Timothy King – Page 23 – Mechanical Sympathy

Micro Ninja

I picked up a Celestron digital microscope/camera a few weeks ago. These are surprisingly cheap and let you take some astonishing video and photography on a micro level you might not otherwise get to see with a normal camera and even the fanciest macro setup.

The model I got takes 4mb images and does high-def video at high frame rates (for smooth slow motion). After messing around with ice crystals and eyeballs I turned the it on the Ninja.

I’ve always thought the petal type rotors on the Ninja are a nice feature, and up close they take on an abstract modernism that is really beautiful. I couldn’t help but critically exam them while they were under the microscope, they seem to be wearing very evenly.

Looking at the chain up close was another matter. What I thought was a clean, well lubricated chain didn’t look so clean under a microscope. The road grit that gets caught up in the lubricant is obvious at even low magnification. I suppose the only time your chain looks nice is before you use it.

The radiator fins made another interesting closeup. These look perfectly formed and even to the naked eye, but up close the folds in the cooling fins look like they were made by hand. It’s another world when you get to micro-photography. No corrosion and they look to be wearing well though.

The small-print on the tires are very sharp considering that they are branded into rubber. The sidewalls look to be in very clean shape after my first season too.

What was freakier was looking at the micro-detail in the treads. Motorcyclists have such tiny contact patches on the road, they tend to be much more tire focused than four wheeled vehicles. With the naked eye the tires on the bike still look in great shape, but under the microscope they made me nervous. Don’t look at your bike tires under a microscope unless you’ve got a strong stomach:

That’s the narrow end of one of the tread cuts on the rear tire (not quite a season old) of the Avon Storms on the Ninja. Once again, they look in great shape to the naked eye, but tires are the sharp end of the spear on a bike and up close they show their wear in the tread grooves. In this case it looks like the contact patch is in good shape but the rubber in the grooves has dried out.

As a photographic exercise the Celestron digital microscope/camera was a lot of fun to play with, and at only about fifty bucks it might also make a handy diagnostic tool (the photos are jpgs and the videos are avi, so you could easily share them with people too). In video mode it could create high-def, high frame rate (slow motion) images as you scan over an area and show cracks or damage in fantastic detail. It would be interesting to run this over internal engine parts after high mileage to get a sense of how they wear.

The Bike Hole is Completeth!

The bike hole is done! From an unfinished, uninsulated garage, I now have a bike hole that’ll warm up to room temperature with a small space heater. Not only is it warm, but it’s also organized!

After removing the mouse nest from the toolbox and getting rid of three garbage bags of nonsense, the garage is now a workable space. Thanks to a tsunami in Japan the upstairs is a workable storage space (instead of a week in Japan I spent days putting flooring into the attic).

Motorbike prints from Norfolk!

Between prints and some well done motorcycle 4×6 photos, I’ve managed to make a motorbike maker space without a single poster and some inspirational images for a long, cold Canadian winter. With all the mess organized and stored in the attic there would be room for a couple of bikes in there comfortably.

The current list of things to do:

take the fairings off the Ninja and refinish the frame
find an old project bike that I can break down as a learning exercise
find a good introduction to motorcycle mechanics’ text

Learning On A Knife’s Edge

I’m still struggling with my Mum’s recent, sudden death. While that is going on, I’m dealing with a previously signed up for teaching qualification in computer engineering, and a series of slanderous attacks on my profession. I can’t help but be self-reflexive about how I’m dealing with the role of student; I fear I’m not doing it very well.

Culturally, I think I’m on the Ridge

I’ve felt thin since that phone call on June 1st. The North American manly thing to do is dismiss anything to do with it and proceed with a steady course of denial. I suppose the stiff upper-lip English thing is to do something similar. Since being dumped somewhere in the mid-Atlantic as a child, I’m having trouble adopting a social convention to follow.

The thinness I’m feeling has made for some awkward moments with time management. On the first weekend, when I should have been plugging away on our first big assignment, instead I ended up going to the cottage and passing out on the couch. It made for a stressful Monday when I returned, but one of the things about being thin is that there isn’t enough butter to evenly cover the toast.

