New Points and Condenser March 31, 2007

Picture: REB points and condenser at 10,267 miles

The REB coughed a couple of times on the lunch ride last Wednesday, something that hadn't happened since I was sorting out the jetting. I figured it was time for a general tune up so I got to it. At ten thousand plus miles the points had never been changed and the timing hadn't been adjusted in months. The points gap checked out OK at .015 but they were a little pitted so I changed them out along with the condenser and reset the timing. See the little black marks at 11 o'clock on the backing plate? That was the old timing mark and surprise, surprise it was still spot on when I static timed it at .8mm btdc. I replaced the plug and it fired up with the first kick.

Time for a test ride.........I brought along my newest toy, a Megellan Explorist 300 GPS. My friend, Pat had recently acquired one and it looked pretty slick. I wasn't going far enough to get lost but want to check the notoriously wrong speedo on the REB. As I expected the REB showed about proved to be about 4 mph optimistic. I managed to get it up to a GPS 65 mph it flattened out. I have long suspected that the 18 tooth front sprocket might be a little tall for my bulk but it is such a PITA to change I haven't bothered.

Oh yeah, the bike ran great but as I pulled into the housing area it coughed. Probably could have ran those points another 10k. I fiddled with the idle jet so we will see what happens on the next ride.

Dry Dock March 28, 2007

Just a couple of miles North of what used to be the world's largest earth dam (Kanapolis Reservoir, Kansas) is the Dry Dock Cafe. Very clean and large by ROMEO standards they have a limited menu but the burgers were great. The owner's son was helping out and it turns out that he is a retired Navy Senior Chief (same as me only younger) who also entertains on Friday and Saturday night. These are things you just wouldn't find out unless you rode with the ROMEOs.

Pat, Randy and I left from Spangles for the short ride to the Dry Dock. It was cool, damp and overcast, a perfect time to try out my new Frog Togs.

Of course it never rained all day but I have confidence in the Togs.

The Dry Dock owner had several of his collections displayed, among the more unusual were his bottle openers. He said he had over 16,000 of them, here are just a few.

After lunch a few of us rode to the Kansas Motorcycle Museum in Marquette, KS http://www.ksmm.us/ for a look at the new acquisitions. They had just put four donated museum quality bikes on display, a Cleveland, two H-Ds and an Indian Scout. Always something new there and they are building additional space. Stan, The Man, always has a story to tell and when Pat, a former Marquette resident, introduced himself Stan said he remembered Pat as being "a ornery little shit" or words to that effect.

Louie joined Pat, Randy and I for the ride back to Salina. We went back via Falun Road, the twistiest road in Central Kansas. Someday I will count the curves/turns, it ain't Deal's Gap but it ain't straight either and that's something.

Thanks to Pat for all the pictures.

Ride in the Rain March 26, 2007

You could see the signs of recent showers on the highway as we made our way to Salina from our ROMEO scouting mission near Kanopolis Dam. I was thinking that we would escape the wetness but no such luck. About one mile from Salina you could see that we would run into it. Turned out to be not so bad that a Frosty at Wendy's wouldn't fix everything up just fine.

Nice end to an enjoyable little ride and to top it off I beat Richard at 8-ball twice (don't ask how) and stuck him with the Frosty tab.

Stock Tail Light back on REB March 23, 2007

Picture: Old tail light on left, Stock tail light on right

Eighty degrees out with a gentle breeze out of the South. Whata ya gonna do? Why work on the REB all day of course. Poor visibility of the "beehive" style tail light has long been a concern so today I put the stock tail light assembly back on the REB. I just couldn't go back to the stock blinkers though so I mounted the classic style turn sigs where the stock items go. I wish I could have figured out how to extend them out an inch but then they do look cute peeking out from behind the tail light. I think the stock license holder (all one piece) has a Brit look to it so guess it doesn't look horrible. A bit more tidy looking too.

Pay it Forward

I'm in the Kansas City area with my daughter for a few days. No bike but that is OK cause I don't especially like riding in the traffic here. I will miss the ROMEO spring gathering in Oklahoma tomorrow but I guess there will be other rides (the weather looks crappy anyway).

