a little progress

Pulled the clutch hub/ rotor last night found exactly the scenario I've been reading about. Magnets had let loose & destroyed the stator in the process. You can see the shield over the magnets of the new rotor, hopefully eliminating this problem for ever. There is a big difference in the strength of the magnets however. The magnets on the new rotor are much weaker than the ones on the old factory part. Hopefully that won't be a problem.

Here's where it got interesting. The piece pictured in the center rotates independently in the clutch hub, but when I installed it in the new hub I couldn't get it to set in far enough & it also would not rotate at all. So I pulled it back apart & upon further inspection I found that the c-clips are totally different & that the ears on the new one were causing the whole problem. A quick swap & I was back in business. A quick fix, but How has this been over looked; & worse, what if I hadn't caught it???

for unintended purposes...

I get all excited over this stuff. I didn't have a "clutch spring compressor tool" for my sportster & I wasn't about to fork out 60 bones for one either. So I did a little digging on the interweb & found this idea. An oil filter wrench (size D). This wrench happens to be right around 3.5 inches in diameter & is a perfect fit. The only modification needed was to drill out the square hole to a 1/2 inch round. After that I found a washer & used the same nut that came off the bike to make it all work; & it works beautifully! By the way, the filter wrench I bought is plastic & showed absolutely no signs of breaking. So I just spent a whopping $6 on an otherwise over complicated & over priced tool to accomplish the same job. I love this sh#t!

guts

I opened up the primary last night & everything looked pretty normal... except for the chunks of magnet stuck to all the steel parts inside! In the 20 minutes or so that it took me to tear this thing apart, I got to see that there were a few other improvements made when they went to the 5 speed in '91. It's a damn good thing too, because 'What the hell were they thinking?' keeps going through my head. Mainly, because (unlike the 5 speeds) you have to remove the entire primary cover if you ever want to change your clutch cable. Lame. Oh well, just proves to me that everyone has some learning to do sometimes.

DEATHTRAPS MC

Check them out >>>here<<<.

Honda

Found this survivor a month or so back. After a little research, I think it's a CL175; possibly a super sport (but not 100% on that). I was interested till I found out the asking price of $1000! Good luck buddy.

no go

I was all excited to finally ride a bike to Flashback's but this friday it just wasn't meant to be. Charged the battery twice, tried to ride twice & hauled her home twice. Swamp Donkey is down for the count. Luckily, I ordered the rest of the parts to fix her the day before.

+++FLASHBACK FRIDAY+++

Be there. -THROWBACKS MC-

Victor

An old friend sends this quick video of his '67 Victor. I need one of these bikes. >>> http://youtu.be/W7vi3dIcZAk

v-dub

Saw this thing in Oroville last week. These things are funky as hell, but I'm no "hater". Though, I gotta say, this dude needs a lesson in period correct. Pretty sure that entire front end is strait from a catalog.

the Swamp Donkey

Here it is in it's current state with the new seat & a new tail light/plate set up. Still running "total loss" electrics since I haven't got the parts to fix that yet & still need some fine tuning in the carbinator area, but I charged the battery & put some miles on it Friday night & I'm super happy with this bike. Changes are still in the works, but it's slowly turning out just the way I planned: rock solid. Oh yeah, the last pic is of a piece I fabbed up for very short hauls. That's another story though...

Friday night

It was a total last minute deal, but I rode out Friday night with Troop to the Philo Beddoe Family Reunion in Newcastle, Ca. I have to say, even though we didn't stay, this was probably the most kick back event I've ever been to. Just good people, good grub & good booze. What else do you need in life?... Oh yeah, rad choppers!

porcelain

These were up on the e-bay. I've never heard of an all porcelain spark plug before. Cool stuff.

Snakes alive!

"Well I'ma west coast struttin' One bad mother Got a rattle snake suit case Under my arm Said I'ma mean machine, been drinkin gasoline & honey you can make my motor run..."

It's completely off the point, but this is worth sharing. We unearthed two rattle snake dens yesterday on the job site & since we can't very well work on top of these things... well, their heads had to be removed. We killed ten yesterday & two more this morning. I'm no pinko hippie, but I don't like killing animals. Since we didn't have much choice though, instead of wasting them, I put them on ice & brought them home to skin. While I research the tanning process, all twelve snakes are bedding down in my freezer & I think my wife is getting divorce papers ready. Any way, if all goes well, I'll have a good stock of skins to make some really cool leather bits with. Cheers suckas