What Did You Do To Your Wing Today?

[pidjones]

Dumped the gallon of acetone that I was soaking the varnish out of Pete's tank with back into the can, dried all of that out, then added ~2 gallons of vinegar to it for de-rusting.

[Fred Camper]

Good news is the water pump seems to be ok. The two circled clamps were both leaking and the lower clamp had to be replaced. The plumbing system is downright intimidating. System now holds pressure for a long time with no known leaks. Tomorrow I hope to get her back together and start riding again. Also sprayed some foaming cleaner in the cavity and rinsed out a loot of grime.

Yeah, lots better to replace clamps than a pump. Nice karma.

[rcmatt007]

sounds like you got a lot of loot with that grime

[ritalz]

Fixed the loot post.
Haven't been riding much lately, boss has been sick again. Had another big surgery last week so riding is going to be limited for a few weeks while recovering. I did just look at my maintenance records for the 1800 and noticed I have 21k miles on the front tire and 18k on the rear with lots of tread remaining. I did pick up a nail in the rear last summer with almost no noticeable change in handling (it's a runflat ct). The profile is more squared than the traditional tire but anything over 35 mph is not noticeable. My next one will be a little better suited.

[Fred Camper]

Recover fast once again AL. We need you around here.

[Track T 2411]

Finally got around to tearing down the 1200 forks. Someone was in them before (probably for seals), and, as usual, both Allen head bolts at the bottom of the forks are buggered up, one so badly the 6 mm wrench would barely bite at all. Not wanting to get into the hassle of drilling and such, I started looking for an alternative.
My SAE Allen wrenches were sitting right there, so I grabbed the 1/4 inch. It was just a tad too big, but almost fit. The bolt is toast anyway, so why not see if I can force (read BEAT) it in? Only problem with that is you can't really beat on an Allen wrench that way because of the bend. So...

20240324_170438.jpg

... take a 1/4 inch drive bit holder (which is also long enough to clear the studs) and pound it into the bolt head. The hex end is ever so slightly chamfered, which allows it to start fairly easily. Then just use a 1/4 Allen wrench in the bit end. Another advantage is that the extra length allows one to keep the bit square to the bolt, making it less likely to strip...

[Fred Camper]

Great idea, can be used in many situations.

[Whiskerfish]

Put the wife on the back and rode up to the Jamestown National Park HQ. Got my free lifetime National Park Pass for our trip this summer.
Beautiful day, LOTS and LOTS of bikes out. Passed one gathering that was forming up in a parking lot in Newport News. Had to be close to 400 bikes. Cops were setup at every intersection for them on the way to Yorktown.

[Whiskerfish]

After mowing three yards I aired up the tires in the 75 and fired her up. Just a quick blast up and down the thruway but still such a great way to cool off after some hot work.

[Fred Camper]

And to think you were a retired guy who only does one yard a day unless it is hot, then 1 yard a week.

[CYBORG]

Retirerment ain't for sissies !

[Whiskerfish]

Little old Widowed woman lives 2 doors down. Normally Carl the retired Trooper that lives between us does her yard, but Carl just had a heart ablation and is off his feet. So my yard, his yard, and Effie's yard all needed done yesterday.

Gonna be near 80 today. Struggling with the decision of spreading Mud or Riding. Had a good ride Saturday so I will probably do the responsible thing and spread mud today

[Fred Camper]

Mud had to dry, so that is riding time.

[theailer]

I drove my wing today.

[Whiskerfish]

I ran 2 tanks of Non Eth Gas through the 1800 today. Boy that really shook out the winter cobwebs!!