http://www.trossenrobotics.com
Wholy cow it's been a long winter too cold to be in the garage. but that hasn't stopped the old bean from working away. I'm going to try this actuator it has a controller that allows it to sop in three positions for under $100 bucks and is available at the link above. I'll have to push a button between the different shift gates but it gets me all my gears! it has a 2" stroke twice what I need and it can push over 100 lbs so should have enough ass right now money is once again the limiting factor so it has revved up the creative gene I think it was said necessity is the mother of invention well that may be true but being broke is the father!
JVJ out.

Lets get a handle on some things

Here is my new ammo / Battery box. and I made some new drag bars with 17" risers, they are Blitz Black the color I intend to Paint the rest of the bike. I know my little shop is a mess but I'm trying to get this MFer out on the road so I have been working and not cleaning. right I could work better if I wasn't tripping over me own dink but I'm a transitional person and this is one of the things I need to transition LOL! If you click on the pics they get almost full screen. TTFN

shifting shifty shifters

I have made the brackets and mounted the actuator. next I have to build the vac tank and wire the solenoids to the switches , pipe up the tubing. the biggest thing left to figure out is how do I spring the shift linkage to the 2-3 gate I have a three position switch witch I am only planning to you use two but may wind up using all three.

Progress update

something whicked this way comes! although progress seems slow body work and painting are tedious tasks, progress is being made the tins should be ready for paint this week and painted next week. the frame will be later on, wiring and shifter work remain. I have been procrastinating on the shifter, hoping for better ideas to come but none have, so Its trial and error time. the throttle cables should be here on my sweet hearts birthday. and some test rides will ensue. watch out owls head were coming for you ready or not. I sure hope to ride it there but guess I will be happy to ride it while there. back to the garage lots to do if you read my blog let me know. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who does but who dosnt like talking about themselves LOL.

I did it I did it I did it!!!

I dont think words can describe my elation. I DID IT NAH NAH NAH!!!!!

Ogre's need a pick me up too!

well one skun thumb and she's pretty near done. I just need to test her out and come up with a simultaneous pumping mechanism. I pumped her up last night she went up smooth and solid climbed on top and jumped around. If Chevy is like a rock then this lift is like a diamond wholly rugged. but the real test will be the six hundred pound Katasaki. I'll try that tonight. well time for work!

shift 2 high gear

OK this is my current shifter plan if you view the switch position and the bold blue line you can see where the vacuum is being directed and how this manipulates the pneumatic cylinder. moving between the three gates then the shifting into gears can be accomplished with the left foot. the green represents atmosphere and the neutral position will be obtained with springs. I have a digital plan in mind but wont invest in that until manual is debugged

Getting high with the Ogre

Sorry no pic's me and the Ogre have been in the garage trying to get high no not dope stupid I hurt my back so I've been building my lift table! to get it off the floor. the table wasnt to bad the scissor was pretty easy but want to pull youre hair out try figuring out how to make a scissor lift to go for cheap! I tried to make an old ford bumper jack go went up slick came down with a bang. tried an 8 ton bottle jack plenty of power short on stroke. I tried a screw to much tourqe with no load it was sweet but put 200lbs vannila gorrila on it and look out. I ordered a couple of 20" lift 8ton jacks but they dont work laying down ( for sale good deal only used once) So my buddy suggested an rv scissor jack 24" 7k lbs. I'm just waiting for pay day $40 at the local trailer supply. its got the reach it shrinks to 4" its got more than enough liftin capacity so we giv her a shot I'll take some pics of the lift when she's done! I also fractured my wrist snow boarding with my son that slowed production. I got a band saw and that speed production back up. then I had a financial misshap which resulted in 27" interco SWAMP LITES for my Katasaki 650 vtwin ye mother F....n Ha! so now were back on track there is a bike show at LA harley on the 5th of may I'll see if the boss wants to go all for now bax to tinkrin!

MAN eating TIGER

How do you react to a man eating TIGER?


You don't REACT!

You pause and make a choice. You must decide if red wine and mashed potatoes or beer and fries goes better with tiger. remember you are responsible for your choice.

