Three Random Drawers

 After I posted about "the sickness" of collecting junk, I started thinking about the size of that problem. It really creeps deep into every corner of my little work space. I was digging through my home toolbox and realized there was a pattern developing. More crap than tools. It is true that a bulk of my tools are at work and the box here at home never was organized after I pulled a bunch of stuff out to take to my new job five years ago. You'd think five years would be long enough to get my crap in order but I guess not.
 Top drawer. For me this drawer has always been a special place for sensitive or personal items. If it were a fedex package it would be labeled "fragile, glass" or "do not bend'. As I look at this pic I realize that's just a fantasy in my head cuz this drawer is full of junk. Yes, there are a few good tools in here but for the most part it's just a staging area for the garbage can.

 Then, the more I look at the contents of this drawer I realize it's a trip down memory lane. I'm reminded of a visit with Brandon at the "Mama Tried" bike show in Milwaukee. I see an "anti-dragon" sticker that was designed as a joke for my buddy Scott that traveled 900 miles to the Tail of the Dragon only to sit at the store front bullshitting and watching bikes go by rather than ride the 318 curves in 11 miles. I now get it. I see the drill bits and notes used to rejet the Rat Turd. Some stickers from Crazy Bob's. Iron Butt rides, a ride to New Mexico and pins and patches from other rides. All stuff that isn't needed but does trigger memories. Maybe I'll save cleaning this drawer for later.
 The next random drawer has a couple GoPro items in it. There was more but those treasures are scattered on my desk right now. I like to keep a drawer available for whatever is the latest project I have going on. I'll empty this drawer and use it for nuts and bolts taken off Brookes Honda that I'm currently working on. More on that in another post.

 The last drawer I'll let you peek into is the remnants of the Rat Turd fuel tank project.

 This stuff needs to get put away. It was staged here in this drawer as I was collecting bits for the build. There are plumbing fittings, hoses and tubing and even parts that seemed like possibilities but were never used. Then again, if I spring a leak and need a matching fitting it would be nice to find those parts in a single box. I think I'll label it "Rat Shit". I wonder if a stranger would be more or less inclined to investigate the contents of such a box.

 That's a good spot for now. Tucked away between other things I'm done with for the season like my soft saddlebags and foam Packers cheesehead.

 In other news...I've been dinking around with the layout of this blog and have made a few additions. Some of you only follow on your phone and won't notice any difference. In the right side column I've added a list of some of the blogs I follow. There is some good reading to be found there and I encourage you to check them out.
 I've also added a few tabs under the front page picture. It's a work in progress and I plan to add more as time allows.

Later.

Workshop Wednesday-MPO

Motorcycle Parking Only. That's what the little sign says.

 The temp was six below zero and I don't think anyone is gonna ride their bike to work at this factory. Nevertheless I will plow the snow from this parking area in case someone decides to brave the elements.
 I really need to start taking better pictures. I see some great pics on other blogs and I enjoy viewing them. What you see on this blog are fuzzy images taken with my phone. The whole point of the above pic is what the sign says. I shouldn't have to interpret it for you. I'm not sure what kind of stills I'll be able to capture with my GoPro but I'm gonna give it a try.

 I just ran outside my garage and put the sun to my back and snapped a pic with the GoPro. I don't even know what settings I have selected. I plan to experiment with these but it's darn cold out there despite the bright sunshine and I'm not in the mood to freeze my ass off right now.

This is the same shot from my phone. I'm standing in the same spot so the GoPro must be set to "super duper wide angle". Stop me if I'm getting too technical.
 Obviously this is more for my benefit than yours and more training is needed. Stay tuned for some better pics.

