Venturous Randy

This event is intermittent. I will finish my comment and will select standard and then go back and click on the location I want it, like the end of the sentence and then click on selected smilie. Most of the time just the smilie will transfer, but occasionally the code will too. When that happens, I just highlite and delete the code. To my knowledge, I am not doing anything different from one time to another, so, that probably does not help you. I am using Firefox. Randy

When I watch some of the "People of Walmart" video/pictures, it makes me feel so at home when I am there. Randy

Randy

Unless I missed something earlier, it looks like you waited until the last minute to tell us. I ended up driving down the Fayetteville, NC today to pick up an engine for the Rodeo I bought. Left at 4:30 this morning and just got in a minute ago. Randy

Fantastic adVenture. The cold and maybe some snow are on the way and this is as good as a big mug of hot chocolate sitting by a warm fireplace. Randy

That's neat, especially for those of us that associate riding and eating as almost one and the same. Randy

This sounds like a great idea for some of those Hardly wannabees. They could put it together and sit in the side of their garage and occasionally roll it out in the driveway and pretend to wash it. They might even get a sound system they can hide that goes potato-potato-potato..... This could also be the perfect gift for those guys that buy a Hardly and five years layer they want to sell it with 1,500 miles on it. Randy

I replaced both those with automotive hoses. I just took the hoses off and went to the auto parts place and found hoses that were close and cut some off each end and they worked fine. I have no idea what the car part numbers were. Randy

The problem with the 85 is you can hardly see it with all the stuff piled on top of it. And, most all of the plastic parts are hanging from the ceiling in the corner of the garage. I had picked it up for my son, who later got an 86. He went through the carbs and I put my TCI on it and it ran good, even though with the 83 TCI, it was not ported correctly to the boost sensor, so I think we just plugged the port. It's really too good of a bike and I am trying very hard to not use it as a parts bike when I need something. The 85's are a pretty unique version of the 1st gens. Randy

First of all, if it is an 85, check the ser# and make sure it is above 1413 or you may be dealing with the famous 2nd gear problem and 38,000 miles is about when many start to have a problem. Anytime I look at a supposed low mileage bike, especially an MKI, the first thing I look at is the condition of the rotors. If there is a substantial lip near the edge, it usually means that you can add another 100,000 miles to the odometer. There are other tell-tell signs to go a long with this and rotors can be replaced, but it is a start. Randy

I was thinking exactly the same thing, especially with the area under the door not appearing to be damaged. There have been a lot of improvements in the strength of door pillars over the years and you may be ok there. Can you get the doors open and can you see any distortion on the pillars? Just out of curiosity, does that model have side airbags? I took a few moments and went on car-part.com and keyed in your information and several doors and fenders came up for 05/08 Dodge Magnums and several were white. If it were me and there was no more apparent damage, I would consider a settlement with her insurance company and fix it myself. I know this is a PITA, but you may be able to come out fine and clear several thousand dollars for your trouble. Randy

I think many of us 1st gen MKI riders get the feeling that we have the original anti-lock brakes, at least on dry pavement. No matter how hard we try, we can not lock them up. But, this is not a good thing because if there is one thing about most 1st gens, they will go hard, but stopping, not so much. Thanks for the feedback everyone. I feel that many will be getting on their bikes soon, after not riding in a while. Some will be getting on bikes that are new-to-them, some will be getting on bikes that their winter projects will be brake upgrades, from new pads to more upgrades like I will be doing with MKII forks and rotors, R6 calipers and SS lines. Then there will be many that will simply be a little rusty in their instincts and the main thing on their mind is to feel that power. Also, keep in mind that many cagers have not encountered many bikes in a while and this also increases the importance of knowing our braking control and our bikes braking capabilities. If there is one thing that is absolutely predictable around here is if we have a couple of warm days in the winter, we have someone hurt or killed on a motorcycle. It just seems to happen about every year. Randy

