cowpuc

I had kind of a rough childhood, ended up living on the street when I was 15. Those were some pretty rough years BUT, out of it all I did make the connection between getting a job, working and providing for myself at a very early age. By the time I was 23 I had my second home (this one was actually livable) bought and paid for (thanks to a GREAT job tig welding for the Boilermakers) bought and paid for in preparing for a family of my own. Met Tippy , and had our first Christmas together = I thought was the BESTEST Christmas EVER at the time BUT: We ended up having our first child 7 months after our wedding night. A little girl who later in life would earn the biker name of Awahoo after 3 days of touring on the back of my first 1st Gen as an 8 year old,, getting side tracked here.. Awahoo decided it was time for her to come into the world even though it was two months early for her arrival. I will never forget Tippy complaining that she was hurting.. It was late (bout midnight) and the Doctor said to give her a couple tylonal and she would be fine. Make her take a couple tylonal, made her take em, she could not lay down in the bed so knelt on the floor and put her shoulders on the bed next to me. Fell back asleep only to be awakened a bunch of times by her moaning and squeezing my hand. It was strange cause about 1:30a.m. I happen to look at the clock, next time it happened I looked at the clock again and it was 1:33,, back asleep - happened again, 1:36.... About that time it actually dawned on me that the Doctor was wrong and that she was in labor:doh:.. This was also about the time when Tip shook me and asked me to look down there cause it felt like something was coming out of her :doh:.. I looked and sure enough, I could see the top of Awahoo's little head peaking back at me:yikes:.. This is when the REAL excitement began!! Oppsss,, gotta run,, Tip needs me,, be right back!!!!

I KNEW I should not have sold my 59 to that guy from Alaska!!! He ruined the dad gum thing:rant:!! With ya Don,, would LOVE to take that puppy for a rip!!

:scratchchin:And here I thought at least one of us lop eared sneaky varmints was gonna get excommunicated after all the thats been going on around here.. So, what do you guys think about the new Harleys? :lightbulb:By the way,, I had a couple teeth pulled a couple weeks ago to get ready for my a new life with my first shot at getting some partials. This being done by a new family dentist. Had a little trouble with one of those removed biters getting a "dry socket". After only my 3rd visit with this new dentist, the guy walks up to me sitting there in his dentist chair waiting for him and guess what the first words out of his mouth were? He says,,, "hows my favorite troublemaker's dry socket doing?" Fixed his little bandwagon,,, before my appointment was over I had invited him and his wife out to one of our Hot Dog Meet n Eats next summer to meet some REAL troublemakers

And they also knew from first hand experience that the Detective would eventually find a way around the Wardens tender guidance and that

,, you varmints and your fancy shmancy trailers,, always pickin on my poor little blue Menards tent:95:

MY KINDA GUY THERE Trusty!!! an Willie sounds as good as ever on those old 10 for a dollar Good Will tapes too!

Hoping everything worked out well Jeff!! Sitting here wondering how your doing - rest easy my friend and THANK YOU for unplugging the Washer before you left the house!!

Got that right brother!! FYI @bongobobny , our good friend and brother in grime @Flyinfool went under the knife this morning for ankle surgery - PRAYERS UP AND BLESSINGS DOWN for that varmint! Didnt know if you knew or not so,, :think:now you do:thumbsup:

OUTSTANDING read and OUTSTANDING pics Kic!! What a PURDY machine you got there my friend and :dancefool:on your additives:thumbsup2:!! THANK YOU for posting this up Kic - made my day!

If it is gas, look right above the spot under your scoot and see if you can pin point where its dripping from and follow it from there. Not sure where the carb overflow tubes exit the frame on a 2nd Gen but I do know that if you have a sticky float or dirty float valve in a carb it will drain like you are talking Chaq - check the ends of those overflow hoses for dampness. Also, it dont take a lot of fuel to make a small puddle - amazing how a far a few drops will spread. I have found when looking for leaks like that the easiest for me is looking with the garage dark and then using a real bright pin light - easier to see little reflections of damp fuel on carb bodies and such.

