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Yes, the title of my blog is in homage to one of my favorite movies. No matter how many times I watch Shawshank, I still always feel that prickly sense of awe and inspiration on the back of my neck when they show Andy standing victoriously in the rain towards the movie's end.

And when I watched it recently, I was left with the sense that my life was a little flat (if only that were so of my midriff...). I'm a middle-aged married work from home computer guy in Orlando, who has been blessed to have done a lot of travel in the last ten years. But, the last few years have found me falling into something of a corporate employee rut.

But don't take that as whining. I am living the life I create. Its like one of the parables from a great little book "Way of the Peaceful Warrior." The old & wise guys tells a tale of a construction worker who complains about how much he hates PB&J sandwiches in his lunch. Every single day at lunch, he yells and complains that he has a PB&J sandwich. One of his fellow workers finally says "Hey, why don't you tell your old lady to make you a different kind of sandwich?", the guy yells back "What old lady? I make my own sandwich every day!!!"

I have wanted to learn to ride a motorcycle for years. But, with a lot of travelling and other things that have kept me busy, I never made time for it. Now (since December) I am able to work from home everyday. And I have a lot more free time in the mornings and evenings. I feel good about learning to ride a motorcycle at this time, and I have the hope that it will help me get my energies moving in a more consistent direction again, and maybe get me to make some better sandwiches...

So, that's from where I am starting. As some of you may know from the many questiosn I've already posted on the board, I have bought a bike in recent weeks, am wrenching on it (just maintenance-- the bike is in good shape), and am taking the MSF next week. I'll post more soon about how I found the bike, and what kind of work I've done so far.

Peace,
JC

I'm looking forward to reading about your adventures. Keep the posts coming.

Biking is in my jeans…

I looked at and bought the bike on a Sunday evening (April 2nd). I went back Monday with a trailer to get it, as it was about 40 miles from where I live in Orlando. Tuesday and Wednesday I pretty much devoured the Owner’s manual to get to know my new bike. (I almost said my new sweetheart, but I think my lovely wife will be reading this blog…). I took her for a short ride (my first motorcycle ride) for all of 50 feet in the parking lot behind our garage. I put it in first and idled straight ahead. Which was a little nerve racking because even with the clutch pulled, the bike still moved… Needless to day, adjusting the clutch was my first line of maintenance, and went pretty easy since I had the MOM and a Clymer’s manual that the last owner provided (great guy, took great care of the bike, told me all sorts of good details about its history…).

Here's the bike...


After I idled across the lot, it stalled out. It was then I had my first opportunity to throw a little more money at the bike, as the battery was dying and I couldn’t start her back up. I decided not to play around with a battery of undetermined age, and just to bite the bullet and lay down the green for a new one at Advanced Auto. While I was there, I picked up oil & a filter, new plugs, and some gear oil. I was already getting obsessed with the idea of maintaining and fine tuning the bike…(I think I am on track to be their customer of the month, after only a week with the bike…)

OK, at this point let me say that I am modestly mechanically inclined. I am sort of a jack of all trades, and have done just enough automobile maintenance, (oil and coolant change, changing the shoes and pads, etc.) to be brashly confident in my ability to take care of an ’81 Honda CX500 Custom motorcycle. But I gotta tell you, the battery threw me for a little bit of a loop. I had never bought a battery that came with a jug of distilled water and a catheter, and at this point, I was just thirsty enough to consider an interesting way to fill the battery… But then I read the “instructions,” a 3in x 4in note stating that using anything except distilled water to fill the cells would void the warranty, and decided to figure out the INTENDED method…

I got about halfway there. I figured out how to connect the “catheter” to the side drain (probably an overflow?) and I took off ALL the plugs on the cells. I upturned the water jug and squeezed, and watched as the first cell filled up all the way to the top (over the “full” line). Then the next cell started, and the next. I managed to fill the first four cells in this decidedly idiotic fashion (don’t ask why I didn’t think to just fill each cell from the top…clearly I over-Einsteined this equation…). The last two cells took some effort, of slanting the battery to make the water run into them.

