04-07-2026, 02:33 AM (This post was last modified: 04-07-2026, 02:36 AM by Gone in 60.)
On Saturday morning, I woke up at dawn. It was a museum shift morning. No need to be up that early, but when I am up super early on a museum shift Saturday I frequently get an early start and swing by Donut Derelicts in Huntington Beach to check out the cars and bikes, and chat with people before I head to the museum.
This Saturday, some of my favorite Detroit Iron had shown up. I had a '69 Eldorado so the quirky early GM front-drivers are still favorites. And the '71 Road Runner is one of my "I'd probably kill a guy for one of these" cars.
But the thing that stopped me in my tracks was this BMW R71 with a side car. It was exquisitely restored. The owner had just received it, and said there's a guy in Germany who will find them and restore them to any spec you'd like. A WW2-era clone is popular, but this one was in grey, and he said it is more representative of an immediate post-war German military bike.
Simply awesome.
From there, I headed up to the museum, and proved that going to a car show can keep you from getting stuck in heavy traffic. See, normally, if I left from home for the museum, I'd shoot directly up the 5, take the 10 through the middle of Downtown LA, and get off for the museum on the west side of the city. But, coming from Donuts in Huntington Beach, I was on the 405 to the 110 North. The cool part here is that a motorcycle can take the elevated toll lane on the 110, putting you up high, and on a very clear morning, you get an awesome view of downtown, with the local mountains in the background. And, you pass other fun stuff, like the new stainless spire that is the soon-to-open Space Shuttle Endeavor museum. The view was spectacular.
From here, I wrapped around the 270-degree ramp to the 10 West, and as I looked across to the normal part of the 10 that I would have been on if I came straight from home, the freeway was closed. There were three badly smashed cars ahead of the closure, scattered all over the freeway that must have ricochet off of each other at very high speed. Had I not come from the car show, I would have been stuck in the closure. So there ya go. Attend a car show early in the morning, and you will avoid bad traffic.
Sunday, I cleaned and prepped the newly acquired 2015 RTP for application of the bright yellow decal kit that I will apply this week as I have time after daily deliveries. Rode the bike on today's run in her natural black-and-white colors, save for the yellow box on the back. So, from the front it still looks like a cop bike, and it was a bit aggravating to have cars in front of me on the freeway slow down and weave back and forth as the drivers were glued to their mirrors trying to figure out if I was CHP or not. In my yellow jacket, I'm sure it was confusing.
One thing that I have found that happens from time-to-time is that although we have pickups scheduled by our clients, the times can vary based on patients who show up late to their appointments. I have scoped out parks nearest to the pickups, so that I don't have to wait in hospital lobbies, but can still get back quickly. Today, while laying on a park bench waiting for a late patient, I was enjoying watching the clouds pass by, when one of them looked a lot like our cat Sterling's head....
04-07-2026, 09:11 AM (This post was last modified: 04-07-2026, 09:13 AM by Lunchbag.)
(04-07-2026, 02:33 AM)Gone in 60 Wrote: one of them looked a lot like our cat Sterling's head....
I see it (at least I think I do...I've never met Sterling, but I assume he looks like a cat).
The R-71 is pretty striking. There was a time long ago when I contemplated getting a Chang Jiang, as they offered them customized for a reasonable price, but in hindsight I'm content with my decision to find other diversions in life besides a Chinese version of a Russian version of a cool German bike.
04-08-2026, 09:05 AM (This post was last modified: 04-08-2026, 09:07 AM by Gone in 60.)
Right now, Mrs. G is in Washington working for the week, so Sterling and his brother Cyril (guess what cartoon they are named after) are basically looking at me saying "You are not Mom. Feed me anyway."
We have a Chang Jiang with a sidecar at the Petersen... one of those oddball vehicles that I'm sure someone donated that they really don't have a place for, but they recently took in a BMW with a sidecar, so it's a sort of cool juxtaposition to show the original, and say "Russia copied it, and this blue thing is a Chinese copy of the Russian copy". It's usually tucked in a corner, and not in easy view, but sometimes someone will take me over to wherever it is and ask what the heck it is.
