cowpuc

Nahhh,,, but I'd be oblidged to demo settin up a Menards 25 dollar 2 person dome tent in the dark for ya CM :rotf::rotf::rotf: Tell ya what though CM,, come see us in Michigan and you can have your choice between staying in that puppy or in our spare bedroom.. Stay in that little trailer and than you can do a professional analyses of what sleeping in one is like - personally I am partial to my little pup tent:backinmyday: Just cant imagine trying to pull a trailer behind Tweeks while two trackin the mountains looking for Gold Mines... Would make a GREAT little trailer for pulling behind an old Jeep, Sports Car or Trike if it ever came to that for us (we have talked lots about it)..

Tried and tried to sell an old XR350 that I had.. It was a really neat, clean old bike,, BUT,, apparently nobody really wanted a really neat clean old dual sport bike.. Found a solution for that today.. Guy called while I was finishing up welding a friends axle for him and mentioned a Motorcycle Popup Tent Camper and wondered about a swap.. Drove over with the car to take a peek,,, OH MY GOODNES!! Thing is an older model (1995) the guy bought brand new,, he and wife used it 3 times during the first 2 years of ownership (camping in neat Traverse City Michigan) towing it with a Honda Shadow - rolled up total of 890 miles with the trailer in tow (thing literally still smells like brand new inside).. After that it sat in their garage collecting dust!! Thing is absolutely like NEW!!! Brought it home,, Tippy and I took a few minutes to figure out setup,, came with an air mattress,, two soft covers for carrying whatever on top of the camper (one 10" and one 6 "), got screened sides and screened doorway.. According to the PO, it weighs 328 pounds,, gotta believe him cause my little KIA never even mentioned it was back there on the way home... Another day in the life of being Puc...

My neighbor who I have been helping with the trike kit woke me up this morning at 6:30.. We had the axle mounts ready to weld up last time around and he was ready for me to weld er up.. Had the trike in his trailer.. I used to weld pipe for the Boilermakers so I got elected to lay the welds,, of course,, with that came the first ride!! I know there are probably lots of folks out there that really dont care for trikes,, street or trail.. I spent many many summers on Honda 350 X's, Honda 250R 3 wheelers and Yamaha Tri-Z's and LOVED em, of course I loved single trackin on my KX500 too so.... Because of its shortness, nimbleness (he still wont listen to me about tossing some rake at it to slow the steering down for his wife) and the torque of the Sporty motor, I came back just a smiling.. Done several healthy donuts on the drive way grave, ran er up to 60 a couple times on the pavement, hit the wet grass for some frolic and came back saying - we need 3 of these - 1 for each of us so we can go 2 trackin!!!! WHAT A RIOT!!! Dave said "better get that mud off my wifes bike before she see it" :rotf: It instantly took me back to my frolicin 3 wheeling days,, mud covered with swamp mud or Silver Lake Sand Dune sand... I would LOVE to hang some paddle tires on a built Sporty trike and go play in the dunes....:cool10: He swapped in the 70 series tires for some 50 series, I liked the looks of those great big 70's BUT they really were way more tire than a stock HD 883 could possibly handle.. Looks like he is gonna off the body kit I had pics of earlier and gonna go with a much daintier set of "Bobber" fenders.. He and my other neighbor are truck drivers and they are talking about a light bar for the back of a Semi for rear lights... At any rate,, it is now rideable (will be even more so when we get the pipes back on it - sure am glad our "hood" is full of gearheads cause the common man probably wouldnt have cared for some lunatic running up and down the road at 8 a.m. on a Sporty with no pipes on it:cool10:), everything running true and a pretty cool little scoot!! Puc

BUMMER Blue!! Way things are working out around here you were about a week and a half to early for us.... Wish we could have bumped into ya cause I would have asked if you would sign our bike (Aussie Annie would never have forgiven me if I didnt offer ) and would have loved to have met you!! Soooo,,, sounds to me like I should put this "Monument Valley" place on my possible to see list?? We are trying to get out of here before it gets so stinking hot down near the border (Meheeeco) that the tires burn off our bike - WE ARE GONNA SEE DA ALAMO (history lovers). Been to Jerome a few times and cannot wait to show it to Tippy BUT,, I am allll about seeing things together neither of us have seen before,,, a together moment if you will - man I love that women,, she's my bestest friend ever!! Anyway,, tell me about the Valley Blue (if ya gotta sec).. Also anything of real interest you may have bumped into that was extrodinair.. Any chance you found any Ghost Towns on your vacation?? I especially love those!! Sounds like you are doing some AWESOME traveling,, even though ya aint sleepin on the ground and staring at the stars at night sounds like your getting to see some AWESOME country!! You gonna drive a car to Sequoia? GORGEOUS biking in there buddy!! If ya have time ya oughta do the big 3 (Yosemite/Kings Canyon) - if you do I tell ya where to find all the fools gold you want (at Kings Canyon) - still got some under shipping tape on the side of my bike .. Thanks for the well wish on our summer touring,, right back at you on yours BlueSky Puc

Yea,,, we get back from our western tour and settled back in here at home we will have to hook up Carl.. You guys are only a few hours away - just a nice afternoon ride for an ice cream cone,, or,, meet in the middle somewhere.. OR,,, come over and ride the WEST COAST of Michigan with us.. SUMMER FUN IN THE MAKIN!!

