Jenny Got Her Bike

Here it is, ready to head for San Francisco.  I've done everything I can to make this bike ready to ride with no need for anything for at least the next 5,000 miles:  

I also did everything I could do to make sure the truck made the trip, including a wheel alignment the day before we left.  But wouldn't you know, on the way home from the wheel alignment the truck missed a couple of times.  Nothing to do for it but to head out as planned.  We were going to take two days to get to SF, and sure enough, periodically the truck had a hesitation from a missfire.  I was worried it would get worse, and toward the end of the day I got an inspiration to put some Seafoam in the gas.  I've never used the stuff before, but I have heard of people who rave about it, so I thought I'd give it a try as the miss did not seem electrical, but maybe fueling related.  So, in Grants Pass I got a tank of gas and put in a can of Seafoam and guess what?.......the truck never missed again for the rest of the trip there and back.  Might make me a believer in snake oil.

Saturday Jenny and I went for a ride......she on the Honda and me on her old Kawasaki 250.

The bike in the background is her neighbor Joe's big BMW.  Her neighbor on the other side also has a bike.
Our destination was Alice's Restaurant, the iconic San Francisco bike hangaout, and a 90 mile round trip ride from Jen's house.  The approach to Alice's is along Skyline drive and it was really wet and cool.  I don't know where all the water come from, but the pavement was soaked.  Jenny was enjoying her new heated grips, and I was missing them.

You can expect to see some exotic bikes at Alice's, and here is one example:

Lots of fine custom metalwork in that bike.

After we got back from Alice's, I cleaned up both bikes and we took pictures of the Ninja for a Craigslist posting:

Sunday was Easter dinner and visiting with Carolyn's other daughter Carol Anne and her frind Chris who flew up from SoCal, Jenny's son Jonas (daughter Adena was in Hawaii with a friend), and Jenny's friend Damion.

Monday we had an 8 am appointment at the local DMV to transfer the title.  We had gone through this process with the Ninja two years ago, but this time it didn't seem to go quite as smoothly.......more like what I expected from a California DMV, actually.

Lots of paperwork:

The place just opened at 8, but already there was a long line of people who did not have appointments:

But the job got done, and then Jenny suited up:

And was off to work on her new bike:

Triumph Test Ride

We had a string of warm, dry days at the end of last week, and the roads got dry enough for me to take the Triumph out without fear of getting it dirty.  Unfortunately, by Friday afternoon when I got time to go for a ride, Carolyn was out of town, so there is no video of me riding off on my test ride.

Given the fact that she was not there to come and get me if the bike quit, and also due to the fact that our steep driveway means not being able to push it back to the house regardless of where it quits, I started out with baby steps.  First, I made a few turns around in the garage apron, and that is when I first got caught in the backwards foot controls.  I was heading towards the garage after gassing it a little, and when I went to put on the rear brake I had a moment of panic when it seemed I had no brake.  Then I realized I was automatically pushing down with my right foot, which was the shift lever on the Triumph.

I made a few loops around the garage apron and then cautiously headed down the driveway, all the time chanting the mantra "left foot brake, left foot brake".  Then I rode one way from the house for about a mile and then back and the other way for a couple of miles and back.  Then the seven mile loop around behind the house, and finally the twelve mile loop to Amboy and back through Farger Lake.  Altogether I rode about 25 miles and the bike never missed a beat.

Here are my impressions of the bike:

It steers really nicely......light and easy to turn.

The riding position is surprisingly cramped.  The seat feels low in relation to the footpegs and my feet are pretty far forward.

Suspension works, but isn't all that great.

Brakes are better than I expected, but it took awhile to even begin to get used to that left foot rear brake.  Thankfully, the front is still the same as what I am used to and that is the most important one anyway.

Engine vibration is bad.  Back in the day, Triumph twins were noted for their smoothness, but compared to a modern bike, especially my CBR, it is a real paint shaker.  Sometimes it seems the CBR is almost too smooth; the other day I was going 75 mph on the freeway for quite a ways before I realized I was still in fifth gear, not sixth.  The bike is so quiet and smooth there are not the normal clues.

Power seems plenty adequate.  I only got up to about 50 mph indicated, but even with only four gears, there is plenty of torque to climb hills in top gear.  The sound, of course, is wonderful.

It's no fun to start.  I can stand on the kickstarter when on the compression stroke, and nothing moves.  I have to make a real stiff legged jump on it to get through the stroke, and often that still isn't fast enough turnover for it to start.

It reminded me a lot of driving the Mustang........pretty physical and somewhat crude, but cool.  Things were really different back in the sixties, but so was I.

Well, no blog is any good without pictures, right?  So here are a couple of pics I took while on a ride with my friends last Thursday over to the coast to get some fish and chips.

This herd of elk was at a wildlife viewing area we stopped at, and is the largest herd of elk I have ever seen.

 And here is a small herd of motorcyclists.

The Triumph Goes Electronic

I had planned to convert to electronic ignition on the Triumph, and some starting problems convinced me that now was better than later.  Since my friend Orv had already done this with his '68 Bonneville I figured the easy way out would be to copy the system he installed and ask him to help me install mine.  In addition to the electronic ignition, I also went electronic with the charging system and got rid of the old voltage regulator/rectifier and the attendant Zener diode and heat sink.

These are the new parts:

Orv came over yesterday afternoon and we launched into the project.  His experience with having done the job before was invaluable and saved me a bunch of time and likely some mistakes.  Here he is checking over the directions:

When we were done we had this small pile of unneeded old parts:

After about four hours the job was done and the bike started and ran well.  It always feels really good to get a running engine after doing major work like that.  Points and condenser ignitions were always a pain, and the new system should be much more reliable and require less maintenance.  To celebrate, we went out to dinner at a new local restaurant.

It's pretty rare that I can have somebody to help me with a motorcycle project and it was fun working with Orv and, for a change, being the guy who fetches tools and does the grunt work.

A New Motorcycle Experience

Our friends Ray and Ellen invited us to take a spin on their new sidecar rig.  It was the first time I ever tried one, and boy was it different.  Sidecar rigs are real old-school and so funky looking that they are the height of cool.  I wore my old-school helmet and jacket for the occasion.

I had read that they are "different" to ride.......turning left is harder than turning right and acceleration causes a pull one way while slowing causes a pull the other way.  And of course they don't lean.

We probably rode it a half mile or so, but that was enough.  I started out riding in my normal middle lane position but quickly realized I was scaring Carolyn with near misses of mail box posts and trash cans alongside the road.  It was all just really weird.  I guess you could get used to it, but it's hard for me to believe I could ever go more than 25 mph.  Another problem is that they take up a lot of space in your garage.

Anyway, it was a unique experience and we appreciated the chance to try it.