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

[BenelliSEI]

I’m in! Will be a few months yet, but looking forward to it. My “754 Wrench” will be in the tool pouch, under the seat! John D.

[BallAquatics]

Dennis, is Ball Aquatics a reference to Ball State in Muncie?

Hi Kevin, no Ball is my last name.  A few years back, my wife was terminally ill and I was her primary care giver.  As such, I had to stay pretty close to home all the time.  With all the stress, I needed a distraction in the worst way so I started up a business where I raised tropical fish in the garage and sold them on-line, Ball Aquatics.  I started using the name for fish related forums and it just stuck...

Well I got the whole 100+ miles in today, but it took 2 bikes to do it.  Rode the 74 CB 550 to work today.  Had to be there at 5:00am and it was wet and hazy from some over-night rain.  I'm trucking down Ohio state route 36 and this SUV coming the other way hits the brakes just after passing me.  It's not long before it's turned around and on my tail.  The lights come on and it's a county deputy.  Seems like when I had the carbs off a couple of weeks ago, the wire to the tail light came un-hooked.  He was a great young man and with the help of his lights I fixed the problem and was soon back on my way to work.  That was 60 miles round trip.

When I got home around 2:00pm this afternoon it was so nice I thought I'd better drag out the "New" bike and stretch it's legs too!  About 50 miles of county back roads and a stop at a tiny little state wildlife area where I spent lots of time in my youth.



The temperature has already started to fall and by tomorrow it's back to more normal temps for this time of the year.  Oh well, I got my fix and have plenty of wrenching to do until the next nice day!

[Kevin D]

So sorry about your spouse Dennis. I can’t imagine where I would be without my own bride, probably a wreck on the side of the road. So good for you for picking yourself up.

Our aquarium is collecting dust for 38? years after our first child amused herself by grabbing the stand and shaking it until the water spilled over the top. We didn’t wait to find out if she could pull it over.

Good for you getting your rides in today and meeting a nice sheriff to help you on your way. We made it to 56F with sunshine this afternoon so I hoofed around the block for a bit.

[Terry in Australia]

Dennis, is Ball Aquatics a reference to Ball State in Muncie?

Hi Kevin, no Ball is my last name.  A few years back, my wife was terminally ill and I was her primary care giver.  As such, I had to stay pretty close to home all the time.  With all the stress, I needed a distraction in the worst way so I started up a business where I raised tropical fish in the garage and sold them on-line, Ball Aquatics.  I started using the name for fish related forums and it just stuck...

Well I got the whole 100+ miles in today, but it took 2 bikes to do it.  Rode the 74 CB 550 to work today.  Had to be there at 5:00am and it was wet and hazy from some over-night rain.  I'm trucking down Ohio state route 36 and this SUV coming the other way hits the brakes just after passing me.  It's not long before it's turned around and on my tail.  The lights come on and it's a county deputy.  Seems like when I had the carbs off a couple of weeks ago, the wire to the tail light came un-hooked.  He was a great young man and with the help of his lights I fixed the problem and was soon back on my way to work.  That was 60 miles round trip.

When I got home around 2:00pm this afternoon it was so nice I thought I'd better drag out the "New" bike and stretch it's legs too!  About 50 miles of county back roads and a stop at a tiny little state wildlife area where I spent lots of time in my youth.



The temperature has already started to fall and by tomorrow it's back to more normal temps for this time of the year.  Oh well, I got my fix and have plenty of wrenching to do until the next nice day!

G'Day Dennis, well done mate, and I love that Yamaha, my mate John has one of each of the 4 Turbo offerings that all of the Jap bike makers made in the early 80's, it's a pity that turbo's are largely forgotten with bike makers now, probably because they can get so much power out of a naturally aspirated (via EFI) engine now. The Yamaha looked very futuristic back then, now it looks like a fugitive from "Star Wars" with those angled lines. What does it go like?

The weather here is beautiful today, so I'm gonna take some oil over to the storage place to top up the K0 and take it for a ride. It dribbles a little from the cam cover, so it's easier to top up the oil than pull the engine to replace the cam cover. I have thought about attempting to replace the gasket with the engine in the frame, but it's an OEM gasket so I'm guessing that the cam cover is slightly warped, I may need to get a sheet of glass and some wet and dry sand paper glued to it to flatten the jointing surface.

[RAFster122s]

Dennis, I lived in Bellbrooke briefly back in 08-09 winter while on a project at Wright Part... Had lived in Westerville (Columbus) for 19 years before... So I am familiar with SR36 and the vigorous enforcement of sheriffs and city police in Ohio... Amazing how they watch for things and catch taillights and the like...

