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Posted: **Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:03 pm**

I realize that the reason I've become so comfortable so quickly on my bike is that I decided early on that whenever I got that fear of riding - "should I ride it there? What if I fall?" or "What about the traffic there? Maybe I should drive and check it out first" I just told myself "F*ck it. Just do it and quit freaking out. You hate it when other people freak out. This is not you"

To balance that, I also realize that, looking back, I've had a lot of close calls. Just a few days ago, I was blazing onto a freeway onramp, in the dark, in the rain. It was a winding onramp and I felt my rear tire losing traction, and I ran a bit wide. Then there were all those stupid experiences above.

Gotta be more careful, but I gotta keep pushing what I want to do.

Posted: **Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:08 pm**

Somwhere deep in the depths of February: Ok the overheating and lean problems? I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna clean the carburetors. I've seen millions of posts about how complicated it is to do and how to do it correctly. And I don't know what day I did the overhaul exactly, but indeed likely the day I did it I similarly didn't know what f*cking day it was. Such are days.

But I recently put a post up about how agrivating some parts of the process were, and it's worth a post here:

The549 wrote:I have always been a person who seemed to make even the most simple auto repair a nightmare. I couldn't even give a Saturn an oil change without being weary of the thing falling on my face, and changing a car battery has even confounded me at one point.

My bike overheating and idle problem I suspected was carburetor related, yet I had the sneaking suspicion that what I was going to do was dismantle them and put them back together and the same problem would persist. Also, I've seen so many confusing posts about how to clean your carburetors that I was overly worried about the task. Taking apart the carburetors was blindingly easy. What I have to get off my chest is just two things that should have been the easy tasks, that ended up being lengthy frustrated episodes. I could only compare it to....imagine the frustration of not being able to put on a shoe....FOR AN HOUR!

Satan's frustration demons resided in two places....THROTTLE CABLE!!! and AIRBOX!!! The removal of the throttle cable had to come before taking off the carbs:

Ok, the manual says...take off the throttle cable. Cool. Just like a bicycle brake cable, turn it down and slip it out. Wow, but how to I get at it? And the tension is way too high! But hermmm let me just finagle my hand in there....MPHGH. URGH... Cmon! D**n thing...HOW THE HELL IS IT SUPPOSED TO GO DOWN WHEN YOU CAN'T REACH IT AND IS TENSIONED SO HIGH??? .CMON!! My GOD! THIS THROTTLE WON'T COME OFF!!!!!!!!! AARGHGHGH get! get! GET! GET F#$!^G OFF!!! ok ok....ok ok ok, calm down.

ok, I'm calm. Just pull it down to the slot and remove the bulb at the end of the cable. Just pulll.....pulll.....ok, pull! PULL! PULL IT DOWN HALF A F$&*#*G INCH MY GOD, WHY WON'T IT GO DOWN?! WHY WON'T IT GO DOWN HALF AN INCH??
Ok Siddharta my man, help me out....how about I remove the throttle cable assembly on the handlebar? Good thinking....I remove it, and it explodes into the night - different corners of the garage. 10 minutes later the throttle cable - it's off. This took me a good 30 minutes, and was more involved than what I put have written here. MUCH more involved.

The carburetors - I took them apart, cleaned them, and put em back together. I didn't even have to ponder a bit over how they went together....I'm a regular mekanik! Of course, it's then that my friend comes down for a smoke, and picks up two little pieces in the driveway - "hey man, you left some parts out here". Uhhh...what are those??? Hmm. Well lesss put em ol bak in der....

Remount the carburetors. Easy. Finagle the throttle cabe (throttle cable.....) back on, hoses on, check and yup, they're right...ok, now just seat the airbox onto the carbs, put on the battery, gas tank, and turn it on! I just need to get those rubber hose things from the airbox over the metal openings on the carburetors. But...huh, kinda difficult. Pop one on, good, next one, ehhh, ok, good. Get the next one on, good, and the last one! ON, YES! But wait! Now the other side popped off! Ok, so push it back on.

Can you guess what happens? YES THAT'S RIGHT, THE OTHER SIDE POPS OFF AGAIN. So how do i describe 30 minutes of trying at every angle, from every possibility, of TRYING TO PUT FOUR #$(*&(#$*&(*# HOSES ON FOUR #@(*#&@(*CARBURETOR INTAKES??? After a solid 20 minutes, I almost wanted to pack the D*mn moorsicle up and take it to the motorcycle repair shop, and tell them "JUST TAKE THOSE 4 HOSES, SEE THOSE??? yeah, PUT THEM ONTO THOSE 4 MOUNTS THERE!!! yup...JUST DO IT AND THE DAMN THING WILL RUN!!!!!AND I'LL PAY YOU $10 JUST TO REMOVE THE END OF THE THROTTLE CABLE AND PUT IT BACK ON!!! BUAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!

Eventually, they go on. I didn't do anything different. They just went the F$#% on. Just don't ask me what God accomplished by having me spend 30 minutes to get 4 hoses onto 4 carburetor mounts.

