Geeto67

Oh, I didn't realize you just picked up children in West Africa like you pick up pints of ice cream at Kroger.

Because they have to be screened before they enter the country.

So this is a stupid question but if it has a death rate of about 50% in under developed poverty stricken nations, shouldn't the risk of death here in the states be lower? You know since we have actual medical care, proper waste disposal, etc.... I mean is it possible that even if this is an outbreak, the outbreak is no more or less nasty than probably the worst case of the flu you have ever had?

I'm just going to put this in here because, holy fucking shit that's kind of weird and awesome: http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/a-dutch-biker-gang-is-going-to-fight-isis-and-that-is-t-1646274101/+travis

It was a superperformance daytona coupe. I spoken to the owner a few times about it (it's been at C&C about three times as I recall but I am not there every weekend). It's a really neat car. There is apparently a big quality difference between that and a factory five (the full glass back window being only one of those differences). I should park the ducati closer more often, that is a really nice shot!

I wouldn't hold my breath on finding a useable match. Remember there can't be any threads where the shock rubber rests and the bolt has to go through the frame plate, not just be welded to its face. I've never seen over the counter bolts with a shoulder that big. Keep in mind when the factory built these frames they didn't use an out of the box shouldered bolt for this piece, they took a piece of bar stock and then milled it and cut threads into it before welding it into the frame section. you can try drilling out the mounting bracket to accept an Ironhead HD style shock bolt, but you would still need to reinforce the mount because that is a big hole.

The upper shock mount is not available any way - if you snapped it off you have to figure out something else. FWIW not every bike has a welded stud for their upper shock mount. Old Ironhead sportsters use a large shouldered bolt through the frame. The GS1000 is a big fat pig of a bike so whatever you do you want it to be stronger than stock. If it were me I would redo both rear shock mounts and instead of a stud upper shock mount I would weld a clevis to the frame that the shock mount fit into and then secured the shock with a shouldered bolt.

I missed that, but you are right it's on audi's website. I think at one point that wasn't the case in the pre-release press materials but I haven't been following it. As a current A3 owner who has his car serviced at the dealer, Audi has been sending me all sorts of things to entice a purchase including invitations to their hipster parties. BBQ, Have you ever used BMW's Used inventory finder? http://cpo.bmwusa.com/used-inventory/index.htm?superModel=1+Series&gvModel=&compositeType=used&searchLinkText=SEARCH&showSelections=true&geoRadius=250&facetbrowse=true&showSubmit=true&showFacetCounts=true&showRadius=true&geoZip=43221 It's pretty good and you can find CPO and non CPO cars in any price range/mileage. Something like this seems like a deal: http://cpo.bmwusa.com/certified/BMW/2013-BMW-128i+Coupe-1496dbc90a0a00de518dc8c801796f52.htm?geoZip=43221 and you can even find turbo ones for under $30K with reasonable miles: http://cpo.bmwusa.com/certified/BMW/2012-BMW-135i+Coupe-6cfe1c170a0a00de1ce129b22062d7dd.htm?geoZip=43221 I don't know how many miles you drive a year but most people don't drive over 10K per year. Wife and I bought our 06 A3 3 days before the end of the year in 2011 at 31,000 miles. It just hit 68,000 almost 4 years later.

that will be over $30K. the FWD 1.8 turbo stickers at just under $30K at $29,000 but the 2.0T is $32K before you even add quattro. I don't see any on the lot A3 getting out the door of for less than $30K unless you special order an ultra base model. Also every tranny is the DSG, no manual option for any A3. I drove the A3 2.0T quattro at Mag two weekends ago and I loved eveything but the transmission. It isn't even sporty programmed like the 2008 R32 DSG. FWIW, the wife liked the car a lot but I would rather have a manual trans 320i bmw sport package or a 228i manual sport package as long as I am going to get banged out for $35K.

