zagger

A good riding friend just called and told me that he broke down on the road yesterday with his brand new 2018 Goldwing (only 750 miles on the odometer). Had to be trucked into a shop where they found that one of the pistons was completely burned thru. Apparently they are contacting Honda to see if the warranty will cover replacing the engine or the entire bike. I've always imagined that Goldwings were bullet-proof and good for lots of miles. Seems like any motorcycle with a base price of $24K ought to be pretty thoroughly checked out. Who knows, maybe he was just unlucky with a once-in-a-million problem. zag

We are forced to share roads with driving lunatics. I recently had a near miss with a fully loaded dump truck running a red light - if I had pulled out on the green light I would have been squashed like a bug. Just an hour ago, I was riding on a rural road which has a 90 degree turn around a house with zero visibility. Last summer I came around that turn to find a dump truck following the centerline of the road and had to do an emergency skid off to the side and just missed getting wasted. I'm always sorry to hear of riders who are injured by lunatic car/truck drivers. The only thing I can figure out is to ride on roads with few cars and trucks and maybe minimize the crazy stuff. zag

I ripped all of the wiring out, left basic stuff to run the engine. zag

I originally raked the front end and put on extended forks - just to try having a chopper style bike. But I hated the slow handling due to the 9 inches of trail on the front end. So I built the leading link forks that I have been using for a few years. Of course, I couldn't find any plans or anything so I just designed it myself and used snowmobile shocks as the springs - they use compressed air and their stiffness can be adjusted by adding or removing air from a valve. The leading link design shortened the trail dimension down to about 3 inches - roughly like what sport bikes have. Even though the front wheel moved forward several more inches, the handling improved tremendously and, strangely enough, the front end has zero "flop" when the bike is parked. If I ride to some bike thing, I usually have a few riders checking it out and wondering what the heck they are looking at. Since the carb intakes stick straight up, I had originally thought of mounting a supercharger on top of them. But after finding that the bike is quite fast as it is, I decided not to risk busting the engine with the supercharger and just left it like it is. It can easily do 120mph or more - which I used while passing a long line of Harleys on a back road. Just for the odd experience, I brought it on a 2 day gravel road ride with some Adventure Rider folks out in western Wisconsin along the Mississippi river. It surprised me on how well it handled - everyone else had a dirt bike. zag

I used beads for quite a few years but got tired of the struggle to get them into the tire. I guess that some valve stems just have a smaller ID than others and the beads barely are able to get down the hole. I even flattened the tip on a vibrating engraver tool just to pound on the valve stem and try to get the beads moving. Of course, changing the tire can also be a bit of a mess if you aren't super careful. Shops don't appreciate having a zillion little beads flying across the floor! At first I cut a hole in the old tire and dumped them out, and later I cut the rim off a plastic cup so that it could fit tightly against the inside surface of the tire and scoop up the loose beads. For the last couple of tire changes, I just decided to quit screwing around and had the shop balance the tires in the regular way. The heck with it! zag

My 83 venture was crashed and totaled. I took off all the plastics and all the wiring (bit by bit). I only wanted the engine, some of the frame, and the wheels. I'm quite happy with the final result. zag

You have certainly been through struggles with that bike! If you are going to have to open up the clutch anyway, perhaps you should open it up and see what it looks like before order new clutch parts. Might be that something else in the actuating department is preventing the clutch from fully engaging and new clutch parts are not necessary. Just a thought. zag

Have you tried the inside waistband holster? Looking at my pants, it is hard to imagine a gun jammed in there. Especially a somewhat larger one. I have little 380's that easily fit into a pants pocket - of course, not the most effective type of gun, but they are small. Just wondering about walking around with something inside your waistband/belt. zag

It is possible that lane splitting will become legal in more states. https://www.wsj.com/articles/motorcycle-lane-splitting-could-move-beyond-california-1425678764 But I think that ripping along at 135mph will remain illegal! zag

Here is a good video which seems to settle the torque/horsepower debate. https://www.liveleak.com/ll_embed?f=4a88a935f5f0 zag

