The Cleanup Work Continues

Not being a "body man" ... is not an asset when you're trying to do "minor" jobs...

Sanding the "shine" off saddlebags to repaint shouldn't be that big a deal should it... Ha... only me could make it be. Turns out... Fiberglass ain't that level, so even a quarter sheet sander with really fine sandpaper finds all sorts of low spots... and taking the "shine" off to repaint turns out to be a lot more work than it would seem. ;)

ah well... she'll look good once I get the job done.

I've been stalling during a patch of iffy and windy weather... too cold to paint so why sand... right? ha ha... good excuse for procrastination... and giving the vagaries of life an opportunity to bail my ass out of having to sell her off? ... yeah well... that hasn't worked yet...

Got the pipes back from the powder coater... He's done several motorcycle and atv exhaust systems and one set of sprint car headers... with this high temp (1000 degree) material and says after a few months he's seen no failures... so I took the $145 chance.

Yeah... unlikely to get that back... but my thinking ran this way... with the pipes UGLY... it just might interfere with selling at all... so... a "had to" sort of thing...

*Custom Coatings in Berthoud Colorado - Refinished Motorcycle exhaust*

Big improvement over how they'd come to look. One thing I'll say... if I'm ever in the market for aftermarket pipes again... I will NEVER... buy Hard Chrome brand...

*Hard Chrome Big Straights finish Failure*

Maybe this failure of the finish IS just a weird freak that will never happen again... but that's not my problem... the Refusal of the Hard Chrome company to even communicate and address the issue is the deal... Their "Customer Service" in this instance SUCKED big time...

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice... Shame on me... They'll not get a second chance.

The weather seems to be breaking and I'm nearing completion of the Stitching Horse I'm working on to help with the restarting of my Leather Shop... So I should be able to bring myself to get back onto the bike polishing in the next day or so...

One issue I'm not sure what to do about are the wheels... Having been Not Shy about the roads we've wandered... those aluminum wheels have apparently gotten dinged pretty hard by gravel... 360 degrees...

Polishing by hand doesn't touch the gouges that can be felt... I can't decide whether to just leave it alone and accept it... or take a fine emery... and try to erase those marks... again... a lot of work... but the bike deserves it... just can't decide if I'm up for the task...

It would be another way to "Stall" the inevitable I guess...

Grab your handles and ride
Brian

Making Progress Slowly

Work on the bike goes slow... Partly because it's been a bit cold... and it's not a really happy bit of work... but...

...mostly because I've become unsure of the route I'd picked out. That's the problem with reading more... AFTER... you made a choice.

 

I got the pipes pretty much stripped ready to paint... and just got the quivers. I know I'm only doing it to sell the scoot... but... I don't want to be the guy that sold her with a crap job done. I've made enough bad turns in this life, no need to add to it.

I found several people doing exactly what I am... and using the high temperature paint I was intending to use... who had the stuff fail... as they were going through the curing process!!!

So... a few more phone calls and I found a guy doing powder coating with a High Temp coating that's supposed to be rated to 1000 degrees. Now, those shrouds around the pipes get warm... but when my leg is sitting an inch or so from 'em at a stop... I can't believe that the pipe shroud is anything close to a thousand degrees.

That, he told me could be done for 'bout $150 bucks... since the paint and such is gonna cost upwards of $40 or so, if not more, I figure... seems like a good bet... and a better deal for whoever Sonja goes home with in the future. I think that's the way I'll go... I don't want to send her off with a lousy job of it.

Then... on to the Harbor Freight "Dent Repair Kit"... um... NO.

So... fourteen bucks. Read the reviews on the website... and all sorts of guys claim they were "Surprised" when it worked like a champ.


This ol' cowboy was not... surprised.


Cuz... it didn't work. Not even a quivering grunt of a try.

The glue stick stuck to the tank just fine... but it wouldn't hold to THEIR puller part.

As soon as I'd start screwing up the pulling tab... POP! it just camp loose. Didn't pull that dent a sliver.

The dent is a hail dent... from a big honkin' hunk of hail...

It's been there as long as Sonja has been with me... and kinda irritated me at times...

