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gggGary

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Posts posted by gggGary

  1. The Kawasaki Concours site has a thread called Connie Droppers Anonymous.

     

    The local governments use gravel and oil top coats to repair roads. We have locally a particularly round form of stream gravel they use. At intersections and corners you might as well try to ride on ball bearings. They have got me and my wife, and I've had a couple of "skating" incidents before the front got back to clean pavement and caught.

     

    In the how unlucky can you get category...

     

    PORTAGE, Wis. (WMTV)---Police said chicken excrement caused two motorcycles crashes in Portage on Tuesday.

    According to the Portage Police Department, a liquid waste recycling truck stopped abruptly in traffic on U.S. Highway 51 due to construction. Police said the vehicle started leaking chicken excrement after it left a chicken processing plant that was nearby.

    Minor injuries were reported.

    Roads are now open. The excrement has been all cleaned up.

     

    Guy is going to be stuck with the "chicken spit" name for a while.

  2. RSV hasn't gone over yet but it's been close a time or two already. I'm nursing a sprained ankle which doesn't help. K1200LT went over the first day. In my defense it was December with slush and snow. When I sold it, after my warnings, the new owner still tipped it on the test ride, and again on the way home. He carries webbing now, so strangers can help right it. A Honda Shadow 1100 got me, engine hiccuped as I turned out of an alley, it was down NOW. but minimal harm, I did a tuck and roll with no harm to me either.

  3. I think that lubing any switch to get it working will cause it to get bound up again in short order. Dust is a given, and it will collect on any oily surface. What I found is a product called 'Blaster', and available at Home Depot. It's a silicon solvent. What happens is the solvent portion will flash off leaving a coating of dry silicon. Dust will not collect on the surface. It's also a cleaner as the name imply s. So rather than taking the switch out of the control housing... Funny story. I tried to transfer the innerds of one housing into the other. It was like a Chinese jigsaw puzzle in there and gave up. Both housings are laying around in a box somewhere.. :-) But I digress. Anyway just blast the dirt out with the solvent and let it dry. Should get it working correctly again... My 2¢

     

    Thanks.... too late! Apart and back together (almost 100% working) You are completely correct, I was thinking Jenga the whole time I was in there! everything is held by everything else with tiny screws, springs and plastic click latches. I have never run into a stickier "dust/grit" than the stuff all over this bike. My basic problem was a small plastic piece with a pin that pivots one side of the set/res rocker has a chipped off corner, with all the grit out and silicone lube it works but still hangs up on res position, just a finger push back to center. The set side now releases as it should. Cables and barrel lubed, all back in place. Good enough but Condor I'd be interested in your "puzzle box" see if I can get the last little bit right. (more stubborn than "need" LOL)

  4. I am having a few cruise issues as I mentioned above. I have the throttle side switch apart lubing throttle cables and electrical switches. MY cruise set/accel switch does not self return even after I blew it out lubed and exercised it. I am thinking it should self center but this one pretty much doesn't. before I attempt to tear into the switch, can anyone confirm it SHOULD return to the center position on it's own. This bike got a lot of sticky desert dust inside EVERYWHERE.

    While opening the hand control I found the brake handle pivot was dry as a bone with caked dust. Cleaning and lubing the brake, clutch handle pivots should be normal maintenance on every bike that has a few miles and years on it. Left dry they will wear out the aluminum handle hole and the bolt shank.

  5. An old thread but thought I'd throw this here. When looking around the "in the day" RSV reviews all mentioned the bulkieness of the latch mechanism MY RSV use profile involves solo motorcycle camping and long travel. There is NEVER enough room, SO....

    20160903_150536.jpg 20160903_150540.jpg 20160903_150559.jpg 20160903_150556.jpg

     

    Lots more room, no chance of a stuck latch. the "catches are spring steel cut from a plumbers drain snake, torch heated and bent. They performed perfectly on a 2000 mile camping trip with no leaks in spite of hundreds of miles of rainy riding. The lock button replacement is an electrical "knockout cap" with a magic marker lock slot LOL. I will probably make a second set of latches at the rear attach bolt and do something better than electrical tape covering them... The latches are concealed enough that the average opportunity thief isn't going to figure out that's whats holding the lid shut. The rack that replaces the passenger seat was cut and welded from stainless steel hotel towel racks. Quick and easy to strap a tent, sleeping bag, folding chair and bagged rain suit to the rack. Easy to swap the passenger seat back in.

     

    RSV ready to camp.jpg

     

    Not for everyone, but I kinda have gotten to that point where I say I want stuff the way I want to use it, the heck with what others think!

  6. Will toss in that you might consider a convertible AND a smaller motorcycle. I have XS650's, a great around town or "100 mile" bike and MUCH easier to handle. 300 to 650 class bikes are really more enjoyable riding solo on anything but the highway.....

