Tim's blog

Advanced Custom Motorcycle Wiring REVISED goes to the printer this week – which means finished books by early March. This new book is really a good update on our original book. Jeff Zielinski has included thorough explanations of both the throttle by wire system, and the new-tech CAN-bus switches. The CAN-bus switches are capable of sending multiple signals down the same wire, which means less wire and smaller harnesses, but electrical circuits that are pretty foreign to any of us more than about 25 years old.

And because so many of the new Baggers are turning into rolling juke boxes with bags that have morphed into speaker enclosures, Jeff also dedicated a complete chapter to two-wheeled stereos – what to buy and how to install.

The third new chapter is dedicated to new aftermarket goodies, including phat ape-hangers (not really new but new to Baggers in the last few years). Jeff talks at length abut the best way to install the tall bars while keeping the TBW and CAN-bus systems intact and all wiring hidden inside the bars.

So thanks to Jeff for all his hard work, and thanks to some old friends like St. Paul HD, Kustom Werks, Kuryakyn and Klock Werks for help with last minute photos.

Jeff Zielinski’s revised edition will be ready to ship from our office early in March.

Old Cars
No, the Henry J doesn’t run yet, but I did order a new radiant heater to hang in that stall of the garage. I figure that between the heater and the gradually increasing outside temperatures, it may get warm enough in my little shop to work without mittens and long-johns.

Regular readers may remember that I pieced together some short header pipes for the old J-bird, and also that I only tack-welded the many-piece puzzle together.

Rob Roehl at work TIG welding all the seams on my shorty headers pipes.

For the final welding, I spent an afternoon with Rob Roehl at Donnie Smith’s shop. Thanks to Rob, pipes are finished and installing them will be one of the first things on the To Do list in the new, toasty-warm, shop.

The finished pipes, ready to be bolted to the exhaust manifolds.

Though I ride a Harley and lust after old Triumphs, I like to think of myself as simply a “motorcycle enthusiast.” If it has two wheels and burns gasoline, I’m likely to like it…. hell, I even think the new crop of electric bikes are pretty interesting.

All of which means it was a no-brainer to plan an Enthusiast guide around that certain brand of bikes we all know so well - Honda. In fact, looking back, my friends and I were exactly the skinny American kids that Soichiro Honda had in his sights when he started shipping 50cc step-through scooters to the US of A. Though the term had barely been coined, we were the boomers – barely more than babes at that point. And as we grew up, so did the bikes from Honda. Pretty rapidly those two-wheeled wonders went from 50cc to 160 – and from 250cc to the 305 Dream. Yes, we all spent a lot of time dreaming of those powerful machines.

So whether or not you were lucky enough to own a bright shinny Honda back in the day, images of those bikes are most likely permanently burned to your hard drive. And the day may come when lust overtakes reason, and a certain well-worn Honda follows you home. Thus we offer you this new Enthusiasts Guide to Honda, a book designed to feed the lust while at the same time increasing your ability to reason.

For anyone with a hankering to drag an old Rusty Honda home from the auction we offer you this new Enthusiasts Guide.

For anyone who wonders I’ve put the hot rod on hold for now, as temperatures in the garage are in the low 40s, which is just plain too cold for sustained work of a mechanical sort. Which brings me to the next project, painting the house – inside of course. Last winter I managed to knock out two bedrooms, and this year I’m hoping to finish the living room and a long hallway. The place is twelve years old, which means it’s due. And to be honest, painting like this is a nice project for winter nights. I try to knock out one wall every couple of days – that way I make steady progress without really busting my ass. Right now I’m stuck where the living room meets the kitchen, right where the crack in the wall is. I patched it once and it cracked again. So yesterday I installed a reinforcing patch of mesh aluminum from the hardware store. Of course it’s thick enough that it’s likely to take at least five applications of mud to get the whole area smooth. But enough of boring paint projects, let’s talk about motorcycles and the crazy people who ride them.

Tools of the trade - not my favorite trade, but a guy's got to do what a guy's got to do.

Bean’re Rocks On

As I said in a recent blog, we’re in the enviable position lately of consistently running out of books (though it does raise hell with cash flow), and one of those books is our first Motorsicle Kulture book: Bean’re, Motorcycle Nomad.

I have Bean’re to thank for this success, as he is responsible for the bulk of the sales. Between Sturgis, other events, and his efforts on the web, he’s done one hell of a job. Right now we are pushing the printing company to get at least a partial order off the press and on the UPS truck by February 6th, so they make it to the Easyriders show in Columbus by the 8th.

So if you’re headed to the Easyriders show, be sure to stop by and buy a signed copy of the Bean’re book.

It’s true, the Bean’re book is selling at a good clip, good enough that we’ve been forced back on press after only less then five months of sales.