Venturous Randy

Wow, looking real good. How hard is it to put the 2nd gen covers on the 1st gen motor? I have always wondered if they would work. RandyA

Linda and I got in some good riding this weekend as it was supposed to be warm and dry. To ride on some unfamiliar roads, I decided to take off to Hazard, KY. We took some two lane, mountain roads and it was a good ride of about 300 miles. Today, we hooked up with a friend that has an RSTD and rode some back roads in the mountains of NC. Again, with the trees and everything budding out, it was an absolutely beautiful ride of about 130 miles. We saw temps of 86 yesterday and 87 today in some of the valleys. I keep putting off putting the other engine in my bike that has the 2nd gen transmission in it. For the type of riding like this, the engine I have along with the V-Max rear is perfect. RandyA

Had a couple of Chevelles, a 64, 327 4-speed I bought in 68 while still in high school. It got me thru four years in the USAF and two more years and then I found a 65 Chevelle body with a 12 bolt, 4:10 posi in perfect condition and transferred the stuff from the 64 to the 65. Parked the car later an rebuilt the motor and put in a 240Z. Sold the body for $125. What I missed out on was a 65 Chevelle Z-16 sitting in a field that was complete. The Z-16's were special built and had the 396/375hp engines as a precursor to the 396 Chevelles that came out in 1966. Only 201 were built and one was a convertible. This one sold for $800 to a guy that turned around and sold it for $3,000. That guy cleaned it up and put a clutch in it and kept it for a few years. Some guy from Ohio found out he had it and bought it for $54,000 and was going to restore it. These things sell for over $100,000 now. For Chevy or muscle car fans, Google Z-16. Yep, missed one that I would have loved to have had. RandyA

The last time I had a front tire leak, it was around the base of the valve stem and I just tightened it up some. RandyA

Soooooo..... you have had so many special days here lately, with some of the bikes that you have acquired, how are you going to make this a special day? Oh, this one won't involve a motorcycle. Hope you have a great day. RandyA

I had the same problem and it was the spring that holds the detent in place. If it is broken, you can feel that the linkage does not have the "click" when it goes into gear. You can check this by getting to the point where there is no binding to go into gear and you may have to rock the bike a little to get to that sweet spot. You will also be able to tell that it will come out of gear easy and without the click. If this is the issue, you will have to take the cover that is over the clutch off and you will see it on the bottom left, up behind the clutch. RandyA

I run a radar detector on my bike for one reason, not for speeding, but because a 1st gen seems to be pretty stealthy. Due to this, if you are coming toward radar and if you have someone a distance behind you, like a big SUV or truck, the radar will read them instead of you. Radar does not read who is going fastest, it reads the strongest bounce back of the signal. Occasionally, they will set up the radar units with a big screen beside the road to show how fast someone is going and I have found that I have to get pretty close before it will read me, if I am alone on the road. If traffic is a quarter mile behind me, I can slow down below their speed and sometimes it will not pick me up at all when I go by. When my radar detector goes off, I will check my speed, but usually, I will try to see who is behind me and see if they are speeding. RandyA

Good for you. You were able to mourn in your own way and put things into perspective. RandyA

I have had a couple of almost new rear tires that I have rope patched on the road to get home and as soon as I could, I would break the tire down and put a good patch on the inside. I have run them until they needed replacing and never had any leak downs. RandyA

Wow, again, thanks. This is a wonderful story and not only are you happy about this, but you took something that was very dear to them, that they were obviously somewhat stressed about, and were able to assure to them that you understand how important the future of this bike was to be. Again, if there was ever an example of good karma, good things happening to good people, you are it. RandyA

Happy Birthday, our Ambassador. RandyA:cool10:

That is so fascinating and thank you so much for sharing it with us. Puc, you must have some really good Karma. RandyA

After going back and looking at the part numbers, I now realize Masterguns did have the correct parts for the better segment. What I had not realized before is the better segment has all the different pieces as I thought it was a one piece unit. So, I learn something every day. Dingy, I am sure glad we have you to keep us straight. RandyA

Wow, that is a great story. I hope you get many great miles on YOUR Midnight. RandyA

The later 2nd gens have the one piece unit that does not have the pins. I looked at the parts diagram and it shows the one with the pins, but you don't want that one. See attached: Not sure what the part number is. RandyA

If you made it in mid August, you could come to the Asheville Rally. RandyA

I would be concerned about putting something on that has an adhesive backing. That stuff does not usually stick very good to things that get hot. RandyA

Yeah, it's snowing on a couple robins in the front yard under the white dogwood tree. It was 85 here Sunday. RandyA

Wow Dan, that's not a good way to get started on this riding season. Looks like you are also pretty beat up. I feel for you as with my tip over last September when I broke a rib or two, it was about four months before the pain was gone. This year, I have taken about four good rides of 150 to 200 miles and I have caught myself being so careful that I am almost too paranoid. I have dropped the bike once each of the four years with Linda and I can still vividly remember every detail of what happened and what I did wrong. Every time I dropped it, it was because I was not completely focused on what I was doing. Were you able to get the bike picked back up without hurting yourself even more? We will be thinking about you and hope you heal up fast. RandyA

I changed my plugs yesterday and it took me about 20 minutes. I use a plug socket for motorcycles that uses a 17mm wrench. I break them loose and after several rotations, I can use my fingers to unscrew them . I always blow out any debris and also use spark plug anti seize. I will also run the bike a minute to warm the head without getting it too hot to put my hand on the head. This helps as aluminum expands more than steel. I can not imagine it taking an hour to change a spark plug. RandyA

We put about 200 miles on of back roads in SW VA near the KY line and we saw 86 degrees of sunny riding. Could not have asked for a more beautiful day. RandyA

Adding another on repairing the howling speedometer. All these should be added in our 1st gen library. RandyA

Yep, we have already had two local deaths. One was doing about 110mph in a 45 zone and a car pulled across in front of him. RandyA

I have an 83 that I have put 141,000 miles on and I usually ride in shorts(yeah, I know), and I have never felt any real discomfort from the heat. I also cut my side panels to the bikini style to have it even more open and still never have a problem. As Bob suggested, start with a good sync on the carbs. Also, it might help to get it analyzed to determine if it is running lean, which makes it run hotter. Any bike in a sitting position will create heat on the rider, but these bikes are usually pretty comfortable. RandyA

How much air are you running in the shocks? RandyA