Spending Spree

Such fun!

In my attempt to keep this project revenue neutral, I recently sold off items from another hobby. This raised enough money that I was able to go on a bit of a shopping spree. One thing I find is that, at least compared to parts for my Civic, motorcycle parts tend to be inexpensive. It’s just a matter of tracking them down!

With my new found cash, I purchased a new air filter and a battery. I am tired of recharging the old one and I think many problems are as a result of the lack of cranking power of the present battery. I purchased a new choke and a package of gaskets for the bike. I lucked out, in that the place where I bought the choke and gaskets was moving. As a result, they were in a bit of disarray and sold me the gaskets at half price because they couldn’t find what I originally wanted. I had asked for a valve cover gasket and exhaust gaskets. The package I purchased has all the gaskets on the bike. This could prove very useful down the road.

I also bought motorcycle jack off Kijiji. I am a real Kijiji fan. A guy was selling a motorcycle/ATV jack for $50. When I called the guy about the jack, he told me he was just about to come to my town to meet his girlfriend. We arranged to meet at a Tim Hortons. We discussed the location, because there are actually a number of Hortons in my area. I headed over and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

After a long wait, I was a little angry and left. I called him and in about an hour he called back, angry that I had stood him up. After some conversation, it became clear that I was waiting at one Horton’s and he was waiting at another. We each calmed down and made arrangements to meet again.

This time we made sure we each understood where to meet. I am now the proud owner of a new motorcycle jack.

On Friday, I have time off and will be going wholeheartedly on the bike!

The Beginner's Mind

According to one Zen Buddhist nun, the beginner’s mind is “innocent of preconceptions and expectations, judgments and prejudices. Beginner's mind is just present to explore and observe and see ‘things as-it-is’." The beginner should see things “like a small child, full of curiosity and wonder and amazement. ‘I wonder what this is? I wonder what that is? I wonder what this means?’ It is avoiding a fixed point of view or a prior judgment. (Abbess Zenkei Blanche Hartman).

In working on this project, I can see that my ups and downs are as a result of my being fixed on an end point. That is having the bike to ride! What I need to keep in mind is the reason why I bought a $300 bike in the first place (Other than the fact that I am cheap!). I bought it to learn. I want to know how the bike works and the reasons why a bike doesn’t work. Keeping the focus on now and not on the end is what I need to do. I need to be innocent of expectations.

By the way, the trip to Crazy Al’s was a waste of time. I bought a helmet to justify the trip, but it really wasn’t worth it. I felt no real disappointment, however, as I had no real expectations that the reality would live up to the advertising. Is that Zen or just plain cynical?

Ups and Downs

I have gone from elation to frustration. Yesterday, the bike ran fine. I had it going for quite a while and was quite pleased. Today, I couldn't get the thing to turn over. I stepped back mentally and went through a troubleshooting checklist.

Several times.

But no luck.

I think the battery is the biggest problem right now. Its pretty much shot and I think I am not getting enough juice, even with the charger.

I felt the frustration creeping in, so I walked away and let my thoughts percolate. There is always tomorrow.

I have decided to do one more thing that I have never done before. There is a place in London Ontario called 'Crazy Al's' that sells motorcycle gear. It is having a grand opening and offering 'free' stuff and helmets at a very reduced rate. I'm going early to stand in line and see what happens. I've never stood in line for a store... I avoid Boxing Day sales like the plague. But, it is my goal to get on the road on a bike as cheaply as possible, so I am going to give it a skeptical try.

A Great Day!

The luck if the Irish is with me today! I put my bike back together and it started up just fine. I let it run for about a half an hour. We played with the idle. Now it idles well much of the time. During the time I had it running, it would run down a bit at times, give a bit of a ‘cough’ and would begin to run again fine. But most of the time, I just let it run without the throttle.

Over the last week, I have replaced the plugs, drained and refilled the oil, put in a new oil filter, cleaned out the carburetors and put everything back in place. The carbs look great. The insides are shiny clean. The outside is free of dirt, grime and surface rust. I was toying with the idea of replacing the float valve needle as a matter of course (At the suggestion of my father-in-law) but when I priced new ones from the local dealer (Almost $25 a piece – Outrageous!). So, I cleaned up the ones I had and made sure the rubber tips were in good shape. It all went back together. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carburetor)

One thing I keep trying to do is find the replacements for the bolts that came off the carbs. I stripped some of the heads taking them off. Not horribly, but enough that I’d like to replace them. Now, this is Canada. Metric is our official system of measurement. So I figured finding these types of bolts would be easy. Not so. For some reason, the 6mm flange bolts holding the carbs to the engine are impossible to find. The 8mm sized flange bolts are no problem, but forget the 6mm. I settled for regular hex head bolts. Metric Philips bolts on the carbs were impossible to find as well. The Allen and Robertson head versions were easy to find.

