So that's what a v-twin sounds like.

So what a week it's been. I got the parts I ordered, the pod filters and the spark plug socket. I changed out the remaining two spark plugs, pulled the stock airbox, and put the pod filters on. I cranked her up hoping for great things. My luck rarely seems to run that way these days. She ran like ass upon starting her up. I thought it was b/c I was low on gas again, so I limped her to the gas station around the corner. On my way out of the gas station, she couldn't even get out of the lot. I didn't realize it at the time, but I had a tear in the fuel line. So I limped her back home resolving to clean out the carb the next day.

The next day, I started out by checking the spark plugs. Curiously enough, the front cylinder's plugs looked pearly white on the ceramic insulator. It was as if the cylinder hadn't even been firing. The rear cylinder's plugs were nice and tan though. I began to suspect something was seriously wrong with the front cylinder. I thought, maybe, just maybe, the front carb is so clogged she's not even firing. I was fearful of something worse, but I tried to remain optimistic as I pulled apart the carb.

Once I had the carb apart, the real story became apparent to me. The jets for the front cylinder were so ridiculously clogged that there's no way that the front cylinder was firing. This would explain everything. Why the spark plug looked like it had never seen combustion, why the front header primary never got that hot, why the bike couldn't get up to speed on the interstate. I proceeded clean out the jets and everything else in the carb. However, I didn't have new seals and o-rings to put in, so I was a little concerned about whether everything would seal up again.

I got a nice surprise while disassembling the carb. She had aftermarket needles in her and an aftermarket pilot jet. Oddly enough, the main jets appeared to be stock. However, it means that the previous owner had jetted the carbs to match the exhaust. It's always nice when a bike you picked up for $1000 comes with more than you thought it had.

The one hitch in the road to a quick reassembly was that I destroyed an o-ring for one of the pilot screws. This resulted in a trip to Autozone for a mutli-pack of o-rings. The multi-pack didn't have the exact right size o-ring, but it had one with the right inside diameter. I came home and shaved down the outside diamter and put her back together. I also replaced the fuel hose upon seeing that it was torn and was the likely cause of the previous night's poor running. However, I'm kinda glad I didn't realize it was just a torn fuel hose sooner. If I had, I wouldn't have pulled apart the entire carb and I'd still be running on one cylinder. Hilarious.

Long story short, she's a totally different beast now. I wanted more power, and I got double the power. To be honest, it's kind of a good thing that I learned how to ride with one cylinder out. That means I had a mighty 323.5cc under my command. I had 500 miles to get used to the bike and all the controls. Now, with the added power I can focus on riding instead of having to concentrate on working the controls. So it's kind of lucky. A lot of riders buy a cheap 250cc to learn on, then sell it when they're ready for something bigger. In my case, I learned on something cheap and gutless, but then I didn't have to sell it to get something bigger, I just cleaned the carbs!

Anyhow, here's two videos. The first is before the carb cleaning, the second is after.





It's so obvious now that something wasn't right before. Of course, I didn't realize the sound was off; that's just how green I am when it comes to v-twins and motorcycles in general. Anyhow, it's been a learning experience. Now I've just gotta order a jet kit for her so I can get her air/fuel dialed in right.

Make her a little nicer than she was before

So I've put about 400 miles on the bike since I got her. So far she's been running great, but there's just one nagging problem. I can't get her up over 85mph on the interstate. Yep, that means I'm the moving roadblock in the HOV lane. Going up hills or into a headwind, she's lucky to maintain 70mph. Now I know this bike isn't supposed to be a top end monster, but I don't even have any passing power on the freeway. Thus begins the process of tuning her up.

1) I bought new spark plugs today. I was only able to change out two of the four (each cylinder has two plugs). Two of them I simply couldn't reach with my standard spark plug sockets. I ordered the OEM spark plug tool.

2) While I was ordering the OEM spark plug tool, I ordered the uni pod foam filters. They replace the stock airbox and apparently open up the top end a good bit. From looking at the plugs, the engine is running pig rich, so a little more air coming in isn't going to push things into the lean zone.

3) I really need to sync the carbs. I messed around with it a little today, but I think I just made it worse. I need to get the right fittings to secure my vacuum gauge to the intake port. I just might make myself one of those homemade manometers if I can't get things tuned well from checking each side individually. Apparently the front & rear cylinders need to be within 40mm Hg of one another. Hopefully I can do better than that and she'll be running smooth as butter. Right now they're obviously not in sync. The front looks rich and the rear looks disgustingly rich. I don't think the rear cylinder's plug is even getting up to self cleaning temperature for the most part.

Anyhow, hopefully the stuff gets here by this weekend and I can hold 80mph up hills on the interstate.

My first bike

Well, I just picked up my first bike. 1990 Honda Hawk GT with 16425 miles. Picked her up for $1000 in non-running condition. Turns out all she needed was a new battery. Tossed in a new Deka etx9 and she fired right up. She needs a little TLC obviously, but I'll get her looking right over time. For now I'm just going to focus on learning to ride and enjoy the new hobby.

Leather Work...

I recently decided to step it up a notch on the leather work. Although Tim Quick is a nice guy, I wanted to go for some crazy good leather work. I had been talking to Christian (http://www.xianleather.com/) about another bag and recovering my seat on my Harley. I also wanted a handmade wallet. Well, he is a cool ass dude and has started working on the design to be tooled into the material. I should have the bag in about a month, and when it gets too cold to ride, I am sending him the seat. Go to his website to check out his work. The dude's tooling is insane.

