Friday, December 31, 2010

Huckleberry's new skin

I'll post pictures tomorrow. I am almost done. I have to put the exhaust back on to the R100RS and then it is complete.
If you read the sidebar from December 28th then you'll know where I'm going with this one.
I got Huckleberry several years ago and we have gotten along just fine except for his mismatched, faded, cracked, damaged, chipped, red-smoke paint job. I am not big on pretty and I rationalize that if it was really nice paint I would have to stress about taking care of it. Still, where is your pride, man?
Gilera is poised to get the well preserved Polaris Silver paint set from the swap meet which frees up her tank, fenders and side covers. You saw the attempt that I made in the sidebar to justify mixing that with the RS fairing. The picture looks better than real life. The nice silver paint brings out every flaw in the RS fairing.
Yesterday, 12/30, my daughter Beth, her faithful puppy, Maya, and I drove to Indianapolis, about 5 hours. We got there about 12:30 EST and went to work on this 1978 R100RS that this fellow intended to cafe. He had the luggage mounts off already but the fairing was all my job. I thought that I was well prepared with the floor jack and special tools but I got caught by a couple of snafus. One was that I forgot that the split lowers didn't come along until 1979 with the original RT and I did not have a header nut wrench; the headers have to come off to remove the lowers. That ultimately was accomplished by having the cafe wannabee buy a good channel-lock pliers and I very patiently, carefully worked on the header nuts until they loosened up. They suffered only minor damage from the pliers; blemishes that could be Dremel'ed out. As a last resort I was prepared to offer this guy a used set that I would send to him if we needed to break these ones off. The reason that I didn't need to is because this was a NEARLY PERFECT MOTORCYCLE!!
OK, let's get into that, let me vent. This guy is not an airhead. He has a newer BMW and got it into his head that he wants to build a cafe airhead project. More money than ..., oh, don't say it again, please? There is nothing wrong with a cafe project but the whole spirit of cafe is to take a well used mount and make it as efficient and mean as possible. Someone had told this guy that an RS would make a good cafe bike. Why? It is essentially the same as any other model except for the fiberglass and that is all that he did not want. So, he found this 1978 R100RS for $2500 and figured that this was the one. It is actually a hill of a deal. I am really curious about the history of this one because there was obviously a whole lot of care, labor and dollars invested in this bike and it seems that it was done recently. So, why was it going for so little $money? I wish that I was there 1st. The paint is brand new. I doubt if it has ever seen a bug on the highway yet. Lester mags, dual-plugged, electronic ignition, Corbin seat, ... this thing was built. It looks like somebody's baby. I took the RS fairing and the Krauser  luggage with the factory mounts and Beth, her dog and I hit the road about 4:30 EST. I searched out an Asian dinner to reward Beth for being so patient and we continued on getting home about 9:30 CST. I was kidding to Beth about betting if I would jump right in on swapping the paint set out in the morning or not.
I did jump right in. It took all day to take the old red smoke off and get the silver on. I have it all back together except for the exhaust system which, because of the 1978 non-split lowers, I want to get prepped really well so that they will be easy to remove and replace the next time that I want to get the right lower off to change the oil filter. The silver paint is remarkably well matched to the Polaris Silver, I might judge better in good sunlight, but it looks great to my tired eyes in man-cave night time fluorescent light.
Pictures tomorrow ... or next year sometime.
addendum:
It was 55° here at about 9:30 PM on New Year's Eve. The temperature is now finally falling and will continue to drop to a predicted high of 21° tomorrow. I will predict that I will test drive the new Huckleberry tomorrow in the teens. None of this global warming for me, thank you!

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

1982 BMW R100RT, the next winter ...

The roads are dry enough and the temperature was in the low thirties. I got out this afternoon and decided to visit the same roadside that I had stopped on in January. I tried to take the same photo shots as I did then from memory and got kinda close. I wanted to document the changes that I have made this year on this RT. This is on State Line Road just north of Hebron IL
January:
January 2010

December 2010

January 2010

December 2010: 1982 R100RT with R80RT Colorado Red fairing, Krauser bags, Parabellum windshield, Reynolds articulated rear rack, 1979 R100RT battery covers, rear drum brake from a 1983 R100, EBC front rotors ...

This reminds of a picture that I found online in the early nineties, after my /6 and before Sharona the 1988 R100RT. I was bike-less and then I was on a Honda V30 and was dreaming of those nice old BMW motorcycles. I found a really neat black & white picture of a 1979 R100RT parked on the side of the road in the snow. I was impressed; riding in the snow!! .

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Gilera's Attention

I burned up the 1st bottle of propane this year.
I have the swing arm off, the exhausts off and the transmission out. It is time to study on the rear main seal replacement. I have gotten to the point where most stuff is done without a manual except to look up torque settings and the like but when it comes to something like a rear main seal, getting past the clutch and flywheel, ... I got to study on that.
I am not happy about the condition of the transmission input spline shaft. Shortly after I got Gilera, in the first big go-over, I had replaced the clutch so that spline bore is practically brand new. The spline shaft was worn a little but I let it go. Now, I think that I had better look into what it would take to replace this.






Side bar:
When I bought Huckleberry, the R100RS, the only thing that bugged me was that it was a red smoke. I don't like red motorcycles. And then when I bought the R100RT I was pleased with the black paint with white and red pinstripe but was disgusted to find out that there where hidden repairs to the fairing and fairing frame. That problem was solved by swapping out with a good R80RT fairing but, you could have guessed it, it is ... red, Colorado Red. That works and got the RT the name Toad.
No simple stories when it comes to my bikes. At Pecatonica this year my big score was a complete and perfect Polaris Silver paint set with blue pinstripes. The plan is it dress Gilera up really nice with this as her Polaris Silver is aged and not quite matched, no pin stripes on the fenders, etc. Normally I pay for a purchase with this by selling the parts that are being replaced. Well, the idea popped into my head that Huckleberry sure would look good in silver. What to do about the fairing though. Here is what I experimented with today:



Mmmmm .... no. It looks raggedy patched up and brings out the worst in the worn out red fairing. There is a fella in Indianapolis that is going to cafe the RS that he just bought. I offered to come down there and take it off for him ... it is a recent paint job that from all the digital pictures looks really close to Polaris Silver. Certainly a closer match than this! Money is tight right now. but still ...

