Street Bike?

So I'm thinking about getting a street bike...I considered getting a new one, but I'm cheap. So I thought what about getting one of the 'budget' bikes brand new...that could work. Well the 'starter' bikes like the 650r, sv650 and 599 are still in the $8,000+tax price range...which is a lot of money for a 'starter' bike. So now I'm considering a used one...the only problem is which one.

I don't want a super sport because I like my lower back and would like to be able to stand up at the end of the day of riding without stopping every hour. So that's a no to the super sport, but I don't want a cruiser yet either. No that does not mean I'm considering a scooter, if that thought even crossed your mind go grab the spatula out of the silverware drawer and whack yoursalf in the face. What are you waiting for, do it NOW!

Now on a more serious note, what is left to choose from without spending a fortune on a bike if you don't want a sport bike and you don't want a cruise? The sport touring class of bikes looks freaking expensive, and even used I see a lot of them priced around $10,000. So now I find myself looking and hoping to find a 'deal' on something suitable for the long drives and still sporty enough to get me in trouble.

Right now I'm considering a 2004 z750 that someone has put up for sale, it's about two grand cheaper than new, and it looks like a reasonably confortable sitting position. I think I might go check it out this weekend. Want to see a picture of it? Yeah me too, damn these people putting bikes up for sale without pictures, I guess there's always http://images.google.com

I was way off

So Collin took a look at my bike for me on Saturday, I already had the tank and everything off so it didn't take him long to show me what I was doing wrong. I found out real quick that the gap you are supposed to measure is at the top. So once you loosen the nut that shaft turns to adjust the clearance...and to measure it just follow it down a little ways and there is a little gap. If you push on that shaft you can rock it back and forth a bit and see the gap. Just be sure you're checking the right spot because if you don't have it at top dead center or you measure the wrong spot you can make a real mess.

Oh yeah, on a sidenote, Bob decided to take the spark arrestor out of his exhaust, and he thinks it has way more power, and it may. But does it ever make a lot of noise now, between the back firing and the 4 inches of flames that come out the back it can't be a good thing. Oh well, it should at least be entertaining for the next time he has it out.

I'm tempted to leave mine out...but that means rejetting, I should consider that, time to do some more research.

Found a Mechanic

Woo hoo, I found a mechanic to take a look at my bike and show me how to set my valves...it's going to be interesting to see how far off i have them. The other fun for the weekend is fixing the thumb warmer...i'm not sure what went wrong, but there's light but no heat. I'm hoping it's only because the wire isn't a heavy enough guage, all i had at the time was some cheap thin stuff. New wire has been purchased, and hopefully that'll be all it takes.

Street Bike?

Should I really be looking at a street bike? I rent a place in town so that I can walk 10 minutes to work, plus this way I don't have to pay for parking near work. If I buy a street bike I'll want to drive it as much as possible...which would most likely mean during the week too. I would go from walking 10 minutes to work to driving the bike in the summer, and after the 1 hour drive from home I pay for parking. Or even funnier I could keep renting a place in town, be at work in 10 minutes and not pay for parking. Plus there's the cost of a bike, insurance, and gas that has to go into the equation. Even funnier would be if I bought the bike and drove it to town, then parked it at the appartment I'm renting now and walked to work. Hmmm, i wonder how much the gas would be for about an hour long commute...$10 dollars a day is only $200 per month...it's all that other stuff that'll get me in the end.

It sure would be a fun way to travel though, this is one of the bikes I've been looking at. I need to do some reading to find out what people are saying about it.

Plans for the Weekend

First thing I'm going to try is removing the starter to see if it's sticking. The only bad thing about that is that after i get the starter working i can't really try it until i get the valves set. Which brings me to the next thing i have planned, my second attempt at setting the valves. I'm hoping that i have them right already, but i think i'm going to make sure before i actually fire the bike up....maybe i should see that the valves are set right before i get the starter working, or i may be tempted to start the bike.

Setting the Valve Clearance

So I took this cap off the side of the crank with a 10mm hex and now I can turn the crank.
Then I took this plug out so that I can find top dead center, at least I hope that's what the T is for.
Now how am I supposed to set the valve clearance to 0.010mm? I can't even tell where I'm supposed to measure that at. I did figure out that loosening the nut allows me to turn the 'screw' to move the valve up and down...now I just have to figure out where to measure the clearance at.

