Topic: 23 Rides in 2023, Frank's New Years resolution that we can all enjoy.

[Alan F.]

I've read that you want to wear a complete painting suit if you're using that stuff, carcinogenic ingredients can be absorbed through the skin.
I'd always thought using it on a breezy day might be ok, but apparently not.
And as usual use a good quality respirator.

No need to tempt the fates by painting without proper PPE, especially if you're enjoying a cigarette now and then.

[RAFster122s]

I've read that you want to wear a complete painting suit if you're using that stuff, carcinogenic ingredients can be absorbed through the skin.
I'd always thought using it on a breezy day might be ok, but apparently not.
And as usual use a good quality respirator.

No need to tempt the fates by painting without proper PPE, especially if you're enjoying a cigarette now and then.

That is correct, skin contact with over spray can be lethal. It can cause numerous problems, death being the biggest risk and not that unlikely... So, full tyvek suit with respirator for chemical protection is minimum I use when messing with it...
Terry, I believe you know someone who got really screwed up by not wearing protection and we have discussed the risks of this stuff before...

Just be careful, we like having you around and want to continue to do so.

David

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, I’m pretty sure I’ve got some disposable painters overalls and a good respirator somewhere in my garage, and I’ll be painting them outside, so should be fine. Yes I remember my brother in law’s mate, (both David’s) spraying 2 pack in the BIL’s engine bay in a T shirt and shorts on a hot summers day back in the 80’s, he was a young apprentice car painter who only made it into his 30’s before his lungs gave out and he passed.

[Alan F.]

Yeah, sorry to conjure that memory Terry.

[Terry in Australia]

No worries Alan, it was timely, so rather than go looking thru my old crap in the garage I've just jumped on Amazon and bought new painters overalls and a 3M respirator, so I'll be ready by the time the Spray Max 2K clear arrives.

[Alan F.]

Good call Terry

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, a quick clearcoat of the tank has suddenly become expensive, but at my age, I'd rather spend the money than get sick.  

[RAFster122s]

The coveralls and respirator will have continued life for other projects, so it isn't all sunk in the one job...

[jgger]

Tyvek full suit with hood and booties is only $ 17 US dollars at Home Depot. That ain't too bad.

[BenelliSEI]

Ha ha, a quick clearcoat of the tank has suddenly become expensive, but at my age, I'd rather spend the money than get sick.

Terry... check the paint instructions carefully. Lately my painter friend Al has been forced to purchase a filtered air pump and helmet system. For the products he’s using now, even a high quality cartridge mask is not enough.....

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks John, if I was painting in a booth I’d definitely go that way, but unnecessary in my breezy driveway.

[BallAquatics]

Temps up in the mid 40's today.  Went for a couple of rides to test out the new clutch install in the turbo.  About 30 miles in total so NOT a qualifying ride, but it was good to get out. 

It was slipping when the boost kicked in. Everything looked great, so I just changed the friction plates and the springs. Shifts like butter now, and no more slipping on boost!

[Terry in Australia]

Good job Dennis, I wanted to take the K0 out for ride #7 yesterday but swapping in a new ignition didn’t solve the misfire so I took my Sporty instead. I got home and promptly fell asleep so I’ll post pics tonight.

[BallAquatics]

Cheers Terry.  I'm really longing for some warmer weather here.  Until then, I'll just have to live through your adventures.

[budman]

Ride #5 - 135 miles

Last week we had a big freeze here in Texas.  A misty fog rolled in for three days with temps in the mid-twenties.  Everything that was outside was covered in ice.  The temps got into the mid 30's on Thursday and the ice started falling.  There are a couple of trees that overhang the house I'm renting.  It sounded like someone was dumping five-gallon buckets of ice on the roof every few minutes.  Just about the time the ice started falling the power went out.  Fortunately, the outage for me only lasted for about 4 hours.  I read this morning that all power outage repairs in the area are now completed.

