

After much screwing with slick (aka puss puss) and pearl's electrics, we've made it to bebe, ar. Headed towards fort smith and then to oklahoma. Hopefully we can push on through the night and make it by morning.

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Arkansas baby!

Just made it across the old man and into Arkansas. Motoring on through the evening and into the night as long as the bikes continue to run alright. The bikes love the cold air even if we don't!

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racing

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Rolling

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Getting it all back together.

Piston is in and motor back in the bike. Finishing up. Back on the road again in a few...hours maybe...or maybe even minutes.

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Bike coming apart

Piston found in jackson. Replacing it now in the parking lot .

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Maybe a piston found?

Slim and slappy in jackson and dismantling their engine outside of a cycle shop there. Rest of us on our way.

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Uh oh...

Is an aluminum covered sparkplug bad?
Too bad we're not in pawhuska again when this happened!
Ok, we are 2 miles from dyersberg, tn. Need a 350 piston. Come on blog!

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Wittle pistol

Moments after this video was taken, pistol accidentally kicked too hard and the bike fell over to the left. Wham! No harm done luckily! Currently in trenton, tn. Headed for dyersberg next.

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good morning

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Mikey found a friend

Huge thanks to boo who let us replace a had gasket at his house! On the road again!

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zzzzzzz

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Seriously. Wow.

Pearl and slick just pulled up in this. Thanks boo!

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Found a gasket.

Slick and pearl are going to get it from boo. Thanks richard for the contact! Rest of us in a church parking lot in mt juliet dismantling pistol and dick's topend.

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Near nashville. Need some parts. Anyone?

We have a blown head gasket. Anybody have one or just a 350 parts bike?

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Near nashville. Need some parts. Anyone?

We have a blown head gasket. Anybody have one or just a 350 parts bike?

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stuck

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Modification #1

Miles traveled: 1 (to cyclestop)

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OK, let's do this.....

just walked the dog and the skies are clear and the temp is perfect. I hope that this is a good omen for the rest of the trip. Freakout Feat just pulled in, time to go!

Temp check

OK, it's only 42 deg out right now. Good riding temp, really.

Enjoying what could be my last good meal and cup of coffee for 5 days.

We got this...

4:30 a.m. Friday morning and the other motorcycle juice is brewing of the press on the counter. It's around 40 deg outside and we're ready to roll. Our goal today is a laughable 800 miles. That means no breakdowns. We need to clear the Rockies before Sunday or our ass is grass as there's a wet cold front moving in and they're predicting snow in the passes.
Gotta finish packing............

Fueling up for departure!

Tennessee motorcycle juice! Courtesy of tank.

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All 4 rigs together.

Hopefully they'll all make it past monterey, tn!

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A bit more about the trip

So the teams are Slim and Slappy, Pearl and Slick, Dic and Pistol,  DoubleRinger/Erock and Feat. One of the rigs has a hard-mounted side car...like most normal sidecars, but the other 3 of them are setup so the bikes still lean...like a normal motorcycle...just with flexible chassis mounts mounting the sidecars to them. The sidecar wheels don't lean though, so it makes for some super funky turns. You get to know the guy in the sidecar really well in a right-hand turn. They're weird as hell to ride since the things want to jerk all over the place...and there's just a 350cc motor trying to pull all of that extra weight, but man are they fun!

This is Erock and Feat's rig ..... I'm tossing around the name 'Speedball' ...1/2 cocaine...1/2 heroin...pretty obvious which is which.

For you Doubters

The tally for Cuatro:

1970 Honda 350 CL - $200
Tubing for car = $7.50
Three cars of paint= $3.00
12 voly aux plug = $12
Volt meter = $20 (I know, rich but I wanted a new one)
Solid two wheel dolly wheel to drive alt = $10
Chain and battery = $69.35
Points and condenser = $29.40
Launch light (ignition switch) = $6.00
High beam indicator = $$1.49
Spark plug (2) = $3.98
Fuel line = $2.99
Fuel filters (2) = $3.00
Hose clamps = $2.99

Grand total = $371.80

Stuff that don't count:
Three tires and the fee to re-title the beast

Stuff we got for free:
Alternator - I took this from my nephew's demolition car while he was out hiking the AT. We'll count that as a donation
Floor pan and 1/4" rod - Donation from Frazier Welding
Most of the tubing for the car - salvaged from Slim's old commercial rotisserie racks
Hemi joints - salvaged from Slappy's shop
Aluminum sheet metal body - surplus material from a job out of my shop
Swing arm and wheel- salvage/donated by Jack Parker- AMA race champ!
Alternator wiring advice from Gaby's Altenator - FREE

test run

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2010 555!!!

So the 2010 555 leaves Knoxville at 5:55am on Oct 15. That's right, this coming up Friday.

Same rules as the last one....1975 or older bike, 500cc's or less, and you can only spend $500 buying and fixing up your machine...and sidecar. Yep, we've added sidecars to the mix. Since buying actual sidecars would be too expensive, we fabricated 4 of them from spare tubing we had laying around our shops.

Chocolate Thunder and Face are sitting this one out, but we picked up 3 other knuckle-heads equally as dumbass as we are....Slappy, Slim and Slick.  So 8 of us are riding 4 Honda Cl350's with homemade sidecars to Portland, OR.....for under $500 in the bike and sidecar TOGETHER.

 Where old bikes come from

Pearl and Slick's ride

Figuring it out

Slick using his imagination

 This is how the sidecars connect to the bikes

Slim and Slick

 Gently persuade it

 Don't need these....

Feat working on the clutch

I think these are some of our sidecar wheels

 Erock welding

 Fin off a 58 Fairlane...now on Slick's sidecar

 3 frames started...end of day 1 of work

First fire of Dic and Pistol's bike...that ain't smoke.

Work is progressing...

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