Asheville Beer Tour

While Molly and I were in Asheville a couple of weeks ago we made it a point to find and try some of the city's local craft beer. We were not disappointed! We looked several up before we went and stumbled upon one by surprise...Asheville is on par with Portland, OR when it comes to micro brews and home brewing. We found out while we were enjoying a glass that Asheville has tied Portland for several years and just beat them out this past year in online poles and as well as a few other points that I can't seem to recall right now... (it has nothing to do with the beer)

Lexington Avenue Brewery
First up we tried the Chocolate Stout & the Belgian White Ale

This place was real cool, they had covered outdoor seating that had glass garage doors that could be lowered for bad weather or in the colder months.

This is a good picture of the outdoor area

Jack of the Wood/Green Man Brewery
We ate dinner here and it was very good! (Check Molly's blog to see more)
I had their Porter & their seasonal IPA

The Wedge Brewery was actually the first place we stopped. We found this by accident while roaming around the galleries in the river arts district. And I think we liked this one the best!

The wall reads "He who works with his hands, head, and heart is an artist."

Molly's fantastic Witbier and my 9.0% Golem which is a Belgian strong golden ale.

The owners wife maned the taps for us

The building was once a storehouse for food and where the brewery is now was once used to store slaughtered hogs! Most of the River Arts District looks similar to this. It is great that people are taking these old buildings and putting them to noble use again and with all the artist and creativity in the area there is detail everywhere once you get up close and look!

If you find yourself in the Asheville area don't just stay on the interstate or only go to the Biltmore, check out all the cool stuff they have going on around town and have a pint!

2 wheels bring people together...

Starting in April there was a bike night of sorts that gathers once a month at the Grapevine in Fort Mill, SC. Molly and I have not been able to go because of other things going on but last night we had the chance to ride down and check it out. Several people from the "Queen City Aces" club were there but the weather pushed most to drive their cars.
We left about 5:30 with the clouds getting darker and darker and just as we pulled onto I-485 it came down. Thankfully we were out of it in just a minute or two and tried to stay in front of it. We were in luck until we headed south on I-77 then it came down again this time it brought the wind with it! We made it down to the Grapevine pretty wet but not too bad. The bad weather didn't last long and the bikes started showing up, like this cool Bridgestone! I don't know much about these bikes but they were built in Japan then later here in the states from 1952-1973, with the largest engine size being 350cc. This one was picked up by the current owner in the town of North South Carolina.

Molly is a sucker for a BMW bike, I gotta say I am too!

A very cool modern classic, Triumph Bonneville. The owner rode up about an hour and a half from Columbia SC.

Here was a nicely done Honda CB550. Notice it's wet!

It's always fun to get together with other people that ride. Last month they had about 50 bikes and maybe 20 last night so hopefully next month the weather will be nice and the number will go back up.

Free Vintage Bike Show

This past weekend Molly and I went up to the North Carolina Transportation Museum to go to the vintage motorcycle show they were putting on. The museum is more trans than anything mainly because it is in an old locomotive repair factory. Spencer NC was on of the fastest growing towns in the state at the height of the steam locomotive era. However with advent of the diesel engine the need for repairs and upkeep fell drastically. They do however have many cool old car, motorcycles and even a few planes. One thing that I love about the museum is that is is always FREE! So with the word free in mind and motorcycle exhaust in the air we headed up for a quick afternoon fix.

2 very cool BSA's













































Just look at all those pipes! CBX's are one bad dude!





























Above is one of my favorites a CB400F














Above is a custom built CB 450 and a very cool
Triumph below.















A real British built single cylinder 500cc Royal Enfield














And there was no shortage of cool bikes in the parking lot.

Quick Afternoon Trip

Last Sunday afternoon was so beautiful that Molly and I couldn't stand to stay at home, so we ate a quick lunch and headed north.

