It's A Beautiful Day !

Finally some nice riding weather. Today is in the mid 40's F and sunny.Going to take a couple bikes out riding today if I can. One thing for certain I will at least get out on one,probably the BMW today. Got the heater fixed yesterday.It was a disconnected fuel supply line. I must have disconnected it when I was cleaning all the dust out from the inside of it.You see,last winter I used it when I was working in my friend's basement building an art studio . Cut lots of wood and sheetrock so the thing was loaded with dust.I knew this so figured I'd clean it before firing it up the first time this season .Well,the mystery has been solved.I had it running yesterday for a couple hours and she's back in service .Today I ride ! Woke up to blue skies and it's actually somewhat warm outside.A good day to get out and wander . I love days like this where I just hit the road with no destination in mind and just go where the road takes me.The garage is all set now for work to begin .Got the work bench all straightened up and my tools organized yesterday . Answered two craigslist adds too.One about BMW K100 parts from a local guy selling them.Gonna go check them out on Saturday afternoon. The other is for a 1999 Mazda B2500 pick up ( same as a ford ranger) for 1500 bucks.It's time for me to get a truck that doesn't break the bank to use to head up to my camp with .This should do that with a 4 cyl engine and a 5 speed manual transmission. Gonna set up a time to see it on Saturday also. So Saturday is looking like a busy day. Today is the best day of the week so it is getting used as a motorcycle day !

A Day In The Garage

I dragged out my heaters the other day.Did a dry burn in the one I use to maintain the heat and the other one,the forced air heater isn't working.I took it apart to clean it after heavy use last winter and when I went to fire it up it won't ignite.I think the fuel line or nozzle is clogged. It's making spark and the fan is working ,it just won't light .So,today's project is fix the heat ! If there is enough time left I'll start to organize the work space and clean so I can begin work on the projects that I have unfinished. There's so much to do.I lost sleep last night worrying about all this shit I have to deal with so we can move out west.Sometimes it gets to be overwhelming so I need to begin and get some forward motion started . Guess I'll go out and light the heater so the place warms up some while I write this post. Thankfully the heater that works is my main heat source  for the shop. I've got to get back to days like this where I was over at my friend Paul's house and we were getting my Moto Guzzi ready for the 2010 cross country trip I took her on.Those were good times in the garage!

This was a fun day when we pulled my motor out of the bike so I could put in a new clutch and a different transmission I had bought off Craigslist .Turned out the transmission was really good and here we are 8 years down the road and about 75,000 miles later still using it.Same goes for the new clutch that I got from MG Cycle out in Wisconsin. I've had incredible luck with this motorcycle.I'm starting to think I may ride it out west in 2019 rather than the BMW which is still an unknown to me.This is what I'm thinking about when I'm out riding like I was the other day.The thing just purrs and feels so right between my legs.It just responds with a slight movement of my ass in the seat like it's part of my body. Well,enough about this.The wick in the heater has had enough time to suck up the kerosene so I can go out and light it. Now she's burning so I'll give it a half hour to take the chill off the garage and start my day.I have so much to do with the heater as my first job. There are 4 projects that are on my radar for this winter.The 1st was the R5 . It is finished and running.

Then I have to hook up the fuel lines and install the battery & tighten up the exhaust system on the green DS6C so it can return to service. These first two jobs are maintenance jobs on my running and registered riders.

Then there is this beautiful 1966 Yamaha YM1 (305cc 2 stroke) that I got from my friend Richard,the original owner.This bike is in the final stages of a complete ground up restoration .I had to do serious work on this machine.It sat for over 20 years and the crankshaft was all rusted.It took days just to get the motor apart because of all the rust  but I had all good stuff to replace the rusted stuff with so it was worth it.The bike has just over 6000 miles on it ! Original paint and I had all good used and NOS chrome for it so she's a beauty .I've got to finish her so I can decide if she's a keeper .

If she is a keeper then I'll be selling my blue 1966 YM1 that I have owned for 30 years.  Not too thrilled about that but something has to go and I have two of these so it's one or the other.To sell the blue one I have to finish rebuilding the original motor so she's a numbers matching bike again.I saved that motor for the future and used another one I had as a spare so I didn't have to worry about wearing the original one out.She's a beauty too.The first bike I restored all those years ago.I did all the paint work too.

