cowpuc

We have always enjoyed making new friends in our travels. As my sons and I were traveling up into the Sierra Nevada's of California to a piece of property that one of the boys purchased for family fun (we were headed out for some father/son guy time of target practicing) and ran across a yard sale where I noticed a meat smoker at the yard sale. Of course, we stopped!! The star of this little video (man selling the smoker) and I hit it off HUGELY!! Turns out, Les (the star) is one of our nations finest (a Navy Vet who served during the Vietnam War, a deeply patriotic person and a man of great faith. THANK YOU again my brother for your service to God and Country!! YOU are one amazing person!! Also,, THANK YOU for the great deal on the smoker - it will come in real handy for years to come!!

We may very well be related brother!! If so, it is DEFINITELY thru your fathers side of the fam :rotfl: THANK YOU for the spot on advice!!

My experience with brake pads on my scoots is that I really like to use organics as I like the feel and performance they offer. They do seem to wear out a little quicker, especially on dirt/MX bikes where they are exposed to a lot of dirt but they always seemed to be easier on rotors. I also found them to be considerably cheaper and pretty much a break (no pun intended) even on cost per mile. I also liked them a lot as they smell funny when overheated and the odor will tell me if I happen to have a sticky caliper piston. No idea if what follows will work or applies to the Gen 2 but I was wondering if anyone else is in the habit of checking the axle/rear end alignment during a reinstall of the rear wheel? One of my 1st Gen's had a habit of wearing the pads at an odd angle and I found that the axle alignment into the swingarm was considerably wacko. To check this I simply looked at the axle location on the smaller diameter as I slid the axle in from the right hand side and after it was captured by the axle journal in the rear gear case. I was amazed at how far out of alignment the assembly was and corrected it by shimming it between the rear gear case and the swingarm that is captured/tightened down with the four acorn nuts located on the front of the gear case/end of the swingarm on the left side (where the driveshaft runs thru). A simple check for this alignment may also be to just loosen those four nuts up after putting the axle in and tightened down with the brake pads backed away from the rotor, if you loosen those nuts and a gap appears between the swing arm and the rear case assembly simply measure the gap and take up the gap with a shim to bring the entire rear end into correct alignment = bingo,, no more funny wear on the pads = as long as the pistons are kept cleaned and they are not sticking..

That Cha is probably out doing what we should all be doing,, taking full advantage of this White Wash Free summer spectacular of a summer we are having = out CTFW Thanks for the thoughts and prayers on my mom's behalf Patch - they are greatly appreciated!! I knew that my brother,, I knew that = those prayers are working so please keep coming!! Mom is doing a little better each day and continues in Rehab. As of today, looks like only a couple small med adjustments and then continuing in rehab mode for a while. Always good to hear from you Neal,, hope your summer is going super!! Love ya!

Thank you BT for keeping us updated!! Prayers continuing for my friend and brother BongoBob and Becky as the health issues continue. The Lord loves you Bongo and so do I/we, Prayers Up my brother!!

Flawlessly Sly,, flawlessly!! And very accurate!! As you know, I shoot a Ruger MK1 22 A LOT and was amazed at how instantly comfortable I was with the Luger. The only real cumbersome part of the whole operation IMHO was operating the action to load it. Because of the limited grip area to get ahold of the action to pull it back - ya really had to pinch it (if you are a 1911 shooter and reading this - picture yourself trying to lock n load er with just your thumb and index finger print - totally doable but not as easy as gripping with the whole hand). Very very well made Slyvester.. I may have a video of actually shooting the thing coming up,, just an FYI!! I also may have a vid of playing with a modern day Garand (SOCOM 16).. WAYYYY COOL TOO!! Mom's doing pretty good. She is in Rehab and it looks lik will be there for a while (4 weeks possibly) as she is continual improvement mode = they told me yesterday that they would keep her there for as long as she is showing continual improvement. Her stroke has effected her cognitively and very very little physically. She did not recognize me right away when we walked in but she did Tippy.. I spent a few hours with her going thru a photo album and I would say she is a 20% on recognizing people/times and places. We lost my Dad a short time ago and then my little brother last may, her brother a couple days later and a nephew she loved in between them - thinking the stress and grief may have been a contributing factor to the stroke. She is smiling again thru her fogginess and openly admits/remembers the sadness/grief she was in over the death of my brother and her brother/my uncle.. I know that the Lord has it all under His control, answers prayers (thanks brother Sly and all who are thinking of/praying for her) and all that but I am now wandering if her current state isnt actually somewhat of a blessing cause I remember her clearly saying that she just wanted to "follow him home" after Uncle Chuck died,, now she is eating again and even doing some smiling again.. A real blessing in that I still have my Mom (could have been a LOT worse!!). Monday is planning day for her extended care = prayers appreciated! These golden years are definitely not a cake walk and require a fair amount of looking up and leaning on Him - that is for sure!!

