This title applies to two things going on at the moment. The first is this web site.

My website had grown by accretion from 2001 through 2009. Other than having a few templates via Adobe Dreamweaver (which is a pretty darn good integrated web development environment), some barely integrated JAlbum photo albums (another extremely easy and creative tool to use) and some custom PHP and Javascript scripts, it was all hand coded.

I admit that keeping it up to date was tedious. In fact, I never really filled out all of the pages I had initially envisioned.

Maybe a year and a half ago I got introduced to Mambo, an Open Source Content Management System (CMS). I played with it a bit, but frankly, even after buying a (useless) book (that merely reiterated all of the menu options), I couldn't really make heads nor tails of it. Shortly after that, though, I found the Drupal CMS. Drupal (which sounds like the Dutch word for droplet, and hence its logo) was far more intuitive for me, and after learning a bit more about it, I've done several projects with it.

Now I am bringing it to my own website.

What's cool about a CMS is that you don't have to have the keys to the kingdom to work on it. Once it's set up, nearly everything can be done with just a web browser. I still have to do a bit of hand coding to get phrases hyperlinked and put italics and bold text inline, and to include photos in blog pages like this, but that's really pretty trivial.

I spent several weeks playing around to get the basic look the way I wanted it. Now I'm just filling out content. Some of it is stuff I'm moving over from my old site; and some of it, like this blog, is entirely new.

The other thing I'm working on and finally! am making some progress again is my 1941 BMW R12. It has been sitting idle, waiting for this and that, while I am generally riding around on my other bikes.

This past January, my friend Brian from Seattle came down with the transmission. He had rebuilt it, but he couldn't, by himself, put it back together. The main reason for this is that the kickstarter must be held in a particular position during assembly. Between he and I, we were able (just barely) to hold it against its spring, get the other three shafts installed and lined up on the rear cover, heat the case, and put it all together.

Unfortunately, when I installed the transmission in the bike, I found that the kickstarter was completely locked. I looked in through the opening for the hand shifter, I poked and I prodded, but the kicker was stuck good.

I knew it had to come apart, but I dreaded it. So, I did what I do so well — I ignored it. Unfortunately, that didn't help. So, a week ago, I took it apart again.

I'm not sure, but I think the problem was the ratchet. Although there are only a few pieces that comprise the kicker, they work in a subtle fashion. In this case, I think that when we put it together, we got the ratchet set right on the edge of the disabler mechanism, which allows the transmission to spin without clicking the ratchet. And I think that, while I was struggling to install the transmission into the bike, using the lever (among other things) for leverage, it got jammed just at the edge of the range.

After setting it up again and spending a lot of time wondering how I was going to build some special jig to simulate three hands holding everything just so, I realized that I could remove the top screw from the kickstarter bushing and put a pin — just the right thickness pin — into the hole, and it would hold the kick lever in just the right way. Reassembly was suddenly a snap.

Good thing, too. Because about the last thing you do, after putting the main parts together, is install the shifter forks and then thread the shaft that aligns them through the case and the back cover. Each fork has a recess for a spring and a ball bearing, and the shaft has a set of detents on each side. When shifting, the balls go into the detents to align the forks in the right position for each gear. It's wonderfully simple.

Except. To put this together, one must push the ball against the spring into the recess, then tap the shaft up to that point and over, to trap the ball. If one should happen to lose control of the ball or not get the shaft entirely over the ball, that ball either shoots out of the case and hits you in the face (yet another good reason to wear safety glasses!), or it falls to the bottom of the transmission and rolls immediately to the lowest place, which is under the kickstarter ratchet gear.

It turns out that there's actually not quite enough clearance between the gear and the bottom of the case for the ball to roll under. Instead, it tends to get trapped.

Six times it got trapped. And six times I had to open the transmission again and close it up again. I am so inept.

Anyway, I finally did the deed and it is now snugged up against the motor in the frame.

I have spent the last few days constructing a custom wiring harness for the bike out of cloth covered wiring. I just installed the horn today.

Now I've got to get the painted pieces back from Danny Irby.