Road Tunes On The Cheap

Shit happens when you get old. Like me wanting to put some tunes on my Heritage. I figured it might be nice to have something to listen to other than my co-pilot beating on my back a saying “I gotta’ piss”.

Now there are a lot of options out there to make this happen most of them just aren’t my options. The faring option? No way. To much smokes and coffee money. Speakers on the handlebars? Maybe. But you still gotta’ do something with the amp. Generally they get stashed in a windshield pouch or saddlebag. Both of which are not easily accessibly and lend to exposed wires. Plus I don’t really care for speakers on the bars. They stick out to far and screw up the flow lines.

So you’ve got this empty space between the bars and windshield that looked like something would fit there. Now to find it. There’s a lot of stuff out there on the www. Some cheap some way on the overkill side. I just wanted something to listen to Dean Martin on, not blast the paint off my tank with hippie music. I finally settled on a company out of Brooklyn, NY named Gooddeals18. They sell Shark Audio, which is a brand I’ve never heard of.

Judging by their pricing I guessed it would be poorly assembled crap from China. I was correct. I also knew I was going to disassemble every part. The speaker grills were painted to cover the ‘shark’ logo. Tabs were shaved down on the inside and fiber washers were added between the speaker and grill mounts. Never mistake a speaker with a mechanical vibration with a blown speaker. Two different things. The amp was striped and repainted. Again, to cover up the logo. Sorry folks over at Shark, but I don’t do advertising, just sarcasm.

The mount is 1/16 steel plate, 1” bar clamps, some welding, drilling and a project box mounted underneath to hide the wires. The amp plays my operas via a AUX input, USB or SD. Plus it has a FM tuner. The specs say its 250W. I doubt it, but don’t really care. Going down the road fast, of course, I can hear the tunes just fine at about 80% volume. The speakers shocked the shit out of me. The sound is excellent. The buttons on the amp are a little small, but at 3.25 inches across the front what do you expect. It doesn’t take long for your fingers to memorize what’s what. The only thing I really need is the volume control while moving. When I find a Glide that no longer needs its handlebar volume control and housing I’ll solder it into the amp.

All things considered, except for me being out about a hundred bucks, I think it’ll do what I want, for now. Other modifications are pending.

Holiday Music

I know the ‘holidays’ are over, but I saw a cool Christmas Carol on youze-a-boob and thought I’d share.  

Click here I think.

False Advertising?

Ran across this advertisement in the January 2012 ‘Thunder Press’. I’ve got a question if anybody can answer it. Is this the throttle thingy that AZ-HOLE Performance uses on all their bikes? The ad sure seems to imply it.

New Years Message

Yesterday I was inspired with a New Years message for the World.


I stopped at Dave’s to see what was going on. My inspiration did not occur there. All we did at Dave’s was play with his son’s toys. What else do you expect two grown men to do? New toys, let’s play! My inspiration took place a few blocks from there.

On the way home I saw a bike waiting to pull out into traffic. For an instance I thought I recognized the bike, but the rider was all wrong. I watched in the mirror and let him get next to me. Yep, that was the bike. I hadn’t seen it in over ten years, but I was the same bike. The rider was vaguely familiar. I shouted over: “Do I know you?” He just shrugged.

We pulled on the shoulder. After the introductions were made, it was the SOB I logged a butt-load of miles with years ago. I thought he moved out of the area. He looked like shit. I mean really bad. Like he just crawled out from under a f’ing rock. The bike looked good. So we gabbed like two old hens at a picket fence for a while. This is when I was suddenly inspired with the wisdom of the world.

Since I’ve seen him: Mom died. Inherited her house. It’s a small house and he can barely afford the taxes. Son and his wife moved in. Has a live in girlfriend. Laid-off eight months ago. On pain meds from a bad back. And, his ex-wife moved in! WTF! Now there’s a Brother that needs help. Not help with life, it’s your life and you live it how you want. He’s not much of a wrench; so maybe I could help save him a few bucks on a car or bike repair. Maybe just sit and let him bend my ear for a while. Sometimes that’s all it takes.

Here’s the part that really pissed on my inspiration. We both still have the same phone number and the others number in our damn cells. Just drifted away. I’ll be getting a hold of him this weekend to see if I can’t help out a old Bro that’s been through the meat grinder.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that as fucked up as this world is getting we all need a little help once in a while. Or we can help someone else with our special skills. And I mean help, not charity. Most of the folks I know won’t accept charity. But they will accept help from a friend.

So the words in this song are my New Years message to the World.

Chain ?

In keeping with Wooley’s theme of wondering about stuff on Monday’s, there’s something I’ve always wondered about…chain. Good ole’ tow-chain, tie-down-chain, just chain. The stuffs been around forever. Nothing beats a six foot piece of chain when the need a’rises. Here’s the question: Why is it you always see someone ‘dragging’ a chain?




If anyone can answer that, please enlighten this old fart. It’s always puzzled me. I was puzzled by that chicken or the egg thing for years until I found out it was the ‘rooster’.

11-11-11 Parade

Here’s the pictures from the First Annual Salinas Veterans Day Parade. No editing, no nothing. Just the way they were taken. If anything is out of focus just squint and take a shot of JD. You’ll never know the difference.

Nothing Changes

Anybody remember Barry McGuire? In 1965 he did a song named “Eve of Destruction”. It was one of those radical anti-government protest songs. Some of you gray haired old farts probably remember it. Of course that’s the gray haired guys only. We all know there’s no gray haired woman thanks to Clairol Nice ‘n Easy. 

Barry McGuire was in Santa Cruz last weekend. I don’t know why and never found out. I did however listen to a 2-hour bitch & bull session he did on a local AM station. Apparently he still thinks the government is a bunch of morons, which I agree with. The one thing that I got from the 2 hours, besides a caffeine buzz, was that Barry got with the original writer of “Eve of Destruction” P.F. Sloan and they did a updated version to reflect how peaceful we’ve become in the last 40 some years. Its called "Eve 2012". The original from 1965 is on the same page. So if you’ve never heard it you can compare them and then you’ll understand the saying: “The more things change, the more they stay the same”.

In keeping with the somewhat biker theme of this blog, I’ll tell you that Barry did his last movie in 1971 called “Werewolves on Wheels”. Billed as a ‘B’ outlaw biker flick. It’s on You Tube if you want to see it. But be forewarned; alter you state of mind first.

Just in case you’re wondering, that picture up top is the Snoopy band-aid the pretty nurse put on my ass this morning after she gave me a injection of Toradol.