I spent yesterday swapping out a faulty plug cap on Tweeksis's #1 that was causing a low speed stumble and irratic idle. After the swap we did run her about 250 miles following a large group of HD riders along the lake shore and that's Tweeksis was right up to par - back to her usual self. Now today I gotta drag her back out the garage and make sure she aint changed her mind about accepting the replacement plug cap by hauling us two lop eared hungry varmints to the local Chinese feeding traugh.. ,, now I gotta ... Seems how Carl is a Mod here,, isnt he technically working on his family day:think: Just thinking outloud,,, :witch_brew:

We live in West Michigan and have gotten plenty of rain this past spring but were amazed to see the amount of water that this area had also received. We have ridden the Salt Flats numerous times on both bikes and in cars (even camped a few miles out on the Salt a few times) and to date, have never seen it this wet. A quick stop at the Donnor Pass rest area revealed some of these cool little catfish swimming around in the high mountain pond there. The water was ICE cold (or as my 2 year old grandson would put it - "COLD AS 'LASKA") and it was interesting that those catfish were as active as they were!

,,, I'd NEVER shut up about owning such a great big gorgeous scoot like that sweetheart... I would spend hours and hours and hours in the penalty box here for to much about it but even then I would be seen talking to myself about it .. I wouldn't even shut up as I was riding it !!! Somethings in life are just not shutting up material:thumbsup:.. She is a BEAUTY Rich and I look forward to hearing wayyyy more about her and perhaps even seeing her IRL!!

It was tricky to get used to pulling instead of twisting to make er go but guess what,,, she would still outrun most everything out there in the touring class of scoots even with no twisting for forward motion.. I was actually tempted to pull it apart and see if I could adapt the push cable over to the pull cable position to complete the trip but found the vise grip trick to function well in a bad situation and besides,,, the challenge of pulling on the end of a broken cable was more fun so I went with it

:scared:NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

I had the pull cable on the throttle above the junction box fail once and ended up coming home from a cross country trip by pulling on the broken cable with a pair of Vise Grips. I would suggest lubing the cables with a good synthetic bicycling chain lube before putting it all back together again. I have been doing that since I broke one a longgg time ago and never have had a failure since..

I got an aftermarket Progressive for an 83 XVZ1200 that I would be willing to part with. I am not sure if it will fit your bike though as I am pretty certain that Mom Yam did not start production on the Yamaha XVZ mono shock Venture till 83. If possible, it may be prudent for you to stick a pick up of your bike so we could know for certain which model of scoot you have?

:clap2::dancefool:!! Decided to go with the faster one did ya? Can't wait to see it Rich!!

This Lincoln Monument at a rest area along I-80 stands as a wonderful testimony to Old Abe and his love of freedom! What a beautiful country we have inherited from those who came before us! Troopers DCT gear ratios combined with his final drive ratio allows for him to slumber along at 100 mph at 3100 RPM. It is amazing how well his little 1.6 liter engine performs even at these higher speeds even while still delivering an average 50 mpg while doing so (this still amazes me, non of the motorcycles I wore out thru the years gone by could even come close to this). I can't help but wonder if this is partially due to the Atkinson engine design that lies therein? Seeing mountains is something we never get to see in Michigan - much less snow covered ones during the month of July!!

I was guessing that the little triplane and biplane looking symbols had something to do with the Luftwaffa?

For long distance riding, especially into the vast high wind area's of the west, my experience with the Fork Mounted Fairings vs Frame Mounted Fairings vs no shield touring on a Chopper for 2 up touring has been: The frame mounted fairing on my MK1's proved a LOT more stable and easier on the shoulders in cross winds (like well known in Wyoming/Montana/Utah open prairies) hit me/us. Fork mounted bat wings worked ok but were tiring after a long day of battering in constant cross winds from the constant motor muscles seeking to respond and correct where the full fairings would allow for a no feeling of change in the front end feel as the fairing delivered all the "push" directly to the frame of the bike. Long bike "open" riding was by far the most comfortable for one upping it but be it known that there were times that even after a few hours of sleep, my skin was still tingling:big-grin-emoticon: (ohhhh to be young again). Another matter of interest concerning the full fairing scoots in my experience is the comfort for the passenger that the side covers provide in keeping heat off their lower extremeties - especially when those constant and variable cross winds are doing all they can to knock the bike and its riders off the road. Of course,, none of this would apply if we were talking about riding a 350 Honda Motosport cross country,, now that was brutal!! Looks wise,, bar none there is nothing purdier than an old school Amen framed, 18 over California Springered 750 SOHC Chop in all its glory, seconded by a fork mounted fairing bagger and nothing uglier than a fairing mounted scoot,,, IMHO.. :think:Maybe others agree with me and that is why not even the British would take the old tour glides (currently known as Road Glide) when we were shipping HD's off shore a few years back:stickpoke:

Here is a point of interest that is applicable to our gun thread here.. While playing out west earlier this month I had the honor of handling and actually shooting this genuine German Luger from WW2. I was wondering if any of you shooter experts had any idea of what these markings are all about? This little piece of history was in remarkable condition and still functioned flawlessly!! It DEFINITELY is living proof of just a small slice of what the Allies were up against in facing the battle before them in making sure our way of life continued to this very day!!

OUTSTANDING you lop eared white washin, ice in the veins varmint!! SOOO GLAD TO READ THIS Jeff!! THANK YOU for the update my brother:thumbsup:...

, just got in from the farrrr west and now we're thinking of heading back out to grab some Sturgis time.. The rally starts on the 2nd this year... Hey Or,, if ya see a couple of lop eared loafer varmints camped in your campground in a Blue Hyundai PLEASE dont toss lead or call the Law... I promise I ain't wild like I used to be (waking you up at odd hours) and have lost most of my teeth so even my bite is deminished to nothing!! Would LOVE to see you and the gang and will definitely stop and say HOWDY if we head atta way brother!! Either way though,, hope your annual rally is nothing short of amazing as ALWAYS!! :bighug: from Tip,, :bighug: from Tweeks and :bighug: from me to both you and Sharon!! Love you both!!!

So sorry to read this brother,, brought tears to my eyes!! Prayers Up for this fine man's family as they work thru such a great loss. Thank you for sharing this Wayne!

Prayers up bongo!! Love you brother!!!

Had to cut it somewhat short to come home and check on my mom who had a stroke while we were gone (she's in Rehab now but doing pretty good = thoughts and prayers would be appreciated) but over all - another FANTASTIC time of CTFW's!! Having just got home, we pulled Tweeksis out of the garage this morning for a quick "get some local riding in" and hooked up with a group of over 100 bikes passing along the lake shore and Tweeksis got a whole day of lake shore riding in doing what she loves the most = chasing down HD's .. The weather back home here is AWESOME = BEAUTIFUL for local CTFW here!! Hope you all have been out getting it done!! :biker:,, with NONE of this !! Concerning our west coast fun,,,, let's go back to where it all began with: This video shows how easy it is to create a Mini Motor Home out of the most fuel effecient production vehicle in the world - the Hyundai Ioniq. After spending a lifetime of motorcycle touring America and accumulating well over 1 million miles of tent camping doing such and getting knocked off the bike by cancer - Trooper, our 2018 Ioniq seen in this series, came to our rescue and is doing a WONDERFUL job of keeping us out there enjoying the freedom of the open road.. Get out ride (or drive) while you can!! Trooper is AMAZING when it comes to high speed cruising out in the vast endless regions of the Western U.S,, a known no-mans land where a guy and his wife can get run over if they can't maintain +90 mph.. In one of my other cross country trip video's I showed where Trooper's cruise control was functional all the way down to 16 mph (even when he is running soley on electricity while flowing thru the narrow paths of our countries majestic western mountain regions).. Finding out that Troopers cruise also works up into triple digits as shown in this video is also a HUGE plus in my opinion.. THANK YOU Hyundai!! This little hybrid is definitely an amazing little road mate who has long since won a special place in our home and in our hearts!! We love him!! This video doesn't really do this rainbow show justice but is better than nothing.. This is actually just the very tail end of gorgeous complete double rainbow that appeared right after a monster of western storm, the type of storm that actually had both my wife and myself rejoicing that we had a roof over our head (although we have ridden thru worst on our bike) this time - guess we are just getting up there in the years..

Good point Bossman!! I am not in the market any longer so I didn't even bother to look that deep but INDEED,, that would make it a no go for me too!! Zip tie the plastic on and ride the socks off it and covering it with stickers from all the places it took ya then the shine is irrelevant .. I was thinking it was new enough that the 2nd Gear wouldn't be an issue but,,, as Don pointed out,, it's pre 2nd gear rehab makes it a $400 scoot at best IMHO..

See if this helps in showing off those purdy new grips Tuffy..