Spring was barely here with the buds just coming out and even the breeze still chilly.
We drove up Hwy 321 through Blowing Rock to the Blue Ridge Parkway and headed south.


We stopped just after the Linn Cove Viaduct and if you're not sure what that is click on the link and check out the pic. The hiking trail was closed so we didn't get any pictures of our own.

"Closed" seemed to be the theme on our little trip; as we headed down the parkway it was closed just south of Hwy 221 and we decided to start making our way back home. The closures were due to the large amount of snow the area got this past winter and the hash storms a few weeks ago which caused an awful lot of damage to the trees and littered the road with limbs and debris. Molly snapped a few great shots out the car window as we made our way though the valleys back toward I-40.

It was just a short few hours but I'm thankful that we live close enough to make it up on short notice and sad that we don't make it up more often...

QUEEN CITY ACES

A couple of weeks ago Molly and I joined a motorcycle club that is just starting up here in Charlotte. The club caters toward vintage and cafe' style bikes. We had our first meet and great and first ride before we even had a name. We decided to me at Fuel Pizza and the weather could not have been more beautiful.

It didn't take take long for everyone to trickle in and to start to tell stories about their bikes, where there got it, what work had to be done and what awful things the previous owner had done that had to be addressed.

A sweet little 1976 CB360

1978 KZ650Z Cafe'

1982 Honda CB750K Cafe'

1975 CB 750

We rode through uptown Charlotte then south of town to the Triumph/BMW/Ducati dealer followed by a long rural ride though the country back home.

Later that week the original eight members of the club decided to name it
"The Queen City Aces"

Seat Progress...

There are several reasons why I decided to recover the seat on Molly's CB450:

It looked awful, the seat is obviously old worn and not that appealing, so off it came.

As you can see the seat foam made a wonderful home for some mice over the years.
(on a side note, I'm tired of mice!)

After getting rid of all the junk foam and padding and sandblasting the seat pan I was ready to reshape the pan a bit. Even though the bike is pretty small Molly is smaller! She doesn't quite touch the ground when standing up on the bike, so one of the things I'm doing to make the bike fit her is to narrow the front of the seat pan. This will let her stand up straighter when getting on and off and at lights so her feet are more comfortably on the ground.


I bought some seat foam on line and have some different density foam around the shop to use for the base. I'm going for a somewhat cafe style seat so hopefully that's what I'll end up with.


I cut the foam down the middle and glued the two half's together with some 3M foam adhesive. This way I got the thickness I was looking for without having to buy a 4 inch thick piece of foam. Cheap is the name of the game! I painted the bottom of the pan and glued on the foam. Using an electric kitchen knife I trimmed all the edges around the pan. Let me tell you, the electric knife is the way to go!! Later when I start to work on the final shape of the seat I'll use an electric grinder with a 120 grit sanding disc. This also works amazingly well!
You can see the part that I narrowed up in this picture...

So here is the basic shape with quite a bit left to do. I'm hoping to get a chance to finish it up in the next week or so. It may not look like much now but it's looking better than what the mice were working on.

this post dedicated to
my friend Erik O.

Try Try Again...

I've been out of the blogging game for a while now but I'm going to try and keep up with it a little better in the future. A lot has happened since the last time I posted so instead of playing catch up I'll just start from where I am now.
Most of you know that I bought Molly a Honda CB45o motorcycle for Christmas this year... and of course it needs work! We also went to the International Motorcycle Show in Greenville, SC in January. Not only did Molly find the perfect Ducati for her but she found what color to paint her Honda.


It's a stock Triumph flat burnt orange and I think it will be a great look on this old bike. I am doing a good bit of work to the 450 and I hope to post my progress as I go. I have the carbs rebuilt the paint stripped off most of the body and ready to be sent to my good friend Chris in Kansas City for paint, and I'm working on the narrowing, lowering and recovering of the seat. I'll try to get progress pics posted soon.
Oh! I suppose I should post a before picture of the little cb...