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Categories: all aviation bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater Wed, 31 Aug 2005
It appears that I've totally boogered up the chain on the Ninja
I shouldn't be able to pull that chain off the sprocket much, if at all. Pulling it off that far means it's about as worn out as a chain can safely be. Bah. Guess I'm out another $180 to replace it. Totally lame. In other news, my girlfriend related a story to me the other day. She was sitting at a bus stop, waiting for her bus to show up. The street was devoid of traffic, when she heard the buzzing of an approaching scooter. She noticed the scooter and went back to her reading. Suddenly, there was the sound of screeching tires, and the scooter rider, a young woman, fell off right in front of the bus stop. She was wearing a helmet, a cotton tank top, shorts, and flip-flop sandals. Needless to say, my girlfriend was horrified. She said that the scooter rider was going "faster than normal," which probably translates to 40ish MPH. She didn't want to describe the scooterist's condition in any more detail than "covered in blood," but that scooter rider is probably in for a couple of years of recovery. My first reaction was compassion for the scooter rider, followed closely by a sort of quiet rage. I feel sorry for the woman, in the sense that no one should have to endure that kind of pain. However, at the same time, I'm quite upset at the woman for taking such a cavalier attitude toward accelerating herself down the pavement without any regard for her own safety. She plainly had a single-vehicle accident (which is the majority of two-wheeler accidents, from my recollection of the Hurt report), so her riding skill is in question. It was a rainy day, the first in a while, and possibly this woman's first rainy day on the scooter, but that's no excuse. She probably was wearing a helmet because it's legally required, not because she wanted to. Obviously she hadn't given any thought to what might happen if she and the scooter separated -- anyone who thinks about that even a bit must realize how much damage they could suffer. This brings out all my negative feelings towards the motorcyclists and scooterists I've seen riding around with a helmet and no other nods toward safety. They're laying their lives on the line, but they're also laying motorcycling on the line for everyone. Every time someone relates this story, about a woman taking a spill on a scooter, the message that will be generated in the non-riding public's mind is likely to be, "scooters sure are dangerous," not, "that woman wasn't wearing the right gear," or, "she probably wasn't a skilled rider." They're also aggravating my and your insurance rates: we're paying for her mistake, now. She will generate hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical bills, and either insurance will pay for it, or the hospital will swallow it (unless she's independently wealthy, which seems unlikely). Either way, that's money which ultimately comes from us. In addition to all this, we now have another "example" of why motorcycling (by extension; a scooter is a motorcycle, right?) is so dangerous, and shouldn't we think about outlawing it? Another digit added to the accident toll, every one of which increases some lawmaker's assertion that motorcycling is killing or maiming people at an alarming rate. Granted, it's a true statement, but it doesn't have to be. If people would just think for 5 minutes about the practical realities of what they're doing when they get on a two-wheeler, it would make such a difference. Suddenly, putting on that hot riding jacket would seem like a good idea -- sure, you get a bit warm, but if the worst happens and you fall off the bike, you've still got skin on your body. Too hot for riding gloves? Maybe not if you make your living with your hands. Imagine not being able to use your hands for anything for a year while they heal (assuming they even heal into a workable condition): no more typing; no more driving; no more preparing your own food or eating anything larger than bite-size; nothing. It's depressing to me, as a thinking being, to see the amount of not-thinking that happens out there every day. It will certainly impact the not-thinker, but it also ripples out and affects everyone in society. I don't know what to propose to fix the situation. I don't think writing more laws is the answer. The state can't protect us from everything, nor do I think they should try. Education seems like an excellent option, but I don't really know how to educate people on this issue -- include a "riding gear and safety" section in the licensing exam? Maybe a training course could be mandatory in order to get a motorcycle license for the first time. Of course, that doesn't cover all the "no motorcycle license required" 50cc scooters (there's an utterly shitty idea, let's let people with no experience or skill get on a twitchy, underpowered machine that can't even climb a hill at traffic speed). Really, those scooter riders tend to be the worst offenders, and it's exacerbated by the fact that the state doesn't consider a 50cc scooter a "real motorcycle," so why should the riders wear "real protective gear?" So, maybe I do know what to propose, after writing all that. Get rid of the 50cc "no m/c license required" law -- if you want to be on 2 wheels, you have to get a license for it. Require a training course before the license will be issued, which includes information on riding safely, gear (and why to wear it), motorcycle vs. car visibility issues, etc. Not the MSF course -- every course I've seen did the classroom safety stuff as if they were being compelled to, and really would have found eating wood much more enjoyable (but that's another rant for another time). I've often thought that limiting beginners to a small displacement bike would be good (it works well in other countries, from what I've seen), but that would definitely nix any proposal in the Land of the Free (to kill ourselves). I guess, ultimately, I'm just impotently ranting. I know that the changes I can see as being justifiable and necessary will be seen by most people as being totalitarian and unnecessarily limiting. I don't even disagree with that sentiment entirely -- to some extent I agree that people should be allowed to messily skin themselves on a 40 MPH, 20 grit asphalt sanding belt. I just don't want it to be done out of their own ignorance, nor to impact me through unthinkingly restrictive laws and ever higher insurance premiums. Posted at 11:32 permanent link category: /motorcycle Mon, 22 Aug 2005
