ReconRat

Close vents, I think... Weird, I've never had rain run inside. Also never gotten very wet wearing leather gear. I have a Frogg Togg motorcycle suit anyway, just in case. Wondering if the Walmart gear was motorcycle oriented.

My 919 has so much torque I can just pop the clutch at idle and lump lump away. I find that humorous. Any other bike I've had would just stall out.

I've used most all of those. But I'll use different things in different places. Dirty rear wheels being the toughest, I think. Almost anything will work on bugs, the trick is to let it soak first. Even a wet paper towel slapped on there will loosen them up. And a good way to start when washing a bike. Car wash preferred, but sometimes dish soap to help cut grease.

PAM, heh.... good for spraying wheel wells on dirt bikes and 4wd to keep mud from sticking up in there. It's an Ohio thing.

Yup. Sounds like two problems, both in the carburetor. Pull carburetor and disassemble, soak in cleaner (even kerosene), shoot cleaner and compressed air through all tiny idle passages. At least twice, once isn't enough. Verify that air is getting through. Check float for leaking, float position, float needle seat and float needle, and try to figure out if that float needle fuel cutoff is leaking fuel into carburetor. Also check slide needle position and install. Sometimes give up and buy new float needle. Basically all aspects of parts that control the fuel level in the float bowl and combustion chamber.

Or, pull carburetor and take it to CrazySkullCrusher...

The economy is doing great. The stock market is breaking records regularly, consumer confidence is up, home ownership is up, unemployment is down. You can bitch about the debt, but that's a separate issue from the economy, which went in the shitter under bush jr.

lol... translation time...

Economy is great If you have rosey blinders on...

We're about to be ripped by Wall Street again...

Again with the reckless credit spending...

Investors and RE agents bought all the foreclosed houses cheap from the banks...

Unemployment down after Feds gave free school to anyone unemployed...

Bitching about not getting decent raises for four years...

It's not the economy...

It's Bush's fault...

sorry Magz, that was too much fun

Ten stores?Talk about selective and misleading.Sounds a little like not seeing the forest for the trees.If you want to judge by a different set of trees,come out and stand by the intersection of I77 and SR78 in the morning.Up I till about four years ago you would see about 20 cars an hour heading east on 78,now it's hundreds.These are very good paying jobs,not strip mall minimum wage jobs.

Also selective and misleading. See? That's why it's called statistics.

Data on the economy is based on statistics, which is selective and misleading.

I simply measure the economy by looking at a row of ten little stores on the way to work every morning.

Nine of ten occupied = economy good

Nine of ten empty = economy bad

The last 6 or 7 years has been the worst environment for small business I've ever seen in my lifetime.

Somehow, it is now starting to come back to life. At a cost aggregated throughout society, I'm sure.

Right...well,I support Obama's use of drone strikes...even if it involves U.S. citizens if they choose to aid the enemy.I'm sure you remember the "enemies both foreign and domestic " part of the oath when you served.Drones are more cost efficient,overall less casualties and your not putting young volunteer American lives at risk.

Drone strikes,small teams of highly trained pros like seals and arming the locals that are willing to resist.I agree with these tactics opposed to the costly failures,both in lives and money,of the last administration.

LOL, wait... I'm old enough to remember that is how the Vietnam War started.

Even most round tubular locks can be picked easily. I've seen it done in seconds, with a rolled up calling card. And with a gutted BIC pen plastic. I think the newer ones are resistant to that, but dunno for sure.

Combination locks, those will open in a few minutes also, if a person can feel the tumblers move.

Guess I like motion alarms then. They don't give enough time to figure out a lock. But those often give a lot of false alarms.

I've worked long enough in and around theft prevention to say most of it will be cutters or hacksaw on the chain or cable. Something simple anyone can do. Brute force is also popular. As we say, we're slowing them down, if they really want it, they will find a way.

At home I keep a camera and/or motion detector aimed at the driveway and/or motorcycle. Silent alarm inside wakes me up. If you can keep the stupid critters wandering around at night from setting it off. Serious... stupid dogs cats coyotes possums raccoons and a few deer move around constantly at night.

