Motorcycle Maintenance - Removing Frozen Bolts

I spent last weekend getting my Concours ready for summer trips. I ordered new brake pads from Murphs, but after taking the old ones off and inspecting them/cleaning up the brake calipers I decided to hold off changing them since there's still plenty of pad left. One tool that was indispensable for removing the frozen bolts on the rear caliper was an impact driver.

This is a 3/8 inch drive Lisle impact driver. It's a very well made tool and simple to use. You put it on the fastener you want to remover, twist it counter-clockwise (unless you have a reverse thread...which is rare) and then start whacking it with a hammer. I sprayed some penetrating oil on the bolts first and would have tried some heat if necessary.

I changed the rear drive oil, engine oil and filter, air filter and spark plugs; so that bike is ready to roll.

The crimp-on connector on the ground wire to the left coil broke when I was tightening it so I replaced that. The engine seems to be running smoother - not sure if it's the placebo effect, the new plugs or if that ground wire wasn't making a good connection for some time.

The Connie really likes being out on the road. It's a great interstate bike. It's not the best for driving around parking lots with the top heavy 7 1/2 gallon gas tank full or weaving through traffic with it's slow response to turning inputs. I have the wider Dunlop Elite 3 tires on it so that may have something to do with the sluggish turning. The Elite 3's work fine for what I use that bike for - I've ridden it in the rain a lot with no traction issues and I can scrape the pegs in the twisties.

I'm looking forward to better weather and some time off from work so I can go check out some new roads and old familiar roads that I like. I'm still planning on taking the trip to Juneau and a trip to Minnesota this year. When I have more time off I'd really like to head south into Mexico and Central America. I'll have to research the best time of year for that trip - I'm thinking late fall or winter might be better than mid summer. I'd like to go up to New England and upstate New York in the fall too...ride across the U.S. on highway 20, around the world - etc. etc. etc..

Washington SR 20 - April 17 2010 and April 25 2011

This is a photograph I took last April on opening day for the North Cascades Highway Washington State Route 20. The front end loader is clearing off a minor avalanche in the background.

P1010308, a photo by Jack Crossen on Flickr.

This is a photograph from WA DOT taken this April. It's going to be awhile before the road opens this year.

Excavating for the blower, a photo by WSDOT on Flickr.

All the rain we are getting this spring translates into more snow up on the highway. Washington Pass is over a mile high.

Where did my tax dollars go?

Where did my tax dollars go? is the Grand Award Winner of the Data Vizualization Challenge announced today - Tax Day 2011.

The challenge was sponsored by Google and Eyebeam.

The objective of the challenge was to create data visualizations that make it easier to understand how the government spends our tax money.

Interesting stuff, and a lot more intuitive than looking at the tabular source data from WhatWePayFor.com.

One of the Finalists, Budget Climb, looks like it might be more fun...I didn't listen to the audio just watched for awhile. It's about 30 seconds into the video before you see what makes the little Uncle Sam character move.

You Go Guy

Quite an adventure story here from a guy with awesome video editing skills. He's riding a 1972 Suzuki 185 from Milwaukee to South America. For people not familiar with motorcycles this is a small bike with about 17 hp and a theoretical top speed of 70 mph. You can buy one on Craigslist for 200 dollars and up. I think he left Milwaukee in late January on his motorcycle which seems pretty amazing in itself to me.

I like the idea of the "innocence" of motorcycling that one guy mentions in the video. Riding a simple bike without a lot of fancy gear just for the fun of it. It's not 1972 anymore so he does have a laptop, HD-Pro video camera and a spot tracker - but that's great for us armchair adventurers to follow along.



Another thing that makes this story interesting to me is that the rider is a young guy who served six years as a Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician with deployments to the Middle East and now he's using the G.I. Bill to go to college and taking adventurous motorcycle trips having fun.

