Hi Everybody!
Okay, so, my job is kinda unique, in that most of my work time is between home and my office, but every six-eight weeks or so, I get sent somewhere to do a job. When I do, it could be to either east, west, or gulf coast, to within sight of Mexico, or any of the lower 8 provences of Canada.
My work timeframe can be rather rigorous... but once the site prep, and the hard work is done, I usually have about a day of down-time, then I spend the next day-and-a-half training, then I start my trek home.
There's been many times when I wished I had a motorcycle with me. Back when my service truck was an F450 Diesel, I actually carried a for-purpose motorcycle... a chopped-down Suzi GN400. I stripped it to bare bones, yanked the turn signals, battery, passenger pegs, cut off the tall handlebars, indicator lamps, tach and speedo, fabricated some clip-on bars, cut off all unnecessary bracketry, bodywork, even the centerstand, fitted a fuel tank from an early '70's Honda, made a one-piece cafe-racer seat-pan/tail/brake/light assembly. I yanked the original sprockets, and swapped 'em for a higher ratio, and mounted an electronic bicycle speedometer. I made a 'batteryless' voltage regulator unit that bumped output voltage to 12 (originally six) and swapped the (empty) headlamp shell for something much larger, with a 12v bulb. It was kick-start only, and the 'hot start assist' was worthless, so it went... as did the big megaphone exhaust- I welded on a 'sausage' muffler from JC Whitney... one low-profile rear-view mirror, so I could tell if my fly was unzipped. When all done, it weighed almost a hundred pounds LESS than the stock GN, and I had a little swinging electric hoist to lift it out of the truck, to the ground. Primary purpose was to be there when the Ford Diesel broke down (they broke down extremely frequently)... the GN cafe wasn't comfortable to go long distance, but if I was within a hundred miles, it'd get me to the hotel, and to my jobsite the next day, while my truck was being fixed by a dealership. I DID take it on some nice day-tours, met some great people, even had a couple guys on old Brit thumpers chase me down to see what that little mongrel was... and they took it for a ride, and came back with wide eyes and standing hair.
But I'm driving an F250 now, and would rather have my GL1200A along.
SO I was wandering through the back lot of my farm, and noticed the remains of an old boat trailer that I'd captured a decade ago... and thought about the possibilities. The bow stanchion is long gone, axle had been bent and repaired (poorly), tires gone, lighting all busted up, rollers cracked, bunks rotted away... it was a sad lookin' thing, and I always had to move it around to mow where it was stowed. SHE would be more-than-happy for it to disappear, but to me, well... it's good raw materials for some project someday.
What I'm gonna do, is turn this old boat trailer into a for-purpose machine... it will be specifically to allow me to easily load, lock down, tow, unlock, unload... my '84 GL, on biz trips behind my company truck, such that when I'm somewhere that riding is great, I can enjoy my downtime wandering byways, and not be stuck inside a company pickup truck.
I'm taking pictures, will post them as I go... standby!
Okay, so, my job is kinda unique, in that most of my work time is between home and my office, but every six-eight weeks or so, I get sent somewhere to do a job. When I do, it could be to either east, west, or gulf coast, to within sight of Mexico, or any of the lower 8 provences of Canada.
My work timeframe can be rather rigorous... but once the site prep, and the hard work is done, I usually have about a day of down-time, then I spend the next day-and-a-half training, then I start my trek home.
There's been many times when I wished I had a motorcycle with me. Back when my service truck was an F450 Diesel, I actually carried a for-purpose motorcycle... a chopped-down Suzi GN400. I stripped it to bare bones, yanked the turn signals, battery, passenger pegs, cut off the tall handlebars, indicator lamps, tach and speedo, fabricated some clip-on bars, cut off all unnecessary bracketry, bodywork, even the centerstand, fitted a fuel tank from an early '70's Honda, made a one-piece cafe-racer seat-pan/tail/brake/light assembly. I yanked the original sprockets, and swapped 'em for a higher ratio, and mounted an electronic bicycle speedometer. I made a 'batteryless' voltage regulator unit that bumped output voltage to 12 (originally six) and swapped the (empty) headlamp shell for something much larger, with a 12v bulb. It was kick-start only, and the 'hot start assist' was worthless, so it went... as did the big megaphone exhaust- I welded on a 'sausage' muffler from JC Whitney... one low-profile rear-view mirror, so I could tell if my fly was unzipped. When all done, it weighed almost a hundred pounds LESS than the stock GN, and I had a little swinging electric hoist to lift it out of the truck, to the ground. Primary purpose was to be there when the Ford Diesel broke down (they broke down extremely frequently)... the GN cafe wasn't comfortable to go long distance, but if I was within a hundred miles, it'd get me to the hotel, and to my jobsite the next day, while my truck was being fixed by a dealership. I DID take it on some nice day-tours, met some great people, even had a couple guys on old Brit thumpers chase me down to see what that little mongrel was... and they took it for a ride, and came back with wide eyes and standing hair.
But I'm driving an F250 now, and would rather have my GL1200A along.
SO I was wandering through the back lot of my farm, and noticed the remains of an old boat trailer that I'd captured a decade ago... and thought about the possibilities. The bow stanchion is long gone, axle had been bent and repaired (poorly), tires gone, lighting all busted up, rollers cracked, bunks rotted away... it was a sad lookin' thing, and I always had to move it around to mow where it was stowed. SHE would be more-than-happy for it to disappear, but to me, well... it's good raw materials for some project someday.
What I'm gonna do, is turn this old boat trailer into a for-purpose machine... it will be specifically to allow me to easily load, lock down, tow, unlock, unload... my '84 GL, on biz trips behind my company truck, such that when I'm somewhere that riding is great, I can enjoy my downtime wandering byways, and not be stuck inside a company pickup truck.
I'm taking pictures, will post them as I go... standby!