wasn't doing it out of spite or anything, this is one of those old tropes that newbies read on the interwebs and think is true across the board - you know "like cold air intakes add 50 hp" and things like that. One of the best examples of 70's motorcycle engineering is the 1969 honda SOHC cb750. There is surprisingly a lot of info on how that engine was developed and it set the standard for how the big four developed their 4 cylinders going forward. It was the first time Honda used a window into the combustion chamber on a motorcycle to make sure they were getting proper burn in the cylinder. They designed the entire intake track to maintain laminar flow starting from the airbox inlet to the valve, and did the same with the exhaust track from the valve to the silencer. It was pretty common in GP racing but pretty novel for a street motorcycle in 1968. The airfilter was never an afterthought, but it was tuned for rideability than all out power. Most people who remove the the airbox on a cb750 think they are adding hp, but the reality is I have owned about 20 cb750s, dynoed a few, and every one without an airbox lost power - even when fueling was spot on. Not the same can be said for every bike - big twins and singles are way more forgiving than inline fours of the same size. Although they both use engines to power the wheels, car and bike logic are worlds apart. Lowering bikes does not make them handle better, removing the airbox and velocity stacks does not add power, fatter tires do not improve cornering. A part is not a part is not a part.

I have a lot of expirence with old japanese bikes. If you get stuck, ping me. This is my old cb550 honda chopper: http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/Geeto67/1974%20Honda%20Chopper/5a40.jpg http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/Geeto67/8750b087.jpg Original AEE kit built out of a new bike in 1974. I bought it from the original owner in 2002 as a basket case and put it back together and rode it around New Orleans before moving back to NY. Sold it in 2013 when I moved to ohio. So I have been down this road before. By the way, all the wiring on this bike was run external. The thing that looks like an oil tank (cb550s are shared case wet sump) is actually the battery box. The front chrome box is where the coils are. All wires were run outside of the frame rail but on the side that faced in toward the bike.

These aren't cars, removing the stock airbox and putting on a less restrictive exhaust doesn't mean the bike "flows" better than before. The Japanese were using plenum tuning on their street bikes going back to the mid 1960's. If you ever take apart an old jap bike airbox you'll usually find a large plenum chamber, a smaller than you would think filter, and a velocity stack for each carb inlet. Often on these older bikes the restriction is in the head to help beef up the torque curve rather than in the airbox and pipe. Often when people remove the airbox they go for pod filters and most often they buy shitty EMGO/Tucker Rocky/Parts Unlimited/Dixie Co pod filters that actually have a restriction built into the inlet that chokes the carb and the bike starts to run rich - but because they apply car logic and think they have de-restricted the engine and are leaning out the engine so they jet up. K&N brand filters often have a generic velocity stack shape inside them that at least makes them workable for most applications (as good as one size fits all can get) but that is why they are $40 per filter rather than $9.95 per. Often part throttle operation suffers the most with good pod filters due to now sucking in roiled air vs air passed through an engineered velocity stack. Which requires moving the needle position rather than jetting. Point is any changes require carb tuning, but the generic "put bigger jets in it" or "just go up a jet size" logic isn't accurate. take a scientific approach, do plug chops, test it, really think about what the carb is doing when you are asking it to do something and it stumbles.

