Ahhhh... my old friend, unemployment.

Well, the streak couldn't last forever, and with the closing night of the Seattle International Film Festival, so too my employment came to an end.
Twas the magic hour yesterday, and a couple of handsome fellows joined me at my home for a round of "watch Joel fix his bike".

I have to say, despite the constant abuse that I endure, it sure is nice to have friends around rather than working hermit like in my darkened shed. I think that RJ was a little sad that he didn't get to use his hacksaw, but Travis and Phil's presence really kept me entertained and they helped me determine that I had a pretty massive air leak. So after buttoning everything up and putting in a new gasket, we were ready to roll. I dutifully passed on my mom's wisdom regarding Golden Gardens, "It was a homosexual bathhouse in the 70's", but RJ and Travis could not be deterred. We met some real nice sport bike riders who as Travis put it, "obviously thought we were lame and we obviously thought that they were lame, but everyone was very polite about it."

As rosanna has mentioned there have been some improvements to our fleet recently, rosanna's stabilizator finally kicked the bucket:
So after replacing that guy, she is now the proud rider of properly stabilized forks. Phil claims that he has never broken one of those and I'm about to replace a third so I can only deduce that his riding style has been less balls to the wall than my own.

I seized my stock crank(?), the cheeks froze up on the con rod... I have no idea how or why this happened.
Since it happened mid-festival for me, I had to get that bike back on the road fast. So, in the course of a day, I took apart the 'ol polini engine and slapped a new Treats 70cc reed kit on it.

Notice the JB Weld that is sealing and securing the pulse valve nipple on the intake.

I have to say that the performance is really awesome for how cheap the kit is, and I think that though I may make a few minor changes, this will probably be my torquey daily rider.

More changes to come soon, since I now have nothing but time on my hands.