Count Juan Pedro Striestimo - Man, Legend, Upstart, Rambler.

My new baby

2010-06-19T07:02:00.000-07:00

Well I finally peeled my butt off the seat and got around to taking some photos and uploading them. As you can see, my newest bike is a 2009 Yamaha FZ6R.

It's an amazing bike and really handles nicely in the city and on the highway. The only place it has trouble is on gravel/dirt roads, the old CB650 seemed to handle those a lot better.

This is a 'sport' bike but the power is not really comparable with proper Super Sport bikes, even though it looks it. The fairings and windshield really help a lot on the highway. My neck is a lot less stressed when I finish a couple hundred kilometres of cruising. The riding position is also mostly upright, although less so than the CB650. It is not at all leaned forward like Sport Bikes such as the CBR600, R6, etc..

Anyway, enough of that. I did buy a tailbag and some other small things for this bike. I've already put 2,000km on it and I plan to put on many more this summer. The next step is finding a week or two of vacation and crossing the country.

Also, there is (supposedly) a GoPro Hero HD Video Camera in the mail. It is a month or more late. I am not impressed... BUT hopefully you will be impressed when I upload sexy 720p HD videos of my trip.

2010-06-03T08:28:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed a deafening silence here for the past month or so. That would be because I managed to get the bike plated and running on the roads. And I had a blast with it.

It was pretty amazing, taking this bike from scrap in someone's backyard to fully certified and road-worthy. What a fun ride.

That said, it's time to pass it on.. I've gotten a new bike and this one is up for sale. I really enjoyed the whole restoration process but I think it's time to let it go to a new beginner, or bike project enthusiast. I'm selling it for about $1200, probably less, but I figure that is a pretty good deal for a running bike with so much restoration work put into it.

My new bike is a black 2009 FZ6R - and I love it. More pics of that to come when I'm not busy riding it!

Spring Cleaning

2010-04-25T08:53:00.000-07:00

So after stripping the bike down for a few days I found the source of the weird bubbling noise and diagnosed the flooding problem as a busted fuel petcock.

Alright!

So with the bike halfway apart I decided to give everything a good pressure wash and knock the oil and dirt off. The carbs got cleaned again, air filter cleaned and re-oiled, oil changed and new spark plugs added. Later on I'll change the drive oil and possibly re-do the oil change with a fresh filter as well.

As of right now, it's sitting at a mechanic's shop in Toronto where I hope the finishing touches will be made and a safety certification given. Once that's done, I just need to pick up a pair of plates and go.

Oh yeah, it's insured, too.

Ontario, get ready for your newest menace on the roads...

Update Noneventus

2010-04-08T21:56:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so.

Turns out the crankcase is flooding with gas again.

Might be time to drag this into a real expert... maybe.

Season 2 - Off to a rough start

2010-03-23T05:10:00.000-07:00

Why hello there, faithful reader. Curled up next to the glow of the LCD with a warm glass of milk, are we? Good, good.

Amazingly enough, the bike pretty much fired up with zero complaint this spring. I drained the battery completely, recharged it up and it started within a few pushes. Very nice. My confidence in the trusty metal steed renewed, it was time to start getting it really road-ready.

A few weeks ago I got my M1 and I am soon signing up for a motorcycle safety course which will instantly give me my M2. So all I would need would be to get this bike road safety certified, some insurance and bam, open highway bliss!

Yet as things are wont to do in the world of 27 year old motorcycles, my easy riding was short-lived. I drove it over to a friend's place and left it outside while we had dinner. When I came back out, I realized I had left the petcock on -- stupid move, considering that had flooded the crankcase before.. Pushing the starter I heard a weird bubbling noise; it's the sort of noise you hear when air goes bubbles into a water cooler, or perhaps when you unceremoniously fart in the tub. Eventually it started, I got it home, and it died in the driveway. Not good.

I decided to recharge the battery and give it another go. It started again, not without issue, but it ran. I took it over to my friend's place and we decided to swap the one broken turn signal out with a new one so it would pass safety. As it happens something seems to be wrong with the new signal and it does not want to blink properly. If at all. There is some electrical gremlin alive in this machine and I must find and destroy it.

That's where things stand right now. I'll get some pictures up here when I have better news.

Season's Over

2009-12-08T20:24:00.000-08:00

The first snowfall has come down and it doesn't look like the snow is going to be leaving anytime soon. Muskoka is beautiful now, but definitely no place to run a motorcycle :)

Next year folks!

Fixed - Sort of

2009-11-22T22:10:00.000-08:00

Well, I managed to fix up the bike to the point where it runs. Very strange, the needles looked fine as did the floats.

It's not quite as smooth as before ... something is up. Regardless, I believe it has had its last run of 2009. I'll take it apart over the winter and check out the various pieces.

Bad news..

2009-10-27T08:07:00.000-07:00

Carb inlet needle on the bike failed on the weekend, which flooded the crankcase with gas. The oil is ruined, as is the filter I imagine, and I will probably have to spend in the range of $200 to get it going again.

