busy day at the garage, today.  marketing machine dani scored us an interview with crain's cleveland business.  super nice woman named rachel came and hung out at the garage for about an hour listening to us babble on about shit that she probably didn't care about.  she was extremely gracious and if she truly didn't care, she fooled my ass.  she asked some cool questions that really enabled me to explain my passion for this dream.  i came out of that feeling pretty good.  i hope dani did, as well.  he's got a great story to tell, and i think much of it will be told in rachel's article.  they're coming back next wednesday to do a photo shoot and hopefully even talk to some of the members.  it'd be fantastic if every member could be here for it, but that's not realistic.  i've gotta take what i can get.

but to me, crain's cleveland business is THE write up.  it alone almost makes me believe that this is actually gonna work, cuz i'm having my doubts.  it seems the addition of dani to skidmark is precisely what was needed.  he's a social media madman and has tons of connections that he'd never had the opportunity to take advantage of when he was working out of his driveway.  so he's getting in contact with all these people that showed massive interest in the recent past.  really, if he'll let me ride his coattails for a few months, i think it'd be enough to get the word out for real - and connect with my demographic.  but it's all so exciting that i'm super anxious and my nervous shits have resurfaced for the first time in a LONG time.  for the first time since january, i don't feel like i'm in control.  in the distant past, this would have subconsciously pushed me to get a tattoo.  but fuck that shit.

dani was here all day (he often is on mondays) and worked on at least 4 different bikes by the time he left.  he took el chapo out for its maiden voyage and we found him pushing it back up the driveway after a few minutes.  we all smelled something burning.  i truly feel like it's the brand new paint on the engine.  or maybe it's the brand new brakes?  but it was strong enough to make any rider turn the damned thing off.  MAN does it sound badass.  sounds WAY cooler than i thought a 400 could sound.  it's a beautiful bike with an interesting story - which i won't get into.  hopefully just making note of it will cause us to never forget the story.  the first bobber he worked on here came back tonight cuz the fender was starting to rub on the tire or something.  so he had to deal with that.  AND this is soon after he picked up his cousin and that kid's new/old 1980 xj550.  dani spent a lot of time cleaning pretty dirty carbs and then we wrestled the bank of carbs back in - holy shit that sucked.  the air cleaner is NOT REMOVABLE unless you take the exhaust off, take out the front engine mount bolts, and then tilt the engine forward/down!  that's absurd.  so we truly had to wrestle those things in.  we had to use a come-along!!  wtf!  dani and his cousin got it started and it seemed to run alright.  i dunno.  and then bruce came in and dani did some quick welding on his harley frame.  this was followed by helping zuba get his cb750 running.  -which WAS running previous to tonight.  nothing a squirt of starter fluid in the air intake won't fix.  started and ran like it was new.  great sound to it, too.  it's only headers, i think.

wilson came over - first trip on the freeway for him.  his bike is so gorgeous.  he ran out of gas and didn't know that's why the bike was stalling till he pulled over and opened the tank.  so he threw it on reserve and rode to a gas station.  but he went through the same thoughts i always do, "is the wind slowing me down more than normal?  am i running out of gas?  should i throw it on reserve?  should i now put it back to the ON position, cuz it doesn't really feel any different?  or is it different?  i can't tell."  nich came to play with electricity some more.  he's putting LEDs on in place of the turn signals.  LED strips, mind you.  and i must admit that it looks kinda cool.

i'm working on terry's suzuki.  i can't get both cylinders to fire.  i have to take effing carb off!  this is gonna take FOREVER, and i have a feeling he's not gonna pay me for the time i'm spending.  i'm not doing any more favors for neighbors like this.  i tell them that i don't work on bikes, but it's like i'm not even saying anything.  and since i melted the first battery, i'm gonna be out an additional 80 bucks at the get-go.  damnit.  lesson learned, don't guess when it comes to the battery; the terminal set up is on purpose; don't try to make a different set-up work.  it doesn't.

looks like the cb500 rings and carb kit are gonna be here soon!  dude, i can't WAIT to get that together and to hake.  i'm such a douche for promising shit in any sort of timeline.  i keep thinking i'm gonna finally be able to do something on a specific timeline and i continue to fail.  piss me off.  so assuming there's no other hurdles with it, i COULD have it together and ready in a few weeks.  -why did i even say any of that?

so rachel made the comment about how affordable it is for someone to use the garage.  and she stressed affordable.  i just raised my prices a bit, and that's likely what she saw.  frankly, i'm terrified to raise them, again.

good talk...good talk.