But also... it was/is kinda cool at the same time. Some of that "patina" that you can't find on "Show" bikes...

The scars of the road wars that tell the power that lives inside a person... or a machine.

I put the glue on the pulling tab... just like they said.

...after cleaning the dent area with their "release" agent...

And stuck the pulling tab to the dent... NOT pushing it in... just like they said...

I waited for several minutes to make sure the glue had time to set up and hold...

Then I attached the crossbar gizmoe... spun the knob onto the pulling tab... and started "screwing"...

Well... crap... might as well have been making a pass at a statue... I tried a dozen times... cleaned the tab... cleaned the tank... held my left ear with my right hand and wiggled my butt like a gypsy hooker...

and EVERY time... EVERY time... the tab just let go. I even put glue on to wrap up around the tab trying to get a good mechanical hold... NADA.. works bout as good as a hooker in a convent.

The glue stuck fine to the tank... and cleaned off ok to try again... but it's a $14 dollar profit maker for the boys selling it. It don't work.

The dent is still there and ain't even a whisker off a fleas butt smaller.

So... tomorrow I scrub up the Saddlebags...

The left one there developed some cracks that I'm just not willing to send on to a new owner.

The majority are on that front sloped surface of the lid...

and a few more on the very top.

No idea why. I watched the guy that painted them.

He was finicky about how they were handled and what was used to clean them.

Some sort of special degreaser/cleaner just for the purpose...

And he put that high dollar paint on there awful thin with each coat... but... like you can see there... after a couple of years... it's cracked...

So... I'll sand down the cracked areas to smooth it out... and take the shine off the rest... and then do a cowboy paint job with plain black and clear coat... and call it good.

Sometime in April I suppose I'll have to pull the trigger and put up the sales advert... gonna be a melancholy day...

Ride if You Can
Brian

Back on the Front Range and the Work Begins...

I've returned, early in the season to Fort Collins. A good friend of mine has a small farm over on the east side. She's off on Active Duty with the Army so having someone just being here is a worry off her mind, and it gives me a place to do the work I need to do.

The bike is now in one of her garages to be shined up and made ready for the lucky bugger that gets to be carried on her into the future.

I've spent a couple of days just lining out what I need to do and where to get the "Stuff" to do that.

I'll start in today pulling the saddlebags and pipes that need to be refinished. The paint in one spot on the bags got spiderwebbed a bit and you all know of my issues with Hard Chrome's ceramic coating on the pipes.

I've found some 2000 degree Header paint as well as 2000 degree clear coat to refinish those... as well as some words about preparation and Proper Curing so the finish is reasonably durable...

I also found a kit to try taking out a hail dent on the tank... and I'm going to try my hand at an Artistic treatment of a scratch on the rear fender... from waaaaay back when that first backrest parted ways with the bike at 70 mph!

Then there's replacing the tweaked shift lever from that U-turn didoe up on San Juan Island a couple years ago... and also on a tangent... I'm going to repaint the Black Widow 12' folding ramp... as that will be sold as well.

It's not a happy thing to have to do... and maybe if the Leather shop I'm putting back together does well enough... fast enough... I'll be able to get back between a pair of wheels before I'm too old to keep 'em from falling over...

But... right now I can't dwell on the potholes... just the slope ahead that I've got to climb.

Grab Your Handles and Ride (you never know when you're gonna loose your wheels)
Brian

Hard Chrome ain't so Hard... OR... Rusty Pipes in the Desert

Moved my camp down to the Quartzsite area. It's just plain easier down here. Water, dumps, and somehow... the "atmosphere" is better...

*Back on the Desert between Quartzsite and Parker*

Put Sonja back on the ground and cleaned up a bit. We rode quite a little bit there around Wickenburg. Up the hill above Congress that climbs to Yarnell and beyond. That's a nice lil' peg scraper.

Here on the desert I am more and more unhappy with the performance of a fairly big "Brand Name" of Motorcycle exhaust... ie. Hard Chrome Motorcycle exhaust.

I put their 3" Big Straights on in July of 2012... and was really happy with the look, sound and performance...

all about the same time I changed out the chrome backrest for Yamaha's newer design and went black.

