Finally back to brewing and drinking

Well I just wanted to say hi again after about a year hiatus. Last year about this time I was medically retired from the USAF and had to stop brewing and drinking simply because as a family of 5 living on strictly a VA payment did not allow for the extras like brewing or drinking. We gave up everything that was not essential to keeping the family together while we were getting our lives straight. Well it seems like everything is starting to work out. I was able to sell my truck get an old commuter car 1993 type and a old Yamaha Venture 1983 type I am in School at Devry for Network Admin. The VA finally started to pay me correctly and I am now being paid to go to school so we are back to making a living as apposed to just living. My wife decided I needed to start my projects up, so I have brewed a smoked porter kit and a lager kit that I received for Christmas. I have also torn my bike down and have done an overhaul on it. The motor is real strong but the bike was not real good looking. Give it another month and it will be a real good looking copper with metallic flake. I have been sanding and filling the fairings for about 3 weeks and now I have to wait to buy the color until about the 1st at least I have a cornie of smoked porter to enjoy while I wait.

Welcome back.

Welcome back and glad to hear things are starting to fall into place.
Listen to your wife she knows what is the best . Working on a bike and brewing beer sounds like a great way to keep the world in perspective.

Glad it's working out for you - I'm arguing with the VA as we speak - what a beauracracy!! Oh well, bottling up 6 gallons of brown ale this afternoon, I'll RDWHAHB or several while I'm at it!

Cheers!

Welcome back! You'll be happy with a few luxuries like homebrew and a nice bike. Nothing like a craft hobby to make you feel good!

The VA can be such a headache to deal with. It took them 7 months to tell me I had a wife and 3 kids after I sent them all the paperwork. If they would not try to low-ball the Vets in the first place they would not have so much to do in the long run, oh and the vets they deal with would not be so disgruntled. But on to more fun topics I was able to enjoy an few glasses of my porter last night and it was great to drink the fruits of my labor...

Always good when life moves in a positive direction. Post pics of the bike when done!

I will be posting picks. My plan is to have it really nice but if it is a 50/50 paint job I will settle for now. and by 50/50 I mean it looks good at 50 feet and at 50 mph. this is the first time I have used a paint gun in about 20 years.

Beer + Yamaha sounds like my life in a nutshell.

Great to hear you're doing well. Always nice to hear about people getting back on their feet.

So I got the parts back from paint yesterday and will be reassembling it starting today.
now all I need to do is mask off the cruddy looking metal trim an hit it wit some black and clear. My plan is to get rid of all the chrome on the bike it is all pitted and rusted so I am going to rough it the hit it with rest encapsulating primer then hit it with a flat black. Her is the trunk all of the the plastic is this color I am not sure if I am going to put some black on it. you can see a small line where the old striping was I may follow it with some tape rough it and hit it with a little black for some contrast.

Welcome back!!

snccoulter said:

I will be posting picks. My plan is to have it really nice but if it is a 50/50 paint job I will settle for now. and by 50/50 I mean it looks good at 50 feet and at 50 mph. this is the first time I have used a paint gun in about 20 years.

Click to expand...

:rockin: i'll be looking forward to those. i haven't been allowed to crank a wrench on a bike since my accident. all i get now is my tuner car and homebrew, can't flip over the bars on either of those!
glad to hear a story with a happy ending, brew strong, man!!

Bikes, beer, babies and babes. Add a dog to the picture, and life becomes pretty darn good. The color looks awesome for the Venture. That's a great bike, a nice highway machine IIRC.

I "overruled" the wife a few years back and sprung for a Harley. Added a sidecar. My Dog Wiley loves to ride in it (as do the kids). Here he is, not wanting to get out....


.

Here is a few more pics I should be done with all the plastic parts tonight and then I will be done with the trunk and hard side bags this weekend..

Glad things are going in the right direction for you and yours! Probably feels good to be back on two wheels again. Riding is my lifetime addiction, brewing is what I recently discovered to keep me sane in the winter months.

My baby, also a 93, but a Kawi:

Nice ride, I had a chance to ride one of the 1100's mid 90's super fast bike I have been riding my cruiser and switched out with my buddy's bike I hit the freeway at 70 and was getting peppered with rocks from a semi so I shifted down and opened the throttle. Big mistake I did not to look down at the speedo until I finally hit 5th again. I was going something like 140 and had no idea it rode so smooth. I was real quick to shut her down and drift back to 70ish when my buddy caught back up to me I gave him his bake back. Lots of fun but I would have a ticket. My venture could do it if I wanted to but it does not have the same thrill. Don't know if it is the style of bike or just that I am a lot older.

Here are a few photos of it assembled. I still need to put the luggage bags on but thay are scheduled to be completed this weekend as soon as I black out the crome. then to pull the exaust and hit it with some high temp black. The bottem photo is what it looked like when I got it. I think it looks like a tottaly diffrent bike.

Manditory words