Meeting of the XSive Minds - March

[dale_1]

It looks like Larry won't make it, he is way too busy training a new guy.

Like I said he is busier than me. He better be more farmers have tractors than computers.

James is missing in action, still trying to track him down.

Billy will be riding along with me, on his bike.

Not sure about Mike yet.

Rodney is still waiting for his motorcycle endorsement.

details folks its all in the details

current count from me is 2 and 2

[Wildkat]

Moderately revised plans

For anyone arriving Friday... there will be food of some kind ready...

Saturday... will leave open for whatever happens kind of stuff... definitely BBQ'ing and bike work...

Sunday... since a lot of people actually have to get back to work on Monday (the nerve of these employers!)... we were thinking a breakfast around 9:30 or 10:00... meet at our house around 9:00 or so and take off from here... A ride... several routes we can take that can be decided on Saturday, I suppose... then anyone who needs to take off can go from there... and anyone who wants to hang out until Monday... that's cool too...

Monday... weather is supposed to be nice so John and I will definitely be riding...

[exquized1]

Plans have changed a little. We are calling for freezing rain tonight so We will not be heading out until Friday morning. will probally catch a room somewhere near TX state line if we can make it that far and arrive on Sat. morning. I will stay in contact with you if anything bad comes up.

[John]

Oil changes.

I just went to my usual parts connection, and I got him to order a half dozen oil filters for anybody that may want to change their oil while they are here. He is going to let me have them on consigment, so they will be at my house, instead of having to run to his shop to get them. There is an O'Reilly's Auto Parts nearby, so if you use conventional oil, it can be bought there, and I have 15 gallons of used oil storage containers that I have recently emptied out. Disposal will not be a problem.

[Dragonrider]

I think I read in here somewhere breakfast Sunday would start with a meeting at your house at 9:00am.

I'll be headed your way in just a bit!

[exquized1]

my trip

Started out early friday morning ( 6 am 34 degrees 10 - 15 mph winds) rode about an hour had to warm up for about a half hour. We stopped at a days inn and they let us warm up in there lobby and offered use some hot coco. We then continued on for about anouther hour got cold again! Rolled into some small town out in hicksville Il. Found a neat little breakfast place that was really cheap on prices. 3 eggs bacon hashbrowns and toast full order of biskets and gravy and 4 hot cocos was $5.50. The owner said we looked cold and gave us the 2nd cup of coco for free. She was really cool! Rode another hour Got cold ( Starting to see a patern?) Stopped into a toys r us in Springfeild IL. had a look around didn't buy anything warmed up nicely. Continued on! rode about hour and a half (was getting a little warmer by this time of the day.) Made it to St. louis had lunch it was 1 or so by now. Nothing fancy just MC D's. Continued on bound and detiemined to make this ralley!!!!!!! Made it to springfeild MO. got a room and called it quit. Had a good ride home (just as many stops rolled 75 to 80 most of the way) still not there but close. About another 2 hours to home stopped at my sisters house last night hanging out a while longer and heading home. I was a good trip learned how well my son rides. He sat still and listened ( I am proud of him. Will be taking him with me more offen!)

[skippy344]

Had a GREAT time!

Although I gotta say that I feel quite inadequate as an XS11 mechanic right now...

So TRBig rolls in Friday night, yanks his motor out of his scoot. OK no big deal there. Yeah right, that would be a 2 day ordeal for me!

Saturday morning and afternoon, he, Hobbyman and Dale_1, under the watchful eyes of John, proceed to rebuild the bottom end, have the bike back together and we all RODE to a car show Saturday night! I was gobsmacked! I have pictures to prove it!

And to further my amazement, TRBig proceeded to do wheelies on the way home!

The ride Sunday was really nice. 5 XSes, that f*&king FJ and a 343 edition Harley. We rode 71 miles through the "country" of Fort Worth, Texas!

It was good meeting TRBig, Dale_1, Hobbyman, Bret, Hobbyman's Dad, another XSer and pilot to boot, and all the other friends and family that came by.

Got to see Dragonrider too. That was cool. I rode up with SWMBO and my good friend Hippie Dave. You wanna see that an XS 11 can look like? Wait till I put up pics of Hippie Dave's "Shameless Hussy!" All told we did about 500 miles this weekend.

Good friends, good bikes, it just don't get better than that!

I will try to get some pictures up soon.

My thanks to John and WildKat for hosting this humbling event. Truly great members of the XS family!

greg

[trbig]

I just rolled in to home. John and Kat occompanied me part of the way. They even came a ways into Oklahoma before getting jittery of all the rednecks and heading back south.. lol.
John and Kat are having computer problems so they may not be on for a couple days or so, but said they may steal their kids' computer to get back online until they can get theirs fixed.

