ReconRat

I rode Ohio to Florida twice, in Oct/Nov when I moved. Heavy textile both times. Actually think I would rather have had leather, if could fit layers under it. Or something that didn't have constant air leaks. Double thermal under jacket and jeans. Was cold in the WV & VA mountains at night. Try to hit that in daylight. At night it can be foggy and damp and cold any time of the year. 40F-60F and damp is rough at 80mph for hours on end. It's ok when you descend down out of the mountains, warms up pretty quick. When I hit SC & Georgia, I started stripping off thermals, way too hot. If your jackets have zipper openings for air flow, you'll be ok even in Florida, while moving, not when stopped. There will be rain, somewhere, there almost always is. Down here in Florida I use a Joe Rocket mesh (no liner) in the hot weather for freeways and rain. But the put put around town is often in a T-shirt and minimal hot weather gloves.

Edited previous post to say VOM check for ohms continuity across disconnected battery leads. Obvious to me, but needs to be said out loud. Sometimes a vehicle circuit will have something that puts a constant drain on the battery. Like the clock in the dash. Pull fuses one at a time to see where something leaks to ground. (Or pull all and try one at a time.) I once found my "leak" was one of the three diodes in the alternator had gone bad and shorted to ground. Bought diode trio and rebuilt the alternator.

22 hours ago, motocat12 said:

https://www.homedepot.com/tool-truck-rental/Thermal-Camera/FLIR-i7/

That's a good idea. Should work reasonably well.

One more thing you should check for, and that's a short somewhere, that would consistently drain the battery. Unfortunately, they sometimes are often "moving" shorts, and can't be found at rest, with the VOM continuity across the disconnected battery leads with the key off. Try shaking wires to get a response, you should not see one. If checked repeatedly at rest, after riding, it might show up. Yes, I've had it happen. It would blow out the fuse for my dash lights and running lights on my car. Broken wire tapping frame. But, you're not having fuses blow out, so it's not a major short, if any.

edit: Back again... a hot variable open connector will do this too. Meaning, it's corroded or loose or wet or dirty, and heats up and fails after it's running and current flows for a while. Suddenly draws a LOT of current. Won't necessarily blow a fuse. Usually results in a slow burn. Melted charred connectors. Again, hard to find, must do a visual inspection of every connector till one or more is found bad. But most often in the circuit that is suspicious. Have even seen tiny burn holes in wiring, where arcing was causing a short. Typical in spark plug leads, after a bit of abrasion. Also spark plug leads arcing to wiring harness. And wiring pinched under tank, seems to happen too often.

Dang, that's a lot of batteries. It's not the batteries fault, not all of them failing. They aren't charging. (Or are being destroyed by a fault in the charging system. Are the batteries still good after recharging off the bike?) The one time I had that happen, it was a busted wire on one of the three stator pairs. Would work ok if the headlight was off. With the headlight on, it discharged the battery (failed to recharge). Also, if your stock charging setup is anything like my CB900, it won't charge much under 3000rpm. Sort of a standoff or slow discharge. Check your factory manual for specs on that. Odd issues I've run into... Bad battery ground at the frame, raises all sorts of issues. Corroded fuse box, hot main fuse and would pop when rev up in lower gear and let off.

I had one of those little pony booster batteries for backup. Can start a car with them even. The old style I had, was basically two more little cells in parallel, to boost a dead battery. Won't do squat for a shorted battery.

edit: And just for a wild guess.. if your battery, stator output, and various wiring connections are ok, it's probably the rectifier.

13 hours ago, Steve Butters said:

Canine? Like a coyote?

Without knowing much, I'd have to say the most dangerous animal in AZ is the rattlesnake... We have a few killers, pick one.. Or maybe mountain lions up north... We get wolves up north but they're not big 

Yeah, I don't get it either. It says canine, which could be dog, coyote, wolf, whatever. There's a bunch of states where canine is number one fatality. Including Ohio, which I would guess is deer (large mammals). Dogs, deer, and cows, top the lists. Poisonous snakes is Georgia and California. Would also guess poisonous snakes in Western Arizona. Florida is insects, the only one for that (not counting killer bees). The odd one out is alligators in Missouri and Illinois. Sharks don't make the list. http://www.wideopencountry.com/u-s-map-shows-deadliest-animal-in-each-state/

7 minutes ago, jacobhawkins said:

W.T.F. No way.  Used to think az would be fun to visit but I have a no poisonous critters rule.  Is this a regular thing?

