Rat Up Close

 I've been thinking the Rat isn't done yet, like it needs some sort of weird front suspension. I suppose I should get back to scribbling ideas and scavenging parts for it so when next years bike shows roll around I'm ready. I guess the rest of the bike could be pretty much done, but as I scroll through these pics I see some areas that may benefit from a torch, welder and grinder.

 I think one of the neatest ideas on this bike is in the above pic but most people never notice it. The handlebars exit the triple tree from the wrong sides. I should clean up all the garbage to show that off better. Actually it was an experiment that worked. I should just redo them with heavier tube and hide the wires.

 I suppose this rat face would look a lot different if I had my airbrush setup going at the time. I'm not saying better, just different.

 I wanted a 4 into one header so I built one. I'm a cheap bastard.

 I like this pic. Those fins need some attention, maybe from a grinder.

 There was a short run one year when I just threw anything laying around onto the bike. That big chain and the copper tubing fall into that category.

 The crest was fun to make. Tied down wrenches represent big ideas and little funds. Bike versus deer is all about a week I earned in the hospital. Damn forest rats. The whole crest with its shape and red/blue color represent the us interstate symbol from a time when I was into iron Butt rides.

 Someone once gave me shit about how that barbed wire was gonna tear me open if I went over the bars. If I go over the bars theres a good chance I'll already be visiting a doctor. I'm sure he'd be happy to put a few band aids on my scratches after he's set my broken bones.

 This expanded metal front fender/spider web was a challenge. Trying to bend it round in two different directions and keep it symmetrical wasn't easy. 

 I've also been thinking any effort into this could be better spent on the sportster or BSA. I guess we'll see where things go this winter.

Later.

Random Rat

 Every so often you're out minding your own business and then right before your eyes is a vision of beauty. I be like...

 What I saw was a rat bike but upon closer examination this bike is only a rat in the sense that I'm not sure what other category to put it in. If you mix steampunk, rat bike, art and imagination you end up with Rodney Millers build.

 What your looking at, and I'll probably mess some of this up, is modified Kawasaki running gear surrounding a Kubota diesel engine and honda transmission. If you look close you'll see there is very little stock anything on here. Some of the features include a frame tube exhaust system, custom rear swing arm and suspension, and a coffee pot headlight housing.
 I think Rodney said he had seven months time invested in this ride. If so, I don't think he did much else in his free time but work on his creation. And as usual, he claims its not done yet. I heard some talk of a turbocharger.
 The bike hasn't been to any shows yet so if you see it out there next year take some time to check it out and make sure you talk to the builder. The stories that go along with these builds are always the best part and I understand the state inspection was quite interesting.

Later.

Ripon Bike Show

 Yesterday morning was a warm one, about sixty degrees and it made for an enjoyable twenty mile ride to the bike show. Because I had to work I was early and the first one registered and just dropped the bike off. It wasn't until after work when I arrived at the show that I found out registration was a bit dismal. Its not the fault of the guys putting on the event. They don't have the help they once had and other events like the Tomahawk Fall Ride were going on the same day. I guess the blame should rest partially on regular attendees like myself for not spreading the word. This pic of the bacon section at wallyworld is about as interesting as the bike show was and that bothers me. Sure I checked out the few new bikes to the show but the others were all just the same cut of meat, including the Rat Turd.

  I guess the most interesting part of a show like this is to talk with the "builders". To me that term includes everyone that did their own work on their own bike. Everyone has a story that you can't read just from eyeballing the bike. You need to hear about the broken head bolts or use of Flex Seal from the guy that did the work. The factory customs that were just purchased and ridden don't do it for me.
 This bike was pretty nice.

 It was a lot nicer after I talked with the guy that built it. He deservedly beat me in our class. Hes an older gent with an eye for detail and the bike is no trailer queen. He found interest and creativity in the Rat Turd and tried out the cast iron seat. I think it took about 2 nanoseconds for him to decide that wasn't for him. So much for my offer to trade even-up.