Part of me wants to use all parts that are as original as possible, but I also don’t want to spend my life driving around looking for bolts.

I have discovered at least one reason for my flooding problems. My choke cable doesn’t work properly. In fact, the choke handle came loose from the cable while I had it fully extended. In starting the bike, right now I need to pull the choke manually from the cable as it runs under my seat.

While running the engine so long, some smoke appeared. My father-in-law insisted that it was just old oil and gunk being burnt off the engine, but I was more skeptical. In shutting it down, I noticed some oil dripping from the cylinder head. So, we are going to replace the head gasket.

Overall, I am very pleased. Replacing the choke and the head gasket will take some time, but overall this project is going well. I am going to be putting the bike up on blocks so I can take the wheels off. The front tire definitely needs replacing. I need to do some lubing and oiling (On the bike, not myself – That’s for another type of blog).

A good day’s work.

Now, its time to price parts online.

Exxon Valdez or The Mystery of the Vanishing Bolt

Note: No wildlife was harmed in the making of this blog entry!

In my last entry, I talked about the amount of time I thought I would have to put into looking for parts. When I did, I was thinking about finding parts that ad worn out or rusted or were damaged in trying to remove them.

What I wasn’t thinking about was the time I would have to put into looking for parts I had lost!

After consulting the Honda Twins site yesterday, I was all set to drain the oil from my bike. I had assumed it was low on oil and that the oil that was there was dirty. At first, I was confused in that the pictures in the manual and what I was looking at didn’t jive. It turns out that my Clymer manual had it wrong. The advice I got from the Honda Twins site was not only accurate but given with a sense of humour. So I approached the oil draining wit some confidence.

I placed a bucket under the drain plug and started to undo the plug. Now, I haven’t drained oil but I have watched it being done to a car. I had assumed the oil would drain smoothly. Boy, was I wrong.

I had the bucket placed directly beneath the drain plug, but because the plug is horizontal, the oil began to shoot out the hole with some pressure, missing my bucket altogether. Oil hit the floor and began to spread. I moved the bucket over and let the oil drain….

And drain…

And drain.

I started to realize that the bucket I had was too small…

Too late.

It overflowed as I scrambled to get another bucket underneath. More oil all over the floor. My garage was starting to look a lot like Alaska after the Exxon Valdez spill!

It took a while, but I got the oil mopped up in into an old orange juice jug. The rages went into plastic bags, along with all the paper towels. (I’m lucky to have a gas station nearby that takes old oil. They took the towels, too.)

Well, having cleaned up the mess, I went to put back the drain plug. Only to find it gone.

And I mean gone. I spent the next hour rummaging through the bags and towels. I poured out the oil in the orange juice jug into a container. I swept the floor and searched shelves (Even ones I hadn’t been near).

The drain plug was gone. It went to that place where socks go when they disappear in the in the dryer. So, I went off to the local motorcycle shop. I bought a new bolt and came back. It didn’t fit. So, off I went again to the local cycle shop and changed the bolt.

And it didn’t fit.

A check at Honda Twins told me that the problem may be the pitch on the bolt and offered me information to ask the next time I go to the cycle shop.

Too much time was wasted today due to my errors, but I will take it as a learning experience. I seem to be having more learning experiences than I’d like, but it was a good day all in all. At least I was able to install the oil filter.

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Time passes at odd intervals. There is no such thing as a constant flow of time. Today, while cleaning out the carburetors with my father-in-law, time passed very rapidly. Removing and cleaning the mufflers, again time seemed to move quickly. The rest of the day seemed to drag however.

One thing that I had not considered when I started this was the amount of time I might spend in finding and getting parts for the bike. I have never owned such an old vehicle, so I had never considered this very much. Now, I am lucky in that I work close to the oldest motorcycle dealer in Canada. They deal in Hondas and claim they can deal with older bikes. They have parts fiches on-line, which have helped a great deal. That said I have the feeling I will spend more time looking for parts than I will in actually installing them.

I had good news in cleaning the carbs. First, they were relatively clean. Second, everything inside looked good, with nothing bent, chipped or pitted. We decided the change the float valve needles just to be sure, but everything else looked fine. The outside was gunky, so I cleaned it up with a toothbrush and some cleaner.

Each day I work on the bike, I begin to realize what a deal I got!

