A love-hate relationship

Most of us have a special kind of relationship with our motorcycles. Usually we love them (Why else would I have bought it in the first place?), sometimes we hate them (My ass hurts after 10 minutes in the saddle!) and it varies by day or even hour.

I got to thinking about that third option, that love-hate kind of relationship, as I was reading about Dom’s over at Redleg’s Rides trials and tribulations with Valencia on his Alaska trip. As much as he loves his rig I’m sure there were many days recently when he’d just as soon drive it off the pier into the Gulf of Alaska and hitch-hike home. But as a rational human being (who decided to ride to Alaska in April!) he’ll most likely get her home, fix the issues, and rebuild the trust lost on that trip. We’re all waiting to see how that works out, but mostly just want to see him home safely.

I count myself lucky. Of the many motorcycles I’ve owned I can honestly say I only really hated one. It was my first ride, a Yamaha RD200, and I had no sooner ridden it off the lot than I knew it was the wrong bike for me. I had made a rash, uninformed decision and bought a bike that was too small for me and underpowered. I rode it only long enough to save up the few extra dollars needed to trade up to a Honda CB350 – about a month as I recall. This was 1971, a long time ago, and I still hate that bike.

Most of the rest I have loved. My Yamaha RD350-LC was quick, scary fast, and would throw the front wheel in the air if you but breathed hard on the throttle when releasing the clutch. The Kawasaki Z-1 was just plain AWESOME! Power and looks that couldn’t be beat, THE superbike of the day, as long as you mostly rode in a straight line. The various Honda 4’s were all dead reliable, pedestrian machines that could be counted on to go from A to B and back again carrying ridiculous loads with nary a peep and minimal maintenance. And my current ride, an H-D Low Rider? I love it. Power, style, reliability, and (considering it’s not a touring model) reasonable medium- to long-haul comfort. I expect I’ll keep this one for a while, or until the lottery finally comes through. (I’m due!)

But what Dom’s experiences brought fresh to mind were my Nortons, in particular my ‘74 Commando. Now there was a love-hate relationship. Not unlike Canada’s Sea King search and rescue helicopters, every hour of riding time required about 35 hours of shop time. If I wasn’t tightening bolts I was looking in the bins for replacement parts for bits that were lost on the road somewhere between here and there. And if I wasn’t lock-wiring every nut and bolt I was trouble-shooting the Lucas electrics, whose company motto was “Get home before dark.” (Why do the British drink warm beer? Lucas also made refrigerators.)

The long-suffering spousal unit would often show up in the garage (or the kitchen before I had a garage) and ask if all those parts on the floor meant we wouldn’t be going for a ride to the lake after all. And I’d reply, just as soon as I finish this engine rebuild dear. After a while she stopped asking and would simply come in, roll her eyes, and leave. At those times I hated her. (The bike, not the missus!)

But when Black Beauty decided to be on her best behaviour it was bliss. Carving those TT100’s around curves at 70, 80, or 90 mph to the thrum of a large displacement parallel twin with a shorty exhaust was magical. It was the easiest bike I ever had to become ‘one’ with, where I was a simple extension of the bike, or it of me; I was never really clear which it was. When we were ‘on song’ as they say we didn’t ride around those bends, we flowed around them, and then raced to the next set of twisties to do it all again, and again, and again until we ran out of gas, Lucas lived up to its motto, the exhaust system fell off, or the local constabulary put a halt to our fun for the day – all of which happened on more than one occasion.

I finally sold her but even then it was a case of the head (and the missus) saying it was the right thing to do and the heart saying Noooooooooo! I still miss her even though I know that makes no sense. I’ve moved on (age and experience does that) and my riding style has also moved on. If she were now to suddenly become mine again I expect she’d be quickly added to the hate list. And I don’t want to spoil all the great memories.

OUCH! Now THAT hurts.

And now for a brief divergence from 2 wheels.

We have been having some trust issues with our politicians here recently (and who hasn’t?) so all the usual suspects are polling, analysing, speculating, and generally wild-assed-guessing why it is that only about 1/4 of the population in Canada trust their government to do the right thing. (Figures are similar for the USA.)

One of those pollsters decided to compare our trust in politicians and governments to other professions. A more in-depth story on the results of that poll can be found here if you’re interested, but what really hurt was this chart.

Really? As bloggers we’re even LESS trustworthy than politicians? Say it ain’t so!

But rest assured my fellow moto-bloggers, I trust you.

Rear steer

Ever since I got my Dyna I had been noticing that some times when accelerating out of a corner at speed it would seem as though the back end would shift sideways just a little bit. It was never enough to cause any control issues but always enough to ratchet the heart rate up a notch or two for a few seconds.

And so the hunt for the culprit began.

All nuts and bolts to spec – check.
Tires – replaced.
Tire pressures – check.
Wheel alignment – check.
Steering head adjustment – check.
Rear shocks – check.
Front forks – check.
Front engine mount – check.
Rear engine mount – check.
Swing arm bushings – check.

Everything was to spec but still, on occasion, the seat of my pants would tell me something was wrong. The closest I could remember to that sensation was many years ago when I test rode a Norton Commando on which the rear axle bolt hadn’t been properly tightened, allowing the alignment to change mid-corner causing the back end to swing out just enough to change the tracking. (I noticed this in the first corner after a straight road run of a few miles at 100+ mph!)

I wanted to get a better look at what was happening.

But decided instead just to let Google be my friend. It turns out that this is a not unknown problem with Harleys (and presumably other marques) that have the rubber-mounted engines. What happens is the engine mounts are designed to minimize the effects of the up-and-down vibration and so work best in the vertical plane. However when cornering hard the stresses are being put on those mounts in the horizontal plane. Combine that with some enthusiastic acceleration and the engine mounts can flex just enough to cause the rear wheel to track out ever so slightly. And the rider to say a hasty Hail Mary.