I did get one thing accomplished. Got a horn for my brother-in-law's '93 Vulcan 750. Anyway it is on the way. That Vulcan has twin horns and Kawasaki wanted $98 for the set, a single one was $48. We located a couple on Ebay for $9 but the crooks were trying to make money by charging $20 shipping. I jumped on the Yahoo VN750 Group, http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/VN750/, the other day and asked if anyone had a horn to sell. Within a couple of hours someone in Tennessee had responded. He mailed two of them Monday saying he figured one of them should work. I tried to pin him down on a price but he responded "Just pay it forward. We're good as is". Now I'm getting all choked up!!! What a nice thing to do, I owe someone something on this and will try to "pay it forward". Bob, the B-I-L, of course has done plenty to be the recipient of a "pay it forward".

The Kids are Home!

Picture: Daughter Pam and her husband Eric

Pam hadn't been home 30 minutes when she decided she wanted to take advantage of the 70 degree weather and ride the ole man's Dubya (her ride is a Honda Shadow 750). Her husband Eric, who rides a Kawasaki Z1000, thought he would like to try out the REB.

They both said they enjoyed their ride with Eric trying to compare the REB with his Z. He observed that they both shifted kind of clunky and vibrated. The Z is a "little" quicker. Still he had a grin on his face and said the REB was fun to ride and handled great.

So far I like the Enfield bars on the Dub. I hate to put that ugly windshield back on so until I can find something nicer I think I will leave it off.

New Low Bars for Dub March 13, 2007

Picture: The new low bars are on the right.

Got the Royal Enfield handlebars mounted yesterday and got to give them a test run this morning going to coffee with Pat and Randy. I think they are going to work out just fine. I'm undecided about remounting the windshield mainly because of the looks. I might look around for something a little smaller.

This afternoon it was near 80 degrees but there was no time to ride so I got the brother-in-law built luggage rack and stand-offs mounted. I think they look pretty good.

View without bags and with bags.

Old Gray Beard March 10, 2007

I was in the garage painting the luggage rack when an old gray beard came cruising by on a yellow V-twin Honda. He was checking out the street repairs going on in front of the house. When he turned around and pulled into the driveway I figured he was a ROMEO but it turns out he was the city street supervisor out checking up on work projects.

We visited for awhile and he checked out the Dubya and REB and I filled him in on the ROMEOs. Since he is thinking about retiring in a couple of years he seemed pretty interested. His '98 Shadow only had 13K miles. ...........He said he didn't get out of town much.

Triumph Open House March 10, 2007

Yesterday, Richard, Louie and I rode to Wichita to visit the Triumph Open House at The Biker's Edge. Well it was Friday.... so they didn't have any food, but they did have every model of Triumph on display and available to ride. Louie wanted to ride the America but Richard and I got cold feet about riding a strange bike in traffic. Sorry Louie.

I have to say the Bonneville models were very nice except for some of the seats which were hard as a rock. The prices seemed good too until you factored in a new set of pipes and all the labor, freight, set-up and taxes. After hearing the America run you just know you would have to have new muffler/pipes. The thing sounded like a Brigs & Stratton. Of course some people like that and power to them. I don't like anything Harley loud but a little sound enhances my experience.

Painting March 07, 2007

Picture: Luggage rack and stand-offs.

It's too cold to ride with the ROMEOs today. You would think it would be a good day to paint the new hardware but my garage is like a meat locker. No, I'll wait for nicer weather. Tomorrow looks to be in the 60's.

Welding Luggage Rack March 03, 2007

Picture: Brother-in-Law, Bob making parts for the Dubya luggage rack.

TheDubya luggage rack project is into the finishing stage now thanks to my talented bro-n-law. Now it is up to me to sand, paint, etc. The camera batteries crapped out before I could take one of the rack with the saddle bag stand outs but I'll add to the album once I have painted it. It looks a little wider than the comercial ones but with the bags on it is just right.

Wild Hogs March 03, 2007

Yesterday I got a call from a local radio station telling me that I had won two tickets to the weekend showing of Wild Hogs. I have no clue how this happen as I hadn't entered any contest or signed up for anything.

Although the reviews were poor I decided to go. By myself I might add, as Sue had things to do. If the packed house was any indication Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy will be laughing at the critics all the way to the bank. There probably aren't any Oscar winners in this one but it was just a funny BS kind of movie. I suspect H-D sales will spike as a result. It was kinda funny to see brand new Harleys flipping around.

One thing I couldn't figure out......toward the end of the movie some famous old biker dude made a cameo appearance. I don't know know who it was but then I don't watch all the TV biker shows. Teutul Sr. and Teutull Jr. were in an early scene.

I thought it was worth wasting a couple of hours on even if I did have to sit by a big fat smelly biker wantabe.