 When it was time to leave I went to thumb the starter button on the rat but got bupkis. I'm not sure what happened to the cranking circuit but my handy dandy pocket knife easily jumped the solenoid and the little four banger came to life. I looked up and noticed there was a crowd watching me. I had forgotten how much interest there is in seeing that rain flapper bounce on top of my muffler so I gave em a few blips. Hey, its a show, might as well show off.
 I found an older video I once posted. Pre-barbed wire, the bike doesn't even look the same.

Later.

Can't Think Of A Good Title

 So I'm sitting here on Tuesday night trying to write this blog. Because I promised myself I would post every Wednesday and Sunday you'll see posts like this. I really don't have any good material and my motivation is kinda low. My wife brought me a souvenir from her vacation and I'm on my second glass. Its some kind butter pecan flavored moonshine. The stuff is delicious and drinking too much is easy to do.
 Last weekend I went to the bike show in Green Lake and got a first place in my class. Thats cool. I like to see the judges have good taste.

 The bike got a lot of attention and I'm thinking next year I might want to take it to a few more shows but I keep looking at it wondering what I can do next to up my game. I honestly feel its only about half done. I'm not saying I'm bored with it. It just needs more. To me it looks too conventional and there are many parts that could be re-engineered to be more rat-like. One of these days I'll quit dreaming about it and start posting progress reports.

 It looks like we may have broken out of that crazy heat wave of 90 degree temps. I won't miss the blistering hot rides home from work but I will miss the warm morning rides in. The temp for Wednesdays ride to work should be about 55. Yesterday it was in the seventies. If the sportster starts I'll ride that bike in. Its hauling capacity is limited to what I can get in a back pack and I have no shopping plans so I should be good. The headlight is a little weak so I may push off my departure time. It will be dark when I pull out of my drive but light enough to see clearly when I arrive.
 One more thing. A reminder that Sunday is the Slimey Crud Run. The forecast looks favorable and I think I'll try to make an appearance if I can coordinate it along with a visit with my daughter in Madison. I hope to see you there.

Later.

Green Lake Bike Show

 This morning I'm planning to ride to the bike show in Green Lake during their Harvestfest celebration. I'll be taking the back roads because right now the Rat Turd doesn't have enough gumption to handle sustained speed on the hiway. I'll figure that problem out someday but because the bike sees such limited duty lately it doesn't seem to be a big concern. Yesterday I had the idea of building my own carb for the bike. It already runs like crap, so there is nothing to lose. I'll let the idea fester for a while.

 I pulled the windshield off of the bike. It was on there for the trip to the Smokies many years ago and I just forgot how ugly it was and it certainly isn't needed for the few local rides that the bike gets. Yes, of all the crap on this bike, that was the ugly piece. Deal with it.

 This year on vacation I picked up a few stickers and decided this bike was as good a spot to adhere them as any.

 There used to be a few signs on the Blue Ridge Parkway that looked like this decal but I don't remember seeing one this year. I wonder if they were stolen much like the US129 signs that no longer appear along that road. We used to wave our hands in the air when we saw this sign and can't recall doing that this year. The truth is, there are no reducing radius curves on the lower end of the parkway except maybe the one or two that had these signs and I'm not sure if they tighten up or maybe they are just long arcs. 

 I gotta wrap this up and get rolling. To my wife, welcome home from your vacation, Honey. You were missed, I survived and the house is in one piece, there isn't a sink full of dishes, and the cats aren't dead. To the rest of you, see you at the show.

Later.

Damn Cats

 I don't think I mentioned in my last two posts that my wife is gone on vacation. She is in Gatlinburg enjoying some quiet time with friends and apparently some bears. It seems the bears are familiar with cabin visitors and have a few tricks for scavenging goodies. I'm told they even opened the door on one of the vehicles. My wife sent me a pic of one of the bears and it couldn't have been more than thirty feet from the porch she was standing on. No thanks.