Sorry about your wife.

Do you still raise tropical fish?

A barn near where I worked in Columbus for rebuilt decades ago and became home of a shrimpery and they sold fresh farm raised shrimp all over Ohio and surrounding area. It was clean and good tasting despite not being wild and far cheaper at the time than wild caught. Difference in price these days isn't as significant on many species of seafood today.

Nice Yamaha...  Glad the sheriff was able to help assist you fixing the bike and not ticket you. They aren't always as kind...
Congrats on the ride.

David

[BallAquatics]

.... We made it to 56F with sunshine this afternoon so I hoofed around the block for a bit.

Thanks Kevin.  Good to hear your getting some of this unseasonably warm weather too!  With a bit of luck, we'll catch a day here and there between now and when spring officially gets here.

G'Day Dennis, well done mate, and I love that Yamaha, my mate John has one of each of the 4 Turbo offerings that all of the Jap bike makers made in the early 80's, it's a pity that turbo's are largely forgotten with bike makers now, probably because they can get so much power out of a naturally aspirated (via EFI) engine now. The Yamaha looked very futuristic back then, now it looks like a fugitive from "Star Wars" with those angled lines. What does it go like?

Hi Terry.  It goes like a strong 2 cycle dirt bike.  Pulls good for a 650, but when the turbo kicks in it's like a 2 cycle coming "on the pipe".  Like most 70's and 80's bikes, it's got small tires.  If the road is wet it can get interesting when the turbo get going and it sends all that horse power into a 120 x 90 rear tire.  Enjoy your ride, be safe.

... Do you still raise tropical fish?

Thanks David.  Nope no more fish.  I got very depressed after my wife passed and quite the fish and my computer work.  I guess in a way, I traded the therapeutic value of aquariums for time on the open road aboard a motorbike.

[Terry in Australia]

Well after 3000 trouble free miles, the K0 needs some attention. I drove over to my storage unit yesterday and pulled the K0 out. I put a litre of oil in it, which was about 250 ml more than I should have, but I wasn't too fussed. It started right up as usual, and I rode it to the gas station to top up the fuel tank. It ran fine on all 4 cylinders, but as soon as it hit about 4K RPM, started to miss quite badly. I took off again hoping that whatever was wrong would "auto-correct", but it didn't, so I exited the freeway after 5 or 6 miles, and turned for home. I'm betting that it's the ignition, the universal test for a CB750 of the fuel system is to pull the choke on whilst in motion, (if it gets better it's fuel, if it gets worse it's ignition) and the engine just wanted to quit, so I'm guessing that the ignition is faulty. I've ordered a new Dyna S knockoff from the USA, so I'll see how that works out when it arrives.

I still wanted to ride though, so I wheeled out my poor two wheeled "Cinderella" bike, my K2 "Bitsa".

K2 Bitsa Thursday 5 Jan 2023 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I rode the wheels off the Bitsa until the K0 came along, and since then, not much. It took a little longer to coax it back to life as the battery was low and I had to kick start it. Electronic ignitions don't much like low voltages, but after half a dozen kicks it fired right up, and didn't take long to warm up. Yesterday was very mild, was only around 70 degrees, so probably not the ideal temps for my "Joe Rocket" perforated jacket, so once off the freeway and back on my favourite tree lined backroads, the wind flowing thru with just a thin T shirt underneath was a little uncomfortable, I'm happy that I wasn't wearing my matching perforated leather pants.

Apart from that, the old Bitsa went really well, it's a great bike, and I need to ride it more. The oil pressure was great, it sat on 60 psi for the whole ride, and the dual cast iron disc front end with the Chinese knockoff MC and cheap braided lines works almost as good as "modern" brakes, a real improvement over the K0's brakes, which are pretty awful.

K2 Bitsa Thursday 5 Jan 2023 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I rode to Kilmore and stopped at a bakery I haven't been to before, and bought a pie and a coke. Was pretty good, and they had some nice looking cakes and cookies etc, so next time I'll take the Rocket III or Valkyrie with their panniers/saddle bags so I can buy some tasty treats to take home.

K2 Bitsa Thursday 5 Jan 2023 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I don't like the bars that I put on it a year or two ago, the little stretch to them and the lack of "pull back" plays on my poor old back, and even after lots of painkillers and a hot shower I have a "knot" of pain high up on my back that won't go away. I've decided that I need to do a "maintenance day" and bring it back to my place, where I'll install a set of OEM bars that I bought awhile ago, plus the 18 inch Henry Abe rear wheel, new OEM fork gaiters to replace the rubbish Ebay items I installed when I replaced the fork tubes, my right footpeg bracket is bent so I'll replace it too, and give it an oil and filter change. It has the same "Kokusan" Japanese electronic ignition as the K0, so it'll be interesting to see if I have any issues with it, so far it's been fine.

