Venturous Randy

I am picking up my third Miata today. They are a lot like 1st gens and potato chips, one or maybe two are not enough. Randy

I went for a ride for the first time this year, today. I upgraded the forks and rotors to MKII, R6 calipers, and SS lines, along with new head bearings and a real thick brace. I could have had the bike finished months ago, but I just could not stay focused on it. These last few days I have had just little things to put together and it seems like I just had to make myself get going. When I did take the bike out, I was very pleased with the changes I could feel and the bike did feel a lot more stable and solid. The brakes felt good and I tried a couple quick stops and it was all I could do to hold on. I do want to say that I did enjoy the 20 mile ride, but I have to also say that my comfort level was a long way from what I wanted it to be. Not just the physical comfort, but the amount of anxiety of being on the bike with traffic and road conditions was a lot. My bike has never felt bigger and heavier to me before. I felt very awkward when stopping or just manhandling the bike. What was also a disconcerting feeling was the thought of having Linda on the back. At this point, I need to have a lot better feeling about my comfort level before I ask her to join me. I think for me, it is not just my feeling of having lesser strength, or riding with vision in one eye, or my reflexes, but since getting the two Miatas, I have really enjoyed them. They are both a hoot to drive, especially on some of these mountain roads we have around here. It's like being a kid and getting off a bicycle and getting in a go cart. Eck, I can sure understand your feelings about riding. I have put about 150,000 miles on this 1st gen and it has always been a part of who I was. I have had some really close calls and the only time I have ever been hurt was a tip over pulling out up a hill in a gas station and I stalled the bike. I landed on my chest with my arm under my rib cage and I suffered with it for months. It sure made me think about how easily a moving crash could change Linda's and my life. Yes, the little Miatas also make you feel somewhat vulnerable, especially when you are beside a jacked up truck, but they also handle great. Randy

This is a post I did a long time ago on 1st gen speedometers. You must fix this before you damage the one you have. Putting any kind of penetrating oil is not the answer as these "oils" are NOT lubricating oils and will actually wash away any lube there is. You MUST get grease into the area between the sleeve that the cable goes into and the housing. Another way is to remove the speedometer and put grease down inside of it on the sleeve. What makes you think the speedometer you have is not 100,0083 or 200,083 miles? Randy http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?36254-Lubing-the-speedo-on-a-1st-gen&highlight=lubing+speedometer

When I say "thank you" to someone, usually a young person, and instead of "you're welcome", you get a grumbling "no problem". To me, this is not the correct response to "thank you". Randy

OK, it looks like I have to click on and allow scripts in the little box that comes up at the bottom of my screen. Now I can see the font, size, etc, now along with the smiles. Randy

I installed the "noscript" download and now I am not able to use the various mods for color, style and letter size on here. The option box for this does not show up. Are these two things related? Randy

Hey, you left with a bigger box of stuff than I did. Randy

He may have been, but I was mostly looking at the big eyes and the big teeth. Randy

This is the first Vogal I have been at in a while, other than just passing through. This one was really great. Linda and I spent our first night in the Time Out camper I got about 10 months ago and that was neat. Linda was able to meet some new friends that she really liked, along with some old friends and so did I. I do want to say that the door prizes were neat, especially since I won so much, but even if we did not have them, it would have been good. The meal was good and I feel making a contribution for that works good. Given my involvement in Asheville, where I have tried to keep it very laid back, I think this Vogal seemed more that way and I hope less stressful. To me, this get together was more like a good family reunion than just a bike rally. It still amazes me how strong the family and caring feeling is with this group. I was asked by several about the plans for Asheville 2016 and most say they would like to plan for the 3rd week of August and some say they need to make vacation plans for next year by the end of this year. I will look at this a see what we can do. Lewis, as usual. you and Charlene did a fantastic job and everyone seemed to have a great time. I know you had some help and I want to thank them too. I hope you will be able to come to Asheville and since you seemed to enjoy this so much, maybe you can help out at Asheville.

Ya done good Woody. I sure hope ya got some rest before going to work tonight. Linda and I sure did have a great time, as we usually do, with the two of you. And, the eating was really good too. Randy

Yep, wind her up and away we go!!!!!! :cool10: Randy

I am doing a lot better on my legs, but still dealing with some issues with my ankles. They don't itch, but still healing. Randy

Linda and I made it home about 3:30pm after an absolutely wonderful four days. This had to be one of the greatest Vogals for weather. It was very cool for sleeping and an occasional short shower in the arae, even though it did not rain at the campground. We had a bear encounter at about 6:30 this morning as I had awakened and went outside and was just leaning on the car enjoying the very quiet night sounds. All of a sudden on the other side of the Time Out Camper, where the picnic table was, I heard a lot of crashing noise. When I ran around the camper, a pretty good size bear was dragging the large canvas car top carrier up through the woods. I started yelling and the bear stopped. When I threw a rock, he took off. Fortunately, the carrier did not get damaged other some than some teeth marks. I did not realize it, but Linda had put a half bag of Cheetos and a half loaf bread in the carrier and zipped it up. I am just glad I was outside when this happened, otherwise the carrier and everything in it would have been gone. We did have a wonderful four days and a great trip down and back along with the Dragon ride on Saturday.. The little Miata did a great job across the mountains pulling the camper, even with the automatic transmission. Lewis and Charlene and others did a great job putting together the meal and door prizes. I did pretty good with winning two First Aid kits, one I gave to Aussie Annie(to shut her up), two shirts, a hat, key ring, patches and a Carbtune. Randy