Tossed some up while tweekin on Tweeks today.. on those test results Skidder..

Been into vintage bikes a long long time and info like this link has been invaluable to me.. Thought I would pass this along just in case there may be a couple of my friends on here that happen to also be into old Honda's as well as our good ol Ventures... As always,, got chur back.. Puc http://www.thumbonlinecycle.com/index.php/vintage-honda-keys?start=10

:rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf: Get chur dad burn finger of that there hair trigger ya varmint,,, ya done shot chur buddies tail light out:rotf::rotf::rotf: We're just good ol boys,,,,

Hi Earl Thank you for the response!! I totally understand what your saying about the xtra weight.. Did my test run on my 83 this morning and ended up with a 3 OR 4 mpg gain on just nocking off the little protrusion on the original shim - that was without a re-sync on the carbs - VERY IMPRESSIVE FROM MY PERSPECTIVE,, every little bit helps.. The removal of the little protrusion dropped the needle .024 and I am reluctant to go much farther as I am getting ready to head west and dont want to have to tear the carbs down and rejet my pilots or run into having to run high octane.. Depending on how the ol beater does in the real heat and mountain running with all the gear on her back I may be looking at a set of your shims!! GOOD LOOKING BUNCH OF VENTURE PARTS YOUR OFFERING UP!!! THANK YOU FOR DOING YOUR PART IN KEEPING THESE GOOD OLD BIKES ON THE ROAD EARL!!!! And Earl, you helped A LOT!! Thanks Scott

:bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head: THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS FOR ALL INVOLVED!! ARRGGGGG...

OUTSTANDING!! I want to avoid painting myself into a corner with needing above 87.. For me, another one of the great things about these bikes is what they will run on.. I have ran a lot of 85 octane out west and never had a problem with ping either,, even loaded running mountains.. Have always been amazed at their torque capabilities in stock gearing - cant even imagine what tossing gearing at one with a Max rearend would be like!! Thanks Randy!!

Now we are talkin!! Randy did you end up having to run high octane fuel to fight spark nock or are you able to stay at 87 octane even leaned down?

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy,,, waasssuup Mama,, long time no have heard from.... Was just saying to myself the other day,,, "wonder what happen to Mama,, sure miss partying with her",,, than I answered myself and said "she probably got mad at all us guys for hanging out in da ladies room so she found a new place to hang",, den I says back to my other self,,, "nah,, she wouldnt do dat,, she loves us crazy old geezers".... Anyway,, glad your back,, your a whole lot more fun to talk to than me talking to me:rotf::rotf:

Now THATS what I am talking about!! Its been fun screwing with this thing over Memorial Day weekend but now that the stores are open here locally again THAT is exactly what I am gonna do... Thanks Mega! Pete it sure makes sense that the post could/would do exactly that and be for exactly what your talking about - good point!! On the other hand,, it sure seems like if that were the case the extra side pressure from the needle setting at slight angle would cause excessive wear on orifice and needle doesnt it? May very well be right on that Randy.. This set of diaphrams are stock and never been off the slide - I will take a check on the locating post hole in the slide and see if thats correct - just to solve a mystery and out of curiosity.. Good point.. The only thing is it seems like .024 would create more than a slight lift,,,, hmmmm,, maybe the lift (or angle that Pete was talking about) is being controlled by the locating pin.. wierd little intreeeging design what ever its for.. It also still seems like any amount of side pressure created by that needle would produce extra wear - not eliminate it.... Hey, were you able to see the 50 mpg by working thru a shim stack without pulling it down and tossin new jets at the pilot circuit? Thanks you guys!!!!