I feel like we’re over the hump in the course now. I’m finding old habits returning around hard focusing on specific tasks instead of just directionlessly wandering through the material we’re covering. I’m a good student, even when I’m incomplete. The deadlines have been difficult to handle, but perhaps their imminence helped me get my mind off subjects it wouldn’t let go of otherwise. The fact that the emotionally turbulent month of June is slowly receding might be helping too.

I’ve had students who have gone through emotional crisis, some of which make mine look like a walk in the park, yet we still come at them with curriculum expectations and demands. I’ve always tried to step lightly in those cases, out of a sense of compassion. It’s a difficult thing for a teacher to deal with. In some cases a student who has gone through trauma is best left with space, but in others, giving them something else to focus on might help move them on emotionally.

No clear answer to this one, I fear. Some days I’d be driving down to the course with tears rolling down my cheeks because of a song on the radio, right now I’m feeling pretty solid. It comes and goes. I guess the one take-away from all this is that you can’t make an algorithm or develop a system for dealing with emotional crisis; each person experiences it differently, and coming at it in a curriculum orientated, systemic manner is a recipe for disaster.

A good teacher will remember their own ups and downs and differentiate not just in terms of what a student is capable of intellectually, but also in terms what emotional focus they can bring to bear.

In my own case, I’ve been trying to change my mind, but when it runs deep, it’s not always a matter of conscious choice. In the end, if I can remember where I am now with my students in the future, I’ll be in a better place to respond to their needs.

Pretty Calipers

The brake caliper rebuild moved into the ‘nerd-lab’ downstairs where my son does his lego and I usually focus more on digital tech. With Why We Ride playing on the projector I got to enjoy HEAT while I rebuilt the rear caliper.

The only time I had to go out to the garage was to blow out the caliper pistons with compressed air, otherwise it was some light bench work while watching a very pretty film.

I’m still monkeying around with 3d modelling tools. I’m trying different resolution settings on the Structure Sensor. I also tried using itseez3d instead of the factory software. It made for an interesting variation (itseez3d uses the ipad camera to take a lot of texture photos which it mixes into the model).

It only took me a couple of hours to sort out the fronts and have everything looking sharp. Blowing out the pistons was a bit trickier as there are two on the front and the smaller one (less surface area) didn’t come right out with the air. I’m worried that I scored them too much removing them. I guess I’ll see when I put them all back on the bike.

The front calipers are cleaned up and blown apart, waiting for their rebuilds, probably later this week.

3d model of the rear caliper reassembled.

Compared to the rusty lump it was before, it’s night and day. I can’t wait to feel the change.

The rusty, pockmarked disk bolts got dremelled clean and repainted too.

The Machine As Narrative

Eighteen months ago I found a 1994 Kawasaki ZG1000 sitting in a field. It was in pretty rough shape, unused with grass growing up through it. I was immediately drawn to it, though I was worried about transitioning from my relatively modern, fuel injected, first bike (an ‘07 Ninja) to this twenty year old, carbureted machine that clearly needed TLC to be roadworthy.

One of the reasons I got into motorcycling was to re-spark my dormant love of mechanics, which had been prompted by Matt Crawford’s brilliant little book, Shopclass As Soulcraft. I briefly battled with worries about my abilities and working on motorcycles (of which I had no previous experience). When you get a car repair wrong you tend to roll to a stop surrounded by a big cage. If you get a bike part wrong it can throw you down the road. I’d been away from mechanics so long that I was afraid I’d lost the touch.

Once I got my hands moving again they quickly remembered what they once knew. My ability to repair machines hadn’t been unused, it had simply been focused elsewhere, on IT. Those years of rebuilding cars and working in the industry quickly came back to me.

The Concours was stripped down, old gauges were fixed, oil lines repaired and it sailed through safety. The old dog immediately rewarded me with a ride up to Blue Mountain though a snow storm, and a ride around Georgian Bay. The only mechanical failure as the bike began to rack up miles was Canadian Tire’s fault.

