BOLO Stolen Bike

A friend on a cross country trip had his FJR1300 stolen last night in Las Vegas. 

DO NOT approach as they also now have his pistol.

Everyone in the western US keep an eye out and if you know someone out there, share this post. 

Hot Sauce returns next week.

Destruction

Truer now than ever...

Getting Jerked Around

So I've been getting more than my fair share of this garbage lately. I can only take so much. If you've ever seen the film "Falling Down," it does a pretty good job of summing up my current state of mind.
I'm not saying I am going to snap, but I totally understand the feeling.

Coil Bracket

The old one broke...

so I made a new one. Lost a little bit of riding time on Sunday but saved a little coin by using some scrap on the work bench. All in a day's work.

Hot Sauce of the Week

Ass Reaper-I didn't enjoy this sauce at all. Yes, the bottle is unique and it is hot but the addition of extract gives it a distinct coppery, chemical flavor. Past the solo taste test and one breakfast, this didn't make it onto anything else. Sauces like Punk's, Beast Feast Maine and Uncle CC's crap on this. I am not an extract guy, give me real ingredients any day. Maybe this will see use in recipes where I need heat but for my apply directly purposes, it will get passed over. 10 calories/tsp

Thanks to Tim and Misty for sending this my way. I appreciate the thought even if I don't like the sauce.

Hot Sauce of the Week

Submission-With habanero, African oleoresin and Scotch Bonnet as the first three ingredients, this is a  hot one. That said, it isn't a good sauce. The flavor that comes in after the heat just seems off. I doused lunch with this one and it was an upsetting experience. If you like heat, my lips were still burning half an hour after I ate so there's that but for flavor, you could do much better elsewhere.
10 calories/tsp

LED Brake Light, Take 2

So I got my brake light back from Signal Dynamics a couple weeks ago. Their communication with me on this was pretty poor. They never called to say what the issue was or that it was coming back, it just arrived. The invoice said "Repaired, tested" and that was pretty much it. I have verified that it is in working condition again but I am interested to know what caused the failure. As soon as I can get a little garage time I am going to reinstall it. I am trying to be positive here but there is always that feeling in the back of my mind that it will fail again.

Rear Fender and Tail Light

I had been running a single turn signal on the fender as a running/brake light and decided it was time for something different. My buddy Voy has a pretty clean LED light on the Rat Turd so I thought I would find out who made them and see what they had.

This single row running/brake combo seemed like it would do the trick so I proceeded to notch the rear fender before painting it. Afterwards, a three wire setup and we were good to go.

That was until a few days before Christmas. Out of nowhere, the brake light wouldn't come on. I took everything back apart examining all of my wiring and it seemed to be in good shape. I removed the light and cut into the wiring to test it directly and it seems that the light assembly itself is the culprit.

After the holidays were over and the company who sold me the light came back to work I was able to get them on the horn. I am sending the unit back in for testing to see what the issue is. They said they will either repair it and send it back or provide a new light. We'll see how that plays out later this week.

OK...

Maybe the Sportster isn't a dirt bike. At this point I got off and it was able to stay upright without the kickstand. No, Don wasn't with me, I got into this mess all by myself.

Q&A, Part 5

11. What is your favorite food? My Mom makes a dish called Noodlebake that has noodles (duh), ground beef, olives, onion, cheese...basically everything awesome in it. It is a real pain in the ass to make so she only cooks it for me once a year. It usually doesn't last more than 24 hours.

12. What scares JBMFT? The thought of not being able to take care of my family or feeling like I failed or disappointed them. That and bears when I camp.

13. How is it that you and your wife both have dark hair and your kids are blonde? What gives with that? I was blond when I was a kid and as I got older my hair got darker. My guess is that this will happen with the girls eventually...that or my wife has some explaining to do.

14. What's your biggest weakness? Indecision. Close second would be my inability to stop worrying about things.

15. What's the story with your necklace tattoo? It is a St. Jude, the Saint of lost causes and desperate situations. Many years back I took a trip to St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis, TN. I was going through a rough spot in my life so I bought a necklace at the gift shop and immediately put it on. After years of never taking it off, I thought it would be a fitting tattoo. I still have the old necklace.