here are two pennies that don't buy anything these days.... Because you said you have never owned a bike I am assuming your riding experience is almost zero. This is a horrible idea for a first motorcycle. It doesn't handle, it barely stops (if you think those 70's disc brakes are up to par you are in for a shock), it will bounce around while also compressing your spine, it will scrape and high center nearly everywhere, and the rain gutters in the roadway will constantly take you by surprise with how much you will be pushed around. It also doesn't promote good riding habits due to missing things like signals, mirrors, etc...My advice, is before you even try to ride the thing, take an MSF course, buy some real gear (full face helmet, gloves, jacket, over the ankle boots, and a set of pants that won't shred when you fall - levis won't cut it). I know you said it runs well but just looking at it I can tell you it is not. Even though those mukuni carbs are a better design than most other vintage bike carbs, they don't like open mouths with no filters. These aren't cars, even the stock airbox isn't restrictive and there is a lot of GP motorcycle tech that made it's way into these engines before it was ever seen in production cars. Before you pull the engine from the frame I would do the full service on the engine - valve adjustment, timing chain tension adjustment, timing (check the advance mechanism too), carb sync, etc....so that when you do finally pull the engine you know you won't be chasing gremlins that were there before. You have a lot more work ahead of you than wiring and cosmetics. Although it looks like you have forward controls on there - the actual brake and shifter are still in their stock position while the pegs are just highway pegs. You need to either fabricate a set of forward controls (recommended) or move the pegs back to mid peg position (not recommended due to how uncomfortable the bike will get). Wiring you already mentioned will need to be addressed. Remember frame tubes are structural, so try not to drill to many holes that you don't also reinforce, and be mindful about where you drill those holes. There are clean ways to run wires externally, the OEMS have done it for decades, this thing about running wires inside the frame rail is a show bike trick for bikes that have little intention to be ridden. It looks like the stock original harness was used just to get the bike up and running, get a wiring diagram for your bike and remake the individual harness yourself. There are plenty of places to get good quality wire and connectors if you don't want to use japanese OEM. Pay attention to the wire requirements for each thing - if you are using home depot lamp cord the bike will burn to the ground. Old japanese bikes have terrible electrical systems (most don't break even charge until you are over 2000 rpm) so any way you can improve (blade fuses, weatherpack connectors, etc) it pays to do so, but if you are just uing the wrong stuff it will bite you. Here is a wiring diagram: http://diagrams.kz650.info/wiring/images/KZ650-C1.jpg

me too I'm at $89 per month on an 8 year old audi a3. But my wife likes to hit stuff so that may be what's causing it.

yes the engine is "backwards" and the top of the transmission is the oil pan for the engine. the engine is only considered "backwards" because the power transmission from the crank to the tranny is at the front rather than the back.

I don't know what he is asking but this would be the hotness as a donor: http://columbus.craigslist.org/cto/4658715930.html

100% agree. These things aren't any fun to drive with autotragics. here is some saab 900 rally awesomeness for this thread (and yes I know it is the rare 2 door coupe and not the hatchback): and some awesome amateur rally cool: http://www.specialstage.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/NEFR2010mexicjumpMaciejJaniak.jpg if you haven't been here yet http://saabnet.com/ is an awesome resource. I scan the classifieds here once a week.

how do I get in touch with him?

So, I was fucking around in the rain and kinda sorta slid backwards into a fence at 20 mph in the wrangler. Hit it right on the corner where the frame rail is exposed and put a nice size dent in the tub. Looking for a trustworthy body shop to tell me I haven't tweaked the frame, and maybe give me an estimate on the dent. I've owned this car almost 20 years so I'm trying to do the right thing by it but at the end of the day it is still a 20 year old car. Which is a fancy way of saying I don't need it to look good, just done right and affordable. So who has a recommendation?

Congrats on the free Saab. Oddly I have driven about 6 or 7 of these cars including an SPS and a Turbo and at least one 99 and never owned one. They were the most popular student cheap car in Rochester NY for a while. Personally if you are going to the stock turbo setup it isn't worth it unless you have a donor car. It's too expensive to do piecemeal and the difference stock for stock isn't anything to write home about. I'm not trying to talk you out of it, but rather if it is a choice between stock and an upgrade, go with the upgrade. fWIW Saab used to have some great 99 and 900 rally cars in the 70's and 80's.

have you priced out insurance for some of these cars? A v8 mustang stick is a heck of a lot more to insure per year than a '99 honda accord with a slushbox.

So....riddle me this - now that Saab is an orphan how do you get parts for it? and who works on it in Cbus? I've always wanted an older 900S or turbo but have been gun shy because, you know...how do you fix it if it breaks? In the 90's all my friends had them so I have driven many of them but never owned my own.

I love the styling, but I am seconding the puke for the hybrid drive-train.

what's your tire pressure? tire compound? shocks? you might need a set of DOT drag slicks and some 90/10 shocks just for the track.