Yea that George Lucas is a genius,, part 4 was actually the first one released back in the late 70's - was not moved around in sequence like lots of folks think, it was actually clearly marked right at the beginning as such. Then 5 and 6 came out, than not long ago part 1 came out and now we have 1 thru 6 and 7 is on its way. Like most folks on here, I was never much of a Movie or TV watcher (to many other things to do) but I was always attracted to Star Wars,, ok,, and Star Trek,, and spaghetti Westerns (I LOVED Trinity!) and Hogan's Hero's, and The Stooges,, think I watched more TV than I remember watching For all you live long Star Wars varmints,,, WHAT ON EARTH HAPPENED TO PRINCESS LEIA (Carrie Fisher)? And Tip and I saw a quick shot of Mark Hamill (Luke) last night on the news - WOW, didnt even recognize either one of them - did we all get old or something:doh: Sure am glad I aint change that much:stickpoke:

WOW ZZZZZZZZZ(06) WOW WOW WOW Bluesky - THAT is AWESOME!! Is your son still living in NYC and planning on driving his Vette there? Having driven cars and ridden 1st Gens a fair amount in NYC (daughter did Med-School at Cornell, 69th and 1st in Manhatten - talk about FUN!!) I gotta say that I personally can not see myself putting a ton of money into an awesome car like that and than driving Manhattan with it. trying to paint a word picture of why I have that opinion:think:,,, ok - think I got it,, ever take a close look at the bodies on the taxis roaming around NYC:doh: = they look like that for a reason:hihi:.. Other side of the coin = I can sure understand why your son would want one = THAT is an AWESOME car!!

The first thing to do is find out if what you are seeing is actually gas. Best way I know to determine whether its fuel is rub it and give it a sniff. There are a lot of potential "leaks" of fuel from your scoot, everything from carb overflows, small crack in a fuel filter, a seeping fuel line.. First determine whether or not it actually is gas and we go from there..

These guys are like Angels on my shoulders, THANK YOU @syscrusher!! Best be listening to them Angels Gdub!

I have just lived with it and covered quite a few miles in doing so (current 83 has over 300k on her and NEVER had a good clutch), I have always just avoided hitting the retro rockets up in those higher gears and, if I did, tried to avoid the slip so not to burn up my plates.. Gotta keep in mind also that I dont mind riding beater scoots, to the point of also riding em with no second gear out till they are junk too (just to give you some insight into what meets our needs). Just depends on what your after I guess. I will say this, I have a V-Max now and that thing is SO nice - I can nail it in high gears and actually get to feel the mighty v-4 pull through those upper gears - WAYYYYY nice!! Something that I have found REALLY helps with mine has been the type of oil I run, stay away from "car" oils of the High Mileage types, I use Truck Oils like Rotella 15-40 or and Walmart 20-50 a LOT.. Seems to work better as far as preventing clutch slippage. I know from experience that our scoots (MK1's - 83/84's) have a "half plate" in the clutch basket. Its the first plate to go into the basket when your putting it back together. I always theorized that this fiber plate missing half its surface was probably a big part of the reason I could never get a good solid clutch. I did try replacing that with an extra full plate I had (that is whats in Tweeks - my bike - right now). It was a used part though and it came out still slipping in the range you are talking. Been in there a LOT of miles! The newer scoots (MK2's = 86 to 93's) I think all have the updated Diaphram clutch spring and they seem to be a lot better of system than we have.. I have a running "parts" 87 that I have ridden and indeed, having a solid clutch all the way thru the gears is pretty cool!! Luke, if I jump on my 83, by myself, not loaded for touring,, run up to 4 grand in 4th or 5th gear and NAIL IT - I garantee you that my clutch will slip and I will have to tease it a little with the throttle to keep it from doing so,, been like that for many miles!! I also assure you that this malady is fixable and, if I or you want a good clutch, someone like Skydoc has the knowledge and parts to accomplish the task! Just I never took the time and spent the cash to accomplish it..

Less than 24 hours and it will be all done Jeff,, PRAYERS UP AND BLESSINGS DOWN MY FRIEND for a well done surgery and a 100% recovery outcome!! Right here rootin for ya brother!!