Luxury Items

If someone asks you for 'help' installing accessories you should be wary of how much help they are looking for. I found that helping can often mean i'm doing most of the work while someone that i am helping watches. Oh well, at least I didn't have to do all of the work by myself, it was like having an assistant. In the end the windshield, thumb warmer and heated grips were installed without any major problems. Wow, does that ever sound like an atv with all the luxury items or what? I thought i was spoiled when my bike got a headlight, maybe i should invest in some stuff like hand guards.

Almost The Weekend

I'm working nights for the first week since I started my new job and it's not as bad as I thought it would be. Although I'm still getting up too early for someone who doesn't go to work until 12:30. But lucky for me I only work until 9pm, so it's not like I'm working the graveyard shift. The big downside is definitely that on friday night when I normally leave my desk right at 5pm I'll just be getting back from lunch to sit there and wait for another 4 hours to pass before the weekend. I'm not going to complain though, I like the new job :D

The Death of my Battery

Anyone know how to bring a battery back to life? This one didn't respond well to being hooked up to the booster cables. After five minutes on the booster cables with the car running there still wasn't enough life to get more then a 'click' out of the bike when I tried the starter. I think maybe the next step might be to hook it up to a trickle charger and see if maybe that'll bring some life back into it....or I could just go buy a new battery. Nope, I'm too cheap for that, I'm going to try charging it first.

Honda CRF230f Battery

Honda CRF230f Battery
Originally uploaded by BadDriver.

Well this is the battery out of my bike, I'm pretty sure that I need a new one. Anyone have a new one just sitting around?

I found a downside to leaving the bike in the walkout basement. When you want to take it out of the basement and into the garage you have to push it through a lot of snow to get to the garage. It would have been much easier if the garage was downhill. Oh well, live and learn :D

Notice Anything Missing?

Notice Anything Missing?
Originally uploaded by BadDriver.

Yeah my battery is garbage, the bike won't even turn over with the battery connected and booster cables on it. The bike actually came closer to starting when i took the battery out and ran booster cables from the car to the bike.

Winter Driveway

Winter Driveway
Originally uploaded by BadDriver.

This is a view of my driveway half way between the house and the road. Doesn't the plow on the four wheeler do a nice job? I don't think the crf would quite cut it for plowing, although it would be pretty funny to see me try sometime.

Maintenance Time

I put the bike in the basement a while back so that I wouldn't have to take out the battery. I know that may sound lazy. Well actually it's a walk out basement so I just pushed it through the doors. But even sitting down there where it's warm the bike isn't turning over fast enough to start. If charging the battery up doesn't do the job I may have to take it in for some maintenance. I've had the bike since April and still haven't had the valves checked, I think the only thing I've been doing is making sure the oil is changed and the chain is lubed. Maybe if I keep saying I'm taking it in for maintenance I'll actually do it.

Any one out there want to try and diagnose my problem for me?
-needs to be push started to start it
-will start with the electric starter if it's been running long enough to warm up
-the air temperature outside is about -5 degrees celcius

I'm pretty sure the battery is near dead...I should charge that and see if that helps. Being out in the cold may have damaged the battery enough that it won't hold a charge.

Happy New Year

The year is off to a good start, I'm sleep deprived at this point, so every time a thought comes into my head it's gone again before it gets to the keyboard...yup, so I totally forget what I was going to type here...so I'm going back to sleep now.

Happy New Year!! :D

New Toy

Want to guess what I just got for Christmas? Oh come on I'll give you a hint...Now I can take lots of pictures on the trail, although I have to find a case for it first or it'll get the crap beat out of it everytime I fall on it. Yeah it's a new camera, one of those tiny little canon ones. :D

Now if I could just get my bike to start without me jump starting it, that would be real nice, and slightly less of a workout. Maybe it's finally time to take it in for some maintenance, I'm too lazy to do it myself.

Squirrel

Squirrel
Originally uploaded by BadDriver.

I've been too lazy to take the bike anywhere other then down the road and it shows. Instead of pictures from biking trips i have a picture of the squirrel that was in the tree outside the front door on Sunday. If i had been faster this morning i might have gotten a picture of the red fox that was standing in the field this morning. Maybe next time.

Gas Prices

Alright, the gas prices just took another jump, it's getting way too expensive. At this rate it won't be long before it's too expensive for me to drive to work(180kms round trip).

