Took A Break From The Blog...

I've taken a short break from blogging (and car stuff in general) for the past few weeks to work on some bicycles!

There is a ride happening in downtown Sacramento on Thanksgiving morning, and since I sold my 1950 Schwinn Hornet a couple of months ago I decided I needed something nice to ride...

I've had a 1994 GT 24" BMX-style cruiser in the side yard forever, and I've wanted a cruiser to ride since high school, so I took the plunge!

Here's what it looked like to start out:

And I just finished it this week:

If you want more details you can check it out here: http://bmxmuseum.com/bikes/gt_bicycles/42988

While we were at it, I built this stretched beach cruiser with my son Aaron:

He has a nice freestyle BMX bike, but he wants to stand out at the ride, too!  Vicki picked up a nice vintage Schwinn Continental on one of our many visits to the local bike shops in town, so she's got a new (to her) rig for Thursday, too.

Finally, I just went to my parents' house this afternoon and scanned a couple of pictures of my Haro Freestyler from BITD- I was ten, and I had one of the coolest bikes on the block... until some degenerate stole it out of our garage.

This was in the Northern Virginia area, around the middle of 1988.  If anyone has any information as to its whereabouts, I'll be amazed!

My Wife's Lucky Day!

When I was a kid, I LOVED Transformers.  I never had an extensive collection, but I had most of the popular guys, along with some of the more obscure characters, and my friends and I had a blast acting out scenes from the cartoons.

So you can imagine how STOKED I was when my lovely wife announced she wanted a real-life Ironhide as her daily transportation!  

I totally HAD this guy back in the day!

So, because I love my wife so much, I hooked her up!

How was I supposed to know she meant the Ironhide from the MOVIE?!  Oops!

I just blew my budget picking up that beautiful '86 Toyota Van- now how am I supposed to go out and get a new GMC TopKick?  What a mess!  I guess we'll just have to live with it!

Actually, this is my second Toyota Van- I know you don't understand, and I can't fully explain to you why I love these things.  Honestly, nobody in their right mind should love it- it's got odd proportions, the engine is hard to access and is woefully underpowered, the back of your legs get dirty as they rub the tire when you get in and out, and people give you strange looks when you drive it.  With all of that said, I prefer this little Van to anything else I currently own!

My last one was an '87 Cargo model- less options, leaf spring rear suspension- and it was pretty beat-up.  The exterior had a ton of dents, the sliding door was mismatched, and the interior was full of dog hair.  I owned it for about 9 months, and I really didn't get to enjoy driving it much because my children were embarrassed to be seen in it!

The silver Van just came into my life about two months ago, and it's worlds different from the one I sold.  This is an LE, and it has almost every option these came with- dual sunroofs, power everything, swiveling captain's chairs... even an ice maker!  I've had to fix a few things here and there, but this thing is SWEET!  

I'll continue tomorrow with some more detail on these awesome Vans- I'm sure that statement will be enough to cut my readership in half!  So, to the one reader I have left, I will see you tomorrow!