Previous Owner Shenanigans and General Repair, Part 3

Part 3, Ignition. 

The PO told me "it could probably use new plugs".  Oh yeah, thats a sign.  When a PO gives you a slightly veiled "Oh its not fabulous" it usually means its very serious, but he still wants you to pay for what he's selling.  So one of the first things I did after getting it home was check out the ignition wires.  As I pull the front wire off, about a teaspoon of rusty stuff comes out of the boot.  Well that may be part of the reason it was running rough.  So I replaced the plugs with NGK Irridiums from Cycle Gear (love the chicks at Cycle Gear BTW), and I get the Screamin Eagle fat ignition wires from the local Harley shop.

Now, a word on changing plugs.  When you take a plug out, just realize that you have literally removed a "plug" and any crap hanging out around it may fall inside the business end of your engine.  Since the area around my plug had just been doused with rusty powder, I took a moment & blew it out and wiped around the plug area.  Then as I unscrewed the plug, I blew it out a bit more (thank you dust-off from Costco, because I'm too cheap to get an air compressor).  Gapped the new plugs, put some anti-seize on the threads, and put them in.  I've changed plugs on many cars before, but I've never bothered with a torque-wrench before.  But since these little death traps are more sensitive, I used the torque wrench.  I must say, the little clicky kind are very entertaining.

A word on replacing wires.  The Screamin Eagle 10mm ignition wires are wider than the stock wires.  This means the little wire loom cover thing from the old basically will not fit and you just won't be using one.  You could probably get one that will fit, but part of the point is so people can see the wires.  Of course, when you get your grubby little moose hooks all over them, the orange wires are then ugly.  So either clean them after the install (kinda nerdy, and they'll just get dirty later), or make sure your hands are clean as you handle them.  Also, it is no easy task to thread the wires through the little spaces that the stock wires went through.  You have to pull off the boots to do it at all.

Looks pretty, and it may start up & run better, I can't really tell since I haven't driven it much, but it didn't make a profound difference.  But the wires are orange, and they used to be black, and they say "Screamin Eagle" on them.  Thats cool right?!  Anyways.

Previous Owner Shenanigans and General Repair, Part 2

Part 2, The Headlight.

One of the first problems I noticed while driving it home, was that the headlight was not working.  I really really really don't want to deal with electrical gremlins, and I prayed this would be easy.  First thing I did was go to the fuse box.  Of course any motorcycle has everything strategically tucked away somewhere. 

Since I would be dealing with electrical stuff, the manual suggests, and I've learned first hand otherwise, that you should disconnect the battery.  This meant removing the battery cover, which is kind of a pain, and then disconnecting the battery.  The cables are short, which makes this difficult.  In hindsight, it would have been worlds easier if I had taken off the seat, but I am apparently not that smart.  Later, as I'm putting it back in, the positive terminal is somewhat stripped.  I seem to find issues like this on the bike a lot.  One or all of the PO's decided that force and blunt retardery definitely work better than "the way". Luckily it catches at the very end and holds securely-ish.  It worries me that my positive battery cable is barely held in place on a maching that shakes worse than an off-balance washing machine...  So unless it lasts until it needs replacement, which moto batteries apprently last significantly less time than car batteries (they're smaller), I will either have to drill it out and use a bigger screw or replace it early.  The idea of drilling the lead block on the positive terminal of a battery is a horrifying idea...  Curse you bad mechanics and PO's.

The electrical fuses, switches & relays on sportsters around this year all go underneath the metal triangle behind the battery box on the left side.  3 phillips head screws to take off the cover, and then little rubber grommets hold the whole thing in place, albeit loosely. 

So you pop it out, and then the fuse holder has to be poppoed out of the big plastic piece.  It sounds confusing in the manual, but once you're doing it, its obvious. 

So I'm looking at the fuse box.  The owners manual and my trusty Clymer both agree that all 4 fuses are supposed to be 15 amp.  But of course, one of the PO's has popped in a 20amp fuse, and right in the slot where the headlight fuse goes.  I take it out and sure enough, it had a little 'splosion inside the fuse.  I replaced it with a 15amp fuse, turned the bike on and:

Nothing, oh man I was bummed.  But I turned on the high beam (which hadn't worked before) and behold, let there be light.  Once this happened, I deduced most of the problem.  I'm not sure what caused the short, and I hope it doesn't happen again, but since the fuse was too big, it went straight to the headlight, which was obviously on low, and blew it out, which caused the 20amp fuse to then blow.  So I went down to cycle gear, picked up a new headlight bulb for $15 ($5 cheaper than Harley), and voila!  The headlight works!

Previous Owner Shenanigans and General Repair, Part 1

Like any second-hand mode of transportation, it has a few issues.  I'll use these next posts to comment generally on its condition.  I've already dealt with a few, so I won't have action-shots of those, but we'll see.

