The Adventures of FriarJohn on Two (and Sometimes Four) Wheels

Yet another anniversary passes of the day I bought my Triumph Bonneville America. I’m getting misty.

Update 1:

Now the downside.

THIS THING IS KILLING ME. For the past few weeks I’ve been trying to get the valves adjusted. One of the bolts for the exhaust-side camshaft is frozen. I can’t get it out. I’ve tried penetrating oil, an impact driver, an impact wrench, and I’ve broken four sockets (T-30 Torx). I think it’s welded in there. I don’t know if the threads are galled. I may have to drill the thing out, extract it and helicoil the hole. If I have to do that I’m sure it will take weeks to get a replacement bolt from England.

Update 2:

On the advice of one of my online buddies I latched onto the bolt with vicegrips and the bolt came loose just like that. It was stupid-simple.

Last weekend it was warm enough to get out in the garage and play with the bike. I did the following:

• Pulled off the sissybar, luggage rack, passenger seat, saddlebag bracket posts and driving lights (including wiring harness). Most of this won’t be going back on. I might use my custom light bar bracket for turn signals or different driving lights, but I’ll probably sell the factory driving light kit.
• Swapped out my stock fenders and tank for the set I picked up to customize. Last weekend I picked up the rear fender and tank from the strip shop. The front fender is plastic so I’ll sand that by hand.

Yesterday, I taped up the fenders and tank so I could draw the cutlines. I also marked up the rough position I want to relocate the gas filler to on the top of the tank. The bike was sitting on its kickstand with the front wheel turned left, just as if I was filling the tank. Then I used a small level to mark the highest point on the tank front-to-back and side-to-side. This puts the filler forward and right of the stock location which is about where I wanted it. Should be able to get a few more ounces of gas in it that way. I need all the capacity I can get.

When I was done marking up the new parts, I yanked them off and put my orange fenders back on (man, the paint on that rear fender looks like hammered shit – I haven’t been too kind to it over the past 4 years). At this point I removed my busted throttle cables and installed the replacements on the bar-end. I’d planned to button it all up and go for a ride, but I had to pull the carbs to install the throttle cables. Once those were out I remembered one of my intake manifold boots is leaking and discovered that the aftermarket fuel filter I installed last year is seeping. My air filters are still disgustingly dirty even after cleaning them last year and not in the best of shape. So I bagged putting it all together so I could order these parts. And while it’s all apart, I really need to get after that valve adjustment that I’ve been putting off.

::sigh:: It never ends. This is why I need more than one bike. So I can still be riding while this sort of stuff is going on.

biker

1. white, filthy rich, income in the 6 to 7 figure range; driving a BMW, a Ducati, or a rebuilt Triumph.
2. white, just filthy, income in the petty crack to meth dealer range; driving a Harley, a Harley, or some piece of crap Honda that looks like a Harley.

see also motorcycle cop.