By the end of the summer the old Kawasaki had ridden down the back straight of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and clocked up over thirty thousand miles on the odometer.

This winter I’ve been deeper into the bike than ever before. Besides maintenance items like spark plugs, I also had a close look at the tires, and elected to retire the mis-matched, old tires. With the tires off and the wheels naked, I looked into industrial coating options. Fireball Performance Coatings is only about half an hour away in Erin. After meeting with the owner Mark, I went with a candy coated gold that’ll gel nicely with the red/gold trim look the bike is developing. The rims are done and are currently at Two Wheel Motorsport getting Michelined up. Future bike projects are definitely going to make use of Fireball’s coatings.

This week things start to go back together in a big way. With the tires and rims back I’ll be popping in the new bearings, putting the balancing beads in (first time trying them), and installing the wheels back on the bike. With the wheels (and disk brake rotors) back on I’ll be able to finally finish the rear brake lines and reinstall the rebuilt calipers. It’s a lot of bits and pieces that need to come back together, fortunately I’ve been taking photos as I go (a good way to keep track of what goes where). Between that and the Clymer shop manual, everything should come back together nicely.

A big part of taking things apart is cleaning them up, even if parts don’t get replaced. I’ve been into many dark places that haven’t seen anyone since 1994.

The clean and shiny drive disk in the rear hub – it’s what the shaft drive feeds into.

A cleaned up shaft drive housing on the back of the bike.

The rear suspension is cleaned up, but it needs a good greasing.

Owning an older motorcycle can be frustrating, but it’s also very rewarding. The operation of the machine is only one part of your relationship with it. By laying hands on the mechanicals you become familiar with your motorbike in a new way. That mechanical relationship integrates with the riding relationship, creating something richer.

It might be nice to have a newer machine that always works, but even if I could afford that, I don’t know that I’d sell off the Concours. It’s nice to have a machine I’m this intimate with.

As I finished writing this Triumph emailed me with a link to the new Street Twin configurator. That’d be a lovely machine to start another story with…

Niagara Escarpment

I’ve been chased off the road by lousy weather, so the dream trips begin again (it’s a form of therapy).

The Niagara Escarpment

Since moving to Southern Ontario when I was nine, I’ve had a fascination with the Niagara Escarpment. There are a couple of parks (Rockwood & Rattlesnake Point) that featured prominently with my younger years; I learned to rock climb at Rattlesnake Point.

When I got my driver’s license and couldn’t handle the tedium of arrow straight Ontario roads any more I’d drive up to Belfountain (where I got married years later) and drive the Forks of the Credit. When I got my motorcycle license, one of the first long trips I ever took was to a conference in Ancaster where I was introduced to Sulphur Springs Road, one of the first times I got that feeling of flying while riding.

Southern Ontario is surrounded by interesting geology, but the only
thing that breaks up the monotony around here is the Escarpment

Last year I took a ride out to Horning’s Mills, one of the prettiest places I’ve ever wanted to live and road River Road down through Mono Hills (somewhere else I’ve looked at houses). All of these places happen to trace the spine of the escarpment.

Geological scars have always fascinated me, I think the energy coming out of the ground in these places is palpable; the Escarpment is one of those places.

I usually design trips that go long or take me to exotic place, but this one is a close to home and very doable trip. The Escarpment enters Ontario just below Niagara Falls at the Queenston Heights (where I attended my wife’s cousin’s wedding). Starting there, I’d trace the Escarpment through Niagara wine country and past my wife’s alma mater (Brock University). A logical first stop would be on the turn around Hamilton in Ancaster. Day One would be only about 100kms, with lots of stops and turns up and down the Escarpment. Passing through the rows of grapes, we may end up testing the carrying capacity of our rides.

Day 2 would mark the swing north, starting with Sulphur Springs road and winding through Rattlesnake Point and The Forks of the Credit before parking it up for the night at The Millcroft Inn in Alton. This one’s about 120kms as the crow flies, but includes a lot of switchbacks again. Pulling in early at the Millcroft spa is never a bad idea anyway.

