The K100

 Took out the BMW K100 yesterday .It was a cool day and I like this bike in cool weather.Haven't ridden it since way back in June or early July .It makes lots of heat so it's not a good ride for summer unless one is traveling.Seems when I'm going 70 mph down the highway the heat just gets blown away but around town it's brutal.. On my ride towards the east I decided to stop in to see my old friend Tony who gave me this motorcycle.Haven't seen him in quite some time so it was good to spend an hour just catching up.It seems he has a problem with his Moto Guzzi .He has  a flat rear tire and  the bike is out east at a house he owns there for a year now.He tells me no one will fix it for him,they claim it's too old and bla bla  bla.It's a 1997 ! He told me this mechanic was telling him he would have to take the rear drive unit out to get the wheel off.What an idiot this guy is.It's so easy to dismount the rear wheel from the bike to fix so I told him I will go out with him and pull the wheel so he can take it in for a new tire then go back and remount it on the motorcycle.It really amazes me how dumbed down people have become . This guy is supposed to be a motorcycle mechanic and can't even figure out how to remove the wheel on a shaft drive motorcycle . Tony was happy to see his old BMW .When he gave it to me it has dead on arrival.It hadn't been run in 15 years or so and was stored with fuel in the tank. What saved it was it was stored inside but even with being stored inside everything inside the tank,the fuel pump ,filter,the gas level sensor,and all the wiring and lines were all rusted. I had to rebuild the entire fuel injection system . I also had to rebuild the brake system and figure out all the wiring and computer stuff.It was a real education for me and now I apply what I learned working on this motorcycle to cars like my wife's 2002 Honda Accord and my little 2000 Chevy S10. You see ,the 1988 BMW's systems are no different that what was used by car makers in the early 2000s .So I thanked my friend for giving me the opportunity to learn this with this motorcycle. We are both in out early 70's and still riding so when we get his Moto Guzzi back in service we'll go riding. This is what the inside of the tank looked like after I drained out the rusty murky brown colored gasoline. At this point I was thinking the tank was shot.Then to my surprise I discovered it was aluminium  so I washed it out with acid and it looked like new!

Then it was on to the rest of the injection system

After I was finished I had a pretty much new 35 year old motorcycle with 12,000 miles on it ! This was back in 2017 now it's 2022 and it has 26,000 + on it.It's been up to the Adirondacks twice ,to PA a few times , and Western New York State .I use it  . It's taken me some time to come to know it but now I'm at the point where I have confidence in it and my ability to deal with it. So today I ride it again.Gonna put on my leathers to keep warm on this cool late October day and go out and put a hundred or so miles on her.

Ain't she SWEET !

THANKS TONY !

Fall Riding

  Yesterday I got the Yamaha R5 inspected and continued on my ride to the east.Sure was nice riding my old friend.Went out to the pine barrens and hit some nice roads, the leaves are all changing ,it was a beautiful warm day ,and the motorcycle bug bit me hard ! Got an email from my neighbor asking when I'm going to paint some more.Thought about it and told him not until next week because I need some motorcycle time.Age and being retired has it's privileges so I took advantage of them ! We have abundant sunshine for the next three days and it's cooler out today so I'm taking my 1988 BMW out for it's first ride in three months .This bike makes heat so I don't use it in the warm weather.It's like sitting on a car motor. That 4 cylinder motor throws off plenty of heat so it's the perfect bike for cool and cold weather riding.Right now it's 49 degrees F outside. I can wear my leathers and be really comfortable on it so that's the plan. The little Yamaha DS6C that I sold is finally going to leave for California this coming  week.The new owner and I spoke yesterday and he's all excited about getting it.He's a nice guy and perhaps when I get out west on my next road trip I'll stop in and say hello.So,the battery in the BMW is on the charger getting topped off and I'm putting some air in the tires .Should be a good day out on the road. This is a highway bike ,she wants to run so with that in mind it looks like another day out east . Things are good,all six of my riders are inspected and running well ,my old Chevy C20 is back in service , and the 76 Dodge Aspen is going to a car show with a for sale sign in the window on Sunday.I finally have some forward motion again !

