Preparations

Just a brief respite from my usual madman ravings to mention something nearer and dearer to my heart; Motorcycles.

I mentioned previously that I was planning on taking a month-long ride in September. Well, I still am. The plan is to leave September 1 from Seattle and make it to outside Philadelphia by about a week later. While there I will meet up with my family and spend a couple days with them and doing maintenance. Personal maintenance as well as bike maintenance. I figure by then I will have at the least need to replace tires, oil and adjust valves. Also who knows what might need ropadside improvisation to get there? Once that id done, I will head back toward the west coast with a stop in LA to see the rest of my family and get ready for the final run up the coast to home by September 30. Everything in between; schedule, routes, etc is all up in the air. And will remain aloft until I am actually on the move. It is my prefered mode of travel. Improvise.

But that is all months away yet. Right now the focus is Dreamin, Preparation and more Dreaming.

The main preperatory arrangements to make concerns the bike. I really want to take my 1971 Moto Guzzi Ambassador. But she needs a fair anmount of work. I do have a backup in my 2000 Moto Guzzi Quota and all it needs is tires and oil and go. And it would be the wiser tool to choose. However, when I built the Ambassador from spare parts salvaged from wrecks, I dreamed of a long voyage on it once I had put in the long months and yards of money on it. Unfortunately, when I built it I had to cut some corners. And now it will no longer permit me to continue with those rounded corners.

The most obvious issue is the paint. I did it with rattle cans. Now it isnt a half assed job..but it does show my hubris after a couple years. The paint has been flaking for some time. And some time ago I got hit with an egg while riding toward home one night. No the little shitheads weren't apprehended. But I think I impressed the cop with my rage and he claimed he would take care of it. I got the impression he had a real good idea who did it and would put the fear of road raging, egged endangered biker types in the little shits. The upshot is that the poor girl looks like hell. Now I could go back and try doing it myself again. And with my better level of income, I could get the right tools and such. But there are some things to consider. First, I doubt I will use the equipment often. So it is an investment in infrequently used tools. Between a quality HVLP gun and a clean air source, I am looking at 150-200 bucks. Then there is the incidentals; making a booth, sanding, disposal of
hazardous waste. More money. And The paint hasnt even been purchased. Secondly, I only want a single color. Thirdly, I have no experience with real autobody paint; so the chance for screwups is very high indeed. And I dont really have the time or the energy to re-do the task multiple times. So by my estimate, I will overrun the cost of a pro paint job by a fair bit. Now I am hoping to reduce some of the cost and time by doing a bunch of the prep myself. I can certainly take the parts in for a blasting and then do the bondo and sanding myself. Then bring it in for color, the couple decals I want and then clear coat. I'm not weddeed to doing the bondo myself. I can understand that paint guys have probably experienced some screwed up jobs done by guys and then have to redo the task. So I have gotten a line on a couple shops to check out today.

The other major corners involve the front end and the tranny. The front end just wont be completely straight. Not bad, but not great. So I have sourced a whole new front end after exhausting my supply of forks and triple trees.

The tranny.. This is my fault. Completely. I somehow omitted the ball that locks the speedo drive in place on the output shaft. Stupid. So the lovely single gauge speedo never worked. I will remedy that.

The only other issue is that the top end seems anemic and the timing seems to hunt at lower cruising speeds. Either the carbs are worn out or the distributors advance mechanism is sticking. I may need to get help with that.

While I am in there, I have gotten a mount for a nippon denso alternator. Double the output of the generator and I can remove the separate voltage regulator under the seat. It also give the added advantage that should the alternator die on me in BFE, I can replace it with a unit from any of several hundred thousand japanes autos

After that it is just basic prep. I have to move the mount for my GPS. Rig up power for same. Rig up an inverter so I can charge my other electronic doodads. I'm a nerd) I would like to add a CB and get a new GPS. The former because despite all the noise on the channels, there is useful information to be had. The latter because my current unit wont contain mapping info for the whole USA. Most likely I will get the former. The latter...I dunno. At a minimum I would have to spend 500 bucks. Just to get a capacity that I wont use but maybe twice over the lifetime of the unit. So it will probably be the trusty old Gamin V and paper maps. or just follow the sun. Which means that all of this is low priority and falls under the heading of "conveniences"

I got the windscreen. I still need to get a rack and top box. The topbox will be a low profile, briefcase affair. I dont like the big boxes as they impede my loading of sleeping bag and tent.

My own gear is pretty well ready to go. I got my cook stuff, tent, riding gear all ready to go. I will have to drop some dough on some new gloves though. i finally wore a hole in my trusty Held gloves. Sad.

So that is the plan as it stands. First stop, Paint shop