So, with the first two cells too full, and the last two not full enough, I let the battery sit for some hours, to see if the levels would go down in the first two. When I went back (at 3am—but that’s a different story) the levels were the same, but I had an insight. I figured out that if I only removed the cell plug for the cell I wanted to fill, then I could change the level in that exact cell with my idiotic through-the-overflow-valve method. At least it does work, even it if is not intuitive… But I still had to deal with the overfilled first two cells. So, after weighing my options, I figured I just had to dump some of the water out of those two cells. So I did, and I immediately washed my hands afterwards to ensure I hadn’t got splashed. In retrospect (oh the beauty of hindsight…) I guess I should have washed my jeans…



Took about two days for the holes to come through. I think it had to be the battery electrolyte fluid I dumped—can’t figure what else it would be?

Anyways, I finally had the levels right, so I hooked the battery up to a trickle charger til it was topped off (about ten hours), popped it in, and my sweetheart —eh, bike—started right up. And so began the “legendary journeys” of my first week of bike maintenance…

NEXT TIME: Keeping it cool 101: Drain stick…

http://www.elsham.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/cx500/

this page has lots of info on the CX including how to do maintaince on it

http://choppercharles.com/cs/

CX spefcific forum

Sounds like you're having a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to reading about your MSF experiance and your maintainence stories.

You know, generally speaking, going to fix one thing and breaking another in the process should get discouraging. But, this is one of the best projects for me in years. Its just great to once again stop out to the garage to “fix one thing.” Any setbacks or mishaps along the way are just scenery on the way to a renewed sense of adventure and possibility. Before I got the bike, I really didn’t have a hobby or activity that required so much attention and so much hands-on interaction. I had been lacking for some puzzle or challenge that would let me get my mind and body involved. With the motorcycle, I am getting that. And I am also learning some really interesting vocabulary…

And here I thought it was called a radiator plug. But that is not nearly as interesting as the shelf name.




You know, learning about the motorcycling/biker community is teaching me a whole new vocabulary. Most of them I pick up on right away as pretty obvious.

Like “cage” and “cager.” Compared to a motorcycle, a car or truck is a container that traps the driver on all sides, and isolates them from the experience of the road while letting them see just enough of it to keep them wanting to move. So, its like being in a cage, and an occupant is a cager. Pretty straight-forward.

Same thing with “back warmer.” You get your chickie or friend riding behind you holding on for dear life (or at least for stability), and yeah it would keep your back warm. I can see that.

But the drain stick? A rigid shaft screwed snugly into a hole, so as to moderate the intense wet heat of the surrounding vessel, in order to help guarantee many many many enjoyable rides? How that has anything to do with a rooster is beyond me…

But I digress. Really, I’m here to write about another one of the several interesting maintenance tasks I’ve performed on my bike, which I have had all of 10 days now. After the last epic struggle against jean destroying electrolytic fluids, I was forced to rest for a full day before again attempting maintenance on the bike. (OK, so I finally had to catch up on my work which I had been COMPLETELY slacking on while I obsessed about the bike. Really enjoying this new hobby…) So when I got back to the bike I decided to change the coolant. I had done this before on a Nissan Sentra years back, and I read the MOM and the Clymer’s guide. For my bike, it requires removing the seat and gas tank in order to get to the radiator filler cap, but other than that it was pretty straightforward. Had to take out a couple of extra bolts to move the tank, that weren’t listed in the manuals, but this was no biggie.

I noticed when I removed the radiator plug—eh, drain stick—that it screwed out very easily. I suppose a more astute mechanic would have realized “Hey, this doesn’t need to be in very tight.” But I am not in that category, so after I drained the coolant from the radiator and the reserve tank and started to put the system back together for refilling, I grabbed my ratchet to put the drain stick back in.

I suppose some of you reading this, especially the men, are cringing now. You probably can guess the horrible result of having used the ratchet. Yes, having only wanted to drain some fluids, I got too aggressive with the hardware and managed to twist the head right off my stick. I was immediately cursing and swearing as I looked around while trying not to step on it.

Next, I grabbed a pair of needle-nosed pliers and tried to back out the shaft that was now in the radiator. No luck, so I realized I had to drill it out. So I finally had an excuse to buy a drill… (God bless my wife. She has been so good about all my extra purchases since I got this bike…). Got the drill, and bored out just enough to grab hold with the pliers and back it out.