You beat me to it Dan. Randy

I had a good friend that went to the drag races at Bristol with his son, who had a 240Z with a 400 small block Chevy that they raced. He had a weak spell and almost collapsed and EMS checked him out and told him he needed more checks. He told them he was OK and refused further treatment. A little later he was found in a bathroom stall where he had collapsed and died. He had had a heart attack and may have died anyway, but by ignoring the symptoms, we will never know. It may be inconvenient to have to deal with what you are going through, but dealing with a funeral can be kind of inconvenient too. If you have not stopped smoking yet, it may be a good time to rethink how important smoking is to you and your well-being. Remember, you have a whole lot of people that care a lot about you and many of them have never even met you. Randy

I wonder how many of us take the time and effort to actually see what the capabilities are of our brakes? Do you ever take your bike out on a deserted road and see how quickly you can stop from 40, 50 or 60 mph? Do you know how much effort it takes to lock up your rear brake or your front brake? Do you ever practice how close you can get to lock up, without locking it up? Do you know the best balance of using front and rear brakes to stop as quickly as possible? We have had several crashes lately where riders lost control of their bikes because in a panic stop they locked up their brakes, especially the rear. I wonder how many of those were surprised at how quickly they lost control? When in a panic mode we react to a situation with instinct and what we know. If the instinct is to grab your brakes as hard as you can to slow down quickly without knowing capabilities, you may crash without even hitting what you were trying to avoid. One of the things that many of us early 1st genners know is that we don't worry a lot about locking our stock brakes up, even with EBC HH pads on clean dry pavement, dusty or wet, yes we can get in trouble quick. I will be upgrading my 83 to R-6 calipers, MKII rotors and SS lines and I do expect them to be better. I had seriously thought about delinking, but with putting over 150,000 miles on this bike, I am going to leave them linked. I think most of us don't practice doing panic stops because we feel like we would be abusing the pads, rotors, ect. This is not nearly as important as knowing the capabilities. Then, after you get a good feel to what to expect, put your rider on the back and let them know you are going to do some quick slowdown practices and see how well they and the bike does, maybe not push the absolute limits, but get a good feel on what to expect. The thing we are going for here is to learn your bikes capabilities and learn to override your instincts with some training to know what works best. RandyA

So, you are saying the battery is 8 years old? I think you found your problem. When you get another battery, I suggest a DEKA, even though the original did pretty good. Randy

I was on the way to my my mom's house from a college class to have lunch and was to stop by the store to pick up something when it came over the radio the Elvis had been found dead. I remember as I was checking out that I mentioned it to the cashier and she looked like she was going to faint. Randy

Wow, you are one blessed man, what a great looking family. Randy

We now have the fender and the passing light. He still needs a headlight bucket with a trim ring, or at least a trim ring. Does your light still have the trim ring? If you do, let me know what you need for it. Thanks for your help. Randy

The first thing I will do is pull the spark plugs and look at the pistons with a camera scope. The guy I got it from said that the woman that had it had stopped at a store and when she got back in it, she started it then it quit. So maybe it was not revving when it happened. Randy

Coooool, bluesky, I guess you showed them. Randy

That would be less than 5,000 miles a year if it was 121,000 miles. I am always a little suspicious of a 29 year old bike having that low mileage. At 21,000 miles, that is only averaging 724 miles a year. Randy

Still riding with ya puc, and having a great time. Randy

Well, as if I don't have enough projects, Linda and I just bought an 04 Rodeo for her grandson that will turn 16 next month. We have been watching Craigslist for local cars and anything decent went very fast. We took a chance on this one as it has a bent valve. The body and interior is in excellent shape and it has 123k miles. I hope I can get by with just replacing the head. The guy we bought it from bought it this way and already picked up a bunch of parts like timing belt and a few other things. He just found out he was loosing his rented garage and apartment as the property was sold and he has no place to fix the vehicle. Her grandson already knows that he will be expected to be part of this rebuild and at this point he knows absolutely nothing about cars. I hope this will be a good turning point in his life. KBB private sell on this vehicle in good shape is about $3,800 and we got it for $1,200. KBB for selling off a dealer/car lot is a little over $6,000 for good condition. It also has new tires. Randy

Great pics ECK, It must have been Barn day. Randy