Welp.. a short intro of myself.

I just wanted to introduce myself a little and share a little of my experience and formal training..
I was a US Army mechanic from 1972-1975 when I ETS'd out of Fort Dix NJ.. from there I took a 2 year course majoring in auto mechanics using my GI bill for tuition. The military was probably the best thing I did for my self in my life.. what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, ya know. While in the Army, I bought a brand new 1974 Harley Davidson XLH 1000 off the showroom floor in Albert Lea MN. What a POS.. I took off on this brand new bike, and it wasn't 500 miles before it started puking oil out of the rear cylinder.. it seems the morton putting the wrist pin keepers in the pistons just didn't give a sh!t enough about his job to do it properly, and the rear jug was scored badly by the time I limped this bike home. Like I said, what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. Did I mention this is / was a POS? Funny how one idiot doing a one little shitty job can almost put a company out of business.. This was an AMF machine.. so this was during their reprieve they had just been given to survive.. well.. enough on the Harley, EXCEPT this was also during the time of the Z1's and H2's, Mach III's etc.. all of them would just zing past me and my bitch a$$ Harley. lol I test rode a few new triple Kaws and all I really remember was that I had trouble keeping the front wheel on the ground.
Oh yeah.. back to my training.. I hated working as a mechanic, my hands, door knobs, steering wheel, etc being greasy black most of the time, the smell of cleaning solvent, diesel and gas, etc. (not really, but always something greasy on me or my clothes), I worked at several car steaerships, and a few small repair shops.. some OK, and some just plain dishonest thieves. I never seemed to last around the thieves at all, for some reason.. Perhaps we just didn't agree on a lot of things. Go figger!
Well.. I also did some stints at industrial maintenance and repairs, and a lot of my auto mechanics technical, electronics, physics and math applies to industrial principles too. In general, I have always been reasonably good at whatever I have done, no matter what it has been..
I have also worked at CATV for 10 years and pulled in the token ring LAN system on Naval Air Station Norfolk VA in 1986, and Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, in 1987. Norfolk was particularly dificult, because my crew was pulling .875" coax trunk cable for manhole to manhole.. Every day they were required to be monitored for the presence of jet fuel vapors / volatility and toxicity levels. I had to pump fresh air in constantly to keep from having to drag my men out of them dead. An extremely never racking project. It turned out great!
Fast forward to 1992.. I went back to college graduating with a Associates Degrees in Electronics Engineering Technology. Missouri Tech is / was considered a "technical college" and sadly to say, I head they went belly up last year. They had been in business for 65 years when I graduated, so It looks like they almost made it to 90 years before going bust.
Oh yeah.. MOTORCYCLES.. Well.. I am a licensed, bonded and insured contractor here where I live, and over the last few years, when things that actually pay bills get slow, I try to work on SOMETHNG that is not a total waste of time, and perhaps has some value when I get it going. (compared to working for free for a-holes) Of the last 5 motorcycles I bought, 4 have had screwed up titles.. so I also found the need to be able to deal with the state and have titles reissued..

I do need to do something other than type out this auto-biography, but am open to answer any questions or PM's Elvis has left the building. LOL
I see others here helping others, with some good solid info.

My home made work bench It's build for srength, so I can really wail on whatever.


My little MIG.. I hate the No-gas welding.. it splatters soo freakin bad.


This is my first 81 KZ1000M1 rescue.. It had sat there so long, notice the rust spots on the pavement under the bike? I had to remove the calipers to roll it from that spot.

Welcome to the site!

What loudhvx said...welcome to KZR!

Welcome to KZR.

Welcome! Great bio!
Looking forward to your build updates, I'm sure they will be colorful...!