Winter Ride 2010 II

I made a little video in Jan. 2010 when I got stir crazy and broke out on my RS. This month of December has had weather that for one reason or another has kept me captive. This Christmas time off I have been trapped because the alley is ice over packed snow. Well, today it evaporated enough that I could find a path out. GO!! This is on Toad, the red 1982 R100RT ...

I had a Canon A530 strung around my wrist on a lanyard. This is not good video.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Gilera's Attention

Christmas is over.
Sunday, the day after Christmas Beth was sick, up all night with the flu.
I played my bass guitar at church in the morning and when I got back she was camping in my bedroom and wanting to be taken care of.
I camped on my computer reading ride reports at advrider.com
ChiTown's Winter Madness
kerncountykid's Go West Young Man
CannonShot's CannonTracks - Great Divide
The alley is iced up and I can't get out. Only one day on the motorcycle this month ... so far?
Today, Monday, I fired up the heater in the cave and got started, at long last on Gilera. Gilera, 1980 R100T  was parked months(?) ago so that she could give up parts for other for-profit projects. I needed the headlight ears and some other parts so that I could make the R80RT a bare bike and swap the red R80RT fairing with the slightly damaged black R100RT fairing. I needed the wheels because I couldn't afford new tires for the RS in the middle of summer. The R80RT sold, the 1982 R100RT (now with the red fairing has become "Toad") has been used so much that a new set of tires just went on. Back to Gilera, she gave up parts that were to be swapped out anyway and much needed repairs are due. That being said, procrastination set in and this has set on a lift longer than almost anything that I have ever had. All spring, summer & fall I was riding or repairing the RT and RS. Now I am not riding. The RS is leaking oil from the final drive seal into the wheel. The RT needs a battery. So what ... I need to get Gilera going.
I wanted the forks back on before anything else so that the handlebars are not flopping around stressing cables and wires. This gave me the chance to mock up the machined aluminum top plate on the triple tree. See, everything that goes back on Gilera is going to be an improvement. Tomorrow I plan to start stripping everything else almost to the frame.
Here's the planned recipe:
  • reinforced swing arm
  • new Lester mags, (the original ones are on Huckleberry)
  • Nikasil cylinders
  • replace the leaking rear main seal
  • replace the cam chain gasket
  • set up the new reinforced triple tree
  • change of clothes, put the "new" Polaris Silver w/blue pinstripe on
  • lots of cables, gaskets and hardware to be replaced as seen fit along the way.
  • new battery
  • new tires
that should do it. This won't be a quick one. Hopefully if I start now and persist I could be done by ... Pecatonica Swap Meet? ... Slimey Crud Run? 
I went out and bought myself a Christmas present today, David Hough's "Proficient Motorcycling". I'm gonna learn how to ride! Seriously, any new or reinforced safe riding techniques are to be valued.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Narnia is in Hebron IL?

I pulled over and parked on the side of the road because I thought that I had lost my way. Where does that bright yellow tunnel lead?


OK, I know that is where I have come from ... the world.


Oooooh. So that is where it is at?


Actually, I was just looking for Hebron. Is that the same thing now?



I was just out for a 2-hour ride with the temperature at about 20° F. All sunshine and oaks and prairie and snow, praise to the Maker of it all.
I've been working at the pickle factory for over a month now. It is weird, how life goes where you least expect and could never imagine. It is not much pay but it is something that I can work with and bills are getting paid. I might be in pretty good shape by the end of February. The work is good, the people are some of the best that I have ever worked with but they all speak in this secret code language. Yo no entiendo.
I have shelves of unsold BMW motorcycle parts. I have gotten to the financial state where I don't need to sell them but I should do something. I was looking at the 'donor' bike, the 1979 R100RT wreck and thinking that I have some really good major components, maybe I could stop selling parts from the donor and try to put it back together. The whole front end is gone but I just got another front end from a 1982 R100RS including the brakes and all. I want to rebuild this. It is so cold out in the mancave. I was thinking of moving this into the basement and starting to reassemble but then I realized that since it is stripped down so far I should keep right on going and replace some seals and gaskets and stuff on the engine before I start putting it together. That would be to dirty for the basement. Oh, well, later.
The R100RS is running great. I just finished a lot of front end work and adjustments. The hard downshift worries me but that's all.
Gilera the R100T has been great handling since the front end upgrades and the electronic ignition upgrade. The most pressing thing that needs to be done in the cave is to get Gilera on the block and start rebuilding the engine. Her compression was below 90 psi when I last checked, a while ago, and the rear mains seal is leaking a lot of oil. So, I need to do that engine work, I want to put the reinforced swing arm on and add the billet top brace from the eBay front end that I got for the donor bike project. Get that done and tires ...
Only question that is open right now; should I sell the 1982 R100RT in the spring? )That is the one that you see pictured in this Narnia post) You know that Gilera and Huckleberry will never get sold and the donor might get sold after assembly but that will certainly be a long time from now. The only cash bike would be the RT but I just don't know .... hmm.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Crazy winter ride, break out!



Crazy winter ride, break out on Huckleberry the R100RS.

[soundtrack is Andrew Osenga singing a demo version of The Longing]