This one is for all you east coasters that are currently trapped inside as hurricane Sandy starts to make land. Below is a list of some great moto-blogs, hopefully your power will last long enough to read them.

• OcchioLungo
• Dave Roper Racing
• Smoke and Throttle
• The Selvedge Yard
• Velobanjogent
• Special 79
• Bubble Visor
• Corpses from Hell MG
• D.B.A.
• The Self Centered Man

Many more out there and some obvious ones I have missed here, but you don't need me to tell you to read Bike Exif or the Vintagent.

Back in December I got a call from ‘Mike from Golden’ asking about a piece of unobtainium for a 50 something Triumph. After some chatting I realize that it is Golden, as in Golden, Colorado - and as coincidence would have it I was going to be outside Denver that next week.

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime…
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.

-Wilfred Owen

This past Saturday the shop was host to the BBQ part of the Hostile City Scooter Club's Independence Day Rally. Check out more pictures on our facebook page.

The shop's rocker cred has left the building while a 79 Vespa takes up a lift.
The second sign is this well done mash-up with Blondie and the Doors…

Truth is, I dig this video and old scoots too. Nothing against new scoots either.

We now have regular shop hours. The shop will be opening at 9(ish) Monday through Friday. Closing times are; Monday at 5:30, Tuesday and Thursday at 2:30, Wednesday at 6, and Friday at 8. Saturdays will be 1 to 5.

Swing on by to the new location in Glenside.

I am hoping to have the shop certified for PA state inspections by the end of April.

It goes something like this…

I have a 19__ (insert moto brand), that I need to get on the road. How much will it cost?

Write that question a couple different ways and you will have what I am asked most often. Roadworthy to me and roadworthy to you, may be very distinct. Here are some essential things you need to consider when getting that old bike on the road. Most of this stuff is easy to accomplish at home with some patience, a good reference book or two, and asking questions in an online discussion group for the make and or model of your bike.

Tires - $150 to 300 - shop
You have two points of contact with the road. Make them count. Are the old ones in good shape, do they have tread, are they dry rotting? And, since they are your only two contacts with the road, don’t be a cheap ass.

Cables - $20 for each cable - DIY
They may work for now, get the new ones anyway and keep your old ones as spares in your tool kit. Did I mention you should get a tool kit?

Chain - $50 to 120 - DIY
Check the side to side stretch and make sure the rear wheel is adjusted so the chain has the proper amount of slack.

Brakes - $40 to 120 - DIY for some
Excluding disc brakes, drum brakes are not hard to do. Follow your manual or a Haynes guide. While your doing this check the bearings on your wheels. Most often modern sealed bearings are cheap and easy to install.

Oil/Fluids - $12 to 50 - DIY
Get that bike warm and drop that ancient oil. Does your bike have a gearbox? How about the oil in those forks?

Fuel Lines/Gas Filter - $10 to 20 - DIY
New gas line and an inline gas filter. Once you start running about on that old beast, there will be old gunk stirred up in that tank - use a filter.

And all this, still does not get into making the engine run reliably.

Well, it has really been two weeks since I have been back. Making this post very overdue.

Above is a Velocette LE that pulled up across the street while I had my breakfast outside the Hood River Hotel.

I spent a week out there and as always the people food and beer were awesome. A real nice coincidence was finding the Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum. Hidden away in the Columbia Gorge is one amazing little museum. I only had a short time to spend and was able to snap off a few shots.

This last Saturday was the first Classic Bikes and Bluegrass in Frenchtown, NJ. Needless to say there were the best of intentions to get there, but well, things don't always work the way you plan.
As I have not yet gotten any where with my own Ariel project bike, I quickly registered and was getting road ready a 68 Triumph T100C that had been collecting dust in the back of the shop. It was the basic new tires, new cables, new chain, top up the fluids kind of work I thought would go quickly. The night before I planned on getting it all done. By three in the a.m. it was not near complete, due to the constant discovery of something else that was wrong.

Well the morning hit, and I help the wife and kids off to a long day of lacrosse and baseball. Grab Steve from the train and head back to the shop.

Steve's CB750 had been sitting there waiting for him with new air pods, suspension, and various other little things and was, well I thought it was, ready to go.

Many apologies to Brian who showed up with the only reliably running bike and was patient enough to hang out and help us wrench these things back into almost running shape.

But alas, no trip to Frenchtown was to be had. After everything was good to go the battery on the T100 crapped out and the CB refused to kick back into life.

Brian got some good pics tho…

The tail end of a very sweet Benelli 250, that I probably should have bid on. I had the paddle waving for a Velocette LE, but put it down when the price started getting real - well, real for me.

See more shots