Spring 2025: Burgman, V-Star, Kikker 5150, Oldskool Vespa, Designing Logos, MRA Class Sponsor News OH ME OH MY

8 years after I started doing this, business does NOT die down very much during the winter months. People schedule regardless of how cold it is. Truth be told I don’t even want to be busy year round, but, if the demand is there, I’ll take the work as long as it’s workable.

The ’08 Burgman stator project sucked in a demoralizing kind of way. The first stator I bought was defective. I bought another stator from a different vendor that finally worked. When I sent the defective stator back to the first vendor, I got one of those BS responses that was like “yeah it tests fine here, but we’ll send you a new one anyway… maybe hire a real life professional mechanic if you don’t know what you’re doing” and it’s like OK. Cool…

They’re in Loveland, CO. It’s not very far. How about I load this MF up in my van and take it to where they’re at? And pop their so-called “good” stator I returned into the bike in their parking lot, while they watch. And we’ll see how “good” their part is then, won’t we? I’d be willing to bet every red cent I have on the fact that the stator I sent back to them is, in fact, defective. And I can, if pressed, prove that. And I’d be further willing to bet every red cent I am capable of borrowing on that fact, too.

It’s neither here nor there, and it doesn’t matter. I’m just bitter about having had to do that job twice AND pay twice for parts because there are people in the world who don’t feel bad AT ALL about selling dogshit parts. I write this to share what it’s like working with aftermarket parts vs OEM while trying to save customers money. Sometimes it screws me in the butthole in ways that suck. The good news is this particular bike is back home and works fine, the customer is enjoying it, and everything worked out OK despite all of the frustrations.

All that said, if your bike needs a stator, and there’s any doubt in my mind about the functionality of aftermarket parts, you’re going to have to spring for the OEM part going forward. The OEM stator for this bike costs $600, which is more than the entire job here was to complete even with all of the headaches. Woof woof.

Yamaha V-Star Repair and Maintenance

Now for something way less frustrating! That’s a I have no idea what year, but it’s definitely some kind of Yamaha V-Star. It sat over the winter with old gas in it that plugged the pilot jets up. I cleaned the carbs, and now it’s off to the races.

Metric cruisers are one of my specialties: Honda Shadow, Yamaha V-Star, Kawasaki Vulcan, Suzuki Boulevard. If you have one that doesn’t work right, I’m pretty much the man when it comes to those bikes.

New Tires on a Piaggio Typhoon

As much as I love working on metric cruisers, scooters are my one and true love. HAHA. JKJK.

But no, for real now, scooters are great, and everyone who rides a scooter is awesome. But especially the older, straighter, whiter, male-er people who ride them and don’t give a single solitary fuck what anyone thinks of them ridin’ their scooter. Those guys rock.

But so do all the other scooter riders like the college kids, the quirky gals getting to work, and everyone who uses a scooter to buy booze without hard risking a DUI by driving a car, truck, or SUV.

Scooters totally have their place in the powersports ecosystem, and I love working on them and riding them.

This scoot’s interesting because Piaggio Typhoons are usually little 2T 49cc buzzbombs, but this one was factory kitted with a 125cc 4T engine. That’s not something I see all the time, so it was rad to work on it. New tires, an intake manifold, and a homemade air filter, and it’s good again.

GY6 Ruckus Wiring Shenanigans

That’s a GY6 Ruckus, which takes me back. I wrote a whole arse book about putting a GY6 Ruck together a long, long time ago that still, somehow, sells enough to put fizzy water money in my pockets every month.

I used an aftermarket wiring harness to get this one running again, then the owner took over on the more mechanical and less electrical bits, which is always fine by me. If you have a project you’re trying to DIY but are stuck on and frustrated with, I’m generally willing to help in the middle of a project as long as you have the right attitude and expectations about what you’re working with and where it needs to go. Book online or call me up at (720) 634-6935 to start talking about your project.