The Sickness

 I've always said that if I owned land in the country I'd have more crap than you could shake a stick at. When I was younger and rented a farm house we had a lot of room for storage. We also had a lot of "projects" scattered around. My wife couldn't use the garage because it was full of "stuff". What was all this stuff, you ask? Maybe it was a motorcycle that has been reduced to the status of just motor or maybe it was a snowmobile that quit mobiling a long time ago.
 This reminds me of a Polaris snowmobile that I had bolted a Honda 360 bike engine into. It was a basement project that never saw the light of day.  We (a bunch of single guys and anyone else that needed a place to crash)  had to move out when the owner sold the property and I had nowhere to go with the project. I remember the day we watched the fire department do a practice burn on that house. Anyway, "animal house" is a whole different story for another time.
 The point is that I always have an in progress project laying around that's not been touched for a while. Those projects aren't the problem. I can look at them and touch them and even gather specific parts to follow them through to completion. Time isn't as big a factor as space. If I have the room then it still could become a reality. The BSA is a good example. That project goes back to the early eighties and I pick away at it a little bit at a time.
 The real problem are the projects that don't exist yet. I gather parts for these builds all the time. As a gear head that works as a mechanic I see a lot of cool little pieces that could be part of some bigger piece that could be bolted on some imaginary project. If I don't save them they will end up in a dumpster to be lost forever.

 This mirror is a perfect example. Coworker Al keeps feeding my sickness. He was replacing this broken mirror from one of our plow trucks. There is a motor in there that powers the mirror and he was going to harvest it. Ya, he's got it bad too. That mechanism turned out to be broken but this LED light still worked.

 What the hell am I gonna do with that? I don't know for sure but I do know three things. First, it's too cool to toss out. Second, I'm a sucker for colorful lights and shiny stuff and third it's sitting right there on my desk at home. If I'm lucky I'll find it a few years from now when I need it. If history repeats itself then I'll toss it out next time I'm power cleaning and regret that act a few weeks later when I actually find a use for it.

 The older I get, the more I've been able to somewhat control this sickness. Who am I kidding? I have little control but I have implemented a system that gives me that instant high of collecting shit and the power of keeping myself in check and not finding myself on an episode of "Hoarders".

 I now keep everything! All that cool shit I don't think I can live without gets saved...for a few days anyway. These two pulleys are a good example. They are part of a factory recall and we potentially could have quite a few of them at the shop. None of us can find a good reason to save more than one of them "just because", but I have set two near my toolbox. This is my new staging area for questionable goodies. If I don't come up with a good reason to keep them by Monday morning then they'll go in the recycle dumpster. It won't be easy but I'll force myself to do it.

 With this weeks Powerball jackpot at a record high I wonder what this sickness would be like with unlimited potential for collecting stuff. Maybe it would consume me or just maybe the problem would completely go away.

Workshop Wednesday-John Deere 5100 part 3

 Regular readers will remember back in November a post about making a mount and installing a snow plow on a tractor. I had a follow up post about the controller bracket. Well just last week we finally got some snow to try it out when Mother Nature hit us with nearly a foot of the heavy wet stuff.

 I'm happy to report that the mount held up well.

 Now, how about everything else that broke in the three days we spent cleaning up those pennies from heaven. On day one the loader in the pic lost first and second gears. We had to remove the pusher because it was too much of a strain on the trans running in only third gear. Luckily those gears reappeared on day two. Must be an electrical gremlin.

 My truck left me stranded. I was plowing and pushed on the brake pedal only to have it stay to the floor. I bet you think I lost my brakes. Brake fluid everywhere? Wrong. All I had were brakes. When I shut off the engine the brake pedal came back up. When I started the engine the pedal pulled down tight to the floor and applied the brakes. Turns out the hydro assist from the power steering must have a bad seal or valve and was activating fully. Thanks to Al for figuring out all we had to do was remove the serpentine engine belt and drive the truck back to the shop.

 I found one of our sidewalk tractors with a tire off the rim and the snow blower disconnected from it. I'm still not real sure how that all came about. Something happened to the other sidewalk tractor but it was repaired in a few hours and I never asked what broke. I'm responsible for nine guys and our largest plowing account. Sometimes you just need to look at results and ignore the pesky little details. Two guys with walk behind snowblowers running down a sidewalk in a staggered pattern can get a lot of work done. I didn't know it but one of those blowers threw a track. It's nice having a crew that knows how to deal with crap rather than getting beat up by problems. The backhoe had two hoses break at different times. Oh, and the john deere in the pic broke a u-joint on the pto shaft. Did I mention that the salter froze up on the second truck I ran? It's always something.

