Bleah

Sorry Folks, nothing exciting for you today. I haven't been doing much of any riding (other than commuting) because all free time is being spent working on the house I grew up in. My brothers and I have been renting it out for a number of years, but we came to the decision to just dump it - even though this is not the best of markets to sell a house in. We're just too busy with our own lives to continue dealing with that house, so we're fixing it up (tenants can be pretty tough on a house) and then we'll see what kind of luck we have.

Some good news; I saw on the Rendezvous website that we should have TWO events next year; the original June one, and then a second one in the Fall. For those of you that haven't attended this yet, you need to seriously consider it. Bands, beer, bikes & boobs. It doesn't get much better than that.

I'll sign off with a link to a rider ("Elena") who rode through the blackened wasteland of Chernobyl. Pretty interesting stuff if you haven't read it already.
http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chapter1.html

Ride Hard, Take Chances

Bad Timing

So I got a call from my credit card today; seems it's been compromised and someone has charged $1,200 (or more) over the past week or so. So I got that straightened out and I don't believe I'm going to be responsible for the charges. But I have to wait for my next statement to arrive and review it for any other false charges. The only problem? The next time a statement shows up, I'm going to be in South Dakota. Crap. Oh well, I'll have to figure something out.

Tomorrow is Ride to Work Day. Get those bikes out. Increased volume will hopefully = better awareness.

And That's the Rest of the Story...er; Stories

Not much to report from the weekend. Not much riding was done, too busy taking care of other crap. But I realized that I haven’t followed up on a few things, so here’s the wrap;

Windshield; I’d thought about trimming the stock one down a bit but have opted instead to just leave it as is. It works fine as it is, and I can always lift my head up an inch or so if I need an unobstructed view.

I researched wiring some lights into the eyes of the skull shifter knob. I’ve scrapped that plan, as the eyes are pretty small to begin with – I wouldn’t even be able to fit LED’s into them without drilling out the entire sockets. Besides; just look at those pretty blood-shot eyeballs…how could I ever do that to the poor guy?



The other thing that came to mind is how did Zig make out with his bike. I still don’t have the full picture but from what I understand, the problem was a connector between the fuel filter and the fuel pump. It had cracked, so when the pump was running, it’s pressure was being lost through the crack and the fuel was just going back into the tank. The part was on backorder but luckily not for long and Zig was able to pick his bike up last Tuesday.

I think that about brings me square with you folks. Feel free to lemme know if there’s anything outstanding that I owe you.

Ride Hard, Take Chances

Suicide Setup!

I finally managed to get the suicide clutch installed on the Fatboy! Here’s how things rolled out;

Thursday I got out of work a bit early so I shot home and pulled the Fatboy out of the garage. I knew I wouldn’t have enough time to do the full project that night, but I figured a smart move would be to install the stock risers back on. As much as I’d thought that I’d love the aftermarket ones, I wasn’t convinced that they weren’t part of the front end swagger problem. And since I’m installing something which will require letting go of the handlebar at times, it made sense to try and tighten the front end up a bit. (And it worked, too. A lot of the front end slop appears to be gone now.)

Here’s the ‘before’ pic; aftermarket risers and windshield.


Windshield removed, stock risers back on.


I had someplace to be, so that was about as far as I could get that night. I did fire her up though, and gave the battery some charging and go her fluids warmed up and flowing through the lines to make her happy.

Next morning, back out onto the driveway and drained the tranny fluid. Here’s a closeup of the plug - nice to have a magnetic tip on the end of it. Look at the little filings that aren’t floating around inside my tranny!


Next was to loosen the tension on the clutch cable to allow for removal from the hand lever.


Next was to remove the shift lever, starting with the lower snap ring on the clutch cable pin.


Here’s where I had a bit of trouble; things were going well when suddenly I heard the dreaded ‘ping’ sound of a snap ring flying off into some nether area, never to be found again. I wasn’t sure how this happened, until I happened to look closely at my snap ring pliers. Seems I’d snapped one of the pins off. Not much good now…


A quick trip down to Home Depot and I was back in business with a new, solid snap ring plier set.
Next was removal of the transmission release cover, to expose the clutch cable release mechanism assembly. Here you can see the outer ramp held in place with the large snap ring, and the cable coming into the ramp coupling.


The new snap ring pliers made short work of things, allowing removal of the ramp and ramp coupling. (Gotta make sure the 3 ball bearings on the inner ramp don’t get loose…no need to be chasing them around.)

Clutch cable is ready to be slid out!

The new cable was inserted and the assembly was reassembled.

Now it was time to remove the foot shifter assembly to make room for the clutch lever. Loosen the pinch bolts on the shifter pegs and they slide off. The front end of the shifter rod is attached via a bolt to the fulcrum lever, which is easily removed. After this, the whole foot assembly slides right out.

See those three bolts holding the kickstand bracket onto the frame? Well they have to be removed to allow the new clutch shifter plate to be inserted behind that bracket. And those bolts were torx/star headed bolts. Let’s see…hmm…I’m missing one size from my socket set. Care to take a guess as to what size I needed? Yep. Damn.


