cowpuc

cougars

Golden Years

Raggies thinkin about motorhomes,, he could call a dealer with a half a million dollar unit on his lot, dress up in a tux and a top hat and stop and look at the unit, tell the sales guy he has a couple people he wants to show it to and get permission than we all gather at the lot and have a Meet N Greet in a 500 thousand dollar motorhome at the dealership.. I will bring hot dogs, buns and will take pictures and write a story about it.. Bongo can bring drinks, Buckshot can bring chips and cole slaw, Carbon One can call the police and tell them someone stole his new Slingshot and he saw them headed north towards the bridge so the police will not be in the area during our Meet N Greet. Habfan can be our point man and report back here at the club house (VR) in case we need bailout money. The southern boys can be our backup to deliver the bailout cash if the Michigan State Police dont take Paypal.. The west coast chapter of our gang can be on standby for collecting and mailing survival food (Banana Nut Ice Cream from Leatherby's) if the whole thing backfires...

dislexia

Oh yea baby gotta whole lot a flippin goin on,,, we are an in one door and out the other society... Look everything over real well, as long as it has a clear title and it looks/rides and feels like its the real deal - I wouldnt be afraid of it.. As with anything though, I would go over it with a fine tooth comb - looking at nuts and bolts to see if things have been replaced/repaired, just make sure it looks straight.. Could also be the very reason the guy traded it in was so he didnt have to talk to others about it.. There are people who just dont like dealing with others,, I had a friend who had a shop that all he did was handled consignment bikes... It was amazing what he made off consignments just cause people didnt want to have to talk to others... Sure looks like a pretty bike to me Lenny BUT,, the real story can only be told by seeing it in person!!

Why?

Kinda cool.. that way you can see if anyones been talkin about cha behind your back...

This fast food joint located in his home town has FlyingFools inventiveness signature written all over it!! Yamaha V Max | eBay

pregnant

I am gonna go click on shout box a whole bunch of times just to make a bunch of noise and wake things up around here,,, my as well a little..

Weird how we can all hear the same sound but find different meanings in em,, I thought someone had recorded the sounds coming from Raggies man cave the night of his Meet n Greet last year...

