Godzilla Tool

Comfort Castle Location: Rockport, Texas
Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

For those who REPEATEDLY complain in emails or in person that my blog entries are not long enough or have enough pictures; GO AWAY. I hope that is plain enough for you this time.

Meanwhile for the rest of us the day was very good. It was chores day and Christmas present planning day and eventually trimming the Sightseer’s handle bars. The weather was cool but good sunshine. The town is slowly filling with winter Texans as evidenced by the Wal-Mart parking lot occupancy level. It is fun inside the store to hear all the different accents from around the country gathered in one place. One that always gives me a giggle is to hear someone shopping for “choose” for their feet. It is still fresh in my memory how my Texas accent caused many a repeat when my Washington State residency first started. The accents are not bad but theirs and mine are fun to listen to.

Finally the time for searching for Christmas presents was over (or I gave up). Out of the back of the Truck came Sightseer (ss) for modification. Ss was wedged into the picnic table to hold the handle bar steady when a hacksaw was applied to it for trimming. First the trim line needs to be marked. No longer is a thin pencil line good enough for my old eyes. Some white ½” wide tape was used to mark the cut line.

The hacksaw and a fresh blade were pressed into service. A few hard strokes and the teeth were all gone from the hacksaw blade!!!! OK it is time to get out the Godzilla tool for cutting metal. Of course the angle grinder was put away very well in some cabinet. It took a few minutes to find it. Then another few minutes to find the 12 gage extension cord to get power to the picnic table area. OK now we are all set up.


The white towel is to protect the paint of SS from the hot sparks of the grinding wheel that was used to cut off the piece from the handlebar. Extra care was taken in the use of the grinder since it had been nearly a year since my last use of the grinder. After the small piece fell away the grinder was used to touch up the ends of the handlebar some. After that a file was used to finish off the end of the handle bar totally. This is a picture of the piece removed from this side of the handlebar.

The brake levers, shifter and Ergon grips were moved roughly back into position for use. During the next riding event all the handle bar mounted stuff will have a session of fine tuning to fit my body posture just right. Then SS was put away into the back of the Truck and the tools all put back into the proper cabinets where they can again hide from me before the next repair.

Riding SS in nice weather is a great way to try to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.