 We normally don't have this many problems. Everything just decided to test us this time around, but I wouldn't trade this storm for a sunny day. We needed snow. It's good for everybody and really helps the local economy.

Big Twin

 I'm of course referring to the 1967 BSA 650cc sitting in my shop. Ok, it's not that big but back in their day this was a decent sized bike engine.
 When I discovered a scored piston in one cylinder and then rust formation on the other cylinder, I figured I'd be seeking the services of an outside party to refurbish the top end. I even spoke with someone that would do the job. As time went on this just wasn't settling well with me. I really like to do my own work when possible and the thought of someone else doing this job bothered me. I'm not even sure why I originally started to seek the advice of someone else. Anyway, they're out and I'll do the work even if it means screwing it up. I already feel better.

 A quick search on the net and I found that pistons are still available. I'll put together a wish list and make an order. First I had to see if the metal transfer and rust formation would come out with my deglazing hone. Like a dumbass I forgot to get a "before" pic.

I really should get a new set of stones but this will be good enough for a garage hack.

 A minute with the hone and things are cleaning up nicely. This is the cylinder that had the rust formation and most of it seems raised rather than pitted.

 The other side that had metal transfer from the piston cleaned up decent. I can't even tell where that big wad of aluminum was stuck to the cylinder. This isn't done yet but it's far enough along that I feel good about being able to save the cylinder.

 I still have to sand blast the outside of the cylinder because it really looks like ass. My brother has a sand blasting cabinet and I think I'll head over there today to get that job done. Then I need to make some decisions about the case halves and paint. I like the blacked out look.

 Regular readers may remember a bad experience I had with J&P Cycles. I'm not gonna go over the details again but it was basically just bad customer service that was corrected. They offered me a gift card for my troubles and I stated I would give them another chance. Recently I had an excuse to use that gift card. I ordered some mounts and such for a GoPro camera and the parts were here in two days. Good service again just like I had before that one bad incident. I just wanted to give credit where credit was due. 

Favorite Posts of 2015

 I've been posting twice a week for a couple years now. I'm not much of a writer but I secretly wish I could do better in this area. The following is a collection of posts from this year that kinda are some of my favorites...all for different reasons. Some are techy. Some were from a fun day and others are just random thoughts. I didn't include the post from when my Mom passed away because although it was important, I didn't enjoy having to write it.

Where do they get this stuff?  This is a post about the day I discovered M. Schettl sales. They have quite a collection of oddball things for sale and on display.

Homemade Headers  I spent a lot of time trying to come up with an unusual exhaust for the Rat Turd. This was the beginning of that adventure.

Whutcha Gonna Blog About?  This is a post about nothing. Kinda like an episode of Seinfeld.

PBR Me ASAP  Just an old pic I found from my childhood.

Wet Ride  Wet Ride is a post about a day when my wife and I enjoyed a ride in the rain.

Dragon Loop    This post was about a day spent with friends in the Smoky Mountains.


Is Summer Coming To An End?  This is a story about a young lad that sparked some memories from my childhood.

 Thanks for following the blog. For 2016 you can expect to see more ride reports and more pics/videos from the bike. My daughter got me some GoPro camera gear that I'm looking forward to trying out. I guess I have a few months to learn how to use it.

BSA Repost

  I posted this on December 15, 2013. I'm reposting it just to get myself fired up enough to continue work on this project and give you guys the back story on the bike.

 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...

 That was my post from two years ago. I know I keep saying that next year is the year I ride this bike again and each year comes and goes without much progress, but next year...
 Actually it would be nice to show this bike at the Watson Street bike show in the fall. I'll set that as a goal and see what happens.