Fast forward to today...the sun was out with a high of 73.  I took off on two wheels.  I headed south and rode past The Old Tunnel State Park and noticed it was open again.  They had shut it down for maintenance and repairs.  I decided to hit the brakes and check out what they had done.  It's a small park that features an old, abandoned railroad tunnel that is now a home to bats in the warmer months.  Other than a short hiking trail there isn't much to see.  They improved the walking trail down to the tunnel.  The old trail was eroding away, and it was difficult to traverse for some folks I would imagine.  I took a few pics and got back on the road.  The pic with the small bridge in the distance is from standing on top of the tunnel.  I was standing on that bridge when I took the pics of the tunnel, looking directly through it.

I was starting to get hungry, so I thought I'd head to my favorite taco place in Kerrville.  I didn't know if they were open on Sundays.  Last time I tried I walked up to the door 1 minute after closing and the door was locked.  They were open today!  They have a huge variety of fillings.  The tacos were delicious.  They never disappoint.

After I was done with lunch I walked across the street and snapped a few pics of the Guadalupe River.  Always a pretty site.  From there I topped up the gas tank and headed back home.

Today was also an opportunity to once again try and address the wind noise I have been getting in my left ear when wearing the Bell helmet that I bought in October.  Two previous rides ago I found that if I put my finger over what I think is supposed to be an air exit vent at the left rear of the helmet the wind noise stopped.  A couple of weeks ago I pulled the lining up from inside the helmet and there was a small hole in the Styrofoam layer directly in line with the vent on the outside of the helmet.  On my last ride I had stuffed some rolled up paper in the hole, but it didn't help much.  For today's ride I rolled up a piece of masking tape and stuffed it in the hole and I also covered the vent on the outside of the helmet with tape.  The results were night and day.  The wind noise was what I would consider normal and the same on both left and right sides of the helmet.  Completely tolerable.  Apparently, for whatever reason the helmet seems to be sucking air into the helmet on the left side and letting air out on the right side.  I'll probably write Bell and see what they say.  If they ignore me, I'll probably come up with an inconspicuous way of sealing up the left vent.
 

[Terry in Australia]

That looks like a great ride Bud. Although it's technically summer here, we've had a cold snap over the last week, and even had snow in the high country. Saturday was a wash out, literally, so yesterday I was hanging out for a ride. My new "Chyna" ignitions had arrived so I decided to take one across to the storage place on Sunday and quickly install it, then ride like the wind. First I had to remove the Kokusan:

Sportster Sunday 5 February 2023 9a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The "Chyna" went straight in, the signal wires, rather than being blue and yellow are black and white, same as on Suzukis. I'm pretty sure I had the rotor in the right position (magnet pointing left) so substituted white for yellow and black for blue, and when I hit the button, I was rewarded with a magnificent "BANG!" as it fired on the bottom stroke. OK, I swapped black for yellow and white for blue, hit the button again and it fired right up.

Sportster Sunday 5 February 2023 9 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I put everything back together. And rode out of the self storage place. Sadly, as soon as I was out on the road the missing continued, so the problem wasn't the Kokusan ignition, but a coil. No biggie, new coils on the way and plenty of bikes to choose from in my storage unit. I rode back to my storage unit and did the "Eenie meanie, mynie, moe".

Sportster Sunday 5 February 2023 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The Sporty was the closest to the door, and as I've just changed the oil and filter, decided that my "Hooligan bike" would do. It's been my most reliable bike now for over 7 years, and of course it didn't let me down, one press of the starter button and it was idling happily. I rode off again, and rode it like I stole it all the way to Kilmore.

Sportster Sunday 5 February 2023 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I stopped at my favourite eatery and ordered the chicken, chips (fries) and coleslaw again. It was magnificent.

Sportster Sunday 5 February 2023 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Sadly though, this is the "after" pic, I can't eat much, no matter how delicious it was.

Sportster Sunday 5 February 2023 8 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Anyway, refreshed and enjoying the day, I jumped back on the Sporty and headed for home. Ride #7 down, 16 to go.  

[PeWe]

Nice ride Terry. I should have brought food with me home for next hunger
I have a small ultra light backpack under the seat for bringing small stuff.

What about the "Dynish" ignition? Black, white versus blue, yellow.
Which order?

[ekpent]

So black is yellow and white is blue - got it and good info for other guys. Are you holding out and have an old Triumph tucked away in that bin parked on that oily old piece of cardboard. Let's see it !! 
  PS- You hardly eat enough to keep a mouse alive Terry  ------------

[70CB750]

Yesterday.

