It's Movember 2015! Time to get "mo-ing"!

Just a quick update.  I'm participating in Movember again this year.  I shaved this morning and for the rest of "Mo"vember I will be growing a mustache or "Mo" to raise awareness and funds for men's health issues.  Specifically, Movember raises awareness of prostrate cancer, testicular cancer and men's mental health.

I formed my team to honor Ed "Hoggy" Herrmann, a friend who lost his battle with prostrate cancer last December.  Here's a link to the team, please feel free to join the team or donate.

Thank you!

The light at the end of the tunnel is a fast approaching bike

Just a quick update on the ongoing saga of the electrical gremlins on the 86 Connie Miss Swail:

Headlight "whip" had some bad solders in it.  Don't know if they were originals or previous owner repairs but the best solution is to graft on a new one.  Probably coming off the huge bins of "donor-cycles" Bill and Bud at Poway Motorcycle have in the side storage unit by the shop.

As they troubleshot the bike, they found a huge voltage drop in the ignition circuit.  They knew to look for this as the bike had been starting slowly and they've seen this over the years as the Kawasaki's they work on age.  The fix it putting a relay in and bypassing the failing parts or something along those lines.

All told, the parts and extra labor don't add that much more to the bill, and compared to getting stranded somewhere with a 700 pound bike (tough to push up into a truck-AMHIK) and it will be money well spent, even if I only ride this bike another 4K miles to 100K and then start parting it out on the Connie forum.  I should get it back today or tomorrow, put some miles on it and continue restoring the 1994 as its replacement.

The "joy" of old bikes

Keeping nearly 30 year old bikes on the road takes a mix of ingenuity, patience, spare parts, and sometimes frustration.

I moved parts back over to the 86 Connie last night to get it ready to take to the pros at Poway Motorcycle the local independent shop that works on older bikes.  One of the guys there used to ride the Ninja 1000s Connies were made out of, helped pioneer stick coils and is a flat out wizard.  So I got everything together, turned the key, cracked the throttle and NOTHING.  Grrrr.  Check everything, tighten battery terminals (but idiot lights and running lights were already bright).  Try again.  NOTHING.  Hmm, old battery with fresh distilled water in it, but just in case....get battery out of running C10, switch them out, try three.  NOTHING.  Bike is in neutral, but just in case, let's pull in the clutch lever this time.  Slow turning over sounds, no fuel pickup.  OK, different problem but had it before-carb bowls likely dried out while the bike sat for a month.  Pull everything out of air box, few squirts of starting fluid.  Bangy bangy motorcycle noises.

Well, it wasn't that good.  This morning I come back from some early morning Bible Study and meetings to run the bike to the shop.  Bike barely wants to run, even after more starting fluid.  So I spray in some carb cleaner too and it still wants to cough and die.  Repeat.  Repeat again.  Alternate starting fluid and carb cleaner, finally get bike to respond to throttle.  Still won't start with clutch lever out, so that switch is likely dead and I'll be looking for a scavenged one in my parts pile tonight.

Good thing some mechanical therapy and frustration is a good change of pace from my normal work frustration, or this would drive me nuts!

Upcoming posts

OK, not much to this post, just a preview of some topics I want to cover this week:

Concours C-10 Bodywork project update
Further restoration of the 1994 Concours including tank lock and leak repairs
Troubleshooting of the 1986 Concours electrical problem by the pros at Poway Motorcycle
Hopefully some riding!

So stay in tune if you are looking for Concours info as I'm probably not doing any work on the Honda chopper project until December.