Shop addition!

I'm PUMPED!

     I just added a new addition at the shop.  A LIFT!  It's that one item that when you start wrenching on your own bikes you lust after everyone you see.  The older I get the more I feel it is just a must have.  Two bad knees and two surgically repaired shoulders make lying on the cold cement and getting up and down in my carport seem less and less attractive every time I do it.  Years ago I studied MTM (Methods Time Measurement) pretty extensively and in the normal work place the hardest repetitive motion was standing from a kneeling position.  We never considered lying on your back rolling over, getting to one knee then standing, that is just counter productive, not to mention painful as you get older.  The wooden elevated platform had worked OK for the Special but it only weighted 300 lbs.  That wasn't even an option for the BMW at 680 lbs.  It had become apparent that I had to have a lift.  Harbour Freight has about the cheapest actual bike lift on the market.  I purchased a wheel chock awhile back from them and that put me on their mailing list.   I have had my eye on their lift for awhile but just couldn't pull the trigger.  They were having their annual yard sale and the lift was listed for $300.  So I jumped.  Drove to Athens on Friday afternoon and picked one up. 

     I will admit I stopped off at the Varsity on the way home .  http://thevarsity.com/
If your not from Georgia then you might not know about The Varsity.  The familiar "What'll Ya Have?'  and then the call to the line, "two dawgs walkin', fry, ring, frosted orange!"  A normal Varsity meal has enough grease, fat and cholesterol to do you for a year, but God it's good!  It fueled many a down to the wire study session in the early 80's for me, as well as many a pre and post game meal over the years.  Just part of the whole Georgia Collegiate experience so I thought it was appropriate for this trip.  That was my excuse and I am sticking to it.  

An Athens, GA Landmark!

 

     The story as I understand it is that the guy who started The Varsity was a student at Georgia Tech.  He flunked out then went across the street and started the original Varsity in Atlanta.  He later opened a second location in downtown Athens right across from the hallowed Arches and Old Campus.  That location was actually my first real encounter with a Varsity chili dog!  Some years later he move about a mile down the road to his current Athens location at the corner of Broad Street and Milledge Avenue.

 
    The new location had several separate dinning rooms opposite the counter where you placed your order.  Each of the dinning rooms had several booths and on the wall at the far end was a TV, and in each room there was a different channel on the TV.  Sitting here writing this it hits me that this may have been the precursor to today's sports bar.  In the late sixties early seventies it was a pretty unique experience to leave the came and go grab a bite and see what was happening in the other games around the country that day, while you ate.  Now there are seven locations and the catering truck.  They will bring the Varsity to you for a price.  Mostly corporate and communitty events.

 

       When I got back to the shop I called a friend whom I had helped with his lift a few weeks earlier and we unloaded it, unpacked it from the incredibly thin Chinese oak boxing.  I felt like the dad in "A Christmas Story" when he unpacked his "Major Award."  A hammer and a crow bar prying the box apart and then there it was; it was magnificent!  Ferrai Red!  Then all of the sudden I was like Ralphie running my hand over it, the most beautiful tool I had ever seen.  I know I had that same lustful stupid look on my face but who cares, I have a lift! 

        We set it up.  I wasn't thrilled with the wheel chock that it came with, and strapping down the BMW was going to be a little daunting by myself, doable but not without risk.

 

So I removed the stock chock and installed the one I had bought earlier to use with a trailer if I ever find one of those in my price range.  Cheap!

 

It makes loading the bike by yourself so much easier!

 

I may have to put a plate underneath it later to reinforce the deck.  There is some flexing of the deck due to the increased torque on it from the chock, when the bike is being pumped into the air, for now it is fine.  The bikes are stored and plugged into their battery tenders and covered for a couple of months maybe longer. 

 

 

My shoulder surgery is next week so they will be ready when I am. Wish me luck.