Few rides...

It's been a few days since I posted anything, and also been a few days since I really rode the bike anywhere. I took a trip to Eaton Rapids a couple days ago, had lunch at a little Chinese restaurant, but probably wouldn't go back to eat there again. Kind of blah. Took the bike to work tonight, and although it ran fine on the way there, when I went out to start it, it was a really hard start. I used starter spray, had the prime on, choke open all the way, but for some reason, it just didn't want to start. When it finally did, it ran horribly. Not sure what is going on, but am going to investigate it a little more closely tomorrow. I hope it's not the carbs. Maybe it's just the cold weather? If so, looks like I won't be riding it much more this year. Even after it was warmed up, it still ran terribly.

It's a little irritating, especially after the trip I just took to Canada, but I'll get to the bottom of it.

Thats all for now.

SOCC Part II

When last we left The Mad Max-im, the forks were removed, the wheel was laying horizontal with it's guts torn out and new tools were being fashioned to get it in running shape. 270 miles from home and the picture to the left was what I was dealing with. Looks sad, doesn't it? I suppose if I had lost my front legs, I'd be feeling the same way.

As you can see the brake calipers were being held back with plastic zip ties and the front end was being held up by an axle stand. I tried this at home with mixed results. While the bike was held loosely by a rope to the ceiling pulley system, I was constantly checking to make sure that the bike wasn't going to just tip over.
Here's Dwayne, aka Yoda, using a table vise to hold one of the front fork tubes in place. Again, worried parent that I was, I'm sure I nagged him near to death with my questions about the pressure in the vise damaging the tubing, shouldn't there be some sort of buffer between the tube and the vise, won't the chrome get scratched... blah blah blah. The vise worked great, I needn't have worried. The top of the tube held a small screw in piece called a front fork cap that held all the inner workings inside. I was told there was a big spring just below, and that care had to be taken in removing the piece. Strip that baby and you need to buy a new fork tube. I also imagined the tube as one of those trick cans of nuts that explodes outward with a accordion style snake. Luckily, that wasn't the case.

The fork cap needs to be rotated counter clockwise, not pounded out as was first thought. Once the idiosyncrasies were worked out, rust notwithstanding, the cap was removed.

A special word of thanks goes out to Louie and Mano, the dream team when it come to work that needed to be done on my bike. While Mano was there to learn how front fork seals were done so that he could do the same with his bike, Louie was just a big help. He had a peculair knack when it came to cleaning parts up on a rotary grinding brush, and I was amazed to see the parts that were originally rusted and clogged with corrosion actually look brand new again with Louie's expertise.

I haven't really spoken too much about Ross's garage. Absolutely amazing. And clean! He owns a motorcycle, which he confessed he hadn't ridden more than a few meters in the last few months. Of course, he doesn't own a vintage, eclectic bike like the XJ series, but his bike was pretty nice. He also owned a kick ass Pontiac Solstice. Beautiful car.

As punishment for not owning an X series, he was forced to clean my bike from top to bottom with a toothbrush, as shown in this revealing photo. Actually, he's applying anti-seize compound to the areas where the forks will rest. Thanks Ross.

About half way through the day, pizza was ordered and Ross's beautiful girlfriend brought out some delicious barbeque wings. There was also coffee, beer and a yummy cake and cookies. Beer and cake. Is that a Canadian tradition? :)

Things were progressing rather smoothly at this point, and I began to think that perhaps I might make it home after all. All these great guys working on my bike. Years of experience, the kind you can't learn from a book or learn in a school. I was in heaven!

Of course, without heaven, there's hell. Shortly after these photos were taken, it was discovered that the speedometer cable was clicking against the brake rotors on the front and had damaged it almost beyond repair. The cable was fine. The housing the cable sat in was not.
I guess that explains the clicking I was constantly hearing. Funny thing was, the noise was intermittent, so I could never nail down exactly where it was coming from.
A new housing had to be created. Dwayne took it upon himself to create something that started out as a piece of brass tubing, and ended up a work of art. The pieces fit together perfectly.

Finally the bike was put back together, with no extra pieces left over. Mine was the last bike to be tuned, and since it was raining, I was unable to take my Wa-hoo ride until the following morning. Dinner was excellent, with Lasagna, rolls, cole slaw, mixed vegetables and hotter than hell peppers my colon is still screaming about. Thanks to Marina and Ross for the fantastic time.

All in all, the SOCC was a fantastic learning experience. I encourage everyone to go, or even hold your own and see who shows up. Doug and I are going to be setting one up in the spring for people in surrounding states to come and show off their masterpieces. I learned a lot at this clinic and although it was a very long way to travel, the XJ held its own and stood up to everything I threw at it. Thanks for reading!

Here are a few other random photos of goings-on at the clinic.

Here is a steel drill bit, supposedly unbendable, bent by Yoda. He used this to bore out the center of a pipe, making it wider in diameter to fit the 22mm hex bolt that eventually slid into and helped release the front fork retaining bolt.

Brass tubing was used to break the bearings free from the wheel. Hey... that looks a lot like the tubing used to make my speedo cable housing! Well, those Canucks sure are thrifty, enterprising fellows!

Thom Stagno gets up close and personal during a carbtuning session with his bike, while Doug Rojek does the same in the background. Hey Thom! Hurry up! I got a bike to dismantle!

