So Yesterday I Painted

 It's been brutally cold here in NY for this time of year and heating oil is out of reach financially so we have to make do with what we have.Thankfully spring is close at hand and this polar vortex thing is easing up.Yesterday it was cold in the house with the heat set on 60 degrees F but the basement is small and the wind doesn't get in down there so it's easy to heat it up a bit with a small electric heater. This is exactly what I did and hung out down in my workshop painting.I set up my easel and my paints&brushes and did this painting .

It was fun and kept me occupied . Been trying to bring my old Chevy C20 truck back into service to use while I figure out what is the problem with the little Chevy S 10 . It's just too damn cold outside to fool with this stuff again today so I guess I'll be down in the basement  painting. Still waiting on the sale of that nice little orange DS6C Yamaha  to happen.Starting to have my doubts about it being sold and beginning to think about listing it on Craigslist and some other places .I need it gone so I can begin another and another after that too.Time is rapidly moving forward towards the day I want to leave this place and head west to the desert. I turn 73 in a few weeks ! Can't deal with this winter crap much longer. Well, at least I have a place where I can paint and stay somewhat comfortable so that's what I'm gonna do today. There is a blank canvas waiting for something to appear on it so I guess I'll get to it. My work can be seen here :https://edward-theilmann.pixels.com/collections/my+paintings Like motorcycles , painting also keeps me sane . Here is a photo of part of the herd . 

I do love my motorcycles ! Well,the warm weather is right around the corner and who knows where I'll be riding 3 months from now.It could be to a place like this 

Sometimes I think that I'm never going to get to move out west and I should just take another one of those 3 month long road trips before it's too late for me to do it.I'm starting to come to realize that I'm getting priced out of ever being able to buy a house where I want to go.What I could afford just one year ago is now out of reach and the bank rates are climbing ever higher all the time.Well this is the way it is in the land of the rich and the home of the greedy.It just gets worse and worse all the time and then some butt plug like Putin comes along and really  screws it up .It will probably take a decade to recover from this garbage and I'll more than likely be dead and gone.So maybe I should get a plan B going and start just traveling.Well,I'm gonna paint for now and just sort of chill out.Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Moving Forward

 So,the nice little orange DS6C is all finished and totally functional.She's been road tested and I'm just waiting on this friend to make up his mind if he's going to buy it or not.I'll give him one more week and then I start to advertise it.So,now it's time to move on to the next project.At first I was thinking about building a 1970 R5 but then I thought about things and decided it's time to go back to this really sweet 1966 Yamaha that I started but never finished.It's a keeper but it's time to finish it.The bike has a story that goes all the way back to my youth .The day I got my drivers license in 1965 I bought a new Yamaha YJ1 .I knew nothing about motorcycles or how to ride one.Went to the local Yamaha Dealership . looked at all the bikes and bought the cheapest bike there.It cost under $300 dollars new and the dealer could get the insurance and plates for me bringing the total to a shade over $375.I went for it ! Next day it was ready and he took me outside the shop in a parking space in the road and showed me how to work the controls .After I showed him I could work them he told me to go up the road for a mile or so and come back.It was a Friday afternoon and there was traffic but I was fearless and off I went.Came back ,he slaps me on the back and says "you're good to go" and there began this adventure that has lasted for 57 years this May and still continues. This is a 1965 YJ1 I not too recently bought am going to restore at some point down the road .It is exactly the same bike as my first !

 So,I rode  and rode ,Crossed the country in 1969 on my 3rd motorcycle ,a 1965 Yamaha YDS3 . 

 

Kept riding and got a DS6C in 1972 .Rode it to Newfoundland and all sorts of other cool places.In the late 80's started to get into motorcycle restoration .I discovered there were others into the Japanese motorcycles too and started making connections.Started going to this vintage Japanese bike show at White Rose MC in PA. Made lots of friends and bought lots and lots of parts.It was the 90's now,I was in my prime .One year there I met this guy who it turned out was from my home town. He saw the NY plates on my R5 that I had ridden there.As we were talking he tells me about his original 1966 Yamaha YM1 .He 's telling me where he bought it and it was the same place where my first bike came from.His had been left to sit unused in his garage since the mid 80's close to 15 years ago and the motor was stuck.He asked if I'd look at it and I did. This was around 1998.Years went by.We'd bump into each other at the bike show and one day he told me  he'd like to bring me the bike to assess it for a restoration. This was around 2012 .

 So I pull off the heads and see that the motor is solid rust.

