Happiness, the fairy tale.

Morning came and, like a rose in bloom, her eyes opened. Those deep, beautiful eyes that cast a glow about them. Eyes that look right through and hold you in their brilliant gaze, like a feather in the wind. Another day had begun. A new day in which to continue her labor of love. And she readied herself going on to meet her charges. All day she sowed and planted, and her words watered their brains until she could see the little buds of knowledge sprout in their eyes. And then she rested, for the day was done. She cast a glance about her and , with a satisfied sight, she went home.

Wow! A lot has happened this summer. Since I wrote on this site last, "Bo" came back to us. The guy that bought it could not handled it and, since he was a friend of my son, he agreed to take it back. Now riding season is almost over and if we don't sell it before the winter we'll do some changes to it in the cold months. We took an amazing trip to Spain and had the most wonderful time in Galicia. We got to know new family, see beautiful sites and have some awesome food. I was able to reconnect with my cousin in Vigo, whom I had not seen since 1998. We traveled to Miami next, to see my mother who came from Cuba for a visit. And returned home so my wife could have an operation. Luckily everything went fine and she is now back at work as the new school year has started. I created a website to go with the motorcycle repair shop I am trying to start, you can check it out at www.brazencustoms.com . It is a work in progress but I hope it works out. The new bike p

The new bike is taking shape. Today we finished the tail and put it on.  It is welded in place. Next we mounted the rear tire and the front so we could get a look at it from the design aspect. By doing this we realized that the front end has to be raked for it to look good. When we return from Spain we'll have to get the fender, seats, tank and other parts but the biggest hurdle is over. I will also have to work on the engine. The one we have is old, from 1980 and we have no idea if it will run. It should, those engines are very sturdy. Other than some rust from being left outside for so many years it should crank up fine, once I put new oil and filter on it and replace a few parts, This bike is going to be amazing!

Well, Bo is no longer with us. It was sold to a friend of jochi. We are moving on to the next build. We started out with a similar bike to Bo, only a newer frame. This one is a 1982 frame and we are going a little deeper into the customization. This is what it looked like before we started. Took out the forks, wiring and rear tire and chopped it down and got this: Here the back of the frame has been removed and the frame is ready for the extension and hard tailing that will be done. I have started a course on Motorcycle repair. It is rewarding to build or modify something. When you are finish you look at it and say: "I made that" The next step is to put manufacture and install the new hard tail. We bought pipe from a supplier and I started to work with it. This is the new tail taking shape. This project will have to be interrupted for a couple of weeks. We are traveling to Spain next week to accompany my wife on a missi

So after riding for a few weeks and having the carbs tuned on Esmeralda (my Virago) Joseito bought forward controls for Bo and we installed them. I tried them out and realized it makes for a much more comfortable ride. This is the brake on the right side of the bike. It extends the control to a more relaxed, front position that allows your leg to be straight forward. This is the other side, the shifter. I liked the feel and look of it, but could not afford to purchase the linkage. I decided that I could make it myself and had all the parts I needed in the shop. I only had to purchase a couple of couplings and a threaded rod and, voila! I used the foot pegs we removed from Joseito's bike and created the rest. The shifter is a piece of tubing with a carriage bolt through it and wrapped in leather, it looks as if it was manufactured that way. I am quite happy with the results. I rode it for a while and it feels great. You can beat a little ingenuity

After much work and some minor setbacks she is finally ready. She still sputters a bit but I was able to take my first ride after over twenty years. This is a Yamaha Virago XV920MK or a Midnight Virago as it was named. She is from 1983 and rides fast and comfortably. It was a great ride, even though it was a short one, maybe 30 minutes. The wind rushing through, the roar of the engine between your legs and the knowledge that you are in control make for a pretty exhilarating experience. The next step now is to get used to riding with another rider. I always rode by myself, except the few times I paced Rudy with his moped, so riding with someone else will take some getting used to. Have to work on communication and signals and a few other things, but we have a few weeks before our planned trip cross country. That is going to be phenomenal. I am planning on taking the laptop and updating the blog every time we stop at a coffee place or a Mcdonalds with wifi. My Achilles hee

The weather is finally good enough to ride, so my son has been riding for a couple of days now. In the meantime, I bought a 1983 Yamaha 920 Midnight Virago. This one is different than the one I owned all those years ago, but it is nice. It is black with gold trim. She runs, but needs a little TLC. I have to save up the money to get the title, tag and insurance, so for now she sits in the storage. I work on it when I have time and prepare for the upcoming ride. She is a comfortable bike and surprisingly loud for a stock exhaust. She does have the typical Virago problem, every time you hit the starter button it sounds like it is falling apart. I have seen where they have an after market repair kit for it but it sells for around $300.00 so she will have to make do for the time been. We will not tear down and rebuild this one as we did with "Beau" (Joseito's bike) but it will require some touch ups. I am exited to get on the road with her.

