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

Think I’m going to do this next weekend (Friday-Monday). Visit John in Thompson Falls, MT, Del in Bonners Ferry, ID, and Keith in Trail, BC. Then swing down around Lewiston, ID, and come home up Lolo Pass. I’m sure there will be subtle differences in the actual route, but this is the basic idea.

View Directions to East Helena, MT in a larger map

Traveling alone. I’ll have my dual disc front wheel for the first time, as well as my SPOT GPS transceiver and the iPod Nano. If the GPS works like it should, I’ll post a link to the Google Maps page it generates. My plan is to hit the “report in” button at each gas stop or overnight stop. Probably won’t have the Kuryakyn Grips and Breakaway cruise control installed. A little too close to start making new mods.

FINALLY… All I’m lacking is brake fluid and some clips to hold the crossover line. I tried to use those metal clips from Newspeedmaster but I screwed them up trying to get them installed. Until I find a better solution I’ll just pick up some stock clips (anybody got an extra set?). BTW, this is an Avon Venom 130/70-18. Fender rides a little high. Might have to “adjust” that. This is a stock fender bracket, not the one I modified to clear the 120/90-18 I was using before. Oh, and the bike is still filthy from riding in the rain last week.

Update: Bike is back on the road. Might have to bleed the brakes one more time to get that last tiny bit of air out of the system.

I made my first itty bitty web application with JQuery (a scripting library, some would say the scripting library for Javascript). I’m mostly a designer, and while I’ve dabbled in Javascript over the decades it’s never been my strong suit. But the perfect project came up this week on BonnevilleAmerica.com. Another moderator on that forum, Pat Whitbeck (aka “Dinqua”), years ago created a custom jetting calculator for Triumph Americas and Speedmasters. When discussing a recent update he made to the calculator it came to light that, because it was written as a Windows application it couldn’t be used by Mac users, and even Vista and Windows 7 users had trouble using it.

So I decided to try and create a web-based version in Javascript. Pat sent me his data file so I could pull out his numbers for all the jetting options.

Voila.

It’s not quite finished. The math seems to be working, but I’m still testing. It isn’t pretty but it works. The biggest difference between this and Pat’s original application is that you have to click the “Calculate” button to update the main jet number. When I get some time I’ll throw some graphic design mojo at it.

Just a quick note, inspired by the fact that IT’S SNOWING.

I’ve had the bike out twice already this year. Probably haven’t put much more than 50 miles on it. Last Sunday the weather was gorgeous so I got out in the garage and finished drilling out a couple baffles in my stock pipes. Naturally I was required after that to go for a ride and test them out. I’ve been running factory short Triumph “off road” (“short TORs”) mufflers for nearly 8 years, but I’ve always wanted to see what the stock pipes sounded like gutted, or at least partially gutted. I left in the third baffle and the reducer cone at the front. The results were amazing. The exhaust note, while not sounding tuned, sounded incredibly deep. I should have done this 8 years ago rather than buying the short TORs at around $385.

So now that I have these drilled pipes, I still have to mount up and try out the set of short slash-cut mufflers by Specialty Spares that I picked up used recently. Zdenko put a set on his girlfriend’s bike and says they sound nearly identical to his Specialty Spares long cannons, which I love. So if these SS shorties are that good, I’ll probably sell the drilled stock pipes.

Not 100% sure on the makeover happening this year. Events conspire to derail. But it’s no sweat; I’ve waited this long I can wait a little longer. Besides, I’ve got plenty of other things to do on the bike. Next up I’m going to install the Speedmaster drag bars, aftermarket pull-back risers with stepped bolts and finally, finally, finally, the dual disc front wheel. If I have the time and the will I will try and do the new turn signals and headlight, the latter requiring some rearranging of the wiring at the front of the bike.

But one thing at a time…

[Update: This will probably be updated frequently. People keep asking me for more pictures. Stuff is going fast. The sissybar is going to Taiwan! Damn, I haven't even STARTED with ebay yet...]

On the heels of my last post about selling the D&Ds, I just listed several items on BonnevilleAmerica.com in the classifieds. Here is the gallery of images, but I don’t have the prices listed in the gallery, only on BA.com.