Powder coated backrest from Yamaha and powder coated pipes from Hard Chrome...

Then... time rolled along...

But only a bit over a year... and the finish on the pipes began failing.

Now, what, a year and a half later? They are getting damned ugly.

*in the Quartzsite desert*

The "pattern" of the finish failure hints to me of some sort of failure in the preparation before powder coating...

... Some might say it's the "conditions" the machine has lived and been run in...

Buuuut... That steel, powder coated Yamaha backrest was installed in the same time period and has endured the same conditions the rest of the bike has... not a blemish...

 A big company like Hard Chrome you'd sorta expect to be a bit concerned about such poor performance of their product... wouldn't you?

But the Hard Chrome Manufacturer... has failed to even respond to my attempts at contact... so... I won't be buying any more of their product. What you do is up to you...

What am I going to do? Well, I gotta do something... those pipes are just gettin' fugly.

I'm not about to be replacing pipes every two years and I sure don't want to have to refinish every few months.

Been doing some reading. I just can't bring myself to trust another powder coating... I'm thinking strongly of going through the rig-a-ma-role of pulling the pipes. Stripping the shrouds to bare metal. Proper 2000 degree primer and 2000 degree paint... and then a proper high temp clear coat... and then carefully following the correct curing procedure. (Be a good project for this summer when conditions and temperature are compatible)

At least... with a paint finish... I'd have the hope of being able to maybe do a touch up...

I've had good success with equipment paint in the past... with careful preparation I think it could be a serviceable option...

Some point in the future I'll likely replace them with another brand... If I can find one that has the reputation of standing behind it's product and as soon as I sell enough novels to pay the freight! :)

Till then I'll likely just try and keep her complexion looking decent with paint.

Warming on the Desert
Brian

The Music of Footpegs and Twisting Asphalt

I like the twisties...what can I say? I like the twisties... and... I like a cruiser motorcycles too...

Now... a cruiser, even one with the sheer grunt on tap of a Raider, can't hope to keep up with a sure 'nuff sport bike... but that don't mean they're pokin' along like some hobblin' cripple neither!

A few rides back I was feeling pretty fine, swingin' through the mountains... the bike leans over... scrrrruuuuuunnnnchiinnnng! Ha ha. You know... the sound that lil' gizmo under the foot pegs makes when you engage the automatic in-motion length adjuster? :)

Yeah... it always makes me giggle. Which is ok when I'm straddlin' the scooter solo. When the back seat is occupied... not so much.

It's become apparent to me that the music of scrapin' pegs don't appeal to some others like it does to me.

There's most generally a small bruise, a couple of inches above the bottom of my shoulder blade on the right side. It's amazing how close it resembles the lil' balled up fist of herself! ;)

SO... we were riding out of camp to find a BBQ supper last evening. Where the dirt track we're camped up meets the pavement there's a small slope where it meets the broken edge of the pavement. I'd crossed that earlier in the day without thinkin' about it. Riding Two Up... there was a fairly solid scrunch and a bump...

'tween that breakover and a low sittin' bike sittin' a bit lower with two up... there was a mite of a conflict...

When we got to the Hog Wild BBQ place in Cottonwood for supper... I got down to make sure I'd just tarnished the surface of the under frame and not cut any major arteries! ;)

And that was all it was... just a new road blemish to add to the patina under the frame of a Yamaha Raider road bike! ;) buuuuut... up in front of that there WAS something that kinda caught my attention...

Apparently... those sounds I'd heard those few previous rides... before this last rain... weren't ALL the footpeg "lean" sensors getting shorter... :) Some of it was a bit of the Hide off of my Hard Chrome exhaust pipes... getting left behind! :)

I've kinda thought I'd been riding a lot more sedately in my aging years...

Guess not so much! HooYa!

What can I say... I are who I are and ever' once in a while ya just gotta let the tiger loose!

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

Comfort and Motorcycles

Completed the refit of the Raider yesterday. The Tsukayu Hard Bags are on along with the Hard Chrome pipes.

