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December 15, 2008
Arrival!
Last night, I received a call from Mike, the driver from DailyDirect / HaulBikes.com. He sounded pretty exhausted and asked if he could drop the bike off first thing in the morning. That was fine, I told him, since I had been waiting this long another night without the bike was not going to kill me.
This morning, I was out at Troy's at 7:00am. No truck. I wandered back to the house, dropped off my coffee cup, and returned. I was going to call at 7:15 and tell Mike that if he wasn't there by 7:30 that someone else would have to take delivery. No big deal, really, since I had already made arrangements with Troy's to do just that.
Mike was great: First off he apologized for the delay, though it was within reason; next, he knew right off the bat that the stand was with the bike and let me walk it over while he jockeyed the bike out of the trailer; finally, he went over the bike with me scratch by scratch until I was ready to walk it home. I made it back into the garage with about 10 minutes to go until I had to run downtown for an appointment. Parting is such sweet sorrow!
At first glance, the bike will need a couple of things. I think I have solved the fuel line dilemma by reversing the fuel lines: The RH fuel tap will serve the rear carb and the LH the front. Carbs don't care which side they get their fuel from! The wiring needs to be redone in the most major way. I may break down and simply purchase a new wiring harness from bevelheaven before this thing is street legal. The race stand is a POS, with the ears completely bent pigeon toed. I hope my Pit Bull will fit; I will feel more secure about relying on the stand if it can be used instead. Pit Bull is a huge improvement over the pit stand that came with the bike. The battery appears to be shot: It has been on the Battery Tender all day and it is still blinking yellow as if there were no battery there at all. Perhaps the PO has disconnected the battery. And there are the "known unknowns": a custom side stand will have to be fabricated or the Alazzurra one the PO gave me will have to be adapted.
The tires and the carbs are huge! Both were much larger than I was expecting. And they are not Malossi's but rather genuine Dell'Ortos. It says so right on the casting! And it is true: you could fit a toddler's fist in the exhaust. The overall feeling of this bike is quite small. Riding this thing is going to be a blast, and I want to do it justice.
Posted by Underblog at December 15, 2008 7:03 PM
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