So Now I Have Begun

I've been busy these last couple days between doing repair work on the concrete in front of my garage to the electrical work on the 71 R5. Last night I drove my wife to her sisters house so she can fly down to Florida with them in the morning for a week and visit family. This frees me up to work on my bike but it's always something and last night was no exception. We headed out and all of a sudden my little 2000 Chevy S10 pick up has no heat. I'm looking at the gauges and the engine isn't warming up. I just said the hell with it and continued on the 30 mile ride. Got her delivered and turned around for home. Still no heat and a cold engine. Very puzzled I went online when I got home. I figured it was a bad thermostat that is stuck in the open position. If it was stuck closed I would have overheated in short order so luck was riding with me. I go on a couple of sites and read all these horror stories and got ready for the worst. This morning I dug out the service manual and am reading low coolant level can cause this too. I go out and pop the radiator cap and sure enough it's low so I put in 2 qts of fresh anti freeze, take it out for a ride and it's all good again! So I used it all afternoon to run errands and fully tested it. By early afternoon I was back at it on the R5. Pulled out the old harness and the instruments, the ignition switch,the battery,and totally disconnected all the other electrical stuff. After this I was out of the garage and down in my basement shop digging through boxes of parts getting all the little bits and pieces I need. So now I have a week to get this done and do a transmission and engine oil change on my wife's car. It's nice being able to focus like this with no interuptions.

So now I get to spend a week playing with my toys in my play room down in the basement and the other one outside with the kerosene heater blasting away keeping me warm as I dive into this job on one of my most favorite things,MOTORCYCLE REPAIR! I really do love this shit.I sure hope this is the start of a very productive winter of motorcycle restoration. I have a nice little 1970 Yamaha DS6 with only 5000 miles on it waiting for me in my storage garage and it's next on my list.Aint she sweet!

Working On My Bikes

My 1971 Yamaha R5

After that incident with the deer back in July I just rode and didn't really do much else.It's important to ride lots after you go down to keep those imaginary fears at bay so ten days after I hit that deer I was healed up enough to start riding again.Sure felt good. While out on my 1971 Yamaha R5 a problem developed. At first I thought it was fuel related but soon came to the conclusion it was electrical. I'd go out on a good running bike and after 20 miles it acted up again and again.I changed all sorts of parts one at a time ,test ride, and no luck. So,I just put the R5 away for a bit and rode other bikes like mt 1975 Moto Guzzi 850-T and my 1988 BMW K100 RS. After the deer hit I stayed off my really nice older stuff. I figured I'd wait until Fall when the leaves are off the trees so I can see into the woods on the edge of the roads I ride looking out for deer.I see then almost every time I go out. They have become a real threat here in Long Island. Well,enough about the deer. The other day while out riding I was thinking about this electrical problem and just how frustrating it is to find the cause. I decided to just rip out the entire electrical system on my R5 and replace it all. So, here I am now taking apart a spare wire harness to get all the correct color coded wires to rebuild another one I have. I'm finally reaping the fruits of all my labor over the past winter doing an inventory of all my motorcycle parts.I now have over 180 boxes of parts for all six of my riders all organized by make, model, and type of part in numbered boxes on shelves,with the contents entered in a book so I can easily get at anything I need. Shit, it only took me 60 years of riding a motorcycle to finally get organized! Well,I had my fun riding and traveling all over the place camping and wandering down all these incredible roads so I can't complain really but it's nice having all this stuff in order. Today it's back to the basement and the wires.With a bit of luck I'll be back up on my old friend by the end of the week and all will be well back in the land of two wheels. I've also started gathering all the parts needed to fix the bike I was riding when that damn deer crossed my path. Lifted out the dent in the side of the fuel tank. It's going to be a busy winter this year out in the garage. My shop and the work that happens there :

This is my life! Motorcycles are the air I breath and here I am at 76 years old playing with my toys like a child of 10. Well, at 10 I was no different really. I could be found down in the basement dismantling the washing machine or out in the garage tearing apart my bicycle or out in the woods down by this pond catching frogs and turtles. This is the bike I've owned the longest. It's a 1969 Yamaha DS6c that I bought in 1972. As you can see,I still ride it today. She's all restored now after the years of abuse she saw. I rode this bike to Newfoundland back in 1975! Well here she is in recent times with the old goat who rides her still after all these years. I'll be a biker 'till I draw mt last breath!