No, but if you would like to have a really nice garage floor, I'd suggest getting a professionally done epoxy coating. We had that done at our previous house and it was great. The garage floor had decades of crap on it but after they got done, the coating was strong and smooth, with a little texture so it wasn't slippery. We moved to a new, smaller house and the garage floor is standard concrete. In the cold months it gets the white "growths" of stuff wherever that water from cars sits. Pretty gross. When the crap is dry, I have to sweep it up and toss it into the trash. The epoxy floor was much better. zag

Yeah, well my brother-in-law smashed up and ground off one of his feet last year when some farmer pulled out in front of a line of bikes. His leg was amputated at the knee and he now limps along on a metal leg. I guess the farmer didn't know the group and just decided to pull into the road and see what might happen. zag

Hey, if you don't feel like waving, then don't wave. F'em. zag

Is it new or an old one taken off someone's bike? If it is an old used one, you might want to consider bringing it to a radiator shop and have it pressure tested. No point to install a leaking old radiator if it can be avoided. zag

Good Lord! I will say a quiet prayer for him. zag

Don't really know. An ambulance came into Pine Bluff when I was there, but it was impossible to see what was going on. Hitting a turkey seems like a particularly bad piece of luck. Hope that he will recover OK. zag

https://www.amazon.com/American-Caf%C3%A9-racers-Slimey-Motorcycle/dp/B075KLZ9L8 A few years old but it gives the main idea. zag

No good reason to jump - these little hurdles will be forgotten in another year. Right now it might seem like an endless stream of issues, but in another year I will bet that you cannot even remember each of these things. I haven't had to do anything on my 83 for a long time - ever since I rebuilt it 10 years ago. Gotta just tough it out right now. zag

In my life experiences, it seems that once a radiator starts leaking, it's probably just generally corroded and will keep leaking here and there. I checked ebay for you and there are quite a few 83 radiators, most are pretty cheap. Besides getting some assurance from the previous owner that it doesn't leak, you could bring it to a shop and have it pressure tested so that you know it will be ok after going through the effort to install it. If you are sick of working on it, maybe you could find a local shop that would be willing to install a used radiator that you supply them with. On my 83 venture, the entire bike was reconfigured so much that I needed a tall skinny radiator instead of the stock one which is short and wide. I bought a new one designed for the Honda VTX and mounted it upside down to align better with the hoses. zag

Sorry I missed you. I rode up to Leland a bit early since there are much smaller parking areas than at Pine Bluff and it can get to be a real traffic jam. Plus, this year's rainy weather made lots of the grassy areas in Leland into a complete swamp. Much of the time, the road through Leland was totally jammed up with arriving bikes. Hard to guess at the total attendance - especially since many people just go to one end or the other on the ride. Fortunately, it was a beautiful day and I drank enough beer to float a small ship! zag

I stripped off everything, but I really don't know the total weight before and after. But it "feels" quite light, mostly because the remaining weight sits quite low. I even moved the battery from it's stock location (up high in the bike) to a spot below the transmission on a hinged frame (so it can be easily removed). Keeping the weight low is really the key thing. The engine is quite flat, the gas tank is under the seat, and whatever else you can do to help the situation just makes it better. My 83 totally hauls and is agile enough to run on gravel and off-road (a bit) with some of the dirt bike guys. I'd just strip it down and sell all of the unneeded bits on ebay. zag

Seems that some valve cores have a smaller ID than others and present a problem for inserting the beads. I've used beads for many years but recently it seems like a total hassle. I even rigged up an engraver vibrator tool with a blunt tip to pound on the valve stem and jiggle those little guys down into the tire. Frankly, it just isn't worth the hassle. Last tires I got mounted, I just used regular weights. zag

Sure sounds like a procedure that a government nitwit would dream up. Of course, the people they are trying to prevent buying guns don't follow any of these rules. If it were up to me, I'd let anyone buy anything without the permit BS. I'd take down the "No Guns Allowed" signs on public schools (which are completely unenforced) and just assume that everyone is carrying a weapon and is responsible for their actions. zag

Fired up my 83 for the first time this spring. No problems. I'm always surprised by how fast this bike really is. Just really hauls. Then I went out on one of my honda bikes which is 1100cc's and is considered fairly fast. Seemed pretty slow compared to my old venture. Nice bike. zag

Shot some starter juice into one of the spark plug holes and it fired right up after 6 months of sleeping. Rode ten miles or so and got some fresh gas, before the next blast of rain hits. Just good to see it running again!