Anyway, I'm no longer a "2023 ride virgin", and I'm looking forward to a lot more rides this year. I was listening to the radio in my little truck on Wednesday and some weather expert was saying that we were going to be moving into a drought ("El Nino") this year, so while that's probably not great for our farmers (won't really affect city folks as we have the most expensive desalination plant that any stupid government can waste taxpayers money on) and there'll be a longer bush fire season than usual, it should be warmer for longer, so I should get some nice rides in. We'll see. #1 for 2023 down and (at least) 22 to go!

K2 Bitsa Thursday 5 Jan 2023 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr   

[PeWe]

An adventure with a kind of happy ending Terry!

Have you checked the charging level on the K0?
If it is too high and therefore blew the ignition.
Kokusan ignition if I understood correctly?

It feels like a blown capacitor when it start to fail after 4000rpm OK when reducing.
If you have an old stock points plate to use when testing charging. Fully charged battery.
Dirty connectors causing voltage drop tricking the regulator too overcharge and/or time for adjusting the regulator. CB750 shop manual ch.8 describes it all.

I mounted voltmeters on my bikes, initially to verify charging not too low after a regulator not properly adjusted so it seldom kicked in the higher charging. Had to use kickstart during a longer ride in not that high speed most of the time.

 Easier to know how to adjust when voltage can be supervised constantly.

I had to make sure the charging is not too high due to GEL battery max 14.4V, 14.2V better at constant charging.

Last year changed to AGM that must get higher voltage like 14.7/8 V.
I usually give it a 12-24 hour charge to give it higher voltage as AGM must have once a week or two in riding season.
My CTEK charger at higher voltage, snowflake mode which also is AGM mode. AGM should not be charged too long and low voltage.

Since bikes have Dyna-S I'm concerned to no charge too high. I do not know where the limit is, I think 15V can be harmful.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Per, I’ll check the output voltage when I install the Dyna-s knockoff when it arrives, I don’t think I have a good points plate in my garage as I’m not a fan of points ignitions. All the wiring is new, with the exception of the OEM regulator and rectifier, which were on the K0 from new, so may be faulty? I’ve had no electrical problems with it until now, so it could just be a bad ignition.

Kokusan were the OEM supplier for Kawasaki Z1 electronics, which are not as good as Honda’s OEM parts supplier, I have Honda starter motors in both of my Z’s because Kokusan starters weren’t great. The battery is the new Motobatt that I installed when I built the bike in 2020, has never seen a battery charger, and has always spun the engine over with no issues. At this stage I’m only assuming that it’s the ignition, but I’m pretty sure, based on 45 years of CB750 ownership. We’ll see how good my intuition is when the new ignition arrives……

[Kevin D]

Nice photo Terry, green grass, fair skies, a lonesome road, very nice.
Not much I can tell you about a bad running bike. I carry condensers and spark plug caps these days, but never had one in hand when a bad one showed up.
That looks like a pretty good lift up on the center stand, maybe easier with the 18” wheel?

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Kev, yep, if I just remove the lowering blocks I'll only need to lift the bike as normal as that huge 16 inch donut on the back has the same OD as a stock 18" rear wheel and tyre, but when I have my "Maintenance day" this week I'll swap the 18" Henry Abe wheel in, and it should fix the issue while still looking cool.

Yesterday was getting warm again, by the time I got to the storage unit it was around 30 deg C (82 deg F) which for me is the upper limit of comfort with my safety gear on. I actually dragged out my old vented nylon "Triumph" jacket which is around 5 sizes too large, so would have been pretty useless in a crash, but it was nice to have all that air circulating between the jacket and my T shirt. I rolled the Sporty out and it fired right up, and of course I suddenly went from a mature 62 year old, back to an irresponsible 21 year old when I pulled up at the lights beside a guy on a new Suzuki Katana 1000. I haven't seen a Katana on the road, only saw one at a bike show in 2019. From memory it's based on the GSXR1000, and is a retro homage to the Katana's of the 1980's. I was admiring his bike, but I think he misunderstood my interest for my wanting to race him, and he took off like a shot rat. I cranked on the Sporty's throttle and managed to stay within 4 or 5 bike lengths, but I was never gonna pass his 150 BHP rocket ship. Still, it was naughty fun.