We went down to the RMV or We'll Tax You For Life Central, as it is known in Massachusetts, and got the tag for the bike. He put it on and took her out for a spin. We went to pick up Loli at work, he on the bike and me on the car behind, but she would not answer the phone so we had to go home and park it as it was getting dark. The learning permit he got does not allow for night driving. It was very satisfying to see him riding on the bike we had work on so hard and being able to see the looks that people on the streets would give him. A guy stopped on the sidewalk to turn and follow the motorcycle as it sped down the street. Four young girls, 8 to 10 year old, stopped playing on the sidewalk to run after it for a block. It brought back so many memories of my first bike. I can't wait to get my Virago on the road. We have a little more work to do on it, but she sure is a looker!

There is nothing as satisfying as creating, fixing or working on something with your own hands. When my son bought his motorcycle I was a bit apprehensive about all the work required. I must say, though, that now when I look at it I feel a sense of pride at the amount of work and sweat we put into it. It is a 31 year old bike so there are going to be problems along the way. We had to remove the carburetors twice already. We have adjusted them several times and now we need to change the spark plugs, once again. A couple of days ago, the weather improved and he started her to take her out for a spin and the rear wheel locked up. When we were working on it we cleaned the wheel well and inspected the shoes. I knew they would need replacing but for the moment just put them back until the bike was ready to ride. When the wheel locked we had to remove it. The pads on the brake shoes had come off completely and so they had jammed together against the metal. We replaced the shoes on the

It has been over twenty years since I sold the Virago. My son is now close to being 21 and he found the love of motorcycling through a coworker. He saved up his money and bought a 1980 Kawasaki KZ550 LTD. I negotiated for him with the seller and we were able to pick up the bike and a second 1980 KZ550 for parts for $300.00 for both. We rented a storage space and started to work on the bike. He had an idea that he wanted to pursue and started buying the parts as he had the money. We stripped her down to the bare bones, took out the engine and transmission and painted the frame black. We removed the air box and replaced it with individual air filters. He bought 12 inch ape hanger handlebars which I thought would be too much, but must admit look and feel really good. We took the exhaust pipes and cut out the baffles, wrapped was was left and added shorty mufflers. We painted most of the engine black and polished the rest of the aluminum. We replaced the springs with shorter s

After changing the solenoid in my Virago a couple of times I decided I was not going to do it again. So I rode for a few months with a screwdriver in my pocket and started her that way. I got quite good at it, I could get it at the first try, sometimes faster than with the starter botton. I got a job as a salesman and would ride from the house to the job every day, my tie flapping in the wind like the team flags do in cars these days. It got pretty loud sometimes. The time had come to get a car so I went to a dealer and traded my Virago in for a Ford Escort. I know what you are thinking, AN ESCORT? Well they were fairly new at that time an very economical and something that came very handy very soon, it was a station wagon. I say it came in very handy because a few months after I bought it I had to move out of my apartment. I packed all my worldly possessions in the back and drove around like a hermit crab for a couple of weeks. Finally, I found a new shell...er... house with a v

A few years went by before I was able to purchase another bike. This time it was a more powerful machine, the 1984 Yamaha Virago 920. This was a beautiful motorcycle in a deep purple, almost black color. It had a comfortable seat and a powerful V-twin engine. The only trouble with it was that the starter solenoid needed to be replaced often. I purchased this bike from a private seller. It had been sitting for a year or so and I was able to get it at a relatively good price. When I bought it, it was meant to be a recreational vehicle only. I had a Chevy pickup that I drove daily and used the bike only on weekends or nights when the weather was nice. Living in Miami, Florida at that time a got a lot of opportunities to ride it. However, a few months later it became my only means of transportation. My pickup was involved in an accident one night and became incapacitated (the front was bent to the right so far that it looked like half a pretzel). Some idiot ran a stop in the middle of

I was 20 years old when I bought my first motorcycle . It was a 1980 Honda, 125 cc red beauty, which I paid cash for and rode out of the showroom in Alexandria, Virginia. I can't remember the cost, but I remember I looked at it for a couple of months while I saved my paychecks to be able to get it. I got on and, without a single lesson drove it out of the parking lot of the showroom and right onto the pavement. Or, should I say "into" the pavement? I remember how embarrassed I was. I tried to make a right turn into the street and pulled back on the handle to turn, pulling the accelerator with it. The rear tire spun and the bike ended on the ground. I picked it up, got back on and cooled my red face the rest of the way home. Soon I was riding along everywhere, rain or shine I was always on that bike. I went to the softball games on it, my bat sticking out of my backpack like a flag pole. I would get up to 85 miles on the expressway and felt I was on top of the world.