Canada Trip part I

I arrived at the border to Canada at about 4:30pm, far sooner than I thought I would. The trip from home only took about 2 hours. While I was afraid that the border guards might hassle me about the multiple bottles of Seafoam I was carrying, I was actually asked for advice when the border guard wanted to know what he should do about bloody sputum! Giving the patented answer "See your doctor" I drove off, happy to have passed the first hurdle.

I probably spent, all told, $20.00 in gas getting here. Well worth the trip. I finally met up with Hap outside a Home Depot store when he pulled up on his bike. We, or rather he, decided to take the scenic route which rattled my cage a bit since he took me through twisting turning back roads that probably would have impressed me more had it been during the day. As it was, my butt was sore from just having ridden 270miles. Ah well, when we finally arrived at his house and I had some food in my belly, we got started on the bike.

Let me just say, first off, I knew the bike was in bad shape. While it ran fine enough to get here, I had a feeling that there were things waiting for us. I wasn't wrong. When we drained the float bowls, a LOT of sediment drained out with the fuel. Rust, most likely. All four were ejecting large amounts of crud. "Holy shit that's a lot of crap!" Exclaimed Harald. He wasn't joking. The battery was nearly bone dry and the negative post bolt was ill fitting. That was easily fixed by a new bolt and a couple washers. Distilled water went into the core and the bike actually brightened up considerably. We tuned the carbs sans colortune, and the bike ran much better, as in better throttle response, better pick up and the lights didn't dim every time I rolled back on the throttle.

We decided to call it a night, and Harold escorted me to a cheap little motel called the Royale. It smelled a bit musty, but was clean. I got about 4.5 hours of sleep and for $60 CDN, that's expensive. In the morning I was able to take a shower, great water pressure and it was hot. It was nice to be able to get the road gunk off me. My jaw was incredibly sore from the tight fitting helmet since it wasn't completely broken in yet. After the shower I packed up and got ready to meet up with Harold and his wife for breakfast before heading out to the clinic. We stopped at a little restaurant called Russell Williams and had our fill.

Starting the bike for the first time that morning was a treat because normally I would have to douse the air filter box with starter fluid. This time, however, the bike fired right up, even though it had rained hard the night before. I had an excited feeling in my gut that today was going to be a very productive day. I was to learn how true that thought was.

Harold's wife was a darling creature, intelligent and funny. We all shared a few laughs before packing up and heading out on our journey.

The road to the SOCC was a perilous one. While I had driven comfortably on 2 and even 3 lane highways, the trail to Toronto was a 5 lane nightmare, with the posted speed limit ignored by just about everyone. My fear was being a foreigner in Canada and breaking the law. I needn't have worried. I didn't see one OPP officer the entire trip to our destination.

We finally pulled in around 10:00am and were greeted by several bikes already stripped of their gas tank and in the process of being tuned. I wandered around for a while, introducing myself to the various characters in attendance, of which there were a few. Thomas Stagno had a bike almost exactly like mine, same make, model and color. It was the first look at a bike with the tank off and for a guy like me, who knew very little about bikes in general, it seemed a daunting task.

I introduced myself to Ross, host of the clinic and previously had asked if a front fork seal change was a possibility. He said "Sure! Do you have any fork oil?" Of course, I didn't so he directed me to a local ATV shop. I hopped on my bike and drove into town. The road was incredibly busy and at first I thought for sure there was some sort of festival going on. Nope. Just regular traffic. I was a little nervous driving, but I finally made it. 13.99 for a liter! I felt for the Canucks at that point. Everything is so damned expensive. Anyhow, I made it back to the garage and found several more bikes in line.

The beauty of being a guinea pig bike is that a bay was created just for me. I pulled the bike in and we quickly got to work. I was completely at the mercy of the more experienced Xer's at that point. I gave up all rights to the bike and prayed I wasn't making a mistake.

Our first hurdle was when we attempted the removal of the front forks. As the bolt was threaded out, the forks began spreading. Definitely not a good thing. If it had kept spreading, eventually damage would have been done to the forks. After a few more attempts, it was decided that more aggressive measures would have to be taken. The bike was tied by the frame to a pulley system, bolts were loosened and both forks were pulled out.

The problem still remained of getting the front wheel separated from the forks. After some finagling, one side was removed. The wheel bearings were exposed, and exhibeted severe rust. I doubt the bearings had any viable grease in many years. The axle was still seized inside the old bearings, so it was decided to heat the steel to help loosen it. It worked. The axle, with the help of a rubber mallet, finally came loose. I was a little nervous at this point because literally, my bike was in several pieces and everyone had something and were headed in opposite directions.

With the wheel finally off, the fork seal project began in earnest. The forks were disassembled, the old oil drained off and the pieces laid out. There is a hex bolt down inside the forks that must be held so that the allen bolt at the base of the forks can be loosened. The main guy that helped tried everything he could to get it out and finally ended up fashioning his very own hex bolt tool out of some steel tubing. It worked, and the forks were finally apart.

The bearings were removed during this process and replaced with sealed bearings that are supposed to be impervious to rust and deterioration. After applying some anti-seize, the bearings were lovingly pounded into place. The wheel was done.

It was noted, however, that the speedometer cable had been rubbing against the disc housing of the brakes, which eventually broke. It needed to be repaired. Mano, a nice guy from the clinic repaired it, however, it was broken again accidentally by someone. A whole new speedo cable housing had to be created. This process took nearly an hour and a half, and I applaud Dwayne for taking to it so vigourously.

This ends part one. Part two will have more info and more pics. Thanks for reading!