Rockerbox, etc.

Saturday

8:00 – wake up to the delectible smell of french toast (freedom toast) cooking. After splitting my first helping with the Boy, I eat my fill and check the IM logs and email. Gotta figure out where I’m meeting Mike.

10:40 – Family leaves to go to  a gymnastics event for the Girl. They’re going to stop on Wisconsin Ave on the way and watch all of the bike go by on the way to Rockerbox.

11:30 – Final check on the bike, and noticed some issues, Missing a screw on one cover, and a spring on the clutch lever seems to have broken… not show stoppers, but more things to fix. Off to get gas and meet Mike at Stone Creek Coffee.

12:10 – Finish iced coffee and apple and head out.

12:30 – Arrive at Rockerbox. My family met us down there which was very cool. They had actually already been around the grounds once, but with more bikes arriving every minute, they wer not opposed to going around a few more times.

There were so many awesome bike there. Honestly, I simply forgot to take pictures! Luckily, Mike took a bunch, and even though we didn’t actually hook up with Frankie, He got a bunch of good shots as well.

3:00 – Eat a quick and awesome lunch with the family at the Stonefly

3:30 – Family bugs out for home (the kids were pretty wiped by then.)

4:00 – Bumped into Emmet and Larry. We talked for a while and Mike gave Emmet the very short version of an idea we’ve got percolating.

4:30 – Once last pass down the street with a stop to check out the 1920-something Sunbeam (Sweet!) and Mike and I head home… It was an awesome day!

Sunday

11:00 – Head in to work to get some stuff wrapped up for Monday. I should have looked at the weather report, because there were some big storms on the horizon.

1:00 – Thunderstorms. Dang.

4:00 – T-Storms have subsided for the moment, and I decided to try and make it home before they picked up again. My rear tire is pretty bald, and I don’t want to be caught out in the weather if I can avoid it.

4:15 – Break hard at Teutonia and Bradley Rds., slide a little, and then stop, but in the process my chain pops off. Double-dang!

4:20 – Chain is back on and I take it easy they rest of the way home.

The way I figure it, three issues I knew I had conspired to bench my bike until repairs can happen:

1. Bald rear tire. When the rear tire started to slide, the rear brake basically locked up.
2. Worn rear brake shoes. The front of the bike was stopping solidly, but with the rear brakes so worn, it was hard to feel when they would bite down. Apparently, I hit them harder than I should have, so the back started to slide and basically tried to get in front of the rest of the bike.
3. Stretched out chain. Unusual pressure from the locked rear brake, engine alternately trying to pull the rear wheel along, and the letting go (as I squeezed the clutch), combined with a slight sideways jerk as the rear tire regained some traction popped the chain off.

The result, in any case, is that I won’t be riding again until I get the tire, chain and brakes replaced. This sucks a bit, but it was a good reminder not to let things go “a little longer.”

Busy week…

Here’s the short version:

Sunday: Got together with some of my very favorite people for lunch-and-whatnot. You know who you are. The police say they just want to “talk.”

One of these fine gentlemen was kind enough to provide me with a dandy little microcontroller dev kit. Now I just need to figure out what the hell I’m doing.

Finally got new, refilled, charged battery installed in the XJ. Unfortunately, the guys at Port Yamaha in Port Washington [Link omitted] failed deliver on the replacement key for my bike. Plus, I haven’t yet figured out how I’m going to replace the busted started button. Lucky for me I’m a l337 h4×0r and I was able to get the bike started with a bit of copper wire and a screwdriver (seriously).

It took a little coaxing, but the beast finally started and ran, filling the whole lower level of the house with blue smoke, and applying a minor burn (metaphorically speaking) to my dear sister-in-law who happened to upstairs (her bike is not, at present, what you might call… working).

I also managed to get the garage cleaned out enough for the Garage Guy to come install a new damned garage door.

Monday: Pack up the car with computer crap for the recycler. Good day at work, good day at home, and a bonus! I finally get through to the locksmith that Glen over at Glen Curtiss Motorsports recommended. It turns out the guy had a really good reason for being unavailable last week. I talked to Todd at S & J Locks for a few minutes and make arrangements to drop off my ignition and seat lock Tuesday.

Then me and D spend some quality time building a couple of prehistoric creatures. Fun!

(Oh, I also tore the ass out of my pants at work, had to stay another 3 hours for a meeting I thought was much later in the day, my car battery died cause the headlight wouldn’t turn off, and the garage door guys left crap all over the garage.)

Tuesday: Dang… the car was still full of old computers, and I was headed to the locksmith (25 minutes each way) at lunch. Ah well, I’ll just drive around with them for a while, I guess.

I dropped off the locks and headed back to the office. I’d barely made it back to my desk when my cell phone went off. The Call ID told me it was my locksmith. I figured he was calling to let me know what kind of time we were looking at, or ask a question, or something. He was calling to let me know that he had sorted out a new key, made me a couple of copies, and when could I come pick them up. I was shocked, but managed to make arrangements for Wednesday. This was only gonna cost me $25 and 2 hours of travel.

I also spent a little time putting pieces of the bike back on and running the engine a bit. It started a lot easier, but I noticed that there appears to be a leak in the exhaust system, there is water running out around the muffler, and the rear tire is flat. I put air in the tire, and it looks like it was just the cold that allow the air out. I’ll have to take another look at the exhaust system later.

(Oh, and the guys at work are a bunch of bastards.)

Wednesday: The air I put in the rear tire was still there, and my car was still full of old computers. At least I got the key to my bike back. I spent my lunch hour picking up my key, and I spent the rest of the day at work giddy with excitement over the prospect of actually starting my bike with the key! I did start the bike up in the morning (using the wire-and-screwdriver trick), just to make sure everything was still ok.

Of course by the time I was ready to fire it up with the key, it was a bit too late in the evening to be making that much noise… So, I put the battery on the charger and headed to a movie. Sometimes it’s fun to go by yourself to a movie (M had homework).

Thursday: Started the ol’ bike up this morning with the new key and the old starter button (carefully held in place). Started right up, and filled the garage and driveway with smoke. I gotta figure that exhaust issue out. I also gotta get these computers out of my car…

So far, a pretty good week. The kids have been awesome and brilliant as usual, work has been good, and some of my outside projects are finally coming together.

Not bad… not bad at all.