Part 1: Turn Signals
When I first saw the bike, it didn't have any front signals, and only one of the rear signals was working.  The rear signals are Kuryakyn bullet style, so they look pretty cool, but they're single filament, which means no running lights.  I may eventually change them, but after I bought it, I had Backroads put a matching set on the front, although the ones in front are slightly bigger.  They fixed it so the signals were all working as well.  The wiring job isn't that great, but I'm not sure theres a better way to do it.  Also, the front signals are placed at the top part of the forks, and I'm not sure I like them there, but it seems like the wires weren't long enough to put them on the bottom.  Again, I'm not thrilled, but from anything more than a foot away, they look really good.  In the pic, you can see the wire coming from the right-hand signal.  It just looks cheesey.

Purple Haze

So the insurance sends my bike to a shop in Tracy, Backroads Customs.  I like those guys.  Nate's cool, and they sponsor and do work for local stunter Jason Pullin.  While the adjustment process is going on, Nate is looking for a bike for me, and eventually sets me up with this sportster.  I'm pretty excited because its already a 1200.  I didn't really know a lot about sportsters, but for what I paid for it, it was a good deal.  When I finally went & saw it, the first thing I thought, and I'll be honest: Its purple, its a girls bike.  But I convinced myself it was a cool 70's purple.  Then I convinced myself that its gotta change.

And thats the point of this blog.  Changing this sporty custom into something a bit less nerdy and a lot more cool (and fixing whats wrong with it).  So, why is it nerdy?
1)  Its "violet pearl with red & gold pinstripe".  I don't need to go into detail on that one...
2)  Its a custom.  The tall front wheel I have mixed feelings about.  Is it trying to be a chopper?  A wide glide?  At first I was positive I was going to swap it to a 19", but after seeing some examples out there, I may keep it.  The skinny wheel I think is less stable compared to the slightly wider 19", but I'm not really sure.  Otherwise, the other 2 big things that make it a custom that I don't like?  The T bar thing on the front.  I can't do ape hangers, because the tall riser thing ruins the look.  I can't just put on new risers, because I have to swap the speedo to the forward style, as the custom mounts it behind the bars, and theres a bunch of wire connections inside the Riser thing that I can't imagine a place to move them if I swapped the risers.  And last, it has a fat boy style slotted disc wheel in the rear.
4)  Its a sportster.  Its hard to admit it, but if you see someone on a normal-ish sportster, you think they're cheap, cuz you know they wanted a dyna or a soft tail, but were sold on the sportster for half the price.

The Crash of January 28th, 2011

I learned a valuable lesson on riding a motorcycle that morning:
1) When its 45 degrees outside, cold tires do not grip as well as when its 60 or 70.
2) Worn tires also do not grip as well as new tires.
3) Just like they teach you in the MSF class, taking a turn over the "crown of a road" (the peak in the middle) is dicey at best.
4) In the winter time, even if its dry, gravel, twigs, and leaves just love to hang out right in the middle of a street, consequently, right on the crown of the road.

Add these together, and you crash.  Taking a left turn from my street on to Tully, I went over that slipery, gravel-ridden crown of Tully, and the back wheel went right from under me.  Its called a low-side, and its pretty embarassing.  I sort of rolled off and stopped in the slow lane.  Luckily this was Sunday around noon, so the streets were deserted, but I quickly scrambled over to the curb, next to my poor little bandit.  With the help of a nameless Mustang driver, I got the bike up and was 2 minutes from walking it back home.  But my girlish constitution got the better of me and I passed out.  When I came to, I heard sirens, and parameds talking to me.

Here's the after math from the left side.  Scrapes on the front & rear fairings (rear already had a less severe scrape in the same spot...), both turn signal stalks broken (but they still worked!), the bottom of the case was scraped (again, it had a less severe scrape int he same spot there too), and the little foot guard where the peg mounts broke clean in two.

My back was a bit screwed up from twisty fall (which got worse in the months since), my pants were ruined, my shoes scraped, but my confidence was the worst to suffer.  But I knew I wanted to get back in the saddle. I love riding and I don't love being a statistic.

Consequently, I like taking Andrew, my 6 year old to the local motorcycle dealerships to look at stuff.  For a while, I could not get him to stop telling sales people about the crash.  Imagine trying to ask for a test drive when your kid is there spilling the beans about how you just crashed in the last month.  Raises a few eyebrows...

Previously

I had a 2001 Suzuki Bandit 600S.  It was a great commute bike.  A good balance of sport, comfort, & mileage.  But it was a little boring. I got a good deal on it, $1900, and it was a great 1st bike.  It had already been dropped to some point on both sides but it was really minimal.  Mechanically, it was flawless.  I only had to ever pull the choke when it was 40 degrees in the morning.  Its like the recent episode of How I Met Your Mother, where you look back on something after its gone, or about to be gone, and you just remember the good times.  I'm pretty sure there was some swearing involved with that bike.  Oiling a chain when theres no center stand, previous owner shenanigans, etc...  But here it is the day I got it.  Good times.