Other Peoples Bikes

This weekend I went down to LA to help my brother move do the family reunion thing. Since Sony was moving, I was helping out and was luckily tasked with riding his two motorcycles over to his new place. He has a ’87 Honda CB 1100 I think. I’m not sure. Apparently they only made that model for two years and it feels like a touring bike, with a very upright posture but oh man it was such a pleasure to ride. Totally smooth, great suspension, responsive. You could forget about the bike and just enjoy the scenery. I hope the Interceptor is as smooth. The other motorcycle was a Le Mans edition 850cc Moto Guzzi not unlike the one pictured below.



The Moto Guzzi was like flying a really old jet fighter, like before they had that whole aerodynamics thing down. Built as a racing bike for an large oval track the bike is very narrow. The handling leaves something to be desired but when you pull on the throttle you just go, go, go. Crazy fun. At idle it just sits there and rumbles from side to side. You can actually feel the pistons firing and the bike moving left to right in sync. Sony was saying they took the racing version of the bike, slapped some ligts on a few thousand and sold them to the public. I’ll be honest, I was a bit scared opening that bike up. Especially in tennis shoes and jeans.

What it made me realize is that this motorcycle thing, for me, may not be the passing fad I once suspected it was. So going back to the source I’d like to thank Big Eric for selling me his GPZ for such a reasonable price (did you ever even cash that check Eric?) for Sony for setting the deal up and keeping my thoughts on motorcycles through the years and lastly Dushan for teaching me to ride back on the motocross track in the dessert when I was twelve. Hrm, maybe it’s time for a dirt bike...

Briefly

Last week during class I had some time to burn while I waited for the JB Weld to bond, a whole day actually since it take JB Weld a day to dry, but since I was there I asked Lisa if there was something I could do. She was in a cleaning mood so that is what I did. Specifically I was to disassemble a few engines and strip them of some useful parts and trash the rest.

The point of this whole thing is that the insides of engines are truly pieces of artwork. The detailing, the clearances of fractions of an inch, distances so small that the only thing that can possibly move between them is fluids, well it is all just majestic. It amazes me to think 200 years ago people were creating swords by beating steal with a hammer on an anvil and now we can make machines with specs accurate to thousandths of an inch. That fact that we can even create these machines at all and that they are as cheap and ubiquitous as they are is as miraculous and beautiful as anything I can imagine.

And I dumped them into the recycling bin because the pistons were worn.

I'm Strong but Not Too Smart.

As you might recall, getting the carburetor out of the Interceptor proved much more difficult than I might have suspected and I managed to non-catastrophically break them. Since then I cleaned them, replaced the bolts I managed to lose...I'm going to digress real quick. I learned this super handy trick that probably everyone but me knows. Lets say you have a bolt and you need three more of the same size. Well if you are like me you can't just eyeball the bolt and know exactly what size it is. To find the right size bolt, just grab one of the bolts you didn't lose and take it to a hardware store. Sort through the nuts until you find a nut that fits around your bolt. Once you find that nut, go to the bolt section and find a bolt that fits in that nut. The bolt that fits will have the same size threading as the one you brought in with you. Digression over.

So I cleaned the carburetor replaced the bolts and tried to get the carbs back into the rubber boots that hold them in place. The same rubber boots that gave me so much trouble when trying to get the carbs off. I can go into length about what I tried but for the sake of sanity lets just say that lube, another guy from class and couple four foot 2X4's didn't do jack except, yes that's right, damage the plate that holds the carbs in place. A nice two inch crack right down the side. Plus of course we didn't get the carbs in.

Lisa said some JB Weld would work on the crack, and let me tell you JB Weld is like ultimate bonding agent. It comes in two tubes that you mix together. Within 24 hours it dries to provide a heat resistant bond that I firmly believe will out last roaches. It's ugly, ugly as sin really, but it'll work and it's at a spot where no one will ever have to see it again.

But that still didn't get my carbs on. That took Lisa Duke, a rubber mallet and about a minute and a half. Rather than using brute force, leverage and sweat. She just tapped gently all around the boot as I gently pressed the carbs into them. A tap here, a tap there and viola! They're in.

Every time I think am getting the hang of things I realize how much more I have to learn. This week, I'm planning to put some oil in theinterceptorr and see if it'll run. If so, then I'm buying a new chain, and radiator cap. I also need to adjust the carbs and if it seems feasible adjust the valves though I may wait on that to see how it runs.