After a restful night at The Millcroft we head north past my wife’s childhood home in Mono Hills and up to Horning’s Mills before tracing River Road and heading north to the bottom of Georgian Bay. Blue Mountain looks like a nice place to stop. This is another 120km day, but with a lot of room for exploration and switchbacks.

Day four has us tracing the shore of Georgian Bay for 150kms on increasingly quieter roads as we head away from the noise of the Golden Horseshoe. We’d aim for Wiarton to stop for the night before tackling The Bruce Peninsula on the final day.

It’s tricky following the Escarpment up the Bruce Peninsula, road access is spotty at best. If we try to hit every bit of coast we’re looking at over 200kms of riding. Many roads don’t appear to join up on the map but might in real life, it’ll be an exploratory day of trying to find the wild edge of the Bruce.

The trip ends in lovely Tobermory. If we left on a Monday we’d be in Tobermory by Friday night. The goal wouldn’t be miles covered, but rather how much of the Escarpment could we ride. Relatively known roads like Forks of the Credit might get company from some Escarpment roads that only locals know of (like River Road out of Horning’s Mills).

The Niagara Escarpment Run

Without any highways or long distance hauling, this begs for a light touch as far as gear

goes. The bikes would be minimally laden. In a perfect world I’d do this with my wife and two friends from Ottawa. Considering the nature of the trip, I’d be tempted to try and do this zero emission. The Zero DS with the power tank would easily cover the mileage requirements every day and be able to charge overnight at each stop.

It would even be able to handle the ride from Tobermory home at the end of the trip in one gulp.

The Bruce Trail runs along the Escarpment, which itself is a world biosphere reserve. Being able to ride the escarpment without a whiff of CO2 not only honours the biosphere, but also points to a future of environmentally gentler motorbiking.

High School Motorcycle Club

I’m thinking about starting a motorcycle club at the high school I work at. This should be an interesting as it will highlight the general fear around motorbiking. Our school runs downhill ski racing, mountain biking, rugby, and ice hockey teams, but I suspect that motorcycling may be an uphill struggle to establish as a club.

A number of our teachers and students ride. We even have a student who is a competitive motorcross rider. I bumped into a graduate last year when I was writing my motorcycling learner’s test, she was taking the motorcycling technician course at Conestoga College in Guelph. There is expertise, interest and activity around motorcycling in our school and our community, I only hope that the panicky liability-thinking that dictates a lot of decision making in schools calms down and takes a rational look at this. Offering students access to the experience and opportunity a club provides would lead to a safer and more well rounded introduction to motorcycling. From that point of view, every high school should have a club!

We could pull off field trips to motorcycle shows (along with the auto-tech department) and offer training opportunities both off road and on road. We have several local motorcycle retailers nearby who we could work with doing seminars or information sessions on various bikes and gear. The club would let the more experienced staff and students express their skill while offering the bike-curious a more thorough introduction to motorcycling.

I’m going to pitch this when I get back and see what the response is, I’m hoping reason trumps fear.

We’re All Just So Busy

If I hear this one more time I might pop. We’re no busier than we ever were. If we were all so busy we’d have solved world hunger, the impending energy crisis, unemployment, racism, our broken democracies and poverty. If we’re all so terribly busy, what is it that we’re busy with, because it doesn’t appear to be anything important.

Most recently I heard it on CBC radio when someone was talking about an online dating site that allows you to quickly, with little more than a photo and a couple of bio points, select a date and meet them. Not surprisingly, the CBC piece was on the disasters that have come from this. When asked why people do it, the interviewee trotted out, “well, we’re all just so busy now-a-days.” I would suggest that if you are too busy to develop a considered relationship with a possible life partner, then you’re getting what you deserve.

These people aren’t busy, they are distracted.

I see students who spend more than half their walking hours engaged in the (mostly) viewing and (seldom) producing of social media. Much of this is so utterly banal that it defies belief, yet people get so wrapped up in it that they feel trapped. For those who feel the urge to publish their every thought for the world to see, the results are often less than complimentary.

