This will be a heartfelt report as we near and pass deadlines, scramble, dodge and grab the plan B book. We’re getting close, but can’t go to paint without a front end. It never arrived, so I picked up a contact number and reached out. I sent an e-mail to Leo DiOrio and he responded, "Don't panic." That was a month ago. I spoke to other builders and they were also waiting.

I couldn't wait any longer. Rodan, or SCTA official, rides a new Dyna Glide and it sports the new 49 mm semi-narrow glide. I was impressed, strong, sharp looking forks. I reached out to Harley-Davidson and they responded quickly. We ordered the new 49mm Dyna Glide front end. We were also running super low on funds and couldn’t pick up our AIM data system. We had the Bonneville blues.

I’m standing at the gate right now waiting for UPS, but nothing stops the 5-Ball racing team. I spoke to Kent at Air Tech about a fairing this morning, to Berry Wardlaw about NOS system questions, to Jeremiah about our NOS fittings, to Delvene Manning about our bike class this year and to Custom Chrome who just came on board as a Platnimum sponsor. Made my day, saved our asses.

The lovely Nyla made a mad dash, snatching a homeless credent off the streets, so she could use the carpool lanes. She grabbed the cash and hit it to AIM sports dealer, GT Fabrications in Anaheim, to pick up MyChron3 XG data acquisation system. This afternoon I’ll run it over to Gard’s LA Choprods for final tank assembly. Then the tank could go be delivered to Jim’s Custom Paint.

This weekend we started on the final Nitrous system install —the straps. We are fortunate to live in LA, where the creed is, “You can do or find anything in Los Angeles.” We have three major steel supply yards in a mile radius of the extreme Ivory tower International Bikernet Headquarters. We hit Phillips Steel and asked them to fabricate our straps. They did and had a steel hinge to work with.

I bungied the Nitros bottle in place using the old strap loops and started making measurements. But first I had to split the steel hinge in two and remake the hinge link. Then I slipped the hinge between the frame rail and the bottle.

I tried to fit the hinge so it ran square with the tank and that allowed me enough space to weld it on both sides.

Then I cut the strap. We wrapped the Nitrous bottle with blue masking tape to prevent paint damage while attempting to tack the straps in place. Again, we tried to keep the strap tight to the bottle to hold it square.

We made, no less, than three research missions to various hardware stores to find the proper strap for the bottle. The notion was to build a bottle valve guard to prevent the bottle from becoming a rocket or bomb during an accident. After finally finding the right strap we asked the lovely Ninja goddess, Nyla what she thought. “Why don’t you fasten the guard to the frame?” She said and winked at me. That was the solution. We grabbed a cap off an acetylene bottle and tried to work it in, but that was awkward, if we tried to hook it to the bottle. I’ll get back to our solution in minute.

First I needed to face up to the Pingel electric shifter. This puppy will allow Valerie to shift from the bars, I hope. I had a long conversation with Mr. Pingel and he explained the severe need to prevent any binding since an electric shifter pops through gears with 18 pounds of thrust, whereas Pingel air shifters sports 40-50 pounds of boost. The directions call for the shifter mounted above the foot shift lever on the frame.

The lever off the trans is a couple of inches shorter than common foot shift levers and that concerns me, since it will take more thrust to drive the shorter lever.

On to Page 2...