Note to the wise: do not leave the petcock in the ON position when storing the bike for any length of time..

I'll be retiming the engine and such later this fall/winter, so that's when all this will happen.

Blood, Oil, Sweat and Tears pt. 2

2009-10-12T09:48:00.000-07:00

No pictures for this update - sorry folks.

In addition to the maintenance I did in part 1, I also changed the oil and filter. This is pretty routine maintenance and not a big deal at all, except there were a few serious complications that made it pretty tough.

First, the head of the bolt on the oil filter was old, rusty and the head was rounded off. When WD-40 and Vise Grips failed, I was forced to go pick up a set of bolt extractors from Canadian Tire. $30. Ouch. Well, after 12 hours of trying to WD-40 it out, I guess that's alright.

After that, things went fairly smoothly. Out came the old, nasty, blackened oil and in went the fresh, nearly transparent oil. Also dropped in a new K&N Oil Filter. Drain plug and oil filter bolt retightened, oil level check looks good, all set. Or so I thought...

One hour later, I started to skid a bit when braking. Shortly after the oil light went on. "Dude, you're leaking...!" Shit!

The drain plug had popped out mid-ride. So we hopped on Dave's ATV and followed the trail of oil down the road. About an hour of searching later, we found both the washer and the drain plug bolt. Crazy lucky, because they must have gone flying off at at least 70km/h.

The oil that came out (what little of it we caught in a bucket) looked nearly as black and awful as the old oil I had changed out earlier, so I might very well have done the engine a favor by accident. Anyway, another $20 of oil and a properly tightened drain plug later, everything is smooth.

Blood, Oil, Sweat and Tears

2009-10-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while since the last real update, but it's been worth it (sort of.)

The bike came apart again on Friday night, and a lengthy process of changes to clean up the engine began. First and foremost were the carbs. We'd done some bad things, leaving some jets loose last weekend, and unfortunately our cleaning job was fairly subpar too. This time, I went out and got some real nasty super-concentrated Motomaster Carb Cleaner (about $4.99 from the good ol' C-Tire.)

Once again, the carbs come apart. The glass jar on the right is holding a small amount of super-concentrated carb cleaner, which the jets were doused in. I also used it to scrub the rust/varnish off the far left carburetor. The spray carb cleaner on the left is pretty much junk, I would avoid it in the future.

You know I love before and after pics, and I know you love before and after pics. Well, on your right you will see a lovely display of what the jets looked like before and after being soaked in this super-concentrated cleaner.

My eyes were pretty much bleeding from the fumes.

Great, so that got cleaned up.. I also rejuvenated the rubber a little bit for the air boot by soaking it in Armor All, a little trick I stole from Dan's Motorcycle Course. Actually, a lot of my knowledge comes from there, so if you are curious about motorcycle repair I would check it out.

Next on the list was the air filter. This was the simplest, thankfully. The old filter was simply chock full of dirt, mostly likely completely unsalvageable. I'm surprised the bike even ran with it on. Anyway, I got a new UNI Air Filter and greased it up with some K&N Air Filter Oil.

The old filter. You can see the dust that's blocked it up just by looking through the grate. Unfortunately it wouldn't come off, so.. out with the old and in with the new.

The new filter, with some sticky red filter oil. Mmm, mm.

This Just In...

2009-10-06T20:02:00.000-07:00

It DOES pay to read the manual, even if you have to pay to get the manual.

Apparently a few of the carb 'adjustments' I did two weeks ago were... uh.. yeah. They were totally wrong. Ah well, no harm done... I think. Oops.

That said, the carb assembly'll be the first thing to come off the engine next weekend.

I also got a new oil filter, air filter and set of turn signals. The engine will appreciate the first two, and the latter will be ready to road legalify my bike as soon as DriveTest comes back from strike.

Checklist

2009-09-29T20:39:00.000-07:00

Well, there's a few things I need to do next weekend, so I figured I'd list them for my benefit and the enjoyment of my dear, dear readers. All two of you! You're very special to me. Yes, you are.

Without further ado, the list:

Check speedometer cable for rust or wear.

Try to loosen front brake slightly (Currently it is way too tight).

Ditto for clutch, although this is less important.

Check spark plugs every few km for the first day or so. Make sure they stay brown.

Carb cleaning/adjustments

2009-09-27T21:03:00.001-07:00

After a couple km of riding with the new spark plugs, I pulled over and took a look at what they were reading. Good thing I did. They had some bad news to share - the mixture in 3 out of 4 cylinders was dangerously lean, burning the plugs white hot at the ends. The fourth was the proper brownish colour it ought to be.

So Dave and I spent the better part of today pulling the carbs out and adjusting them. Neither of us really knew what we were doing, but we did know that having every single needle fully closed (as the last person to open up these carbs apparently did) was bad news.

Two hours later, I think we got the problem sorted out. The first test run of a km or so seems to be showing browner plugs, definitely not white-hot ... but sadly, extensive 'testing' will have to wait for next weekend...

All plugged up

2009-09-26T14:04:00.000-07:00

After a short trip to Canadian Tire, I came home with about $20 worth of stuff to fix up the bike with.