Speaking of BMWs, my current project with work is to apply the decal kit to the recently-acquired member of our medical delivery fleet. This one is a 2015, a bit shaggy looking with 50k miles on the clock. The boss has been impressed with the detailing I've done to clean up the bikes I've been riding - I've made it clear that I can't ride a dirty bike - but not much I can do for this one. Faded plastics, scratched up windshield... I ran a buffer with some heavy compound over the windshield but that didn't make a dent. I can still see through it. The side stand is a little worn and she leans over far enough that I can't fit it between the garage door and the very soft, vulnerable back bumper on my car. So, I fashioned a very Rube Goldberg extender to the bottom, and I'll need to figure out a more permanent solution than a salad dressing bottle cap drilled and zip-tied.
But so far, she's the smoothest riding of the bikes I've been on so far. I actually think I want to keep this one as my permanent bike. Maybe at 50k, she's "broken in nicely" for a BMW?
The decal kit really is something to behold as far as the intricacy of its construction and packaging. The kits are made in England to order for the bike, company and use (blood bike, police bike, etc). The kit is packaged in large brown paper, folded and taped with each package representing a different section on the bike. It's like a big mosaic. There are two layers for each part, a base neon yellow decal, with a reflective decal over the first one.
Each decal, even those as small as your thumbnail, is stamped with a number and "NS" or "OS". Looking at the diagram of where they go (The whole thing is detailed on one side of one 8.5x11 piece of paper... need a magnifying glass to see it clearly), it took me a while to figure out that NS and OS mean "Near Side" and "Other Side" if you were standing on the right side of the bike trying to figure it all out. I guess "Right" and "Left" would have been way to easy.
I've been doing a section at a time when I get home from my daily runs. So far, my priority has been to finish the front end, what a driver can see in the mirror. This breaks up the "Cop Bike" look, and will keep people in front of me from slowing down. Lots to go still with the tank, side bodywork, and the pannier boxes.
Without wishing to defend "NS" and "OS", left and right are problematic as they're essentially relative terms. Do they apply when you're facing front or back? Port and starboard make much more sense as they are always left and right facing the bow of the vessel. One could make a case for "NS" and "OS" provided one could be sure they'd been correctly applied for the country in which they were being used. If I were you, I'd be very nervous that a British supplier had sent decals marked for vehicles that drive on the left hand side of the road (facing forwards).
Sometimes the road not travelled is best left that way. (Jane Goodall)
04-09-2026, 08:50 AM (This post was last modified: 04-09-2026, 09:00 AM by Gone in 60.)
(04-09-2026, 12:15 AM)Cormanus Wrote: Without wishing to defend "NS" and "OS", left and right are problematic as they're essentially relative terms. Do they apply when you're facing front or back? Port and starboard make much more sense as they are always left and right facing the bow of the vessel. One could make a case for "NS" and "OS" provided one could be sure they'd been correctly applied for the country in which they were being used. If I were you, I'd be very nervous that a British supplier had sent decals marked for vehicles that drive on the left hand side of the road (facing forwards).
You can defend NS and OS. As I mentioned, the printing on the single-sheet instructions is tiny. There are two diagrams on the one side of the paper, each showing the exploded-view of each side of the bike with the decal placement, and at the top of each diagram, there's micro-sized text, one saying Near Side, and I thought the other read Out Side, but you're right, under magnification it does say Off Side.
Last night I met up with my two best friends for dinner. As previously mentioned, Mrs. G is out of town, so, thinking ahead that I'd probably have more than a few beers, I wisely walked to meet up with them rather than riding or driving, so I didn't present the Blood Bike for their inspection. But, Giles, one of my friends is British, and I explained the "Near Side/Off Side" instructions to him and showed pictures of my progress on the decals. He confirmed the nomenclature, but said that he had never heard the terms applied to a motorcycle rather than a car.
Good thing I walked.
They say you need to learn math to do well in your career. Ok, I did math for the past 30 years.
For this job, I'm just glad I built model cars and airplanes as a kid, and got pretty good with the decals.
All done with the base-level decals on Bike 4. This is the neon yellow layer. Once these cure after the water-slide application, I'll put the layer of reflective decals on top of these.
Boss was right. "Put on some nice music. You'll find it sort of therapeutic. You'll stand back and admire your work."
The layered decals on the side panniers is particularly detailed.
The neighbors enjoyed checking out the progress as they passed by yesterday evening during dog-walking hour.
