"WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR MOTORCYCLE TODAY"

[Fatfatboy]

Aahhh,,, I see.. thanks for the information. I could see the Classic being a faster easier tire change.

I looked at No Mar’s site to see if I could add the upper arm but I can’t. Mine is the older orange one. If it was the newer white one I could add it.
Maybe with some modifications I could.
I’ll work with what I have for now. If I feel I need to upgrade to the upper arm I could always swing by their place and look at the upper arm attachment to see if a modification could be done.

That portable attachment thing has to be used by parking your car on one side. Why does a scratched or dented fender come to mind when I think of using that?

Their site states that it’s from their Australia factory and once they sell what they have there won’t be anymore.
Must not be a big seller.

I would think the hitch mount would be more ideal.

[m143]

I opened up the carb of my long sitting TY250.
Stabilized gas turns to green rust after 12 years.

[m143]

After a night in the cold carb. cleaning tank.

[Fatfatboy]

Pretty.

[Allred]

Much, much better!

[m143]

This TK Carb. is kinda cool.
The main jet is horizontal in the bottom of the fuel bowl, with a cross drilling to a well in the bowl center.
The needle jet is o ring sealed in the well. Jetting changes are very straight forward.

[motogrady]

Truly a beautiful thing. 👍

[m143]

In 2002 I rode this TY at a Mick Andrews Trial school in NY.

What a great guy, he signed my tank. I never preserved it.

[m143]

now to clean the rest of it.

[Allred]

Took the Nighthawk out for a jaunt, only about 50 miles, but it felt good.

Went north-east heading to Whitmore. It's not a road I go on often because it is extremely straight and very flat, and very open with farmland stretching out on either side of the road. You could pin a 'Busa to the stops for most of the way, with just a few long sweeping bends.

Temp was around 90F, and a little windy, something I discovered more on the way back, especially on that open-range type terrain.

.

[m143]

Some may remember my garage find R90S, I posted the story on the old CW forum.
The bike was in amazing condition,...it was however missing the tool kit and sidecovers. The owner said they were somewhere in this packed garage.
Eight years later the house was sold and everything was emptied out.
The new owner of the house called and said he had a part I was looking for. He had rescued the right sidecover.



It was rescued from here:

[Allred]

Amazing after that amount of time for the missing parts to end up in your possession.

Kudos to the new owner of the house for being diligent and considerant enough to get the parts to you.


.

[Fatfatboy]

Awesomeness. Glad it made it home.

[oldironnow]

How amazing it was rescued? very.

[oldironnow]

So, in my head, I've been telling myself that the rule is to change to engine oil after every race weekend.

And though a trackday isn't a race, it does occur to me in retrospect that one likely puts on waaay more miles at a trackday than at a race weekend.

So I didn't change the oil.

Why? Well, when I change the Buell's engine juice, it runs all over the front of the exhaust muffler, getting, most especially, into the fine spaces under the stainless banding that does the necessary holding. It just wicks into those thin gaps almost in a way Kevin Cameron described oil molecules wanting to line up and squeeze into the main bearing gaps.

The problem with this, is, when the exhaust gets hot (every time) that oil starts running out. And it looks scary. Maybe especially to a tech inspector at a trackday.

SO I blew off the oil changes, because I didn't want to disturb the unsoiled appearance of the flat-black rattle canned exhaust.

Now with four trackdays under my belt this summer/fall, and also a three-day tour of the Sierra, which featured a brutally hot transit of the Big Valley, for an all-in total of 1700 miles, I felt I better get on it, because there's a fifth trackday scheduled for this weekend.

I gotta say the engine oil did not look bad in color - straight up coffee, not toxic black - but it literally jetted out of the drain hole in the swingarm. 'Watery,' by definition, in viscosity. So my lesson there is after three summer-heat trackdays, plus a fourth temperate one thrown in, the molecules chains will breakdown, but the oil will not look 'dead'.

Fail.

The primary had the disappointing color of my hair. The viscosity felt good on my fingers as they got lubed fumbling with the last unscrewing threads of the drain bolt, but the amount of metals included was disappointing. Iron? Aluminum? Ugh. I have been changing the primary oil with each engine oil change because I feel stupid wealthy sometimes. On each 3000 mile change the primary looked fresh, pure, unadulterated, virgin, 'why am I doing this?' clean. Not this time. It looked almost as bad as when I revived the Buell last year.

This is such a good touring bike for me; set up so well. I was just smiling, taking it around with fresh juices inside. It seemed noticeably happier around town and out in the hills. The broken in seat. The natural lean forward to the flatbars... I need to find a machine for track abuse.






.

[Fatfatboy]

To this day I cannot figure out why Harley still puts their oil filters where they do. It’s impossible to do an oil filter change and not get oil in hard to reach areas.

Before I remove the filter on mine I take a piece of plastic that I cut out of a antifreeze jug, curl it around and under the filter to use as a trough to a tub then I poke a hole in the lower portion of the filter with an awl and let the filter drain for what seems like forever.  Then I remove the filter and I still get oil in the never to be seen areas of the frame.

At least with the hole idea I’m not leaving oil marks two gas stops later.

[hacksaw]

looks good!

[hacksaw]

i repluged in the extention chord to the fatboys battery tender. i used the chord for my saw. i am stuck working on the house. maybe forever. i am not all that good with heights. my hips lock up trying to get down. i am better off riding. but i have to do what i can , me and wifey. one side i am going to need professional help on i am afraid.

covid is back in our area. i will be posting more exciting moto things soon i hope.

[Fatfatboy]

Auuugghhh,,, House work,,, the killer of all things good.
Sometimes I think I would be better off just renting.

"Hello,,, Mr. Landlord,,,, The roof is leaking and the water heater,,,,, aaahhh,,, isn't. Please send someone over.
Since I can't take a hot shower I'll be on a ride to Hot Springs to take a bath so I'll leave a key under the black rock on the side of the house."

 

[Fatfatboy]

I took advantage of the free time provided by New Year's holiday and spent the day in the garage. First time in a while I've been able to spend the whole day in there. Locked away with some good tunes and tools in hand. Felt good.

One item that has been on my list of to do's is to get rid of all the exposed tire on the a$$ end of Da Canvas.



It is the one thing that has always bothered me on the Softail Customs and FX Springers. Too much air above the back tire.


Shiny bits. I love shiny bits.



 
The old shocks were 12-3/4" long. I adjusted the new ones 3/4" longer.




This dropped the back 1-1/2"



Looks much better and still has clearance for the under fender wiring.


The stock bolts that have been there for 25 years are torqued to 150 foot pounds and there is just enough room to get a wrench under there to get maybe a 1/4 to 3/8 twist of the wrench. Certainly no place to get a breaker bar in there.



My left arm is about as good as a childs right arm and since the tendon tear in my right arm a few months ago it isn't much better so I had to get creative with a hillbilly backasswards breaker bar with a 3/4" wrench attached a 3/4" to 1/2" socket adaptor, 1/2" ratchet and a two foot pipe.




Just barely got enough twist to get that sucker to break free.