 

Success

 So,the clutch job on the 1971 Yamaha R5 is good ! I took it out yesterday after writing the previous post and went for a 50 mile ride.All is good ! Upon my return I got to work on the Chevy C20.I got it started ,moved it out to the front of the driveway and power washed it.It's all ready to drive to the scrap yard this morning .After I get that chore finished I'm going to ride the R5 out east with a stop at this little bike shop I know of to get it inspected so she's all legal again. Sure felt good to ride my old friend again! I bought this bike way back in 1985 .Paid 185 bucks and she had about 5000 on the clock .Since that day I rode the crap out of it.Packing her up like a horse and hitting the interstate going to Mid Ohio to AMA's Vintage days 13 years in a row , the Japanese show in Pa more times than I can count , and all over New England and Northern NY for it. Now she has around 135,000 on it ! Here she is on one of her outings going to Mid Ohio .

And here she is out riding around locally the way most of her miles have been done.

I'm a 2 stroke guy .Rode nothing but 2 strokes from 1965 until 2007 when I bought my 1975 Moto Guzzi 850-T .I rode a 65 Yamaha across the country in 1969 2 up from NY to LA California then back to NY a year later, 

Rode my 1969 Yamaha DS6C up to Newfoundland in the mid 70's  .I still have this bike ! I restored in in the early 90's and use it often . This bike  and the R5 will never get sold as long as I'm still breathing !

Then and now photos .

The bike has been thru the ringer more than once.It was used ,abused,stolen , recovered ,rebuilt as a driver ,and finally restored.I've owned it for 51 years ! I do love my 2 strokes.Have quite a few of them and soon I will be thinning the herd some . I think this one is going to get sold next ,my 1966 Yamaha YM1 . I've owned this since 1989 and restored it back in the early 90's. She's been good to me but it's time to pass it on to someone else . This was the first bike I ever restored. I learned how to do paint work so I could do this bike and then went on to paint bikes for guys from all over the country.They'd ship me the parts ,I'd paint them matching the factory colors and paint schemes and ship the finished product back. Ah,the good old days when we did business thru magazines like Old Bike Journal and Walnecks before the internet ! They were good days.I made some life long friends doing this and trading parts.Painting bikes led to auto restoration where I also made some really good friends .

I restored this car in the mid 90's .It was a really fun project doing a ground up resto in my friends driveway !

This was a fun build and I enjoyed this car for a good 12 years before selling her .She looked as good the day I sold her as she did the day after I finished the build.Never saw the weather was always garaged and only used when the sun was shinning . I love working with my hands . Well,maybe this winter I'll go thru the Moto Guzzi , you know,get her all fixed up and ready to do a long distance ride like I did back in 2010 and 2014 . She's still a really good reliable running motorcycle that is capable of distance so this is the plan now.Go thru the entire bike .Spend whatever it takes and head out mid summer next year to the west.Get down to southern California by September,check out Arizona in late September  then head east across the south to the Barber Vintage Festival in early October before heading north up the Blue Ridge Parkway towards home. It's time to sell some shit to bankroll this adventure and get my Moto Guzzi ready for another good ride !

Is This Really Retirement

 I'm now in my mid 70's and it seems like I'm constantly working. It's not like before when I chased after jobs  now it's like jobs chase after me.Some of them are my neighbors having me paint their houses or do other small jobs but most of these jobs are my own projects. Car work sucks up a lot of my time.I've always have something to do on a car or truck.The little Chevy S10 is working out well now but I have to get the old 71 Chevy C20 and the 76 Dodge Aspen . They both need to get sold ! The Aspen is in service but the C20 isn't.Today I'm going to make it run and take it to the scrap yard to get all the scrap metal that I filled the bed with off. I need to use it soon for another job.Back in June I sold this 1970 Yamaha DS6C to a guy out in Southern California. He has finally worked out the shipping and the shipper only will pick up from a business address so I have to shelp this bike down to Home Depot for the guy to load it.Go figure.Well,it's a lot of additional work for me but as I think about it it becomes clear that it's good that I'm using the C20 for this.It forces me to get it on the road and begins the process of getting it sold. I want to use the C20 because it has a cap on the bed so if it's wet out the day I need to do this chore the bike doesn't get all wet and then rust on it's journey to California. I worked hard building this bike and it's all polished and looking like new.I want it to look that when the new owner gets it.I know it's out of my hands but I have to do what I can to make that happen so the Chevy C20  gets pressed back into service. 