What's my sollution? I think it's time that i found myself a long term illness: "Sorry i can't come into work for a while, i have the plague".

I've already prepared my speech for when they confront me on it: "Well my dentist told me it's really serious, how was i supposed to know it's not the same thing"

Maybe i'd better save that excuse for later, when the gas prices get a bit higher ;-)

My Toy

It still looks like a new bike.
Originally uploaded by BadDriver.

This is a picture i took after the trip we took on August 20th. I think the last count i heard was 39 atvs, one dirt bike, and 60 people. It was a great crowd, lots of friendly people and nobody got hurt.

It really was spotless before i left, but after 87kms it had a little bit of mud on it...i must have hit a puddle somewhere along the way.

Welding Is Fun

Ok i tried welding the other day and it's a lot easier then i thought it would be. I did learn really quick that welding in shorts and sandals is a really bad idea. It was about 3 seconds of welding before a piece of molten metal burned a nice little spot in the bottom of my foot. So now my bare minimum attire for welding is pants, shirt and boots...of course i'm wearing the helmet and gloves too.

So now i'm trying to learn a little bit of welding, i said it was easy...but i didn't say i was doing it right. I've got to learn some technique, cause i can melt metal together, but that doesn't mean it's strong or that it's right. I'm thinking i should try to build a gokart, that would make a good project. I can burn myself and then if i survive that i'll be able to crash the gokart on the trial run...i wonder which will be more painful.

Anyone want to mail me some parts to use on the gokart? I'm not too proud to take donations. :-)

Lazy

Have i been on the bike lately? yup. Have the trips been interesting? yup. So why no posts? Cause i'm too freakin lazy to type it all in. I think it's time to create posts by just thinking about what i did since the last post. Okay here goes ..... anything yet? Maybe i have to think harder ..... frig, still nothing. Well that sucks. That means i'll have to type it manually.

Summary:
-went biking
-came home
-went biking another time
-came home again
-went biking
-came home

Okay, i feel better now that i've covered all the important details.

Learned a few lessons since the last posts, if you're gonna use a chainsaw to cut trees in your ditch pay attention to where the chain is relative to your arm. If you're gonna play around on your dirt bike while wearing shorts pay attention to how close your bare leg gets to the exhaust. The last and most important one is to always curse at the engineers who design four wheelers with half-assed fixes to problems. Who puts a thin piece of plastic over a coolant hose to protect it from constant contact with a sharp piece of metal? Come on now, what kind of a stupid sollution is that? Move the hose, put metal over it, or take the edge off the metal.

Okay, that's probably enough venting frustrations for now, i don't want to waste all that anger, i have to save some of it for the drive home.

Suzuki on a Winch

Suzuki on a Winch
Originally uploaded by BadDriver.

Look at what we caught in the muddy water. Bob can kind of lay some of the blame for this one on me. Although, just cause i said it looked like a fun spot didn't mean that he had to go and get stuck in it.

This was a picture from Sunday, and i almost forgot to post it. I know he'll be happy to find out that i posted a picture of his bike being winched out of the mud by a polaris.

Partridge

Partridge
Originally uploaded by BadDriver.

Well i finally made it out on the bike for a nice little trip. We left fairly late in the afternoon but we covered a quite a bit of ground while we were out. We even managed to see a bit of wildlife, the partridge, a hawk and a few rabbits.

Bob thought he was fast enough to catch one of the small rabbits. It was pretty funny to watch, he literally lept off the bike before it was completly stopped...then as the bike started rolling backwards down the hill he jumped back on the bike to put the brakes on.

I wish we had gotten a picture of the hawk that was out beside the trail, but Bethany had the camera and kept on going. We waited for her, but by the time she decided to come back the hawk had flown off...maybe next time.

Literally Twisted

I don't even drive a four wheeler anymore, but i'm getting lots of practice trying to straighten them out. First we were trying to straighten Bob's front rack out between a couple trees...which is kind of ironic since it was a couple of trees that made it crooked in the first place. Then last night we tried to straighten out Chris's bike a bit. He tiped it over and landed hard enough to push the back rack down on the right side, pull the right handle bar down and forward and twist the spindle on the right side. We managed to straighten out the rack and handle bar last night, we didn't even take them off the bike, we just used a 5 foot crow bar to get some leverage and pull things back into place....as for the spindle, i think he's going to price that before we attempt to straighten it. Personnally i think it should be replaced if at all possible, it is kind of important and will cause some serious tire wear if we don't get it right. Oh well i like getting the workout as long as it's not my own bike that i'm trying to fix :D

The "New" Car

The "New" Car
Originally uploaded by BadDriver.