There’s even a term for it, rear steer, which is, as I think about it, a pretty accurate description of what is happening.

Which begs the question: Why doesn’t the MoCo address this issue in their design?

It turns out they did, on the Buell. But for whatever reason that enhancement didn’t find its way onto the Dyna. Perhaps it was too expensive, or they thought most riders riding under normal conditions would never notice (which may be true, but if they do they will REALLY notice). But the fact many Harley riders won’t push their bike that hard doesn’t change that it remains a design weakness, still being propagated as far as I know on current models.

Of course there are products on the market that purport to “solve” this problem through additional engine bracing, but they are not cheap. However since I’ve tried everything else and love this bike except for that one issue I will probably break down and do the handling upgrade. So now it’s a just matter of sorting through the options to find the best solution.

Progress is being made – part deux

There has been quite a delay since my last update on this project, mostly due to a rather long period of time waiting for a specific servo motor to arrive in the post.

Well I finally got it and a few other bits I needed and was thus able to complete putting the package together.

Next test will be to see how it works on the bike. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to try it out this week if it ever warms up and stops raining.

So far this has been quite an experience and a lot of fun. I’m getting way ahead of myself but if the prototype performs as I’m hoping I already have a long list of enhancements I want to make. I want to be able to vary the speed of rotation. I’d like to eliminate the battery by using the bike’s 12V power supply. A wi-fi or blue tooth connection (wireless) for control would be cool. 3-dimensional panning would be amazing. And if I get really creative, a smart phone app to manage the settings like rotation speed and possibly even control the panning function itself. The sky’s the limit – well, almost, subject to time and budget. But hey, dreaming is free!

A trip to Princess Auto is never wasted

Princess Auto is one of those great chains that carries a bit of everything shop related. Whether it’s tools, hydraulics, steel, welding supplies, trailer parts, small engines, surplus electronics or anything else in a long list of “guy stuff” they probably have it. So I can spend a lot of time (and money) in that store. The only saving grace as far as the spousal unit is concerned is that it’s an hour and a half away so it’s not very onvenient. However once a month or so I find an excuse to be at that end of town for something and, “since I’m there anyway…”.

Last week I had to return a defective utility trailer wheel (made in China, most probably from salt-infused rusted auto bodies) and spent a little time wandering the aisles. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular but then I came across this wheel chock that was on sale. If you’ve ever done an oil change (or any maintenance really) on a motorcycle that has no centre stand you know what a pain in the ass that can be. The analogy that comes to mind is the one-armed paper hanger; it’s awkward, inconvenient and usually much messier than it needs to be. Even so I could never justify the $200 or so that seemed to be the going rate for a wheel chock to hold the bike vertical while I worked on it.

But $40? A no-brainer.

Today I got around to assembling and installing my new wheel chock, and it works like a charm. I have a motorcycle lift that I’ll still use for most things but for sheer convenience and the fact it leaves the undercarriage open this is a great solution. Ride on and step off the bike. There are loops for tie downs but the bike seems really stable even without using them. I probably will anyway because the thought of 700+ pounds of iron toppling over and damaging the paint could ruin anyone’s day. It’s bolted to the floor but the vertical support and the pivot are held in place by a single bolt and a couple of pregnant-R clips. Remove those in a few seconds and all that’s left on the floor is the low-profile base component.

Yep, I’m liking it and almost (almost!) looking forward to doing that oil change now.

Some minor assembly required.

Done!

Progress is being made

Learning as I go, waiting for parts to come by mail, realizing I’d missed something and so more waiting for parts to come by mail (repeat several times), repurposing materials to new uses, screwing something up so having to start over… That’s been the story of this project so far.

But progress is being made and today was the first test of the panning servo. Some weaknesses identified but otherwise about 75% successful I’d say.

So now it’s back to the shop – a warm refuge from the freezing rain and snow pelting down outside right now.

Small packages

A few fellow bloggers have posted recently about the joy of receiving small packages in the post. Well, not to be outdone, here’s my small package story.

I almost made it.  It was only 2 months ago that I posted about not needing anything for the bike this year. What I actually said was “the bike is just about exactly where I want it right now” which, as any motorcyclist will agree, is probably one of the most, if not *the* most, stupid thing I could have said. There is ALWAYS something to be improved, changed, added, or otherwise tweaked… and sure enough I found something.

My small package arrived today.

I had noticed that the LED taillights on some new model cars were a lot brighter and the instant-on feature tended to catch the eye better. And so having had a couple of close calls because drivers clearly didn’t see my brake light and integrated rear signal lights I thought I’d brighten up the back end a bit.

If you’ve looked at a motorcycle parts catalogue lately you’ll know that there are hundreds of options for LED lighting and an electronics engineering degree is needed to identify all the parts required to make it work. (Simply replacing the bulbs won’t do it – I tried that route already, major fail!) But then I found this complete kit at my favourite supplier – J&P Cycles. Gave them a call and… Sold!

I will be installing this kit over the weekend and hopefully all will go well and it is really as “bolt in” as advertised. But if not I have lots of time to make it work as we’re getting a major snow and ice storm through here over the next couple of days, pushing the riding season out at least another week. Sigh….

UPDATE April 12:

One of the easiest installations I’ve ever done. 20 minutes, tops. Instructions were clear and everything fit the way it was supposed to. The most time was spent getting all the wiring jammed back under the seat when the job was done. It even works with my turn signal conversion. So two thumbs up for Biketronics’ LED Bulb Upgrade Kit from J&P Cycles.