*Yamaha Raider with the Hard Chrome pipes and Tsukayu Saddle Bags*

I also shaved the plastic sub fender under the tail light; relocating the license plate and shaving the turn signal lollipops since the new bags have built in turn signal lights.

In the process I've seen quite a few conversations on forums and had 'em in person where the subject of "comfort" always seems to enter the dialog.

I think ~ pure comfort ~ has somehow seized too big a place in peoples thinking. Especially when it comes to motorcycles.

The refit I did was not for comfort but for function and convenience. The Raider has always been sufficiently comfortable.

But... what is comfort? Do you climb a mountain to be comfortable? Is Riding a horse comfortable? Is golfing comfortable?

I mean... sure you don't want ill fitting shoes to go hikng in. You don't want jeans so tight they put your feet to sleep. You don't want to wear a heavy down coat when it's 95 degrees. But, it seems the FIRST thing that enters peoples mind when they start doing ANYTHING is Comfort!!!

Not the experience of LIVING... but... doing it without risking being ~ GASP! ~ the least bit un-comfortable.

I've heard people say; "That bike is too uncomfortable for me"; yet when asked, they've NEVER even ridden the bike they're criticising! ... Huh? ...

I've heard people say; "It was raining... it's too uncomfortable to ride in the rain... it's too hot... it's too cold... it's this or it's that"... and on and on and on...

The thing that has come home to me is that "society" has devolved to where anything that is a risk... any risk at all is WRONG... anything that is less comfortable than a flotation topped mattress... is WRONG. Anything that provides SENSATION of the world around you is WRONG.

Anything that provides a tactile sensation of actually being alive is "Un-Comfortable" ... Oh Boo Freakin' Hoo!

If COMFORT is your controlling motivation, which must be satisfied BEFORE all else... what the hell are you doing on a Motorcycle? Get yourself a chauffeur and one of those limousines with climate control and a hot tub... I'll bet you can even hire a waitress to serve you as you ride around... we don't want to see you get strained by having to pour your own seltezer water... and make sure you keep the windows rolled up... Don't suffer the discomfort of Wind in your face!!!

I guess a "Good" Motorcycle is supposed to roll you through the west with No wind, No rain, No heat, No cold, No traffic, No fuel stops, No dust, No skeeters... No No No No No No...

No Freakin' Sensation of Life!

Geeze... You might as well just lay in one of those sensory deprivation tanks and just look at post cards with a triple insulated flashlight... held by someone else of course... We don't want your hand to be subjected to the discomfort of having to hold up a heavy, lumpy flashlight.

Yeah... a postcard with a PICTURE of a Motorcycle being ridden in the wind and rain... and you can read the lil' blurb on the back that TELLS you what it feels like.

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

Return to the Home page of Motorcycle Touring on Freedom Road
Visit our sister site goin' RV Boondocking

Share your stories and opinions;
*Tell us Which you think is the... The Best Touring Motorcycle
*Share...  Your Personal Motorcycle Philosophy with us!
*Tell us about your...  Great Motorcycle Roads

Making Progress on My Tsukayu Saddlebag Install

The only real obstruction is we're parked in Fort Collins and the bike is in my kid's garage way down in Northglenn... about a 75 mile commute. ;)

A pretty efficient way to do a saddlebag installation! It adds juuuuust a mite to the cost of a custom saddlebag installation! :)

But I am making progress on it.

*New pipes and Old Saddlebags*

*New Tsukayu Saddle bags on and waiting for Paint*

*Old Bags and Plate Placement*

*New Bags and Plate Placement*

The bags have been mounted to test fit and placement. They'll come back off today to prep for painting... as soon as I work out the wiring placement and a few other lil' odds and ends.

I did a mediocre job of shaving that factory plastic bit that carries the plate and turn signals... That's what happens when you have a brain fart and you start cutting on the wrong side of your scribe line! :) It will go back on today. The saving grace is that the "rough" part of my mod will be tucked up under the fender... but... sheesh! what a squibb move.

With those bags set a couple inches lower and tighter to the fender... and all that junk NOT hanging off the fender... To MY eye it looks MUCH better! It's gonna perform far better for my Long Rides to boot!