Carb Reduced

Today, for the very first time in my life, I almost felt like a mechanic. I removed the carburetor from the bike. Once I read through the manual, it was rather straight-forward. Slip off some hoses. Remove some side plates that fixed the motor to the frame. Remove some bolts holding the carbs to the motor. Then slide it out and remove the throttle and choke cables.

Only two small hitches for me. The first was not having the right sized wrench to take the bolts that attached the carbs to the motor. Actually, I had socket wrenches that would fit, but the space wouldn’t allow for it. I had to take a ride over to my father-in-law to find the right size. The second was that one of the bolts was slightly stripped. In taking it off, I stripped its head even worse. I needed to get vice grips on it to get it moving. It came out simply once it started moving.

I will need to replace the bolt, however.

Now, I don’t really know what a carburetor should look like, but this one looked very clean inside. The parts I could see were shiny. I suspect something is sticking, however, as some of the parts were hard to move. Also, what seemed like a lot of gasoline poured out of it. The carburetor will be heading over to my father-in-law’s tonight. He will do most of the work, with me looking over his shoulder.

I assumed there was something like a ‘carb cleaning kit’ with cleaner and some of the normal wear parts that would need replacing. Nope. I do need to by carb cleaner, though.

Laying on my back in the garage, trying to reach my big mitts into some cramped portion of the bike in order to loosen bolts, I finally had a true appreciation for why people like working on vehicles. It was a great feeling.

Success... Of Sorts

Success!

Of sorts.

It was a fabulous weekend here in Southern Ontario. It was great to be able to roll the bike out onto the driveway and work in the sunshine.

On Saturday, after much fiddling and error, I had the bike running for over ten minutes. Before, however, I managed to flood it several times. But once the spark plugs were dried out and we let the carburetor dry out, I managed to get it going. It rang very strong for the ten minutes I left it going, so I was very happy at that point. I learned several things while doing this. One was a simple little trick to check for compression without using any gauges. Did you know that if you put your thumb over the hole where the spark plug goes and try to turn over the engine, you should not be able to keep your thumb over the hole? The air pressure of the moving piston should be enough to push your thumb off. I couldn’t keep my thumb over the hole, so we have some decent compression in the engine!

Now, I started with success of sorts. The problem came later in the day. I had my family over for dinner (Parents and brother with his family) and I wanted to show them the bike. So, they all gathered around in the garage and I hopped on, full of confidence after my morning success. I turned over the engine. It started up and ran for a few seconds.

Then there was a loud crack. A backfire… And the engine died. I tried to getting it started again but it was flooded. I couldn’t get it going again.

Rather anti-climactic.



Sunday afternoon, I was working on it again. It turned over for a second and there was another loud backfire. I decided at this point that I needed to do some reading, so I went to the manual and the internet. It seems backfires occur when there is to rich or too lean a mixture of gas. In my case, I suspect there is too much gasoline getting in, as it seems to flood quite easily.

After some reading, I decided to start taking the bike apart, as I needed to take out the carburetor. I took of the gas tank, which turned out to be very easy. I began on the carburetor, but ran out of time, as I got caught up on detaching the carburetor from the throttle cable.

All in all, I was very pleased with the weekend, but this is going to take a lot of work.

Off to price a carb cleaning kit!

Steve McQueen Riding on a Fast Machine

I spent last night cleaning my garage and putting away my new tools. I got rid of some sad specimens that I had acquired over the years. I have many carpentry tools, as I have renovated several of my houses, but very few mechanical tools. I found an odd assortment of metric heads for my socket wrench, but am missing some. I will have to scour some flea markets to make up the difference. Anyway, I have a relatively orderly work area. Saturday will be here soon and I will have my first lengthy period of time to work on the bike.

When I began looking for a bike, I considered getting a relatively new bike so I wouldn’t have to worry about repairs. I came realize that I actually wanted to know the whole bike, so repairing it should be part of the experience. Another reason for the decision was the realization that I don’t think there are many newer model bikes that I like very much. Sport bikes look too aggressive and too many cruisers look huge and bloated. And the displacement size of the engines just sounded for too large for a newbie like myself.

I like the look of older bikes. I went to the bike show in Toronto a few months back and saw a bike line that will be available in Canada this year called Royal Enfield (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Enfield_Motors). Great looking bikes right out of the fifties… Literally. The company has been making bikes in India in pretty much the same way since the demise of its British parent in the 1950s. I have no idea what the quality is like, but they sure a fabulous looking bikes! There is a military model bike that would make you look as if you stepped out of a war movie.