Well i think it's official. This is the "new" car, it's a 2001 honda civic si-g. I'm hoping it lasts longer then my last car.

Well It's Official

Well today i went and picked up the 2001 Civic that i looked at a while back. They through in a trailer hitch and window tinting for me but it's still gold colored. Oh well, at least i won't have trouble finding it at here at work where the parking lot seems to be filled with either silver, black or red vehicles. I can live with having a car that looks a little different, maybe i'll even pretend i'm different too :D

I haven't even gotten the car home yet, but once i do i'll have to take some pictures of it out in the sun and post them...i'm really hoping that the colour in the next set of pictures looks better then the picture i posted before. Now i just have to try and sit here patiently waiting for 5pm so that i can drive it home. It's gonna be a long afternoon.

That's Gold?

Gold Color
Originally uploaded by BadDriver.

I've been looking at used cars to replace my golf and this was one of the cars in my price range. I can't say i'm crazy about the color, but it's cheap, good on gas and fun to drive. My biggest concern is how well it's going to do if i put a hitch on it and try to tow the 800 pound polaris atv and the 240 pound crf. Anybody ever tow 1500lbs with civic si?

For sale

For sale:One diesel powered mosquito repellant.

Yup, it's that season again, the mosquitos are out, but not to worry i've got just the sollution for you. It runs on diesel and can generate smoke for hours on one tank of fuel. The mosquitos won't bother you at all...then again you may not be able to stand the smoke either. The car does still move under it's own power but after you read the list of problems you'll understand why i make no guarantees on how long it'll last.

1993 golf diesel for parts:
-one working wiper(driver's side)
-wrinkled hood
-two chipped headlights
-no grill
-no radiator cooling fans
-injectors, lines and pump from a 1.6L(no this car is not a 1.6)
-stripped crank pulley
-crank shaft is damaged
-valves are likely damaged shape

i'll even throw in:
-the original injectors
-the original injector lines
-the original injector pump(it'll come in handy if you've been looking for a heavy bag of useless metal pieces)

Nice Trip

Saturday i spent the day helping a friend build a shed...i know it sounds like it's not much work, but it was 10'x12' and 10' feet high. Seems like a simple task but by the time you build the floor the trusses, and the walls you've done a lot of cutting, a lot of nailing and almost as much swearing. It was a warm day so it seemed fairly long, but 11 hours after i started i headed for home. The rest of the day consisted pretty much of me showering, eating and watching tv. I know it sounds kind of lazy for a saturday night but i wanted to be able to lift the bike for sunday's trip.

So Sunday morning the alarm went off and i got out of bed...normally it takes a lot less effort to stand up. I guess 11 hours of standing with a lot of bending and squatting down to lift stuff takes it's toll. The muscles on the inside of my legs felt like they had been replaced with a nice pair of lead weights. My first thought was a warm shower, that's just what i need, that'll loosen them up a bit. Ok, got any more bright ideas, that didn't help at all...oh well, at least i smell better. So i had some toast while i put some chain lube on my chain and packed some tools.

The plan for the day was to meet up with another group at the store and go from there. So we left the house and headed for the store, a very common trip for us. So you would think that it would be the simplest part of the trip, not this time. Near the half way point i forgot about a spot where i had to make a 90 degree turn and did something i do a lot while on gravel. I pushed the back brake pedal down all the way and pulled in on the front brake a little bit. This is usually followed by a bit of back tire slide and me letting off on the brakes and hitting the throttle. Except this time the back tire never slid, instead the front tire dug in and i went down. Funny thing is before i hit the brakes it thought maybe i should just turn around up the road and come back. Funny how you rememember those split second decisions so much better after you made the wrong choice.