 Instead of bears I'm dealing with some pain in the ass cats. I wish a bear would come knock on my door. I'd feed him two felines. The cats miss the one person in the house who gave a crap about their existence and are stuck with me. Their whining annoys me and their pleas for attention often earn them a lead role in a game I like to call "launch the kitty". You can imagine the rules. I don't abuse these creatures, I just redirect them when they strut their smelly ass near my face. I am curious to see how they react when my wife gets home. Will they be happy to see her or ticked off she left?

 My daily routine hasn't changed much except I do spend more time in the garage tinkering with projects. I've eaten all the food in the freezer that was worth consuming and decided to get chinese take out last night.

 Eating in the garage seemed like a good idea. No cats to pester and three bikes to think about. The leftovers will carry me through one more day.

 One stinkin fortune cookie and it was all wrong. After dinner I messed around with the Rat Turd a bit to see if there was anything wrong with the diaphragms in the cv carbs.

 Three of them seem kinda brittle and I wonder if that's what I'm feeling when the power drops off at hiway speed. The screws are stripped on the cover for the fourth one and further investigation is required. Maybe a pin hole? This whole thing makes me want to ditch these carbs and build an intake manifold more suited to a rat bike. I'm still tossing the idea around.

 Sunday is the bike and car show in Green Lake. Proceeds from the bike show support the local animal shelter. As you just read I'm not a big fan of cats but this shelter took my moms cat without any questions and I like to support them in any way I can. Go to the show, check out the bikes and help out the shelter. See you there.

Later.

Watson Street Cycle Show

 Yesterday there was a car and bike show in Ripon and I decided to enter the Rat Turd like I have for the last few years. If you follow this blog then you know that bike has some running issues and I'm here to tell you it still does. I left home at 630am with the intent of registering the bike at the show and then walking to work. That all happened but the 20 mile ride was extended a bit when I turned off the hiway and headed for back roads due to loss of power. If I keep it under 45 it seems I can ride all day but above that I'm screwed. I first thought my jetting was wonky, then thought my fuel delivery lines were restricted. I know its not a tank vent issue. Now I'm thinking maybe the diaphragm/slide/needle of one or more of the cv carbs is the culprit. Anyway, I made it there and back with no points for speed but a passing grade on style.
 It was a typical turnout for this show with some new blood in the mix. One of my (and many others) favorite bikes was this contraption:

Here are a few other random bikes from the show:

And of course my favorite:

 Next week is the show in Green Lake. I'll be there, will you?

Scott

Doubt

 I last reported that I was gonna look into the fuel system on the Rat Turd because it was running like crap. Imagine a turd running like crap. Anyway, I had previously used some JB Weld to seal some fuel tubes on the bank of four carbs.

Because the engine seemed to be starving for fuel I was concerned I may have gotten carried away with the epoxy and created a restriction. A closer look here shows excess epoxy squeezed out of the tube.

 It took a lot to break the epoxy bond. It involved a vise, hammer and a lot of twisting force. Once apart I discovered that everything was as it should be. My assembly method with the epoxy was spot on. Too bad because now I am back to not knowing where the running problem is. The tank vent and fuel petcock were next on the list to check.

 Pour some gas in, watch it flow out. No obstructions in the tank and no problem with flow.

 So what have I accomplished here? I felt I had to check this off the list before I moved on. If I had confidence in my ability to successfully complete the initial repair then I could have saved a lot of time by not tearing this all apart. Maybe that kind of confidence is really just stubbornness and an unwillingness of a person to admit they are capable of making a mistake? So far my only mistake was doubting my first repair and that brings me full circle to where I started. Lucky for me the only thing this cost me was some wrenching time which I don't mind at all. In fact I enjoy the challenge of figuring out my running issues without just throwing money at the problem.
 I think the next step will be to revisit some wiring issues I had back in October of 2013 when the bike gave me grief while running the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Later.