Another quick trip to Home Depot and I’m back in business. Bolts removed, backing plate inserted and bracket reattached. The new cable runs from the tranny cover, going inside the right fork tube, and outside the left. The cable ends in a heim joint which connects to the new foot lever.


Next was removal of the linkage rod itself. The front bolt was previously removed with the foot shifter assembly, the second bolt attaches to the shifter lever on the transmission. Frikkin' Blue Loctite makes things come off hard!

Next is attachment of the new hand shifter lever which bolts to the existing transmission shifter lever (the existing lever is only about three inches long and that would be kinda hard to reach).

Gotta remove the hex head bolt at the base - even has a retaining clip!

Removal of this bolt wasn’t easy - not a lot of working room. Luckily I had my handy dandy adjustable-allen wrench tool thingie available.

Perhaps the hardest part of the project was my helper always getting in the way. Brother Bill’s dog Sadie wanted to closely inspect every step of the process…

With the shifter lever bolted in, I put the skull shifter knob on and things were DONE!! That’s right; done!! (Ok, so I still need to glue the knob on so it’ll stay, but aside from that, it’s done!)

I cleaned up the tools, fired her up and prepared myself. I’d done some reading on-line about other guys that had installed this setup and they all said they’d stalled the bike on their first try. I was bound and determined that this wouldn’t happen to me. (Ahh, the best laid plans.) I did indeed stall it. But that was the only time! I got her moving and bee-bopped around my yard for a while, shifting as high as *gasp* second gear (hey what can I say - my yard isn’t that big) and back down. Finding neutral, down into first, up into second, back down, etc. In no way have I gotten the hang of things yet, that will require some riding out on the streets. I’m hoping to get the bike back onto the road this week and then the real learning process can begin.

Oh yeah; as you might have noticed from the first pics, I removed the front fender. I’m going to chop it a bit, as well as chop the rear fender somewhat. I took the passenger seat off and will be running just the rider’s seat. This bike will be an around-town bomber/bar hopper. (But there’ll be minimal bar hopping until I get the hang of this hand shifting thing.

So there you have it. The project itself wasn’t bad - not hard, just time consuming between not having all the tools I needed, and not having done this before. But I’m psyched! The suicide setup is complete!
Ride Hard, Slap Gears!

Customer Service at its Worst!

Zig’s bike broke down last night. Thankfully he was only a mile away at a gas station. I grabbed some tools and a rope and headed down to meet up with him. We checked the fuses, the plugs, and the fuel pump; all seemed to be in working order. (The bike would turn over, but wouldn’t start.) I’m not convinced that the fuel pump isn’t the culprit, but we won’t know for sure until it gets looked at. In the meantime, we had to get it to a safe spot so we tied the rope off and I towed him (with my bike – what fun!) back to my garage.

Now comes the disgusting part. Zig loaded the bike up onto his trailer this morning and brought it to Ocean State – the dealership where we bought the bikes. Get this; they said they were too busy to look at it. Are you kidding me?? He bought his bike FROM THAT DEALERSHIP, not more than 3 months ago. There’s fewer than 5k miles on it. It’s brand F’ing new. And they’re too busy to look at it? What the F kind of customer service is that??? He needs to write a letter to The Factory and inform them of this BS.

He called another dealership in the area (RI) and they said they’d take a look at it, and that’s the last I’ve heard. Still can’t F’ing believe that Ocean State blew him off.

Spread the word; Ocean State might be a good place to get list-prices on bikes, but don’t bother going there after you drive off the lot.

Dickheads.

*Yawn*

Not much to report from this past weekend. Took it easy on Friday night, helped Mike and Scott with a multi- pig roast on Saturday morning, had a pool party Saturday afternoon/evening, and Sunday was spent doing chores around the house.

Which means the Fatboy didn’t get worked on. I’m hoping (again) that with the upcoming weekend being a long one, that I can get to the bike. But (again) time will tell.

Sorry for the short post, but I figure it’s better to keep it short and less-boring, than to drone on and on about nothing.

Short week this week, I hope it goes by quickly for everyone and that we all have a great (and safe) 4th.

Ride Hard, Take Chances

358 sleeps until the next one

Rendezvous 2008 has come and gone. We’re so eager for it to get here, and we revel in the freedom it brings us while it’s going on. But all too soon; it’s over and the long wait begins until we can once again enjoy such times.

Our ride out on Thursday wasn’t too bad. We had a bit of a delay when one of the crew who we were meeting along the way was late (forgotten ticket), but we made up for lost time and arrived on Batter street – only to find traffic was backed up to the lake. Holy crap! A quick phone call to our NY brethren, and we were informed that traffic on the other side of the entrance wasn’t much better. Still, Zig and I loaded up our tour packs with beers (easily fitting 60 each!), a quick stop at the corner store for ice, and we were off to the entrance. Sure enough, the unthinkable happened; they were directing us past the entrance! But we’re on bikes! No matter, everyone – two, three, four (or more) wheels, were pointed on past the entrance and down to the end of the line on this side.

