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By Lynx, on June 18th, 2009 Continued tuning problems, a bit of knocking at higher temps and running hot according to my new crankcase gauge have been worrying me, so I had the guy from SF Motorsports take a look at it this morning. I had been riding it hard for 30 mins to get it nice and hot before I got there, then he rode it down the Interstate and came back, then ran the temps with an infrared gun. The front jug was 250f the rear 260f, apparently thats great and well within specs. Also the crankcase temp he was showing was much cooler than what my thermometer was showing, he says the gauge could be off or the oil is just that much hotter than the metal, but nothing to worry about. The gauge was reading 95C at the time.
I’m pretty sure the gauge is spot on, holding it in my hand for a while when it came in it was reading whatever 96F is.
On the knocking noise he says it does have a tiny bit of a knock but with as many miles is on my bike most of the ones they work on are much worse than mine. He says it feels nice and tight and surprisingly good still. I told him it started after my long ride against that massive headwind where I burned off all that oil and he says the 650’s will do that if you keep them at full throttle for a long time, it gets too hot and starts to wear down the bearings on the rods. He says just expect the knocks to get noisier over time, but nothing to worry about. He says they see these bikes last to 50K with not even taking care of them or doing hardly any maintenance, and it looks like I’m taking good care of mine so it should last a lot longer than that.
That other noise that I was thinking sounded like an exhaust leak maybe, was actually the intakes, it just sounds crazy loud with the windshield on there.
So all of this has been a huge load off my mind, I’ve been doing all this stuff chasing my tail for nothing I guess. I didnt have any cash on me and he didnt charge me, I think I’ll go back tomorrow and give him a $20 for being a huge help.
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By Lynx, on June 15th, 2009 Latest mod: Wire headlight stone guards off a 1959 Austin Mini.
I got this idea after my first trial run to try out the new pipes and check my overheating problem. Bike was doing well so my short trip down to Madrid turned into a longer trip down to the Greenside Cafe (highly recommended if you’re ever in the Cedar Crest area) where I parked next to an old Packard and the famous Bentley thats there regularly.
 Classic Bentley in Cedar Crest With the 2 into 1 pipes with flexible covers that remind me of the supercharged Duesenbergs, tri-bar headlight, the old school Goodson air cleaner and the ’39 Lincoln Zephyr tail lights, my bike is starting to develop its own style from that era. I love the way the headlights look on the Bentley, I thought wire guards just might work.
Continue reading 1959 Austin Mini stone guard mod
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By Lynx, on June 4th, 2009 Got in my Goodson Air Cleaner from Rich at Shamrock Fabrication, it looks fantastic! I guess Dennis had been waiting on the polishers and these had been back ordered for a while.
There are some little casting marks and imperfections on the top half that could not be polished out, the bottom half is perfect. I would have preferred it to be reveresed so it wouldnt be as noticable but from a pace or two away I dont think its visable and gives it that hand done look. Maybe I should mount it upside down on the other side and keep the GAK air kit so it looks like an old Indian and really throw people off.
The faux vents on mine were polished out also and not blackened like in the pictures, possibly from them having to do extra polishing on this one. You can see how shiny the vents were in this pic, I forgot to take one before I started masking stuff off.
 Masking for paint Continue reading Goodson Air Cleaner
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By Lynx, on May 15th, 2009  Triumph Pinstriping No, I dont think I’ll ever get rid of the Star. I need a new bike if only to go with this I bought on EBay. I know this isnt technically a bike related part to be buying but it was just too awesome to pass up. I love the pinstriping on this and its even in my color.
One of these days I’ll get a Triumph, I havent decided which yet. I like the light offroadability of the new Scramblers and if I do wind up getting a place out near Madrid, I will need something like that just to get down the driveway. I also like the looks of the Thruxton and the original cafed bikes. hard choices.
I also got this one, it has a black background with white speckles in it where the paint didnt stick. Its a cool effect I wonder how its done. The pinstriping is fantastic, this will be a great addition to my future garage or game room.
I’m running out of room for all this stuff LOL. However, when I eventually get my house I’ll already have all the decorations for it heh.
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By Lynx, on May 14th, 2009 No offense to sailors, most I know would never get wasted and go crazy with money, mostly because they’re eternally broke, lol. I feel like I’ve been spending money like its going out of style. OEM parts from one place, new pipes from Shane at sscustomcycle.com, and carb screws and stuff from Ziv, and jacket and upgrades from yet another place. Some artwork from EBay and night sky AIS removal plugs also. I’ve never spent this much or bought this much stuff all at once ever. I’m definitely trying to do my part to bail out the economy.
His insurance decided that based on the police report they’d accept liability on friday. I got the check in yesterday, talk about fast service. I’ve never gotten anything that quickly to my PO Box. Just in time for my credit card bills too, so I can pay this stuff off before I acrew intrest on it.