In my past life I was a man eating Tiger I know this because I have studied Buddhism for the last three years and through much meditation one day I had vision. In my vision I was a large powerful orange tiger with paws as big as your head and claws as long as your fingers proud and ferocious! A man in a khaki suit was either hunting me or had me in a cage. this man had turned to beat a small brown person with black hair. This abusive behavior triggered something and I reacted I killed the bad man and ate him. the whole vision only lasts a moment and I think I was killed shortly after that for eating the zoo keeper or some one else in the hunting party shot me I may never know but at that moment I had done a karmic good thing by saving the little brown person and being a man eating TIGER it was my nature to eat the man. So as Buddhism goes I earned a chance at the next level in cyclic living. I was born A red haired boy who was very rambunctious, apparently some of the tiger was still there I have been diagnosed with ADD it is very distracting to have a caged tiger pacing in your head. I struggled for half of my life trying to keep the tiger in a cage. when something bad happened to me The tiger (metaphorically speaking) breaks out of his cage and tries to protect me by eating whatever is trying to cause my suffering. Recently I was suffering due to some of my own behavior and the tiger got loose well it wasn't pretty some one almost got eaten. I was at my wits end with that goddamn tiger I was going to take it out back and shoot it! I had given up, with the help of some one who knew how to listen I made it one more day, I made it to a class called 7 habits of highly effective people. I have experienced a Paradigm shift! If you know me don't ask what my suffering was that day I cant and wont tell you just know it was a powerful catalyst that was perfectly timed to cause a lasting effect.I hope and pray and have every faith that my life has changed for ever!I know this because me and the tiger want this with every fiber of my being! I want to thank three people the first is the Dalli Lama for helping me understand Buddhas principals the second is Sgt Wycoff for teaching me Steven Covey's method for utilizing these principals in a highly effective manner. I also want to thank Cesar Milan for teaching me that like dogs tigers don't understand human psychology. you must exercise and discipline your tiger and when he is calm and submissive you may show him affection, that is when the tiger will walk beside you. You control the tiger the tiger does not control you! I am 36 years old I am exactly half way through my life and I am finally becoming a MAN eating tiger!

C is for Cookies and that's good enough for me!

Cookies OK so there flaming skull Christmas Cookies! Sissy you say! Lets see your cookies! My cookies can beat up your cookies! I made my own Cookie cutter do you know how tuff it is to weld A coffee can? And I used food coloring in the airbrush to paint them and hey they even taste good.
I found A do it yourself bender kit so maybe those tuned exhaust pipes may become a reality soon I'll put in a link. And hopefully I'll get my lift table done this weekend so we can get to the bike in the new year. Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good night!

shmoke and a Pancake!

Okay its not for the Ogre but its my blog and I'll post what I want. This is a model of 1 of the reverse cone megaphones Going on my Katasaki 650V2 I learned how to do this 16 years ago and have finally gotten enough skills to pull of building them It took a while to dust off the note books and relearn cotangents but I think it will be worth it I'm going to make them out of stainless and I have an idea for a silencer that I think will work ( I may test the silencers on the Ogre for some back pressure.) I have not taken pics of the lift but will be gettin high with the Ogre soon (on the lift table dumb ass) I've got the 3" channel iron scisors built and the material for the table all I need is the back pivot and some channels for the front table wheels. Well 4 days till Xmas Hope Santa knows I've been trying to be good

New and improved now with video!

I have been working on the blog a little dubbing with the HTML and I added a Video Thanks to my Boss for telling me how. I widened up the text a little and some other nuances. The Video is the first ride the video was taken last spring and many things have changed but I just figured out I could put one on here. I started building a lift table cuz I sprained my back working off the floor so I sacrificed my work bench and some other odds and ends to build it. I think I've got it figured out I'll post some pic's when its done. I think I'm going to try to make a stainless steel exhaust for my atv if I can pull it off I may sell some I'll see how that goes.

This a quote I like a lot kind of a mantra I guess

"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming -- WOW--What a Ride!!!"

I'm so Frickin Excited

Progress finally! The frickin thing idles and the clutch couldn't work better. OK so I need a carb kit Santa if your reading its a Holley 2110 and I found one on VINTAGE SPEED CATALOG . I got the carb adjusted decent and the throttle cable rigged up and took her out in the yard and I'm jumping up and down because the clutch works so good!!! I even did a burn out in the drive way effortlessly! OK if you look at the photo you can see the carb I polished it kinda half ass. it has that vintage look. I made the center piece of the Intake and had it powder coated. Lastly I took stock VW intake manifolds and polished them and mounted them backwards to get that big gomey Holley Carb to fit under the tank. I almost used one of the dell's but I thought this would be a little simpler to tune. OK so you look at the manifold and say that doesn't look like a very efficient design for performance but I made it so both sides could draw equally off of the carb and I bull headed it for two reasons one clearance and two for turbulence. I'm not an engineer but bull head Tee's are supposed to be very turbulent and turbulence is supposed to help the fuel air mixture be more completely mixed. I don't know if it really works but in my dumb dutch head it looks like it works. So it rode around the yard like a dream (well almost) now I need to start working on the shifter I have a design planned out I just need to collect some pieces and start debuging it. I need a couple of three way solenoid valves like micro miniature ones that will handle vacum. hey Santa! LOL! now I need to find some pavement to test ride this Bitch!!! "yipiee kiyea MF'er"Bruce Willis

Holley and home made intakes

This plus this should = a smother test surface now the clutch is ready Hopefully we can sneak a test ride in before the snow fly's the carb needs a rebuild kit but I spent the money on sparkplug wires so we wait till after X-mas before I can get that. I'll give her the old college try and see how it goes without it

Ogre enslaved

no time for talking the sun is only up for a few minutes she's in time to test zoom the pic for details