went camping last weekend, and after i left friday night for greer, i was notified that sarah's bike started. mike is possibly the best addition to this garage, yet. he takes whatever time he has and spends it with anyone that needs assistance. he's good at explaining things in a way that don't make anyone feel dumb. he spent a lot of time with sarah and it's obvious how sincerely he wants to help others. dani helped, and so did tim. it was definitely a team effort - and this thing starting was a long time coming. it truly made my weekend to get that text from dani saying the bike was running.
dani and sarah rode up and down walton for a few minutes at about 5:30 on saturday. as they were putting the bikes back into the garage, bill came over quite angry about how loud the bikes are and how fast they were going. he said 3 neighbors had called him complaining saying they were gonna call the cops. sarah was not going fast, and i'm sure dani wasn't either (although he usually does), but both bikes are extremely loud. my guess is nobody called bill, he was just pissed about everything in general.
the previous saturday, he laid into tim for parking in front of my garage door before i arrived. scolded him quite shittily. didn't matter that i had told tim to park there if my truck wasn't there so that the spot is saved for when i arrive - i'd rather get him to move than search the building over for a person i don't know that parked there. bill scolded him again a few hours later; peter had to step in and ask bill to chill. wtf. and earlier that morning, bill had to fire the electrician, dave, for lying to him about permits and such. moments ago, bill raised his voice to tim, cussed him out (!!!!!), and ordered him to move his van because it was blocking rising star's spot or someshit. -even though bill will be the first person to tell me that nobody has their own spots... bill's on a rampage for some reason, and it's mostly about petty shit.
so dani brought in two dudes to help him catch up, cuz he has more bikes in here than he can handle. it's getting overwhelming and by all appearances he's taking over the garage. mouth went through psi and is a harley mechanic by night. mike is a dude that just really wants to turn wrenches for no other reason than the soul-filling feeling he gets from it. he paid me for a month without me asking and without him even having a bike that needed work. he just wants to get dirty and help people. he is the quintessential member. he sees this as therapy. he did 70% of the work on terry's suzuki (carbs were all effed up and a REAL pain to deal with), so i gave him half the $200 i got from terry. i'd like to keep collecting membership fees from him AND paying him when he adds significant value to my garage.
mouth earns his namesake. he's almost too much, sometimes. he keeps calling me over to look at stuff - not cuz i can offer advice or help - so he can just talk more. it's tough to get things done. i don't know how he gets anything done. nicest dude ever, though. i think he will be a decent addition to the garage. he said he has more than a few tools (lifts, even) that he'll contribute to the garage - which i told him i'd take off his membership fees.
scotty bought a 6 month membership and the basketcase goldwing about a month ago and came in monday night to do a general inventory on it so he knows what's missing. the guy i bought it from in columbus told me a month or so afterward that he forgot to give me one more box of parts for it. and scotty and i figured out that we're missing the top of the triple tree, the radiator, the front wheel doesn't look correct, and a few other odds and ends. and this jim dude moved to colorado or someshit and was supposed to leave the box of shit with his neighbor. but jim won't get back to me. hope his number is still valid. gonna have to call his ass soon. texting just isn't cutting it with him, anymore.
joe sass has his cb750 completely disassembled and had to keep his virago here for a few weeks cuz the carbs were fucked up. gas was literally shooting out his exhaust pipe as he went to leave on it one day. he can't get here much cuz he has two jobs, so it sat for quite a while. i didn't record exactly when that was, though. so i don't know how many days for which to charge him. i feel like it was a month, but it may have been less.
sohail owns a gym in univ hts and had me get his cb360 and his wife's vespa. dani is gonna work on his vespa, and sohail finally came in to work on his 360 monday night. mike helped him out tremendously. sohail told me straight up that he doesn't know the first thing about doing mechanical work. he's such a nice guy. he's gonna write up a good press release for me. hopefully, we get to working on it soon.
had a crain's interview a few weeks ago - with a photoshoot - and the published article was KILLER. got me a fair amount of phone calls. had another crain's interview yesterday for a woman that is writing a story about maker spaces and their business plans. it was kinda cool, although i did not sound too intelligent about how i went about opening this place.
had an interview with cleveland magazine? last week, too. but it was more about the new businesses that have opened in the hildebrandt building. this reminds me, i gotta contact the freshwater guy about his progress with the atlantic monthly article.
ran into a major roadblock with hake's cb500. mike put the jugs on and one piston is stuck inside the cylinder, somehow. thinking a ring got tweaked and bent inbetween the piston and cylinder wall. if that's the case, that's a fair amount of money (new rings, new piston?, possible boring of cylinders - which means ALL new pistons and new rings, but at the very least probably another honing of the cylinders. fucking sucks. i wish i had the time to do it myself, but i asked mike to tackle it. i can't get irritated with him for this happening. live and learn. i know he learned from it. so fuck it. i just feel horrible for hake. i think i'm just gonna have to give him his money back, actually.
the tv show is coming this weekend to film the pitch-tape. halliday is coming with them, thankfully. and davison will be up, also. we're gonna fake two builds with a few parts bikes and then show them riding out on TOTALLY different bikes to much fanfare in the courtyard late sunday night. don't know what to expect, but i'm freaking out.
dani is convinced he's gonna open a triumph dealership here. he met with the triumph peeps last week and had investors take a gander at things today. i want no part of it. for one, i don't think it's gonna happen so i don't want to waste any energy stressing about it, and two, even if it does happen, i don't want the stress of running it. i can barely handle what i have going on in my life as it is. if it wasn't for molly vaughan taking care of my personal life, i'd be mostly unable to handle things.
