Not bad for an afternoon's work + pics

[mortation]

I'll check when I get home, but if memory serves me, the studs are 12 mm on my bike. This may or may not be the same for your however, being that mine is a 650 and your is an 850.

Ahhh. I didnt think about that :P OK Well thanks for the info!

[Mike_H]

Mort...I PM'ed you, in case you haven't found it.

I HATE MY JOB. Actually, I don't hate my job, just days like today. We had the nicest day we've had all year today, and I was stuck at work for 16 hours, and did not get to work on moto at all...I'm ****SED about it. All because some Penny Pinching TightWad didn't want to order spare parts (that I requested last october). BASTARDO. The 200 dollar part he saved (which broke today) cost the company 9 hours of machinist time, 16 hours of engineering time, and a whole bunch of tool crib items. I'm glad I am able to design on my feet or else it would have cost the company a ton more money in production overtime. I basically had to redesign a fixture, manufacture details, and get it all working again, before 7:00 am tomorrow. Ever heat-treated steel with a torch and a cup full of oil Yeah, It was fun....Ok, I'm better, rant over.

Oh yeah, I did get the fork lowers repainted yesterday. But thats it...

[beergood]

I am guessing there are plenty of things you'd like to do with a torch and a cup of oil there today. And a lot of them had to do with short-sighted micro-managers.

I deal with clients all the time who pay me for advice, and then completely disregard it. There is nothing more frustrating than when you get a call from a company who's suffered a crash or hard drive failure, and less than six months prior to that I had warned them that they need to implement some sort of backup solution. Then they are completely screwed, and panicking because the barn is burning down.

And I have to be nice and polite and deal with it, because I know which side my bread is buttered on, and all I really want to do is choke someone, demanding to know how they ever got in a position of authority.

Congrats on the fork lowers, one step at a time.

On the positive side, the weather is supposed to dip a little, and rain, but it should be nice enough temperature wise to work in the garage. That's my plan for the next few days.

Saw even more bikes today.

[mortation]

Mike_H: I got the PM thanks! I ordered my shims Monday so all is good. Lucky me, I don't start my new job till Friday so I was in the garage yesterday, and hopefully today

Beergood: LOL I completely know where you are coming from! If your whole business relies on these systems you need to have a DR plan cause sooner than later its gonna crash

[Mike_H]

I decided that the standard suzuki method of retaining brake caliper bolts sux...(I found loose ones :shock: ) so I decided to safety wire the bolts in. I spent the afternoon running all over Grand Rapids, looking for safety wire pliers. Sometimes, I really dislike living in this town. All I got were confused stares. Time to hit EBAY. I also purchased 25 dollars worth of M8 x 30 stainless steel SHCS and drilled a 1/16" hole in twenty of the buggers. I bought a bag of 50 screws, so if anyone else wants enough screws to safety wire their brakes drop me a PM and we'll work something out.

[mortation]

I decided that the standard suzuki method of retaining brake caliper bolts sux...(I found loose ones :shock: ) so I decided to safety wire the bolts in. I spent the afternoon running all over Grand Rapids, looking for safety wire pliers. Sometimes, I really dislike living in this town. All I got were confused stares. Time to hit EBAY. I also purchased 25 dollars worth of M8 x 30 stainless steel SHCS and drilled a 1/16" hole in twenty of the buggers. I bought a bag of 50 screws, so if anyone else wants enough screws to safety wire their brakes drop me a PM and we'll work something out.

LOL I wish I had loose ones. I couldnt get mine off to save my soul and I snapped two :P The new ones have a nice layer of anti-seize

[Mike_H]

Swap meet weekend. Looking for a decent exhaust to put on the girl, some rear shocks and front springs, and some float bowl gaskets and pilot jet rubbers. I hope the bill collector is into bikes so he'll understand why I can't pay my gas and electric bill this month


P.S. For those of you in West MI, that don't know about it, the swap meet is at great lakes downs (muskegon horse track) starts at 11:00 am Sat.

[beergood]

Good luck. I went to one last month at the State Fairgrounds.