16. What one gig from playing in bands stands out most in your mind as the best and favorite one?
I played in a band called Pure Crap years ago and our shows were always really fun. We always got sloshed before we got on stage. There were only two of us with acoustic guitars and our songs were all goofy to begin with. There was a lot of room for jokes and fooling around. It great to be in a band where the people on stage could heckle the crowd. What about the worst? Being in an experimental/prog rock/jam band and getting booked out of town not knowing you'd be opening up for thrash metal bands. We met the other guys beforehand and everything was cool but we were young and nervous. Before we hit the stage we agreed to play all the songs at double the normal tempo and scream all the lyrics. We didn't nail it but we didn't get booed off the stage either.

17. What's one place worldwide you've never been to, but would like to go? What would you want to do there? That is a big question. Other than places that are ravaged by war or places where they hate Americans, I would like to see and do it all. 

18. What is your favorite music artist/band, other than Representative Slice, of course?  
Matthew Sweet, no contest. He is a great songwriter, producer and performer. My feelings on this one are likely peppered by nostalgia since I have a lot of great memories that tie back to listening to his music. Any time I have answered this question in the past people seem surprised...I should know by now just to say "Motorhead" and move on.

19. Name someone you look up to and admire. / Whom would you consider your hero(es) ?
David Morrell, Lemmy and Panhead Billy.

20. If you could only drink one alcoholic beverage (one kind, not one drink period) what would it be? Beer. There are so many beers to choose from, seems like it would never get old.

Hot Sauce of the Week

Mojo Kreole Chupacabra's Blood Ghost Peppers Hot Sauce-I really wish I had good things to say about this one but I was pretty disappointed. For a ghost pepper sauce, the heat was sharp but faint and the rest is just vinegar. It's almost like someone threw a little ghost pepper in a Louisiana style sauce and gave it a cool name. Speaking of, if you are going to put "blood" in the name it better have a matching consistency, which this did not. It was thin and watery. It is a shame to because I really like the other Mojo Kreole sauce I tried.

Speaking of, both were given to me by my buddy Davis. I appreciate the gift but as we both know, they can't all be winners. PS, good luck this weekend buddy...

Progress?

So this is a shot of some fresh cardboard I laid down after finishing the Duo Seal Super Nut and Clutch Tamer install. It took one whole trip around the block to realize that the nut was a failure at stopping my leak. I guess I'm going to have to go a little deeper to get the drips to stop or just say the Hell with it and move to 140 weight. The brakes are also still spongy and I could use new lines or even just a whole new rear setup. The Sportster needs a new rear tire so I will have to shift attention again. Its always something but...the bike is back to being rideable so there's that.

Death Cart

     Nick got his hands on an old, beat up, inoperable Chinese scooter and stripped it down to nothing and brought it over to the garage so we could get it running again. It took a little more disassembly but we got it to run. It's a bit janky though...like turn the ignition with a screwdriver, bridge the solenoid, try not to kick the battery off the frame and no front or rear brakes janky. It also wanted to take right off without even the slightest touch of the throttle. It's actually a small miracle it didn't hit and domino the 6 bikes in the garage.
    Since it left Nick says he got a brake on it and got it to stay running for a bit and even rode it. I saw a video but I am pretty sure it was doctored with a little CGI. I'll believe it when that SOB is back here and I can wreck it in to something. Which needs to happen...soon.

Bath Time

     Gave the bike a little wash the other day. I didn't polish or anything like that but the words "wash me" that were written in the dirt on the swing arm was getting to me. That and the fact that I need to see if I have an oil leak or just some leftover goop from sloppy oil changing.
     I am about ready to start with the cosmetic overhaul but still have a few remaining parts that I need to grab. I'm also reasonably certain (read that as certain but kidding myself) that I am going to need a new rear tire before I get out on the road this summer. That will probably delay the cosmetics as the big remaining piece is, go figure, about the price of a new tire.
     Speaking of parts, I still need to get the pieces to get the Shovel back together. I sold some stock parts off this bike to get them but I am waiting to see what happens regarding the tire and possible oil leak. Serving two masters is difficult and I have to keep one or the other on the road.    