Value vs risk. Parting a bike out when stolen works best with popular or high end newer bikes. Those need alarm systems and/or tracking devices. The rest of us need less. Most stolen bikes are lifted into trucks or trailers or simply rolled away. Any lock/chain/cable makes it not worth the effort. Particularly anything with a motion alarm that makes noise.

I go to Lowes and buy a long heavy cable (The type with loops at both ends) and a strong lock. Attach the bike to something that won't move. Even attach two motorcycles to each other.

In Europe (and Great Britain) everyone has a front disk lock. Bikes there have a bad habit of rolling down hill and never being seen again. So the concept is relevant. You need something quick and easy when away from home. Get one that has a motion alarm and a lanyard for the handlebars so you won't ever forget it's still attached (You can make your own lanyard.) Very bad if you try to ride away with one on there. I wouldn't get too attached to finding the best one out there, just avoid the ones reviews say are junk.

Offhand from reviews I'd consider one of the Zena disk locks or a Squire (British) for the U clamp style. Check the fit carefully, they just won't fit some bikes.

At a bare minimum I'd get a small Master Lock Self-Coiling Combination Lock With Cable. (5 bucks, get two) That would work with holding down jackets, helmets, or the bike.

On the good side, crash and theft rates are low for Ohio. But high for big cities elsewhere. I'd definitely have something along if on the East or West coast or in Las Vegas.

How many people here have ever run up to the bike from behind and vault onto it, knocking it off it's center stand?

Not recommended for more than 300-400 pound bike....

grocery stores are good at about 18% errors in labeling. Unless you're catching your own fish, that's where you go.

Some of this data is old, from before the FDA DNA checking. So it's getting better.

And did not know this. The US FDA has a DNA barcoding program in effect to combat the fraud.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/27/restaurants-dna-seafood-mislabeling_n_1114937.html

Same here. Somewhat famous dockside restaurant in Baltimore. I thought it was crap.

Did you know... DNA testing of fish in big city restaurants, generally show an average of 39-55% of all fish sold is cheap catfish (or other cheapie), and not the item advertised. Restaurant blames the supplier, supplier blames the restaurant, yadda yadda... And nationwide isn't too honest either.

all new york city sushi joints, 100% "other fish"

More than half (59%) of the 46 fish types tested nationwide had mislabeling.

only 7 of 120 red snapper samples (6%!) collected nationwide were actually red snapper.

84% of white tuna samples were actually escolar, “a species that can cause serious digestive issues for some individuals who eat more than a few ounces.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/larryolmsted/2013/02/21/fake-fish-on-shelves-and-restaurant-tables-across-usa-new-study-says/

The local news ran the same tests in Columbus and found the same thing.

DARPA handed out this project in the late 80s, to anyone that could come up with something. I worked on it a bit, got nothing... but did realize that guidance could go in the first round, and simple infra-red seekers could get the next 4 to 6 rounds to follow the exact same path. Cheaper that way. We were more interested in guidance for aircraft air-to-air cannon projectiles.

The DARPA project that blew our minds was to design guidance in a one inch square ablative projectile that could be dropped/launched from orbit to a target on the ground. Wut?

ablative = won't burn up on re-entry in the atmosphere

Either way, I don't care. But try high side on a light weight bike and it may want to tip over. Mostly if you put weight on the high peg. Or if you goof and hit a tail rack with your foot on a bigger bike. Low side is probably safest. Getting on is the same to me, don't care. Besides, why would I not want to know how to do this both ways? I'm not superstitious, not throwing salt over my shoulder every time I ride a bike.

Parking, heh... I usually head in instead of Harley back in. But I'll back to a curb on an open street. But overriding all is, I will point uphill, not downhill. Seen too many bikes go over on their side in my days.

Had to research the orange roughy. A life span of up to 149 years, wow. Sounds delicious. Never had anything "deep sea" minus bottom feeders.

Sadly, the Orange Roughy is fished out and hard to find. It will be expensive if found. I didn't mention game fish, but blue gills and crappies (specks for the Southern boys) and walleye and yellow perch are all good.

Orange Roughy - maybe it was a one time deal, but that was nice

Catfish - but results vary - sometimes good, sometimes so so

edit: Flounder is good, but you have to spice it up - not much flavor - big on texture

...The cheap black and silver or grey ones made by emgo hinder performance but it's not because they flow less air than stock through the element. It's because there is a ridge on the rubber that mounts to the carb throat that blocks off the air jets...