Onto the fun part, assess the damage to the bike. The piece of plastic that i push to turn on the blinkers must have caught on my glove and got pulled off. Suprisingly i didn't break the brake lever off and the foot pegs did exactly as they were designed to do, they simply folded up and stayed intact. So the reservoir for the brake fluid has some scuffs, the brake lever has some scuffs, and the piece of rubber that covers the brake cable where it connects to the lever has a bit of a hole punctured in it. So i stuck the little piece of plastic for the blinkers back in place and the bike seems fine. Now to assess my damage, my right elbow and shoulder took the brunt of the punishment. Since i was only wearing a tshirt i've got a few scratches that will remind me of my little accident for the next week or so. My ankle feels a little stiff and my shin has a bit of a scrape on it, but other then that i think i'm good to go. So I tightened up the laces on my right boot, picked up my bike again and we headed to the store.

The rest of the trip to the store is fairly uneventful, although on the way there i start to doubt my back brake and test the theory on some level ground. Sure enough it's got no stopping power at all. Although i hate doing it i use my front brake sparingly until we get to the store, i don't want to repeat what i did on that turn again today. Now i know why the back tire never slid, the back brake wasn't working at all. So at the store i tighten up the back brake and it works great again.

There were five bikes at the store, bringing our numbers up to eight for the trip. The weather was good for biking although the roads were dry and dusty in some spots, but we made good time and covered a lot of ground. It was a good group to travel with and i got to see some new trails, along with a few famillar ones. The further we travelled the more i started to feel the effects of being on my feet all day saturday, my muscles kept telling me to lay down for a bit. So when we came to one washed out spot in the road i was definitely thankful to have someone there to help me pull the bike up the other side of the bank(thanks BajaX).

What else happened on the trip....oh yeah, Bethany almost rolled her bike. There was a tree cut off along the trail and somehow her bike caught on it and lifted both of the left wheels right off the ground. She said her right leg hit the ground before she managed to get the bike back on all fours. Today she said her hip is still pretty stiff so i'm starting to wonder if maybe she dislocated it...but i don't know much about that stuff so i'd just be guessing. Oh yeah and i blew a fuse at some point, i'm guessing it had something to do with all the wires i added for the headlight kit and the deep water i had just been through. But i went to start the bike and nothing worked, sure enough the fuse was a pretty black color, i'm so glad they include a spare fuse. I'm also very happy that i remembered to pack the tools before i left the house.

Lessons learned on this trip:
-check bike (including brakes) before leaving
-don't try to take turns too fast
-be physically prepared for a long trip
-be sure you have spare fuses
-pack any tools you may need

I think it was one of the best trips i've been on for a long time though, stops weren't too long, lots of nice scenery and a good group to travel with. I look forward to doing it again as soon as possible.

I Hope it was Painless

Well i got the call this morning, they took my golf apart to check the timing. What they found is definitely bad news for my little car. The bolt to hold the crank pulley was loose and this stripped my crank pulley, and ruined the crank shaft. Since this would definitely throw the timing off, and the diesel is an interference engine, it's pretty safe to say that the pistons have probably done a pretty good job of mashing the valves. That may explain why the car has been smoking non stop lately. They estimated that if the valves are gone it would be about 8-10 hours of labour with a total of about $2500 for parts and labour.

Now if this were a brand new ferrari it would be a much simpler choice, fix 'er up she's a hot little red sports car. But nope, we are talking about a 1993 VW Golf with a wrinkled hood, no grill, no radiator fan, two chipped headlights, one working wiper, and a heater that spits pine needles. So even if i spend $2500 on the car to get it working again i doubt that it would be worth the $2500. Which is bad news for the golf...i think her time has passed, may she rest in peace.

Official time of death 12:35PM June 10th, 2005

Overdue Trip

I was definitely more then overdue for a trip out with the bike. I had the bike out for a bit on the weekend when my sister was out with her family, but only around the yard.

So tonight we went out to see if we could find some new trails. We managed to find a few dead ends and some mud. On that note, it's way too easy to dig a rut in the mud with my back tire. Next time i'm going to be sure that i don't pick a soupy spot to turn the bike around...i could have dug myself quite the hole there, although I will admit that the mud is fun.

This trip was a nice slow one so we even managed to see a bit of wildlife. A camera with a nice zoom lense sure would have come in handy. But i'd snap a picture move closer, snap another one and keep hoping that i could get a bit closer. No perfect pictures, but they turned out half decent.

I can't believe i waited this long to go for a bike trip, i really enjoy being on the bike. It's so easy to drive, even on rough trails, i'm looking forward to the weekend so that i can take it out again.