* Easy access bags will be SWEET on the Road!*

I discovered a secondary function of the Tsukayu Designed Motorcycle Saddlebags... With the gas cylinder lid lift system they make pretty fair Air Brakes! :) Get too crazy on the throttle of that big 113 cid V-Twin and you'll need all the help you can pulling that big Yamaha back down below the sound barrier... :))

That original cast aluminum chromed back rest has been sold and will ship out in a couple of days. It's replacement is a steel  powder coated unit that is "lighter in appearance and is going to fit into the whole design scheme a lot better.

The bags are to be painted Tomorrow morning by my Son-in-law... They'll be a version of Yamaha metallic grey with a matte finish... the idea is to match the engine case/frame color...

Gotta head for Denver... again... and pick up some wiring bits along the way... so I'm in the wind again... though this time behind a dodge windshield.

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

Return to the Home page of Motorcycle Touring on Freedom Road
Visit our sister site goin' RV Boondocking

Share your stories and opinions;
*Tell us Which you think is the... The Best Touring Motorcycle
*Share...  Your Personal Motorcycle Philosophy with us!
*Tell us about your...  Great Motorcycle Roads

Less is More...

 I frequently hold with that school of thought when it comes to "Aesthetic" design. Sometimes there's just too much "junk" in the way to see the real form...

There's a small little thing that a lot of Raider Riders do to shine up their ride... and I suppose it hurts the feeling of some designer sitting in an office somewhere that designed this lil' bit... but those Raider Riders shave off that lil' bit of plastic chrome flash on the tank...

*The Raider with the new pipes and still with the Tank Flash*

Since I'm working toward a more subdued appearance with this machine that tank flash had to go. I'd been thinking that for a long time... and to tell the truth I'd been hoping to even have the bike painted by now...

Something in the last week, not sure what, triggered me to start pulling the trigger on several of the "I'd kinda like to" jobs I've had floating around in my brain pan for a while. So yesterday afternoon I got out the credit card, some rags and 3M Adhesive remover and went to work.

I sat the bike in the sun for a bit to warm the tank up and then went to cutting the mounting tape under the Flash with an old, out of service credit card... which of course left a considerable amount of adhesive and foam residue on both sides of the fuel tank...

The next 45 minutes or an hour was spent soaking the crud with that 3M adhesive remover... squeegeeing the bulk off with the credit card and then scrubbing the remainder off with an old T-Shirt with liberal use of the adhesive remover.

The result is a clean tank!

*Raider with the Tank Flash Removed*

I'm liking the direction I'm going. Sometimes they put, IMHO, Too much "stuff" on a bike. Too much flash and Farkle. The chrome accents of the Heads and other bits and pieces work better I think against the matte black and red of the balance of the bike.

I want my new Tsukayu Saddle Bags NOW! :-/ My patience waiting for THAT order to come is not enduring well. :)

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

Return to the Home page of Motorcycle Touring on Freedom Road
Visit our sister site goin' RV Boondocking

Share your stories and opinions;
*Tell us Which you think is the... The Best Touring Motorcycle
*Share...  Your Personal Motorcycle Philosophy with us!
*Tell us about your...  Great Motorcycle Roads

My Raider Refit has Begun!

I got the first step of refitting my Yamaha Raider for Motorcycle Touring done Friday afternoon.

After riding the bike for a couple of years with the leather Osprey saddlebags I decided that I needed to rework the setup.

The bags have served well, but as it turns out, the conditions I live in now are not made for the endurance of leather saddlebags. I just can't keep ahead of the abuse the weather puts on the leather bags that are exposed to the elements 100% of the time.

But, to change to the fiberglass hard bags I'm going to install, it required the replacement of the existing, factory exhaust pipes.

*Yamaha Raider with Factory Pipes*

 That dogleg in the pipes rises up so high it's pretty hard to squeeze in any sort of a hard bag with the size I want to go to.

That's the other thing working here. I wanted to enlarge the bags a bit to improve their capacity for Motorcycle Touring on my Yamaha sled.

