Speedo mockup

One of the things I’ve never really liked about my XJ (check out the red/white ones) is the gauge cluster. Like a lot of bikes built in the 80s, it’s huge! It’s like a black, plastic lunch box bolted between the handle bars. With the stock bars and bikini fairing, you can’t really see it, but I’ve got the fairing off and short bars. In fact, I’m toying with the idea of switching to the set of clubman bars I’ve got gathering garage dust. The long an the short of it: I need to replace or rebuild that lunch box! With the bike off the roads for bit, now is as good a time as any. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

I'll be rounding off that left corner

The “tab” on the right will house the various indicatiors. I’m planning on adding either all 5 (2 directionals, oil, neutral, brights) of just 3 and leaving the directional indicators off. Either way, I’m planning on using some round, low-profile, 12v incandescent dashboard lamps. I’ve got some 20 gague steel that should work for this and be thin enough to allow me to use the handle bar clamps to hold it on (hence the 2-holed mounting setup).  The whole thing will sit reasonably flat, and even with the clubman bars on it should look good.

I’ve got  a whole assymetrical thing going with this bike (stemming from the offcenter gass cap, really) and I’m digging how this layout fits with the rest.

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.”

Here comes Rockerbox

So, I’ve talked through the leg design with Michael, and I think I’ve got something doable. I’ll update the sketch as soon as I get some free time. Right now, I’m trying to get my bike put back together for Rockerbox!

This is the first year I’ll be in town for this event and I am excited! In preparation, and because  I had a growing list of things that needed to be done, I have done some work on my bike. I started with taking off these side covers:

The actual work was an adjustment of the cam chain, which only required removal of the left cover, but I decided to take them both off and see if I could clean them up a bit. I sanded and sanded and sanded, and polished, and painted and:

Not perfect, but not bad. That picture is about 10 minutes after i smudged the black on the outside, and dirtied up the YICS part in the center. Both of these ended up getting some additional attention before putting them back on the bike. Getting these off was a challenge. The screws that hold these panels on are regular old phillips screws, which means that everyone who has owned this 30-year-old bike has tried to take them out and they are more than a little stripped.

So, How did I get them out? Poor man’s impact driver.With the screwdriver seated nicely, and reasonable pressure on the screw driver, I gave the screwdriver a few taps with my trusty hammer. Really, it took more than a few, as I was being pretty gentle. It was an extremely satisfying moment when that first screw finally came loose.

I painted the tank as well… made a bit of a mess, actually… but I haven’t taken any pictures of that yet. I’m learning a lot as I go, though.. for example, good masking is REALLY important, and color matte finishes are really difficult to maintain. Also, it’s really hard to photograph shiny objects (That second picture above is mirror-like (sorta)).

Not done, yet

You know you’ve been neglecting your duties when people start to ask “Are you done blogging?”

No, I’m not done, just busy…er.

I Just wrapped up my 3rd week back at the University, and it has been pretty good. Still running 1 monitor (boo!) but I haven’t brought any work home yet (yeah!). It has been interesting being back, though it’s not really “back.” The place has changed a lot, and so have I. Both of us have seen a bit of growth over the past 18 months. Plus, I in a different position than I was before. I’m actually working with the guy who replaced me: Eric. Read the rest of this entry »

Ctrl-z, Ctrl-z, Ctrl-z

Yesterday I did something cool. I rode ~250 miles on my motorcycle. This was, by far, the longest ride I’ve been on, as well asbeing the first group ride I’ve been on. I rode down to Dekalb, Il with a guy I know from the XJ site, to meet another guy from the XJBikes site and work on our bikes.

It was a long and (mostly) uneventful ride. We got a little lost and Ike (the guy i was riding with) pulled some amazing feat of orienteering and managed to improvise a new route based on a quick glance at a gas station map and just the text direction from mapQuest. I was completely impressed and completely lost, but we got there.

The work on the bike went well, and my little guy is running just a bit nicer now that the carbs are all in sync. I also had a number of “uncertainties” resolved:

• It’s supposed to CLUNK like that when I shift into 1st
• My carb boots are cracked, but not leaking
• This is all specialized knowledge, not secret knowledge.

Ike replaced his float bowl gaskets, and was kind enough to run me through the carburetor parts that could be identified with the float bowls off. Actually seeing him pull the carb rack, and then wrestle to get it back in also helped to demystify the whole process.

The ride back was a bit of an adventure. Most of the 1st hour was spent wondering if we were lost, and included the plastic side panel off of Ikes bike flying off to land among the weeds and beer can on the side of the road:

Ike (driving the back roads in deep thought, distracted by the prospect of being horribly, horribly lost. After a few minutes looks into his side mirror): wheres charles? holy @#!
Ike (Pulls over as charles comes riding up from the distance)

Ike: “whats wrong”

Charles: “your side cover flew off dude”

Ike:“what! where?”

Charles: “like a mile back!”

Ike: !@#!@#!!!!!!

We found the cover and moved on down the road, eventually coming to the landmarks that told us we were in the right place (for me it was a particular tatoo parlor, for Ike, the Subway that was sadly closed when we passed it on the way in. Oddly, we’d both marked that same intersection but with different landmarks). After that, it was smooth sailing. We parted ways at the top of Ravine Rd. in Lake Park (if you’ve not ridden this, do. It’s a fun little ride) and I wass off the Family Dinner where I ate my fill and then ate 3 pieces of cake. Hellz. Yeah.

The point here, is that in order to be ready for this long ride, I had to undo the changes I’d made to the seat and tail. We’re back to stock seat and tail, but they both have a first coat of Olive Drab. I think I like the look of it all together to keet it as is and just pursure the paint job for now.  I’ll get some pics up as soon as i get around to it. Maybe tomorrow.