Topic: 21 Rides in 2021... SOHC 4 bikes .

[Terry in Australia]

Beautiful! My barber is an ex Iraqi army soldier from the first Gulf War, a Christian, nice guy. He moved to Oz, but his other family members moved to Sweden and opened a cafe (he goes there to visit them, but hates the cold weather which is understandable, coming from the Middle East) so you might be eating their food!

We've had 3 nice days but we're back to winter just in time for the weekend, which sucks. 27 deg C today, and 14 tomorrow. Not sure if I'll ride over for a kebab, or drive.....

[Alan F.]

27C = ~80F right?

[PeWe]

256km long ride today!
I went earlier from my job, mailed my boss just before 11 am that I had something very important to do!

It started as my first ride this year, February 28 whith a tasty burger lunch beside a Horse center in Strömsholm on the countryside 35 km away from my home.

Continued to another small village called Ängelsberg about 50 km away with view of the Oil island.
A small park beside with funny details, a mirror pyramide. Not far from there a place where all trees disappeared in a forest fire 2014.
Now growing up full of birch weed. Before a mighty dense spruce forest.

Small roads to another small city called Avesta where my bike usually get a refreshing refill of V-Power.
Beside there a typical Swedish wooden horse, the model famous from that county Dalarna, Dala horse.

While there I accepted that it is OK with a few horses less than I want the bike to have as long the horses are very big, not silly small ponies

From Avesta back home over some nice roads making that part 30-40km longer.

It look nice but weather too cold to fully enjoy the ride. 5 degrees C more to +14C make a huge difference.

Engine need to get some km. It responds very well on the throttle, a real tire grinder.

When back home I needed a warm shower to warm up after 256km ride in +8-9C. Some extra km today to compensate for the lack of km yesterday!

[RAFster122s]

Glad you made it safely and enjoyed the ride PeWe. Nice looking burger.
Warm up with a nice hot tea or hot chocolate?

[PeWe]

A warm shower helped. A hot sauna would have been perfect.
Zipping on Gin Tonics  watching TV was very relaxing thinking about the ride and life in general reminded by life can be shorter than expected and planned.

I need to swap seat again, back to my NOS seat I used a few years ago. The seat bike has now is its original that is cut down, updated the foam when done 1983 and reshaped a little.
It has been very comfortable but I sit too low relatively the foot pegs, my left clonking hip joint complains. Especially under heavy acceleration and need of quick gear shifting.

I found the historical weather data for my first ride Feb 28 2021, +12C, yesterday +8C!!.
So probably no more rides this year. My car will get its winter wheels this weekend, brrrr! 5 months of cold ahead, 4 months of too short days.

[goodtryer]

Ride 20 - October 23 - 101 miles

Slight fog, cloudy, breezy, upper 60's, warming to near 80.

Great day for a ride after the fog cleared. We got a later start than usual so there was more traffic and our breakfast spot was nearly full; a line started forming just after we got there. Lots of bikes on the road (and one jerk in a pickup that was in a huge hurry to get around us on this narrow little back road). Anyway, we took a random County Road on the way out of Bandera and just let it lead us south until we got back to a road we recognized.

Bike continues to run great. Looking forward to ride 21. Might do that tomorrow..

Cheers

[Terry in Australia]

Well the nice weather came early today so I dragged the poor old K2 bitsa out into the sun and decided that after 4 months of government mandated hibernation it first needed a bath.

K2 Bitsa ride 26 Oct 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Anyway, I took off around 4pm and enjoyed a 3 hour, 190 Km evening ride (#28? I can't remember..) around the outskirts of Melbourne. I may have accidentally trespassed outside my boundaries at one stage, but managed to escape the wrath of the constabulary. All in all, a great day, and a surprisingly enjoyable ride.

K2 Bitsa ride 26 Oct 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

K2 Bitsa ride 26 Oct 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[RAFster122s]

Glad you managed a nice ride on the K2 and gave her a much needed bath, all that dust just results in scratches if not removed...

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks David, scratches aren't really an issue for this old soldier (the bike, not me) but it was nice to see it clean again. Sadly my K0 doesn't look much better, so it'll get a much needed bath in days to come.

[Kevin D]

Terry that’s a winner on all counts. Glad to hear that you have survived your winter and your quarantine and your CB is running good and looking good.

I’m up against mother nature these days. Not only are we on a rain and cold run, but the sunlight hours are waning. We are presently at 10.5hrs day 13.5hrs night, heading for 9hrs day 15hrs night on December 21st. I have been doing this swing my whole life but darkness can temper your mood as much as anything, and Terry you are getting a sunshine boost!

I don’t know about OZ customs, but just a word to the wise:
around here, anything left too close to the trash cans is bait for the scrappers. 

Terry, thank you for following up on Bobby R’s passing. I have an idea to make a memorial donation to SOHC for Frank and Bobby, and tie it somehow with my 21st ride. But while the ride date is uncertain, maybe not at all, the donation is certain.

Frank sent me his custom tappet cover wrench for my efforts last year. There was talk of a bottle of MD20/20 as well. But no such talk this year, so how about a toast of your favorite beverage?

For Terry and your 28 rides.

