Good days, bad days

Saturday: Couldn't go riding as usual with biking friends. Broke my glasses. Spent all day waiting, for Optometrist app't, waiting to be served to at EyeMart, and for glasses to be made. Spent twice as much as last time, but got a spare set. The best prescription I've ever had.

Sunday: Got to go riding to Las Cruses, ate at a new to me restaurant, very good, finishing up 1 of the 2 bikes I was working on for other people, made some money, nice warm day.

Sunday night: Sam finally came over. Surprised him with crash/case guards for his Yamaha Virago. Didn't have bolts to mount them correctly. Very windy up to 40 mph in evening. A/C banging in the wind.

Monday: Went to lunch with friends. Was going to do errands. Came home to get some money. Found Linda was very sick with abdominal cramps. Took her to doctor then emergency room to get a Cat Scan. Was either a blockage in digestive track or a virus. Vomited twice, had to get nausea and pain shots.

Tuesday: She appears better. Coldest night so far this year. Will get out today to do errands.

Crap Nebula

Pills, health, recommendations

I've had some abdominal pain lately. We went to Western Playland 2 weeks ago at the EPEC picnic. They had food of course. I ate way too much because we were late eating dinner for us. Late for us is after 3:30 pm.

Anyways I got really sick & blooted. The next day I'm "Expelling" (TMI) the excess. Get it? Dahhh! Your eating to much!!

I've cut down on my intake. Guess what? I feel better, have more energy and the pain is subsiding. I've always had a fast metoblic rate, and rather than gain weight the extra passes thru. I was up to 182 recently went down to 176, and now am at 172. This is my recommended weight. Until I hit 40 I was always about 150.

Hands. We all have them. But after rebuilding Lowell's 88 Yamaha Venture, my hands were so sore, I'm getting arthritis, I could not close them. Lowell gave me some Glucosamine with Chrondrotin (1500mg with 1200mg). My hands, shoulders (hurt for over 10 years) and rt. knee are getting better.

I'm taking St. John's Wort to help my attitude. A senior vitamin (horse pill size) for general health. I have high cholesterol (240) but hate statins. Bad on your liver and joints. So I take Flaxseed Oil (Omega 3, 6 & 9). I'm not done.

If my shoulders really hurt after a work out (bad word!) I take a generic anti-inflammatory. But these are bad for my gastritis.

Every night it's a mild Walmart sleeping pill.

I carry Aleve and aspirin for headaches.

Ginseng is good for mental alertness, I'm not as stimulated as I was when I was doing that "W" thing.

Me take PILLS" never!

Earth at twilight is above pic.

Won't do that again

There is a Website for my low miles '84 Yamaha Venture called "VentureRider.org" One of the recommendations was to remove the rear wheel, then grease the drive shaft splines and rear suspension joints. Sounds easy enough except...

The seat, saddlebags, trunk, rear fender and mufflers all have to come off first. The tire only comes off if the rear brakes are removed too. Never done it on this bike and of course since it's 24 years old many of the bolts are very hard to turn out. Age, rust, corrusion, thread locker and poor prior assembly, work against me.

I tried greasing six posts that make the rear wheel turn but would not come out even with my largest pry bar, 2' long. Forget it. And 2 of 4 small screws had to be unscrewed with vise grips, ruining them. I didn't have any spares so they had to be reused.

The drive shaft would only come out with large pliers instead of with fingers. This did need grease bad on one end, the other had so much grease I used it on the dry end. 1/2 hour to get it back in. Could not get splines lined up.

When the mufflers came off, 2 bolts were so rusty they almost stripped and broke off. Had to replace them.

Taking the suspension apart. 1st 2 bolts came out easy. 3rd had to be pushed out with a punch. 4th one was behind the exhaust pipes. Exhaust Pipes would have to be taken off to get bolt out. That would require 2-4 hours work and buying more parts. NO WAY!

I got out the hand oil pump and tried to get as much oil as possible on the joints, hoping it soaks in.

Put 3rd bolt back in and when I tightened down on it, the suspension would not move. So I took it out, drilled a small hole in the head and safety wired it. That and thread locker should hold it, but not tight. So the suspension will turn.

Cleaned the mufflers, put grease on every bolt and screw so they will come out in the next 24 year cycle. New muffler bolts now have anti-seize on them so they might come off later.

Put grease on the wheel splines and it would not go on far enough, take it off, shift transmission in gear so splines don't move and finally get wheel on far enough to reinstall the brakes. I've got so much grease on the caliper by now I have to use Lacquer thinner to clean it.

Reinstall rear fender and the plastic has a crack in them, repaired with crazy glue. The extra brake light I installed a month ago is in the way, of course.

2 brackets for holding the saddle bags on need to be bent so they line up.

