Pipe Dreams

The pipes found themselves installed last night. Man, what a farking pain in the ass. Now I know why the chrome covers don't go all the way up to the flanges...you need swinging room for your nuts! (What?)

When I wrapped the pipes, I did two full wraps when I started and also when I got to the tops of the pipes. If I ever wrap pipes again, I'll know to only take one wrap around, at the top. Who knew that space was at such a premium? Egads, I had to really do some serious finagling to get the nuts started and then tightened. And the mounting brackets weren't any kind of picnic, either. But I digress. The pipes are on and I think they look sharp...

(Not sure why the pic isn't showing correctly, but if you click on it, it should come up.)

I was going to fire the bike up and let the pipes break in but I'd forgotten that I'd popped the cover on the transmission (to free up the clutch cable, back when I was dismantling things). I need to get the fluid filled back up before I set any parts into motion.

Oh yeah; I'd also thought about firing the bike up without the pipes on it, just for the sheer thrill of hearing my baby roar. (I wasn't going to let it run long...maybe just long enough for a few calls from my neighbors to be logged with the local constabulatory...) However, the fact that the rear port was aimed right at my (shiny chrome) oil tank gave cause for scrapping the idea (good thing, because at the point when I was considering doing this, I still hadn't noticed/been reminded that my tansmission fluid was empty.

The only other item for today was the call to the dealership this morning to see if my long-sought fork is en-route. I was informed that they (the dealership) can't see if its still at the factory or if its shipped and on the way, or what. I explained that the guy I talked to last week had said the system showed that it was scheduled to be released yesterday. He apologized and said nope, they couldn't tell where it was. Doesn't make sense to me - I think he could have checked to see if the system showed it still backordered, or shipped, or what. But, I didn't want to push it. I've been bugging these guys for weeks, I don't need to piss them off now.

Thus wraps up another week. I hope you all have a fantesticle weekend. Get out there and have some fun, you crazy kids!

Ride Hard, Take Chances