A Few Posts From The FaceBook Fugitive Blog

I am saving the posts that I don't want to lose over there by reposting them here. Soon I will be finished.I should have done this long ago.Last month I lost half of the posts there by deleting them by mistake.All the stuff I wrote about working on my camp over the past couple years is gone.It really sucks but that's the way it goes so fuck it.Anyway,I'm saving what's left here because this blog is going to survive and be my main blog from this point forward as I continue my work up north at my camp and my travels on my motorcycles.

The Face Book Fugitive

Sunday, January 4, 2015

. This blog is about my life as a motorcycle riding artist and traveler. Enjoy. Over 30 Years Ago Today December 30th, 2014 Back in the 1970's and '80's I used to work in the city doing renovations on and off.I did a few on this one block in the East Village and one of those jobs was for my friend Richard.I was doing his apartment and building him a dark room .It was this very day,the 30th of December ,when I was driving in to go to work in my 1965 Valiant.The car was running great,I was in the Mid Town Tunnel when traffic stopped. I put my foot on the clutch and there was nothing there! I was stuck right in the middle of the tunnel ! There was a kid behind me and he offered to push me out . What luck ! So he gets me out and stays behind me while I crawl under the car to see if it's something I can fix right there .No luck. I thank him for his kindness and he asks where I'm going so I said east 9th between 1st and 2nd. He then offers to push me all the way down town to there ! He pushed me down to St Marks Pl,around the block and put me into a legal parking space right in front of Richard's building ! Didn't want any money so I gave him a few joints. I don't know what it is but when these things happen to me just like last summer with the bike and the guy who helped me, I always end up meeting some stranger who is incredibly kind. I worked all day and called up a friend from LI who had a truck. He comes in with his truck and a 10 foot long chain and we start pulling my valiant up 1st ave to the tunnel.We had no idea that you can't tow in the tunnel .We get to the approach and there is this massive traffic jam.We are right at the entrance to the tunnel when this cop comes over waving his arms yelling you can't you can't .I roll down the window and he's telling me I need to use the 59th st bridge.I point behind me and he looks and sees this wall of cars and throws his arms up in the air and waves us on into the tunnel.So,I have more good luck. I get the car 40 miles to home and put away in a garage I had rented where it sat all winter waiting to get fixed. I finished Richard's place,put this rat I had on the road so I had a car to use locally and just used the train to get to the city.At the end of the job Richard gave me this 1969 650 Triumph he had as pay for some of the work.I was happy with that but I could never get the thing to really run right and here begins the story of how I got my little 1969 Yamaha DS6C back from the dead.

This photo above is a photo of my '69 DS6C when I rode it up Newfoundland back in 1975 wandering about seeing the world. Then my life went south,it all fell apart and things weren't good with me at all.The bike was stolen from my yard one day and a week later I found it all trashed but I saved it in my garage anyway just because I loved it and after doing Richards job I reconnected with it and here it is in about 1983 up at my camp.She was back in service and I was traveling on her again !

By the late 80's it had red body work and low pipes.The only thing DS6C was the frame.It wasn't always this way,and I wanted to bring it back to the bike it used to be.What happened is that it got stolen,destroyed,and recovered back in the early 80's.It sat for a while, I fooled around with this 650 Thiumph,it was nothing but agrivation,sold it and found myself bikeless.That lasted for about 3 days.I looked around and found this 70 DS6 with no papers. Back then no papers was a real problem so I got the bike cheap.I had the paper on my DS6C so I took the new one apart and set it up on my DS6C frame.It was ugly but it was a good runner.I drove it like that for 10 years.It was my only bike!I looked and looked but could never find a DS6C so I made it into a DS6 and used it this way for a real long time.

Then I got into bike restoration and I started to restore the blue YM1 and started sending out wanted pictures of a DS6C in all my letters and parts orders. It was 1989 now. One day in 1991 I received a call and some guy in Pa. told me about this Harley Dealer in NJ. who had about 100 old Yamahas in a storage building.It turned out the dealership was originaly a Yamaha dealership and these were all just left behind by the previous owner.I called and made an appointment for the next day and when I got there I couldn't beleive my eyes.There were about 150 Yamahas from the 60's just sitting there and a parts room full of NOS parts! I found my DS6C and another one for parts.The good one was left there in 1969 over an unpaid repair bill!! It had 1400mi on it,a dented tank,smashed instruments and a dented rear fender,the rest of the bike was like new.I got the pair for 300 dollars. After we did the deal I asked if I could look around the parts room some.The owner said sure go ahead so I did. I found a YDS3 front fender and all sorts of bits and peices for my yM1.I also found a front brake for the TD1B that my friend Don Scarborough was building. This place was a gold mine. Over the next year I told all my friends about it and we cleaned him out.The one thing he didn't have was a green DS6C gas tank.That was the only part I needed to get back my DS6C.I looked and looked and one day I found one in NC. at Wilson Cycle Center.This place turned out to be another gold mine.The owner was a real gentleman. He used to send me my parts with a bill and give me 30 days to pay!So I order the tank and I wait and wait,no tank. I call,he says he sent it UPS so I track it. It turns out he sent it to my friend Don in Michigan. I finally get the tank and a fully restored DS6C with 1400 miles on it.

