December 2019 – Page 4 – Mechanical Sympathy

’98 Fireblade Winter Project: Wiring & Petcocks

With the carbs sorted I’m chasing down anything else that could have caused the fuel leak into the engine on the Fireblade. Yesterday I had the petcock out of the gas tank again and tested it over a catch basin. Fuel flows fine when it’s on, but it continues to drip when it’s supposed to be closed, so a new petcock is in order. Fortunately they seem to be a regularly replaced maintenance item because you can buy them on Amazon for not much money.

The neutral light wasn’t working, so I got some LED replacements – they’re super bright. The wiring to the neutral sensor was stripped down by the drive sprocket, so I cleaned it up, reattached it and taped it up. Voila, working neutral light again.

There were also a set of wires coming out of the drive sprocket housing that look like they go to a speed sensor which were resting on the exhaust pipe and had melted. These too got sorted and re-wrapped. I’m also going to fasten that loom so that it can’t touch the exhaust again.

There are still lots of little details to sort, but the Honda is coming together nicely. I’ll aim to have it safetied in the spring and then run it for a few months and see if having a second bike in the garage is worth hanging on to, or it might just be sold on to fund the next project. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to running my first true sport bike.

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2020 Moto Wishlist

Next season is a long, cold winter away, but I’m already daydreaming about what might be…

TomTom Rider 550 Moto-GPS: I’ve always made do with my phone, but Google Maps is kinda crap when it comes to navigating on a bike. Whenever you reach a way point it wants input, which isn’t easy when you’re flying through the air at 60mph with gloves on. The TomTom not only is glove friendly, but the software is moto-specific, so no pointless inputs. It even has a twisty-roads function! $370CAN

A New Roof: I’m partial to Roof Helmets. To date I’ve owned a first generation Desmo and a Boxxer. The Boxxer is a simple thing and I miss the plush, quieter and more substantial Desmo I had before. Roof has actually come out with a new Desmo, the RO32, and I’m partial to the new flat dark blue lid they’ve just done. Roofs are hard to find in North America, but Chromeburner has the new lid on for about $500CAN.

Racing Kit! A one piece racing suit for the other thing below. Now that I’m with sports bike, perhaps I could take it out to track days. To do that I’d need the proper racing kit. To get the right spec helmet, boots, gloves and racing suit, I’m at about $2200. Fortnine has the bits I’d need.

A long time ago I did a car performance driving school at Shannonville Race Track and really enjoyed it. Taking the Fireblade out on track would be a brilliant way to get to know this athletic machine. Riderschoice.ca has track days. I just need to get the bike sorted and have the kit necessary to do the business.

Starting at about $170.

Of course, if you’re doing track days and need to prep a bike for the track, you need to drain coolant and all sorts of other stuff. What you really need is a way to get it there. The new Transit Connect is super fuel efficient for a van and would carry my stuff and people when needed. About $37k.

Van’s got a tow hitch, so trailer, obviously… $1600 at Canadian tire for this one. Maybe trailers don’t matter, but I’d like to colour match this one to the van. With that and a fitted cover, it could take one or two bikes to wherever the snow ends in the winter and trackdays in the summer.

BIKE WISHLIST:

A next level off-roader. I’ve done a few rounds of off-road training and dig the experience. I’d like to race enduro and need something dependable and big enough to carry me. There was a Suzuki DR650 I looked at in the summer for a very reasonable $4000. It was five years old but basically brand new due to some back luck by its owner. I wish I could go back in time, get that bike, sort it out for enduro racing and then do it!

Track-day bike: I’ve already got this one underway with the Fireblade project. Sorting out the CBR900rr in the garage and then making it track-day ready would be brilliant. The real block to entry is the cost of racing kit and the ability to transport the bike to the track. I think I’m some finishing up and detail work away from putting the Honda back on the road in the spring.

Top Speed Machine: I’ve always been partial to the Suzuki Hayabusa, and it would let me do a bucket list thing (200mph on a motorcycle) with only a few modifications. To stretch the bucket list wish, I’d take it out to speed week in Bonneville and do 200mph on the salt. If I wanted a leg up on this, someone has a modified turbo Hayabusa in Windsor.

A 2-up Touring specialist: The Tiger will do 2-up work, but it isn’t ideal for it. A bike that’s a 2-up specialist would be the ideal tool for the job. Out of all the big cruiser/touring bikes out there, I think the Goldwing is the best. I’ve ridden a friend’s. It’s surprisingly athletic, even with 2 people on it. Touring bikes don’t come cheap – the ‘Wing is a $30k thing.

Anime Dream Machine: The Kawasaki Z1000 has long been a favourite and its Sugomi designed look is pure anime awesomeness. I’ve got to admit that the Fireblade project sitting in my garage scratches many of the same itches though. There’s an orange Z1000 in Quebec going for about $10k. I think the Fireblade might have scratched this itch…

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A Week After New Years

Norman makes the PCH look pretty magical.
At nearly a thousand bucks a day for this Canadian,
it would have to be.

