broken bike and spent time

I have been working really hard for the last few months on my pet project, one of about 7 years, which is a 1953 GMC panel truck. I am hot rodding the thing with additions like a mustang II front end, a 75 Nova rear, updated leaf springs to hold the rear, boxed frame, shaved body (handles and emblems), 350 Deluxe HO crate motor, TH350, 2000 PT Cruiser buckets up front and removable folding rear seat in back, motorcycle flush gas filler/cap, and some other fun stuff. The progress was stalled pretty bad a few years ago when a harsh winter, the truck was stored in a non-insulated shed, caused the block to crack on my brand new engine. A few years later, over nine hundred dollars poorer, one rebuild later, and a lot more knowledgeable, I find myself finally making some real progress! The show that I am fighting to make it to is one that for the last three years I have made a goal to be at and all three years, with the exception of this one, I have let the goal fall to the wayside. This year is different, in that I made the goal a huge priority and my wife has been really great to support that... it is nice to have her beside me in all of my endeavors. The show takes place in Brigham City, Utah and coincided with the city's "Peach Days" celebration. My aunt and uncle have been part of the club that hosts the show for years and my uncle has even been the president of the club on a number of occasions. I have helped in the past with the show and used a lot of aspects of the "Peach Days Picnic," as it is called, in the designing and hosting of my show in Preston, Idaho. It will be really nice to have my own truck in a show I have been going to for so many years! There will be pictures to come!

From the title of this post, I guess I should add that my bike is broken. I was riding home from work the middle/end of last week and as I approached a stop sign with the clutch pulled in suddenly the bike reacted as though I had just dumped the clutch even though my hand firmly held the clutch pull. Interestingly enough, I was less that 50 feet from the front door of the local Yamaha dealer and was able to simply push it right into their service bay! I guess it wanted to be serviced! I got a ride home and they kept the bike with the directions to fix the problem, replace the rear tire, which was well into the wear bars, and give the thing and general tune-up including an oil change. I hope to have the bike back by the middle to end of this coming week as my weekly mileage will make a huge jump with the fall college semester starting tomorrow, Monday the 27th of August.


Well, those are really the only two things to add to the blog since it is mainly for the bike and the panel truck build log. I am going to get some good photos of the truck this week and get them loaded while the semester is new and most of my classes shouldn't start real hard stuff until next week! Oh, by the way, the Peach Days Picnic is on the 8th of September in Brigham City so if anyone but family reads this thing and is in the area, make sure to stop by since it is a top notch show!

-Panelrodder