Well, we found our NY counterparts and slid into line with them. We set the kickstands and proceeded to exchange our greeting hugs and handshakes. Time passed very slowly; occasionally we’d get to move a telephone-pole span or so before having to shut them down again. At least it wasn’t raining! (Although, word was that this was why the holding pen was empty; it’d been pouring hard for the past couple of days and the pen was a sloppy mess.)

Eventually our turn into the pen came and we shot up to the gate house to get our bands, then it was back onto the bikes for a game of hurry up and wait. We paused at the inspection gate for the required search and then we were on our way. Off to Exit Road, to lay claim to our spot!

Thankfully, Eddie had come in the day before with Jimmy (as a vendor) and was able to hold off the attempts by others to try and hustle in on our territory. By the time we finally rolled up, a few of the cars (Cars! Ahead of bikes!) had made it in so we had enough equipment to block things off for ourselves. The beers kept flowing and by about 10:30, we finally had everything set up and ready to go. The rest of Thursday evening was spent saying hello to old friends, making some new ones, and checking out the grounds.

Friday dawned early, and it wasn’t long until the mind inhibitors were well under way again. A couple games of beer pong and even the holdouts were well on their way to buzzdom once again. (Although, poor Scrobie went a bit too hard and spent most of the afternoon introducing the contents of his stomach to various trash receptacles.) We made several forays into the wildness that is the ‘Vous campgrounds and checked out some bands, some bikes, and some babes.

Saturday was a rough one for me. I’d shot my party wad over Thursday and Friday, and was hurtin’ for certain on this; day 3 of the fun. We had a couple of beer pong games in the morning and that took the edge off, but for the most part of the day, I took it very slowly. Not so for most of the rest of the crew – seasoned veterans they are. They took everything in stride and kept the faith, admirably.

The only down side to the weekend was that we had a crew of d’bags camped out behind us. They’ve been there in years past, and are easily identifiable from the noise. The noise of bikes left in neutral while the throttles are wound wide open and just held there for 3, 4…10 minutes at a time. While this is tolerable during the daytime, when they’re doing it incessantly throughout the nighttime as well, that’s when it gets a bit old. Apparently some folks from a few of the sites around us asked them to quiet down, and in return, the d’bags turned their bikes to these folks’ tents and covered them in mud. (I think this happened to one of our crew as well, but I’m not positive.) At any rate, around midnight on Saturday night, the Staff came by and kicked them out, permanently. Never come back to the ‘Vous. Yes, they will be missed….not.

Sunday dawned overcast with a feel of imminent rain. We got the site broken down – made easier from having done most of the cleanup the night before. There’d been some storm warnings so we’d basically battened down the hatches and cleared the decks of all loose items (trash).

We exchanged our goodbyes to those that were awake and functioning. I took off a few minutes ahead of the crew, as I was heading up to NH for a couple days of relaxation and sight seeing. I was happy to make that trip in just under 4 ½ hours, and dry, to boot! I had enough time to jump in the shower, shoot to the foodstore for some sustenance, and make it back to the house before it started pouring.

I talked to Bill and Flex later in the afternoon to see how they’d made out. Not so well! They’d been rained on for almost half the trip, Bill had lost his shifter peg, and Flex blew a fork seal (requiring his bike to be loaded into Denny’s truck). But at least they all made it home safely.

Back up in NH, I kept checking the weather, but it seemed that I would not be able to get in the sight seeing I’d hoped for –namely; Mt. Washington. The rain was dousing, the wind was ripping through pretty well…definitely no sight seeing would be happening on Sunday afternoon. Checking the weather for Monday and Tuesday, things weren’t going to be any better; thunderstorms and penny-sized hail. That’s all they kept talking about; how bad the hail was and would be. So after checking things many more times on Monday morning, I regretfully decided to scrap the plan and come home a day early. Mt. Washington’s weather is cold enough and bad enough as it is, I didn’t need to be checking it out when the weather wasn’t good to begin with. Besides, what fun is there if there’s no visibility up there? It’ll have to wait for another time.

The ride home from NH yesterday was pretty good. It only started to rain on my by around exit 4 – just enough for me to pull over and put on the rain gear. After that, it stopped (of course) and the rest of the trip was just muggy and damp, but no outright rain.

Home; shower and laundry and get ready for the work week…which is now under way. Bleah.

Here are some pics from the adventure

Meeting up on the Pike

Empty field – before the madness

Us, waiting on road

Thank god the staties were friendly. Lots of open containers!!

Lynner’s ticket # - very appropriate!

Empty pen. The grass looks ok, but the ground was way soft.

Setting up camp. Spiller with the monster grille! Woo-Hoo!!

Setting up camp. One canopy up, one to go.

Breakfast on the grille! Omelettes and bacon for everyone!

Yours truly. This was Bear's helmet and says “Freak” on the front. I think that about says it all.

Freak #2

Remember this word?

Poor Scrobie...

(Not quite) the end of a long day

One of the many concerts!

New meaning of the word Drag Race. The guy being dragged is only wearing a toga...

Group Photo!

358 sleeps until we do it all over again…can’t wait…

Ride Hard, Take Chances