In this video he meets another rider and they spend some time playing around on their bikes in the surf and swimming in the Gulf of Mexico. Nice change from that cold Wisconsin winter.

I found the link to this video and some of the story at ADVrider

Kawasaki C10 Concours Spark Plug Boots and Wires

If you need to replace the spark plug caps and wires on a C10 Concours, you'll need:

• Spark Plug Wire 7mm Copper Core (non-resistive) - 69 cents per foot at O'Reilly Auto Parts P/N MW11 (4 feet is enough to make all four wires)

• NGK Spark Plug Cap P/N SD05F - 3 bucks or so a piece at various online motorcycle supply places. I got mine from Bike Bandit since I had a 10 dollar gift card.

You'll need to re-use the wide rubber cap from the top of the old boot and the rubber piece that compresses around the wire at the coil end to hold the wire on the coil connector pin.

I have all the pieces on hand to do the job and took the tank off intending to replace the plug wires and boots today. When I inspected the existing wires/boots I decided to re-terminate them rather than replace. These pictures show what the two ends of the NGK cap look like.

The wire end of the cap has what looks like a wood screw that you twist the wire into.

This is a picture of the wire end of the NGK cap with the rubber boot removed. The OEM Kawasaki Caps have a similar screw but it's harder to see since the rubber boot is one-piece.

I unscrewed the plug wire from each cap, made sure the copper wire at the end wasn't corroded/damaged and then screwed them back together.

The OEM wire is good quality and molded specifically for this application. I decided not to replace it if I didn't have to.

The plug end of the cap has a copper dome with a piece of springy wire mounted on one side. You might be able to see it in this picture. The springy wire is what makes that zip noise when you push the cap on the spark plug terminal. All my springy wire was in place and the copper looked good to I buttoned things back up.

One thing that should be obvious from this plug wire cap construction method is that you shouldn't pull a plug wire off a spark plug by grasping the wire - you'll pull the copper wire away from that little screw in the cap. The nice thing about these are you can take them apart and clean/inspect - or make a new set if need be.

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I decided to drain the float bowls because I wanted to see if there was any sediment or water in the bowls. There wasn't so I dumped the gas into my lawn mower gas tank. I did have to make a trip to Harbor Freight to get a longer 3mm Hex Key than what I had on hand so I could reach the 2 and 3 carb float bowl drain screws.

I re-synched the carbs again while I had the tank off - since the last time I did it was in the dark and rain - wasn't sure if I'd got it as close as possible. The carbs were all pulling close to the same vacuum, but I tweaked them a little and called it good.

Next time I take off the gas tank I'll try and not do it when it has 7 gallons of fuel in it - that thing is unwieldy as heck with that weight in it. I also figured out that you can get to the rubber donuts that support the front of the tank from the front - after you've connected the fuel, vacuum and electrical connections. That's handy since one of those rubber donuts almost always falls off when you slide the tank on - and if you don't get it on right you'll have a rocking tank (not good). If I was smarter I'd probably glue or tape those rubber donuts in place.

I tried some Techron Fuel Additive this time - it's two for one at Autozone right now. Could be voodoo mechanics but it makes me feel like I'm doing something good.

The reason I've been fooling around with the plug wires, float bowls, carb synch is because there's a tendency for Connies to have a bit of a surge or flat spot around 2500 RPM. It's not a big deal - you can usually rev up or down to get out of the slight flat spot. I'm pretty much resolved to believing that getting rid of it involves changing carburetor jetting and fuel/air mixture adjustments that I don't feel are worth the effort.

I took the bike for a fairly spirited ride up I-5 and it runs good. It ran good before I took it apart too but I think it's a little smoother.

I'm really looking forward to a let up of the rainy weather here in the Pacific Northwest so I can get out on weekends and actually go somewhere.

Plans for a Summer MC Trip I

View Summer 2011 MC Trip I in a larger map

Ferry from Anacortes to Sidney BC.
Ride to Port Hardy on Vancouver Island
Ferry from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert
Ferry from Prince Rupert to Juneau and back
Ride Prince Rupert to Prince George
Ride from Prince George to Jasper/Banff
Ride from Banff to Kelowna
Ride from Kelowna to Tonasket
Highway 20 home
Total trip about 3K miles

Sunny Weekend Rides

View Larger Map

I like to take my bikes out for some longer rides on weekends to warm them up, evaporate the condensation and enjoy the fresh air and sights. I rode a couple of hundred miles this weekend. My main trip was to Conway, Burlington, Sedro Wooley, Concrete, Rockport, Arlington and back home. The main roads on this run are the North Cascades Highway 20 and Highway 530 that connects Highway 20 at Rockport to Arlington.

It was sunny but with a pretty steady wind and temps around 40 degrees. There was ice on the roads in a few spots up by Rockport and there's snow on the side of the road and on rooftops in Darrington. I'm really looking forward to some temperatures in the 60's and up.

Riding a motorcycle is a great antidote to being inside. It makes going to work and back home a lot more fun. It gives me a touch of the natural world to counteract the time I spend inside. I've ridden 24,000 miles in the last year and a half - somewhere around 5000 miles was commuting to work and the other 19,000 was mostly just fun.

I'm still trying to decide if my next long trip will be North, South or East. I'm thinking of riding up Vancouver Island and catching the ferry at Port Hardy to Prince Rupert. Heading South I'd like to go to Utah and Colorado. East I'd like to take a trip through the small towns along Route 20 from Newport Oregon to Boston.

Next to Normal | 5th Avenue Theatre

B and I are are going to spend the night in Seattle and see Next to Normal at the 5th Avenue Theatre next week for her birthday.

One thing that complicated finding a hotel is that we are taking Crazy Eddie with us. Some places want an additional 100 dollars for a pet. We settled on the Red Lion on Fifth Avenue since it's close to the theatre and pets stay free if you are a member of the R&R club. Edgar will get to enjoy the doggie program which includes his own pillow among other things.

TFT Gone Wild
Originally uploaded by Jack Crossen

I hope we don't have a TFT Gone Wild incident at the hotel. Edgar doesn't tear things up like he did when he was a pup, so I think he'll be fine in the hotel room for the few hours we are at the play.

Speaking of Edgar, we've had a few people come to the door selling ADT Home Security systems. I can only talk to them through the screen door since Ed is barking so loud. He's also jumping a couple of feet up and down - and would love to get outside and bite them. It seems obvious to me that we already have a security system. He's a great dog, but he can be very aggressive around strangers, and he's really quick - so it's next to impossible to catch him.

History of Toy Fox Terrier

Motorcycle Maintenance - Valve and Drive Chain and Gas Additives

I spent Saturday adjusting the chain on the Kawasaki KZP 1000 and adjusting the valves and synching the carbs on the Kawasaki Concours.

Actually I spent about 15 minutes adjusting the chain on the KZP and most of the rest of the time disassembling and reassembling the Concours. Getting the valve cover off, and back on, that bike is a fun puzzle.

I ended up re-adjusting the chain on the KZP after I rode it. The adjustment range is 1.2 to 1.4 inches and I had it on the tight end which was causing shifting to be a little harder than I thought it should be. The slight clunk when I shift is gone now - which is what I wanted. I was a little worried that the chain might be stretched beyond it's service limit, but it wouldn't pull away from the rear sprocket at all so that wasn't a problem. That bike has a heavy 630 type chain which looks like it should last a long time.

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It had been about 10,000 miles since I adjusted the valves last summer, but none of them were out of spec. I just tweaked a few back to be in the middle of the adjustment range; which is .006 intake, .008 exhaust. The bike seems to run a little smoother, but it might just be wishful thinking on my part.

I had a new pulse cover gasket but didn't need to use it since the old one came off intact and was in good shape. I went by the book and didn't try the unofficial bump-the-starter, or turning the back wheel, methods to get the cam lobes horizontal. I did try turning the engine over with the spark plugs out by rotating the back wheel - no joy with that method. The whole point of either of those methods is to avoid taking the pulse cover off - so you save maybe 10 minutes and maybe a gasket that cost a few bucks, and risk adjusting the valves at the wrong point; and burning or bending a valve and end up spending hundreds of dollars on repairs. It probably works fine - but I like going by the manual for certain critical things.

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I put a couple of extra bolts in the top case of the Concours to hold it on if the locking latch fails. I never take the top case off anyway so I didn't need the quick removal mechanism.

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I dumped some Shell V-Power gas additive in all three MC's. Not sure why, but it was on sale and I like thinking I'm doing something good for the engine. I figured if it what made by Shell it wouldn't hurt anything. Not so sure with some of those additives - some contain solvents that react with rubber or synthetic rubber pieces used in the fuel system possibly causing them to swell or degrade. Some people say the same thing about ethanol, but I don't have any evidence that ethanol causes any problems in any of the vehicles I've owned.

Arco gas, which has ethanol in it, is about 25 cents a gallon cheaper than the Top Tier Gasoline (Chevron, Shell, etc.) in this area. The Tappet Brothers recommend buying the cheap gas and putting in an additive every so often - if you like doing that sort of thing. Gasoline and ethanol are pretty good cleaners to begin with; so it's probably a waste of money. Ethanol might not make sense from a macro-economic or overall emissions standpoint but it burns just fine in my experience.

I think people who complain about bad gas or gas causing problems in vehicles have one of three things going on - (1) some other problem that's causing the engine to run poorly, electrical, air, compression or maybe something with the fuel system (not usually the fuel itself). (2) they actually did get a batch of bad gas, which in my experience is very rare, actually never in my particular case. (3) they let a vehicle sit for a long time and the internal parts of the fuel system start to corrode/degrade/stick. I'm talking long time here...not a couple of weeks or even over a winter.

The best thing you can do, if your concerned about this, is run the engine to operating temperature for 20 to 30 minutes once a week or so and keep the gas tank topped off to keep condensation/rust to a minimum. I've left gas in lawnmowers, edgers, pressure washers, my pickup truck for long periods of time without starting them with no ill effects. I've used Arco 87 octane regular gas with 10% ethanol in my 26 year old pickup for it's lifetime, and never had a problem with the fuel injection or other parts of the fuel system, so at least I have that data point. I use that same gas in the two Kawaski's as well and no problem with the carburetors so far. Ditto for the Harley using Arco premium.

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All three motorcycles are running great. I'm really glad we have weather that allows me to ride almost every day of the year.

I really like reading about, riding and tinkering with motorcycles.

Whidbey Island Ferry

I took this picture on January 15th on the ferry from Mukilteo to Clinton. I think this ferry is a great deal - the fare for a motorcycle and rider is $3.15. The fare for a walk-on passenger is $4.20, and $7.20 for a car and driver. During the peak season - May 1 to Sept 30, the motorcycle fare goes up to $3.95 (a dime more than last year), but still a good deal.

I don't know who those people are but they thought my motorcycle was really shiny. I don't ride that Harley when it's sloppy out very often. Without a windshield or fairing and with an open-face helmet it's not the best setup for wet weather. Those rain drops start to sting a bit above about 50 mph.

A lot of times it's drier on Whidbey than in Everett, but it didn't work out that way on this Saturday. It started to rain a little on the ferry ride over and I had to put my rain gear on just outside of Clinton. If you stay off the main road on the island it's a pretty interesting place to ride. I stopped at Useless Bay Coffee in Langley to warm up and have a latte. That's a nice coffee shop - pretty surroundings and lots of room for a variety of people to hang out to hang out, eat, drink coffee, visit. There were quite a few little kids with families, old and young people, dogs - so it's a nice atmosphere.

I Love Getting Packages From Moosejaw.com

Rocket Sidecar - Seattle International Motorcycle Show

Photo from the International Motorcycle Show in Seattle December 11, 2010. I don't know what kind of motorcycle this is but the little boy in me really likes the sidecar.

I got to see Jason Britton doing some stunts at the show. The one that impressed me the most was a sliding dismount that you'd have to see to understand. He was going at a fairly good clip - started sliding his bike sideways, put the kickstand down, and jumped off - parking his bike all in one motion. I can't find any videos of it on the web - so you'll have to see it in person.

I listened to a presentation by Lee Parks author of Total Control: High Performance Street Riding Techniques. It was interesting but there's only so much you can learn about riding techniques by listening or reading. I might check out his book to see if anything sticks.

At another spot a mechanic was talking about adjusting valves. For Ducati owners he suggested not trying to adjust desmodromic valves the first time before watching someone else do it or asking someone who knows the procedure to help you. Reading things like "when you take out the closing shim, keep in mind that once the shim comes off, the valve is free to drop into the cylinder if the piston isn't at TDC" makes that advice sound pretty good. The engineering behind those valves is pretty interesting but unless you are willing to learn to diy or pay a dealer 700 bucks or whatever every 6000 miles to do it you might want to consider the cost of ownership of that sweet looking Ducati. On the other hand - I suppose a person who buys a Ducati 1198 isn't concerned with maintenance costs.

I think the saying is fast, cheap, reliable - pick two. Not so sure there aren't some exceptions where you end up picking one - fast, expensive, unreliable or none and end up with a slow, expensive, unreliable machine.

I picked up a pair of ROK™ Adjustable Straps for Motorcycles from a vendor at the show. I'd read some good reviews for those straps in various places on the web and needed some new straps for a waterproof bag I use to carry stuff on the rear rack going to and from work. It was nice to be able to see the various sizes and pick the one that worked for that application.

Motorcycling Over The Christmas Break

I haven't been blogging much lately - I'm a bit bored with it and have been trying to do more non-virtual activities.

I rode a motorcycle up to the top of Stevens Pass on Christmas Eve. The road was clear with a few snow flurries up near the top. There's a couple of feet of snow beside the road. The only challenge was finding a place that wasn't covered in ice or snow to turn the top-heavy Connie around. This is a poor quality iPhone photo I took up near the top

I took the Sportster out on Christmas day for a run to Snohomish and across the flats to Marysville to warm up the oil. I can get up to about 95 before the wind pushes my open-face helmet up to the point where it's annoying.

I ordered a pulse cover gasket Kawasaki PN 11061-1155 from Murph's kits for the Concours and plan to do another by-the-book valve cover adjustment before Spring is here.

There's two basic ways to adjust the valves on that bike - the by-the-book method involves removing the pickup coil (pulse) cover and using the timing marks to determine top dead center for the pistons. The other way is to leave the pulse cover on and adjust the valves with the cam lobes horizontal so the valves are closed (cam lobes not pushing on the rocker arms). I'm going to try one more by-the-book adjustment and see how the measurements compare with the looking-at-the-lobes method while I have the valve cover off.

Had the police bike out a lot since it's my everyday rider in the wet winter. I was thinking about painting it myself or having someone else do it so it looks less police-like. I decided against that since a decent paint job would cost as much as the bike and it would still end up looking like a painted police bike. It works for what I want to use it for and like any two-wheeler it's fun to ride.

Thinking About Summer

Bleeding Motorcycle Brakes or Clutch

I don't update this blog much anymore because I'm occupied with motorcycle maintenance, riding and reading about motorcycles. I tend to be a bit obsessive when I'm interested in something ;-)

Anyway here's a bit about motorcycle brakes and clutches that I learned from reading and some hands-on -

Hydraulic brake systems operate using a master cylinder and a slave cylinder. The master cylinder contains a piston which moves when you apply the brakes and applies pressure to the brake fluid in the brake lines. This pressure causes a piston in a slave cylinder on the brake calipers to move and compress the brake pads on the brake disc.

Hydraulic clutches work using the same basic principle using a master cylinder and a slave cylinder that extends to move a rod when you pull in the clutch which disengages the clutch. The components are spring loaded to return to the relaxed state when you release the clutch/brake.

HowStuffWorks "A Hydraulic System" shows the concept better than a lot of words.

There are a few key characteristics of the fluid that are of interest for someone doing motorcycle maintenance -

1. It should be incompressible ie. no air bubbles.

2. It shouldn't contain a lot of water since water boils at a lower temperature then brake fluid and tends to corrode metal

3. It shouldn't contain gunk - e.g. dirt that dropped into the master cylinder when you remove the cap to look at the fluid or small particles that flake off the brake lines/components as they age.

Since hydraulic brake systems are essentially sealed it's debatable whether you ever need to change the brake fluid. For example - a 2005 Harley Davidson Sportster has no recommended maintenance interval for changing brake fluid. In other words the manufacturer doesn't consider changing brake fluid to be routine maintenance - just leave it alone - like most of us do with the brake fluid in our car braking systems. For a 2000/2001 Kawasaki KZ-P/Concours the manufacturer recommends changing the brake/clutch fluid every two years.

Part of the reason for Harley being maintenance-free vs. Kawasaki every 2 years is the type of brake fluid used by Harley vs. Kawasaki. Harley uses a silicone based Dot 5 fluid which does not absorb water Kawasaki uses a glycol based Dot 3 or 4 fluid which will absorb water.

There are some other differences between Dot 5 and Dot 3 or 4.

Dot 5 has a higher boiling point than Dot 3 or 4, and will not strip off paint - but has a tendency to aerate and retain air bubbles which will make your brakes a little (or a lot) spongy depending on how much air is in the brake lines. There's a little bubble or two in my Sportster master cylinder right now and that brake system has never been opened/disturbed. Dot 3 or 4 brake fluid will strip paint but has less tendency towards aeration (ie. you can shake a bottle and it won't get all bubbly/foamy). Dot 5 costs two or three times what Dot 3 or 4 costs - not a real big deal 4 bucks vs. 12 bucks.

Dot 3 or 4 fluid starts out clear and turns black/brown as it absorbs moisture. You may wonder how moisture gets into a sealed system? The answer is that it isn't quite sealed. There's a vent near the top of the master cylinder to allow air to enter. The reason for this is that as the brake pads wear the fluid level in the master cylinder will go down since the pistons in the calipers have extended more. The vent allow the pressure to equalize when the system is at rest. It also allows air, which depending on the humidity contains some water, to enter the top of the system. Glycol based fluids absorb the water from the air.

Dot 5 fluid may start out purple and turn yellow - I don't know for sure. Currently my HD Sportster Dot 5 fluid is yellow. If I'm bored sometime I might bleed and replace it and then I'll know for sure if it changes color. The maintenance-free philosophy on the brake fluid reminds me that bike has some very nice characteristics if you like to just ride - change the oil and oil filter, primary oil, air filter spark plugs and brake pads once in awhile. All very easy. The downside it doesn't go as fast or stop as fast as a bike with more involved scheduled maintenance...but I digress - back to brakes.

If you decide to add brake fluid to the full mark on the master cylinder after your brake pads have worn a bit you will need to siphon it back out before you put new pads in - otherwise when you push the pistons back into the caliper you'll end up with brake fluid dripping/shooting our of the master cylinder (don't forget Dot 3 and 4 brake fluid is not good for paint or your eyeballs...Dot 5 probably shouldn't be used for eye drops either).

I've bled and replaced the brake fluid on a couple of Kaw's in the last weeks, as well as the clutch brake fluid on one of them - so I've gotten the bleeding procedure down pretty good. These motorcycles have dual caliper front brakes, a front master cylinder, single caliper rear brakes and a rear master cylinder (so 3 bleed points per bike). The Concours has a hydraulic clutch - so one more master cylinder and a slave cylinder with a bleed point.

Here's the basics - you don't need speed bleeders or a mity vac or some fancy shop tools to do this. You need a phillips screwdriver, 10 mm box wrench, piece of 3/8 inch clear plastic tubing, a bottle to drain the old fluid into, some rags or paper towels, a bottle of brake fluid and a sacrificial turkey baster, unless you don't mind a turkey that smells/tastes slightly like brake fluid - in which case you will use your everyday kitchen turkey baster.

Remove the cover from the master cylinder - if it's covered in dirt or the area around it is dirty clean it up before you remove the cover. The tolerances of the cylinder bore and piston are critical so you don't want dirt in there scratching things up.

Suck out the old gunky fluid with the turkey baster. Clean any sediment/gunk out of the master cylinder with a clean cloth/paper towel.

Fill the master cylinder with clean fluid. This way you are flushing new fluid through the system instead of the old stuff.

Put your 10 mm box wrench on bleed nipple for the clutch/brake.

Stick the 3/8 inch plastic tubing over the nipple making a nice tight seal

Stick the other end of the plastic tubing into your jar that has a little brake fluid in it so the bottom of the tube is submerged in fluid. You are doing this to prevent air from entering the system. I'm not so sure about this...but it's a tradition so I do it anyway.

Position the tubing so the bend is higher than the bleed nipple. This way there's a column of brake fluid that doesn't siphon into the jar and is free to return to the system (instead of air which is bad - in this case).

Here's the main sequence of what you are doing -

1. Pull and hold the brake lever.

2. Crack open the bleed nipple.

3. Pull the brake lever to it's limit and hold it there.

4. Close the bleed nipple.

5. Release the brake lever.

Repeat steps 1-5 until you see clean fluid coming out of the plastic tubing. Make sure you top off the brake fluid in the master cylinder while your doing this so you don't suck air in from the top side. Same for holding the brake until you close the bleed nipple - if you get out of sequence and release the brake before you close the nipple you'll suck in air from the bottom end.

It's not absolutely necessary since there's no spurting action like when you push the calipers back in after replacing pads - but you should probably put the master cylinder cover back on loosely while you are bleeding the brakes to help avoid spilling fluid on painted surfaces. You'll want some paper towels/rags/water to wipe up any spills that do happen.

It's easy to do this on a motorcycle. A car is harder with the four wheels plus you need an assistant. I'm guessing a motorcycle with ABS would be harder too.

A bottle of brake fluid is several dollars and the plastic tubing was 20 cents at Lowes so this is cheap maintenance. Clutch and brake master cylinders, slave cylinders, brake calipers etc. are not so cheap. Having clean fluid with no water or crud in it may help those components last a long time as well as ensuring your brakes are operating at their maximum potential.

One final note - if you end up getting spongy brakes it's because you didn't follow the simple procedure of keeping the brake master cylinder full, holding the brake, cracking the bleed nipple, closing the bleed nipple and then releasing the brake.

You can buy some speed bleeders (one-way valves) that replace the regular bleed nipple, special tools to suck fluid out the top or bottom - but I'd recommend just do it the simple way, it's cheap and it works. Shops use special tools when replacing brake fluid because it's faster - not because the special tools do a better job. Considering the fact you will be replacing this fluid every couple of years you'll have to decide for yourself if taking 15 minutes doing it the old fashioned way is worth your time or if you want to cut that down to 5 minutes using special purpose tools - which may end up taking a lot longer than 5 minutes because you are messing around with a vacuum pump, removing the bleed nipples etc.

Have fun - happy riding and may all your stops be safe and enjoyable.

