Underblog Rides Again

2011-04-18T12:01:11Z

The poor state of my garage! At least the Trail 90 is back on the road after a splice of yellow wire, a top off of the battery, and its annual oil change. Hopefully, this will spark an overdue spate of overdue motorcycle maintenance.

Score One for the Gilera 106 Group

2010-06-19T21:14:29Z

The Lil Thing aka the Gilera 106ss kept acting as if it had no clutch. Starting and idling fine, just cutting out. A saint on the Gilera 106ss Group had encountered the same problem and simply started rolling the bike before putting it into gear, pumping the clutch lever all the while. The technique worked like a charm. Now the bike is at the welding shop, getting the tabs to which the center stand mounts attached to the frame. Once it comes back from the shop, I'll be ready to register it at the MVD, now that I am bonded to claim its title.

Morini Sighting

2010-06-13T21:02:42Z

First other Morini sighting today. It is hard to believe that I have been here five years and have seen none other than my own so far. It was disc-brake, cast wheel, 3½ heading SBD Coors from EBD Montano, not so far from my own place.

Underblog Rides Again

2010-04-18T22:47:29Z

I wanted to make some room on the lift, so I gave touching up the electrical contacts one last shot and replaced the flywheel cover, gas tank, spark plug, etc. Then I went to start it. First, nothing. Tickle the carb, a soft pop. Continued kicking. A tentative turn-over. More tickling. Rest leg. Kick some more. More tentative starting. Then it started and died immediately. Repeat previous steps. Runs longer. I made it as far as the end of the driveway when I decided that I better wait for better weather to take it on a longer ride. Bonus: Headlight (high and low), tail-light, and horn (rather muted) all work.

Minor Miracle

2010-02-20T15:23:30Z

Last night, I left Marble Brewing just after sunset. I was on the Benelli and I was fairly sure that I would have to ride home without a headlight. Over the winter, I had replaced the rusted out CEV handlebar switch with a Chinese generic sourced from BevelHeaven. Lacking proper means to attach the thing to the handlebars, I drilled a couple of holes in the bakelite and safety wired it to the bars. And lo and behold — and in spite of the lack of battery operation of the light — I had a dim little 6v light on the way home. It was a Knuckle Down Brown miracle!

Gilera Woes

2010-02-06T22:02:14Z

The lack of a flywheel nut should have been a tipoff. Today I set the timing and was getting improved spark. Great, let me see if the PO put oil in the bike. Hmm, only a few oz of sludge. I figured I would use the sludge-draining time to check the valves. Got the valve cover off and there is 1/2 inch of play. I removed the pushrods and removed the head. Now I see that I appear to be missing a cam follower. Bottom line: Can anyone sell me a cam follower? Also: Has anyone reproduced a shop manual for the Gilera 106ss? If so, please ping me.

A Deep Sickness

2009-12-28T13:17:46Z

I came across a listing on CL for a Gilera. I offered the fellow half what it was listed for. He took it. Now I have sitting in my garage a ca. 1966 106ss, now with newly-installed Heidenau tires.* The checklist:

Tires [check]
Fork boots
Wiring (weak spark)
Headlight retaining clip / spring

As if seven motorcycles were not enough.

* One synergy of this new acquisition is that I now have a source for Trail90 street tires.

Routine Maintenance, continued

2009-10-23T13:12:32Z

I finally worked up the courage and the ganas to do my own belt replacement / oil change / valve adjustment on the ST 4. So far it has broken down (poor choice of words) as follows: Day 1: Remove bodywork, drain and replace oil; Day 2: Drain coolant, remove expansion bottle; Day 3: Remove radiator, remove belt covers; Day 4: Run over to Sears for a couple of offset wrenches to remove belt tensioners. By springtime I should be done.

Ripped From Today's Headlines

2009-09-16T12:20:25Z

Spotted in the nytimes online this morning, this article. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/us/12helmet.html I think I am one of the few people to examine the methodology of motorcycle helmet laws and the statistics used to promote and resist them. In fact the only contribution I made to the field in graduate school was to look at the wholly unstudied phenomenon of motorcycle helmet laws and the interest groups that argue their merits. If you look at the graph that accompanies the article, it shows "deaths per motorcycle registration." Since when did the number of motorcycles registered become a proxy for motorcycling activity? Does NHTSA use vehicle registrations to determine deaths for autos and trucks? (The answer is no.) The trouble is (and this comes from my current life as a transportation planner) that the Federal Highways Administration has no way to calculate motorcycle Vehicle Miles Traveled. VMT is the denominator in the death rates and crash rates for all other modes of transportation. On the policy end of things, I am indifferent. I ride without a helmet only rarely, like when I toodle around the block or to the store a block away. I know it is dangerous to do so. But for those small trips, lugging a helmet around is uncomfortable. My friend C. says that it is impossible to legislate against stupidity. She also says that a graduated licensing system would insure that people would have adequate experience and training for each level of motorcycle they are licensed to ride. I am inclined to agree with her on both counts.

