Motorcycle Dolly

It's not that my homemade dolly, made from a car dolly, didn't work OK it was just a little cumbersome and hard to get up on the center stand with that half inch board beneath it.  Pulling the bike up on the center stand is something I want to avoid for now.  Anyhow I've had my eye on this little jewel from Harbor Freight for a while now.  At 99$ plus $10 shipping the price was right and before long FEDEX set it right at my garage door.  It should have only taken about 30 minutes to put it together but with my lack of flexibility and weak leg it was more like two hours.  The instruction recommended that two people load it up and move it around, I figured I could handle it by myself. 

The first night in the garage I placed it on

the side with the bike leaning into the garage, much like the first picture.  Only problem was Sue's big arsed van wouldn't fit in without shoving in the right side mirror.  My wifey can't be so inconvenienced so I got the bright idea to turn it around 180 degrees and bingo, worked like a charm.  I was even able to keep some boxes of Sue's work stuff piled around it. 

Today, being a fine Kansas motorcycling day, I got to try out the new dolly.  Just swung it out, locked the ramps down, removed the forward pin and rolled it off ready to ride.  Nothing could be more simple.  After returning from a fine 77 mile jaunt, the long way to Kanapolis lake and back, it was a simple matter of running it onto the dolly, lifting up the ramps, returning the safety pin and rolling it back to it's parking place.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this dolly to anyone.  It is supposed to be good for 1250 pounds and there appears to be a good 6-8 more inches of wheelbase left so it would accommodate a much bigger bike.  Question now is, do I need one for the REB?

The REB Lives

  It looked liked one of those old mosquito foggers when it finally fired up but after a little warm up it settled down into a nice thump that us Royal Enfield owners love.  That fog of oil might have been caused by the generous portion of 30wt oil I dumped into the cylinder via the spark plug hole.  When I first tried to start it up with the kicker I noticed that there was no compression, a sure sign that things had dried out during the seven months lay up.  The 30wt oil was to lube things up and bring back the compression.  After several attempts with the thumb it lit off and started blowing out the extra oil.

I went out for a ride and everything seems normal, ran it up to 60 a couple of times, check the stopping power of the brakes, etc.  I think it's good to go. 

Back in the Saddle Again

After sitting idle for seven months the Dubya started instantly with a stab of the button.  It ran on one cylinder at full choke for a few seconds then smoothed out with and little throttle input and skillful work with the choke.  Now burbbling happily at a thousand rpms I quickly donned my gear for the first post surgery ride.  By the time I got out of the housing area and on a main street the choke was off and the Dub was ready to roll.

I didn't exactly roll, oh I ran it up to 65 a few times then just rode around the industrial area practicing stops and turns.  I even did a few figure 8's and got off and back on a couple of time just to make sure I still could.  After a quick turn through my favorite twisty neighborhoods and it was back to the house.  Thirty miles all told in a little more than an hour.  My foot held up ok and the back wasn't too sore so I'm thinking I'm good to go.  I'll wear the back support the next time though.