Three Days Off

 A lot of you working stiffs out there are in the middle of a three day weekend right now. I get two and a half days and that's fine with me. In fact I started wondering what I would do with myself with the extra time off so Saturday after work I took care of some "around the house" crap that's been on the list for a while. I tweaked some rain gutter down spouts, fixed a leaky toilet, fixed a door knob and insulated a hole in my shop wall. Later I prepped the driveway for seal coating which I'll do today. I gotta remember to park the bike in the street before I start sealing the drive or I'll be grounded for the day.
 I have to check the dates but I think the bike show that I've been attending in Ripon is coming up in a couple weeks. If you've been following this blog then you know I set a goal to have the BSA running for this show. That ain't gonna happen. BTW, I set the same goal last year and the year before and the year before...
 I want to enter a bike in this show and have three choices.

 This pic is a first for this year. Three bikes in the garage. I rolled the Rat Turd out of the living room yesterday in hopes of getting it to run right so I can take it to the show. It almost didn't get me home from that show last year which is also the last time it ran. I must think it's a fuel related problem because yesterday I yanked the bank of four carbs off of it. I'll let you know what I find if and when I find it.
 The other two choices for the bike show include the Ultra (yawn). Who wants to look at a full size Harley touring bike? Just open your eyes next time you're blasting down the road and you'll see a few roll by in the other lane. The sportster would be the next logical choice but I don't think I'd take it with this current paint job. If I can't get the Rat Turd running decent by the end of the weekend, I may pull the tank on the sporty and squirt some different paint on it. I still have a good selection of rattle cans laying around.

Later.

Grocery Getter

 Low sleek sporty looking bikes are cool but they just can't get the daily chores done like a bagger can.

 And that right there is the dilemma. I hacked the rack off the back of the sportster and now I can't even haul a pizza on that bike. Light narrow bikes are fun to ride but impractical. Basically all I can do with that bike is "ride around" which is fine but eliminates the ability to multi task. Lets say I need some grub bigger than my bacpac from a tavern 18 miles away. Many times I'll take the fifty mile route just to get a nice ride in.  I suppose I could fold the pizza in half and put it in a bacpac but in my high class world of beer in a can and dinner in a cardboard box, that's really just unacceptable. As you can see I'm sticking to my healthy eating habits of diet beer and a small pizza.
 The subject came up the other day about how much longer the Rat Turd was gonna be sitting in the living room. Well Honey that's an excellent question and I'm glad you brought your concern to my attention. These matters can't be pushed off and must be addressed in a swift timely fashion in a way that best suites all parties involved. I'm gonna give your request my fullest attention, weigh the options and get back to you with an answer just as soon as I have one. Initial thoughts include putting the bike in the garage but I hate to rush into a hasty decision.

Later.

Two Car Garage

  Even though the bikes are parked, I want to try to keep this motorcycle blog filled with some motorcycle content. I know that is going to be difficult and some posts will be extra lame, like this one, but I'm gonna write these things even if nobody is out there reading them.

 Winter is here and that means my wifes car and my truck come in for the night. Stuff had to be put away to make this happen. Some stuff was put into outside sheds and some was just put away where it belongs. Other stuff found its way into our living room.

 The "stage" that the Rat Turd sits on has nothing to do with displaying bikes. It just worked out that way. It looks like I could fit another bike up there if I had too :-)

 I kinda enjoy sitting back and eye balling the sporty during tv commercials. I like the lines on this side of the bike. The other side sucks and I'll keep it next to the wall. It's funny, sometimes I sit on the bike (yes I sit on the bike, wouldn't you?) anyway, I sit on the bike and one of the cats freaks out. She knows from looking out the window that this thing makes noise and moves fast. If I want the cat to leave me alone I just go near the bike. The other cat is dumber than a speedometer on a moped and really doesn't seem to have a clue. Seriously, I see you moped riders out there. You're either stopped or going as fast as it will go.
 I can sneak the sportster out the front door at a moments notice if the roads clear up but right now life is busy, snow is coming down and riding is non-existent, and projects are in a holding pattern. Somehow, I still enjoy the change of seasons.

