Riding with Bill

Took a ride with Bill today out to Eaton Rapids. Had lunch at that same lousy Chinese restaurant. The ride was cool though. It was nice hitting the road with someone who appreciates a bike as much as I do. He has a nice Honda 1800cc bike... not sure of the name though. It whoops the heck out of mine.

The bike is running fairly well, although I still need to tune the fuel air mixture. I also rode it to work (since the next door neighbor rented a huge dumpster and blocked my car in) and it fired right up, with a little egging of the throttle. That makes me very happy that I am weaning it off the starter spray.

I am taking a trip to see Erik today because he is really failing in school. I am going to have a talk with him though I don't know what I can do this late in the game.

More later this weekend. I will colortune that bike!

Takin' it apart...

I pulled the plugs from the bike today and took a few photos of them to see how well the bike is doing as far as fuel is concerned. I think 2 carbs may be running lean. An adjustment via colortune is in order.

I wanted to add iridium plugs to my bike, ordered some from FTMS and then they tried to rob me by changing the price from $7 a piece to $10 a piece. Crooks. I'll order them from the net. Average price seems to be about $7. Of course, there's nothing wrong with these plugs It's just that the iridium plugs are better.

I received the diaphragm today, gratis via Trukerjim. Great guy, him. The diaphragm fit perfectly, and I adjusted my carbs based on the new diaphragm and I must say, the bike is running great. I also just bought a set of carbs for $66 from ebay. I plan to dissect these so that if I ever need to pull my carbs from the bike (or need parts) I'll have them handy. I could have have gotten these for $9.99 is a couple of non-serious bidders hadn't raised the price. Ah well, free market economy.

Supposed to go biking tonight with that group from GR. Hope the weather holds.

Riding on the range...

Yesterday I took the bike out for a ride, and I must say, other than the hard start, it's running like a gem. I still had to use the starter spray to get it going (even tried hooking it up to my car battery as Hap suggested to see if it might be a battery problem) but no luck. I am going to start it again this morning just to test it, and see how much difficulty it has in starting.

I have a bit of a cold which is making me a little sluggish. Or, perhaps its that flu shot I received the other day. I don't know. They say you can't get the flu from the shot, but you do get mildly sick (usually low grade fever, possibly other symptoms).

I joined the Total Motorcycle World, a forum of motorcycle enthusiasts with reams of information about bikes in general. It's not bike specific like the XJ list, but I've already corresponded with someone about 2 hours away that might hook up for a ride. Their forums are massive, and it is going to take me forever to work my way through them.

I waxed the bike yesterday, cleaned it up a bit. The tank really needs attention. There are spots that have the potential to generate rust, so until I get the thing painted, I am going to have to keep an eye on it. (as if I wouldn't...) I plan to run up to College Bike Shop and see if they have the caps I need and the plugs I want to get. Those iridium plugs are the shizznit, or so I've heard. Perhaps that's part of the problem. Even though I fixed the bad conduction issue with the caps, it's still starting hard. Then, I'll have 3 sets of plugs.

I painted my horns yesterday, but in retrospect, I don't know if I like the color or not. It's cherry red. Here's a pic:
Time will tell, I suppose. Maybe when the tank is the same color? I don't know. Perhaps I'll just paint them black. While the color is fine, I've always wanted a black motorcycle.

I tried starting the bike and of course, it wouldn't start. I had to use starter spray on it. It fired right up after that, which leads me to believe it might be related to the fuel or the air mixture. I haven't yet tried it without the choke... maybe I'll do that tomorrow.

I plan on taking the bike to work tonight, if it doesn't rain. Not too many days of good riding left, I think, although the RIDE Motorcycle club plans rides through November. I wrote the chapter coordinator about joining them for the next ride, which is this Thursday. I don't know why he would say no, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.