I had a great weekend also. It was great to see everybody. This is only my second XS meeting, but I have yet to meet a single person from here that is not an outstanding individual. We sent around a pot for collections to help offset the cost of the great food cooked up all weekend, plus give the rider that came the longest distance a little cash prize. This was obviously going to Brent from Georgia, but he graciously refused ANY money to attend. He is truly a great guy, and anyone not getting a chance to meet him is really missing out. Kat will keep the money to go towards the next meeting, which I hope will be sooner instead of later.

As Skippy stated, I again was having a knock in my motor before this rally (As well as the last rally in Oklahoma). We had just installed this motor after tearing it down for inspection last October or so. About an hour or so after I arrived Friday, John and I took the motor out. We started to strip it, but thought maybe the other guys coming in may want to watch. So Saturday, Mark (Dale_1) and Andrew (Hobbyman) and Brent from Georgia showed up pretty early. We began to disassemble the motor to find the cause of the knock. After tearing it down and splitting the cases, then removing the crank, we could see a few bearings with some unusual wear but especially the thrust bearing between #3 and 4 cylinder. This keeps the crank from moving sideways as well as up and down. It was pretty beat up. Last October, this lower end looked almost brand new. I hate to start another oil debate, but I have used Rotella T oil EXCLUSIVELY. These bikes are known to have dang near industructible lower ends, and this is TWO sets of crank bearings that have been ruined. The last motor and crank were ruined after one of the bearings spun on the journal. I have put approximately 1700 miles on this motor since we installed it. Yes that's only 17 HUNDRED. I may be a little slow, but after two motors... I won't be returning to Rotella. I am using Castrol now.. I have always had good luck in cars with it.

Anywhow..... We replaced the crank bearings as well as the connecting rod bearings... then the crank seals, and started slapping it back together. Our own outstanding guru John had all necessary bearings to do the job. Dale_1 stuck around long enough to reassemble the motor and help us get it back in the bike, then rode on to visit his dad. Hobbyman stuck with me from start to finish. I can't thank either of them enough. It fired right up and we did indeed go for a ride that evening and saw a car show for a few minutes. If I had gotten the motor back together a little sooner, it would have been better, but no one wanted to leave me there. Thanks guys. I don't know if I remember wheelies on the way home or not... surely no one would be stupid enough to do that on a freshly put together motor?? Plus... XJ's wouldn't have enough power to do that with a bigger guy and a full fairing on.

I re-torqued everything after getting back from the car show and I got back to the house today with no leaks. I am having a charging problem that I will get straightened out. It will only charge about 12.5 volts when it's over 2,000 rpm's or so. But.. it was enough to ride Sunday and get me home today.. so all is good.

Most excellent metting everyone. Thanks again to Mark and Andrew, and especially John and Kat for hosting this awesome event. I will post a few pics soon. Anyone that was there... please PM me your addresses and I will send a disc of what few pictures I have if you want. Brent... I'll just save my stamp and give it to you the next time I see you!! lol.. It was great meeting you all .. some of you again!

Tod

[HobbyMan]

AS long as you will make it to Jacksonville, save the postage on me. And I'me not going to say anything bout them wheelies.

[dale_1]

cheapa$$

Yo Tod

Better save the postage for me too, especially since I will probably be making your reservations for you, so you don't end up spending the night in say maybe /// Houston or something. I had a great time and just wish we could all get together every month..... When I am dirty rich and famous everyone's gonna just have to come work for me so we can all spend every weekend workin on XSs.

Brent was a wonderful human being and I couldn't say that I have had any more fun ever working on anything. He was the most help..... Without his expert supervision we'd never got anything done. ...... Oh wait that was John! Just teasin..... It was great hangin out with you.

Skippy & his wife, and Hippie Dave will just have to make the Jacksonville ride ...... You never seem to have enough time to get to know anyone. They seemed like wonderful folks and felt just like your best friends from the second they got off their bikes.

And its a shame I didn't get back from Dad's in time to see Dragon again. He is truly a class act. I guess I'll have to wait until April to get another book from him.

Andrew, I had a great time visiting and bsing about stuff........ If your dad is anything like you I will be very fortunate to meet him as well.

John and Kat, thanks for inviting everyone into your home..... your kids were so well behaved, I just have to know.... how much did that cost you? Seriously though, there are no words that can explain my gratitude, I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels this way.

I have never quite felt like family so fast in my life. Thank you everyone..... If I missed anyone just knock the hell outta me next time you see me!

It was so great seeing that many XS11s in one place.

Mark

and no. Dale Jr. didnt win the race on Sunday but I sure did.

[Wildkat]

Wow!! What a RIDE!!!