Here is an example:

Biltwell...

I have been meaning to post this for a while, but have been kinda caught up.

I mentioned before about how Eric and I got tangled up a few weeks back. Not a big deal, but when it happened my handlebars got bent. For some reason I decided to contact Bill from Unit 1 Parts and tell him what happened. Not only did he get Chris from Biltwell (the manufacturer of the handlebars), but he sent offered to send me a new set for free and warranty the set that got bent! Now I wasn't looking for a handout by any means, but to know that there are still companies out there with this level of customer service is a BIG relief. So many people are dicks these days, but not Bill or Chris.

Unit 1 Parts: http://unit1parts.myshopify.com/

Biltwell: http://www.biltwellinc.com/

Glasses...

Rob showed his, so I thought I would show my freak collection. No two are the same, aside from 6 imperial Guinness glasses and 6 imperial Newcastle glasses.

Broadening horizons

   Yeah, I realize it's a pretty crappy cameraphone pic but it's an image of my beer glass collection doubling!  I absorbed my uncle's collection of mainly pilsner glasses but also some really neat others, all of which he gathered while in Germany during the early 90's.  There's a particularly nice little glass in the mix, like a large shot glass, with an outline of berlin on it, the different sectors represented by the flags of the controlling nation.  

While on the topic, I had some people over for grilling on Sat, also cooked up about 10 gals of Oktoberfest so hopefully that will turn out well just in time for a trip to Helen.  I also managed to harvest some hops off the vines this weekend (here's a pic of them early this season)

   

Oh, and just for good measure, here are some pics of the hound, both as a pup and now... and I realize the floor was dirty that day:

 

A little change...

A little time, a little money, and a little sweat (a few beers) and shit changes.

New paint...

I haven't had shit to share, so I have shut the fuck up for a while. With football, CPA review classes, and a little one at home, I haven't been out and about that much, but luckily Eric had time to paint my tank and my fender for my Harley while I have been busy. I will take more pics later, but here are some he sent me of them after paint...

Gotta love being sick

I worked on my bike this week after getting tangled up with Eric. I had every intention of having it ready to leave this morning to go to Anniston with a shitload of folks...too bad I caught the FUCKING FLU!!! Thursday at work I started feeling like shit and pretty much haven't stopped since then. Instead of being in Alabama, raising hell and drinking beer, I am sitting on my couch going from sweating hot to freezing cold. Awesome.

Nothing to do with Motorcycles, guns, or beer, but...

Last night Mikey and I went to the Mayhem Festival. Mastodon ruled ass like always & Machine Head put on a helluva show while I stood in the rain. I fucking hate Disturbed, but they had the crowd pumped up. The real reason I went though was because of Slipknot. I have been listening to them for 10 years, yet I have never seen them in concert. I finally got my opportunity and it was well worth it. I will post pics whenever I send them from my phone.

Set List:
Surfacing
The Blister Exists
Get This
Before I Forget
Disasterpiece
Psychosocial
The Heretic Anthem
Prosthetics
Duality
People=Shit
(sic)

CFL Shovelhead...

Finally got over to Mike's to work on my bike some today. It's about halfway mocked up now.

Garage bar...

The kegerator finally came in. To get it to flush up against the wall, I had to run the gas into the right side cabinet.

Redneck GPS...

My buddy's bachelor party was last night. I wanted to ride because it was a nice way around the backroads of north Georgia. Since there was a chance for rain, and since the directions were all kinda screwy, I took something from the enduro crowd...voila:

Beer and bikes...

Sometimes you have to drink beer...and sometimes you have to rebuild forks.

Servi-cars and trikes...

For some reason I have the hankerin' to build a servi-car framed trike. Something that just looks sick as fuck. I don't know who owns these, but props to them:

Ride To Work Day...

Yesterday was Ride To Work Day. It was posted on the JJ. I thought it was a pretty funny concept...especially since every day is Ride To Work Day for me.

Garage Time Is Fun!!!

I decided to completely redo my garages a few weeks ago. I am not even close to done, but this is what I have done with the main garage for now. This side is the "bar." There is a beer fridge, kegerator, those hanging cabinets store my extensive draft glass collection and the floor cabinet to the right has my CO2 tank and storage for pitchers/large mugs/das boot. The kegerator is being replaced thanks to the warranty department at Avanti, so it will be back in between the two floor cabinets: I epoxied the floor and painted the walls to kinda match. That whole back wall will receive the same Gladiator Garageworks (http://www.gladiatorgw.com/) cabinetry as the bar side did. Yeah...that's an electronic paper towel dispenser.
I need to put up blinds on this side and set up a few more things, but it looks a helluva lot better than it did in my single car garage. Oh yeah, I was changing the oil in my bike, so that wasn't just some kind of posing shit.

Smoke Out laugh...

How did I know that when I saw these pics from the Smoke Out, that I would find one of the idiots in them...and there he is. Brian Jackson to the top right with the Jack Daniels Bandana on.

Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills...

I think I know what Phil Anselmo was talking about now. Jason and Emily decided to throw a pool party last Saturday.

Jason decided to dance (shortly after he realized that it wasn't the smartest idea to challenge me to a chugging contest):

Jason's sister decided to wear Cobb's home made coconut bikini:

Jason had to hose off Chris after he hacked up the 13 Molson Canadians he finished in about 2 hours: