Here’s a first from me: a video post!

I feel the need to interject a bit of a disclaimer here:

• this was not shot with a real video camera, it was shot with my digital snapshot camera
• the production of the video is not the greatest, but I had fun doing it (especially when I found the banjo soundtrack!)
• I have ZERO training or skill being in front of a camera. I kept giggling while trying to shoot it. I’m just a hack.
• This was shot under the disguise of being an “instructional video” but it’s really psuedo-instructional. For the most part I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about!

Now that I’ve got my first video post under my belt I kind of know the ins and outs of what it takes to create one and now know what to expect for the next one. I hope you guys enjoy it anyway!

I did something this week that I haven’t done in almost a month now: I rode my motorcycle to work. After the Rejet Debacle of Summer 2007 we finally got the bike to start and actually…go. We took it out for a little spin, it seemed ok.

The weather was good this week so I thought I would take it out for it’s maiden voyage after all of the work we put into it. Turns out that wasn’t the greatest idea. It was the most frustrating and stressful round-trip rides I’ve had in a long time.

Even though I’ve got the mixture screw turned out 4 times, the bike is still running lean. It’s not getting enough gas unless I really lean on the throttle, then it takes off like a rocket ship. Plus, I have to keep the choke out or else the bike stalls out. And that causes it to idle really high. The thing is, once it has enough gas it really flies.

More consulting on my motorcycle board tells me that I should swap out the pilot jet. Some folks who rejet say you don’t need to do that, Dynojet says you don’t need to do it, but then there are others who say you absolutely need to replace it. I ordered one the day before yesterday. If it comes in tomorrow then I know what I’m going to do this upcoming weekend.

The saga continues…

So the saga continues with my bike. I attempted a rejet and it just isn’t working right now. Here is the deal…

On my bike board some guys put together an extensive rejetting matrix for my bike which I followed. I bought a DynoJet rejet kit and a Uni filter. I did the rejet and it seemed pretty easy, so I fired it up and took it around the block. About half way it started to bog down and black smoke started pouring out the tailpipe.

My man helped me push it back home and we tore it down again. It looked fine but was obviously running too rich. I tried to lean it out a bit by moving the needle a notch. That didn’t work. Over the next couple of days we tore that down and rebuilt it about 20 times. Finally someone suggested that one of the super tiny o-rings in the carberator might be missing (or bad) so I went to the dealer and ordered another freaking o-ring. One week later it came in.

Last night I went back and again tore the carb down again, put the o-ring in and fired it up. After dialing in the idle I thought everything would be good, but when I put it in gear (while holding in the clutch) the idle dropped significantly, the bike sputtered and died complete with a small puff of black smoke coming out the tailpipe. (It was like a bad cartoon.) I pulled the spark plugs and they were black, so I know it’s still rich.

I don’t want to give up and have to bring it into the shop. Tons of people rejet their bikes all the time so I should be able to also. Right now I need some advice which is where you guys come in.

I still think it is running too rich so should I:

1. move the needle down a notch
2. change my pilot jet from 150 to something else - if so what?
3. change my plugs
4. pay someone to do it
5. set the bike on fire and claim an “Act of God” to the insurance people

Seriously, I am at my wit’s end. Argggggggg!!!!!!!

It’s time to get off of the computer and attack this motorcycle again to fix the problem. I want to be out riding this weekend!

Ah yes, my motorcycle is still not up and running. Well, that’s not true. It runs (as in, I can get it started and it idles) but the minute I try to put it in gear it rides rough, bogs down, shoots out black smoke and then dies. That leads me to believe that it’s running too rich (getting too much gas).

Reading the VolusiaRiders board has been very helpful with advice and keeping me sane. I think I lost a little, bitty O-ring that everyone told me not to lose. That’s the only thing I can think of since we’ve ripped the bike apart fifty times to get at the carburetor it probably fell out at some point. That has to be it. So, today I ordered not one but two. They’ll be in on Thursday.

If all goes well I’ll be out riding this weekend, dammit.

Hi, I know things have been quiet this past week. I’m here, reading emails and checking myspace. I haven’t been doing much riding recently for two reasons: the first is that last weekend I attempted to rejet my motorcycle in hopes of getting better performance. Everyone on the Volusia Riders board recommended it and I thought it couldn’t hurt. However, I must not have installed the new jet correctly and getting the bike running has been a bit challenging. After a few frantic posts there and some really good advice from the guys there I think I’ll be able to get it going. So, why haven’t you been able to get it fixed already? you may be asking.

Well, the answer to that (and reason #2 why I’ve been so quiet) is because I JUST BOUGHT A HOME! (*cheers, applause, hooray!*) Yes, it’s true. I’ve become a member of the landed gentry. So my life is in complete upheaval! In fact, I have to get out of here to go paint a room. But I wanted to do a quick update and say ‘hi’! Now I gotsta go!

This weekend Laconia Bike Week kicked-off. As has been the case for the past few weeks the weather sucked yesterday. But today, it is gorgeous outside. I had a list of projects to do before I head off to bike week on Wednesday and they have been postponed. Today I finally got do to some work.

My bike comes stock with a HUGE air cleaner, lovingly referred to as “the football” and a “pair valve” (California emissions control device). The plan was to rip off the pair valve, replace the football with a hidden K&N air filter, re-jet and debaffle the exhaust pipes (since I have not made a decision on what style of new pipes I want). I realize this was ambitious, but I started over a month ago and figured I’d be done by now. The problem is that I still don’t have all the parts that I ordered! The one big thing I’m missing is the jet kit. But I couldn’t wait, so I started anyway!

Getting half-naked.

When you remove the pair valve and the football on the Volusia, it allows you an unobstructed view of the V-twin cylinders (or “jugs”) so some smarty-pants refers to them as having “Naked Jugs“. I began to set my jugs free today by removing the pair valve. Things went fairly smooth except for the front air breather, that’s a bitch.

Once that was done I figured since I can’t re-jet yet that there was no reason to replace the football. My bike runs lean anyway so the last thing I want to do is give it more air.

The top row of pictures is the pair value before and after I removed the casing. The second row is me tackling the “football.”

Voila! Naked jugs!

So now the bike is half-nekkid. I’m going to have to wait until I get back from bike week to re-jet and go au naturale.

Baffled that I haven’t debaffled before now.

I decided to do a partial debaffle of the exhaust pipes. There are 3 separate baffles in the Volusia. My goal was to remove the first one.

We picked up 2 hole saws to cut through the plates in the massive pipes. You cut out a doughnut and the baffle becomes unrestricted. Then put a dowel in the baffle and wiggle it around until the metal fatigues and breaks off.

Pull the baffle out: lather, rinse and repeat on the other pipe.

What a difference! The sound coming out of those pipes now is unbelievable!

So, as I mentioned before I will be at bike week from Wednesday to Sunday and will try to post updates while I’m there. I’ve been working on a special feature that uses a GPS that I put on the bike and Google maps so you can see me riding in real time. Look for the “Where am I” link under pages in the right hand column. When it’s there, that means I’m on the road! Check back soon and check often…

Hello kiddies…did everyone have a great weekend? I know I did! The weather here was gorgeous, the company was good and the adult beverages flowed plentiful!

I am having some minor issues with the bike lately, so I didn’t get as much riding in as I would have liked to. However, I did order some things for minor improvements, including some foot pegs and clamps to add to my highway bars, a Uni filter to help with the airflow issues I’ve been having and a jet kit.

I did accomplish a simple but cool modification: I lowered the bike 2.5 inches. It’s a a popular mod that a lot of people with Volusias/Boulevards do that’s really easy and effective. Two and a half inches doesn’t sound like a lot, but essentially it lowers your center of gravity for better control while riding. At first I barely noticed a difference, but riding next to other motorcycles I feel like they tower over me.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a whole lot of pictures while doing the work because one of the bolts was really difficult to remove and I was getting super pissy…ha!

So, here’s one of me starting the work and another of me after it’s all over and done with.

OK, well I’m off to spend some time kibbitzing with other bloggers and to market, market, market to build up more traffic to this site! Nitey-nite!

Lately I’ve been having a little bit of an issue with my bike, with air flow in particular. At first I thought maybe it was a gas issue and the sputtering was due to bad gas. I’ve been putting Sea Foam in the tank, thinking that it was because the bike had been sitting for a while over the winter. But as it turns out, that wasn’t it.

I scoured my motorcycle message board, VolusiaRiders.com to see if anyone else had a similar problem. After searching through multiple of threads I found out that when stock, my type of bike runs a bit lean and that I could adjust the carburetor mixture screw. But I had to drill out a piece in the carburetor to get to it.

I found a tutorial at The Rusks, grabbed the toolbox and my husband (because there was NO way I was going to do this alone) and headed outside!

I get really nervous at the idea of pulling everything apart because I never think I can get it all back together again.

First step: gotta take off the seat.

Then take off the speedo.

Starting on the tank.

Then lifting off the gas tank (my hubby helped me unhook all of the lines). I don’t know why I expected it to be really heavy but it wasn’t.

Drilling out the carb.

Here’s the piece drilled out.

And there’s the screw.

Stretching my legs before reassembly.

Putting the tank back on so that I can start the bike up and adjust the mixture (while my man holds the tank up for me to get the the screw).

Done!

We adjusted the mixture so that the bike runs a little richer and I’m ready to take it out for a spin. The adjustment helped a lot, but unfortunately it’s still not 100%. I think I’m going to have to replace the air filter (perhaps a UNI filter?) and my husband thinks that I should bite the bullet, get new exhaust pipes and rejet. I know that he’s probably right, but I’m procrastinating!