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...and here we go! Three kinds of pork, seven hours of low'n'slow, plated up with a squort of whole-grain mustard, a dollop of full-fat sour cream, and of course a beer... Just the sort of dish to chase away October blahs and prep our guts for a productive fall/winter bike-building season!

3-1/2 hrs in, ready for the first good stir. Whole house smells like a pork-fueled beer-hall... The good kind. 2 more hours and we should be ready to go.

This bike is looking reasonably buttoned-up, but somehow, something is missing here... I'm pretty sure it's more cowbell meat and beer! We've had a decent Indian Summer here in the northeast, but today on October 1 it's looking a little cool, dark, and drizzly. Time for seasonal comfort-food...

Since I finally have Honda running reliably, I've been able to take a little time to work on some misc. XS projects... First up is the rear wheel. Just to re-cap, here is the (thus far) current set-up: The hub is a stock XS650 front, with Omar's conversion adapter on the the drive-side and...

If the Duc gets any sort of actual momentum going, then yes, it will have a thread here. In the meantime, I'm still shaking' down the Honda, and taking advantage of having another running bike to get a little work done on the Yamaha...

...weeeell... as the Honda build wraps up, the Ducati is up on the workbench... ...gonna have to do some serious contemplation here! Certainly, something will have to get sold before this one gets moving... old Jap bikes have ravaged my bank account; I do not hasten to think what modern...

First the tailinght, now the bar-end signals... Replacing "used 'em 'cause I had 'em" Chinese eBay lights with some o' dat sweet sweet Motogadget goodness:

Taking care of more and more end-of-build details, as the last bits and bobs arrive from whatever various vendors are still able to squeeze a last drop (or pint) of blood from my depleted wallet... Today it's the XR's Only case saver with a trimmed NOS sprocket cover bolted over top. It's not a...

I've been trying to walk the fine line between having a bike that looks like both an old off-road dirt-bike and something that appears able to pass an inspection... While I'm certainly not going to fool anyone who actually knows better, I may yet have a chance at not drawing the attention of the...

Spent some time poking around the shop yesterday evening, brainstorming on ways to quiet down the exhaust a bit, and came up with this: It's the middle layer from the old FMF canister; a sandwich of coarse knit stainless wire and stainless wool. Originally it fit between the perforated inner...

Luggage racks and waxed-canvas bags are in the works... but don't fret, the "completion" of this bike means I can get back to working on the XS650... and/or the Ducati... and/or the Gold Wing I'm still searching craigslist for...

General impressions after 3 days and 3/4 tank of gas: The bike is loud. Not "people cover their ears when I drive by" loud, but loud enough that I'm self-conscious about it. Aside from the sheer volume, the sound is frikken awesome. I used a Cone Engineering "Performance" muffler because I...

It's a bit of a bummer (no pun intended) when your upholsterer procrastinates for almost three weeks before jamming out a rush job in the 11th hour, but hey, a sloppy seat is better is better than no seat at all at this point... I'm sure the uneven diamonds and puckered topstitching will...

Still waiting for the upholstery and a couple other miscellaneous bits'n'bobs to come in the mail, but I'm registered and running!

I totally considered that, but didn't have any small enough edging material on-hand. That, and the mitered corners would be troublesome... radiusing the corners would make the opening too large. Meh, I'm satisfied.

Another shot of the whole headlight / tripleclamp situation. I'm really stoked on how this turned out! The wiring could use a little more detailing, but it's good enough for a first attempt... ...and here's the lower, with a quickie throttle cable guide... Welding rod, heatshrink tubing...

There's always a latch-ditch battle to resist rushing the details at the end, and for myself, the winning strategy often involves throwing the budget out the window. Case in point: The Headlight: I always wanted to use this Yamaha Chappy headlight: So attached to the idea of this headlight...

I haven't tried the Bulleit rye yet... But I usually keep a bottle of quality bourbon on hand for Manhattans and Final Wards. Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Now that I'm getting into the final fussy details, I've had to step my drunkeness to a classier level: Bourbon Manhattan - 2-1/2oz Bulleit, 3/4oz Rivesaltes, two dashes Angostura Yeah...

In other news, I'm juuuuust about done with the electrcky bits. Only 16 more wires to connect. I complicated things too much by deciding to leave service loops and open fuse positions in place for possible future additions like additional turn signals (only bar-ends for now), auxiliary...