Everytime I get to spend time with anyone from XS11 it just puts me that much more in the mood to ride (motorcycles Tod... MOTORCYCLES)



Tod gave everyone plenty of stuff to work on... but to throw a little variety into it we put some 78 carbs on Foster Child and Mark taught us how to do a quick fix on a gas tank without having to hold your finger on the leak... (Did anyone else envision the little dutch boy with his finger in the dike? --- ummm... maybe I should rephrase that for Tod's sake )
HobbyMan... you are an incredible kid and were a super help this weekend... Thank you for all you did!

What an incredible bunch of people!
Thank you for all making this such a super time!


Okay... for those of you who wanted the Christian Classic Cruiser schedule (weren't those cars AWESOME!?!?!)
Here it is...

2007 Cruise Season

April 21st 5 - 8 PM

May 19th 5 - 9 PM

June 16th 5 - 9 PM

July Beach Party 21st 8 - 11 PM

August Hot Texas Night 18th 8 - 11 PM

September 15th 5 - 9 PM

October Toy Drive 20th 5 - 8 PM

And here's a link to their website:
Christian Classic Cruisers

Anytime you want to come up for one of these meets... or just hang out... give us a call...

Now I'm going to go start polishing... seems one of those standards that came up over the weekend put some (all) of our bikes to shame... Who did that belong to again?

[John]

Hey Y'all!

Hold my beer, and watch this!
I need to say this right of the top..This event was all Wildkat's doin'. It was her idea, she did all the planning, all the shopping, all the cooking, all the while making every one feel at home, and all the while looking beautiful. None of this was my idea. All I did was make room in the garage, and supply a box full of tools and parts.
I do want thank all who showed up, and those who couldn't make but were gracious enough to call and let us know they wouldn't be able to make it. That would be exquized_1. Thanks, we were worried about you.
It was great seeing Gregg and Lynda again as well as that
BEE-OOTY-FULL Shameless Hussy, and the long haired guy that rode in on her. What was his name again? Great seeing you again Dave.
Dan Meyer stopped by for a few hours Sunday morning and BS'd with us.
Brent from Georgia was a great guy, and he took all the h-d ribbing in stride. He rode all that distance to be with us. Thanks Brent. I hope your ride home was safe.
Mark,(Dale-1)jumped right in to assist Tod with the Saturday thrash, and Sunday he did me a great favor and did some trouble shooting of my dead 'puter. Mark, my buddy Hank has the machine at his house, AND he has a new MB to stick in it. He even gave me a loner 'puter that is MORE s#!t hot than mine is/was. He wants to sell it for $500. Hmmm...
Hobbyman was the perfect helper for the Saturday thrash of Tod's bike, and he also, singlehandedly, made sure there was very little food left over.
Hobbyman's Dad, Phil the Phlyer, came by and told some of his war stories from his days in the Navy.
Oseaghdha happened by on Saturday, and brought along his mercury carb sticks, but we didn't get a chance to use them.
And last but not least...Tod. He nursed a sick puppy (his bike) almost 200 miles to be here (and get some free labor to rebuild his engine) eat our food, and drink our beer. But he did so because WK told him he HAD TO!.
The little ride on Saturday, you've read about that. This morning we escorted Tod back to OK via back roads. We fueled up in Merrietta Ok after 102 miles, and a stiff tail wind. We all got 40 mpg. Tod bought us lunch there in Merrietta, and we said our goodbuys at 1 o'clock. The tail wind that we had on the way north became a 25-30 mph headwind on the way home. We needed to be back by 3 o'clock to pick up the kids from school. We hauled ass on the freeway doing 75-80 mph, and made it back in about 90 minutes. My fuel light came on at 70 miles! I gassed up at 77 miles and used 3 gallons. That milage sucked!
All said, it was a wonderful weekend, and I can't wait to see y'all in JAX next month.
Thanks to all.

[John]

Oops!

I forgot to mention Webbcraft and Succubus, as some of those who had notified us that they couldn't make it, as they both had issues with their bikes, but they were here in sprit. They had their own mini meeting of the minds, and got Webbs clutch issues straightened out. Hope to both of them in JAX also. Sorry guys.

[Wildkat]

Oops

Suppose I should have checked the webpage before I put up the link...
It's expired... but the dates should still be good...
(and don't believe everything John said about me doing everything... I think it was a pretty decent team effort)


Thanks to all who checked in with us when you got home... and for those who haven't... I hope you made it safely and that we see everyone again VERY soon.

John's birthday is in October... I'm thinking another Meeting of the Minds might be order sometime around there (as long as there isn't anything else planned for that time)

[Brent]

Home again

I arrived home in Ga at 9:35 eastern daylight savings time. Long ride with good weather and one short side trip into Taledega Nat forrest & scenic by way on the way home.

What a great wrench & ride. The people there really made it so.
What a great bunch of folks.

Thanks John Kat & all the kids too.