It will be hard letting this bike go .So,there are my winter projects in the order that they will happen in with any luck. The heater is burning nice and clean after the dry burn I did yesterday  to clean the wick and now I wait as my garage slowly gets heated. You see this is what I use the forced air heater for,to heat the place up quickly when I first start heating it. That heater puts out 75,000 btu's where the small one only puts out 20,000 and is just radiant with no forced air. Well,with any luck I'll have the big one working today.I need it to do outdoor work on my cars  in winter and that's a whole other story there.

Some Good Weather To Ride !

Thanksgiving the weather was terrible.We got dropped into the deep freeze and I've been stuck in the house bored but today is a different story. It's BEAUTIFUL  out this morning and you know what that means. So as soon as the roads dry off from the rain we had overnight I'll be heading out for a day of two wheel fun.My big decision is do I go on the Moto Guzzi or the BMW ? I'll be heading east out to Manorville and possibly beyond to the north fork of LI. All the idiots are at the mall buying shit they don't need  because some pin head in corporate amerika has convinced them otherwise so the roads should be pretty good for riding today.Looks like I will be getting out quite a bit this coming week as well.Monday it rains again but then the forecast is for sun and temps in the 40's F thru next Sunday.This remains to be seen of course but that's what NOAA says.Gotta make the most of whatever time I can ride this end of the year. It could start snowing and keep snowing into April ,who knows these days with climate change. So, gotta do a couple chores and get ready to hit the road. Time is getting shorter and shorter for me every day so I can't afford to waste any nice days fucking around when I could be RIDING !

Finally Got Back To My R5

 

Here it is,the day after Thanksgiving and I'm finally writing another post.I get lazy sometimes ,so lazy that my life just sort of stops but then slowly it starts again like an old bike that's been sitting for years neglected.My R5 sort of got neglected for a while.Not in a very bad way though.I used her right up until early September so she's not hurting but for the last four or five years the bike has needed a good going over. It ran well but when slowing down going under 30mph the front end would sway back & forth some and the bike would weave sort of one or two inches left & and right .I just ignored it thinking it was probably the front wheel that needed to be trued up .Then after a time I theorized that it was the steering head bearings that were the problem. So,back in September I bought a new tapered roller bearing kit for the front end , pulled the front end all apart , cleaned out the old oil in the forks,took the steering head apart , and pulled out the bearings. On inspection I found the grease was all dried out and not doing it's job.I cleaned the bearings in kerosene and had a close look.They looked fine so I repacked them with good waterproof grease and put them back in .Got the whole fork assembly back in place with clean oil installed and then took off to my camp on the BMW. I don't usually leave a project like this unfinished but I did so last week I finally went back to it and finished it up.I had to finish hooking up all the wires inside the headlight bucket.,clean out the front brake drum,the brake shoes, lube it all,clean the spokes,put on the front fender,the wheel and she was done.I had the battery on the charger on & and off the whole time she was down for this service so it was ready to go.Put it in the bike,checked all the circuits and found everything in proper working order  and kicked her over.She started on the third kick ! Rolled her out,put some air in the tires and took her for a ride.Guess what, NO MORE WANDERING ! Yup,it was the steering head bearings telling me they needed help. So,I save the new kit for future use when these finally take a shit. For now they are still serviceable and my approach as always is if it ain't broke don't fix it. Now all I need to do is get it inspected.I also attacked my green 1969 Yamaha DS6C.

This bike needed to have the petcock on the gas tank rebuilt with all new gaskets.It was leaking gas.It's that fucking ethanol garbage they contaminate our gasoline with.It eats up any rubber parts like o rings and gaskets that it comes in contact with. So.I have been fucking around with this on & and off all summer. Finally got it finished the other day before the cold snap arrived.Now I wait for the warmth to return,it will and when it does I will take both these bikes in for inspection so they are totally road legal again.All my other stuff is already so these are the last.It's a lot of work keeping up with all these bikes and cars but I love them and this is who I an so it's worth it to me.I think I'm going to get back to building some to sell this winter.Now that my own fleet is in working order it's time to finish the other project bikes I have started and put on hold.I have two I can finish up easily and with any luck they will bring in six or seven thousand dollars towards the down payment on the house in Arizona.So now it begins again,another winter in the garage .Today I go get fifteen gallons of kerosene for my heaters and with any luck it will warm up enough to get out there tomorrow and straighten up,organize,and get a bike into the work space to work on.

Today it's way too cold .I don't think it's reached 20 degrees F out yet ! Certainly isn't motorcycle weather here in New York but this will change.This is January weather and It's still November.