Put the seat and trunk back on, then neither saddlebag will go on. The 2 brackets are now in the wrong place by less than a 1/4"

Take seat back off. Try to figure out why they saddlebags won't go on. "CUSSING is now permitted". I have to bend a different locking bracket and remove a washer off each bag. Takes over an hour. Reinstall seat, saddlebags install much better now.

Put tools away. What should have been 2 hours, takes "5" But it's done "FOREVER" as far as I'm concerned. Never did this on my 100,000 mile Suzuki, and it's only 17 years old!

The space shuttle has nothing to do with my bike other than they couldn't possibly have as many problems as I did today! Ya right!

Why 5?

Why not? 5 bikes that is. Sold the 99 Corvette 2 years ago. $750 just for insurance per yr. It took premium gas, got about 20 MPG in the City. Took up 1/2 of the garage and got used 2-3 times a month. 1500 miles per yr. Groceries, hardware, and then out to a show or dinner.

OK I had the oldest Brown 91 Suzuki, the dual sport 400 then. I was getting into working on bikes more and every time I wanted to work on one I had to move Linda's Cadillac out.

I've rebuilt about 7 bikes in the last 3 years. They are a lot easier to work on cars, less expensive and frankly a lot more fun to drive. Even the 99 Corvette never really impressed me. It was fun to pass with 360 hp, though!

Linda said get rid of the Corvette and the bikes could be inside. Yaaa!! And 4 bikes will fit where 1 car was. So I bought 4 Suzuki 1100's, I liked them that much. Then asked my self do I need 4 exactly alike? Sold two. Bought the BMW I never liked, then sold it a year later. Had plenty left over to buy 2 more, but all different. This time got the Yamaha Virago, Linda likes it. It's good around town bike, is lighter and handles great. We still wanted a touring bike for 2 up day trips and someday maybe a long trip.

Oh no that's back to 5, Ya kept track?

Here's the present stable: 1.)84 Yamaha Venture 1200 Touring bike. 2.) 98 Yamaha Virago 1100 Cruiser (low, slow and chromed out). 3.) The old 91 Suzuki 1100 (just turned 100,000 miles) I call Mr. Reliable, 4.) The Red 92 Suzuki 1100 is the replacement for the brown one (if it ever wears out), it's cleaner, low miles, and the fastest of the 5. 5.) My '00 Suzuki 400 Dual Sport, I use for picking up parts, and riding on the dirt.

All five cost me less to insure, for plates, inspections than the Corvette's insurance.

Lately I got smarter and put the car on the side closest to the inside door. Then the bikes could be in the side by the workbench so I did not have to walk around the car every time I needed a different tool.

Oh the poor 400 is in the new shed, all by itself, lonely, I think it needs a friend...

It all makes perfect sense to me....

Another finally

Ever since I rebuilt the carbs on the Red 92 Suzuki 1100 2 of the 4 carbs have not run correctly. It's #1 and #2 cylinders. #3 & #4 are running right. Taking a spark plug reading 1 & 2 are running at the correct air to fuel mixture from idle to high speed. In fact I never seen plugs that clean (correct).

#2 was rich with a little black soot. It was fixable by dropping the needle down into the jet about .030"

But the real kicker was #1. No matter what I did it was way rich. This causes low gas mileage and poor performance. This bike new to me, got 47 mpg at 80 mph. At 65 it was 50 mpg and at 55 was 54 mpg. It was also the fastest of the 4 I had at one time.

Lately it's been in the middle 40's driving 55-60 mph. Just off idle it would stumble (mis-fire).

That's what I get for trying to clean old carbs.

With gas prices at $4 and sometimes 180 miles between stops 45 mpg is not getting it.

Today I said I've got to take a different approach. Didn't Einstein say "doing the same thing over and over and trying to get a different result is a sign of insanity? "

Well the one thing I had not done was trying a different jet. Several months ago I plugged several worn out ones with J B Weld and redrilled them out with a smaller hole .099". I put one in and now it was way too lean. After several attempts of trying the get the needle to richen it up by rising it, it did not work. So I drilled the jet out to .102" (just .003" larger). The same size as the original! Now it ran about right , just a little hesitation.

I put in a worn out needle and adjusted it more, went for a 10 mile ride and came back to do another plug check. It was clean like the other 3. Hallelujah! FINALLY right!

Ready to go on a longer ride to do a gas mileage check. Should be back up to about 50.

A few days ago my neighbor across the street said I should get a scooter. Ya right! I said my bikes get 50, how much does your full size truck get? Mumble-Mumble.

I never seen it with stuff in the bed either.

My 400cc bikes gets 75 by the way. Fill ups at $4 a gallon are $8 and I go 150 miles!!

When your a hundred...