Strange timing means I’ve got the week off after New Year’s Day this year. That means flying is a less expensive possibility, so what motorcycling trip might I do with that time? Norman Reedus did the PCH last year, that’d be nice. If my son and I were to go what would that cost?

1) Drive to Detroit would be a bit of gas, border & hotel money, pack only bike gear and a single change of clothes. Parking in Detroit would cost about $170 for the week including a night in a hotel (the flight leaves at 6am).

$250 for the first day and night (trip, hotel & parking). And that’s just to stay in Detroit!

2) Flights from Detroit to LAX are going for about $675. Throw in another $50 to eat bad airport food.

Land in LAX, cab over to EagleRider (10 miles) $30. EagleRider renting a BMW sport tourer for a week costs over $1400US ($1900 Canadian) if you want decent insurance coverage in the liability driven US.

Figure $300US a day in food, gas and hotels (travelling fairly minimally), and our eight days and nine nights on ground should run us about $2400US ($3250 Canadian).

The flight back is another $574 plus expenses…

Once back it’s another four hour slog over the bridge and back into Ontario through potentially lousy winter weather. Figure in an extra $100 for gas, tolls and eating to get home.

A thousand miles up and down the Pacific Coast Highway
would be a nice way to end the holiday break, but
at seven grand it’s a salty trip.

I might have the time free, but this cheap-as-I’ll-go trip to California for just seven days (plus one in Detroit) would run to almost seven grand. It’s a nice bike, but the price difference between that and a smaller, less able bike to carry us and our stuff around isn’t that much (maybe thirty bucks a day less). This is assuming $100 a night-ish hotels, so nothing special and nothing near anything good. Other than the riding there isn’t much left to visit anything with either.

Renting a bike is expensive. Flying is expensive even if it isn’t a peak times and even if you drive to Detroit first. Hotels aren’t cheap, and the whole thing jumps up by 32% when I pay for it with the Canadian money I earn.

I guess I won’t be doing that the week after New Years.

Last Light of the Sun

Tuesday, November 26: I got outside after work and noted that the weather didn’t hurt. Could this be a chance for a final ride before the icy grip of old man winter chokes the life out of my riding season?

On our way home I saw a determined rider on a Harley with scarves tied around his face and that tipped it. It took me about 10 minutes to thermal up (this opportunity was still only a 5°C one) and wheel the Tiger out from under its blanket.

The 16 year old Triumph started at the touch of the button, though the battery didn’t sound happy after sitting in freezing temperatures for a month. As the bike warmed up I made sure no skin was showing and off I went.

I just did a 30km run down to the Westmontrose Covered Bridge and then back to Elora, but the chance to fly again before the winter closes in was priceless. There is nothing better than an unexpected ride when you think you’re months away from being out in the wind again.

A brief stop at the church in Westmontrose for some thematically relevent early November sunset shots in the graveyard before riding back upstream. I pulled into the gas station in Elora and was surprised to see four other bikers filling up before the long cold resumes.

The Tiger is now parked up with a full tank of gas, ready to slumber once again under its blanket until the distant spring approaches…

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Re-awakening

From August, 2012 courtesy of Dusty World:

I just finished reading Matthew Crawford’s “Shop Class for Soulcraft”, a philosophical look at the value of skilled, physical labour. Having come from a mechanical background into an academic one, a philosopher-mechanic’s critical examination of the ‘creative economy’ we’re all dying to jump into was refreshing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12108000

I’ve often missed the clarity and satisfaction I found in repairing machines, and now I have a philosophical explanation of that sense of loss. Crawford delineates meaningful work in terms of objective standards, a sense of community and individual agency. He then goes on to disembowel the MBA speak found in the otherworldly knowledge economy that can only exist in an entirely abstract sense of work, one I fear that has been applied to the skilled trade of teaching courtesy of lawyers and politicians.

It’s been a few weeks now since I finished the book. I’m finding that the lasting impression is one of embracing my smart hands again. The idea that mind work is somehow superior to hand work is nonsense, though our school is streamed according to that logic (academic/applied, university/college). The argument that we discover the truest aspect of human intelligence when we work our minds through our hands continues to ring true for me.

The other, unintentional side effect has been a re-awakening of my love of motorcycles. I’d originally gone after one when I was 16, but my parents offered to up what I’d saved to get me into a car. It’s probably one of the reasons I’m here today, it was a smart move. At 43 I’m not interested in wrapping myself around a pole. Riding is a way to be alone with your thoughts, no obtrusive media, and the development of a constant awareness; you can’t let your mind wander on a bike, they are ruthlessly observant of incompetence. Riding also offers an intimate familiarity with a machine in a very minimalist way that is appealing.

I come by my urges honestly. Here is a picture of my Grand-dad Bill in the late nineteen forties… I need to get myself some white riding shoes! I later learned from my Aunt that Bill was a stunt rider in the R.A.F. motorcycle tatoo (they would do gymnastics and stunts while doing drill on the motorbikes). Wild!

I hope to be licensed and riding in the spring.