Like the YDS3 , the YM1,and R5 I use it all the time and it looks and runs as good as the day I finished it.I've owned this bike since 1971. I rode it to Newfoundland,all over the Adirondacks, and Maine & Nova Scotia. It's probably the best motorcycle I have ever owned next to my R5,my YDS3,YM!,and Moto Guzzi 850T .They are all the best bike I've ever owned . This is the thing with motorcycling. Every bike is a different ride and each has it's own thing that really makes riding it special. It's almost as if they are living beings. If they could speak they would have some incredible stories to tell like this picture.It was taken in November 2010 after I returned from a 14000 mile ride on the Moto Guzzi.I had just met this guy Juan on this meet up thing for vintage motorcycles and we went on our first ride together. Since then hundreds of hours of good times wrenching and riding on our old motorcycles and it just goes on like this. Motorcycling has been the most positive force in my life and the one thing that has kept me going when I was ready to throw in the towel. It has brought some of the most incredible people into my life and opened up so many opportunities for me that it would be impossible to count them all.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Posted by valiantwagonguy at 5:49 AM

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Finished My Painting

Yesterday I decided what I wanted to do with this painting so in the early afternoon I attacked ! I painted for a few hours and tweeked it this morning and here is the result.

I call it "Arizona Rust" It's oil on canvas 16x20 and for sale (not cheap but then I never sell any of my stuff cheap) Traveling out west this past October has inspired me to paint.This is the first of what I hope will be a whole series of paintings from the Southwest Desert.Now that it's winter I'll have time on my hands and use it as I bounce back & forth between paint and building motorcycles out in the garage. This week I'm going to start cleaning out the garage and getting ready to work on the 1988 BMW that my friend Tony threw my way back in November.Can't wait to attack this project.

Working on bikes sort of lights the creative fire in my head.I can't figure it out ,there is no connection between the two things other than that they both are real enjoyable for me but this is how it works. Yesterday I also listed the 1965 Commando 273 V8 motor I have on Craigslist. This particular motor is of historical significance because it is the first year and the first high performance small block Chrysler built.It's the predecessor of the 340 .A little screamer that winds right up to 6000 rpm's when you open up the 4 barrel .It was meant for my gold 65 Barracuda but I never got around to installing it 'cause the 318 I used when I built it never wore out so why change it.Well,the Cuda is history now and I like the 66 convertible and the 65 wagon with the 6 cylinders they have in them.From my perspective the 6 is easier to work on and cheaper to run .

Starting to get rid of stuff I'm not bringing to Arizona now. It could be yours for $1200. I also bought a transmission for use as a spare for my 66 Valiant convertible because two weeks ago I sold the one I had to my friend TA to replace his in his 1966 Dart Station wagon.He.s a good friend and needed to fix his ride so I helped him but then started to search for a replacement for my inventory.Gotta have spares when you drive fifty year old cars.The vert is coming to Arizona for sure.It will be great to have a convertible out there man. Ah,the life of a motorhead is the life I chose and I gotta say,I wouldn't change a thing.I'm independent ,don't have any stinking car payments,am not enslaved by the bank so fuck it all,I'm way better off than most.It will be a happy day when I finally am heading west in a truck full of my motorcycles and parts.I LOVE ARIZONA !

I know that once I get out there and set up shop there will be a 30's car in my future.I really like mid 30's cars,they are so fucking cool.Something like this 36 Plymouth that I just lifted off the internet is what I'm going to be looking for once I get out there. Well,I think I'll prep another canvas and start thinking about what I want to paint next.I have time on my hands and it's shitty out so I may as well paint today .I have some ideas,I brought home this yellow orange paint that I used on Pete's house for the shingles.The whole time I was painting that house I was thinking how that would be a good base color for a desert painting so I think I'll fool around with that.