Indeed dodger,, and all at the same time,, thats hilarious

stun

John Melloncamp's song titled "Born in a small town" perfectly describes the reality of my childhood.. I really was born and raised in a small town in West Michigan USA.. The name of that town is Fruitport and it is located about 8 miles east of the (almost a) metropolis of Muskegon.. Times were different in that day and age,, for one thing, a day in the life of, say,, an 8 year old, is like a month in the life of a geezer like me (at least, it seems that way).. I remember doing things like building tree forts, watching dog fights, playing neighborhood base ball, riding my bike to the candy store to buy wax lips and little wax coke bottles filled with Kool Aid for a penny each, scraping chewing gum off the side walk that still had flavor, climbing onto the roof of the school in search of a left over Red playground ball (remember those?), damming up the creek behind the church and crawling thru the road culvert when the water got knee deep and doing all of this in the same day during DAYLIGHT hours! Time went by very very slowly back than,, almost like the Earths rotation was slower or something.... At night, I would sneak out of our house,, jump on my beat up ol Huffy pedally bike, unhook my dog "Doc" from his chain and he and I would sneak off.. We would head for Fruitport Park located on the far end of town, right on the shores of Spring Lake.. Back in those days, there was a pavilion there that rich people use to bring their yachts to from Chicago and listen to bands like Tommy Dorsey and Mitch Miller during the Big Band era.. Up above that pavilion was the actual kiddie park with swings, slides, monkey bars and teeter totters all scattered around in amongst the huge White Pine trees that covered the hilltop over looking that same Pavilion.. On average, there would be 15 to 20 of us juvenile delinquents at the park playing Kick the Can, Midnight (midnight,, miiidd night,, hope I see a ghost to night) or even a simple game of Tag.. Everyone in Fruitport knew their neighbor and there was a certain element of trust,, or respect,, or,,, familiness - that's it - there was an element of familiness that hung over Fruitport like a thick fog on a frog pond on a cool summer night.. That fog of familiness hung around throughout my childhood, I loved the feel of it and was able to safely wonder thru childhood with it's security of love and protection wrapped tightly around my shoulders.. If you fast forward into modern times,, it seems like that fog got harder and harder to find.. It seems like life had gotten harder on the functioning of the modern day nucleus family and, maybe therefore, created an even more difficult time for societal family fog to develop.. Unfortunately, even extremely creative people like Algore with his invention of one of lifes greatest social medias ever invented, the internet, and its wonderful potential for advancing world wide family fog has not stopped the fogs degredation.. On the same token though, if a person looks hard enough for it - that fog is still out there.. Ironically, one of the places that I have found a remarkable resurgence of that long lost family fog has been on the Internet at the place I mentioned earlier - VentureRider.org.. About 15 minutes after starting to work on Tweeks in Squids garage, Tippy and I heard a bike pulling in.. As I stepped outside I was greeted by one of the friendliest smiles, heartiest handshakes and biggest bear hugs a broke down ol biker could ever imagine - the fog was thickening.. The person responsible for the fog thickening is in the picture below and is very well known on VentureRider.org as "Squidley". One of the things that Squid is known for on VR is his support of "familiness" and,, Tippy and I were about to learn how and why he is known for it.. After warm greetings and, just like BikerJohn the other Texas Hero and VR member who had called Squid had said to us,, a giant "THANK YOU PUC FOR BREAKIING DOWN HERE - I HAVE BEEN DIEING TO MEET YOU FOLKS" (fogs getting so thick you could cut it with a knife) we walked inside Squids garage. He looked at Tweeks,, smiled and said "so this is Tweeks" as he padded her lovingly on her stickered covered trunk and said, "lets fix er!!".. Squidley obviously had some kind of an upbringing,, somewhere along life's route this goodhearted fellow had learned not only kindness and thoughtfulness, he had also learned focus and exactness in job planning.. He had mentioned on the phone that he would have all the tools and parts sitting on the bench waiting for me,, he wasnt kidding!! While visiting with Squid (good gear heads can chit chat while they spin wrench's) I learned about his Military experience - maybe some of his job planning skills came from the Military,, maybe from family relationships,, either way - he certainly is a VERY talented gearhead!! Another thing that I noticed right away while getting greasy in Squids garage was,, he was not shy about getting his hands dirty.. As a matter of fact,, I think he was actually enjoying himself taking over every time I laid a tool down to stop and take a drink of water or something.. It started kinda slowly at first,, a shy little - "hey Puc,, you ever notice that one of those side cover screws has a copper washer on it?", turning into a "yea,, I think its this one - here let me show you".. It wasn't until I saw him sneaking over to grab his air gun and heard the air compressor come on that I KNEW I was in trouble!! In a very short time I was on the opposite side of Tweeks, calming her down by rubbing her rear brake lever as her and I watched this genius of a Texas Hero do his thing!! Squid finally set the tools down and gave me a chance to take over his work area.. I thought I had outsmarted him,, after all ,, as Tweeks owner and road companion, one would think I would get the last stitch on the old girls surgery.. Not being outdone,, Squid comes walking around the front of her with something in his hand.. Two GORGEOUS stickers that said "VentureRider.org" on them.. He said "I noticed Tweeks doesnt have any of these on her and I was wondering" - to which I replied "only if you will put them on her and sign her new engine side cover!!".. Tweeks sat there calmly with a repaired - freshly signed Stator, a hardwired stator harness terminal (MUCH BETTER), new gaskets and now being adorned on her windshield with a these beautiful stickers to remember the family fog that she had ridden thru down in Texas!! Squids wife, "Sweetnothing" is her screen name at VR, is farrrrrr from being a "Sweetnothing", she reminded me a lot of my wife and her and Tippy hit off like two sisters.. They had disappeared while us men were out in the garage spinning wrenches and making the world safer for innocent bystanders and other people on the road.. It wasnt until we were washing our hands when I came to realize Tip and I were going to be guests at a Squidley family chicken dinner that Sweetnothing had rustled up for us.. I am still not sure and didnt bother to even ask, but I always have wondered if Sweetnothing might have a touch of ESP or something. Somehow she had to have known that Fried Chicken is my FAVORITE food of all time!! THANK YOU SWEETNOTHING (should change that name to ALLSWEET!!) As we sat around in their yard, eating chicken, visiting with Squid, Sweetnothing, their daughter and her husband, I was busy paying back Squids guard dogs with small pieces of left over chicken.. As usual, me and the dogs hit it off pretty good.. It was getting late and I made mention about dropping the tent outside with these two rascals now that we were the best of friends.. Sweetnothing smiled and didnt agree with that idea,, she said she had place all set for us inside.. Once again, Squids great big Texas bear killing grin shined in the parting sunlight as I knew,, no was not gonna work.. As I stood in Squids shower with hot Texas water trying to scald the deep tan off my back, it occurred to me that I had left my bar of soap in Tweeks trunk.. Hot showers can be a rarity when CTFWing so, I didnt panic when I realized that I didnt have any soap - I figured even a soapless shower was better than no shower at all.. Than I noticed Squids squirt on soap in the corner of his shower sitting there daring me.. Oh what the heck,, a real brother wouldnt mind and that family fog had gotten pretty thick... As I stepped out of the restroom at Squids house and announced that now I even smelled like my brother Squid I got an agreeable laugh from everyone,, a sure mark that indeed,, real familiness fog is still available and its even accessible thru Algore's Internet if you look for it!!! As Tip and I snuggled down into that nice soft bed in Squid and Sweetnothings back bedroom we giggled like a couple kids.. Sweetnothing walked by the doorway and I asked if I could have a drink of water before we went to sleep.. She laughed and said good nite.. We told those guys thanks for everything before we all closed this chapter of the adventure Tip and I were on.. We knew that the AM was going to come way to soon and that the Texas Hero Family of Squid and Sweetnothings would be getting up early to fulfill their rolls in providing for themselves and their family.. One of the last conversations I had with them was about something really really special they had done for us.. This 2014 trip was not just about motorcycle touring for us. Our second born daughter was graduating from her Residency program out in Sacramento California and, because of their kindness and thoughtfulness, it appeared that we would still be able to make it there in time to celebrate with her!!! We did make her service and of course, I shared the events that took place here in Texas with my daughter... She agreed with me that a song just for our two Texas Hero's, BikerJohn and Squidley was in order.. Here is a copy of that song.. If you do take a listen,, pay attention to the timing of the unplanned, unintentional horses winnie - its perfect,, almost divine and it certainly fits right into declaring these two cowboys as Hero's!!