Going around here too Bongo,, more in the form of ear aches and sore throats.. Hope ya get feeling better!! Puc

Your welcome Reiny,, glad you got a chuckle. Thanks for all the info/input guys.. Pete, I really am trying to just suck the last little bit out of the old girl and trying to do it without spending the time ripping the carbs all apart (if I get started on it the whole bike needs to come apart, replace every bushing - bolt - electrical terminal and on and on,, better off to unscrew the rad cap and drive a new bike under it:rotf:).. Probably sounds crazy ut a real deal beater.. Its tired... THANK YOU for the input brother!! And by the way - I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU - YOU ARE 100 PERCENT ON TARGET!! That is the proper way to do it.. Prairie, Carl - between the two of you I gained some vital info.. What I was really looking for was an idea of shim size increments so I had a starting point in gaining control of fuel/air mix without taking the time to do it correctly like Pete mentioned,, a lazy mans fix so to speak.. Ok,, here is what I am in the process of trying.. No money, very little time, and fairly easy to do.. If you look at the pics below notice the stock plastic shim on the needle.. It has a round, what I am gonna call a locating pin that sticks out of the bottom of the shim.. On the opposite side of the shim from the locating dowl/pin is a small protruding edge the sits internally on the surface of the slide.. Measuring the protrusion yeilded .024 (24 thou) of protrusion.. I took a razor knife and nocked that protusion off, dropping the needle 24 thou on all of them.. Its been raining here so I havent had a chance to do a mileage check on it but I did run it around the block, noticed a small 200 rpm change in my idle - no starvation lag coming off idle.. I have lots of xtra carb parts - I plan to take another set of the same stock shims, nock the protrusion off and file off another 20 thou from the top of the shims and test those too just for comparison.. Creeping my way to the edge of where Carl had to rejet the pilot but staying on this side of the line so I dont have to,, I love experimenting. It would be pretty cool if just nocking off the protusions showed gain in MPG - will let everyone know.. Looking at the protustion itself makes one wonder exactly why the Yamaha engineers put it there in the first place.. First thing that popped into my mind was I wonder if it had to do with emissions - maybe the California bikes had to be run leaner to pass emissions and this little nub is not present on their bikes.. Anyone have any thoughts or ever heard anything about it?? I am not refering to the locating pin here,, there is a line up hole in the slide bottom that you have to make sure you locate the pin into for that - the pin has a definite reason for being there.. The smaller nub,, not so much, it just sets on the inside bottom of the slide raising the needle 24 thou.. If this works it would be a VERY easy lazy mans way for pulling out some fatness.. Hey,, even a couple mile per gallon and I will be SMILING!! Thanks you guys for not pickin on me about this worn out old bike AND for NOT saying something along the line of,,, hey Puc - drop a compression tester on her and see if she is even capable of handling the close to the fuel it was designed to handle... Its to the point now that I dont even wanna know,,, as long as she's hitting on four we are headed for the West Coast in a week:cool10::cool10: Syncing her back up and testing continues Puc

Thanks you guys!! Carl, float levels were spot on end of last summer when I set them and currently no sign of sticky floats (over flows are bone dry).. I am really thinking with all these miles I am looking at tired main jet/needle jet orvices and wanted to try lowering the needles just to compensate some.. On another thread I read "lower the needles 1 mm".. That sounded suspiciously wide to me (just seems like maybe 1/2 millimeter increments would be closer.. Any idea how far you took your needles down to see that kinda change in mileage? You see any increase in running temps after leaning it down? And any idea how for out you took the pilot jets? THANKS A GAZILLION!! Puc

Old Tweeks (our 83) is well over 200k on her, getting her ready for headin west - carbs synced up nice, new plugs yada dee yada.. Dont have access to an exhaust sniffer but using my built in one (nose) I KNOW she is running rich and MPG is suffering.. Pulled the diaphrams (again) and noticing more fuel gathering on the slides than I like.. Not spot of drippage on the float overflows.. Anyway, because of her mileage (yea, ok,, maybe even a little abuse) I am suspecting that the slide metering rod orvices may be oblonged a little.. I know I read on here recently about dropping the metering rods down 1 mm to lean down a little.. Have done many many carb adjustments like this through the years and was expecting a typical multinotched metering rod for the circlip on this 83.. Found out this is not so on these carbs - see pic.. So,, how do ya adjust the needle depth on these puppies (see pic).. Use washer/shim rings from differnent needle set up?? Thanks in advance ya bunch a lop eared gearheads!! Puc

Indeed, that is awesome.. Years ago I picked up a couple of Honda Gyro's.. A weird design of a moped that articulated at a self centering pivot point.. It was hilarious cause I bought em dirt cheap at an auction cause everyone there thought they were broken - there was a locking lever on them that when released and sitting still the front end would just lay down giving the appearance that something was majorly wrong.. Simular idea to this tilting idea Mike.. COULD THOSE PUPPIES CORNER!!!! Just thinking out loud here Camos,, as long as you ended up with same verticle angle centerline thru the a-arms on the motorcycle mount as it was on the car frame that should work.. The other question would be the perpendicular line from the rear wheel and across the front end.. In car front end alignment work its crucial to understand the association of that perpendicularity, many years ago when I did alignment work for Goodyear we used mirrors, alignment rods and an alignment rack to capture that angle in order to calibrate the alignment.. Some cars used shims in the control arms to make adjustments - those shims were set in .001 increments (if memory serves correctly) and its amazing how this small amount of change in setting the alignment effects the way a car steers and tracks.. I am sure that know adays an alignment rack utilitlises lazers for doing this.. It seems that only having 1 rear wheel to locate from would make locating the rear axis somewhat more difficult.. Maybe building a good frame jig to work from would do it BUT, for final alignment tweeking I not sure how you would get those locating points.. By the way,, you do realize that the T-Rex (and others) are built on this whole idea dont ya? Certainly not a situation that its never been done, more about having the time and equipment to do it correctly..

