Mechanical Fellowship, a good indy shop, and a ride tomorrow

After a few false starts, I was able to link up with a friend to do some motorcycle maintenance on his Kawasaki Vulcan 900.  He recently had replaced his rear brake pads, but noticed his rotor was wearing unevenly and the tire was getting fairly square and worn.  Much like I used to, this friend mainly commutes on his bike, so the profile of his rear tire gets pretty bad-it looked almost like a car tire!

So a few days ago he dropped off the tire and the replacement rotor driving home from work.  This morning he rides the bike down and as it cools we prep a bit.  Turns out the wrenches I've got and the condition of his rear axle meant we weren't going to get anywhere, so we loaded up the parts in the o-fish-ul Millie's Garage Shop Truck, he suited up and headed down to the Miramar Auto Hobby Shop.  Checked in, got tools and put the bike on the lift.

Let me tell you something-impact wrenches are awesome!  One quick pop and the axle was loose.  A few minutes later axle, two spacers and rear brake are out and a short wrestling match with the rear wheel and belt and the rear wheel is off the bike.  Remembering the nightmare getting some Sportster brake rotor  bolts loose, we get the allen drivers and a large socket wrench.....Wow, 4 come out really easily, but of course one....strips out almost immediately.  GREAT......

Since my friend didn't buy a new inner tube, I recommend seeing what condition the old tube is in before we go bolt shopping.  Turns out the tube is in good shape, but the stem is corroding and starting to delaminate a bit.  So we now have a shopping list.

We head out, and the first shop, Fun Bike Center, has an inner tube but no rotor bolts for sale.  Halfway there.  Off to Cycle Gear, but they would have to order a kit.  Strike two and time to let our fingers do the walking as the old ads used to say.  My buddy calls a couple of shops, and Lee's Cycle Service says they likely have a bolt that will work.  So we head over there, and not only do they have the bolt, they pre-coat it in red loctite and send us on our way.  Back to the Auto Hobby Shop, Mike helps us get the tire mounted (after we fought with the new inner tube), mount the new rotor with 4 old and one new (Thanks again, Lee's) rotor bolts.  Having done a few rear tire changes now, I use a few tricks I've learned, Ed uses one he knows and boom, we have an operating motorcycle again.  Check off another successful weekend of motorcycle maintenance!

OK, so about the ride:  At Lee's Cycle Service the service rep mentioned a ride tomorrow starting at the shop that ends at Dave and Buster's to watch the Laguna Seca Moto GP race.  Registration/Continental Breakfast at 1000, KSU 1100, raffle tickets instead of cards at stops, then to D&Bs to watch the race.  I won't make the start of the ride due to church, but may try to get down to watch the race.  I think it's sponsored by DOWNAZ RIDAZ, a sportbike club I've seen at some bike nights and would like to support a sportbike event.

Bike number 2: A 1987 Kawasaki Concours with 22,000 miles!

OK here's the bike that I was going to go look at today, but had some work and household duties run late and changed my plans and worked on the Sportster instead.

This is an original owner 1987 Connie with only 22K miles on it!  Yep, less than 1,000 miles, as the owner rode other bikes and then let this one sit for the last 5 or 6 years.  The bike has always been garaged and doesn't have nearly the wear and tear my 1986 has.

If you are a Connie fan, you probably know who "SiSF" is and Shoodaben Engineering.  Steve has dedicated many hours sorting out what the Concours "should have been" and then making those modifications for other owners.  This Concours has the Shoodaben carb kit-a drastic improvement over the functional but tame carb jetting these bikes came with.  The only caveat is the bike has been sitting for a couple of years so the carbs would need cleaning.

The bike is located in Del Mar CA and the owner is asking $1200.  Contact me if you are interested and I can help you make contact.  Bike may go up on Craigslist this weekend, I found it on the Concours Owners Group (COG) forum.

Bike for sale number one-2012 Harley Road King

Taking the blog in a slightly different direction since there are three different but intriguing bikes for sale I know of right now.  I'm going to give the sellers a little free publicity because two are friends of mine and the other seems to be a straight shooter with a neat bike.  Especially as I need for him to sell it before I buy it!

Tonight's first bike is a 2012 Harley-Davidson Road King with lots of accessories, very well kept and in great shape.  Topping off the accessories is a "pizza box" to increase carrying capacity and provide a back rest for passengers (yep, great pun, right!).  Other accessories include a quick release windshield and lots of chrome including cup holders.  While not a true "custom motorcycle" a lot of improvements and upgrades have been made to this Harley.

Less than 4,000 miles and comes with a seven year transferable warranty.  Very well maintained, and I can check if all motorcycle maintenance was done on this Harley Davidson on time-pretty sure it was.  I'm unsure of the exact asking price but if you are interested let me know as I can ask my friends and get you in touch with them.  Here's a pic or two:

Proof yet again designers don't work on the bikes they design!

Time to update my one or two human readers and the bots on Sportster repairs and motorcycle maintenance.  Recently the taillight assembly needed replacing (no big deal, it was the pressed in threaded piece that had come loose) so I removed the lens, unclipped the j-box and started loosening the bolt holding the base to the rear fender.

Well, what do you know! The tab on the rear fender holding the base to the bike had cracked and fell off when I pulled the bolt free.  Reaching up inside the rear fender, I found the outline of the piece and it's a large plate that is affixed to the rear fender but can't be changed out.  Designer error number 1 in my book.

So I decide to pull the rear fender off, give it to a neighbor to see if he can weld the tab back together and get this fixed.

Enter designer error two:  Multiple bolts through the struts and fender-four on each side counting mounting bolt, turn signal and two for sissy bar/bag mounts if you run either.  Did I mention three are 1/2 inch bolts and one is a 9/16ths?  At least they were all SAE unlike some parts or after-market accessories that are only metric.  Oh wait, never mind as some are allen head and one is hex.  And this isn't even a custom Harley Davidson, although the sissy bar is a one off custom part!  Plus there is the seat bolt, the top mounting bolt to the frame and the turn signal modulator/ECU that bolts directly to the rear fender.  Add in three bolts holding the license plate bracket and I had quite the selection of box end wrenches, sockets, hex bit and allen keys on the table lift tonight.

Designer error three:  This bike has more wiring than the Apollo moon missions and I still haven't figured how to get the main pig-tail out of the fender.  It might just pop through like the stopper in a fender, but I wasn't up to trying that.  So it's coiled out of the way and fortunately is far from where the welding will happen.  Ah, I love doing my own motorcycle maintenance!

So besides the usual contortions to work inside a rear fender, I give the Sportster designers a C- due to excessive connectors and wiring on what should be a straightforward motorcycle.