This is one job ,yesterday I did another "job" I rebuilt the clutch in my 1971 Yamaha R5. It started slipping back in the spring so I just put it away in the shed for a while.I really wanted to get to it sooner but there were all sorts of other things in my way that needed to be dealt with. I finally put my foot down and yesterday I attacked this job.It went pretty smooth but took all day.It was the perfect day for this.It was really wet out and there was nothing else that I could do indoors so I lit the kerosene heater and made the garage comfortable to work in , hooked up my MP3 player to the speakers I have out there and dove in. It's all back together now as I sit here writing this.I'm waiting for the rain to pass and the road to dry some.The battery is on the charger and all I have left to do is put the battery in the bike and fill the transmission with oil.Keeping my fingers crossed that it's finally fixed.I used all used parts ,checked them and they are all within the wear limits listed in the service manual .Money is an issue these days,everything is way too expensive so I just make do. The greed of these stinking corporations is really getting out of hand and I will not support them it their rape of our country.Well,enough about these bastards and back to what matters to me. The rain is letting up,there are breaks of sun and nothing on the radar so in an hour or so I'll be testing my old 71 R5 and then turning my attention to the Chevy C20.I'd like to get it emptied today and all clean so when I'm driving it I can stick a 4 sale sign in the window.

My 1971 Yamaha in better days up at my camp.This is my bike of 1st choice for riding up in the Adirondacks. Sure will be good to have her back in service

Now on to another "job" I got roped into painting a neighbors house.It seems like it's never going to end and I'll still be painting houses and doing odd home improvement jobs until the day I die.Well I guess it's better than being inactive and deteriorating like so many others do.It does keep me in shape .Last week I was all over this house like a monkey going up and down the extension ladder just like I was doing when I was a 20 year old. Of course it's harder now and at the end of the day I feel it but the fact is I can still do it and I guess I should be happy for that. Well,this job is almost finished , there is just some odds and ends  left now. On & on it goes I have more to do now that I'm so called "retired" than ever .What I'd really rather be doing it this . leaving on a motorcycle trip to some new unknown place to explore. I'm still looking for a riding partner for a long distance ride but not holding out too much hope of finding one.So I guess I'll be going alone next summer or whenever I finally get to go.But know this,I will GO !

Home From The Mountains

 It was good to get up to the woods but the weather wasn't the greatest.The ride up went well.I took the 6 AM ferry to Bridgeport  CT from Port Jefferson NY to miss driving thru the city and the first hundred miles in darkness. The boat docked at 7:15 and it was daylight .The ride up to my place was good and I arrived at my place around 1:30 in the afternoon. Everything was as I left it a year earlier but some storms brought down a few trees in the woods.I had good weather the first day then the rain came.It rained all week on & off .Got kind of depressed and by Thursday when the sun finally returned I decided to head back south to home.I was running low on firewood and just sitting around so Friday I packed it all up and first thing Saturday morning I was on the road for home.It's always a roll of the dice this time of year up there but even though it was cold and wet I did enjoy being there.My little Chevy S10 did great.I got out and about in it all week going here & there.Bought a few sheets of plywood to make new boards to cover the windows and doors . I always board the place up so tree branches and falling trees can't smash the windows while I'm away . I brought up my old 2100 watt generator to use as a test.It died a couple years back so I brought it home and repaired it .Bought it new in 1986 at Sears and it saw serious use both up at the camp and at home during some week + power outages like when Sandy hit and last summer when this unnamed storm took the power out for 10 days. Well,it passed the test and did just fine for the week keeping the 12V battery charged so I had radio  and running the water pump so I could shower and do the dishes.That stream water sure is cold but after the first shock it's  kinda of refreshing . I did get to cook outside a couple times when the sun came out after the drizzle ended .I love cooking on the fire ,things taste so much better when cooked on an open fire .

 

Well , now I'm downstate in lala land . Well,I guess it's time to start running some ads and sell some stuff ! Went riding on my Moto Guzzi yesterday ,sure felt good to ride. I'm also hoping to get out in my Kayak some .I bought this cheap wet suit to keep me warm so I should be able to get in the water until the end of October with any luck.  

My new little 2000 Chevy S10 parked in my driveway up in the Adirondacks.

It was a lot of hard work bringing this truck back to life but now that it's able to go 1500 miles in a week with no issues I can say it was well worth the effort.