The Death Of Yahoo

For 16 years I have run a group over on Yahoo for Yamaha two stroke road bikes from the 60's & 70's. It was a very active group with around 350 members of which maybe 100 were actually active.There are always lots of lurkers just watching but never participating in every group.Sort of like here where no one even reads your blog. But we write it anyway and with groups we keep them going for the sake of it I guess.So, last week Yahoo pulls the plug on groups and now we are all scrambling for a new home . I opted to migrate my Yamaha YDS Owners Group
( https://yamahaydsownersgroup.groups.io/g/main) to Groups IO because they claim they will move all your content to your new site .This remains to be seen but I paid for the service and am hoping this is the case.Been working on this all week.It's not easy to start over like this but people said they support the move and will contribute to cover the expense so I went forward .I've got the site functional now and so far 20 people have made the move.Worked on it all day Sunday .Couldn't do anything else anyway because of the rain so it was time well spent. Yesterday I rode ! Got the Moto Guzzi running really good now.The new clutch is working great and all the other work I did on the bike is making a big difference in the way she rides.The change in rear drive unit has made the bike run at different rpm's at cruising speeds so I'm getting used to it now.It seems  geared a little higher now so there is slightly less low end torque and lower rpm's at 65 mph.I have to do a gas mileage check and also go thru one of those speed monitors they stick on the side of the road to check the speedo to see how far off it is now.As for the bike,it runs like a top and I love it ! So yesterday I took it out for a few hours around town. Stopped to take this photo

As I was shooting the picture this woman walking her two dogs comes over.She asked

if I'd like her to take one with me in it so I said sure . After we finished the photo she tells me her and her boyfriend just moved here and that they both have a few bikes.They ride long distance too ! So we had a good conversation about motorcycles and motorcycle travel then exchanged emails .So I maybe made a new friend .I hope so because here all I do is ride alone. Out on the road I always meet people and up at my camp in the Adirondacks I have met people to ride with but not here so I'm happy .We'll see if it materializes but no matter,it was a good day out on my bike.I rode to the beach where I took these photos then after a good 50 mile ride went home and switched bikes.It's going to be a real crappy week with rain all week so I figured I'd better get my 1971 Yamaha  R5 and my 1988 BMW K100 back into the garage.They were put outside under plastic tarps to make room for me to work on the Moto Guzzi two weeks ago. They stayed nice and dry but after being out like that I want to run them good to get any moisture dried off  so the R5 went out first .I put around 25 miles on it then put it away in the shed turning my attention to the BMW. After fooling with it because of a loose connection in the wires going into the fuel tank where the fuel pump is I finally got it up and running. Took her out ,gassed her up and rode for another hour or so.She runs great  too . So all my stuff is back indoors and out of the weather.The Moto Guzzi is all finished, The shed is cleaned up so my two strokes have a good place to spend the winter giving me space in the garage to work on another bike project.I want to go back into the little blue Yamaha 305 and pull the motor again.I think there is an air leak in the case seam so I'm going to split the case and reseal it with Yamabond .I don't want to sell her with anything wrong.I want it to be a turn key bike when it leaves my hands after owning it for 31 years so this needs to be taken care of.

After I deal with this it's time to build another bike to sell. Arizona is calling !


Here is a join link to my new group on Groups IO 

   

      Yamaha YDS Owners Group
     
   
   

   

   
 

 

An Update Of Sorts

Well lets see, I guess this starts up in the Adirondacks on my August trip to my camp.It was a good trip ,went kayaking lots and did work on the place cleaning out my studio area so I can paint again while I'm there.Near the end of that trip I was working on the windows getting them preped to re-glaze the panes of glass and then painted. I wanted this done and ready so on my Fall trip I could actually glaze and prime .Got them scraped and clean when I decided to quit for the day and make dinner after a nice cold shower.Fired up the generator and soon discovered it wasn't making electricity . Spent the next hour and a half taking it apart to see if I could do an easy repair in the field.No luck ! At that point I decided I would head home the next morning and began to pack things up. Never did have a real dinner,just a grilled cheese sandwich .

Back in July I found a Moto Guzzi parts bike for a hundred bucks .I jumped on it and when I returned from this August trip began to strip it while I was figuring out what was wrong with my little generator. I ordered a bridge rectifier , new brushes went in ,still no power so I pulled the actual generator apart from the motor and yanked out the armature. I found a broken wire from the field to one of the two slip rings the brushes ride on. This is why she wasn't making electricity ! Fixed that put it all back together with the new parts I ordered and she worked like a charm. Then I got a kit to rebuild the leaking carburetor and fixed that so when I took it upstate I'd have reliable power.

Kept on striping the bike and doing the yard work over at my friends house until it was time to head north again in the last week of September.

I ordered a new clutch for my Moto Guzzi  as well. It has been down with a bad clutch since spring and I missed my old friend. Decided I'd do the clutch job when I returned from my camp in October. The trip up to camp went well.My little 1965 Valiant station wagon did just fine as I expected it would. The weather was good at first but then the rain started in. I had my paints and my little studio area all set up so I started working on a painting

I had a good trip,It got cold near the end and I had to cut down three dead trees for firewood .I had the stove going pretty good for a few days .One night it got down to 22 degrees F  but I was warm as toast with that wood stove burning that wood I cut.The ride home was pleasant ,no problems and I made good time.When I returned I dove into the Moto Guzzi clutch replacement job.It's never easy,it always expands,and it always is a battle that I win after a sometimes rather long fight. This job was no different.After a week of fooling with this it was finished and on Saturday I rode it out to the bike shop and had her inspected so she's legal. Had a couple bugs to get rid of not related to the clutch  so Saturday night I did that . Sunday I took her out for a three hour test ride under all conditions. I went slow ,I hit the interstate and went fast ,I worked her and she never missed a beat !

Now I'm here on this rainy day back in Long Island fixing up a friends shed for him. Got rained out today so I'm writing this long overdue blog post. Things are good with me but I sure miss the woods and cooking my breakfast on the fire out back. It will be June before I get to have the pleasure of having my coffee while cooking pancakes on the camp fire again !