cowpuc

I wonder if this is anywhere near a small town that the mainstreet is also the Tennessee/Georgia border (TN on one side, GA on the other).. Years ago my daughter and I rode thru a town like that and ended up shortly after on some of the tightest switchbacks I have ever ridden - the kind that absolutely no way would a semi truck EVER be able to make the corners,, I doubt even a dump truck could make em.. Sound familiar to anyone? Would LOVE to find that place again!!

Indeed brother - THAT is TERRIBLE aint it? There is a poll being ran here somewhere,, here it is http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?111396-Biker-hit ,,,, where us guys been yakking about it all.. Pretty interesting points of VR views being talked about over yonder... THANKS for posting it up in here Rand!!

Thought the whole point of the FOB was to keep the bike from being ridden off without the FOB within a certain distance...

Ok,, think this moment of thoughtlessness is solved Bill! Also REALLY glad that you pointed it out Bill cause I had completely forgotten that the bag that contains that new cover did have a silver color section to it too.. Phew,, that could of been nasty if you would have gotten all the way to California and came home with the wrong bag with a new cover in it brother!!! PS - sorry about the lousy pics too,, I promise to take some good close ups of Tweeks next new cover when we get one!! PS PS,, sorry bout the hi-jack Eck!!

OOOPPSSS,, VERY VERY GOOD POINT SIR BILL, my bad!!!! Might take a second here but I will see if I can find a pic of the cover in the netting before we got to where the net ejected the poor thing... Try to have it up here before you folks head out to search for it... Hold on..

Tip n I usually use the 100% "natural" method for keeping Tweeks cover cleaned - it's affordable, enviro friendly and probably more fun than any other method. It works like this - if it looks like it is gonna rain while we are setting up our tent we toss the cover over Tweeks so the cover gets cleaned off. This also keeps the dirt, grease and oils that Tweeks has accumulated over the years of touring from getting into the rain water and contaminating the area's ground water.. I do have to admit that this method is not for most sissy bikers though as there are times when a nasty western storm will come up in the middle of the night, which will wake Tippy up enough to need to wake me up to remind me that I hadn't washed Tweeks cover in a while. This normally results in me being the one (I am not the girl/sissy in the relationship between Tip/Tweeks and myself) to crawl outside the tent, face the skeeters (there are ALWAYS skeeters in non-desert places where it rains - remember that if your ever inclined to ask why I LOVE the desert) - pickers that stick into your feet (I dont always remember to put the "its time to take a bath" flip flops in the tent) and the Bears.. ,,,, just thought of something here... If there are any of you who dont own a bike cover (I remember those days vividly,, I used to just park under those gas station overhangs and sleep in their bathrooms because I couldnt afford a cover either) and would like a BRAND NEW XXL touring bike cover I can tell you where one is.. Back in '14 Tip/Tweeks and I were riding about 50 miles north of the motel in California where a few of our VR members had stayed for the night.. I think that was Redding or Red Bluff or something like that (I can picture the motel in my mind cause Tip n I stopped and left a note for that group that we had been there and chose to go on up into the mountains to camp for the night).. Anyway, I had purchased a BRAND NEW COVER for Tweeks and was really looking forward to Tippy waking me up in the middle of night some where down in Texas to give the cover its first bath.. Ironic thing was that in over a month of riding before this incident IT NEVER RAINED!! As we were traveling those mountains far north of where we had left the note for those VR varmints, the cargo netting that was holding Tweeks new cover on must of felt sorry for the unwashed cover and decided it needed a chance at a better life.. If you need a cover and don't mind seeing some of the most GORGEOUS country known to man, you could make a trip up there and probably find that brand new cover!! By the way,, the cover is still in it's BRAND NEW factory carrying bag - Blue in color so it should be fairly easy to find.. If you look at the pic below you will notice the we did stop and look for it but the ick-spress we happen to be on was One-Way and I refused to ride the opposite direction on a one way road for a cover that needed a bath! Its yours if you find it!!

NOW THATS A TRUCK BOSSMAN!! She's a beauty that is FOR SURE!!:dancefool: That thing looks like it could pull the pond monsters out of the pond even with a ton of hot dogs in the back of it to feed the multitudes standing on the shoreline watching the spectacle:Bunny: Congrats Don!

