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.