Seeking, seizing the Kingdom

I went for a short ride on my motorcycle yesterday, so Spring is now official for me. Just had to tell the world.

My wife got her motorcycle permit a week and a half ago. She came home so excited to learn, so we headed out to the empty church parking lot near our house.

I was running through the basics, and we had her going nicely in first gear. The time came for her to stop, and so she squeezed the clutch, then squeezed the break. The engine started revving and the bike continued to move forward, she squeezed harder trying to stop, which only made the engine rev more and more movement, this time enough to drop her off the side of the bike is it kept going. Crash, bang, went the bike, my wife on the hard ground, a bit dazed from the fall. (more…)

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, puppies and carpetbombs, I am proud to announce that I have technically knocked-out my motorcycle repair project!  After a grueling day and hard-learned lessons, I was able to piece the bike back together without any extra (or missing) pieces!

In addition, I started her up, and it seems that everything I was repairing is now fixed.  I didn’t get to ride her yet because the valve cover is one bolt short (read previous post), but by Thursday or Friday, I should be ready to ride!  The Sons of Zadok shall soon ride free!

If you’re ever installing a new valve cover gasket, and you get the urge to tighten that bolt just a tad
more, ignore it, fight it, just don’t break the bolt like I did! (more…)

Soon, very soon.  I got the valve cover off finally after it warmed up a bit, and I was able to hit it hard enough with a rubber mallet.  The hardened gasket is cemented to one surface or the other, it is taking *forever* to scrape it off using gasket remover, a putty knife, and a razor blade.  (more…)

Now that it’s rainy. My bike won’t be finished until the weekend sometime.

It’s been getting nicer in terms of weather the past couple weeks. It wasn’t long ago we were buried in feet of snow. I had intended on working on my motorcycle early while it was still cold. Now the weather is nice, and I’m stuck with my bike in pieces! She ran rough last season and and knew the next step was to clean and inspect the carbs. I have a 1984 Honda Nighthawk 650 I bought from a friend in northern MN. I’m not a very mechanical person, but figured this would be a good way to start learning about small engines. (more…)