New Spark Plugs and Carb Synch

I thought the Kawasaki Police Bike KZ P19 was running a little rough - nothing significant just a little less smooth than what I'd like. I replaced the plugs with the recommended NGK BR8ES item number 5422 (10 dollars including tax at Napa Auto Parts).

Since I had the gas tank off, and I'd never down it on this motorcycle, I synchronized the carburetors using my Morgan Carbtune.

The plugs were okay - one was a little sooted up from running rich but they were all good enough to provide a hot spark. The carburetor synchronization was way off though. One was matched to two, and three was matched to four - but the left two and right two were off from each other significantly. To get them in synch I had to decrease the vacuum (gasoline flow) on three and four to match one and two, and then set the idle speed back up to 1000 rpm.

The spec for the vacuum is less than 20 mm Hg, ideally exactly the same - but that's not quite possible usually since the vacuum indicators are moving a bit as the engine idles. When I started three and four carbs were pulling about 80 mm Hg more than one and two - so off quite a bit.

I just used the motorcycle's gas tank while doing the carb synch, rather than fooling around with a temporary gas tank. I have a long piece of fuel line and cut a piece of metal pipe that would fit inside the fuel line so I could splice my long fuel line to the fuel line connected to the carburetors. I sat the gas tank on a step ladder cross bar with a couple of short 2x4's underneath to stabilize it and ran the engine with the petcock on prime.

It's running smoother now and there's less engine vibration.

One thing I've noticed a few times with used motorcycle ads on Craigslist is a statement something like - running rough or not running, needs carbs synchronized. You won't correct a motorcycle that won't run or is running really rough by synching the carbs. A carb synch is more of a fine tuning operation. When the carbs are out of synch the amount of fuel getting to each cylinder is not the same - that will hurt fuel economy and cause the cylinder(s) with more fuel to try and run faster which causes some vibration...but it isn't going to cause a bike to not run at all or run really rough.

There are exceptions I can think of that could cause a bike to run really rough and have the carbs not in synch - one would be that someone started twisting on the synch screws without a manometer which I suppose is a possibility, but I'd be worried what else might have been done to that bike if I was buying it.

Carbs that aren't in synch (pulling the same amount of vacuum) can be the symptoms of something else wrong - intake valves being out of adjustment, or the rubber carb boots having leaks, so you have a vacuum leak upstream of a carb. In these cases you could have a bike that's running poorly - but you need to adjust the valves or replace/repair the carb boots not just synch the carbs as the Craigslister's sometimes suggest.

Pictures From Oregon

Oregon MC Trip - Fall 2010 - a set on Flickr

I didn't edit these so no guarantees on the quality - just quantity.

Here's a picture of a fat chipmunk that turned out pretty good -

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This trip pushed me over 10,000 miles on the Concours since I got it in California last February. Those are pretty much all road miles since I hardly ever use it for commuting. I have to say it's been a remarkable bargain considering the places it's taken me without a problem.

Dee Wright Observatory

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Originally uploaded by Jack Crossen

This observatory/viewfinder is on top of McKenzie Pass. It was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and completed in 1937. Dee Wright was the Forest Service foreman in charge of the construction.

There are windows in the stone walls that line up with the various peaks in the area. There's a brass compass on top with marks for the various peaks as well. It's a really interesting place. The road up to the McKenzie Pass summit is limited to vehicles less than 35 feet because of the tight radius turns.

Oregon Fall 2010

I really enjoyed Oregon. Three days was just right to explore the area around Sisters. I rode over Santiam Pass a few times, McKenzie Pass and Tombstone Pass. I got to visit the Dee Wright Observatory on top of McKenzie Pass - super cool spot. Went south of Sisters until the road turned to gravel and got rough. I visited the Belknap Hot Springs Lodge on the McKenzie River - very nice person at the front desk gave me a map and invited me to tour the gardens. Went to Camp Sherman which is on the Metolius River. Cool store and nice clerk. Looks like a good spot for flyfishing.