I always towed in gear with the front wheel tight against the trailer with straps pulling forward and down and to the side. The bike is not going to move and every time I have started releasing the bike it was still tight against the Trailer frame. Everything I tow on a trailer, like my riding mower, is with the brakes on and locked in gear. Randy

Linda and I have reservations at Seasons Inn in Blairsville for Friday and Saturday night. Randy

Or, instead of turning the ignition switch on and off, cycle the kill switch instead. Not as hard on the ignition switch and flipping the kill switch on and off is probably good for it in cleaning the contacts. Randy

I just uninstalled Firefox and reinstalled and so far it is running faster. As noted, I am running Malwarebytes Premium, the paid version and I will look into Panda antivirus. I started downloading Chrome, but decided against it and uninstalled it. Before, as I typed, there was a pause before the letters came up. Right now it seems normal. Thanks guys, Randy

I am having a problem with Firefox coming to a stop and a box pops up about script. I can open it by hitting the debugging button and an enormous amount of stuff comes up on the page. I have even had to open Internet Explorer to be able to get on my laptop. I have been generally happy with Firefox and it was a great improvement over IE. I have done a disc clean up, cleaned out the cache and even restored to an earlier date from two months ago. Still same problem. I am also running Malwarebytes Premium that I paid for. I am not too computer savvy and would appreciate any suggestions I hate to think about going back to the restore to out of box condition, but I am really getting tired of how slow it is. I can't even watch a youtube video from it loading so slow. Randy

One more comment to the type imbalance I am referring to. It can be noticeable if you are taking a long sweeping curve. If both wheels are slightly out of dynamically balance, what you will get is as you go through the curve, there will be periods where the shimmy will come and go. This is because there will be times when the wheels are shimming together, adding to the problem and there will be times when the wheels are opposite and will actually offset and cancel each other and any shimmy may not be noticeable. This another reason people have problems on "mag" type wheels where they want all the weights on the back side and not visible. Is there any way that you have met any other tripod bike owners that would let you swap front tires for a test ride? Randy

If the dealer has a balancer for motorcycle tires, it may not be set up to balance dynamically, but static, even if it is being spun. By being static, it is like single plane balancing. On a car tire, that is why it needs to be balanced in regard to the outside of the rim and the inside of the rim. What happens is if there is extra weight on the outside of the tire at one spot and if there is a heavy spot on the inside of the tire, say 180 degrees off, when the tire is spinning, the heavy spots try to go to the center of the plane and what you get is a wobble, or shimmy. I found this out many years ago when having a 240Z with Mcpherson struts as they were real susceptible to this. This goes along with cowpuc was saying. Randy

I think it is general consensus that most on here run the fuel mixture screws from about 2 1/2 to 3 turns from bottom. I am not sure what running all four at 1/2 turn from bottom would do. Another thing to keep in mind while syncing carbs is that if you have any manifold leaks, you are then trying to sync that leak into the balance of the carbs. I would get some starter fluid and spray around the manifolds and carbs and if you have an RPM change, you may have found a leak. Another thing I have done is to drain the carbs and with the drain valve open, with the little tube, I have sprayed carb or brake cleaner into the small jets down into the tops of the carbs. I believe this will backflow through the pilot jets, not fuel mixture screws, and may break any blockage loose. If you have any pilot jets plugged or even partially plugged, it will have a big impact on how the bike runs, especially at lower RPM's. Randy

I usually try to get a consensus on what works best for the most people. Some have kids they have to get ready for school and stuff like that. I am looking forward to taking my Time Out camper down there and having plenty of room this time. Randy

Most of the affected area is mostly just hard scabs. The problem I am having now is around my ankles. Yesterday, I was at the blister/oozing state and I took Dawn (foam) detergent and rubbed it on this area before I wet it. I then rinsed it off with hot water and when it dried I put some Ivarest on it and let it dry. from that point on, the itching has stopped. Today, that area looks much better. I believe the Dawn detergent is probably as good as any of the ivy wash stuff and it breaks down oil real good. Thought I would attach a couple pictures of the front of my left leg and the back of my right leg. These areas are mostly scabs and not itching. Randy

I had EBC HH pads on my 83 stock. They are available. Randy

Well, last night went pretty good and even with my legs looking like big splotches of scabs, it wasn't itching. Today, the area that was under my socks on both feet along my ankles it now oozing and burning and itching. I am using tecnu to wash with and Ivydry spray, but it is still itching very bad. I am just so glad that from my knees down to my ankles are doing better. My skin from my knees down around my ankles is so tight from being swollen that it hurts. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers. Randy