Shane contacted me and said he could get the pipes in 4 days and then hed send them on to me, sweet! You have no idea how long I’d been waiting to get those on. I tried ordering last year only to find out that RoadHouse had been bought and the other company was building more of the pipes that sold and less of the 650 pipes. They had been on backorder for 3 months and one of the vendors gave me his contact number for them, and the secretary then forwarded me onto the head guy on the shop floor with all the machining noises in the background, how cool is that? The shop guy told me they werent expecting to run another batch of the 650 pipes until sometime in November, and this was maybe the beginning of October at the time. Its majorly annoying to have a huge purchase waiting to go through on one of your cards at potentially any day that could take you over the limit, I’d rather they just billed me right away and sent the parts later you know so its easier for me to budget. Two years I’ve been drooling over those pipes as they’ve been pulled from nearly every online vendor, I didnt think I’d ever get a set. I am so stoked.
Continue reading Tim the drunken sailor
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By Lynx, on May 7th, 2009 Its about time! Finally got my hands on the police report for the accident. Turns out the kid was 16! and his little brother for a passenger was 13. There should be a law! Actually I thought there already was a law in New Mexico that drivers that young were on a provisional license or permit and could only drive with another licensed driver in the car and not after dark or something. If there isnt, well there should be. Never mind that I got my license when I was 14, do I sound old? heh.
Judging by what the report says theres no way the other party could get out of this one or try fighting it. His story nearly matches mine word for word, well at least he was honest.
Heres a snippet with names erased to protect the guilty. Click for more legible full size copy
 Police Report They also had this picture for the last page. Not entirely accurate, collision occurred in the right of the lane near the shoulder area, but close enough to get the general idea.
 Accident depiction I’ve called State Farm again, they are still waiting to get ahold of the other party. Supposedly they’ve called them like 12 times and sent letters and never gotten a response. They were also waiting on the police report to proceed without them. Luckily I have a copy! so they just had me fax them mine so they can get on this sooner.
Things are starting to looking up. I hope I’m not waiting on a payout too long, I’m going to start ordering stuff now so I’m not waiting months for parts I need like has happened before and be stuck come July when we’re supposed to be leaving for the big trip.
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By Lynx, on May 2nd, 2009 My ankle was killing me this morning. The insurance is paying for medical, and somehow they calculate pain and suffering from medical expenses and lost wages so I might as well get it checked out.
Went to urgent care around 9:20 and the parking lot was a ghost town, they dont open till 10 on saterday? Sorry, you arent allowed to get sick on the weekends.
To kill time I went looking for some breakfast and found the Over Easy Cafe hidden in a nook around the corner, sounds like my kind of place. They have fabulous omelets, can get them smothered with chile or incorporated with chile. Great atmosphere, the guy at the register seemed to know everyone who came in by first name and was happy to talk to you if he didnt. Like a breakfast version of Cheers, I will be back.
Continue reading X-Rays
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By Lynx, on April 25th, 2009  Fender Damage Well I became another statistic. They say there are two types of riders, those who have crashed and those who will. Count me in the other category now, and Cece too. They also say most accidents happen within 5 miles of home and we did happen to be about 3 blocks from her house but about 70 miles from mine, I wonder how that counts. We’d been to the Gathering of the Nations Pow Wow earlier and it was just across the river from where Cece had been pet sitting in the 5 points area. When we were getting ready to go she started getting all geared up to go two miles. It was hot, there was going to be thousands of people inside in the arena and we were going to be walking around for hours possibly so I made her talk off her riding pants so she wouldnt fry later on, this was the first time shes ridden without her armored pants. Oops, lesson learned, from now on always wear all the gear!
Sorry I havent been keeping up with posts of things as they happened guys. Been just a tad preoccupied. No more of the “so nothing postworthy has happened in the last few weeks like say getting hit by a suv?” jokes, I’m working on it heh. I’ll try backdating these to when stuff actually happened.
Continue reading Crash!
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By Lynx, on April 8th, 2009 Ok heres the deal, I checked the oil along with everything else a few weeks ago and everything was perfect then. This last weekend I went to the folks home for my aunts funeral through some horrendous hurricane force winds on the way back. I was topped out at 65mph and the clutch was slipping like crazy, I managed to hit reserve at 88 miles.
Fast forward to yesterday and today, the bikes started knocking like crazy, and it wouldn’t go away at higher RPMs, the oil was just barely showing in the sight glass, it ended up a QUART and a 1/2 low! WTF man!
Continue reading Quart Low
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By Lynx, on January 12th, 2009  New Lights Bikes a little over a year old now, up to this point I’ve only done mostly bolt on parts with little modification to the stock bike. This was my first new vehicle I bought myself, I havent had the courage to start cutting her up. Its true what they say, once you start modding you never stop.
Continue reading My Shiny Hiney – V Star Tail Lights
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