I must have still been distracted by my stoplight drag race because when I pulled into the gas station I filled it with 98 RON fuel, rather than 91. The sporty hates high octane fuel, and runs quite rough on it, so luckily I'd only put 3.7 litres (1 US gallon) into the remaining 8 litres of 91, so rather than being horrible to ride, it just felt a little "off".

I rode to Romsey, and stopped at the war memorial there to take some pics. Most little towns have these memorials that were all put up to commemorate WW1, where a huge number of Aussie soldiers were killed or wounded, and the memorials are updated with plaques to recognise all conflicts since. One good thing is that I rarely, if ever, see one that's been vandalised or graffitti'd, maybe the image of a young soldier resonates with kids as much now as it did then?     

Sportster Saturday 7 January 2023 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I rode on to Kilmore, where I topped up the tank with 4.4 litres of 91 Ron, and the engine smoothed right out again, which was nice. I rode on to Broadford, and wandered into the bakery. Recently I've been getting there after 2 pm and they're almost out of pies, so I'd purposely left an hour  earlier, and my gamble paid off. They had plenty of pies, so I bought a cheese and bacon pie and a coke.

Sportster Saturday 7 January 2023 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I walked back outside into the heat and decided that I needed to get home for some cold drinks, and scooted back via the freeway. When I got back to the storage unit I remembered that Spotty had said that my tail light wasn't working, so I popped the lens off, and was surprised to see both the brake and tail light filaments were burned out. I "borrowed" a globe from the K0 and when I turned the ignition on, both filaments lit up? I'm guessing that I have a bad brake light switch, so I'll add the Sporty to the "2023 Maintenance" list and take it home to fix in the next week or two. I better start maintaining them, I'm running out of bikes to ride! Anyway, Ride #2 is done and dusted, and I'll do another one when the temps drop back to the comfortable 70's in a few days time.

Sportster Saturday 7 January 2023 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr   

[RAFster122s]

Nice ride Terry and good looking pie.

[PeWe]

Nice ride Terry.
I also want to ride my bike!!
Only 3 months left if lucky

[Terry in Australia]

Bloody hell Per, you have my sympathy mate, if I couldn't ride for 3 months I'd slit my wrists! Anyway, it was another hot one today, so I decided that it was time to give the Sporty an oil change, and sort that "stuck on" brake light. The bike will be 29 years old in April, and just turned over 12000 Km (7500 miles) on the odo yesterday, but I haven't had an oil change done since 2015, so decided that it might just be about time. I drove over to the storage unit and rode the Harley home.

Considering the low mileage, but slack maintenance regime, I was interested to see if there was any metal in the oil, so I cleaned my drain pan good. Luckily enough there was no swarf in the engine oil and only a tiny amount on the transmission's magnetic drain plug, so I was happy. I found out why the brake light switch was playing up (a result of my changing handlebars 6 years ago) so I fixed that too.

I notices that the 1/4" nut was missing off my battery hold down strap, so even though the battery is a pretty tight fit anyway, when I rode back to my storage unit I found a nylock nut, and as the place was deserted, I laid down on the hot concrete to do up the nut with the only spanner I had that was close, a 12mm open ender. Anyway, it felt a little smoother on the ride back, or perhaps I was so dehydrated I was hallucinating. I came home, ordered some food and had a shower. And a couple of drinks.........

[Alan F.]

Sounds like a pretty good end to a pretty good day Terry.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Al, it was all pretty straight forward, I haven't done an oil change on a Sportster since 1987, (I had this bike serviced at the local Harley dealership when I bought it in 2015) but my biggest gripe was that I don't reckon I got all of the old oil out of either the engine or tranny/primary case.

The oil filter sticks out the side where the generator lived previously on the Ironhead sporty's, which is a good idea as it's out of the way and less prone to a rock puncturing the filter case, but the muscle bound clod at the dealership who'd installed the new filter must have used a 3 foot cheater bar to tighten it, because my filter socket just spun on the filter's case and I had to hammer a screwdriver thru the filter so I could turn it. I replaced it with the chrome K&N filter that I'd bought 6 years ago, and the good thing about K&N's is the 17mm "Nut" on them, that makes removal a cinch.

Sportster maintenance Sunday 8 January 2023 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Sportster maintenance Sunday 8 January 2023 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr 

[Alan F.]

I'm not much for chrome but that filter sure looks good there.

[PeWe]

Chrome filter look good on that bike.
Separated trans oil must make engine oil to live much longer with longer change intervals. 8000km (5000 miles) or even more ?

[Terry in Australia]

I'm not much for chrome but that filter sure looks good there.

