Ahh… a cool front came thru, highs only in the low 90s and humidity only around 40%, that’s not bad for September in Houston. I went to the HalfPriceBooks down in Clear Lake. Everywhere I went I was stuck in stop and go bumper to bumper traffic. 1st and 2nd gear mostly, even on the interestate. Well, the interstate is where things started to go south, even tho I was headed north. It quit revving, then it stumbled and died. I rolled off onto the shoulder and started fooling with it. I switched to reserve, but that wasn’t it. It would stumble but wouldn’t catch, if I twisted the throttle at all it wouldn’t even stumble. So I choked it and it atleast stumbled into life, but wouldn’t rev over 4 grand. If I feathered the clutch I could get it rolling without killing it so I took off down the shoulder passing all the parked cars in 2nd gear until it crapped out going up the next over pass. So monkeyed with it some more and it wouldn’t catch. I just sat there and let it cool for a few minutes and got it stumbling some more. Wandered down the shoulder passing all the same cars again until I finally got to the next off-ramp. I got it across 3 lanes of traffic going much faster than me and into a parking lot, where it died again. I rolled halfway across the parking lot, then pushed it the rest of the way so I could be in the shadow of the smallest damn tree in the world. Here I started taking things apart and noticed that the clear plastic inline fuel filter was kinda loose, so I reseated the fuel line and hose clamps on that thing. It’s kinda warped, I need to replace it and remount the whole thing really. I got that done and tried it out, and it would sorta run, a little better than before, but not as good as usual. Cathy was still on her way over so I sat back to let it cool while she showed up. Well, when she pulled in I tried it again and it was running a hell of a lot better than before, I decided to chance riding it home as it wasn’t that much further and now I’d have a car with hazard-lights behind me. I picked up my helmet from where I had set it next to the bike to work on it, and IT WAS FULL OF FIRE ANTS!!!! Grrrrr. Can’t get much worse right?

Well, I got it home, it’s in the garage, and I don’t even care to look at it right now. It’ll probably sit there until my next weekend off. I’m guessing vapor lock due to all the heat, but I need to check the fuel lines as well. Friggin ants in the helmet. ¡Qué Sheesh! 

(edit)Nick is suggesting I check the coils. Dunno why I didn’t think of that myself. When it first started cutting out the first thing I did was try jiggling the plug cables as I went down the road. Once it died tho I was mostly focussed on the fuel issue. Oh well. I’ll check both then.

Well, it only took 3 trips and 3.5 hours total, but I finally convinced the DMV to give me my ‘M’ endorsement on my license. Taking the test was the easy part, aced it, waiting in line and being told to come back and just general ineptitude by the clerks was the hard part. Further proof that Gov’t at any level shouldn’t be in charge of anything more complex than making cheese sandwiches.

Bike still needs a paint job but the building is picturesque

Here’s where all I went today. Sunshine, mid 80s, not too bad. About 50 miles total including the stop at Kroger’s earlier. No events mechanically, as I get more confident in the bike I’d like to go a bit more out in the country. Hopefully with company. Only annoying part of my day was a left turn signal that wouldn’t turn green for me. I’m getting much smoother taking off in 1st tho. I haven’t stalled it yet, but I have bucked it once or twice. Either I’m getting better or the clutch is getting smoother the more it’s used.

I had to go downtown today, and I really wanted to ride the bike. I checked the radar, and it looked clear from my house on in. I put on the jacket and helmet, got the bike out, clear skies. Let it warm up then headed north, I got about halfway when my blue skies disappeared and a wall of water appeared in front of me. So I chickened out, exited, took the turn around and tried to beat it back home. Almost, I got a little splash for about a minute. Dropped the bike off at the house, got in the truck, and headed for downtown again. Not a drop on the windshield the whole way in. I must have somehow stumbled on an Indian rain dance between my clutchings and shiftings.
My pants are still wet

Finally got the correct grips delivered. They feel pretty good, they’re foam grips without the chrome ends. Nice I think. I tried the fancy grip glue, that was a mess, literally. It set up way too fast, I only had a couple inches of the grip on before it got sticky and I had to pull the whole mess off, thus gluing the rubber end cap inside the grip. I forced that out with the handle of a ratchet, which I promptly found my grip glued onto… I cleaned that all up with some grease cutting kitchen cleaner and a 3M scotch pad then started fresh with the good old hair spray. Took me a while to find some hairspray in this house as it’s not the 1980s anymore, but eventually I found an old can in some of my mother-in-law’s stuff that she left in the guest room. This worked much better, stayed slippery most of the way on. I’ll let it set up over night to bond, besides its storming and I’m too big a weenie to go out in the rain.

I also took this opportunity to put my fuse block cover on. 1 coat of primer, and 3 coats of black, and plenty of sanding later you can’t see that God awful gold paint anymore.

I finally settled on new grips. I chose the “Comfort Road” grips by Grab-On. The shop called to day to say they arrived, and I drove all the way over just to find out that the wrong ones were shipped. Well mebbe I’ll get them by Monday or Tuesday. In the meantime I’ve pulled my brake master cylinder off. The sight glass was leaking so I figured I’d pull it off and fix it. The epoxy fix I did on my clutch mastercyl is working really well so far so I’m pulling the same trick on the brake mastercyl. It’s set up on my bench waiting for the epoxy to dry. Hopefully it’ll be dry when my new grips come in and I can put it all together. It’ll be nice to finally ride it to work and such.

Well, the tripodometer reads 81miles now. I rode it across town, and realized that my brake master cyl has a moderate-slow leak same as the clutch mastcyl had. So I’ll be doing my same epoxy fix to it this week. I also desparately need to find new grips that will fit my handle bars. The ones I have are split and I spend half my time just trying to hold it together. That makes your right hand sore after a few miles. I also noticed that there’s alot of wind at 60mph. I never thought I would admit this, but I might like a windshield someday.

Oh man, I found this attrocious thing and had to snap some pics. It was dark and I had the exposure turned all the way up, but I think you can still get the idea. It was much much worse in person. Not only was this poor poor poor thing painted gold, but it was a rattlecan job. No sanding btwn coats, no clear coat, and not quite gold either, more like baby poo. My bike is 3 different colors and a patch of rust, and I’m less ashamed to ride it that I would be to ride this thing.

Good news? I finally got a fuseblock cover. Bad news? Its GOLD!

Well, it only took 4.5 hours, and 2 retarted inspectors, but I finally got the sticker. The hangup? Not the bike, the bike passed perfectly, I didn’t have the damn “plate” to put the sticker on! Well I picked one up for $5 at the salvage yard, where I found the ugliest bike I’ve ever seen…