Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Saturday, November 25, 2017
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...
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...
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
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.
Also just mulled over the options for hooking up the headlight/tail light.
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Saturday, October 7, 2017
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.
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.
Saturday, September 30, 2017
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.
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.
Sunday, September 17, 2017
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.
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