Mechanical Inclination

2009-09-10T19:58:47Z

I have been deferring maintenance on all my bikes lately. The Morini need swing-arm bushings again, the F1 needs wiring, the ST4S needs and oil change and valve check. Then, I notice sputtering from the normally trustworthy CT90. This continues for a week or two, as I become increasingly concerned that the little thing is trying to tell me that it needs some kind of major work, after years of mostly benign neglect. I am suspicious of the carburettor, and sure enough I look at it on a recent arrival home and I see some threads showing where the slide attaches to the carb body. Tighten it up and I'll be damned if the thing doesn't run 100% again.

How Little It Takes to Cheer Up a Gearhead

2009-08-11T22:31:03Z

New license plates for the Land of Entrapment. Where do I sign up? http://www.newmexico100.net/mvdsurvey/mvdsurvey.aspx

Lambretta Day

2009-06-26T01:47:52Z

A colleague rode his SX200 to work today. I got kinda choked up so similar was his bike to my old one. Later, when I was leaving work, I saw J125 riding down 8th St to the roundabout at Central and then head west. It must be Lambretta day.

Mountainair Loop

2009-05-31T14:05:31Z

How far we've come! Since Roomie chose not not to come along last week, she asked if we might go for a ride. Our so-called monsoon season has arrived early this year, so we did not want to get too far afield. Roomie suggested Mountainair for breakfast at Pop Shafer's. The ride from Tijeras down NM 337 was better than I recalled. Perhaps the ST is more comfortable for long straights than the 851. It certainly soaks them up faster! In any case, once we were past the congestion immediately below Tijeras (unfortunately the location of the finest twisties of the ride), there were plenty of places to pass cages. Breakfast was a delight. The ratio of motorcyclists to non-motorcyclists there was 7 to 1, including a pair on Kawasaki Vulcans that we passed on the way into town. I hope they manage to stay open. The ride from Mountainair to Belen was fine, though NM 47 is rather congested on a weekend. Probably congested on a weekday too. But Roomie enjoyed riding up Broadway and Edith. Within a few hours of arriving back at home, the thunderstorms began. The rain was paltry, but it felt good to be home.
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Riding With the Big Boys

2009-05-27T02:01:14Z

Monday, I had arranged to meet some of the High Desert Hooligans at Coffee at Dawn's. Just as I pulled up, without so much time to even check the time, I notice Jim about to follow a bunch of other Ducati's up NM 14 on his 1098. Thinking this must be my group, I follow Jim up to the Shell where the others are fueling up. Jim responded affirmatively when I asked if his was the group meeting at Dawn's at 10.Mike and Tom on matching Pearl White 848 and 1098 were there, as was Ron on his Aprilia. Hans, with his 888 was filling up and the five of us took off north. Of course, this wasn't the group I had intended to meet, but we had a hell of a time anyway. The route took us from NM 14 to Pecos Trail, which used to be Old Route 66, but is now a frontage road for I-25. Pecos took us to Glorieta, where we had to get back on the freeway before exiting onto a frontage road on the other side. This we took all the way to NM 3, where we fueled up. The first 15 miles of NM 3 are some serious twisties — lots of blind corners, some rocks on the road, the Pecos River, and a few small towns. Once the road opens up it becomes much like NM 41 or so many other New Mexican state highways: very high speeds with some widowmaking sharp turns. But the early part is where the fun is, and I want to go back to try out Risa's in Villa Nueva. We jumped on the freeway to Clines Corners for a snack and more fuel. At the restaurant, we met a GoldWing rider whose charging system was getting him about 50 miles or so on a fresh battery. He almost made it all the way back to town with us, but needed to get a ride on the 848 into town to get another battery from the only large blue store that was open on a holiday.
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Binned: A Squid's Tale

2009-05-24T13:08:06Z

Driving to Sears yesterday to pick up a mid-section toolbox to house my new goodies (see post below), I notice a motorcyclist on a wide-tired sportbike, fender eliminator, LED taillights, etc zipping through traffic, weaving to and fro. Minutes later, I pull up behind a stopped car in the right hand lane. I notice two people trying to move a hulk of a motorcycle off the road; they are not having much luck. Plastic bodywork littered the lane 30 feet ahead of where they were handling the motorcycle. As the car ahead of me pulls around the pair, I see squid and helper trying to push the bike off the road. The fact that the rider was OK (thank God for helmets and protective gear) after having dropped his bike (or driven it into a curb) may have allowed me to grin more than I should have. After all, we are both motorcyclists. I am just glad that I am not that kind of motorcyclist.