Current Item list:

1. The aforementioned D&D mufflers–need stripping and coating SOLD
2. Triumph tall sissybar and luggage rack–usually a very popular item SOLD
3. Stock tail light housing–good for blacking out while still saving your original chrome piece
4. Triumph chrome rear brake reservoir cover–chromosexual approved SOLD
5. Stock dash–again, good for color-coordinating with your tank or just blacking it out SOLD
6. Optronics fog lights–cheap, lots of light SOLD
7. Triumph chrome front brake reservoir cover  with British flag sticker–also chromosexual approved SOLD
8. George Foreman Grill (stock sprocket cover)–good for hacking up and customizing
9. Aftermarket horn–meh
10. Triumph chrome control levers–again, chromosexual approved SOLD
11. Phantom Pad–weird, but if that’s your thing, okay–WON’T FIT A TRIUMPH
12. Thunderbird Sport front rim, 17×3.5″, with spokes–good for you fat front tire fans, 1″ shorter than stock, 1″ wider than stock–laces right on to the stock America hub SOLD
13. Triumph tachometer–could be fried, need someone to test it for me and only pay me if it works (which means my bike is still screwed up) SOLD
14. Triumph rear fender luggage rack–still chromosexual approved SOLD
15. Someone’s interested in my effed out Belt Drive kit SOLD

More to come. That’s good enough to get started.

I’ve been meaning to sell some stuff. I’m not ready to list everything but I do have a thing or two with which to kick this pig.

Now that I have some Specialty Spares slashcuts, I’m going to dump the D&Ds I have. Nothing against D&Ds, I just love the sound of Specialty Spares. I picked the D&Ds up off ebay a couple years ago and they’ve been sitting on a shelf in my garage since. They have some surface rust. My plan was to have them media-blasted and ceramic-coated black (keeping the heat shields chrome and the exhaust tips polished). Since I bought these with the plan to black them out, NewSpeedmaster started selling black D&Ds but they cost some bank. I got an estimate from Jet-Hot of $115 for the ceramic-coating. If I remember correctly Wolfe will do it for less. Even with shipping you’ll have Black D&Ds for less than half the cost of new pipes. Even less if you go low-tech with some BBQ paint like some have done.

I paid $75 plus shipping for these pipes and that’s all I want out of them. Here’s a picture from the original ebay ad. I’ll take some fresh shots of my own this weekend. The Specialty Spares were shipped from Iowa to Montana for less than $20 so I can’t imagine it costing much more than that for these (though they are longer). So let’s call it an even $100 shipped.

Next I’ll be listing a tall Triumph Sissybar with Luggage Rack and my HD Hard Bags. Gotta take some pictures first, though.

I’m still adding pictures occasionally to my two gallery pages, one for what I consider to be cool bikes (mostly Triumphs-not that there aren’t other brands that are cool), and the other for my own scoot. As far as the latter goes, I’ve added a few separate galleries toward the bottom of the page showing some of the minor fabrication work I’ve done, brackets for relocating the battery, brackets for some quick-disconnect Ameritex bags I used to have and a custom lightbar bracket I created to replace the one that came with the factory Triumph lightbar kit. I’ve got a few pictures of my Harley Hardbags in the main gallery on my bike page, but no real good one showing how I combined them with EasyBrackets to mount on my bike. I’ll see about taking some snapshots of that next time I’m in the garage.

[Updated 4/2/2010 --FJ]

Okay, since I got through the recap of last year, I’m looking forward now. Specifically thinking about my bike and all my failed plans for modifications, and trying not to beat myself up too much. Taking stock of all the parts and supplies I have accumulated since I decided to give my bike an “Extreme Bobber Makeover™” a few years ago and upgrade the braking, I have the following:

Read more

I’ve been thinking a lot about the CF that was 2009. I need to get my thoughts down. I also need fodder for my blog, so here goes.

Health

I tried to take control of my health early in 2009. I ‘m not usually proactive but I went to the doctor for a physical in April. Other than high cholesterol I was in decent shape for a sedentary cubicle drone. One week later an infection kicked my ass and put me in the hospital for 12 days. My leg still isn’t better, my left leg is now “acting up.” The only bright side to that experience was losing 17lbs., but I’m still on the hook for a few grand after my insurance paid 90%. I tried Weight Watchers and had some success but I’ve plateaued and now have to figure out what to do next.

Relationships/Family

I’m still dating Sherri. December 1, 2009 was the second anniversary of our first date. It hasn’t all been wine and roses (what relationship is?), but we seem to be making a go of it.

In August my dad decided to clean out his shed and brought me a truckload of tools, including a rollaway toolchest, an air compressor and a router table. He also brought a nice computer desk.

Read more

Got back in the shop (well, Gene’s shop) to start customizing my spare gas tank. Mods on tap:

• Shave stock dash and smooth top of tank.
• Move gas filler forward and right, utilizing a Harley filler bung.
• Fuel sight gauge on the left side.

I’ve got a brushed aluminum monza-style flip up gas cap from NYC Choppers for the new tank. The indicator lights from the dash will be moved to a new mini speedometer mounted up on the bars, with a matching mini tach.

Gene’s doing the metal work and welding while I’m doing all the grunt work, cutting, flanging, templating, etc. He’ll be squirting the paint and I’ll be doing the other grunt work, filling and sanding.