New World Datsuns...

Hah yeah the guys I know that ride pay almost nothing for insurance.

Did about 100 miles today. Good mix of freeway, twisties, county gravel roads, and even a few miles of logging road with softball sized rocks for heavy equipment. Both bikes hossed hard and nobody fell down. Even ran into a coworker and his Harley buddies at our gas stop in Vernonia.

I finally scabricated my optional exhaust system.
The collars were from ebay.
The flexible exhaust pipe was from Amazon.
The can is a resonator from a Cadillac I parted out many years ago.
The headpipe flanges and Y-pipe were made from scraps I had laying around.
The paint is VHT silver high temp header paint.
Total cost was around $40
I'm not a professional welder.






It looks like it belongs on a tractor because I kinda wanted it to like like it was from a tractor. Also, it's ridiculously loud and raspy. I'm going to try an additional baffle inside the muffler. While I certainly don't expect it to make a huge improvement, I'm hoping it takes a bit of the obnoxious "Hey, everybody, look how loud I can be" down a notch.

Headed out to Salmonberry for some freedom fun. Got just past the Brookwood exit on 26...


Fuck! FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!
Luckily I wasn't too far from where my brother was and got hauled home. Threw my bag in the back of the car and still made the trip, albiet a bit behind schedule.



'Murica

Flats on motorcycles suck, especially when one is on a trip.
I rode 10 years without getting one flat, couple of them were year round years except in snow/ice.
More than once I wondered if the Ranchero was going to start it had been sitting for so long.
Lucky you were close to help.

Yeah, it's pretty unnerving. I was probably rolling along about 70 when it just didn't feel right. Changed positions in the lane and it got worse. Then I figured out what was happening. By the time I coasted down to 30 it wanted to dog-track so it deflated pretty quickly. When I called my brother I asked him to bring me a can of Fix a Flat hoping it was a puncture that was small enough to seal until I could get it home -- maybe 10 minutes. We tried that and it was losing air really fast around the stem hole. There is no obvious puncture wounds so the working theory is that the tire spun on the rim as I accelerated (really hard) onto the freeway causing the tube to rupture at the stem. Once I do the autopsy we'll know for sure. May need to consider bead locks.
I've only had one other flat in almost 20 years of riding. That was on my Goldwing outside Cascade Locks on the way to Sturgis 8-9 years ago. The valve stem literally cracked in half just above the rim. Had it towed into town and luckily found a service station that let me swap out the stem. Aired up the tire and was on my way. That was a front tire and I was fully loaded. Scary.

You were one freeway exit from home? you made it far!

Coulda been way worse. I was able to walk it up over the berm onto a frontage road so at least I wasn't stuck on the freeway. My brother actually answered the phone and wasn't busy. I wasn't 5 miles deep in the woods with no cell reception. I didn't get a nasty speed wobble and crash. I still got to go shoot. It was inconvenient but that was about it.

Look into something called Stan's No Tubes. That stuff with a Schrader valve worked great on mountain bikes (back when I rode). Not sure if it would work with the pressure on a motorbike.

Taterhead wrote:Look into something called Stan's No Tubes. That stuff with a Schrader valve worked great on mountain bikes (back when I rode). Not sure if it would work with the pressure on a motorbike.

My mountain bike has a Stan's no tubes front rim. Not running tubeless right now though.

I'm usually always running a tube but the guys I ride with all use Stan's

Got the tire fixed and ran a couple short errands. I really don't like how loud this exhaust is. I have a baffle on order but it hasn't showed up yet. Hope it mellows it a bit. Planning a work day on Saturday. Hope to drop the C-monster's engine and replace a gasket or two.

Got this far yesterday...


I was actually so busy doing work that I didn't even think to do any photo documentation until we were done. Basically resealed the entire engine. Head gaskets, front cover and clutch cover gaskets, a bunch of misc O-rings, the rear cover gasket. We came up short on a couple parts and also decided to replace the stator while it was apart. The inside was actually really clean and seems to verify the 25K claimed mileage. The cam chain was in great shape too and still has plenty of adjustment left. The only reason we broke it down was that it had a pretty substantial leak on the right side between the main case and the rear cover. Anyway, parts are on order and we plan to have it back together and installed next weekend.