I did not know that. That would be kinda a dumb design. Way back in the old bike era, I did check out some of the pod filters. Their published flow rates weren't good enough. If the newer ones do flow ok, that's good.

And that centrifuge filter? Don't goof the little metal part on the cover that rides on spring pressure. If it fails, there is no oil pressure at all. Make sure it's working nice and springy when it goes back on.

edit: Just read the part about carb overflow and screw plugs. Yes, definitely floats goofed up or the float cutoff seat failed. Might be able to just clean it up. If corroded, probably not. Will have to replace some bits. You'll find out soon enough, after cleaning the carbs.

I don't remember what's on the 350, but Honda runs oil through a spinning chamber on the end of a shaft. That separates the gunk and chunks.

Yikes, glad we got it changed then. The lack of a filter was perplexing at first lol

Fuel filter? The only fuel filter is a screen inside the tank at the fuel pickup and another small one inside the petcock valve. Some people add in-line fuel filters on old bikes. But again, the flow rate must be high enough for the max flow rate. The little tiny fuel filters don't do that, they are for lawnmowers or something...

Most carb air pods are too small to flow a necessary maximum amount of air at full throttle. Yet people use them all the time. The end result is not enough air at full throttle, so the vacuum pulls more fuel than it should. Which washes the cylinder walls and weakens the oil barrier between piston rings and cylinder walls. Sooner than later, the rings fail. Same thing happens with a dirty air filter. Oddly, no filter at all isn't as bad as a very dirty air filter.

I remember a Kaw 900 that would pull the oil out of the engine through the breather tube, at sustained full throttle, if the air filter was even a little bit dirty. Which of course trashed the air filter. Pain in the butt.

Yes, some fuel probably leaked into the crankcase. Usually it's the fuel tank petcock leaks. Or somebody didn't turn it off. It should be gone after an oil change or two. Plus when the engine heats up, the fuel will evaporate pretty quick. But a lot of fuel in the oil is rough on the engine. Thins the oil out too much. I've actually seen a fuel leak completely fill the crankcase. CB450s were bad about that. Saw one trash the rings and even one that trashed the valve seats (I know, how the heck did it do that.). Owner never shut the fuel off manually.

I had to stretch my brain to remember some of this stuff...

I went with Blue Goose hot fire coils. Instead of coils from Dyna. Sadly, those are long gone. But still, getting rid of points with a Dyna can be worth it. Depends on how many sets of points you are buying. They aren't cheap, and sometimes the only thing you'll find is the entire base plate assembly. Costs even more. I replaced mine (CB550) with Dyna after finding a short on a brand new base plate assembly. That kinda pissed me off.

I always kept all the old points and base plate parts. You never know when you'll need a piece or two. Although it would be impossible to find them now, I bet I still have them for 160, 350, and 550.

The 550 and 750 had points on little plates on the big plate. Both gap and timing adjust. (Is this found on newer 350s? I don't know.) Much better, but doesn't last any longer. I replaced with Dyna pointless ignition and hot coils. Good increase in performance.

The old 350 type points plates don't have both gap and timing adjust for each set of points. Set the left gap, set the left fire with the base plate position, and then alter the right gap till it's firing correctly at the other fire mark. Obviously worn points will make that right gap get worse and worse, till new ones are bought. You might even find yourself cheating on the left gap trying to keep old points working.

Even if you don't have a light or timing light handy, you can time it in just by carefully listening for the click of the spark when the gap opens. Don't try any adjust turning backwards. Turn the rotor correct direction when checking and adjusting. It's ok to back up a little and try again. Don't try turning clear around backwards. Don't try turning with the little bolt at the center of the ignition plate. Big mistake if it breaks off, it's the end of the cam shaft.

You have marks for top dead center, Fire, and the two for max advance range. And another set of the same on the other side of the rotor for the other points/cylinder. There's a variety of markings on rotors. It's either LT and LF (left) on one side and just marks on the other (right), or just T and F (left) on one side and marks on the other for the right points/cylinder. Or even something different.

It's a Zen thing, you have to be One with the bike sometimes.