There are those who are leveraging social media in interesting ways, but for the vast majority it is a passive time sink that has conditioned them to do many things poorly and barely ever finish a thought.

This myopia feeds data bankers who make a lot of money from the freely given marketing information. It also feeds the industry that creates a treadmill of devices to cater to the process. Lastly, our digital myopia also feeds the egos of all the ‘very busy’ people who see themselves as a vital part of this wonderful new democracy.

At yoga the other week our instructor gave us this: pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. There are things we need to do in life in order to survive and thrive: look after our bodies, look after our minds, look after our dependants, seek and expand our limitations, find a good life. This can be very challenging, but it is dictated by choice. When we make good choices we tend to see a reward. Eat well and feel better, expand your mind and learn something new, look after your family and enjoy a loving, safe environment. Poor choices lead to poor circumstances. In a world where we have more dependable machines and efficient communication, we should enjoy a sense of ease greater than previous generations who had to tune carburetors and ring through telephone exchanges.

Make some good choices. How busy are you really?

October 15th? Try a Long Distance Rally!

Many bikes of all shapes and sizes. If you ride, a long distance
rally is a great way to meet new riders and challenge yourself.

Can you make your way to Woodstock, Ontario on October 15th? The second ever Lobo Loco long distance motorcycle rally runs on that day. I had a blast at the first one and want another go.

The rally is on the verge of getting enough people to run. If you’re in the North Eastern US, Quebec or Ontario or Michigan/Ohio, and can make it out to Woodstock, Ontario on October 15th, you won’t be disappointed.

Give it a go, it’s a blast!

http://wolfe35.wixsite.com/lobolocorallies

You will find yourself in strange places you wouldn’t otherwise stop in!

Chain and no Agony

Follow up to Chain & Agony and How to Size and Replace a Motorcycle Chain…

The whole process of breaking the chain and installing it took about half an hour this time around. The o-ring chain I got was easy to break using the tool I picked up, and installing the new master link on the chain took only moments. The three in one DRC Chain Tool I got (chain breaker, outer plate presser, rivet presser) was easy to use and looks good doing it. It might be my favourite tool at the moment.

The chain-breaking tool comes with two sizes of /privet pushing bit. The blue bit was for 500 sized chains (the Ninja’s is
a 520). You back off the big bolt and install the push pin, then use the smaller outer bolt to push the pin into the rivet on the chain. The tool automatically centres the rivet, so you’re true all the way through.

The new chain was a 120 link chain, the Ninja takes 114 links, so that’s 6 links off the end. The hole in the
top is where the chain pin falls out once you’ve pushed it through.

Close-up of the blue chain bit . There is a pin inside it that the outer bolt pushes through, pushing the rivet
right out of the chain. Once the pin falls out the chain falls apart. You end up with a clean break and two
inner chain links ready to be re-attached on the bike with a master link.

Six links of the 120 link chain removed. One pin is pushed right out, the other was pushed
out far enough to dismantle the chain.

I installed the master link on the sprocket – it keeps everything lined up and made installation easy. After
pressing on the side plate (gently, checking that it’s in line with the other links and the chain has play in it),
the only tricky bit was installing the retaining clip, it took a few tries. When you get it though you know for
sure because it makes a very satisfying click.

With the chain back on and lubricated, everything is tight. The change to how the bike feels is subtle
but very satisfying. The engine feels much more firmly connected to the back wheel now. No sags and tight
spots like on the old chain.

I got this mighty DRC Pro chain
tool at Royal Distributing in
Guelph.

Now that I’ve got a handle on this and the right tools for the job, chains don’t worry me any more. This process also emphasized how surgical bike mechanics are. I started off doing heavy equipment repair as a millwright and then did a couple of years in automotive. Compared to that kind of work, motorcycle mechanics feel more like surgery than butchery. Patience and a careful hand are more important than brute force.

Now more than ever I’m looking for an old bike to dismantle and rebuild to get an inside feel for how motorbikes go together.