Got it all back together and back in the frame last Saturday but Marc didn't have the tank ready so we finished it up this morning. It seemed like it was taking forever to get all the little details finished up. At the last minute Marc decided he wanted to add a small container (Vodka bottle) that would act as a reserve fuel tank -- just in case. His tank is quite a bit smaller than mine and neither one of us have a fuel gauge. I gave him a really hard time about it and rushed him like crazy.
We ran out through Vernonia to Claskanie on a tip that there were some scenic gravel roads in that area North of town between Hwy 30 and the Columbia. Either they aren't gravel anymore or we were just plain lost. Either way, we still say some great country, just no gravel. Anyway, about 60 miles into the ride, we ran through a stretch of rough road and my bike just started running like shit and had no power up high. Seemed to be okay just putting through town but I really had to roll hard to keep up with traffic. Never got better, never got worse so I just kept riding. By the time we were about 5 miles outside Rainier, we stopped for a break and I was going to see if if could figure it out. I'm climbing off the saddle and Marc says, "Holy shit dude, your air filter fell off!" Sure enough. Major lean condition. Luckily it was still lodged in the frame so I reinstalled it and it ran great again. As we pulled back on to Hwy 30 I got on it hard. Ripped through all 5 gears and promptly ran it out of gas. Dammit! And guess who was right there with a few more ounces and an emphatic, "I told you this can was a good idea."

So I managed to spill it all over my tank but at least it got me to the next gas station. We both filled up and rode the rest of the way home. Made a quick photo-op detour through some clear-cut. Barely visible in the distance is Mt. Hood and Portland.

One other thing; I installed a baffle inside my big muffler and now it's a little less obnoxious but still too loud for my taste. After the Idaho ride next month I'll be swapping back to the mellow stock/Sportster system. Only a few weeks away...

The backdrop in the last pic is sweet

Thanks, man.


The Idaho adventure ride is coming up quick. Marc and I will be loading the bikes on a trailer and blasting East on Thursday afternoon and meeting up with Jerod as we roll through Pendleton. Plan is to ride to the Silver City ghost town on Friday. Then Saturday and Sunday in the Owyhee mountains near the reservoir. I probably mentioned this before, Jerod's grandpa was the game wardon in that area so he spent his summers there as a kid. Jerod will be tour guide supreme! We're all super stoked for this trip. 18 more days!

Tying up some loose ends. Installed a hitch on Marc's car. Picked up the trailer we're borrowing for the trip. It'll need a quick once-over but looks sound. I also got around to installing my cheezy little gauge. It was an Amazon experiment (impulse buy) that cost under $40 so I figured I'd give it a shot. Once I deciphered the Chingrish directions to set the C/F scale and the ignition pulse per cycle, it worked pretty well. The tach is inductive and the only real down side was that the odd Honda M16 thread temp sender hole needed a spendy adapter. So now I have tach, temp, and hour meter with limit warnings. Not in the picture is a mt. bike phone holder just to the left so I can run a speedometer app if I feel like I need a speedo. I mostly just ride by feel and pace traffic.



We're planning to ride out toward Estacada tomorrow for a few hours. Oh, one more thing. Photobucket still sucks.

We ended up riding out to Ripplebrook along the Clackamas river. On the way back we took a few side spurs to take advantage of some gravel time. We found ourselves up at the Frog Lake Reservoir and went a few miles beyond where we found a group of abandoned buildings way down the bank in the valley. We located the road to get there but it was blocked to the point where we decided it would be better to walk than to ride.

There were 7 or 8 structures that hadn't been used in decades. We're assuming they were there for the construction of the pipeline/reservoir project in the '20s-'40s. They're pretty beat down now. Marc looks concerned.


When we got back to Marc's house in SE Portland we tinkered on the C-monster a bit and I swiped the kickstand off of his parts bike to replace the damaged one on Zero. No one fell down or broke down. It was another great day.

Ghost town, did you see any?

Not this time. Neither one of us were too eager to climb the ladder into the attic of one of the buildings though. It was like were 12 again.