Yep, when I bought the Sporty it had been "Blinged Out", with lots of tacky chrome accessories (including those fcuking horrible chrome grips that wankers the world over put on their "rides") which I binned immediately. The filter that was on it, installed by a Harley Dealer, was a "no name" item that looked awfully like a car filter, which are awfully thin metal, so the K&N with a harder case is better in so many ways, and the chrome isn't too intrusive.

Thanks Per, not surprisingly my engine oil was black whereas the transmission/primary drive oil was very clean, apart from a tiny amount of metal "fur" around the magnet on the drain plug. According to the WWW, normal engine oil is good for 5000 miles in a Sportster, and up to 8000 miles for full synthetic. I used a mix of semi-synthetic and dino oil (same manufacturer and weight, I just had some left over from a CB750 oil change) so it might be good for >5000 miles, but I'll try to change it a bit more often.  

[PeWe]

Transmission in our CB's kills the oil.
So the Harley is closer to a car. Non turbo car wich make a difference too regarding oil change intervals.
If it has a dipstick or possible to feel the oil, it will tell you.

My old Audi with turbo has only 3.7L oil that feels really bad as early as 6000 miles.
A cheaper "full" synth oil.
Not real esther synth that probably will not live much longer. 
Oil look like a black slurry deluted with naphta. Plus some carbon particles if not changed in time.

[BallAquatics]

Had the 550 out for a short non-qualifying ride today.  It was only 38, but sunny and little to no wind.  I've been working on the bike and wanted to do a test ride.

It had been making a weird noise that wasn't matching wheel speed or engine rpm and I finally tracked it down to binding link in the chain.

Also, I put the air box back on and dropped the pods after using them the last 40 odd years.  It's nice to have that smooth Honda idle back, but it's got a sputter around 5000 rpm.  Probably need to go down a few main jet sizes.  The 1974 550's had a #98 main jet I believe.

[Terry in Australia]

Well the weather has been in the 30’s here too Dennis, but that’s “C”, not “F”, so too hot to ride. I’ve started doing some Army Reserve work again this week, working from home on the Air Force project I started just before Christmas, just doing 3-4 hours per day.

I’d planned on going for a ride tomorrow as the forecast a couple of day ago was for a cool change coming in then, but the change has come in early, so I got up early, logged in to the Army network and will work until midday, then do ride #3. I’ll probably take the Sporty again as the Honda’s need some maintenance and I don’t like riding the Triumph on warmer days as the heat from the engine and radiatior washes back over you, which is very welcome in the winter but not so much in summer. Should be a great day.

[budman]

Ride #1!!!!!
128 miles

It was great getting out today.  Hi temp of 80F.  Clear skys.  I've been sick for the past two weeks with some kind of flu crap.  It started Monday, the day after Christmas.  The following Wednesday and Thursday were the worst.  Still, I haven't been able to do much.  I finally started feeling better this past Sunday.  This beautiful weather is just what I needed.

I rode down to Comfort, TX to check out a couple of lumber yards that I've been trying to visit.  I stopped along the way and snapped a couple of roadside pics of one of the many stone walls you seee around here and an old cabin and barn, probably built by some of the original German settlers back in the early 1800's.  The lumberyards didn't really have what I needed, but were interesting.  One of the places buys a lot of old barn lumber and makes furniture out of it.  They had the old trucks out in front...a Dodge, a Ford and a Chevy.

From there I headed to Kerrville and I was starting to get a little hungry.  I stopped at a taco place that I usual get breakfast tacos from when I'm in that area.  I wasn't sure what time they closed, but I know they're only open for breakfast and lunch.  I turned on the street and saw the lit up OPEN sign, so I did a U-turn and parked the bike.  I walked up to the front door and it was locked.  The sign was now turned off.  I looked at the "hours" and they closed at 2:00pm.  I looked at my phone and it was 2:01!  No tacos for me!

I got back on the bike and decided I would just ride home, but only after I rode past what is kind of a famous house...The Blue Yodeler's Paradise.  It was built buy Jimmie Rodgers, the Father of Country Music, in the late 1920's.  I'm not really a fan of country music, but I do like music history.  I only recently found out about the house and its relatively close proximity, so I thought I could at least ride by it and snap a photo.  Jimmie had a short career.  He died from tuberculosis only a few years into his career.  He built the house only a couple of years before he died.  He didn't live there very long.  He had sold it and moved to San Antonio.

All in all, it was a good day.  The weather is supposed to be nice again tomorrow.  I'm seriously thinking about another ride.

[70CB750]

Great kick off, Bud!

[jgger]

Nice ride Bud. Cold and raining like a mofo here in So Cal, go figure. Oh well we do need the water.