OUTSTANDING you lop eared varmint Mirider rascal!!! :dancefool: Just finished a really good homemade Turkey Pot Pie and actually told Tip that it made my mouth DRUEL for a good o Yooper Pasty = PERFECT TIMING DAVE:thumbsup: Gonna hafta score some of them critters next year when we all get up that way for a Greet - Meet n Eat Meat ol buddy!! Ok,, we never figured this out did we?,,, close your eyes,, picture you and Sue riding across the Big Mack on Big Mack,,, you get to the north side of the bridge and a take a left on "2" so you go thru that western part of Saint Ignas. You stay on 2 following along Lake Michigan - a few miles out of town you come to a small Road Side picnic area on a hill top on your left hand side, you go down the hill and there is a small stand alone Pasty Shop on your left.. BEST OF THE BEST:thumbsup: Only problem is they have no place to sit and eat so you gotta sit on the lawn to gobble it up

Sounding like our kinda varmint Larry!! Have you figured out how to use the VR Calendar thingy yet? LOTS of good options always popping up there. Also might wanna keep an eye peeled around here in the Water Hole for Meet n Greet opportunities. One of my favorite M n G's has gotten to be one called "Pucs Greet - Meet n Eat Meat"s. While not the fanciest shig dig by no stretch of the word - that particular M n G has experienced major growth spurts and has gotten AMAZING reviews, probably because of the OUTSTANDING Hot Dogs that my crew of misfits tend to create. Most of the lop eared varmints who have attended are from Michigan but we have had several unscrupulous critters come stay with us - some even from Canada - for one of these events. That is never a problem, we have lots of room for camping if necessary BUT usually its not cause we also have xtra sleeping area's here in the house.. Keep it in mind if your ever thinking you might wanna Venture up into Michigan. IMHO - attending one of "Puc's Greet - Meet n Eat Meat" events is closely seconded by one of @Freebirds Maintenance Days (I can just see anyone reading this going :scared:and saying "I cant believe ol Pucster said that :big-grin-emoticon:" - to them I say ). Closer to you (Don is in Oberlin Ohio) and, after FINALLY attending my first one last year I gotta say that I have been missing something very special and really amazing all these years - LOTS of fun:thumbsup:!!! Of course, you will find MANY other opportunities on the Calendar (some right out your back door), I have attended a number of them thru the years and I have yet to find one that Tip and I did not have a BLAST at and ALWAYS felt TOTALLY welcome. It would be fun to just run around all summer and make as many of these outings as possible Oh, by the way,,, @bj66 started a new one last year called "The Pie Butt 26.2" . Its during the big Sturgis Rally, open camp on the prairie - then head into Newel South Dakota and become an official Pie Butt 26.2 Rider (we rival and with the Iron Butt Riders dont we guys?!!!!). You would LOVE it!! Venture West is amazing, an International is a must do, @OrlinEngh 's shin dig in Wisconsin is incredible, if you can catch a Vogel (:think:exactly what is a Vogel you may ask:scratchchin:) and the the Dragon with @DragonRider and that bunch you WILL come home a changed man, have yet to make a New York shindig but have heard amazing reports and still hoping to - same with this thing called Pig in a Tree (Pork in the Pines).. Hmmm, I KNOW I am missing a few thousand different ride ops here BUT you get the point I am sure!! All the best in '16 @Larry1963 and hope to cross roads with you sometime!!

Anyone got tickets to go see the new Star Wars movie? Tip and I LOVE Star Wars (she is sitting here watching part 5 right now ) and someday soon plan on having a date night to go watch it.. Cant wait to hear your opinions (without giving the story away of course:no-no-no:) if any of you lop eared Yoda lookin varmints happen to get to it before we do!! May the V-FORce be with you my fellow Star Wars lovers!!

Luke,,,, it is your destiny!! May the V-FORce be with you (:scared:I may have just hit on another good one liner) !! At least more than it has been with me! Out of 5 MK1 1st Gen's I have yet to have a clutch that didnt do that - especially while loaded with gear and riding 2 up. I have tried new springs and even new clutch plates and always ended up with a slipper right in the spot where your talking Luke. I have not tried heavy duty springs though,,, I know that someone on here sells them, I think it is @skydoc_17 that are suppose to be the cats meow. Hindsight being 20/20 If I were gonna go for it I would order a set of his and deal with him on figuring it out - he has had LOTS of good reviews:thumbsup:

Hey T, have never owned either of the bikes your dealing with but thought you might find this video of interest. Might be able to glean some pertinent info from it. Pretty cool set up IMHO. All the best in your search for anwswers. Puc