When I went for the drill, I also started looking for the radiator plug. (That’s when the fellow at Advanced Auto showed me to the aisle where I learned the proper terminology of “drain stick.”) This time I only hand-tightened it. From here, the rest of the coolant change went as planned...

Next time: TIRED on Sunday...

Hey, folks. You may recall a week ago I posted I was prepping to start a several week trip around the SE US, from Orlando to Greenville, SC, initially.

Well, I started, then I ended up aborting and switching to a cage for now...

I was planning to drive about 300 miles on a Friday evening, then another 250 Saturday morning, trying to avoid the hottest times of the day. But, as life happens, I was not able to leave until Saturday morning at 8am from Orlando. I made it 280 miles, to just below Savannah, GA, but it took me over seven hours because it was SO FREAKING HOT that I had to stop constantly. I was holding steady at 60-65mph on the bike, but after about 11:30 am, I was stopping at least every 40 minutes. I drank an obscene amount of water at every stop, and (this is where I'm getting to a good lesson learned) I really wasn't sweating that obviously, so I didn't think I was dehydrating.

Well, just below Savannah, I realized I was having to think through processes like shifting and braking, and that I was clearly too fatigued to keep going. So I hit a Motel 6 at about 3:30pm, and crashed for a while (after drinking about a gallon of water...). Still felt like severe crap, so I weighed my options...and decided to request the wife drive up in our Honda Element, for us to tow the bike back the next day... Oh, the pain to my "pride" to decide to do that, but as I elaborate below, it was the right call...

What I realized was that when I had originally considered this trip, it was intended for September/October, with cooler weather. I bumped up the timeframe to coincide with a wedding I'm in this weekend in Greenville, SC. This could have still been doable, but my mistake was trying to rush to get to Greenville on Saturday for a bachelor party for my buddy. If I had put the emphasis of "making good time" on the good rather than the time, and had still given myself several days to get there, I would have been OK. But, then I would still have several weeks of having break up the drive similarly from SC to GA to TN to NC and back to FL. All this, while working standard business hours from internet hot spots (I love Panera Bread...).

So, I decided to just go back home, and cage it for right now. I'll still hit the bike trip later this year, but when it is cooler out.

Here is a lesson I have realized only in the last day or so. Like I said, I was never so wet with sweat, which I mistakenly took as a sign that I was managing my temperature well. Now, I think I actually was hindered in my road trip by wearing a summer-weight riding coat. I have an Icon Tarmac Jacket. It is all black, but it is a mesh jacket that does a great job of letting the air through. Which is great around Orlando, in stop and go conditions. But, on the highway for hours on end and 60mph, this actually prevented my clothing from trapping sweat to help keep me cool. I was pretty much bone-dry every time I stepped off the bike. I remembered yesterday what David Hough said in Proficient Motorcycling, that on long drives through desert conditions, the way to best maintain your personal temperature is to actually bundle up and cover all exposed skin (and of course drink tons of water). The tendency is to think lighter clothing with good ventilation, with the theory being that the air moving over the body at that speed will work to cool the body. But, as soon as the air temp is higher than your body, then your body is cooling down the air by absorbing heat, instead of vice versa. So, in really hot weather David Hough says its imperative to wear layers of clothing to trap sweat on your body, and to buffett your skin from the hot air trying to grab coolness from you.

So, I am pretty sure that I should have worn a heavy shirt , or maybe my plastic rain coat, over my Icon mesh jacket to help my body trap and use the sweat it was producing instead of it evaporating instantly in the rush of hot air over my skin. I was REALLY fatigued once I stopped (thank God I stopped when I did), and it took me two days before I felt normal again. That is why I think I made the right call to tow the bike back home rather than try to force a safe ride home the next day.

Regardless, it was a fun 300 mile sprint on a 25 year old bike. The bike performed flawlessly. No hitches or problems of any sort, even with my big-boned self and about fifty pounds of luggage strapped on behind me. I have to post a pic I took of the bike at the start of the trip, with my luggage and the Hondaline sissy bar I purchased from Big B. It looks like a mean little cruiser...

Anyways, that's what happened, for the few of you that were writing me with tips and advice. Thanks for it again, and know that I am not discouraged or too upset about my change of tranpsortation. It was a helluva fun first attempt, and I'm taking away a few pearls of wisdom as well....

Man, I need to blog more often. Can't believe its been four months...

Peace,
JC