I chewed on this for a long time... flopping back and forth from one style to another... and finally settled on the 3" Big Straights from Hard Chrome in the Black version.

*Yamaha Raider with 3" Big Straights by Hard Chrome*

Geeze... You'd think a guy taking a portrait of his most favorite motorcycle of all time would remember to pull the protective masking tape off the frame first! :)

But look at the difference in space twixt the pipes and the bags... I'm impatiently waiting now for my new Tsukayu Coner saddlebags to arrive!

That and the noise... I'm not real BIG on Loud Pipes... I was nervous about these being too noisy... So far? I'm happy. They've got a deep burbling rumble to 'em without that ear cracking edge. If you stay off the throttle in the "neighborhood" and keep your rpm down the neighbors have nothing to complain about.

On the Highway, where before I couldn't even hear the motor over the wind... I now have that nice, deep rumble that always tickles the giggles of a "Motorhead"... OK... so I'm a partial motorhead. So far it's a real pleasing note... needs be, I can swap the baffles for a "quieter" variety... but with the pipes being the long style, I think they'll ride just as they are.

I was a lil' anxious about going in the Blacked out "direction" but, already, I'm liking the more subdued style of 'em. Since I live in the "you can polish 'em or you can ride 'em" school of thought ... and sit solidly on the Ride 'em side ;) I think the black is gonna do better in that situation than chrome!

Riding the bike back to the rig from my kids place in Denver... I rolled up I-25. One of the first things I noticed was there seemed to be a bit more vibration. The second was that my fuel mileage kinda went to hell!

Geeze! And I thought it would improve a bit...

Then... I looked down at the speedo... Hmmm...

Ya think that maybe all those extra numbers I found when I looked at the speedometer might have something to do with more vibration and poorer fuel economy? :))

Took a roll up Poudre Canyon yesterday... at my more "normal" cruising speed and that idea seems to have been borne out... Mileage seems to be back in the 48-52 mpg range that I normally run. Guess I'll have to guard against the Thunder Induced Velocity!

Now that I "played" for a couple of days...

It's back to work for me now.
Brian

Riding... How Much is Enough?

I've had the thought... That I've not been riding as much as I thought I would when we left the old life behind and started our full time yondering... nearly two years ago now.

Sometimes... that's been true. When we're camped 30 miles above Gunnison and ten miles up a dirt road... there's something that just interferes with my desire to put the Raider on the ground.... and that just ain't right.

But what can I say, dirt roads just don't shine for that big road burner. The result is that sometimes that bike has sat on the truck for several days at a time... too many days.

Since we've been roosted back in Fort Collins I've been back to pretty much daily runs for one purpose or another. It reminds me that I'm a much happier old coot if I'm pushin' that sled through the wind at least once a day.

Now... sayin' I've not been splittin' the wind enough since we left so many months ago might have some folks scratchin' their heads...

... considerin' that I started out this wandering journey of ours two years ago riding to Alaska and back in mid 2010. The Million Dollar Highway through Silverton came next in the fall.

The Raider rolled through Arches National Park and Canyon Lands. It ran the Pacific Coast Highway a few miles; We covered the roads around Redding and Mt. Shasta in California. We've ridden Yosemite, and Going to the Sun Road up in Glacier National Park... Twice!

Yellowstone has been ridden twice itself! We rolled around San Juan Island in Puget Sound and across the Sierras in Washington. Lolo and Lost Trail passes in Montana have seen me come through... as well as the Bear Tooth Highway! I've raced across southern Montana and Northern Wyoming to the Black Hills of the Dakotas.

The Arizona Desert and its Highlands have known the feel of my Raiders tires in the last two years, as well as Zion and Bryce up in Utah...

So... When I say I've not been riding enough... some might ask... "Huh? Are you kidding?" :) What can I say? It's an unsatisfied lust. Maybe unsatisfiable?

Yesterday after visiting the kids in Denver and needful of another asphalt fix, I chose to make a swing out to the base of the Front Range Mountains to circle back to Fort Collins, rather than the boring slab run up I-25.