On Thursday last week, I realized I had a freak hour free, so I Finally, I looked at the valve stem, and realized that it wasn't seating quite as well as I would have hoped. When I pressed down on the interior side of the stem, I could see a bit of soapy water squishing out, which didn't seem right. Then, I was out of time, and had to rush off to the next thing. So today, after having thought about it for the weekend, I realized that it really had to be that valve stem causing the trouble. I called up Foster's Wheel Service, which did such an excellent job straightening and welding the wheel when I discovered the broken weld. I described the problem, and after an hour consulting with Bill(?) (probably mostly spent tracking him down), I got a call back that it was well within their power to do the repair I was proposing. I neglected to take a picture to show what I'll try describing, unfortunately. The old valve stem hole is in a location that leaves the installed valve stem poking up at a 45° angle when the wheel is rotated such that the valve stem is at the lowest point on the wheel. This surface of the wheel is so curved that the factory had to stamp a part of it flat before they could put a valve stem there. I have no idea why they put the valve there, except that it's slightly more convenient to fill the tire or check the pressure. On the front wheel, where it would have been really handy to have that angle, they had the valve stem point straight up toward the hub. Weird. Whatever the case, I asked Foster's to weld a patch over the existing hole, and drill a new one. The new hole will be pointing up at the hub, just like the front wheel. And it'll be the standard valve stem size, instead of this weirdo huge .625" valve stem you normally only find on 18-wheelers. So much better. In other news, I got a call yesterday from my friend Jessica. She said, to my complete surprise, that she and a friend had ridden to a museum in Tacoma, where they locked their riding gear to the bikes, and went in. Well, ok, that's not the surprising part. What was surprising was that when they got out, their helmets were gone. The way they'd been locked up, the only way to steal the helmets would be to cut the straps, rendering them practically useless. Jessica was hoping I'd have some clever way to solve the problem of how to either get new helmets, or get their bikes back to Seattle. Unfortunately, 6 pm on a Sunday evening is a really bad time to try to figure that problem out. They eventually got a tow truck to show up and take them to a nearby Wal-Mart, which has a few motorcycle helmets, I guess. So, problem solved, for the most part. But this raises the question, what kind of prick would steal a helmet by cutting the strap? The obvious answer is probably someone being malicious, or a kid who didn't know any better. But why not steal the rest of the gear? Why not steal the bike? It's just a weird thing to steal. I guess the answer, for next time, is probably to get a cable lock of some kind and lock it through the visor opening. It'd take a lot more work to cut through the chinbar than the strap. Still, it's dumb you'd even have to worry about it. I guess we live in a dumb society. Posted at 13:59 permanent link category: /motorcycle Wed, 17 Aug 2005
I hope I haven't kept anyone in suspense. Jesse's races went at After the many hours of preparing the bike, it did in fact pass the technical inspection on Saturday morning. I arrived to find the tech sticker proudly displayed on his bike. Hurdle #1 overcome. He didn't actually ride his bike on Saturday, since it wasn't running quite well enough, and his friend Eric (who'd sold him the bike) was willing for Jesse to use his. Since it was working fine, everyone was happy. Jesse did whatever it is he had to do on Saturday to qualify for his race license, and he's now a fully-fledged racer, number 957 with the WMRRA. The only real excitement on Saturday came on the second or third time Jesse went out, when his mentor came around the track, but Jesse didn't. He should have been following close behind, but he was nowhere to be seen. Katie (his girlfriend) and I spent a tense few minutes trying to figure out what had happened to him after the corner worker's frequency had a disturbing number of crash and technical difficulty reports, without reporting any bike numbers. Finally we heard a complete readout of the numbers of downed bikes, and his wasn't among them. Whew! When he finally showed up, he was sitting atop the bike, in the back of a track pickup (the "crash truck"). Apparently the bike had had some kind of technical problem on the far end of the track from us, and he'd pulled off. On Sunday, he got to race his own bike, which was kind of running well enough. I got there in time for his second time on the track that day. He went around once, and Katie and I were prepared to cheer him past, even though it was the warmup lap, but he exited to the pits straight away. I could see the bike was smoking more than it should have. He later confirmed that "it wasn't running well enough to