I picked these up on ebay.  New old stock Iron Age steel toe boots with interesting double leather caps on the toes.  I wanted something to beat up when I’m in the garage so I don’t murder the boots I wear to work.   These may be the nicest boots I’ve ever seen for twenty bucks.  Dare I say, they’re nicer than Iron Rangers?

I’ve off and on followed Ezra’s photos on flickr since I first got on there in 2004.   It’s weird to see and hear him in a video because I only know him from his photos, text, and a few brief back and forth comments over the years.  I watched him go from dance instructor to bicycle builder to receiving the shitty hand of cards when he was diagnosed with cancer.  I always love seeing that he’s out doing amazing things.  It makes me feel like if the same medical condition struck me I’d feel like I’d wasted my life.  But he addresses that in the video a bit talking about how irresponsible the whole “live like there’s no tomorrow” thing seems to him.   I hate knowing that some great people get sick and some really shitty people just get a free pass in life.   I really enjoyed the video even if he was maybe feeling a bit jaded at the time it was recorded.  

My friend put a Lifan 125cc engine in a Honda Passport frame.   Capable of 60+ mph.  It’s a torquey little bastard. 

This is what it looks like a year and a half after sewing plain veg tan leather to the chin strap of my motorcycle helmet.  Past time for some peroxide.. nasty. 

Panorama photos from today.  A great day to be on two wheels.  

Finally, dry enough to mow.  A beautiful Sunday in Iowa. 

Forgotten photos from north central Iowa, January 20th, 2007.

Voigtlander Bessa R3A, 15mm Heliar f4.5

Fomapan 200, Kodak D76

Already found a good use for the FrostInHisBones hanky. It fits around my neck as a wind block into my motorcycle jacket. It was about 45F tonight so it worked great.

Wednesday when I got home, my wife had picked up the mail and there was a package waiting for me. I’m one of the chosen few product testers for  Frostinhisbones’ handkerchieifs (from here forward referred to as a hanky.) He’s taken the time to sit down and think about things such as proper fabric, design, source of his materials, and other things people laying in piles of rubble in Bangledesh wish we’d think about.

I’m grateful he was so kind as to think of me to take his new item out for a bit of a field test. I plan on carrying it with me when I am out and about.

I’m sure i’ll end up blowing my nose, staining it with grease, and using it to grab hot spark plugs out of cylinderheads. It’s double the thinkness of a bandana so I’ll be using it as a face mask with my motorcycle helmet. It’ll have character once the snow here finally goes away. But for now I’m going to use it to keep my nose from running. If you’d like to purchase one of these fine items, head on over to his Etsy shop and pick one up.

As for now, I’m going to figure out what pocket my grandpa carries these things in.   I’ve been a ‘wipe your nose on your sleeve’ sort of guy my whole life.   I’ll be reporting back as things progress.

Paul and Shad came up to town after work last night for some food and riding.  Perfect weather and then a thunderstorm for the ride home.  

Christian Petersen’s 1933 Dairy Industries Building Installation.

September, 2009

Hasselblad 503cx, Kodak Tri-X, Kodak Xtol

Warm weather means motorcycles.   Always motorcycles.  

Trying to improve upon the Davida leather face mask.  Better breathing holes so my glasses don’t fog up and about 2x as thick to block wind better.  I also incororated a little flip-down chin flap to block wind from underneath.   This was just an experiment because it was raining tonight.  I had no real goals when I sat down, but it ended up turning into something I can use.    I am trying to come up with a design that fits inside 3/4 DOT rated helmets like a Bell 500.  

I spent all of today going through this bike by the book.  Cleaned the carburetor, set the float height, shimmed the needle, set cam chain tension, set valve lash, etc…  It still doesn’t run that well, but I’ll get it sorted out.  Otherwise it’s solid, all the electric works, and nobody has messed with it too badly.  3800 miles is what the odometer says.  This is going to be my summer wander/commuter bike.   

Somewhere on U.S. Highway Six.