I still had to fight my way past the lil' gals with their cell phone either stuck in their ears... or held in front of their faces... texting... while their volvo drifts 'cross the lane line... to get out of Denver and through Boulder to catch 36 to Estes Park. (this is where I'm just shaking my head)

So... I break out into some nice open mountain road... roll clear of the few hundred cagers with the same idea for a Saturday morning... (at least most of 'em weren't texting!)

To find the weather trying to keep things interesting... Which is why I turned up 36 and not gone farther west on 119 to catch 72 up through Nederland and Ward. It was REALLY dark off that way! :)

*Weather Brewing on a Ribbon of Asphalt*

I'm pretty sure some would look up ahead... see those clouds and then turn 'round and roll for home... I understand that... but think it's a mistake. All GOOD riding is not sun shine and balmy weather.

The truth is... there's something in the rain. There's something you get... riding through a storm... that you don't get otherwise. It's another shade of the healing power of the Open Road. I was wonderin' about it as I rolled... and wonderin' was I gonna get wet. I don't generally climb into my rain gear... 'less I'm pretty certain sure the thing is gonna last a while... I know... I know... the formal term is "Learning Disabled"...

Anyhoo... The only thing that came to me was that the Rain is LIFE. It's Life fallin' out of the sky. I don't know... Maybe that's why I'm always grinnin' when I'm rain riding. I love the fresh scent of the air... even the sound of the drops rattling on my Helmet. It's all good.

Yeah... I know... the old man is Weird! :)

*Two Wheels rolling into the Storm*

The truth is... I learned a lesson from a forgotten teacher... a Long time ago. "Don't fight the weather or fear it. Just go with it. Embrace It!"

But... even a weather embracing, puss gut, cowboy biker can choose to wimp out once in a while...

*Motorcycle Hideout*

 ... and that's what I did yesterday. I took shelter for a while to wait out the storm with a cup of hot coffee at McDonalds in Estes Park. ;)

So... I sat there till it passed... almost...

When I climbed back on the bike and headed down the Big Thompson Canyon... it jumped out from where it was hiding behind the mountain and said gotcha! with big rattling rain drops... that had me grinning one more time.

Now... maybe in the next few days I've got a 1200 mile... maybe three day run penciled out. If Murphy don't find out and gum up the works...

When I get back from that... there Should Be... some Sweet Hard Chrome exhaust pipes waiting to customize the bike... which will also provide the room needed to mount some Tsukayu Hard bags that should be arriving shortly after...

All to improve the bike... for splittin' the wind a lot farther and longer...

It is my intention to push Several good long rides into my yondering over the next couple of years.

I refuse to let age and poverty stand in the way of Living! :)

Don't Sweat the Rain... It's only a lil' water
Brian

In Pursuit of a Major Motorcycle Rebuild

I don't suppose the Raider is a quarter of the way through it's likely life span. She's carried me on a lot of roads in the dress she wore when she rolled off the Star Motorcycle Assembly line back in 2008.

I have a hunger to tailor her to better fit the current "Me" that has evolved ... or some might claim "De-Volved" the past few years.

While I haven't solved the big question yet; "Where's the dinero for her Makeover gonna come from?", I am zeroing in on what the makeover is going to look like. :)

... and some of it just might mean I've got another meal of crow feathers coming! :)

There's a few issues I'm looking to address. After many miles, all sorts of weather and the changes of thinking that life carries, I've decided I want to change from Leather Saddlebags to Fiberglass Hard bags. The Tsukayu Coners are currently standing at the head of the line, and will most likely be the Vinyl Wrapped variety.

To do that though, I must first swap exhaust pipes to make room... and here I'm waffling between Vance and Hines and going a bit different direction with Hard Chrome Black Ceramic 3" Res-Tec drag pipes...(their websites is dinged up so I can't show the link)

Then... up on the front end... the possible source of the Crow Feathers meal... another Tsukayu product...

Yeah... I know... Naked Motorcycle... It's pretty much been my Mantra... What can I say... maybe it's time for a change! :) I want the tunes and a few of the niceties in my old age!

The other major thing I would really LIKE to do... is custom paint... I'm still working on that... I've had a sketch I drew up, for a long time, of what I would like to do... time will only tell if I manage to pull the trigger on that...