Last Saturday

Well lets just say this isn't how I wanted to spend it. Nick was in the house to help with a few other issues that needed attention and after, we were going to try and finish the reassembly on the Shovel clutch. I knew that I really needed to give the kicker cover some attention as I knew for certain that the mopar clip was missing from the clutch release lever allowing it to be pulled up out of the top. Again, not an expert but that ain't how its supposed to be.

Lets just say we put together the clutch with the new clutch tamer and...it didn't work. Yeah Wes, you called it: basically during the process of trying to remove the hub by tapping, we managed to knock the guts off the end of the clutch push rod. So...that attention that the kicker cover needed came sooner than I thought.

After draining the tranny and getting the cover off I found all the washers and clips which I will replace. I've got a new gasket already so at least that is easy. I also found out my oil slinger is no bueno and  the stop on my kicker gear was about to break off. This isn't what I wanted to find under the cover and definitely not when I wanted to do it but like I told Nick, much better to find this stuff out in the garage than on the road.  So...more parts are ordered and again we wait.

The Right Tools

It's pretty amazing, the things you can do with them. Clutch hub needed a little persuasion but came off in the end.

Got further and further down and finally to the mainshaft nut...and could twist it left and right with my fingers.
I'm not an expert but I know that's not right.

Another useful tool. Duo Seal Super Nut is on...and the saga continues.

Hugh's Handbuilt

Can't even imagine how much this would suck...do what you can to help.

Hitting the Wall

     The weekend started out pretty good. Nick made it to the house, the wife and kids were gone and we proceeded to down the beer and rum and put in some work on the bikes. Both the Shovels were in the house and it was time to get serious.
     We started by bleeding the rear brake on my Shovel. It felt great...for about 5 minutes. Basically, there is a little leak somewhere, probably in the line as you can see a couple sports that are clearly worn, and it will need to be replaced. It still works if you pump it and the front break works fine so...it can wait for a bit.

      The transmission leak and temperamental clutch were next on the list. I suspect the former is aggravating the later but just in case, while installing the Super Nut, I planned on installing a Clutch Tamer as well. We had a couple hiccups, mostly due to a lack of the right tools. The clutch hub was the real spoil sport.
      I inquired with a couple Shovel owners and previous owners that I knew and both said the same thing: run the nut back on, whack it a couple times and it should drop right off. Yeah...not so much. I tried damn near everything and came up with nothing.

     We all three (Nick, the bike and I) lived to fight another day and a clutch puller was on it's way before the next round of beers were consumed. I guess it is one of those things that it won't hurt to have. Begs the questions though...it doesn't have to be easy but does it always have to be hard?

SS'13

The Shovels South trip that was scheduled for later this month has been delayed, cancelled, etc. 

Life is a real pain in the ass sometimes. For some, it is a real pain in the ass all the time.

For those of you who can't seem to catch a break no matter how hard you try to fly on the straight and narrow, at least you've got nowhere to go but up.

I would say that I am hopeful that the trip will happen at some point this year but looking at the calendar and all the other trips and travel that are planned, who knows what will or won't happen.

On a related note, if you ever book a camp site on a coastal campground, make sure you get your deposit down and get yourself a reservation number. The first time I tried to stay at one I was told there was always plenty of space and I didn't need a reservation only to get there and be told they were full. I called to cancel my reservation this time and despite calling weeks ago and giving my information they had no record of a reservation for me. Dot the i's and cross the t's folks...

Sorting Out the Rear Axle

So you know how an axle should slide in and out with relative ease? Well...the rear axle on the Shovel didn't and it was time to figure out why. Got everything loose and hammered that SOB for almost half an hour to get it out. Took the wheel apart and it turns out the outer spacers and both sides had some burrs that needed to be smoothed out. As a result, the axle had some rough spots too. The bearings are in decent shape so they stayed as is.

The sprocket is is rough cosmetic shape thanks to throwing a chain but the transmission leak keeps oil slung all over it so I'm not too worried about rust. 

Nick was on hand to give me an extra set of knuckles to hit with the hammer and to help dwindle the Jack Daniels supply. He also ripped off my tater tot casserole recipe and threw it up all over Instagram via his old lady...but I digress.

You can check out his take on this mania here.