Adios Honda, it was nice knowing you

Sold my Honda Civic last Saturday. Now I don't own a car (sold the Dart a few years ago). The girlfriend isn't too thrilled about me not having a car but I don't think she'll get too upset. One of these days (years?) I'll probably get a car.
I've been enjoying riding everywhere. I just put a new rear tire on. Plenty of miles just waiting to be ridden.

Biltwell!

The guys at Biltwell rule! I received my new handlebars yesterday, they are awesome! Bill at Biltwell threw in a bunch of stickers (16 or so), two posters, and a shirt! The bars, the Keystone bars I've been dreaming about for seven months or so, came in a sock/sleeve to ensure that they weren't scratched. Damn, talk about doing business the right way. I had heard that the Biltwell guys know how to treat their customers but now I know firsthand just how smart they are. By doing things right and giving me the royal treatment I'm sure to order from Biltwell again. I'll probably purchase their diy pipe set. Sure would be nice to make some killer pipes!
The bars went on pretty easy. The only problem I ran into was reattaching the throttle cables to the right grip. Sheesh, that was a bit frustrating. It took a bit of doing, trying to figure out the best way to get the cables back on (I'm sure there's an easy way that I don't know about) and I had to readjust the grip and brake lever when I mistakenly set them too high causing the bike to over-rev but hey, beginner's mistake/learning opportunity.
The bars look great but I think I'll have to ditch my speedo and tach for something different. Maybe a compace mini-electro combo that some German company makes. I can place it in the headlight hood, so I'll see it but it won't be obtrusive and the bars will look a little better. As it stands now, the bars are a bit close to my speedo and tach. They look good but I guess you're never done tinkering with your bike.
Support these guys!
www.biltwellinc.com

I'll post pictures of the bars/bike tomorrow. I wasn't able to take pictures last night.

Ed Hardy is a snoozefest

What's the big deal about this line of clothing? It bores me.

Almost done leafing

Gold leafing process

Gold flake is good

Ok, finally got around to picking up some gold leaf supplies for my bike. Sunday was "art day" and I made the most of it. Leafed my partially painted tank (which I've decided I need to have professionally painted. I like the spray-bomb look on other bikes but feel that mine would look best professionally done because I love myself a super shiney paint job) and it turned our pretty darn good!
I'm thinking that I'll put my Danzig/goggle design on both sides of the tank and maybe Bronk on the lower portion. Tony started calling me Bronk when I had a bad case of Bronchitis a few months back and since my bike gets on kicks of carb farts when it's cold I thought the name would be perfect for it. Yes, clever, so clever.
Anyway, back to the process. I learned a few things that will help me when I work on the real deal. First, I need to cover the entire tank to make sure that no adhesive or sealer get on areas that won't be leafed. Painters' tape works great for that but I don't need to tape the whole tank, just the immediate area around the tank and then tape paper to guard the rest of the tank. That way I'll protect the paint and only spray the intended area.
So, I went to the art store and picked up my gold leafing supplies. The clerk was surprised when I said I was leafing a gas tank. Speaking of which, it might be kind of cool to leaf the whole tank. Maybe another project, who knows. Anyway, I made sure to pick up the gold leaf sheets (whole sheets, not the scraps), a spray adhesive, and spray sealer. Looking back on it I should have purchased the brush on adhesive because it seems less wasteful.
After taping off the tank and drawing my design on it, with the stencil I made, I then took an exacto blade and cut out the area that I wanted to be leafed. I then cleaned the exposed area and sprayed the adhesive on. The next step was to lay down the leaf. The leaf was applied and was very wrinkly because I was doing this outside and the wind was blowing. I actually like the wrinkled look (an accident) because it makes the leaf really look metalic and differentiates the leaf from spray on gold. After getting the leaf all layed down I put down three coats of sealer, waiting fifteen minutes between coats.
Overall I think the design turned our pretty cool. Can't wait to put the finishing touches on it.
Oh, and to make the process a little smoother, I made sure to stop by Vin de Pays and picked up a couple bottles of Pranqster. Good beer is essential when being creative.