What did you do to your bike today?

['OlGuiltyBoy]

Yea, 495/95 are crazy around here. But even when I had signals on my sport bike (before I took those off) I would make it a point to use hand signals to at least try to get the drivers attention. Yes, taking your hand off the handle bars are not safe, blah blah blah ... And yea, I've smacked off a few mirrors of the idiots not payin attention on their cell phones and what not ... so sue me.

NOW, on to what I did with my bike.... ummm, measured for my solid struts and tinkered with ideas to make my jockey shift. Think I'm going to cut off the "L" on the end of the clutch pedal, so that it is straight. Heat it up and bend it a little here and there, and slide a pipe over the end of it so that its nice and tight fitting. Weld that on ... and then do a few more bends so that the pipe is nice and close to the bike and I'm able to reach it with my right hand (oops, there I go taking my hands off the handle bars again). Going to see how I like that though before I make any permanent changes.

[cywelchjr]

You might have a hard time making a jockey shift work on one of these as they are referred to as shifting like a russian tractor. These transmissions are not syncro'd and without speed matching the engine speed to the speed your going into they don't shift well at all, and will grind a lot, and there is NO room for slop in the shifting action, it WILL screw up the gears pretty quickly if each shift is no done firmly and all the way into gear each time, they will NOT pull it into gear like most other bikes will, they will just round off the edges of the gears and then you will have to go in and do the dremel fix on the gears.

Jockey shifts generally have enough slop in them, I'm not sure you could get firm enough shifts to make the transmission happy.

['OlGuiltyBoy]

You might have a hard time making a jockey shift work on one of these as they are referred to as shifting like a russian tractor. These transmissions are not syncro'd and without speed matching the engine speed to the speed your going into they don't shift well at all, and will grind a lot, and there is NO room for slop in the shifting action, it WILL screw up the gears pretty quickly if each shift is no done firmly and all the way into gear each time, they will NOT pull it into gear like most other bikes will, they will just round off the edges of the gears and then you will have to go in and do the dremel fix on the gears.

Jockey shifts generally have enough slop in them, I'm not sure you could get firm enough shifts to make the transmission happy.

I'll make it work ... I'm kind of leaning more towards putting the shifter behind my leg instead of up high next to the gas tank. It'll work fine though.

['OlGuiltyBoy]

So I just got done yanking parts off the bike ... Nothing left to do now but build her back up. I'm going to get some bolt on forward controls I found for this bike, and with the linkage kit that comes with it I'm going to set up a foot clutch on the left. Do a behind the leg shifter on the left as well .... Drag bars, Pingel petcocks and fuel filters, new front brake lever with master cylinder and some solid struts.

So with that said, I have a few parts I want to get rid of ... I posted them in the for sale section... pm me if interested, first come first serve.

['OlGuiltyBoy]

threw up some additional parts for sale ... check out the for sale section.

[cywelchjr]

With all the detail about the bike your giving, you really should start a dedicated build thread for your bike.

And pictures. We like pictures. Even if we don't agree with hardtailing and such, we still like to see quality work, and it sounds like you know what your doing so what while conceptually it might not be the type of a build we would do ourselves, we still like to see jobs that are well done, and it sure sounds like this will be a job well done.

['OlGuiltyBoy]

unfortunately my laptop hard drives died. im using my computer at work, which is networked at the hospital, so no pictures on it... and at home im using an i-pad. once i get my hard drives installed and all ill post everything. ive been taking pictures with my phone - so i got em saved up

[jwhughes3]

Dumped LEDs..went back to reg bulbs

Having too many issues keeping the superbrightleds happily lit...

Traded back to reg bulbs.

At least I can restore self cancelling.

JW

[crazy steve]

Having too many issues keeping the superbrightleds happily lit...

Traded back to reg bulbs.

At least I can restore self cancelling.

What sort of problems were you having? I've been eyeing those, but don't need to buy trouble....

[cywelchjr]

I'm interested in that too, as I've not gone to LED's for the turn signals yet, but I've not had any troubles at all with the LED bulbs in the brake lights on mine. But I've not used them elsewhere, and the ones I have been using are not from superbright LEDs. But I was under the impression that the superbright LED products were premium ones. Is it the keeping them flashing that's problematic or is it keeping them working at all?

[GLoweVA]

Replaced my clutch cable

Got the new one in the mail yesterday and noticed right off the bat that something was a little different about it.
On the end where it connects to the handle the dowel had a little sleeve around it. That way the sleeve would twist with the handle and the dowel would stay in relative position to the cable. Kinda hard to describe, but made perfect sense to me (Engineer). That way, as the handle gets pulled the dowel itself doesn't have to rotate in the dowel hole, thus the cable (where is enters the dowel) doesn't have to bend.
I think this is why my previous cable failed.
It's always fun trying to find the sweet spot for the clutch when you change something.

YEAH I"M RIDING AGAIN!!

[jwhughes3]

I started making a sissybar

To match my rack and toolbox mod.

Pics when I am done ...hoping it only takes a couple days.

Saw the questions...
The LEDs were 5W and seemed bright, but SWMBO says not quite in daylight when she follows me they were harder to see.

Also the heads on these right angle bulbs are rotating adjustable, but sometimes big vibration or bumps seems to be enough to knock them out of position so they no longer point straight out. Didnt happen alot in last few months but twice was too many.




JW

[3Phase]

Today I got off my duff and fixed the tachometer for my '79 Special. I had to replace both of the springs in the galvanometer and it works fine so far. Next I finished adjusting the valves and made a valve cover gasket out of a sheet of metal-lined gasket material from NAPA that was a lot of fun to cut to shape. I really hope it doesn't leak, it's a very nice gasket.

Columbo is going to have to go under the knife this winter. The #1 piston and cylinder liner were scuffed and scored; barely in spec after honing so the engine had been mildly baked at least once and had started to seize. I figure I've ridden it well over 40,000 miles now so it's time to swap in the good pistons and cylinder liners that I managed to salvage from Crash, the totaled XJ11, before something breaks and messes up the case or the jugs.

So, sometime in the next few days I should have Bush running well enough to see if I'll have something to ride while I work on Columbo

[jwhughes3]

Backrest complete (sorta)

Finished my sissybar backrest (without padding yet) in time for a trip to Arkansas today.





Pic isnt greatest, but you get idea. Formed hoop from 1/8x2" aluminum bar stock, forged on anvil to flatten top and widen to width of rack...stainless hardware. Added cross brace backrest mounting bar.

Rear 2" cubby just fits spare gas bottle and first aid kit.

SWMBO will no longer be scared of sliding off the back under heavy acceleration!

John

[3Phase]

John, I modified one of your bike pictures to illustrate what I'm talking about and I hope that's alright!

You might need to make an extra brace to run from the luggage rack mount points to the upper shock absorber mounts.

The frame on my '80G has cracked four times at and between the luggage rack mount points. Even loaded very lightly it acts like a diving board and worries the frame ends until they break. I'm still thinking about how to make an extra brace that will work but will not interfere with the lines of the bike so for now I only a carry a spare quart of oil in the backrest zipper pouch and I add a small Tour Master bag with a change of clothes on the luggage rack for longer trips.