Later.

Funny Noise

If you pay any attention at all to this blog then you remember me saying the sporty was making a weird noise.

 I suspected the noise was coming from behind the primary cover so one night after work I tore into it. What I found was a suspicious clutch hub bearing. The bearing was replaced, everything bolted back together, the chain was adjusted and then the primary case was refilled with B&M trick shift fluid. This is the same juice I had in there before because the clutch manufacturer recommends it. The good news is that the noise is gone. The bad news is I have a new slight squeaking noise if I launch the bike hard. I guess I'll have to limit the burnouts, wheelies and stop light racing for a while.
 Today is the Slimey Crud Run and I plan to ride the sporty unless the forecast is for weather more fitting for a bike with a windshield, heated seat and grips. I was supposed to meet Dan this morning but something came up so I'm on my own. There's no real plans other than that so we'll see how it plays out.

 I'm still experimenting with the GoPro and not having a lot of success. I guess I'm ok with the video but I need to work on the audio. Here is a few minutes of a ride I took on the Rat Turd when I went to the Watson Street bike show.

Workshop Wednesday-Potpourri

 There was a rare sighting today at work in the form of a Rat Turd. That's right, for the first time this year that bike was able to complete the 18 mile trek from home to work. Two previous attempts resulted in me having to turn around and grab a different scoot because of mechanical problems.

 I have been riding the Ultra lately and the sportster before that and I had forgotten how much attention this bike draws. I kept getting reports from coworkers about people taking pics or kids checking it out. Cool, but I'm ready to take it to the next level...only I don't know what that means. It'll come to me one day and you'll be the first to know.

 In other news, we had some problems with an antiquated phone system at work but got that all sorted out. "Can you hear me now?"

 Back on the topic of rodents, this poor bastard didn't make it. Its not uncommon to find a carcass or a nest under the cowl of a lawn mower engine. Its also not uncommon for an engine found this way to develop valve or head gasket problems because it over heated.

 And another pic of some animals that will pack away whatever is put in front of them.

Later.

A Matter of Flow

 Yesterday I found an elusive spare hour in my regular schedule of eat, sleep and work, so I used it to mess around with the Rat Turd. Lately I've been thinking a fuel flow problem might be causing the running issues I've had on the hiway. One possibility was the fuel tube that feeds the bank of four carbs. At one point it was leaking so I epoxied it in place and I thought there was a chance I fouled that up. After a little testing I decided that wasn't the case.
 The next place I looked was in the fuel petcock. A lot of people claim that Kreem tank sealer doesn't work well, comes loose and plugs things up. I wondered if I was having an issue with it but nope, I was just having a problem with a small chunk of rubber stuck in the petcock. I still haven't decided where this debris came from.

 While I had everything apart I figured it was a good time to make efforts to not only clean but to improve fuel flow.

 I just didn't think this little hole was enough to feed four hungry carbs at full tilt so I drilled it out. Now at least the input, output and passages in and out of the bowl are all the same size. I also needed to pre-filter the fuel before it got to this point and the mesh that covers the bowl. To do that I used a filter from a sprinkler head.

 I'm not sure how well this plastic filter will hold up in fuel but because I have a whole bag of them and they fit nicely I'm willing to try.
 So that's it for now. Once I get motivated today I'll try the bike to see if I was successful. Confidence level is 4 stars out of 5 so I won't even hook up the trailer before I leave. I hope that doesn't come back to bite me in the ass. If it fails, I don't have a plan B so I'd have to rethink the whole problem.      
 My plan earlier this year was to have the BSA ready for the Watson Street Classic Bike Show on the 17th of September. The chances of that happening are about the same as monkeys flying out of my butt or winning the lottery so this bike needs to run. What's the point in having it if I don't let people laugh at it? Worse case I'll take one of the other bikes just to support the cause.

Later.