I won’t bore you with excuses, other than to say that the last several weeks has been the perfect storm of business problems, supplier shortages, out of town travel, funerals, quarterly taxes, customs delays… the list goes on and on. Bottom line, I’m so far behind with filling orders and dealing with paperwork, that updating my blog is at the bottom of my priority list. But I’m here and I’ll do my best to catch you up.
Crikey, where do I start? It’s easiest for me to start with today and go backwards. I’ve got a new bike in the garage. A 2007 Ducati GT1000. I knew I wanted one since I saw the early pictures on the web. As I joked to a friend tonight; “It’s fits into my retro motif.” This is my first Ducati and first EFI bike. To say the least, I’m damned impressed. I’ll get into the specifics in a future blog.
I mentioned the perfect storm of problems. This Customs delay is a pisser to be sure. I’ve been buying parts from Jenk’s Bolts in the UK for years now. He and I go back to the first days of the new generation Bonneville. Customs is holding a shipment from him wanting what I believe to be an absolutely insane level of detail information on the sales receipt. Like the cost and country of origin of EVERY nut, bolt washer, vacuum cap, etc. in the various Jenk’s kits. Jenks and I are doing what we can to provide them with the info they want, but the wheels of Government are turning slowly. Customers are really angry with me and I don’t blame them one bit.
Let’s see, what else is new? Ah, my new Harley. At least new to me. I snipped this one off of eBay with 9 seconds left. It was listed as “THEWORLDSDUSTIESHARLEYSOFTAIL. All one word. So if you did a key word search for, say “Harley”, this listing would not come up. I created a web page, so if you want to know more, link over there. www.bellacorse.com/cobwebs.htm
And then there is my kit car. I can’t recall if I blogged this already, but several months ago I bought a 1970 Volks Wagon Beetle kit car. I was watching the Barrett-Jackson auction on TV, thinking ‘I need a kit car.’ So I got onto eBay to see what’s out there. Not looking for anything in particular, I come across this VW in nearby Ann Arbor, MI. It’s a 70 Beetle with a 1925 Bugatti Boat Tail Roadster replica body on it. Well, I don’t see a Bugatti 35B in the photos, I see the platform for a 1930’s Indianapolis 500 race replica. Hack-off the fenders, add an exhaust pipe down the body, 19” Model A wire wheels with skinny tires, car number on the tail… oh it’s so clear to me. So I snipped it a few seconds left and bought it sight unseen (other than the eBay ad). Last time I do that. The car needed a bunch of work. Fortunately there is only about 12 parts to the entire car, so working on it is a breeze. But it’s not me who is working on it, but my good buddy Mike Sustarich. If you’re read The Horse Magazine, there is a nice write-up on Mike’s daughter Shannon. Well, Mike is doing his thing to help turn my Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang Bugatti into a seriously cool 30’s track replica. You know I’ll be blogging about this one.
OK, CD done. I typically type these blogs listening to music on my stereo in my office. Tonight’s artist was Beck, Bogart & Appice: Live in Japan (Disk 1). I’m glad I made time to update this nonsense. Until next time.
posted by RaceDweeb @ 1:33 AM
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