Never Forget

 Wednesday I told you about my desire to paint the sporty and enter it in todays bike show. I know its not a show bike but so what. Run what ya brung.
 I was gonna just repaint the bike black but ran into a few issues. In fact I got quite frustrated in my efforts. When asked how the painting project was going, these are the words that came out of my mouth...
 Have you ever walked through the woods in the dark and have your flashlight puke out? A few steps further a tree branch slaps you in the face and then you fall into a deep hole. You struggle but can't get out of the hole. After many attempts you just accept the fact that you will play out your days in this hole. That is how my painting project was going.
 But then I heard a voice. It was my wife and she encouraged me. Of course by then I had already lost my cool and sprayed the entire tank in gold glitter as a protest. So now what? The show is days away and the bike I want to take is painted like a cheap piece of costume jewelry. I said screw it and decided to just free style the paint job. With the eagle sissy bar it was easy to come up with a patriotic theme and just start squirting paint. It's definitely a forty foot paint job. Any closer and it looks like ass but I had fun with it and it gave me some ideas for a paint job I would ultimately like to do on this bike...when I have more time.

 Ya, its more of a 3rd grade art project but its on there and its dry.

 Because I spent so much time dickin around with the tank paint, I didn't get a whole lot else done. The eagle is back on after cutting off the whole lower section of the old rack system. The rear fender was chopped flush and the front fender got a splash of color. I also relocated the plate and wrapped the pipes. I think the wrap looks good but the real reason for doing it can be seen by the holes in my riding pants and two pair of work pants.
 So if you are looking for something to do today, why not come to Green Lake and check out the bike show. I'll be there.

Later.

An Exhausting Day

 The other day my wife pointed out to me that there was only one weekend left to work on my bike before I head out on a 9ish day vacation. This was an eye opener because I still have some changes I want to make to the bike and I had been down playing the departure date so I wouldn't get all worked up about it. The worst part about leaving for vacation are the days prior to departure when your not vacationing. To ease the pain I've been wrenching on the bike after work this week and that will probably continue for quite a few days yet. A most excellent way to pass the time.
 Yesterday was exhaust day.

 I removed the stock head pipe and installed American Customs Power Flex header. My heat shields were reused and I kept the Screaming Eagle Street Cannon slip ons. Because my new air ride suspension has a wider range of travel I will have to relieve the mufflers near the lower shock mount. Ya, I'm gonna whack them with a hammer. They don't need much "adjusting" and will be hidden behind the saddle bags. In the end this setup may add a little power and noise and will definitely run cooler than stock, a welcome relief with the weather we've been having.  I'll let you know how that turns out.

 Next will be to replace the air filter and flash tune the ecm.

Later.

Filthy Disgusting Pigs

 A couple weeks ago I talked about the fuel tank I made for the Rat Turd. Earlier this year I also showed you the homemade header I welded together. When I took the Rat for a test ride after these mods I was disappointed with the performance of the bike. It was jetted lean from day one and always had to be choked for many minutes before it would idle on its own. Now with the free flowing exhaust and no restrictions, it wouldn't even accelerate to 55 mph.

  The plan was to drill out the jets to compensate for the air filter pods and header. The problem was I didn't know how big to drill them and I didn't want to pull the carbs, test run and repeat a bunch of times.

I decided the best thing to do was ask Greg, our 4 stroke tech at work, what his opinion was. He has a lot of experience working on these disgusting pigs that swim in their own filth and I respect his opinion even if he is a young whippersnapper. I described the way the bike was running from startup through hi gear complete with sound effects. Bwawp burp chug. He asked a few questions and I filled in the blanks with more vroom vroom noises. As he handed me a set of tiny drill bits he told me to find the size of the jets and go up two bit sizes.

 I did as told and put the bank of carbs back on the Rat. Upon first start with a stone cold engine the bike fired right up. I immediately noticed the bike didn't need as much choke I and was able to let it idle on its own in less than a minute. Once on the road I could tell the bike had more power than ever. The problem was that all this new power revealed another problem I didn't even know I had. The clutch now slips when I crank the throttle open. It's always something. I have enough bikes in the garage that I'll probably save the clutch for a winter project. It will be good enough to get me to the one bike show I plan to attend with the bike.

 In other news...I whined last week about the customer service from J&P Cycles.

 It turns out someone in the marketing department over there found my blog and wanted to correct the situation. They said I would receive that gift card soon and in fact I had it in days. They went out of their way to make it right and I respect that. We all make mistakes or run into problems but the bottom line is to make it right. I'll give them another chance.

Plumbing

 I showed you the Rats new fuel cell after it was coated in bedliner and wrapped in barbed wire. I did a little messing around on the front of the tank frame to outline the rat.

 I just took some rat colored paint and sprayed the front of the mount. I did a little drawing with a sharpie to detail the rat. It doesn't pay to redo it because that's about as skilled as I get when it comes to drawing rat faces.

 So the front tank drains to the rear tank through the hoses on each side of the tanks. I figure when  I can no longer see fuel in that hose I'm on "reserve". The hoses on top of the rear tank run up to the filler neck and also show fuel just before the tank is full. Pretty handy at the pump. This pic doesn't show the vent in the cap or the plumbing from the sediment bowl to the bank of carbs.

 I really didn't like the hoses. I changed them to clear ones.

 So here is the bike as it sits now. You'll notice I also wrapped the muffler with barbed wire. It wasn't as bad as wrapping the fuel tank but still a pain. I scratched the shit out of the paint on the muffler. I think once all the scratches rust it will look ok. About the exhaust...it flows way better than the stock carb jetting will handle. I'm gonna have to rejet.
 As I look at this pic I realize I have made a lot of changes to this 31 year old bike. Tank, seat, fenders, rear frame, hand made header and crossover handlebars. I still have a few plans for it including a different front end. Stay tuned.

Rat Turd Exhaust-Live!

 It's been driving me crazy. As you know a while back I built a homemade header for the Rat Turd. What would it sound like? Would it sound like a turd? Would the rain flapper go klinkity klink when the bike was idling? Well with the weather as cold as it's been and the fact that I have other things torn apart on the bike, I finally got a chance to push it outside and fire it up. You be the judge.

 I like it. It sounds like a big throaty four cylinder jap bike. Not the little 550 that it really is. I also got the rain flapper klinking noise I was hoping for. It's actually a lot klinkier than the video reveals.
 I still have to seal the elbow below the muffler. I hadn't done this yet because I didn't know if I was gonna get the sound I wanted. I was happy to see that when I held the rain flapper closed the only place it leaked was at this elbow. My header collector seems to be welded up tight. Schwinnggg!

 I still have the restrictor that came with the muffler. Of course it was removed before I ever started this project. Now I may use it to fine tune the sound and klinkability of the rain flapper.
 I sat on the bike and revved it up a few times. I think it's gonna be alright. The outlet points away from me just enough so I won't be breathing rat fumes yet it's close enough for me to enjoy it. The fact that it points up may lessen the offensiveness of it's tone. I'm not gonna get into the whole "loud pipes save lives" debate. That's not why I built it.
 So it looks like this project is a success and fine tuning it will be simple enough. For that it gets the Greasy Shop Rag stamp of approval.