Fixing up a 1950s Vespa

HEY LOOK AN OLDSKOOL VESPA. TBH I’m probably NOT the best guy on Earth or even in town to work on one of these, but I’ve taken plenty of them apart and put ’em back together again. This one has spark. But there’s something up with the compression piece. I’m hoping we can get it going again with a new top end. But the whole engine may end up coming apart. We’ll see. I’m hoping it doesn’t turn into anything too long term. Goal is to have it together and bombing around the neighborhood by summer.

It has a stack of interesting papers from Pakistan, which is where it’s from and where someone obviously cared about it. Someone working in national security decided it was worth bringing over and then gifted it to a neighbor, who now wants it running. All of that makes it interesting to me, so I’m going to see what comes of it. I have high hopes and every reason to believe it’ll be a good one.

Kawasaki’s Take on 88 Cubic Inches

This is a ’95 Kawasaki Vulcan ’88’ with an 88ci engine and the last year model of its kind before the big redesign in ’96. It uses 2x air filters, one each on both sides of the tank mounted inside some shiny chrome housings that you need to have magic fingers to take apart. It was super fun!

Pretending I’m a Designer

I’m a huge fan of FOSS, which stands for Free Open Source Software. I use linux and the software available for it to do real shit in the real world, from making logos and adding content to my website to having parts cut out on a laser table and sent to me.

I like Ubuntu. My ‘desktop’ is a MacBook Pro from ’12. Here I am using Inkscape instead of paying for Adobe’s bullshit to get something done using vector graphics:

I was tasked with making some logos for some FB ads that’re going up on the Motorcycle Roadracing Association’s FB page. Why? Because I decided to sponsor the club’s Middleweight Superbike class for 2025, that’s why.

I don’t expect a hell of a lot of business to come from it, but it makes me feel good to support my favorite sporting organization.

That and after many years of being critical of the club, never in a really loud way though, I decided that putting up some money was a good way of signaling my full throated, unequivocal support of and confidence in the club and the people running it.

All of them have the best of intentions, and the membership needs to assume good faith before airing grievances or pissing and moaning about dumb stuff IN MY OPINION. More about this soon! I still have a print ad to ‘design’ and stickers to make etc before I’ll be ready to share more.

TIKTOK PASTA

I got into cooking during COVID times because I had lots of spare time, and my cooking skills needed work. I’m no chef, nor do I consider myself a foodie like at all, but I’ve finally gotten to where I can cook a halfway decent meal using kitchen staples without thinking too hard about it.

This is the start to some tomato-feta pasta AKA “TikTok pasta”. There are plenty of recipes out there, and it’s darn good for something that takes 5 minutes to throw together and 45 minutes in the oven.

Drag Pipes on a Honda Shadow

Here’s a super-custom Honda Shadow with tons of cool parts on it and a Coleman mini-bike, both of which were easy projects, and they’re running like they should now.

Kikker 5150 Kit Bike

I work on so many odd-ball bikes. This is a mini-bike that’s shaped like a chopper and uses a Honda clone engine. This version came out in 2006, so it’s almost 20 years old, which is crazy. Where does the time go? Some new tires, flushed the fuel tank, and cleaned the carb, and it’s ready to bomb around the neighborhood and teach the kids how to ride a motorbike! Cool bike!

GO RIDE YOUR BIKE

I 100% mean to brag here. I totally own an awesome ’02 ZX7-R street bike that I’ve been riding whenever I get a chance when it’s over about 60 degrees outside. It keeps me sane. It had to sit for about 6 weeks during January and February, but it started up just fine when I was ready to ride it again this month.

I really need to re-organize and clean this corner of my garage. It looks terrible, and I know it.

I am insanely busy at the moment, and I don’t think it’s going to let up any time soon. To get in touch, leave me a message at (720) 634-6935 or hit the link on the sidebar to book online. THANKS FOR READING!!!