Motor City Motors Episode 5

Hey everyone! Sorry, I missed last weeks episode (#4), but I’m back today for episode 5.

Motor City Motors Episode 5 Challenge: ‘Amphibious Motorcycles. This one looks pretty cool. The concept is to turn a motorcycle into an amphibious vehicle that runs on water and dry land. I hope I don’t find many reasons to type ‘amphibious’ because I seem to take 20 seconds to make sure it’s spelled right each time. This episode starts in 36 minutes…see you soon.

Hmm, this looks like a competition between Jamie and Dave. Might be fun.

Yep, it’s a competition, turn two bikes into amphibious vehicles and then they’re gonna race. This show is getting better eh?

Jamie is talking about the competition between the brothers. Dad is talking about the differences between the two, Dave being more analytical, Jamie more free flowing.

Dave is gonna build a bike that goes on water, Jamie is gonna build a boat that works as a bike.

Dave is building a catamaran kinda thing, with pontoons on each side of the bike.

Jamie is taking a small boat and putting a trike kinda bike thing inside of it. He’s using a 600 Kawasaki motor I think he said.

Day One: Dave has his parts already ordered and the entire build figured out. Jason, owner of his own shop is helping out. His shop is closing down and it sounds like he’s having a tough time. Both teams seem to be working pretty hard.

Harley Sportster motor for Dave. Jamie’s boat hull is chopped up now. Joe owns a heating & plumbing company, and also build amphibious vehicles….good guy to have on the job.

Uh oh, Jamie needs to order steel, slowing down his build. Dave’s team is still moving right along, although a few parts are missing. Jamie’s team is stopped…needing his delivery. Jamie’s team goes home and Dave’s team is still working…no shock there. With that said, Jamie has pulled through in the end before, I suspect he’ll be just fine on this one too.

Day Two: Daves crew is back to work, Jamie’s team is waiting for their delivery, but they’re doing a bit of work. He says he likes his underdog status at the moment.

Jason Hallman and Jerry James are helping out on the crews. Marty Rosalk (sp?). Kevin makes parts for do-it-yourself bike builders. He owns his own shop. Sorry, I didn’t get his last name or name of his shop…too much typing. Steve Hume is helping Jamie out with parts.

Steve is providing the prop and a bit of other parts. Now Jamie and Steve are having a few drinks, lol.

Jamie’s parts are in, and they’re back to work. They’re building the frame for their boat..structural stuff to hold the motor. They’ve gotten a ton of work done today…making serious headway. Looks like Jamie has a great team of guys helping him.

Dave’s team is working on the sending unit…needing another part.

Jamie’s team is working on how to raise and drop the prop, for use on dry land and water.

Both teams are waiting for parts to come in. Day two is done.

Day Three: Joe Rogers is on one of the crews. Dave is having his standard morning meeting, getting things organized for the day. Tom (damn, missed the last name) is also on the crew.

Joe on Jamie’s team has a solution for raising and lowering the prop. They all like his idea except Jamie. Joe had it all ready to go, but Jamie wants to use a motorcycle swingarm idea. Lol, Jamie makes his changes then leaves…saying he has a doctors appointment. So, he’s left the guys on their own. The guys are gonna do it their own way…Joe’s design. Joe says he didn’t come there to lose, and since all the guys have $5000 in tools riding on it, it makes sense they would do what they think is best when Jamie is gone.

Dave is taking the bike out for a test drive, to make sure it’s running properly.

Jamie is back, and see’s that they did it their way. He isn’t happy because they’re taking away the ‘cool factor’. After a convo with the boys, he accepts what they’ve done. Day three is over. Jamie really wants to win this.

Day Four: Back to work. Jamie’s team is making their boat water tight. Dave is working on his pontoons. I’m guessing Dave will be faster on land and Jamie will be faster on water…could be a close race.

Joe (Jamie’s team) isn’t impressed by the lack of creativity on Dave’s bike-boat thing.

Wow, that was a fast day. They didn’t show much of what happened and right back to commercial.

Day Five: Final day, 6 hrs, 12 minutes left. Jamie’s team has quite a bit of work to do, Dave’s team just needs to make their bike water tight. His team is taking their time, with time to spare it seems.

Jamie’s team is working hard. Wheels & rear drivetrain. Done. Fuel system is next. Not running yet. Jason is checking out why. Water in the fuel…bad thing. Refill tank with clean gas and we have ignition. Prop works…getting close to finished it appears.

Richard Hallman is here with paperwork saying that Jason doesn’t own his shop anymore. That sucks man.

3 hours left. Jamie is painting his boat green. Seems like a really good group of guys on both of these teams. Joe is pissed off at Jamie and walks away. Commercial break.

I’m looking forward to seeing the race. I’m picking Dave’s team for speed, but Jamie wins for ingenuity imo. The longer they’re racing on dry land, Dave’s team can pick up a big lead I think. But, Jamie might catch him in the water. We’ll see.

Jamie and Joe are back to arguing and Joe throws his helmet at Jamie, lol. Joe is pissed because Jamie barely works and they aren’t done yet. Joe is trying to make it work, while Jamie is making it pretty.

Dave’s build is about done now, with about 1 hour left. Jamie’s team is working on steering with 2 minutes on the clock. Time to fire it up and see if it works. It does, and it’s pretty cool actually.

Dave is looking forward to the race, coming up now.

I lap on land, one lap on the Detroit River.

Motors fired up. Green flag. I was right, Dave is way out in front right now. Ahh, Dave is cheating imo….using a ‘removable’ pontoon. Jamie’s drivetrain has problems, but they fix it.

Pontoon pit stop for Dave..attaching pontoons. Jamie is catching up. Dave is in the water first. Jamie is closing in. Here he comes, lol. He’s sinking and abandons ship.

Dave’s team wins. A tractor pulls Jamie’s out of the water, lifts up up about 20 feet in the air, drops is (on purpose), then crushes it.

Dave’s team gets their $5K in tools.

Jamie says he feels like he let down his crew. He felt bad for his team and was able to get some tool packages for his guys.

Best wishes to all the guys, and especially Jason. Detroit lost another small business owner, one that seems like a great guy.

See ya next week.