Chopper Hostel

We got hit with a few nights below freezing already even though its in the mid 70’s and beautiful as I am writing this. Winter has a way of letting you know it’s about to be biting at your ass in the coming days. It’s comin’ and by all accounts it should be a rough one.

Chopper Hostel has been soft opened for the summer and I had a smattering of bikes in the beginning of the summer. Mostly good folk and only one I had the feeling I should carry my gun.

It takes a lot to get me nervous and something about this guy made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I’ll be more careful in the future. I will tell you this, I am a horrible judge of character so if I say someone made me uneasy something had to definitely be wrong with that hound.

Now that the season is closing I can say that I still think Chopper Hostel is a great idea and in effect, it has been going well. After the first summer I can say it’s worth putting in more work to have a really stand out camping facility…for choppers.

Things worked well the way they are, but I want Chopper Hostel to stand out as a destination for choppers and classic bikes to have a time in the mountains. The location is good, now to make the grounds cool as well.

Many of the people that showed up had any idea who I was and assumed I was just some crazy old slump with a Shovelhead chopper lookin’ to make a quick buck. That’s fine, I don’t want to make introductions to familiarize guests of my past. Although I’m sure when I told a story of riding out of left field people thought I was just bullshittin’ just to make myself look solid.

It is what it is and people will think what they want and that doesn’t change a fuckin’ thing on these grounds. I like havin’ bike guys stop by whether I know them or not. Hopefully, we became friends, if not at least they’re gone. Overall? It was a success and I’m excited to be open for another season come spring.

With the additions I plan to make the winter there is the immediate issue of staying warm. Although most of my personal heat will be through labor building walls and diggin’ holes that aint gonna keep me warm at night.

The Danger Hut is a rather tragic residence. Although MUCH better now it still has its shortcomings. Mostly the roof and a consistent heating source. The roof I have patched enough to squeak through the winter, but the heat situation is still up in the air.

I have a fully functioning fuel oil heater big enough to easily heat the hut, but the price of fuel all depends on who is in office. Without getting political I simply can’t afford the $4 a gallon to use it. I have a wood stove that I need to move AGAIN to the main house. So that’s what I’ll use to get me through for now. Any heat lacking I can make up in a kerosene heater for now.

The big ass tent was great at containing heat but unfortunately it was too big for the amount of level ground I have. With the tents 20×30′ footprint the only level area big enough was over several natural springs that made themselves known over last winter rendering the tent useless. It just got wet, stayed wet and destroyed anything that you put inside…the tent in its original form now ceases to exist.

The big ass tent is now a medium size tent that I attached to the back side of the Danger Hut. It was a straightforward but very labor-intensive operation probably more suited to four strapping young lads but accomplished by one beat up old man.

First, I split the tent in half along it’s width and deflating all the airbeams and moving the two intact airbeams to the house. Then, over the next couple of hours and two bad knees later, I dragged the half-a-tent to its new location and just about killed myself.

No matter how much of this tent you move it’s gonna be a stomach roller. The arched section and the heavy plastic floor are one piece. When I cut the tent in half, I have to cut the floor too if I want the structure to remain intact. It’s heavy and you have to know which direction the tent is in if you only want to move it once to the orientation of its new location. I moved it several times before this became a factor in this particular move.

With the tent moved and orientated in the direction I want I began by inflating the two airbeams I will be using and measuring the footprint in its new location. When all that checks out I partially deflated the two airbeams and installed the tent’s outer skin and floor over the airbeams and securing them to the beams loosely.

I inflated the tent to about half pressure and had to figure out how I was goin’ to secure the one side to the house using the tents heavy duty draw straps to do so. I ended up running the straps trough the lowest part of the roof in three locations and securing the straps to the main structure of the house on one side and on the other secured those same point locations to a single 6′ stake hammered 4′ into the ground.

I then inflated the airbeams to their full 60 psi. I ended up with a footprint of 12×20′ and it measures a height of 11′ at its highest point on the interior. The outer wall was installed before the beams were fully inflated.

I now have a bike shop out of the weather and on level ground. This what I had in mind for two years but didn’t really have this particular vision in mind the first time I assembled this monster.

There is an inner liner that still needs to be cut down and fitted before I attempt to heat it once the temperature drops in the next couple of weeks. How am I goin’ to heat it? Well, I got that figured out.

Because the tent is sitting on solid ground (as opposed to on stilts like the house) i can build a rocket mass heater in there without the weight becoming a problem. Weight being a consideration as the MASS in rocket mass heater is where the heat is sent and the mass, once it gets warm, will keep the room warm from the radiant heat of the mass of at least a ton, using cob (a mix of clay, straw and aggregate).

I have been experimenting with different rocket stoves made out of brick and have come up with a functioning proof of concept after experimenting on and off all summer. This is the simplest and cheapest I am able to build the correct rocket stove. Short of not being an airtight mortared unit it still works reasonably well considering its just strategically stacked brick.

The heater is cheap to build and cheap to operate as you are heating a mass not a room. Basically, it all runs on kindling and not logs of wood. The longer you heat the mass, the warmer it will be and the less need there will be to make a roaring fire.

I startedthis article as some big political rant but that’s just exhausting and who gives a fuck. Go and vote and that’s as polititical as I think we need to get at the Hostel and improvements being made here is way more interesteing than all that shit at thhis point.

Improvements will move forward no matter what is goin’ on in the rest of this mad, mad, world. Some big changes are coming as this site comes more and more into focus.

If you like what I got goin’ on here don’t be shy and throw a few bucks to help fund the goin’s on around here you can easily down below. This is what the dog and I are payin’ the bills with these days so dig deep. Thanks in advance and as always I appreciate your continued support….”GTP” out!

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