Another for Frank 

Another for Bobby

[ekpent]

Can I play even if I sip an iced tea ?    I think I'm over 5 years on the wagon now.

[PeWe]

Good news Terry!
Finally a ride, not only hard bike wrenching saving bikes.
190km is a good distance to enjoy riding, take not too long time either.

My last ride today after work was almost 60km on dark roads. Not to report here, jet check after reducing pilot.

[Terry in Australia]

Terry that’s a winner on all counts. Glad to hear that you have survived your winter and your quarantine and your CB is running good and looking good.

I’m up against mother nature these days. Not only are we on a rain and cold run, but the sunlight hours are waning. We are presently at 10.5hrs day 13.5hrs night, heading for 9hrs day 15hrs night on December 21st. I have been doing this swing my whole life but darkness can temper your mood as much as anything, and Terry you are getting a sunshine boost!

I don’t know about OZ customs, but just a word to the wise:
around here, anything left too close to the trash cans is bait for the scrappers. 

Terry, thank you for following up on Bobby R’s passing. I have an idea to make a memorial donation to SOHC for Frank and Bobby, and tie it somehow with my 21st ride. But while the ride date is uncertain, maybe not at all, the donation is certain.

Frank sent me his custom tappet cover wrench for my efforts last year. There was talk of a bottle of MD20/20 as well. But no such talk this year, so how about a toast of your favorite beverage?

For Terry and your 28 rides.

Another for Frank 

Another for Bobby

Thanks Kevin (and everyone else) the ride yesterday was just what I needed for my own mental health. There will eventually become a time when I won't be able to ride 100+ miles due to old age and poor health, and now that I've entered my final quarter I'm all too often reminded that time is running out, so if anything I want to do more riding than less, and the 267(?) days of mandated lockdowns have really pissed me off. Being "The world's most locked down city" isn't a good thing.

Anyway yes, I'm more than happy to raise a glass (bottle) to Frank, and Bobby, and to all you guys who make this site my favourite. I hope you get your 21st ride in Kevin, but don't even think about it if there's any risk involved, I don't want to read about any more of the members here jumping off their mortal coils way too early, like Frank and Bobby. Keep safe.

[ekpent]

Might be a good day to get number 21 in on Wednesday Kevin. Mid 50's and hopefully more sun then rain again later in the week. Rootin' for Ya !

[Terry in Australia]

In Australia, "Rooting" is a slang term for sexual intercourse. I always giggle inwardly when I see one guy "Rooting" for another guy. Not that there's anything wrong with it....... Kevin, I'm cheering for you!

[ekpent]

Whoops !  I'm "cheering" for you also Kevin.     I forget we are a global community nowadays 

[Kevin D]

Well, thanks for the support guys, American and Australian, but 21 likely won’t be today as my afternoon is already spoken for and this morning is way too cold. Maybe tomorrow. Color is beginning here, and I usually get a couple rides in color season. But it seems like it has been pushed back this year, November is just around the corner.
I see that PeWe is at 59 degrees North, that’s way colder and darker than my 42N. I need to toughen up.
I’m close to the end zone, I want to finish up, throw my hands in the air and celebrate a good season of motorcycling.

I’m waiting to see the blue banshee screaming down the road Terry.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Kevin, I’ve done a couple of short rides on it, but the engine needs to come out again for the dreaded kick starter gear replacement (common ailment in T500’s) but the good news is that I’ve scored some replacement engine cases only 182 digits away from my frame numbers (in the US of course) so I’ll get them vapor blasted, then swap the “Guts” over into them at the same time.

The engine cases in it now are 1971 vintage so it’ll be nice to have a 1974 T500 with a 1974 engine therein. Hopefully in a month or so it’ll be doing 100+ mile rides like a champ.

[PeWe]

Just find a frame for the older cases!

[Terry in Australia]

Just find a frame for the older cases!

I have another frame Per, and a pair of wheels, and lots of other parts. I think a T500R replica might be nice?

T500 Racer by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[PeWe]

WOW!! That must be nice.
Finding a stray bolt is the beginning of a build, lets find all other parts!!

[Terry in Australia]

Yep I stole that pic from Ken here in Oz, it belongs to a mate of his. There are heaps of TR500 replicas out there, plus some guys use modern forks and wheels etc. no rush, I’ll keep collecting parts as they become available.

[PeWe]

Like building a CR750 replica. With or without all expensive magnesium hub stuff.

[70CB750]

Finding a stray bolt is the beginning of a build

 

[Terry in Australia]

Like building a CR750 replica. With or without all expensive magnesium hub stuff.

Yep, all that magnesium stuff in CR750's was used basically because the 750 was a big fat girl and needed some weight reduction to make it competitive. The two stroke twins of the era were a good 30% lighter or more, (the T350 that won the Castrol 6 Hour endurance race in 1972, beating CB750's and H2 750 Kawasaki's, Ducati's etc only weighed 340 pounds) so no expensive and rare magnesium parts required to make a quick racer replica. Anyway, that's enough talk about yet another new project, I need to finish some old ones first, and do some riding.

We had "Freedom Friday" yesterday, so now I can ride my favourite country backroads again. I need to take my massive (770 pound) Triumph for a ride tomorrow, and as we have a 4 day long weekend, I think I better dust off the K0 and give it a good run too.