The most dangerous animal in Arizona is canine. Bitten or struck by one. Scorpions are the most dangerous animal in Texas and North Carolina. And it's not the big scorpions that are deadly, it's the small ones. Different species.

Mikuni flat slide tuning guide: http://www.mikuni.com/fs-tuning_guide.html

Bingo!

Poor mid-range performance: " Flat throttle response in the mid-rpm range is seldom caused by either an over-rich or overly lean condition. Flat mid-rpm performance is more likely due to the effects of the cam or exhaust design. If the needle size is incorrect, it will normally reveal itself as poor mileage (too rich), slow warm-up (too lean) or light detonation when accelerating moderately from around 2500 to 2900 rpm (again, too lean)."

Yeah, I know... it's a Harley Mikuni flat slide.

Also...

http://www.mikuni.com/pdf/hsr_tuningmanual_021003.pdf

http://www.mikunioz.com/tuning-tips-and-manual-downloads/

http://www.iwt.com.au/mikunicarb.htm

edit also: And yes, it says never change main or pilot jets trying to fix a mid range problem. You can verify their performance, but they won't fix the mid-range. If you link to the correct carb on the mikunioz site, you'll find a tuning manual guide specific to your carb. Simple instructions.

Yeah, bear in mind I haven't worked on any carb for quite a while. Just trying to recall what the heck happens. Sure have seen errors and changes to main jets though, to fix problems. I've never had to change a needle jet or needle, other than position, even with a large overbore. Maybe I missed something on that one. Dunno, if it runs good you're done.

edit: also just noticed a Harley forum saying to tune carb from the bottom up to main jet. Different carbs and different priorities, I guess...

Or looking at it another way. Stumbling at half throttle, is either the needle not clearing the main jet soon enough, or that main jet is too small. If the top end seems solid, without straining for fuel, I'd work with the needle position first. If it does strain for fuel at max rpm, confirm fuel flow rate first before changing anything.

edit: confirm WOT by doing the plug reading to see a lean condition at that WOT. Might be hard to notice a performance drop at top end rpm.

Is this a stock exhaust? Modded exhausts can sometimes choke at intermediate flow rates. And if you want to confirm a lean or rich condition at the trouble rpm, ride it at that rpm, pull the throttle in and kill the engine. Pull the plug and read the condition. But yeah, needle, needle position and/or main jet. You said they changed the main jet for you? Yeah, might try one size bigger. Not saying they lack experience, but.. that's changing a main jet without confirming it with a road test. Let the idle screws balance for the idle and off idle. They don't deliver enough to make a big change in the intermediate. And even one blocked up little bleed air/fuel passage anywhere in the carb can cause fits. Last resort, pull carb and blow air both ways through every passage you can find, at least twice. btw, I love Mikuni, never did like CVs.

21 hours ago, Pauly said:

Can they still be had? I've a pair of Olympia snow machine gloves, but I couldn't start my bike with them... let alone pick up the damn ignition key. 

They were Chinese (so sad). And I got them at the dealer shop on Morse road, that is now gone (again sad). Let me check the gloves for names. Ok, it says "Power Trip", Thinsulate Supreme insulation, xlarge (I wear a medium) outshell 100% genuine leather, lining 100% polyester, insert:breathable membrane, made in China. I think it's the "Dakota" model/style. They had gel palm and a face shield wiper blade on the thumb (it works). Looks like mine are a bit worn out, but not thinking I need new ones in Florida. Checking the internet, most of the Power Trip gloves show up on closeouts/ebay. So they might be out of business. Here's a pic I found on eBay of some small size. I'd just look for whatever has that 3M Thinsulate Supreme insulation. That was probably what made them work so well. edit: these ran really small. I wear medium glove, I like a large motorcycle glove, and bought extra large which were snug.

edit again: I see that FieldSheer makes "polar" gloves with the 3M Thinsulate Supreme.