- 4 New NGK Spark Plugs ($7.99 for a pack of 2,) and
- 1 Bottle of Carb Cleaner ($3.99 for enough to use in 80L of gas)

I also picked up about $7 worth of 89 octane gas - which is enough to run it for the next 3-4 weekends at least.

This is what the new set of spark plugs look like:

This is what the old set of spark plugs look like:

Yeah. As you can see, it was well overdue. Although one of the plugs threatened to snap and break into the engine from the rust, they all came out eventually without much hassle.

That, in addition to the carb cleaner and slightly better gas, lead to a much smoother test engine run. Unfortunately it started raining so I didn't get much of a chance to really see how much better it was performing, but it's very promising so far.

2009-09-20T16:32:00.000-07:00

Got my last ride in for the weekend, just before dark... I tried to open the throttle a lot more today for kicks..

Let's just say I've never owned a vehicle that gave me motion sickness in a straight line before..

2009-09-19T06:05:00.000-07:00

In the past few hours I have managed to put several new scrapes and bruises on my legs. I've also knocked out the cover on the front turn signal and scraped up the gauges... hm.

Let us enjoy the pleasures of the bourgoisie

2009-09-15T05:31:00.001-07:00

Turns out I made a very good call on not buying that '82 750 Virago - it dropped from $1100 to $700.

If he drops to $550 or lower I will snatch it up!

edit: It has since dropped to $650. Still waiting..

This proves how cool I am

2009-09-13T23:44:00.000-07:00

Some hilarious advertising from the good ol' 1980s. I'm sure people were flooding the Honda dealerships after this one:

Restoration Station

2009-09-13T20:56:00.001-07:00

The choice was made last Friday.

I took the 1983 Honda Nighthawk CB650 for $600.

It was in somewhat rough shape, having sat outside for some time. Vines had literally grown through the spokes of the wheel. A trial of about 2 hours began where we tried desperately to bump start the bike, running it down small hills and through the streets. No dice. I hemmed and hawed quite a bit over the final purchase decision, then finally rounded up 5 people and loaded it onto my rental pickup truck. This bike is around 550lbs with no fluid, so quite a heavy lift.

After getting the initial coat of dust off and doing a little bit of rust cleanup, she was starting to look alright. As you can see though from some of these photos, there was a lot of dust and debris piled up on it...:

OK, so cosmetically it still needed a lot more elbow grease. I went at it religiously with WD-40 and a rag, followed by a rinse, wash and wax. She started to shine pretty nicely after that.

A quick walkaround:

Big difference. It's still not done - there's rust to be brushed off and chrome to be polished, but we're getting there.

Mechanically though it was pretty sound, save for a few major flaws.

Toasted battery. Had to buy a new one. Hilarity ensued when the new battery appeared to also be broken, but I discovered that the charger blew a fuse - because there was a 3Amp fuse in a charger rated to charge up to 4 amps. Stupid.

In addition, the main fuse was snapped.. but only jiggled out of place once in a while. This was a hard one to find and fix. It snapped clean in two from metal shearing. The fuse on this particular bike was just a thin strip of metal, too, so we didn't have a replacement handy.. but I did have some normal 15¢ fuses kicking around. Some MacGrubering later, we fashioned a new fuse.

Yes, those are nails in the fusebox. They're not nailed into anything, just used to connect the circuit.

Finally, The speedometer is not working correctly. It reads about 20km/h and then gets stuck. I think the speedo cable is just rusted out or broken, will examine. The plexiglass for the main cluster is also very badly cracked.

All told, I spent about $100 on materials (including new battery) to fix it up. And what we get in the end is a sick, sick ride for about $700. I have to really credit my friend Dave here, he helped with a lot of the troubleshooting and was the manufacturer of the nail-fuse.

Now I just need the folks at DriveTest to stop striking so I can legally drive this bad boy. I did go up and down the dirt roads in Muskoka a few times and man can she rip.

On the road to becoming a motorcyclist

2009-09-10T20:21:00.000-07:00

Well, I've now checked out two 80s Yamahas and both were.. well.. crap.

The first was an $1100, '82 Yamaha Virago 750. The rear lights dangling by their wires off the sides, would not start (engine wouldn't even turn over,) and that was all I really needed to see. I'm not dropping $1100 on a bike that won't start.

Tonight I checked out an '81 Yamaha Seca 750 - for $400. Great deal, except the guy has left it in the garage for over a year, the battery is way past dead, the seats are split, the headlight is cracked, and the odometer was swapped so you know it's not real. Fair enough, $400. I thought about it, especially since I dropped $8 on a service manual online just to see if it's manageable to fix, but ultimately had to pass.

Tomorrow I'm seeing an '83 Honda Nighthawk CB650. I think we've settled on $600 if I do take it. I'm told by the seller that it runs, but that's what the previous two guys said. We shall see. Already I know the speedometer is broken and the front brakes need work. We shall see.

My other option is a seemingly very well maintained '81 Nighthawk 650 for $800. I think that is my safest bet.