get out of its own way, much less anyone else's." Also, going around turn 3 (a sharp right-hand turn), he touched down his fancy CNC machined brake pedal, and actually bent the pedal up. Impressive! After he pulled in from that lap, I went back and helped him try to sort out the problems we'd identified (running too rich, brakes dragging, chain too tight). I was doing something facing away from the bike when I heard him exclaim, "oh!" I turned around to see him standing up, holding the now broken-off brake pedal in his hands. "Oops." He was able to find a set of drills and drilled out the lever to fit a large socket-head cap screw through, and we ran three nuts down on top of it, making quite a serviceable makeshift brake pedal. I wish I'd taken a picture of the before and after conditions. In the end, he didn't actually get to run in a real race (there were two on Sunday) -- the bike was running poorly enough that he pitted out after the warm up lap each time. We did figure out most of the carburetion problem, although we didn't have time or parts to fully fix it at the track. Hopefully we can get it sorted out before his next race in Spokane. I say "we," but I really mean "he," since my free time has vanished like so much smoke on a windy day. In other news, my new back protector arrived on Friday, and I'm pretty pleased with it. It's definitely bulkier than the stock Aerostich back pad, but I also believe it's much more protective. I had to make up a "velcro protector" for it, since when I put on the vented riding gear over it, the vented jacket was getting all torn up from the velcro in the back protector. It works fine now, and actually "fits" better in the vented gear than in the Aerostich, mostly because I have to actually strap it on for the vented gear. In the Aerostich, it velcros into the lining, making it much easier to deal with, but not as good a fit. Ah well, either way it's safer than what I had before. The sidecar bike's rear tire is really starting to get to me, but the aforementioned lack of free time is preventing me from fixing it. If I leave the bike for 3 days, I come back to a completely flat rear tire. I really need to pull it off, and figure out where the leak is (probably through the use of soapy-water technology). I'm guessing I scratched the sealing surface of the rim, but I'm not sure. Hopefully it's not the new weld leaking or something. Posted at 17:45 permanent link category: /motorcycle Sat, 13 Aug 2005
It's far too early, and I'm preparing to join Jesse at the track. All the safety wire is run, it's as functional as we can make it, but it's still practically only running on one cylinder, and kind of poorly at that. Jesse is hoping that someone in the vintage group will hear his plea, and just know as if by instinct how to fix the problem. Best we can figure is the carburetor is so out of whack that it's delivering 10x the normal amount of gas, but it's hard to say for sure. Anyway, 8 am just hit. Better get moving. Posted at 08:00 permanent link category: /motorcycle Wed, 10 Aug 2005
I just ordered My friend Jesse (who's preparing to making his vintage racing debut on Saturday) had to get a back protector per the racing rules, and chose this one, partially because it was available locally. I suspect the one he picked is technically a better back protector, but the ease of use I'll have with the Bohn means I'm very likely to use it every time, and protective clothing you use every time is worth far more than better clothing you only wear sometimes. It was interesting learning about back protectors, particularly the contentious split between Bohn and Knox that happened a while ago. The recommendations I've had are that either company makes excellent gear, so I don't feel I've made a bad choice with the Bohn (that article about the split was also written about 5 years ago, so it's not exactly current information any more). Bottom line, I'm glad to be making another step towards safer motorcycling. Next on the list: limited torsion boots. Posted at 15:39 permanent link category: /motorcycle
Aaron and I worked dilligently on the Goldwing exhaust last But muffler aside, the evening was a success. We made significant progress, and what's left is pretty straightforward -- weld an endcap on the expansion chamber, and hang the muffler in there somewhere. A day or two later... Apparently I gave up on this entry. Bottom line, we gots more work to do, but I hope to have a much quieter sidecar rig in the next week or two. Posted at 15:24 permanent link category: /motorcycle Sun, 07 Aug 2005
My friend Jesse is preparing a '69 Honda CL175 for vintage Of course, that put a big crimp in his plans to get the bike ready. I've been over to his new house a lot in the last few weeks, helping him get the bike ready. We finally got the engine running for the first time earlier this week. It wouldn't run very well, until we cleaned out the carbs, and even then, it appears to be burning oil at a disturbing rate. Jesse has to be worried about it, since the burning oil will require (another) partial rebuild of the engine, and time he almost certainly doesn't have. What I don't know is whether an engine which is burning some oil will pass inspection or not. If it will, his best bet is doubtless to run the first race or whatever it is he has to do next Saturday with the engine like this, then fix it later. Whatever the case, I hope we can get the bike into functional shape by next weekend. In other news, I finally got the Ninja finished up and ready to ride again. The creak is back with a vengance, but after talking to some other folks on the Ninja 250 board, it sounds like a few other people have it without experiencing further trouble. I guess for now, I won't worry about it, although I still find it disconcerting to have the bike creak whenever I go over a bump or hit the brakes. I'll be working with Aaron on the Goldwing's exhaust tomorrow evening, and with any luck, we can get it all done. Since the only real time-consuming work that's left is cutting and welding the expansion chamber, I expect we could get the exhaust into an installable state by the time we run out of energy. Hopefully it's quieter than the current "Road Rumblers." Posted at 22:24 permanent link category: /motorcycle Fri, 05 Aug 2005