Me too, always wanted to try heated grips. But found a pair of Winter motorcycle gloves that actually work. Looks like normal gloves, but got some crazy insulation. Held up for a long long all night ride thru the Virginia/West Virginia mountains in the 35F-40F damp foggy weather. Actually can get too hot and sweaty some days. Back-in-the-day, we'd buy good skiing gloves  to use.

Oddly, I'm now 148 lb and didn't do anything other than retire and move to Florida. That's down from the 178 lb I was while working. Might need some muscle mass/strength back. Dunno. Might start running or bicycling.

10 hours ago, Tonik said:

...For example I am going to hit 15 in State and get about 40 percent of my salary and 25 in SS to maintain full SS...

That can be done. I did over 30 SS and 20 SERS/STRS. Collected both. Some years was working both at the same time, to get there. Although had been working since age 14 or 15 anyway. Did not see any reductions. Still need whatever other retirement amounts and IRA and savings you can put together, to add to it.

On 10/11/2017 at 1:14 PM, tall_tracy said:

I'm so over being approached by unsavory characters at gas stations...  

haha me too. It's not near as bad as it used to be. Pinnacle for me was that big guy that wanted "gas money", and wouldn't take no for an answer. Thought I'd have a fight on my hands. Actually was able to trace/track him on the internet, ex-con recently released. Not well adjusted, lol.

Aircraft mechanics use naptha (lighter fluid) to clean rubber. A tire would use a lot of it, so I wouldn't unless desperate to remove something from the tire. I use it a lot for windshield wiper blades. And other smaller rubber parts that are dirty, greasy and aged.

On 10/26/2017 at 8:04 AM, 2talltim said:

Droid X? You realize that phone is like 9 years old right? Of course it's going to be a brick. I have 4 nd 5 year old phones that seem like bricks but are actually in perfect working condtion. Be like trying to run windows 98 with todays new software.  

Absolutely. IF I recover it, it's just an ebook reader now or something. Way overdue for a new one. Meanwhile, one of my tablets makes sparky noises and won't turn on. Read that the battery connector rots away. Will open later, new ones are cheap enough. Already ordered from Amazon.

Slow? lol, I bricked mine. DroidX. Trying to flash it. Looking at Pixel 2 as a replacement. Dunno yet.

I had a friend with a Barnett that had some cracks in the fiberglass. The manufacturer took it back and fixed for free. It's worth a try to see what they say.

Wiki history of opposed piston engines:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposed-piston_engine

http://www.foxnews.com/auto/2017/10/04/cummins-developing-revolutionary-new-diesel-engine-for-u-s-army.html?cmpid=prn_military&comp=1199467398560&rank=0

Interesting. No intake/exhaust head. Three diesel 2-stroke inline cylinder bores, with upper and lower piston sets. Two crankshafts connected by gearing. I assume the two crankshafts rotate opposite of each other. Target is 600hp, 21 percent reduction in thermal rejection, along with a 50 percent increase in power density and a 13 percent jump in fuel efficiency, compared to the existing engines.

I think I want to see a 4 bore, 8 piston, short stroke miniature diesel engine producing around 100hp. Or leave it at 6 pistons, just make it smaller.

edit: Duh... I would assume the two cranks both rotate the same direction. As that would be only one intermediate gear between them. It doesn't appear the cranks are close enough to each other to allow direct gearing of the cranks, which would be two cranks rotating opposite of each other. Now on a smaller engine with a shorter stroke, could be something else.

Spectrum (was BrightStar), here in Central Florida is rated/advertised at 32. I'm clocking 17down 13up.

Some days, when things go weird on two wheels, I just turn around and go home. I'm a firm believer that it won't get any better sometimes. You can sort of tell if it's a one off event, or destined to be tricky/risky all day. The greater the "unexpected" part is, the more likely I'll call it off. But the good news is, that doesn't happen very often. So I'm ok with cancelling a ride occasionally.

1 hour ago, motocat12 said:

why would they stamp both kinds all with the same number?

Only answer I got, is that the base of the switch might be a vendor sub-assembly (1022), and it's assembled into a final assembly. Might not have anything added other than a final part number. Which adds the new question, where's the final part number markings? If it's only on the part bag label that it came in, I'm not too impressed. I think the switch is French manufacture (1022), and used by Bremo and etc. But that could change to cheapest bidder in the future. This all seems like out-of-control manufacturing to me.