I hope your in as good a shape as my oldest bike I've had since Feb 93. My 91 Suzuki 1100 turn over a Hundred Thousand miles today. I've set several personal records. Never had a bike this long, never had even close to this many miles on one bike (highest before was 33k), a bike that was as reliable, fast, smooth, economical, and required so little maintenance.

It's in better shape than every bike I've rebuilt.

New, it would do 135+ mph, but only got 40 mpg. I did have to put in newer cams a couple of years ago, but the power is mostly back now. It does not burn oil yet. Less than 1/2 qt. in 3000 miles.

Now it gets 50+ mpg, but I have slowed down some too. I used to drive it at 75 but 55-65 is a lot more tolerable now. Especially since I'm on probation for 6 months after getting 3 tickets at one time on my other Suzuki 1100, 2 years ago.

After an accident it handled bad for years until I figured out how to compensate for the slightly bent forks and frame.

It still has the original front brake pads, but the rear's wear out after just 10-15k. It' had an oil leak, I had to drive it twice 50 miles putting in a qt. every 10 miles. But a $5 weld job fixed that. Parts were $125 I did not buy! So far it has always started away from the house, except once when I loosely connected the starter wires.

In 100k I changed the oil 33 times (198 qts. oil), had 6 batteries, 6 front tires, 9 rear tires, 9 rear brakes pads, & I'm on the 2nd rear disc. The gear box at the rear wheel has leaked from day one, but only about an ounce every 1000 miles.

It's been to Colorado twice, AZ several times and to NM hundreds of times. On my favorite road out off Sierra Blanca maybe 150 times. My guess it's been on 500 trips, and started over 2000 times. That's about 2400 gallons of gas or $5000.

It owes me nothing and I could still get over $1000 out of it. Parted out it would be worth about $2500, But I won't do it. It is the only vehicle I've ever gotten attached to. The other 29 cars and 25 bikes were always expendable.

Know anyone that's got 100k on their bike? I do, his has probably 200k now. Goldwings cared for get 200-300k on the original engine. I suspect this bike could go 150k.

Sure is nice.

1. All bikes are running great. 2. A reliable car. 3. No major house projects. 4. Bills all paid. 5. Weather is nice, 50's at night, 80's during the day. 6. Hands, shoulders & knees are better since I started on Glucosamine and chondrotin. 8. Linda's feeling better most of the time. 9. Only one friend is ticked at me now. 10. Getting fines, classes etc. done for my three tickets. 11. Not as many tailgaters lately. But found out tailgating is the 5th leading cause for accidents. 12. Back on St. John's Wort helping my attitude. 13. Gas prices are coming down, it's one of my major expenses, $150-200 per month, just for the bikes. Over 21k miles per year. 14. More new episodes on TV, but more conflicts with 2-3 good ones at same time. 15. If I don't sleep well I can always sleep in to 7-9 o'clock.

Got to do's: Dentist. Physical, Flu shot, Shingles shot, new glasses.

Pic is looking at a galaxy, they usually are 100,000 light years across or 5,870,000,000,000 miles. At the center is a super black hole holding it together, or is that sucking it all IN? But just wait in 4.5 billion years our sun will go super nova....

Finally!!!

Ever since I bought the Venture it's had a short. I've blown many fuses. I did install a circuit breaker so I don't have to keep buying fuses. It resets when the power is turned off.

Every time I came to a stop, then after idling awhile the breaker would interrupt the ignition circuit and the engine would stop and not restart. After 5-8 minutes it would restart and run good for the rest of the day. In a previous blog I described this problem.

Luckily it never happened at a stop light holding up traffic. Or when I was moving, because the engine was cool. Hint-hint.

Today I was driving slow on a gravel road, in 1st gear. It died going around a uphill corner. I backed up getting out of the middle of the road. This time I checked to see if the water coolant gauge was high, and it was. Ah hah. It's in the circuit that when it gets warm it turns on the radiator fan. It did, as always restart, after a few minutes. When the engine cools a little, the fan switch turns off allowing the ignition circuit and breaker to work again.

When I got home I let the engine continue to run. In less than 5 minutes the engine died. Yipe it's the fan circuit. But where?

I disconnected the fan switch and grounded it. The breaker did shut off the ignition circuit and the fan.

OK what next? I had added a manual switch to turn on the fan in case the automatic switch didn't work. I keep my eye on the water temperature gauge and usually turn on the fan when I think it's getting warm. Thinking about the times it died I had not turned on the fan, the automatic circuit went on, but the fuses/circuit breaker caught the short before the fan made any noise. With the engine running I could not hear the fan start up either.

So now I disconnected my manual switch and the fans/engine came on like they should. There is a ground wire on the manual switch so the internal light works. I disconnected the ground and reconnected the switch. Everything worked correctly still.

I taped off the ground. Put everything else back together. Tested one more time. Alright!

No more engine stalling. (I hope)