Hot Hot Hot

 BLAMO! Just like that summer weather has arrived. Already the lawns are getting a brown tint and are a bit crispy with the lack of rain. Temps have been in the upper 80s and will remain that way for a week they say. It is 77 degrees already this morning with highs predicted near 90. I know that seems fine to most of you but for me that is too hot. Yes, I whine when its too cold or too wet and now when its too hot. Guess what else I have to whine about. Yesterday it was too windy. The wind made the heat bearable but it also cost me a pair of my favorite sunglasses. I was riding along minding my own business and just started across a bridge when an updraft or some kind of weird wind hit me from down low, went up my chest and pulled the glasses right off my face. It was like an invisible hand just yanked them off my head. I reached out for them in a quick panic type reaction but I was too late. I watched as they flew over the guard rail and ultimately into the Wisconsin river.

 On the topic of things that don't happen too often, mine wasn't the only bike parked at the shop yesterday. Al finally got the needed battery for his Buzz Lightyear bike and rode it in Saturday. Of the other two people at work that ride, one has a broken leg and won't be on a bike for a while and I'm not sure what the story is with the other. I know he has been riding, just not to work.
 Today we will ride down to Madison to visit our daughter. My wife was with her Friday and Saturday when she went in for back surgery. We'll visit with her again today to see how she is doing.

Later.

Watson Street Classic Cycle Show

 I talked about this show in previous posts and yesterday was the event. My day started out with a wet twenty mile ride to where the show was to take place. I was way early but that was the plan. I had pre-registered a few days earlier and just dropped the bike on main street with the instructions to move it wherever needed. Our tent crew from work was setting up tables, chairs, stages and porta potties so I just bummed a ride back to the shop where I spent the morning fixing broke ass chain saws. At noon my wife showed up and we headed down town to the show. We met up with Al and Vicki and enjoyed a nice lunch together before checking out the cars and bikes.

 There were a lot of cool machines there and after walking around we decided to set up shop in front of our bikes. Als Buzz Lightyear bike is a big hit with the young crowd. A lot of kids had their pic taken in front of it.

 I planted myself just within ear shot of the Rat Turd. I like to hear the WTF comments people make when looking at the bike. 

 The weather really turned out nice and there was a pretty good turn out of spectators. It seems the new fuel tank and exhaust system really have changed the way people view the bike. A lot more people have less of a clue what the bike started out life as. Those two mods didn't go unnoticed by the judges either as the bike took first place in the "radical" class. Ya know this rat isn't a "show" bike. It's just unusual and shows off what a twisted mind is hiding behind these good looks. The goal was to have the tank and exhaust projects done by this date and I met that goal. If I didn't set some kind of due date then the thing would be a pile of parts in the corner like my BSA project.

 So whats next? Yesterday I got to thinking about the bikes I have sitting in the garage. I really want to get that BSA running soon so I can enjoy it while I might still be capable of kick starting the beast. I'm considering partially funding that project from the sale of my sportster. Ya I know. I do this all the time and I'll regret selling it just like when I sold the Aprilia and a whole list of other bikes. I have a few other thoughts on the subject of selling the sporty but I'll share those another time.
 Todays pics were all taken by my wife who has been enjoying clicking away trying to find that "just right" picture. She does all right. I have no complaints.

Harvest Fest Bike Show

 Today is the Harvest Festival Car show in Green Lake, Wi. I understand the show drew around 800 cars last year. Not too shabby. This year there will be their first ever Motorcycle show. Proceeds from the entry fees will help support a local animal shelter and the Town Square.
 I'm taking a bike to the show. Not sure which one yet.

 It really doesn't matter. Neither one of them is a show bike. I ride one or the other to work most days. Right now I'm leaning towards the Rat Turd (on the right).  The main reason is because the sportster has died on my ride home from work twice this past week. On the twenty mile ride home the bike died within 100 feet of the spot it died days before. That's really odd considering I think the problem is just a bad key switch. Maybe there's just a high concentration of gremlins living in that area. I didn't really notice any evidence of gremlins while I was PUSHING the bike to a safe spot to work on it.
 I just got a text from Al. He was asking about registration time for the show. I think he's bringing his Buzz Lightyear bike. The weather should be perfect for a car and bike show.  All the rides will be glistening in the sunshine. Well unless your bike is painted with truck bedliner.

'67 BSA Big, Bold, Powerful!

