A Good Old Gal.

365 Group

One of my "girls" turns 40 this year.

"Miss Tilley!"  My 1977 KZ 750 twin, that I bought in original stock condition, 18 years ago from a lady in Oklahoma who's husband didn't like the fact guys whistled at her when she rode around town. They made a compromise and sold both their bikes. I was rather happy he was pissed that I took her old "junker" over his shiny late model V twin.
 This bike, with 97 thousand miles plus/ minus, has literally taken me all over the the Southern United States. Not too shabby for a $700 investment.

"catch ya on the road."
            (f)

6/16/09 The Bikin Part

365 Group (f)

These last couple of days have been great riding weather. Even with the storms that have blown through the area.
Since I made the return trip from mom's I haven't been doing a whole lot of riding. Mostly to and from work. I seemed to have redeveloped a Medical condition and, like the last time, it's painful and really saps the energy. I have a worn out disk in my lower back just at the belt line. That with a coupled with a couple of other chronic worn out body parts just sort of puts the damper on doing a lot. Especially with what I fondly refer to as a "roughbutt" frame. that and a cantankerous kick starter. At seventy miles per hour and only 3/4 of an inch give, it rides a little rough. So I have been doing only what I can to get by as far as riding. To and from work, the Doctor a couple of times and the necessary restaurant,bill paying,etc. I'm averaging about sixty miles per day. Enough to keep my standing in the Group.
I am doing lots of planning. I have a couple of Bobber projects kicking around in the back of my mind. I'm spending this "down time" researching bike magazines and the Internet to see how things look in actual play. I've also began picking up parts here and there so my time isn't totally wasted. Ya know, this is the Bikin part.
There is a gathering coming up this weekend in Eureka Springs of an on line bike group, "Biker or Not" or "BON" that I belong to. I'm hoping to be healed enough to make at least one day of it. Maybe meet a couple of the people I've met on there and take a few pictures.
Anyway, I been doin lots of "bikin" and not a lot of "Ridin" lately. Doctors say it may all come to a halt soon. If that is actually the case, you know hat that will mean? Trike sales will go up a wee bit.
Catch ya on the road

Backyard Ridin

Today I didn't have anything going on and decided to run the local back roads around home. I find it help full to keep up with the road conditions locally. Anyway, I took off around 9 am just puttin around.
About half way into my ride brought me back to an intersection in the middle of the town I live in. Since it was getting close to lunch I drifted up to a local gas station that has a decent cafe and ordered a burger. After giving my order to the girls at the cafe I wandered back outside to sit at the picnic table while I waited. Most of the morning it had been very hot and muggy feeling, like it was going to rain and just as I sat down it did. Man! It opened up and poured. Glad I was under the awning.
As I sat there watching the rain a big Yamaha cruiser pulled in and the rider looked very relieved to be out of the rain. Also, at this time two young guys walked out of the store and began talking to the Cruiser rider. After a few minutes of listening to them talk I noticed two sport bikes parked next to the building in the rain. Their conversation centered on the riding they had been doing and how bad it had been. I learned that the Cruiser rider had just left his home and had ridden a total of eight miles before he was forced off the road by the rain. The two sport bike riders had about 20 miles in when they noticed the sky getting dark and headed for cover. Absent mindedly I checked my trip meter and my total for the morning was 126 miles.
The conversation finally drifted my way with one of the sport riders asking what kind of bike I had. I told them all about my antique and one asked if it was a bobber as it looked like something was missing. I explained that compared to when it was new a lot was missing. That I striped off everything I didn't like. So, I guess you could call it a bobber. At hearing this the other sport rider began to show some interest and started asking questions. As we were talking one of them noticed my mileage and asked how long it had taken me to put 126 miles on it. When I told him a couples of hours or so this morning they both acted like they were hard of hearing and said "huh"? About this time, Mary, one of the girls from the cafe brought out my burger and started telling them how I always ride and junk like that. They were kind of caught short so to speak and said that they didn't ride much, just around town and that 20 or thirty miles was a big trip to them. I told them that I understood. Life sometimes gets in the way and you do what you gotta do.
Both of the sport riders were seriously giving thought to our conversation and looking over my bike and the big Yamaha as well as their own. They seemed to have a question on their minds but suddenly changed gears and went back to chatting about bikes in general.
I finished my lunch and offered to let Mary kick start my bike. She grinned and passed. The cruiser said you have a kick starter? Pointing it out I offered to let him start it. Mary started giggling and he got red faced and I guess thought better of the idea saying no. All three said that they had no experience with anything other than late models. None with a kick starter.
I couldn't resist and flipped out the pedal and kicked it to life. I let it idle a few minutes and switched off. About this time we all agreed on a couple of things. It was time to go and electric starters were sooo much easier.
All in all it was a good day totaling 207 miles. It's funny what you can get into just puttin around your on Back yard.

Proud Member Of the 365 Group
(i rode mine today)

Close call and a good weekend.

This weekend has been a good one.
It's a holiday weekend and so everyone on the road is nuts more than usual. Every where that I have gone I see it, they are nuts behind the wheel! I had a woman pull out in front of me at Oakland-Zion road. I started heading for the ditch and she finally saw me and swerved before I had to lay it down. (Bad close this time) She saw my wife on her bike and let her go by then just pulled out on top of me.
(Saturday)
I finally gave up and took my bike to the shop and took off the carburetors off and went through them with a pipe cleaner. I made an amazing discovery in one of them. A spider had made a nest in one of the ports for an air jet. I wouldn't have thought it possible but there it was. I really gave them a scrubbing and did all I could without rebuilding them. I told Luther that I was hoping for Divine intervention as I was at my end with them. As a result I fully believe that God intervened and put me back in a better shape. My bike is now almost back to a normal running and a much better rate of gas consumption. It even seems to ride a little less rough which makes sense. I got out after getting it all back together and put a few local miles on it to see how it was going to hold up and I'm really liking how it's running. A trip now seems in order.
(Sunday)
My wife left early to go to church and I just bummed around and tinkered with her ride and finally gave up to the fact that it needs a new battery. I had hopped that we could save it but it's apparent that we cant. It wont turn the engine over at all. You can still kick it and start it and it will run everything while your running but that's about all the battery has left. So that's next on my to do list.
We managed to do a couple of local trips this afternoon. We road down to Penguin Ed's for a bite of lunch and as we were leaving noticed a storm coming up. It looked like we would make it home without getting wet so we headed out. Man, did I misjudge. About half way it started to come down and since neither of us had brought any rain gear it seemed to beat into my hide like rocks. About a mile or two into the rain it started hailing and let me tell you a Tee shirt is no protection. The hail didn't last but the rain was hard and fast and I managed to get it under my glasses and reached a point where I literally couldn't see. I pointed to the side and jumped off the road at the first of the twin bridges and managed to make it under the bridge without crashing. The safety glasses I wear don't seal well at the top and without a helmet I had water running in. I got my helmet on and cinched my glasses down as tight as I could and headed back out. The rain had let up a little and completely stopped by the time I turned off Hwy 45. I went on up to the house and found that my wife had made it OK. Soaked to the bone and red whelps from the hail but otherwise OK.
A little later I asked my wife if she felt like another "adventure". I mean the rain was over. The sun was out and It was too nice not to ride as much as you could. We ended up just going to Harps and the "green-weenie" wal-mart. It was fun to ride with her again. Almost like old times.
I hope to have the strength next weekend for a trip. Just pack up and take off for a day or two and see where I end up. I really miss traveling.
...Hope to see ya on the road.