[Terry in Australia]

So black is yellow and white is blue - got it and good info for other guys. Are you holding out and have an old Triumph tucked away in that bin parked on that oily old piece of cardboard. Let's see it !! 
  PS- You hardly eat enough to keep a mouse alive Terry  ------------

Thanks Eric, the K0 does dribble a little from the cam cover which eventually accumulates under the engine, but that old cardboard migrated across to the new garage from the old shipping container. I had my Honda XR500RE parked there and left the fuel on, which poured down the cylinder, into the gearbox, out the breather and all over the floor.

The Chyna ignition. With the crank pointer on 1 and 4 (doesn’t matter if it’s pointing at T or F) the magnet on the rotor should be pointing to the left. On a Dyna the magnet is approximately in the 10 o’clock position but the Chyna was more like 7 o’clock. I plugged the Chyna’s black wire into the Honda yellow wire, and the white wire to the blue. I used the included blue cable joiner with no issues to connect the power wire to the rear brake light’s black wire, and it runs fine. I didn’t bother with a timing light, I just turned the backing plate until the idle smoothed out, and called it good.

I don’t like reheating food, fries never taste as good re-heated, and of course I’d have to separate the coleslaw from everything else, and just couldn’t be bothered. I once told my bariatric surgeon that I hated throwing food away and she told me that I was better off throwing it away than making myself sick (it’s not uncommon for gastric bypass patients to burst their new tiny tummies by stuffing too much in them) so I might go back to doing pie rides, and as the wife keeps hinting that she’d like to try the chicken chips and coleslaw, might find a local chicken shop that home delivers, and we can share that big meal.

[ofreen]

#1

The first ride for 2023.  I think I squeaked over the 50 mile mark.

[PeWe]

Nice photos!
The barn look different.
Is that a common design over there?
Maybe some barn finds inside

[RAFster122s]

Wood shingled barns aren't as common theses days as most have galvanized metal roofing like the repaired areas.
That's a big barn with three levels 0r more. Could be an underground section as well. They are common in some areas.
Bans in Virginia and TN I am familiar with would sometimes be storage related and would have open pole barn construction for drying tobacco or storing baled hay. Pls the farm equipment like tractors, combines, balers, or implements not designed for outdoor storage. Plus tools and farming maintenance devices. Corn cribs would be used for storage of some corn fed to chickens and the like but usually the crops went to feed and grainery facilities and sold and then my uncle's bought the mixed feed they used for the dairy cattle. Hay and or alfalfa we're baled and fed to the dairy cattle with cows feeding on grain feed while being milked but they were fed with the hay/alfalfa and grass mostly.
Pigs were raised for family consumption occasionally and feed bought for them. Tobacco barns were filled with tobacco after harvest for drying and curing until the crop went to market.
Combined of corn, oats, barley, and wheat were taken to the grainery in town and sold during harvest. The granaries silo'd and dried them and shipped them in rail cars to other areas.
Some barns were setup with multiple floors with lower floor being accessible for cows in bad weather or winter if the cows wanted to use them. The cows roamed freely and had access to the grazing fields/pastures and creek that ran through the property. That was the setup a couple uncles who farmed in SW Virginia had. Their barns were smaller and less elaborate than the one Greg shows. They had multiple barns. Simple 2 story rectangular with STD galvanized steel roofs.
Barns in NE Tennessee where I grew up were of similar construction. Very few featured underground levels. Barns in PA and Ohio and Indiana I am familiar with had them much more commonly. Or a level that was semi-underground buried into a hillside.

Cool old barn Greg...nice shots.
 

[PeWe]

I'm looking forward to a barn ride too

[ofreen]

Nice photos!
The barn look different.
Is that a common design over there?
Maybe some barn finds inside

It's a fairly common design.  It is holding up pretty well considering the condition of the roof.  I'll attach a photo from almost 8 years ago.  One of these days I'll ride by and see it collapsed, but in the meantime it is fighting the good fight against gravity.

Cool old barn Greg...nice shots.

Thanks David.