@eusa1, gotta ask but if answering this is a secret I TOTALLY understand. I am one of those folks that have seen Raggies bike sparkle and yea:178:.. Is that an actual 3 step procedure you go thru to get them to SPARKLE like that (probably should not be so nosy - sometimes my curiousity gets me in trouble)? Do you do other parts on bikes that produce that "look"? My gosh brother those suckers are GORGEOUS!!:clap2:Someday I am gonna bump into Raggy again and I am gonna make a video of what your artistic work is all about. Just beautiful!

and more Dougs n Dales n Bobs n Darrins n Joes n Bills n Daves n Petes n Sams n Jamies n Joshuas n Brads n Mikes n Sharons n Dawns n Jills and on and on.. Almost put down more Tippy's but that aint possible cause she is one of kind,, sure glad I got her when I did:173:!!

Indeed Gdub, I too would like to thank that @Prairiehammer for sharing that.. I have seen and been around numerous 1st Gens (have only owned MK1's though) and never ever ever have a noticed that!! Ya dab burned lop eared varmint Kev,, every time I get around you I end up learning something new - THANKS a gazillion brother!! Gdub, being new to the bike - it is possible that the previous owner actually rode the forks completely out of oil. Maybe put a little dish soap in a spray bottle of water - put air in the forks and spray around the forks and see if its leaking there. Also check the other areas. DONT FORGET TO CHECK THE SHRADER VALVE = WHERE YOU PUT THE AIR IN AT (be pretty cool if all it was was that little valve needed snugging up:big-grin-emoticon:). If you do find that the air is leaking from the fork seals it might not be a bad idea to double check the condition of your front brake pads. If he ran the old girls forks dry so the air is now able to get out those seals, my money is on you will also find ruined brake pads cause the flow of oil going down the forks always seem to find its way into the brake caliper.. Makes a real mess in there but totally cleanupable.. All the best in figuring it out, keep us posted on your its coming when ya got time! Also, Godspeed on the ankle healing process- that stuff is never fun!!