:Bunny2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I71cY9Ysy5U :Bunny:

You know your ol Dad Sonshine,, he keeps on VERY good terms with his neighbors.. I dont run my hot rod at night, I help them keep their stuff running and they dont tell the your Dad is nuts:big-grin-emoticon: actually they beg me to let em ride that ol beater too (and I do) ,,, maybe my is contagious

Oh yea,,, speed shifted that ol Muscle bike into third right in front of the Camera at 3:35 in the vid:big-grin-emoticon: Had to shut it down right away cause 105mph was making the neighbors driveway in front of me come up aweful quick

:lightbulb:just occured to me.. Years ago I bought a flexible reach tool from an Auto Parts store. It has a push button on it that forces out metal fingers to pick up bolts and parts that have fallen into obscure places. I am sure that by removing the little plastic push button and attaching the end where the push button once was you could put that end of the internal cable into a drill chuck and spin the inner cable with the drill. You would also be able to move the "fingers" in and out to get desired "ball" diameter as you are working down the inside of the horn.. You could even bend the fingers to form an actual ball shape if you wanted.. Not sure if they make them long enough for your application BUT - any reason why you could not work from both ends? Another thing that popped into my mind would be just to go to a Bicycle shop and get a cable for a bike - they sell em at all kinds of lengths for cheap. Cut the end of the cable off and fray it to create a ball on the end. Mount the other end of the internal cable in your drill and grind away..

WAY COOL G n V!!!! What kind of diameter on the "ball" are we talking, and how long will the apparatus need to be to reach into the areas you need to clean?

Hey Sys,, this is an interesting topic and I thank you for bringing it up. Personally, I learned the hard way many many years ago (on an old Harley) about trusting kickstands to mount and dismount. From that experience I simply refuse to do it.. I also have broken off a kickstand on one of my prior 1st Gens just from being used and truthfully,, I hardly trust the dog gone things with just the weight of the bike, much less with my leg should it ever snap and cause my leg to get under it while dismounting.. I feel for your situation though brother.. If I were faced with what you are describing I think I would actually look into fabbing up a whole different kickstand - much heavier duty, wider footprint and a better mounting system then the shoulder bolt and "ears" that the current stand mounts to.. I also think you are wise to reinforce that left peg. Have you considered even going to boards? I know these pegs can be slippery to stand on under certain conditions.. P.S. - that @Condor varmint aint joking when he mentions his method - did it on modern day tall dirtbikes for years myself! WORKS GREAT!!! Any chance you could devise a method like he is talking about - even having a boot strap made to assist in lifting up your foot? Sure seems a lot safer IMHO..

I ran a Full Bore home from the west coast a while back, ended up getting considerable more miles out of it than the 404's under the same conditions (lots of HOT tarmac) and later had a chance to run some mountains down south in LOTS of rain - that cheap Full Bore did an amazing job cutting thru water on the the roads, did a really fine job.. Another one that I would have no problem spooning on Tweeks thats for sure..

I voted crime from the perspective of at least giving the cager a chance to clarify in a court of law his clear statement of "I dont care" when told that he hit the folks on the bike - guy deserves a chance to explain himself before some very upset Dad of the kid on the back of the bike goes and puts the boots to him. I really dont see attempted murder here though (I think if he were actually planning to kill the guy and girl he would have been ticked that he missed his target), more along the line of willful negligent attempted manslaughter thru an act of road rage or at a very minimum Reckless Driving. To me, him stating that he didnt care could possibly be an indicator that he REALLY did not care about the human life's that he just about took. IMHO, it doesnt matter how upset he may have been about past experiences with other bikers, whether or not he was upset cause the biker crossed the double yellow or whether or not he was having some form of a bad day (all indicators of road rage IMHO), fact is, if he really truly did not care that he just hit someone he has no business being on the road - much less in possession of a potential weapon of mass destruction like a car - until the court system finds out what his mental status is.. All that said,, I am thinking there has got to be A LOT more to this story. I have a hard time understanding the "no citations" were issued comment and that the driver of the Cage wasn't placed under arrest until it was investigated further (if he would have went on after this accident and actually killed someone thru his negligence it seems like the responding Police Officials would have blood on their own hands).. No idea if any of you varmints remember this but a few years ago a young man over in Fon du Lac Wisconsin intentionally crossed the center line into an oncoming group of 10 bikers from Michigan.. Hit em like he was bowling for bikers, killed 4 if memory serves. One of my neighbors was involved in that nasty mess (thankfully he was riding toward the rear of the pac and lived to tell about it). The kid admitted he was out to hit bikers and hated em, ended up serving time but didnt get sent up for "murder". Vehicular Manslaughter I believe..

He may be old but ol Crud can still carry a tune!!

GORGEOUS PIC DAVE!! That Cut River spot is down right beautiful in the Summer months but that is BREATHTAKING!! Thanks brother!