 It took me 3 days to get the cylinders off without damaging them. I told him what I found and what it could cost to fix . He decided he didn't want to spend that kind of money so he asked me what I would give him for it. We finally arrived at $700 bucks and it was mine. He was happy that I was going to save it and told me he still had all the original paperwork from when he bought it. So,a year or two go by and I have it mostly finished  when he meets me at the bike show again with all this paperwork. I couldn't believe my eyes when I look at this stuff.There in my hands some 50 years later I have the original bill of sale signed by the guy who set me out on this incredible journey ! My friend passed away a couple years back.He did get to see his old bike near completion .His passing sort of took the wind out of my sails and the bike has just been sitting waiting on me to finish it safely tucked away in the shed with my other projects. Here it is the way he saw it

And here it is today in the shed waiting:

Today is a wet and dreary day here in NY.Late March weather for sure.Next nice day when it's sunny and dry out it's being moved into my workshop and like the orange one that also sat for years unfinished it too will be finished.Shouldn't take much ,some polishing ,adjustments , new tires and that's about it. The motor has been all rebuilt as has the rest of the bike .It's time has come . So,now it's time to head down to the basement and put a clutch together for the RD350 motor I'm building for my good friend Paul.Once the clutch is together I will do the final assembly and bring it back to him freeing me up to start the 1966 YM1 .I like being retired !

 

Early Spring Ride

 

Got out on the K100 the other day for the first time since January. She ran great ! I kept the battery up by giving it a charge every couple weeks for a couple hours .I also did an oil change using Shell Rotella 15/40 .I heard it has lots of detergent so I figured I'd give the inside of my motor a bath.She has a shade under 27,000 miles on her.Had 12,000 on it when I first got her on the road in 2018 after the previous owner let her sit in his son's heated basement for 15 years. I always did oil changes every 3000 miles so it's probably real clean in there but you never know and besides I may just head out on one of those months long cross country camping trips with her.Been itching to hit the road on one of these since just before Covid struck.Been searching for a riding partner for this trip too but with no luck so I may have to go it alone.At 73 I'd like some company but still able to do it on my own so.The two questions are : Do I go on the 1988 K100 or the 1975 Moto Guzzi 850-T and is 2022 the year I actually take this ride ? Been wanting to go  and wanting to go for what seems like eternity. I do manage to get to ride 400 miles up to my camp in Northern NY but it's not a cross country ride where I'm out there for a couple months living on a motorcycle.So the search continues as I get both these bikes ready. The MG is more comfortable , lighter and lower so I'm leaning towards it. The K is tall somewhat top heavy but I really like it too. It's a tough call.






Well, Yesterday's ride was fun,The K ran well and it was warm enough to stay out for a few hours.Spring is here in New York sort of .It's cold  & foggy today so I think I'll go out into the garage ,light the kerosene heater and work on a bike.It's nice being somewhat retired .

The Next Day

Now it's the next day.Yesterday after writing about how I solved the electrical problem I went out and put the whole bike back together.Late in the afternoon I gassed it up and started it. It idled for a bit but as soon as I gave it gas and the rpm's picked up it blew the damn fuse ! So,now I know the problem is in the charging system for sure.Every other circuit works fine so I suspect that when the generator gets some rpm's and starts making electricity it either shorts or produces too much . I'm becoming very frustrated with this but on the positive side it has been narrowed down and all the charging components can be changed out without tearing the whole bike apart .So today I clean up another ignition unit and set it up with new points , condensers, and brushes . Clean up a voltage regulator , and a generator armature then install them and see what happens. I'm determined to finish this project this weekend ! Soon with any luck it will run as good as this one and be in service again.

Finally Finishing Up The Orange DS6C

 I thought the bike was going to be finished up after the paint work I did back in October .Got that all done and installed on the bike , emailed my friend who has expressed interest in buying it only to start it and discover a short circuit causing the main fuse to blow.At this point I just put it down and did other stuff.My friend told me more than once he was in no great hurry so on the back burner it went.

Now here we are at the end of winter . The world is falling apart with insane war and other garbage that get me all depressed.I decided I'd get into a project rather than sit in front of this computer all day long reading the propaganda about the bogus war Russia had started with it's neighbor Ukraine . It's depressing so out to the garage I went yesterday determined to find the electrical short and fix it.Armed with my new vintage analog volt ohm meter I went at it. .

 

I thought it was in the charging system because the bike did start but as soon as I reved the engine off idle the main fuse would blow so I began with the voltage regulator.Took it off the bike and tested it for shorts. It seemed good so I dug out a couple more from my parts inventory and checked them.They all came up with the same readings so back in it went.

The next thing I checked out was the ignition Yoke.It is the generator and also the location of the ignition points and condensers .Lots of connections are also here and it's a likely cause of my troubles I am thinking at this point . So , off it came and after testing it for ground faults I dug out a few more I have to compare .Again like with the regulator it came up good so back on the motor it went . 

 So now I went into the headlight bucket .This is the place where all the wires connect , you know , sort of like the brain of the machine. Got out my old service manual and looked over the wiring diagram . Grounded the meter and started poking around into all the connections.