Don started this thread and it seems like we have gotten a number of new family members lately!! I for one think that is neato acapeeto'! Like everyone else on here, I LOVE making new friends - a person simply cannot have enough friends! At a time when our planet seems to have an abundance of problems with hatred and fighting, we seem to be able to get along very nicely within our club of lop eared varmints that are known as VentureRiders.. After reading some recent posts from folks who recently joined us, something popped into my mind. I recalled some deep sadness I had had over hearing of a family member who had chosen to leave our midst a while back. Remembering this thread, I found myself wondering if there was something that could be talked about within our family that could help in reducing the possibility of something like that happening again - at least reduce the probability of it.. Thought maybe, being the Christmas Season (Peace on Earth and all that) plus seeing all the new names around here, this may be a good time to toss this out.. Some thoughts.. 1. Always try to NOT take things that are said to personal. 2. Joking around and teasing one another is something that many of us enjoy doing, having hurt feelings come from poking fun is NOT fun for anyone though - if you contribute to teasing and poking fun PLEASE know that you probably will get teased back. If you don't contribute, please feel free to chuckle with the rest of us but be careful not to take any of our ribbing each other to heart.. An example is if we are teasing each other about the type of scoot we ride we are NOT referencing our true feelings in any form. I for one have a deep passion for ALL motorcycles and have the highest respect and love for ALL my brothers/sisters that ride them - just because I give someone a hard time about their Harley or their Wing or their moped does not mean I actually feel that way.. I know I kid around a LOT about 1st Gens being faster than 2nd Gens but in all honesty - I really have no idea which one is faster and seriously, I dont really care - it is fun to joke about it though. Also, I tease a fellow member here who I love dearly about owning a machine that controls the weather, he doesn't really have one BUT he sure is fun to poke fun at. 3. Our moderators and the owner of VR (Freebird) are really GREAT people. Unfortunately, part of their job here involves doing things that can easily be taken personally by the rest of us varmints. I have had threads moved, been part of group scolding for placing posts in the wrong area's and all that. After careful heart examination I have generally been able to see where the actions that one of our leaders had taken needed to be done for the benefit of our site. This sounds easy but I will tell ya, in the middle of it all it can be a difficult thing to do. Something that has really helped me in dealing with some of this has been remembering that our leaders are just people too, the big difference is that they are the ones who have to do the job of keeping things in order, safe and flowing smoothly for our benefit. Another thing that I have found that has helped me is getting out and actually meeting some of them. For some reason (in my case anyway), getting to shake hands with, ride with and even share a hot dog with these varmints helps a LOT with understanding them and their collective positions. They are ALL amazing people who deserve our respect and love. 4. If you are the original poster of a post, try to respond to people who have posted with an answer and not just disappear. This seems to give the responders a feeling that you appreciate them and the time they took to write. Sounds crazy but something inside me tells me that little things like that really do matter. 5. We cant go wrong by using those little "thanks" and "like" icons at the bottom of posts. I still think that there really is something to Ernest P. Worrell's little song about those three little words = please and thank-you. 6. Never be afraid to offer suggestions to technical questions by others, there are LOTS of really mechanically inclined people on the site who may or may not agree with your suggestions BUT nobody knows everything about everything and a really great benefit of a family like ours is that we can and do learn from each other - no matter what stage of the learning curve we are at. Always remember - there are NO stupid questions! 7. I LOVE pictures - for me (and others too - I KNOW this for a fact) pictures included with a story are like cake and ice cream,, yummmmm good!! It seems like many folks have reported having problems getting pics to load on VR.. For some reason something inside me tells me that even some folks may have given up because of those difficulties. I want to say that we WANT to see your pics. A really big deal that I ran into a long time ago had to do with pictures being to big to load - I seriously have come to believe that picture size is the number one reason that pics wont load up on the site. I personally use "Paint" to resize pics if needed BUT I know that Don (Freebird) has a thread in the forums all about this - PLEASE use it and keep the wonderful pics coming!! 8. We have a members map that shows a little balloon that points to our home locations. I LOVE to spend time playing on that map and seeing where friends of mine are from and am proud to have my name pop up on there because I am proud to be part of our family. If you haven't done so and wouldn't mind doing so, please include your balloon on that map. 9. If you read about a Meet n Greet (or other gathering) and feel a pull to go and meet some of these people in person PLEASE do so. This may sound crazy but I know from years of hanging out with different groups of bikers how hard it can be because the wondering whether or not I will "fit" in still bugs me too sometimes. I just want to say that I have never experienced a more receptive group of folks than I have here on VR. To put this into perspective, Tip and I are non-drinkers - I have been to over night gatherings with this group and have NEVER had an issue arise from turning down consumption and NEVER felt out of place or looked down upon for being a non-drinker. Just very good folks who accept me the way I am - cant ask for more than that! This goes for folks from the East Coast, West Coast, North coast including Canada and those Southna's are AWESOME too!! Even if you end up driving your car - you will be welcome! 10. Ever notice those cute little badges under peoples Avatars? Ever click on one and see what they are about? If not you should - those badges are there because someone thought enough to nominate someone for one reason or another.. Some really interesting reading can be found by clicking on those award badges. Did you know that you can nominate your friends here for special awards,, acts of kindness and all that too? Pretty cool really because those follow the deserving person on all their posts, sort of a real easy way to learn about each other!! Think about using those as a way to say thank you to a new or old friend! Just another way to make each other feel a little more welcome and appreciated from my perspective. 11. There is a way to "friend" people here on VR. I dont know about anybody else but I like that a LOT.. Clicking on someones name, reading about them and what they are about, clicking on that little "friend" icon and then being accepted by them as a friend is really pretty neat - I have always felt like a person cant have to many friends and that little icon sure makes it easy to have them here on VR! On a side note, a while back I did that and within a very short time after clicking on that icon I got a phone call. The voice of a person I had never met was on the other end of phone and said he had called to introduce himself and "meet" me before he accepted my friend request - HOW COOL IS THAT!! We talked for a good while and now both are looking forward to meeting some day in real life - it dont get no better than that!! 12. If you go to a "Maintenance Day" go to learn about your bike/meet new folks and not necessarily for some free repair work. Most folks LOVE helping others but really dont care for being taken advantage of. Also, dont be afraid to jump in and spin a few wrench's - even if your like me and concerned about things like "what if I cant firgure it out",, there will usually be someone around that can!