Converting to sealed bearings

Converting loose bearing wheels to sealed bearings has always been a difficult and time consuming effort for me. But I really think that if done correctly the product is worth it. The leleu wheels that I am using have an OD of 29mm. That's a problem because the bearing sizes I want come in 28mm or 30mm.
Yesterday I stopped by the wizards lair and asked phil if they had any pipe I could turn in order to make a shim for 28mm bearings. If you were keeping track that would mean I'm making .5mm shims. That's small and probably too difficult to turn in a lathe. Phil suggested I go get some shim stock. I didnt know that this stuff existed! It's great. I was able to stop by online metals and pick up some .5mm shim stock and since it was scrap they just gave it to me for free.

Anyway, I got the shim material, cut it down with my dremel and trimmed it fit.

All in all it's been super simple and easy. I still need to use some red loc-tite to seal it in place and I need some length of pipe to keep the bearings from being pulled in on each other.


The bearings i used were 6001zz. With this setup I'll be running 12mm axles. Stoked!

DEATHwheels

DEATHped progress

I'm back from Catalina for a few days so I've been working hard on the DEATHped. Man, with a name like that, it would be a real shame if I actually died on it... anywhoodles, it's coming along swimmingly.
I started by meticulously cleaning and assembling the engine, then I wanted to see how it would look with the yellow sebacs I had laying around, and then I figured I should throw some wheels on it to check the stance, and now it's actually looking like a moped. Amazing!

I am for sure not going to use these wheels or these forks, I'm waiting to buy some black EBRs, (unless some benevolent soul wants to give me some?) and Phil is currently powdercoating some spokers for me.
Phil said that he would work on perhaps getting me my wheels this evening. Fingers crossed.

It is really nice to build a bike without rushing it. I can disassemble and reassemble things as I discover issues rather than building it with my usual, "I have to get this done tonight or I won't have anything to ride!" For example I don't want any wires showing if I can help it, so I drilled a tiny hole in the frame near the motor mount and that is where my taillight wire pops out. Another pet peeve of mine is when someone does a meticulous and beautiful pinto build and then bolts the coil right above their front wheel. Like this:
Gross. So I spent some time figuring and I managed to bolt my cdi coil onto the case nice and discretely. There is a small section of case that sticks out like a tab in-board of the flywheel. I just drilled a mounting hole and bolted it in.

And lastly, here is my motomatic N8p all bolted up. They made me this pipe way back in the day and it had gotten really dented and gnarly so last year when we headed to the Latebird Invitational I dropped it off for a restore. They did a great job. They replaced the header, angled the flange to fit a gila, took out all of the dented sections, and generally cleaned it up, as well as giving it a nice new powdercoat job. Their fit tolerances are perfect. I told them it was for a gila on a pinto frame and the mounting bracket fits just right. Also, I'm a big fan of pipes that kick up a little bit, so this thing really makes me happy.


Oh yeah, I threw those sebacs on there. I can't decide if they fit or not. I was starting to feel that when this thing is done there might be too much red and black so the splash of yellow might be a racy contrast. Any thoughts? Bear in mind that I'm color blind so most of the time my color choices are cranked to the max.

Football

It's sunday and I'm watching the Seahawks. I love football and for me the Seahawks represent the old, blue collar days of Seattle. Before Amazon, Microsoft, and the general tech boom transition this city has made.
The ultimate Seahawk will always be Steve Largent. He was white, small, and a real nice guy. But he was an amazing wide receiver and was the coolest when I was a little kid.

Here's what wikipedia says: When Largent retired, he held all major NFL receiving records, including: most receptions in a career (819), most receiving yards in a career (13,089), and most touchdown receptions (100). He was also in possession of a then-record streak of 177 consecutive regular-season games with a reception.

In 1988 Steve Largent proved what a badass he was. Earlier in the '88 season Denver player Mike Hardin threw a right forearm to the left side of Largent's face, shattering the facemask, dislodging teeth and leaving Largent briefly unconscious and with a sprained left knee. The next time Denver played the Seahawks you could really see the tension. Check out 1:19 when Largent gets riled up at the refs call and yells into the refs mic. And then at 2:08 Largent demolishes Mike Hardin after Hardin intercepts a pass. Man, what a guy.

Catalina Dive, September 29th

Whoo! I've been on the water a lot these past few days. At night I feel like I'm still swaying on the boat and I rock back and forth in my chair.
The snorkeling in the cove right here on the USC campus is really incredible. I've seen Bat Rays, Leopard sharks, Garibaldis, and lot's of other kinds of fish. The Bat Rays and Leopard Sharks were huge! Unfortunately, I don't have an underwater camera housing so you'll just have to take my word for it.
Here is some photos from our sub operation on September 29th:
Sunset 9/28

Sunrise 9/29

Ryan getting the shot.

Gearing up and heading out for the dive.

Antipodes by the caves.

Sunset 9/29

I've also gotten really good at handling an outboard motor. Here I am transporting people in the tender boat.

Catalina Island, USC campus

Jaques Costeau's Diving Bell

Awesome Logo

Sunset

Long Exposure

Bison Face-off

Mosey On

The Greatest T-shirt ever made.

Boooooring.

Slowly but surely DEATHped Mark 1 is coming together. I spent Saturday down at the Wizard's Lair working on DEATHped.

I brought Phil my fuel tank and he quickly set to work sandblasting it to prepare it for it's eventual deathly black appearance.


Naz was welding away on Hucker Steves pipe. Look at that crack!


I was busy boring away at my engine case so it would mate oh so perfectly with my monster gila kit.

I think it came out pretty nice. This case is my trusty polini matched case that I got from Seth many years ago. It's amazing that even though the polini cylinder is pretty dramatically different than the Gila, the port matching that I will have to do to match is pretty minimal. Neat!



In other news, I got a job about three months ago. An adult job. Currently I am the Marketing Coordinator for a company called OceanGate. We provide services to researchers that want to dive underwater to depths unavailable via scuba. In other words, we have a submarine and we take people deep. 936 ft. deep.
So right now I am at the USC research campus on Catalina Island. I'll be here on and off for the next month so I'm excited to visit the Latebirds at some point.
Here's the sub!

Here I am learning how to use an ROV in the Manhaus pool.

And here is a vista we saw as we 4x4'd to the campus yesterday.