Oh yea Hugger - CONGRATS ON THE INHERITANCE OF THE LATHE/MILL!! Time to tool up brother - yeeehaaww:cool10:

Might wanna check the amp load spec of the 3 phase motor that your dealing with, should be a label right on it or under the cover where you terminate the leads coming in.. Also,, if it states 10 amps I would go with a 15 amp phase converter - start up draw on a motor is only momentary but it can wreak havoc on under rated devices.. Also mount your converter in a area where it can breath a little - they can get warm.. Dont skimp to save money on wiring feeding the system, you can easily destroy the motor and converter by resistance caused by undersized wiring (or worse yet, burn your shop down).. If it were mine and it was an old machine I would find a amp probe (clamps around the wire) and double check the amp load on each leg with the motor running.. You should be able to tell what kinda shape the motor is in by checking the amp draw..

The disrespect of the day that we live in is incredible... On the other hand, maybe I am an old school fool that is stuck in a time period that touching someone elses bike without asking permission was license for a genuine - real deal butt kickin.. Of course, now with laws being what they are,, if you broke someones nose for messin with your bike you would spend time for it.. Of course, there are some things more important than staying out of jail:stickpoke: I have it so ingrained in me that even if I am in a dealership showroom I ask permission from the sales people before I touch/sit.... My oh my how things have changed.. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2::happy65::happy65::happy65: EXCELLENT!!! Covered all the bases Buddy and NEVER touched his bike. My friend,,,, it dont get no better than that - YOU DA MAN!!

Thanks Joe! Thanks Sylvester, I will.. Speaking of history, I have been amazed at the doors of opportunity this old bike has opened for me in learning Military History from guys who were there.. Had her sittin in the front yard, on display behind some flags yesterday. Guy and his wife stopped and stayed for over 2 hours telling me about Vietnam.. I love bikes, I love history and I LOVE people... Could be the catalyst for an even longer relationship with this old war bike than I anticipated.... Better look at those pics a leeetle bit closer Bill,, wearing a State of Michigan approved helmet in all of them... Close but no cigar... YEA :cool10::cool10: AND THE GRAND PRIZE WINNER IS.... Randy, this bike was made to government specs, meeting all OSHA, FDA, FBI, CIA, FAA, DOT, USDA, ATF, NSA, DEA, DHS, default to infinity...... Its pipe is sooooooo sealed, dirty air goes in and clean air comes out!!! Interesting thought Mike but: I think when its time for this old man to check with the authorities about legally open carrying his plastic Tommy Gun in Michigan, this old feller would rather spend that time/energy packing his bags and moving to Montana, South Dakota or Utah.... I KNOW from experience that there are still pockets of American freedom out there... Uh huh,, you do brother,,, YOU really really do!!! This is true, Pete,, I could have.. XSsquared's response above was closer to the reason I didnt though.. Besides, if those government employees want a toy gun to play with they can take some of the tax dollars I gave em for wages and buy their own Bet I coulda made the Muskegon Chronicle front page if I would have jumped off my bike and started chasing squirrels around the park trying to club em with my fake Tommy Gun.. Ahhhh,, not really Mike,, bet I coulda made the front page your local paper if I would have jumped off my bike and started chasing squirrels around the park trying to club em with my fake Tommy Gun too..

Prayers Up, Blessings Down on this fantastic Memorial Day weekend!!

Finishing up my flood control project (its coming - may very well be able to sneak out of here in time to tour the Southwest before hitting the west coast),, other wise Tippy and I would be in Canada eating ice cream with all the folks at Marcarl's gathering... Needed a little break so I started up the WLA and went for a short ride.. Tried to get into our local State Park... Well,, gotta tell ya,, that went over like a lead balloon.. I kinda thought it would end like it did but hey,,, its in my nature to at least try :rotf::rotf:.. Can ya guess why they wouldnt let me in?? Here is also a short vid for anyone who cant... A hearty THANK YOU to all Military personnel, past - present and future for a job well done and for serving to maintain our freedoms!! Puc