I don’t know about you, but a motorcycle should have some nostalgia to it. I’m 47. I don’t need to look like a fleeing secret agent screaming down the highway on some crotch rocket that looks like it belongs in a Sci Fi movie. And I am in elementary education for goodness sake. So trying to look like some Hell’s Angel on a fat cruiser seems a little silly.

But make me look like Steve McQueen in The Great Escape… Now that’s a motorcycle!

Canadian Tire, Zen and the Pursuit of Happiness

I need to begin saying that this second day working on the bike was much more successful that the previous one. First, I adjusted my expectations. If I can squeeze out 30 minutes to work on the bike during the week, I feel lucky. So the amount I can accomplish will be small. Second, in doing this I want it to be enjoyable and relaxing. Thus, I need to be mindful of my approach at all times.

This led me think more about my theme of zen. Now, I believe that a zen state can be achieved several ways. First and perhaps the most famous is through meditation. While I pray on occasion, I don’t see myself as one for sitting still, let alone sitting still with my eyes closed, trying to force out thoughts by concentrating on a lotus flower.

Thankfully, a zen state can be achieved through repetitive, non-verbal activities. I study traditional, Okinawan karate. Traditional karate is not like ‘North American’ karate. The focus is on repetitive movement in kata. If you think of martial arts as being on a continuum, traditional Meibukan Karate is closer Tai Chi than to Mixed Martial Arts fighting. It is an excellent way to maintain fitness and reduce stress. (If you want to know more about this type of karate, see the Meibukan Karate link on the right.)

A zen state can also be achieved by remaining completely mindful of your activities and staying ‘in the now’. This state of mind is a great remedy for stress.

It is third way of attaining a state of zen that I hope to achieve in my work on the motorcycle. Because this is a new activity, it is actually easy to remain in the now, as my mind is focused on problem solving at every turn, in little things and in big.

In a small way, I felt I achieved that today in the short time I had to work on the bike. I look over the fuel line and a few other small items. I also wanted to take out the battery so I could have it tested. Needless to say, after my experience with the license plate, I was a little hesitant about the battery, especially since my manual says it can be tricky to remove.

However, it popped out easily.

I took it into Canadian Tire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Tire) and had it tested. Despite sitting outside for most of our Ontario winter, it tested fine, but obviously needed charging. Great! I had been worried that I might have to buy a new battery. There is $75 not spent.

Sort of.

Now, if you aren’t Canadian, you probably don’t know Canadian Tire (CT for short). When my brother-in-law, who is an American from Boston and rides a BMW R1200GS, first came to

Canada, he thought CT sold only tires. Poor deprived man…

Canadian Tire is actually a shrine to all things mechanical, automotive, etc.

Anyway, I was in CT to have the battery tested. That was a free service. Wily bunch, they are. Because of course, I am now in the store, thinking about my bike and realizing I need more tools (Remember the license plate?). So, I start up and down the aisles... Just looking.

Needless to say, the cost for the bike project just went up.

But not by much, though. Because when CT has sales, they have great sales. A set of eight Stanley metric combination wrenches and a large set of over 40 Mastercraft screwdrivers (Including various torx drivers) made their way home with me. Both with lifetime guarantees and supposedly ‘professional grade’…

We’ll see.

So the free battery check cost me $42 CAD in tools.

My total expenditure on the bike is now $413 CAD.

I really don’t know if that is living in a state of zen, but it sure made for an enjoyable evening.

All Long Journeys Begin With A Single Step (Or First Steps Are Usually When You Fall)

Stepping up to the bike, I had determined to take my first step in restoration. With tools in hand and having read the first ten pages of my manual, I was confident that I could overcome this first test.

I was going to remove the old license plate.

Now, you’d think this would be a simple task. Two nuts… Two bolts. I have even done it before on my cars. Should be a no brainer, right?

Confidence is dangerous.

With closer inspection I realized the bolts were not the same. The previous owner had obviously used whatever happened to be lying around to bolt on this plate. One bolt had a fairly large slot head on it. No real problem. It was rusted a bit, but some elbow grease took care of that and off came the nut and bolt.

The other side was a bit more of a challenge. You see, he had used a torx headed bolt. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torx) You would recognize it. It’s the kind that looks like a six pointed star. Now, I have seen these in my time. I even knew the name of the head (Something I remembered from a conversation with an old neighbour who happened to be a mechanic… The stuff that sticks in our heads…). But did I have any screwdrivers or bits with that type of head? I didn’t know.
I went through all my tools in the garage and realized that if I kept my garage and tools that messy for this project, I am going to spend a heck of a lot of time looking for tools! So a tidy of my work area is now a priority. Eventually, I found a torx head for my screwdriver, but it was far too small for the bolt that was there. So I went to plan ‘B’ and tried a slot screw driver to get the bolt off.