I am dissappointed to report that after all that work replacing the On the positive side, the brakes are much better, they must have been glazed before. The engine also feels better, running stronger and with less valve-clattering on acceleration. But that's what a valve adjustment is supposed to do, so it's all going according to plan. I'm not happy about the creaking, though. I now have no idea what could be causing it. I don't know if it's in the frame or the forks, or somewhere else. Whatever it is, it's not encouraging, and causes me to believe that the Ninja 250 needs to go. I had started thinking, last night, that maybe the right thing to do was sell the Le Mans, and just keep the Ninja 250. After all, when do I actually need to pass people on the freeway, going 85? Mostly, I ride under 50 MPH, and the 250 is really the ideal bike for me most of the time. Except, of course, that I'm apparently too heavy for it. All the clever modifications I can reasonably do won't cover up that fact. Oh, and the only time I need to be able to pass people on the freeway is around 1:30 am, coming back home after a show with all the drunks around me. Right. Bleh. Posted at 09:28 permanent link category: /motorcycle Thu, 04 Aug 2005
Yesterday was a tiring but productive day. I got myself out to the That green cannister will go directly behind the exhaust headers coming off the engine (the diagram above is facing 3/4 backwards, as if you were standing in front of the sidecar). It leads to a fairly large muffler through a 90° elbow. The cannister/expansion chamber will actually be made out of a piece of a mortar shell case Aaron had lying around (which is why it's OD Green). The rest of the pieces were made up by the exhaust shop. Hopefully, Aaron and I can get it all fitted up next week. In other news, the steering head bearings for the Ninja finally showed up. When I went to pick them up, I realized that they actually included the pieces I also ordered from Bike Bandit. sigh. Oh well, I guess $12 isn't too much to throw away on parts. Maybe I can find someone else who wants a steering head bearing lower dust seal and washer. Anyway, through more creative application of hammer technology, I got all the bearings installed last night. The one concern I had is that, with these new tapered roller bearings, the races which have been pressed into the steering head are never coming out again. They don't have any protruding lip on which a punch could operate. I'm sure they'll be durable, but it seems like a bad design. I didn't get much beyond the point of getting the bearings installed before I had to quit for the night, but it was cool to get that far. The rest is just putting it all back together, which isn't mentally taxing. Hopefully it'll all be lovely when I'm finished, and no more creaking with hard braking. Hopefully again, I'll be able to get the bearings tightened correctly. I had them overtightened after my first attempt at finding the creak, and it made the bike rather unenjoyable to ride. I hope that I can get the Ninja back together tonight, although I won't be surprised if it ends up taking more than just one evening. Once I have it back together, I have to get the engine warmed up and balance the carburetors, as well as adjusting and lubricating the chain (although the chain could wait a few days without any problem). I also took a moment to sand the brake pads and disc again once I got the bike taken apart (as long as they were easy to get to). Hopefully this will improve the grabby braking I've had since I put on the new front disc and pads. That night... The Ninja is all back together. It actually went quite quickly, I was pleased about that. Unfortunately, the speed sensor for the bike computer had to be re-glued to the fork leg, and that will take 5-6 hours to set up, so the bike is basically unrideable until the morning. The engine sounds better, and the creak is basically gone. I can still hear the first chirp of the creak, but no protracted creeeak any more. Hooray! Now, I just have to warm up the motor to operating temperature so I can balance the carburetors. The bike should be back to its old trustworthy self by the end of tomorrow evening (I hope). Posted at 22:45 permanent link category: /motorcycle Mon, 01 Aug 2005
I guess I haven't mentioned this yet, but I took the sidecar to the My tare weight as I rolled out was 1240 lb, which is accurate to within +/- 20 lb. So, without me (220 lb), or the ballast (80 lb), or the sundry stuff like tools I was carrying (20 lb), it looks like the sidecar rig is actually only about 920 lb. That's actually very surprising, since I know that the bike by itself is supposed to weigh around 750 lb. I figured for sure the sidecar would weigh at least 250. Actually, it may be that it does, and that by taking off the fairing, I've reduced the bike's weight by more than I had previously thought. I suppose another possibility is that the dump's scales aren't well-calibrated to zero, so there's some offset built in they haven't bothered to correct. As long as the offset was the same for each scale, it wouldn't make much difference, but I imagine they have to be pretty careful about that. Posted at 15:31 permanent link category: /motorcycle Categories: all aviation gadgets misc motorcycle theater Written by Ian Johnston. Software is Blosxom. Questions? Please mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net. |
