Roxy: Digital Age

Hooked up the digital voltmeter to Roxy for full time display.  Snazzy.

Ivy: Pieces Falling Off, Fun with Electricity

Decided to wire up the headlight/tail light directly off the main switch (so they would be "always on").

Went smoothly and the bike started and idled ok, so figured I was in good shape.

Then also discovered that the bolt holding the exhaust to the head had fallen out!  Replaced it with a stud bolt taken from the model engine.  Had a scary moment when I installed the bolt then couldn't get the exhaust hole to line up.

Ended up having to line up the exhaust first and then screw in the stud bolt.  Question is - will I have to do it that way every time now??


Dec 2nd Ride Report:

The bike felt stronger and smoother which I figured was because of the exhaust not being loose, but it could have been entirely my imagination.

Everything was going great until I got back to 19th and felt it sputtering and hesitating.  Right when I turned for Blue Fin it died completely.  After many tries, finally got it restarted but only lasted a block and died again.

Checking the battery at home and it was down to 5.67 volts, so clearly the lights were too much of a drain.  But this was on SLA #3, which is the weird one since it never goes fully green on the charger.  So is it really the lights draining the battery, or is it just a dud battery?

Needless to say, disconnected the lights for now...

Ivy: Torque Checks

Ran through the list of torque settings and checked everything on Ivy.  Everything was still to spec.

Also just mulled over the options for hooking up the headlight/tail light.

Roxy: SLA Battery

Hooked the SLA battery up to Roxy.

Red: Front Tire Change

Catching up on old entries... (today is Dec 12th!)

Changed Red's front tire in 30 minutes flat after getting my head back into it with the rear.  Tire change itself was easy, but still need to find a better way of stabilizing the bike when removing the front wheel.

Using the rifle rest was a little better than doing it with the wooden bench, but still too much of a fiddly balancing act.


Then started Roxy on the SLA battery for the first time since the original one died.  Too many kicks, but eventually she turned over.

Ivy, Red, Roxy: Little Bit of Everything

Had a good three hours worth of free time so had big plans for the day.  Turned out to be rather epic.

Kicked if off by trying to recharge Roxy's battery for the second time.  The last time I did it, it took 5 minutes and it was back to 6 volts.  This time I left it charging for almost 3 hours and... zilch.  It started at 3.6 volts and actually went down to 3.4 by the time I rechecked.  I even added distilled water to bring the levels up.  Think it's toast.

Though given how little I'm riding Roxy now, maybe it's for the best, as it would be hard to maintain.  Maybe better to just run her off the sealed battery as needed.


Did an oil change on Ivy and planned to go the full nine yards and check both filters, but the struggles with the tire changed will delay that till the next time.  Added 700mL back in.

Cleaned and lubed the chain, too.


So... on to the tire change.  Swapping out the old knobbies on Red for the new Michelins.  Tried to "wing it" from memory.  Did pretty well, though made a couple mistakes and had to back track.

For example, went around pulling out the entire circumference of the old tire instead of just half so then it was hard to actually get the rim out.  Then totally forgot the step on the new tire where you have to add in the tube!  Lucky I even had a spare tube as I forgot there's no point doing a tire change without a tube and rim strip on hand.  Had to leave the old rim strip in, and it was very brittle.

All that and I was thinking to myself that I should really write all this down.  Only later that night did I realize, I ALREADY HAD.  Beautifully detailed set of step-by-step notes sitting there in the dropbox folder.  D'oh!

That old knobby was a real bear to get off.  Felt like I'd gone a few rounds on the mat by the time I was done.

Getting back in the swing...

After being off for a couple months, just went down to get back into the swing of things.  Ended up only tin foiling Ivy's rims, but still felt like a lot was accomplished.

Summer Garage Week 2017: Day Four

With the swingarm, chain guard, main stand and brake stay fully dry, I re-assembled everything (except the stay).

But hard to get the full effect of the color test without the tank, so painted that next.  Just let it dry while mounted.

Missing the side covers, there's nothing to break up all that red, though.  Need to see it with the covers on, or maybe this is the time to play around with something like a contrasting white.


Had also realized that there was a full transmission sitting in the Early case - had totally forgotten I had another gearbox.  I removed the tranny and shifter from the Early case and put it in the new Late case.  But I put the Early case back onto Red, figuring I'd want easy access to the Late case as I start to build it up.

The first thing the new Late case needs is a new set of bearings (one's missing and the other one's rubbish.)

Summer Garage Week 2017: Day Three

Two big and equally satisfying projects today.

First, got the new 90 degree Dremel attachment and put that to good use in reslotting the frozen cam guide screws on the new Late case.  Surprised this was the first time I'd ever needed to get to a screw at this angle.  You'd think it would have come up before...

The 90 degree head put the cutting wheel exactly where it needed to go.  On the first screw, I didn't cut deep enough and when I tried the impact driver, it started to strip the head.  Went back and cut it as deep as I could so the bit was as well seated as possible.  Then 2 good whacks and she was loose.

Cut the next two very deep and very wide to get the best possible fit and those both came out with just 2 whacks each.  Job done.


Next, painted all the parts with the ACE brand "Machine" paint.  Following the can's instructions, I only waited a few minutes between coats.  But the big difference is that this time, I let everything dry overnight before handling.

Went for a "decent" paint job, but didn't sweat the details since this is just a color test.  Missed the back side of the swingarm since I never flipped it upside down to paint.

Summer Garage Week 2017: Day Two

Day Two

• Put the new hex bolts into the model engine.  Pretty snazzy.
• Started sanding down Red's parts and getting primer on them
• Discovered that new (aftermarket) main stand is actually less stable than the unstable one I was trying to replace.  Though again, not sure if that's only because the bike isn't fully weighted down.

Summer Garage Week 2017: Day One

Had a solid week to get my hands greasy again after not having done much since getting Ivy back on the road.

Monday was really just about getting back into the groove, doing a few odd jobs, tidying up the garage storage...

• Unboxed a few parts that I've never even opened since purchasing
• The new Late crankcase looked to be in good condition, but discovered that all 3 cam guide screws were very stuck and one was already stripped
• The footpegs I had bought turned out not to be S90 at all
• Moved the cable guide from Red to Ivy (and re-torqued the lower fork bolt) 
• Filled up Ivy's gas tank
• Started thinking through Red's repaint