Random Saturday Morning Happenings

I was wide awake at 6am, but managed to relax until at least 7am. Then I sprung into action, to beat the heat. I ran over to Safeway to fill up the 5-gal gas can with petrol for the various bikes and lawnmower, and grabbed a fresh 5-gal refill of propane, for the bbq. Yes, we have bbq plans this 4th of July weekend.

Then I took most of my bikes out for short trips around the block, just to air them out, move some fuel through them, and clear out a space in the garage.

A few of my bikes enjoying some shade after a bit of running:

Then I finished honing the spare set of FV cylinders, in preparation of shipping them up to Mr. A to join all the new engine parts he should be receiving next week:

I also realized I had never snapped pics of the Trials bike, in its full glory. I also changed the oil and topped up the tank, in preparation for next weekend trials event at the PITS facility:

I also snapped a few pics of Salty, since I don't think I had since finishing up a few small detail graphics on him:

And now I'm polishing off an ice coffee, and getting ready for an afternoon of great nothingness.

C'

Color me Plaid

After an hour entertaining our quasi nephews (Andrew and Connor) Uncle Chris needed some quality time on the road, so he took Salty out for a short ride. I had installed a 14-tooth front sprocket, in place of the 16-tooth sprocket. I was hoping this would help make second gear a bit more usable at 30mph city speeds. And it did. much better rpm range.

I also played with the low-speed mixture adjustment while I was warming it up. Usually you set this adjustment screw about 1.5 to 2 turns from all the way in. I was at 1.5. I turned it back a full turn and the idle immediately smoothed out, and it took throttle much cleaner at lower rpm. In fact, most of the low-speed stumble pulling away from a dead stop was gone. That tells me I'm running a bit rich, so I'll have to look at some of the mid and higher rpm range adjustments. This isn't a huge surprise, as the carb is much bigger than stock, and is likely jetted for 50% more hp. In fact, this is the same carb I have running on the 140cc motor in Ratty.

So what does Uncle Chris do after a successful ride? Why, he pours himself a mug of homemade Coffee Stout and puts on his finest plaid.

Cheers!

C'

Random Stuff

I've been spending time on Salty, so I haven't had much to report on. I've been hanging out for the past week with my better half recovering from surgery. That means I've been sampling numerous brews, watching quite a few movies, and tinkering in the garage.

Speaking of brews, I had my first bottle of a coffee stout I brewed about 6 weeks ago. I was pleasantly surprised. The up front coffee aroma is a tad too strong, but it really mellows out in the body and has a great stout finish.

I also sampled my first bottle of what I call "Hoppy Magnum Alexander." I used a Pale Ale Mr. Beer kit, added some Alexander pale malt extract, and did a long 60 minute boil of magnum hops, which have a high 13.5% alpha content. I've been using a simple program called QBrew to make up my recipes, and it is helping me keep track of things. It's also helping me to tinker with quantities to better match up what styles of beers should be, in terms of bitterness and color.

On an unrelated note, here is a quick picture of Salty, my C110 racer bike I've been building over on this blog: http://saltygarage.blogspot.com/



And yes, I need to rake the leaves. But with the wind blowing everyday, I've decided to let mother nature have her way with the trees first. If the leaves happen to end up all in the neighbor's yard, who am I to argue?

C'