It turned out to be a bunch of Harley guys selling each other rusty fenders and old turn signals. There were a couple of really poorly built chopper frames going for obscene amounts of money, they made me think that I am in the wrong business. There was one table of British bike stuff, but Japanese stuff was quite rare, and what was there was mostly junk.

On a friends advice I looked for, and found, a "chopped" GS750. It had to be about the ugliest thing I ever saw. It looked like his welding on the neck was a failed community college class project, "You Too Can Weld 101". I wouldn't want to ride it over 5mph. The rest of it was mostly left stock, and in bad shape. It had a really rough rattle can paint job. To call it a rat bike would be insulting to rat bikes, and that is something that I would have thought was impossible. And the guy wanted something like $800 for it.

It was actually worth the price of admission to see it.

[Mike_H]

Thats kinda what I'm afraid of, but I'm gonna make my list all the same. Seems to be put on buy a Harley Riding group, so I'm kinda expecting that sort of. I'll keep my eyes open for the chopped GS. Should show him pictures of Chazz's chopped 750...show them how to do it, and then go down swingin

[Mike_H]

This winter I found a set of NASTY carbs on Ebay that I bought for spares (20.00 shipped). Well, when I opened them up, I found all the jets were in pristine shape, just dirty. Lucky me, I now have a complete set of jets in case something is bad with my others.

So, I thought I would strip down the good carbs tonight, and get them ready for paint. While doing so, thought I should look at my jets, and make sure they match the manual, before I go a buy a 4-1 exhaust, or whatever. I never really got my bike starting all that well last year. It ran great once warmed up, but the motor is cold blooded as all get-out. Gotta get the beast running GOOD, before I make any mods, or I will never ride this year. Anyway, as I'm disassembling Number one carb, I find that the air jet in the intake throat is a 155. The manual calls for a 160. Hmmmm....whats in the others? well all the others have 150's in them, including the 4 I got on Ebay. I know this isn't the tech forum, but does anyone know carbs well enough to let me know if this could have caused a starting problem on choke? Seems like a larger air jet (155 vs 150) would cause lean condition, but the real question is that the service manual calls out 160s and I have 150's installed....I hate P.O.'s

[ron bayless]

I'm on the same page with you guys Both your bikes look great! I saw you got a dynaglide fender with tail light, I will keep an eye out for one. What do you guys think about something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Bobtail-Rear-Fender-for-Rigid-Sportster_W0QQitemZ160082736993QQihZ006QQcategoryZ35561QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I am just very VERY worried about drilling the mounting holes and mounting the tail light. I hate to burn cash and break it :P

i sent you a pm

[Mike_H]

Progress and setbacks

Well, first the positive...I have the engine in the frame and the front end bolted on. Yaaaaa!!! And there was much rejoicing. Here's a couple of pics...

Front end



Engine (the ultra-fast black version)




Now the setbacks. It seems as though my seat and fender combo are too long for my bike's wheelbase. I gotta do some more playing around with it, but so far, I haven't come up with a solution I like. This is the most flattering mock-up, and It's pretty hideous.



I'm thinking I'm going to have to retrim the lower cut lines around the tire, to make the radii match. Other than that part, it looks decent. I had to beat the crap out of the top of the fender, and dent it around the seat pan, to make it fit even remotely well. Lay it on me folks...whatcha think.

P.S. I'm gonna play around with it in my photo-editing software. Maybe I can mock it up before I get the cutting wheel out. Naa, I looked at it again, Looks poopy. Gonna have to scratch my head on this one.

[mortation]

Hmmm. Looks to me like the seat is just plain to big. It doesnt look right. I think you should scrap it and fab a custom pan. Doesnt look like the fender is lined up right in those pics, did you change the position?

Perhaps a solo seat....

[mortation]

i sent you a pm

I dunno if I got it, its not there now and I dont recall If I didnt respond to you please resend.

[Mike_H]

Hmmm. Looks to me like the seat is just plain to big. It doesnt look right. I think you should scrap it and fab a custom pan. Doesnt look like the fender is lined up right in those pics, did you change the position?

Perhaps a solo seat....

Kinda what I'm coming up with too. Not really a job I wanted to tackle but I guess I'm gonna have to practice my non-existant glass skill...Wonder if BG wants to drive across the state and help...I can pay in beer