Removal of everything (save 2 things): 20 minutes.
Removal of the throttle cable: 30 minutes.
Cleaning ofthe carburetors - 20 minutes for the first, just a few minutes for each of the rest.
Putting the throttle cable back ON: 1 minute
PUTTING THE D**N airbox back onto the carburetors: 30 F@&$(#G minutes!

GAH!

So now I need to remove the carburetors to check my cam chain tensioner. No, not worried about anything...EXCEPT THAT I HAVE TO SEPERATE THE CARBS AND THE AIRBOX!!!! God help me.

ps, cleaning the carbs fixed the problem. so I suppose we end on a major chord - at least until the clunking is fixed.

pps: For those of you who read the whole thing, I'm sorry, but I had to do it. It had to come out.

To add to that, I must say that I can now take out the carbs and put em back in in 20minutes or so. Probably less.

Posted: **Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:17 pm**

Yes, it must be obvious that I really have never worked or done jack s*** on vehicle maintenence before, but again I told myself "just f***ing do it you wet noodle dick."

I remember a few kids asking me how my brother (who now owns a car customization business in LA) learned to do all the things he does. Well, now I know. At least I'm familiar with the initial process of the process.

Posted: **Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:19 pm**

Feb 25th:

I have a clicking/clinking sound coming from my clutch area but I don't want to remove it until I know what my options are. $200 [for gaskets would] mean continued clicking is the only option.

Thanks!

My clutch basket wiggles. Could this be the clunking sound? Argh.

Posted: **Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:23 pm**

February 26: My bike still clicks, but hey, bikes make noises, right? The wheels still turn and it still runs...

The549 wrote:Ok, another funny story - I was riding out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night, last night, and I was freezing. I warmed up my left hand on the crank case, but obviously would lose speed too rapidly to do any sufficient warming with my right hand. So at 20mph or so, I cross over my left hand and steer and give gas...I wobbled immediately. WOW, that feels wierd! I quickly went back to normal position.

I tried it again, and was relatively successful, until my engine cuts out! Now I've done a good share of engine fixes so far, so I figure it's either out of gas (I don't have a reserve) or something just died completely. Of course since the engine kill startled me, I was already on my way off the road, and veered into an orchard with soft dirt. I bring it to a stop and get off, put the kick down. The bike falls on me as the kickstand sinks into the ground, but I catch it. With my stomach and my knees. Umph!

Anyway, as some of you may have guessed my hand brushed the engine kill switch, so I flipped that, and was on my way. Just after that, I took it up to do the ton [100mph], which it did relatively effortlessly. [it was....VERY instensly fast. I now wish to go faster...]

Those honda ads "read your manual because someday, stupid hurts" sure annoy me.

Posted: **Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:29 pm**

Feb 27th:

The549 wrote:
flynrider wrote:
The549 wrote:I don't ever let my better judgement hold me back. Life if more fun that way.
True, but it's often a lot shorter.
You know, I've always wanted to live a thousand years - inside my volvo, which is inside a pyramid, which is under a cross covered with the blood of virgin lambs mixed with dust from the Black Stone of Mecca!

-after I pee on the Blarney Stone.

...No really, that's disrespectful.

Posted: **Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:36 pm**

Feb 28th: This thing is freakin clunking. Here's a sound file and post about it:

The549 wrote:...All I can think of is the cam chain (oh god no, please???), which I'll check in a few days for tension (take off valve covers). I took out the tensioner and it seems fine, although I was a bit confused over whether or not i installed it right, there were no changes before and after inspection.

Here is a small file - an audio clip to hear what a cheap digital photo camera thinks it sounds like. In fact, it does not sound quite so bad simply because of the frequency response of this camera's mic, but it captures the bad part of the clunking well.

I moved the camera around so you get different listening angles. At first its a few feet away. Halfway through I move out 5 feet, and then I get close at the end and hit the kill switch.

-SO....any suggestions for things should I check? Thanks!

CLUNKCLUNKCLUNK!

Posted: **Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:42 pm**

February 28th: My bike: I don't think I should ride it....my life: depression. I know they say that you shouldn't hop from relationship to relationship, you know?

But it happened this time to me, and although this last one has been a motorcycle, it started acting up on me early. THAT combined with my natural depression hit me: "I need to be drunk, for the next few days".

So today, I drink. After I ride out and buy some cheap Canadian Whiskey and some cheese. They shall be mixed with Mexican chocolate and tortillas, in that order. Unless I have too much of the former, then we don't know what happens. I could hold a pretty good conversation with a bulletproof chocolate tortilla if I'm in the right frame of mind. Right now I don't want to talk to anybody.

Posted: **Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:42 pm**

Hey! Fun & entertaining read so far. Thanks. And it sounds like you are having a great time with your bike.

Hopefully you got over the Feb 28 blues.

Posted: **Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:50 pm**

A reader! It's always good to play a show to people. Thanks for the comment.

I have to say I've only dabbled in things that have so far been going through my head...I'm almost caught up. Coming up is the the story about how I get involved in someone else's marriage and fall in love, and then get really frustrated, and then almost converted (out of emptiness) and....and...oh man, maybe that's for www.totaldrama.com, I hate drama.

HIYA!!!

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