 When I was young and first got interested in bikes one of the first projects was a '67 BSA Lightning. This was a bike my father purchased from a neighbor for $50. I remember carrying boxes of bike parts home. We had no idea what the bike was supposed to look like until we saw a pic in a workshop manual.

 A lot of time was spent on this motor. Partially for my benefit to learn about engines and part because as I now know, if you are working on a Brit bike for the first time there are a few things you need to wrap your head around. Lucas electrical, how to set the timing and British Standard to name a few.
 The cylinders were honed and oversized pistons and rings were installed along with all the other usual things done during a rebuild. We had such a hard time getting this engine running and spent a lot of time second guessing ourselves and double checking our work. I remember taking turns with my brother pushing the bike in gear trying to get the bike to fire up. We would try kick starting the bike with nothing to show for our efforts except a sore leg. Oh sure once in a while it would burp at us for a few seconds or even allow a short 50 foot blast up the drive, but that was about it.
 Other projects came and went. Seasons came and went. The BSA sat waiting in the corner of a few different garages. It sat eleven years before one day my dad asked me if I wanted it. I had eleven years of gear head experience behind me and felt I was ready to take on this project that had kicked my ass as a wrenching wannabe.
 When I was a kid I understood ignition systems from a text book viewpoint. Now I understood them from experience. It didn't take long to get the bike running but something else was going on with this beast. I could never get it to run smooth.
 After a few days of messing around with it after work I was starting to get goofy about this project. Was it gonna kick my ass again?
 I kicked the bike over and she came to life but ran crappy. Then it would run good, then bad again. I had a furnace fan blowing cool air over the motor so it wouldn't over heat. I pretended the air from the fan was the wind blowing my hair back. I leaned to the left then the right as if I were racing through an S curve. No bikes in my mirrors, I must be in the lead. A gentle sweeper to the right and she's purring like a kitten. Get on the brakes and scrub off some speed for the next left hander. Push hard on the left bar... Hey, what just happened? When I leaned left it ran like crap. When I leaned right it cleared up. After a few more laps on my pretend race track I was certain the bike was flooding one cylinder when I leaned left. Even if I only leaned a very small amount.
 Back on Earth after a little investigating I discovered a casting flaw in one of the Amal carbs. There was a small hole right about at the top of the fuel level in the bowl. Fuel was spilling from the bowl directly into the venturi. I used some JB Weld epoxy to plug the hole and an hour later I was riding the bike around the parking lot. It ran dang near perfect. Whodathunkit.
 I rode 200 miles on the bike before a bearing in the trans siezed up. Well, I rode 196 miles. I pushed it the last 4 miles home.
 That was over 20 years ago. I haven't had it running since then. I have worked on it a bit but only enough to figure out what was wrong and what was needed to fix it. I think I even bought a bunch of parts for it. I'll have to go out in the shed and take a peek. Every year I say that this is the year I will put it back together. Every year passes without that happening. This year I was getting serious about the bike and decided to borrow an inspection camera from Al. Unfortunately the camera showed what I feared. All that kicking and push starting attempts without decent oil circulation created some scoring in the cylinders.

 Also, this area that appears to be shiny concerns me. I think its actually rust pitting from sitting so long. Its not above the scored areas so it must have come after the 200 mile fling and wasn't the reason for the scoring. My bad for not fogging the cylinder better. I guess it really doesn't matter because it has to come apart either way.
 I'll get a better look at it when I tear it down this winter. Next year is the year I ride again...

To Infinity and Beyond

Sometimes the moon and stars all line up just right and you finally get what you've been waiting for. This happened today at work when a co-worker named Al finally got to ride his bike to work. Al has a few bikes and they are all pretty cool but this one is special.

Als '92 Dyna Low Rider. I wish I got a better shot of the wheels and rotors.

I like the green fins

I'm more of a Foghorn Leghorn fan myself. The quality of the paint is awesome.

  As long as you own a bike, its never really done. I know Al has some colored LEDs that he plans to add for a green glow that will reflect of all those shiny surfaces.
 Al says the reactions he gets about the paint vary from "awesome" to "why did you wreck that bike?"  How can anyone think he wrecked it? Its a one of a kind bike that will never get confused with anyone elses bike.
 Its funny how how the guys screaming at you to be a free spirited individual are always trying to get you to do the same thing they are doing. Whats up with that?