  7. This is REALLY tough! Stopped mom about 4 years ago at 85. Confusion was getting obvious. She was mad at me about that for YEARS. Her second husband hadn't quit until the Buick was toast when he pulled out into a busy road because he " just couldn't wait anymore" The car did it's job, protecting mom when a van punched her door at 25MPH. Much more recently my uncle at 85 was at that point. He wouldn't even think of quitting. I'll be straight, there is an inheritance involved, NO ONE wanted to be the one to stop him. His danged doctor was spineless also, refusing to send in the state form that started the the retest and fitness evaluation!!! Finally he nailed a cement pylon in the parking garage and we were able to get the local police involved. They kind of hoodwinked him a bit, he surrendered his license, he traded it for an ID card and we got the car fixed and sold.

     

    Take away from that? Check with the state DOT and local PD, many have a "retest and skills evaluation" available to stop those who's time has come. You might be surprised about how many resources are available if you look. Call the closest "commission on aging" this is often done at county level. They deal with these types of issues all the time and can get the ball rolling and ease the transition. There usually is a local taxi service that provides rides cheaper than the expense of maintaining a car. They often have coupon books available for purchase. The local hospice/ home care often can be used, they will do a surprising amount of "different than you might expect" services. In my uncle's case a gal comes by a few times a week does chores and they "go out to lunch" and run any needed errands. One gal set up a day and took him to a major league baseball game in a city 50 miles away, he was thrilled and had a great time, this was a slight bending of the rules but none complained. I am 100 miles and my uncles other nephew is 75 miles away so we get there but not all the time. The thing is the adjustment is easier than you would think. And not stopping the driving is a sword of Damocles hanging over YOUR head, what if he hits a pedestrian or kid on a bike that he should have seen, but no longer could react properly to an unusual situation? You don't want that on your conscience. Driving IS a huge statement of independence that is really wrapped up in the american psych. At 61 I see signs of my declining "sharpness" scary to think where I will be mentally in twenty years if fate doesn't intervene...

  8. " In 2012, Suzuki Motor Corp paid an $885,000 fine to EPA for selling 25,458 ATVs and dirt bikes because they were built to allow for the installation of an after-market part that increased horsepower and emissions. "

     

    Yeah the makers will have to get rid of an easy to access electrical plug where the tuner chip circuit can be inserted.

     

    I feel old carburated bikes will be grandfathered/ignored for a long time to come.

  9. F'n gummerment drives me nuts, they're all over occasional use motorcycles but the POST OFFICE runs a HUGE fleet of crappy old ford 4 bangers that pollute 10 times what all those hardlys do and it runs them 7-8 hours a day 300 days a year. (more now, they deliver Amazon on Sundays too) Cause, whine, snivel, it would be expensive to replace them. BS turds.

  10. On Minn north shore of Lake Superior, campgrounds were full, ranger sent me off to find a forest service campground, he looked at my bike and said um that's about 20 miles of gravel......... No problem, found a very rural boat landing and camped, almost at the boundary waters. Then took a different way out, things went well till I saw the "indian lands" sign. The light rain and a humpy bumpy two track were a bit.... interesting, hard to tell how deep a pot hole is when it's full of water. Was a pretty area though and I made it back to pavement after about 15 miles. Continuing rain washed off most of the mud too!

  11. I will add that the cruise on my 99 seems to lack "fine adjustment" I had difficulty getting less than a 4 or 5 MPH "change in cruise set speed". A shorter bump on the RES switch would give an initial speed increase of a few MPH but then then it would drop back to the original MPH setting. IE 59 OR 65MPH could not reset to say 62MPH, is this typical? I really need to clean lube check everything anyways.

  12. It's no "BMW class" cruise for sure, my 2002 K1200LT had a rock solid cruise with easy consistent engage and 1.2 MPH adjustments up and down. This Yamaha unit is better than NO cruise but not a lot better. I wonder about a full; cable, mechanism, lube, careful slack setting etc. My bike sat in desert heat and grit for many years and has sticky switches.

  13. first that's not a bad price, if it's road ready! I like to tell the seller it's a $4,000 bike but it needs, say; tires, brake work, oil, filter, carb work etc so $2,800 will let me spend the $1200 to get it ready to ride...

    Last month I paid 3K for a 99 with 10,800 miles spent quite a bit of time and several hundred and just put 1,900 miles on it around lake superior. I compiled another list of to-do's during the trip.

  14. bought a naked grey 82 as my wife's first real bike. charging issues yes loose starter gear to flywheel bolts made noise till replaced and staked. Spark plugs are a "royale" pain to get in and out. that front fork sure looks weird but worked alright. Then bought a full red 83? fairing set off ebay painted the rest of the bike to match, rolled it out of the garage into the sunlight, went to get my camera and when I got back it had rolled off the side stand and cracked the fairing, mirror and left lower. Was I pissed! She liked the bike after I got it sorted. I think I saw it on craigslist about 4 more times over several more years made a great "first bike" I guess. Styling might a have been little ahead of it's time.

    Oh I like the Honda NX700, on paper anyways.

     

    vision 003.jpg

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