Saturday, February 7, 2015

Back to Bud's

I got a phone call yesterday from Bud's letting me know that the shifter lever came in if I still needed one. While there were a lot of things I should be doing in the garage and around the house, I decided I'd rather spend a couple hours on a nice Saturday rummaging through old motorcycle parts.

I had time to think since the last visit and, now knowing the type of stuff Bud's has, there were a couple things I wanted to look for to go on the XLCH during my next visit. 

The big thing on the list was a set of laced wheels. The mags I have are cool, but I always prefer spokes on older bikes. I'd done some searching on line for the correct wheels and, although I found several period correct 16 inch rear wheels available, I really wanted the 18 inch and those seem harder to find.

After about fifteen minutes of searching and finding a few of the proper 16 inch versions, I finally found the correct 18 inch. It was a little rough looking but the rim was good (read: still round and straight) and hopefully the spokes and hub will clean up decently. Or at least enough to be powder coated.

I wasn't so lucky with the front wheel. The correct one is 19 inches and has dual small front disks. While I found plenty of single disk wheels for the narrow front end as well as lots of double disks for big twins, I didn't have much luck finding specifically what I was looking for.

After about 30 additional minutes of searching, I'd found two. One of them had a bad flat spot on the rim so it would need to be rebuilt. The other was perfect but... it was attached to a complete bike (i.e. not for sale as a part). Oh well, I'll keep the flat rim in mind for the hub and spokes if I come across the correct rim at some point.

Now it was on to the fun part. I took the wheel downstairs to Aaron and asked what he wanted for it. Immediately he responded with, "Well... you beat me up pretty good last time over the flat track shoe...."

Wait, what!?!? First off, he remembered me so that was kind of cool, but beat him up? I reminded him that despite negotiations, he did not budge on the price of the shoe. To which he responded, "<chuckle> ...it was a really cool piece."

Anyway, after a little less back and forth this time, I got the rear wheel for a price I think we're both happy with. Man, Aaron's a tough negotiator!

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