Commute Shoot

This is a video I shot today by securing a GoPro camera to my chest. It's basically just short clips taken from my commute home from work, from the Port of L.A. to my street in Long Beach.

Santa Monica

This past weekend me, Adam, Seth, and Seth's girlfriend Corrina rode from Long Beach, up around the Palos Verdes Peninsula, up the coast through Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Venice Beach and finally to the Santa Monica Pier. It was quite a long, awesome ride - but we were all pretty exhausted and cringed at the thought of going back home through the thousands of stop lights and stop signs - so we took the 10 to the 405 back to Long Beach. It was a great ride, and the Hornet cruised at 70 mph all the way home on the freeways. Not something I want to do often, but it was nice to see what the ol' girl is capable of. And many thanks to Corrina Mantlo for taking these shots. Can't wait to do it again :)

50-Mile Smile

I took this week off because I have a stockpile of leave days I need to use. Later in the week, Kristen and I are heading up to Yosemite, but until then, I'm just tinkering around the house. I took the Hornet south this afternoon, to Reef Point Dr., just outside of Laguna Beach. Google tells me that's 25 miles, so a 50-mile round trip. That's the farthest I've taken the bike since I've owned it and I was completely impressed. The ol' girl performed beautifully.

Moto Girls

Swap

This morning I rode across town to the monthly motorcycle swap meet that's held here in Long Beach. It was pretty awesome to see all the different bikes (hundreds!) and vendors that were there, selling everything from old, rusty bolts (already got plenty of those) to vintage helmets, patches, leather jackets, tires, etc. etc. etc.

I tried on several jackets, but nothing fit quite right. I left the meet empty handed, but that's not for lack of cool junk to buy. The throng of attendees seemed to be about 90% Harley riders (of which about 90% appeared to be "biker on the weekend" yuppie dads), and I got some strange looks (of adoration? disgust?) riding in and out again on my Honda. But it felt pretty good, as always, to look a little different than everyone else there. I love my bike :)

Progress Report

Here are a couple new photos taken out back. I've got the bike more or less where I want it - with the exception of a new tail light (the last one I ordered didn't fit). I tilted the bars a little lower, put new grips on, new rear fender, new air filters, new turn signals, painted the tank, and switched out to a smaller mirror. It's a very fun little ride.

Tank Moody

I spent all weekend watching paint dry. This little project was pretty tedious, but I like the result. I tried to loosely model the new tank after older Triumph tanks I'd seen with a horizontal split two-tone. This thing is in no danger of being mistaken for a '60 Bonneville, but whatever.

Here was the process - I emptied the tank, let it air out, then sanded the old topcoat and orange paint down to the metal. Then I used a grey primer. After that I painted the whole thing white. When that was dry, I measured and taped off the bottom half and painted the top black. Once that was dry, I carefully sanded out any imperfections (and probably created a few in the process) and sprayed the whole thing w/ a clear coat. Then I laid down a thin line with "imitation gold" 1shot along the divide. I may eventually make this line a little thicker so it can be seen better, but maybe not. The best part of the whole process was hooking back up the fuel lines, putting some gas back in, and actually having the the beast start. Up close, the paint is definitely not professional body shop grade, but nothing on this bike is in show-quality, nor do I care to make it so - I think a rattle-can job done in the garage fits the Hornet just right. Not a bad weekend.