Tried it with the ignition switch off first and everything looked good put the switch in the on position and I found a wire coming from the handle bar switch that was grounding to the frame while not plugged in to the rest of the harness . Found it ! So I took the switch off the bike and repaired the broken wire.A soldered connection had failed and when the engine ran the vibrations it made caused the wire to move around and short to the metal switch housing. It was a pain in the ass job to fix.Had to take the whole switch apart .In the old days when one could go to a dealer and buy a new switch this would have been so simple but this is working on vintage bikes and I kind of love the challenge . So, today I put the bike back together and the next nice day that we get I'll road test her like I had planned to do way back in October. I built this bike way back in the mid 1990's after I restored my original DS6C .My original one was orange but when I did the restoration I was only able to get green parts that were new genuine Yamaha  ( NOS) .I wanted all excellent used or new (NOS ) parts so the bike would be in factory original condition rather than re painted and re chromed . My original DS6C had a long life with me and still serves me well. I built this orange one just because I wanted both colors that they were sold in .With age comes change and I no longer need what I had to have 30 years ago so it gets sold off to a friend who will surely enjoy it and take care of it.Here is the story of my original ( Green) DS6C. I bought this bike in 1972 from my brother in law's brother who bought it new.It had around a thousand miles on it and cost me 300 bucks.Looking at the old service manual that came with it brought all these memories back. It's hard to wrap my mind around the fact that I've been riding this bike for 50 years !

 

The DS6C Story:

Back in the early 90's my DS6C was looking more like a ds6.It
had red body work and low pipes.The only thing DS6C was the
frame.It wasn't always this way,and I wanted to bring it back to
the bike it used to be.

 

What happened is that it got
stolen,destroyed,and recovered back in the early 80's.It sat for a
while, I fooled around with this 650 Thiumph that was nothing but problems and sold it . Found myself bikeless.That lasted for about
3 days.I looked around and found this 70 DS6 with no papers.
Back then no papers was a real problem so I got the bike
cheap.I had the paper on my DS6C so I took the new one apart
and set it up on my DS6C frame.It was ugly but it was a good
runner.I drove it like that for 10 years.It was my only bike!I looked
and looked but could never find a DS6C .

 

 I started to restore the
blue YM1 and started sending out wanted pictures of a DS6C in
all my letters and parts orders.One day I received a call and
some guy in Pa. told me about this Harley Dealer in NJ. who had
about 100 old Yamahas in a storage building.It turned out the
dealership was originally a Yamaha dealership and these were
all just left behind by the previous owner.I called and made an
appointment for the next day and when I got there I couldn't
believe my eyes.There were about 150 Yamahas from the 60's
just sitting there and a parts room full of NOS parts! I found my
DS6C and another one for parts.The good one was left there in
1969 over an unpaid repair bill!! It had 1400mi on it,a dented
tank,smashed instruments and a dented rear fender,the rest of
the bike was like new.I got the pair for 300 dollars.

 

 After we did
the deal I asked if I could look around the parts room some.The
owner said sure go ahead so I did. I found a YDS3 front fender
and all sorts of bits and pieces for my M1.I also found a front
brake for the TD1B that my friend Don Scarborough was
building. This place was a gold mine. 

 

Over the next year I told all
my friends about it and we cleaned him out.The one thing he
didn't have was a green DS6C gas tank.That was the only part I
needed to get back my DS6C.I looked and looked and one day I
found one in NC. at Wilson Cycle Center.This place turned out to
be another gold mine.The owner was a real gentleman. He used
to send me my parts with a bill and give me 30 days to pay!So I
order the tank and I wait and wait,no tank. I call,he says he sent it
UPS so I track it. It turns out he sent it to my friend Don in
Michigan. I finally get the tank and a fully restored DS6C with
1400 miles on it.Like the YDS3 I use it all the time and it looks
and runs as good as the day I finished it.I've owned this bike
since 1972. I rode it to Newfoundland,all over the Adirondacks,
and Main&Nova Scotia.

My original DS6C on the trip to Newfoundland. Unfortunately these are the only 3 photos I have of the original bike from back in the days when I first got it.

 

It's probably the best motorcycle I have
ever owned next to my R5 ,but that's a whole other story and then there's the Moto Guzzi. In the winter of 2014 I finally got to finishing a reproduction of this great bike in it's original orange color. I started building this back in the mid 90's and then just put it away.This photo is what the green bike and all it's variations over the years looked like when I bought it in 1972 . 

 

I wanted to have one that looked the same in every detail in the 90's but today I just don't give a shit.It's for sale to raise money for the down payment on a house in the desert where I will be riding my original "old faithful " green 1969 Yamaha DS6C until the day I draw my last breath. :

So , now the heat is on out in the garage.It was 18 degrees F out this morning so it's taking some time for the old kerosene heater to warm my work shop. If all goes well today I'll be sending an email to my friend  telling him the bike is ready if he still wants it, if not it goes on Craigslist.Time to get started on the next bike that I'm going to build to sell and all the other unfinished projects I have hanging over my head.