Personally I love the Dragon and always have, kind of a call of the wild sort of thing I guess.. Sort of right up there with doing the Sturgis Rally, riding the Bonneville, coasting for a half hour straight non-stop into Kings Canyon, riding Death Valley at night during a full moon with no lights, camping in Chicago at an abandoned gas station where the building has "Crips Die Here" written on it in red paint, lane splitting on the I-5 in California during one of those 24 hour "rush" hours (do it on a fully packed 1st Gen with a passenger = defines what is meant by "rush hour"), racing down those longggg sweepers on the east side of St. Helens, trying to keep Tweeks upright in the snow on the Going To The Sun trail and following single and two track's from the waterfall's in Spearfish Canyon SD over to Devil's Tower WY.. In the end, I totally understand the parts hanging in the tree thingy too.. Sorta ranks right up there, in a strange sort of way, with the guy who buried all those cars in Texas:big-grin-emoticon: and made his own Stone Henge looking thingy.. I also like machine guns, wish we could still buy Dynamite at the local Hardware store, still miss the M-80's we use to get back in the 60's, miss walking around Manhattan at night, totally miss doing 100' jumps on my dirtbike, killing deer with my Bow from a 2' x 3' "Baker Board" hanging 30' up in Birch Tree, having a BLAST playing with Moe the Goat at Orlin's last summer, teasing and getting teased by lop eared varmints like FlyinFool-Yammer Dan-Billmac-MiRider-Drews-Eck-MarCarl-Raggy-FozzyBear-Wingman (list is to long - they know who they are), meeting as many VR members as I can IN REAL LIFE and still absolutely LOVE puttin around riding 2 up with Tippy on our little Honda Helix and would really enjoy riding the Dragon on it too:missingtooth:.. To each his own I reckon I reckon..

Probably didnt even take your leather jacket off and wrap your precious lady in it and ride in short sleeves for the whole ride either did ya Bill:big-grin-emoticon: Gotta be thoughtful with our ladies if we want them to ride along and double check our hotdogs for bugs and stuff before we eat em brother!!

Well look at that,, I posted that above post EXACTLY one hour from your original post brother,,, not sure what that means

My money is on the slave, the bleeder for it is under that little rubber cover in front of the forward bevel gear - down by your left foot if your sitting on it Chaplain.. That slave cylinder has a seal on its back side that is known to seep with age.. Maybe just pop that rubber cover and take a peek with a flashlight and see what ya see in there.. For the life of me I cant remember if its possible or probable that the slave can leak internally into the case,, ,, if so it's possible for it to leak and never show dampness externally.. Hopefully one of these very wise 1st Gen varmints will notice this and chime in:fingers-crossed-emo Not a hard job to swap out,, IMHO the worst part is getting the air out of the system so the clutch works perfect again but even that is not that bad brother!

Hey brother,, wanna have some more fun with your puter pics? Here is something that I discovered by goofing around with this thing.. Notice how the pics I posted in the thread above appear in both thumbnail and in EXPLODED view? I like doing that cause it makes the pictures JUMP right out at the reader (besides, some of these lop eared varmints are kinda lazy and dont like having to click on a thumbnail to see the pic ).. If you wanna try firing for affect,, here is how.. Go back to your original post here, click on "edit" in bottom right corner, scroll down till ya see the thumbnail pic, click on a thumbnail - the big pic will appear, right click on the bigger pic and find "copy image". Click on copy image and close the pic, place your cursor in the text body where you want the pic to appear, right click - click on "paste", full image should appear in body where text is. Do next pic and next pic and next in same way.. When all done dont forget to click on save.. PS - I havent gotten in trouble for doing this yet, if ya do get in trouble you didnt hear about any of this from me:witch_brew:

Some day when you least expect it, you folks will see what may appear to be a small Indian Reservation started along the roadway leading to your home Chaplain.. When that happens PLEASE be nice to them red skins (especially the bald one, the one with all the hair is a lot tougher:big-grin-emoticon:)

WOW ZZZZZZZZZZZ WOW WOW WOW KIC - VERY WELL DONE BROTHER!!:thumbsup::thumbsup: GREAT RIDE FOR A GREAT CAUSE WITH A GREAT BUNCH OF PEOPLE ON GREAT BIKES AND PROBABLY GREAT WEATHER WITH GREAT FOOD TOO - ENDING UP WITH SOME AWESOME (thought I was gonna say GREAT again didnt cha? ) PICS FOR YOUR GREAT FAMILY HERE ON VR - WHO COULD ASK FOR ANYTHING MORE cant yell anymore, voice is getting hoarse - thanks for including us my friend!!

Totally agree.. I like to push the pistons out with the pedal/lever at least exposing the full width of the new pads (just the pad portion - not the including the steel plates the pads are attached to) - gotta be careful not to pop the pistons all the way out and only exposing a pads worth will allow for a LOT of piston still in the caliper. Then take a strip of cloth about the same width as the exposed piston, spray it good with break cleaner. Loop the cloth around the exposed piston and move the cloth back and forth over the piston while pinching the ends together so the cloth stays tight. CLEAN THE PISTONS AND AREA WELL making sure you get any debris off the piston. Compressing clean pistons in will keep the Calipers from sticking..