Just like everyone else

The internet is chock full of people apologizing for not updating their blogs.

Most people have nearly 4 people and a cat that would read the blog to begin with, and only then after they're done reading comments on their favorite news site just to gauge how far society has fallen since the previous day.

I managed to get my old blown gearbox out of the car around Christmas of 2013, pulled the engine shortly thereafter with the intention of blowing through the conversion to the 02A, and getting back on stage.

Somewhere amidst all of this, I bought a new KTM 350.  It's pretty much what any rally car driving mountain biker wants in a dirt bike.  Light. Nimble. Immediate throttle response. A bit noisy. The summer weekends were spend riding trails, or going race, where I learned a new form of humiliation in the form of the 2 hour hare scramble.

In the hare scramble, beginning riders leave several minutes after the faster more experienced riders that will be lapping them the rest of the day.  For me, the lapping commences about the time I've lost feeling in one or both of my hands.  Overtaking riders have no horns, so they can either rev their engines, yell some kind of neo-Indian war cry, or just blast right by you, spraying you with gravel.

For those of you that spent your formative years learning which fork is which, this is called "Roosting".  If you are a chicken farmer, it has nothing to do with sleeping chickens, and everything to do with a spray of tiny rocks sandblasting your exposed skin.

Once I'd mastered the art of riding as fast as you can for 2 hours, a few of us headed out to try an Enduro.  Enduro is more like a rally, and depending on the format, is either similar to a TSD Rally, or a Performance Rally.  In either case, they're in the woods, through fields, and over dale.  I assume in other countries, Enduros would involve howler monkeys, but in the US, they're relatively monkey free, with the occasional fenced cow being about the only wildlife involved.

This went quite a lot better than the hare scramble, especially because we'd picked an event for beginners.  By Beginners, I mean 4 year old girls riding on the handlebars with their dads, and women riding through the woods with the 11 year old kids.  We crushed most of them.

In all this time, I think I was mostly walking past the rally car, the parts on the floor, the engine on the engine stand, and tripping over the airhose tangled up in the oil cooler lines.

The internet told me I needed to get a motorcycle trials bike, and since everything online is true, I did just that, with a mega-road trip down to Lexington, KY to pick up a pretty cherry Gas Gas 250.

A few more enduros and hare scrambles later, and I've found that it's winter.  The motorcycles are in the house resting and having run out of things I want to clean inside the house, I'm back in the garage doing some work on the engine.

2014 would have been our tenth season in rally and instead we took a vacation.  If I don't have the ambition and funding to compete, I feel at least motivated to get all the parts pushed back into a working, drivable car that can leave the garage under it's own power.

That should be easy enough, at least until the snow melts...

2013 - The end.

 It's several months in to 2014 and the rally team is still shaking off winter.

2013 ended at LSPR on Stage 3 in a cloud of smoke when the welded differential exploded through the bottom of the gearbox case and liberated a pile of metal and oil onto the skid plate. 

We spent the next several hours engaged in an amusing game of "get back to the service area" bumming rides from locals and volunteers, only to find that the steering column on the Van had eaten part of the keyswitch and leaving Chad Eixenberger, who was crewing for us, befuddled and stranded.

Not all was lost, though, as we wandered out to the last spectator spot on Saturday and drank beer with Dave Grenwis and his friends.  Dave races mountain bikes, too.  He's a pretty wirey fellow and I'm sure much faster on the pedal bike than myself.

It's been a lot of seasons since we've done more than a couple of events, and seems even longer than that since the car was really consistent.  Losing the good gearbox at LSPR a few years ago is proving really challenging to recover from....

Ojibwe pre-update

With the planned reboot of the Ojibwe event this year, the Bent Mettle team is planning on rolling back up the mosquito saturated northwoods and giving 'er hell.

I've replaced the lower ball joints, an upper strut bearing, and found a loose damper rod.  My hope is that the front end will be relatively rattle free and "tight".

I have a malfunctioning rally computer to investigate, as well as possibly, maybe, finally replacing the worn rear damper spherical bearings as well.

I've put all this work off until it was finally got enough to really get to sweating in the garage!

Moving web servers

Moving the website off the old Linux box that's been chugging along back in Newton for the past 7 years.  Computer was fine, but the DSL line would go on the fritz whenever the ground was too wet.

I'm having some trouble getting the gallery back in action but hope to get it cranked back up in the next few days.

100AW thanks!

It's the middle of March and we've been back from the 100 Acre Wood rally for a few weeks now.

Cal and Jake drove down from Wisconsin in what can only be described as exceptionally poor weather conditions.  Aaron showed up and gave us a hand as well.  Thanks guys!

No fear, Andew is NOT on fire.  But he MIGHT be turning into a dragon.

Somewhere under all that mud are graphics for our supporters Barney's Wrecker in Newton, Iowa, and Riverwest Automotive in Milwaukee. 

Barney's specializes in everything and anything that needs fixed, moved and towed.  Riverwest focuses on Volkswagen / Audi repair, including air and watercooled.

Preparing to prepare

Pulled off the front suspension today and really made a mess of the garage->

The unmelted and not melting snow still on the car hints at the garage being a bit chilly.

One of the bolts on the CV shaft had to be cut off, so the skid plate had to come off. The the insert for the rear control arm bolt decided it wanted to spin.

After some cursing and a smashed fingernail, I decided to cut in from the top and re-weld the insert to the sheet metal.

This lives under the co-driver footrest, so the cosmetic impact will be minimal once it's all closed back up again.

The control arms and drivers sides shafts that Blake sent up are super clean, and the halfshafts feel tight with no play.

Tomorrow I'll get the body sheet metal buttoned back up and get some reinforcements on the new control arms.

Andrew got sucked into the GoPro vortex and is looking to go all Xtreeeeem Video this event.

Headed to 100AW!

I spent most of last year working and getting re-established after starting a new job at Nissan.  We ran Sno*Drift last year with mediocre results, so the motivation to re-engage the sport has been difficult to muster.

I went to Sno*Drift this year to help Nathan and Aaron Usher, as well as Steve Nowicki and Jimmy Brandt, with their efforts.  Steve and Jimmy took home 2nd in the Sno*Attack 2WD competition, while Usher's left the event with the more dubious distinction of being one of the first rollover incidents at the event.

On our end, we've fought some chronic issues with our Muy Fuerte 2L 16V ABF powerplant.  To counter the constantly breaking front axles, we're going to try out the slightly longer MK3 front control arms and axles.  Blake @ http://www.carparts4sale.com/ got me set up with some control arms and drivers side axles on the cheap.

So the car is in the garage, jacked up, front wheels off, and I'm just getting into de-SnoDrifting it from 2011.  I see some bent sheet metal, plenty of rust, but hopefully once I get into the groove here we can start knocking out some of the prep work.

We're still alive.  More tomorrow.