This is... sort of... the color... I'm thinking a deep, metalic, burnt umber sort of Orange... hard to find in a colored pen! ;)

... and then the smiling Skull... and "Flames" that are sort of a hybrid between fire and dreadlocks :)... sure to offend some... :) ah well, If I quit offending it likely means I've died... so I'll live with it.

The base paint is the most likely... and then possibly as a "Phase II" the airbrush work... if somebody feels the need to read enough of my "westerns" to permit all that anyway! :) not to mention the grips, mirrors, shift linkage, tail light (making the turn signals integral) and a few other odds and ends...

The hardest part after finding the cash to shine her up... is the taking her off the road for the amount of time it will require to get it all done! :( ...

Ah well... if you're gonna own horses... there's a lot of shoveling that has to be done.

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

Return to the Home page of Motorcycle Touring on Freedom Road
Visit our sister site goin' RV Boondocking

Share your stories and opinions;
*Tell us Which you think is the... The Best Touring Motorcycle
*Share...  Your Personal Motorcycle Philosophy with us!
*Tell us about your...  Great Motorcycle Roads

Making the Cruiser Motorcycle That Touched Your Soul, Your Own

You buy a bike and you ride it for a while. You come to love it. You put it in the wind and you love it. It fills your soul with something that you've never found, anywhere else. It's only a machine, but, it's a machine that touches your soul.

Then one day, you walk out, and it strikes you... that it looks just like everyone else's. Somehow, to you, the machine, the Motorcycle has a personality of it's own, but, it LOOKS like every other Motorcycle of that make and model that was ever built... and... THAT, ain't right!

Thoughts of how to put you, into the bike start rattling through your head. Thoughts of how to bring out that inner personality of the machine that you believe exists.

Now, you know as well as I do, that folks that don't ride, think when a guy starts talkin' like this; Why, he's gone 'round the bend and has fell down so many times that he's, by God bent something bad. and he is now... whooooee! Tee Total WhAcko! :)

Yeah well... Ok. :)

Well, WhAcko or not, this past summer, sitting up in the Montana high country, those thoughts of making my Raider my own started rattling in my head... and I started doing some doodling.

Not sure when the dinero is going to happen, to make this happen... but I've got a pretty clear idea of what my Raider should look like.

The first thing I did was envision a paint scheme... at first I was just thinking pretty conservative, solid color... but... it just didn't ring the bell... Like they say; "It wasn't happening."

Finally, one day when I wasn't even thinkin' on it, the idea struck me, ding! ding! ding! That bell started ringin'... and I went to work sketching it out...

Now, this ain't THE correct and proper orange. I didn't have the right colored pen for that ;) but... picture it with a deeper, bronzier or browner, metalic orange on my Raiders tank...

It's gonna be a hard time to have the bike down for the time it'll take to get this air brushing done... when that time does come.

Then... my current, traditional, Leather Saddlebags would be changed out to Tsyukayu Coner hard bags... of course, painted to match the tank color...

*Tsukayu Coner Hard bags on a Raider*

Even though I like the Factory Star Pipes... so that the bags will fit... I'll have to change out the factory pipes, to get 'em lower.  Not sure what brand the 2 into 1 style is in the Coner bag pic... but... I'm kinda Partial to the 2 in it 2 Vance and Hines pipes...

*Vance and Hines 2 into 2 exhaust pipes*

There are a couple other pieces and parts I'd like to change... but these are the big ticket, and major design ideas that have been collecting in those moments when I've got time between getting my next book finished and repairing broken parts on the fifth wheel, so we can get back on the road. :)

I can't wait to give my Raider the custom look the machine deserves... and put her in the wind touring on a long wide circle. The fact is simple and true. Machine or not. It touches my soul in a way nothing else does.

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

Return to the Home page of Motorcycle Touring on Freedom Road
Visit our sister site goin' RV Boondocking

Share your stories and opinions;
*Tell us Which you think is the... The Best Touring Motorcycle
*Share...  Your Personal Motorcycle Philosophy with us!
*Tell us about your...  Great Motorcycle Roads