In my manual, on one of the pages I had actually read, it had plainly stated that you should never use the wrong screwdriver for a job, as you can strip the screw and then you are… Well, screwed. And guess what? The screw driver slipped and I ground off a good section of the torx head.

So I pressed harder at a different angle with the slot screwdriver and started again.

And I stripped it some more.

I kept this up for a few more times, until I was essentially dealing with a bolt that had no discernible type of head. My frustration level was through the roof by now, and I was in full reaction mode.

So out came the vise grips. Now, the bolt he had used was particularly long; much longer than was needed for the job. So, it took a long time. Some cursing here; a lot of grunting there; and all around wasted time, I managed to get the bolt loose enough to turn it by hand.

Here is my bike without a liscence plate. My first accomplishment.

I spent the rest of the time I had doing something simple… Wiping down and cleaning. The bike has been sitting outside most of the winter, so it had some surface rust and a great deal of grime. Cleaning I can do.

What did I learn from this? Easy… Read the manual and actually heed its advice. Ignorance may be bliss, but assuming you know what you are doing will waste a lot of your time. Knowledge and practice lead to actions without force and concentration without thinking.

New Pictures Of My Baby

Socrates, Ignorance and Cheap Motorcycles

One of Socrates’ most annoying habits was that he would remind people that he was to wisest man in Greece because he was aware of his own ignorance. While I don’t intend to drink hemlock any time soon, I am aware of my own ignorance when it comes to motorcycles.

I must be very wise, indeed.

So what to do about it? Well, read, of course. And talk. Talk to lots of people.

I have managed to find a Clymer shop manual online that will become my daily reading and I have been scouring bike shops, talking to sales people and parts people about bikes in general and mine in particular. In my scrounging around, I have come to the conclusion that motorcycle people are generally a friendly, open lot. The people in the bike shops have taken their time to talk at length and help me in all manner of things, from what courses to take, what type of helmet to buy and where to get parts. Now, I am not naive. I know goo sales people take time with customers even when they know there won’t be an immediate sale. But bike people just seem to like to talk about bikes.

I have also started a recruiting campaign. While I want to know motorcycles, I know I will enjoy the experience more if I bring in others to help. My first recruit… My father-in-law. He was an industrial mechanic before retirement and fiddled with motorcycles a bit back in the 50s and 60s. While he doesn’t know Japanese machines at all, he knows machines. And luckily he lives just a few blocks away. Another, potential recruit may be the guy from whom I bought the bike. He offered to help in any way. Now, I am sure he was just being a typical Canadian and was offering out of manners. But the problem with manners is that they may come back to bite you. I may just take him up on his offer when he least expects it.

I also hope to recruit some motorcycle gear heads out in cyberspace. It is one ulterior motive for writing this blog. Please send me a comment if you have expertise to share!

I have set out some goals for this project and I hope to stick to them. They go beyond the bike itself. These goals are as follows:

For the Bike:
1. Get the motor running as smoothly as possible over the next few months. I am aiming for June.
2. Once the motor is running, do the other work necessary to safety the bike. I don’t anticipate this being too difficult. The back tire look fine, most of the signals are working. I know I need a new front inner tube, but I may look at a whole new tire. I will redo the brakes regardless… I like to stop.
3. If the bike works well, in the long run I may look at further restoration. You can’t see from the photograph, but the seat is a mess. I’d like to have the bike repainted. Someone did a home job to give it the robin’s egg blue it has now. I don’t think I want to restore it to original colours (It came in burgundy or black originally), but I would like a more professional finish.
4. Most importantly, I want to do this spending as little money as possible. At present, I have put $371 CAD into the bike of hard money. The bike was $300 CAD and it cost me $71 to rent a truck to move it home. I am not counting cost such as gas and printing. I will keep a running total, so people can see what it costs to fix a bike. I’m interested to know… And so is my wife!

For Me:
1. Learn to fix a bike.
2. Learn to ride a bike.
3. Learn and maintain the discipline to acquire a new skill from scratch. I have found that as I grow older, this is becoming increasingly difficult. With life pulling me in so many directions, I find that I give up on new things and revert to tried and true patterns of living. Even ones that aren’t good for me…

Especially ones that aren’t good for me.

While awareness of ignorance is an important first step, remaining ignorant is not wisdom. While wisdom does not come from knowing many things, it does come from striving to know things better.