sparkplug

Are the RSTD's for sure the same V?

I have seen a number of varieties of the vacuum operated petcocks Sky,, some of them are built so they function manually and look just like a normal petcock,, my 78 650 Special was like that - down on the lever was "ON" - pointing rearward was reserve and pointing forward was "Prime" (instead of "off" like on a normal manual pet cock).. The "Prime" position was in case you had a vapor lock and needed to momentarily bypass the diaphram.. Also had a couple Kawi's like this and almost sure I redid a late model Virago that was built like that..

I gotta learn to type faster!!

While it is entirely possible that you have another bad thermostat (just cause its new doesnt mean its not sticking again) its also possible that you simply have a bad connection on the sending unit for tempt guage or a bad sending unit itself... That sending unit should be fairly easily identifiable by its location - probably near the area of where the thermostat is housed or somewhere on the coolant system.. Most are just a single wire little post sticking up.. Find that puppy and check the wire connector at the sending unit terminal first.. It is possible too that you have something happening like Gmarshall is talking about - good Lord lets hope not!! If you have a head gasket leaking into the combustion chamber - most of the time you will actually smell antifreeze in the exhaust and the exhaust will be noticeably foggy,, if its going into the oil - you will get muddy looking oil - usually noticable around the oil fill cap or on the dip stick - possibly in the coolant itself.. Not sure if your truck has a radiator with a cap on it? Some of this new stuff is sealed.. If it does, you should be able to remove the cap (CAREFUL IF ITS HOT!!) and run the truck with the cap off while keeping an eye on the coolant in the rad and the gauge.. You should be able to see the guage climb while the thermostat is closed and the fluid is not moving.. When it gets to its normal op tempt the thermostat should open - you should see coolant being moved thru the rad and the guage should drop - as the coolant cools off - the thermostat should close and the coolant should stop moving again and the guage should climb again...

conquering

fighters!!

Having never owned a Gen 2 or an RSTD I cant speak directly to them BUT,, I can say this.. Some bikes have a vacuum operated petcock, and I have a fair amount of experience with the failure of such.. It is entirely possible for a bike with a vacuum operated pet cock to get a crack in the diaphram that controls the petcock and leak fuel into the engine thru the vacuum line that is connected to the petcock.. Also,, because this is a vacuum line - any attempt at starting a bike with the diaphram compramised can result in fuel not only leaking into the engine but literally being sucked in by vacuum!! Again,, no idea if the RSTD has a vacuum operated P-Cock but Yamaha did use them - I know the late 70's XS650s had em,, and I believe I rebuilt one on a Virago once...

:guitarist 2::happy65::thumbsup:

BLUE!!!!

Yep,, back home and finally getting up and around here Randy,, thanks to you and everyone for sharing our concerns!! While not completely out of trouble yet, all the thoughts and prayers are working here as the Dr.'s have ruled out a lot of stuff.. The concern that the local ENT was questioning appears to be an older problem that may or may not need surgery BUT definitely NOT an emergency situation:cool10:!!! All the info they gathered is being studied by a larger group at the U of M.. I also have to work with my local ENT on some more testing with the results being sent over to the Dr.'s at the U of M to assist them.. They schedule non emergency surgeries out to 3 months or so, I have surgery scheduled now for April BUT, that is basically just saving me a place in their scheduling line so if further testing shows my RX isnt helping or tests indicate some patch work surgery is necessary I have a place saved.. If they have to reinforce the seal they actually do use a mesh like material and basically put a patch on it!! All this heart stuff showed I have a really good heart with NO blockages, no valve job needed or leaky murmers happening there - THANK GOD,, I do however have a high ohm situation happening (this stuff is AMAZING) leading down into the bottom of my heart.. Thanks in part to the no blockages, its not bad enough to require a pacemaker at this time.. Now get this,, one of the Cardiologist Dr.'s (not the ENT's) thought that some of the symptoms I am having could possibly be Thyroid related,, apparently that thyroid gland can cause all kinds of issues and he wants to rule it out... More pokes and waiting on those results.. THANK YOU ALL AGAIN FOR ALL THE THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS!!! Puc