What did you do on or to your other bike part 2

[Nachodaddy]

Keep a watch out for vampires.
On a more serious note, you have done a fantastic job with those decals. I can't imagine myself having to do that. Or, maybe more accurately, I CAN imagine myself doing it and being covered in decals and being stuck to the bike as well. Good job!

 

[pdedse]

Lookin' good, Gone!

 

[Gone in 60]

Keep a watch out for vampires.
On a more serious note, you have done a fantastic job with those decals. I can't imagine myself having to do that. Or, maybe more accurately, I CAN imagine myself doing it and being covered in decals and being stuck to the bike as well. Good job!

Ha, thank you very much, Nacho. Knowing that the kit is custom made in England, the last thing I wanted to do was booger up one of the decals, especially the large ones that I can imagine sticking to themselves when the backing is peeled away. 

Just a process of peeling and immediately spraying with water (with a drop of soap) so they don’t stick to anything, can be sort of floated into place, then squeegeed down.

The kit is detailed enough that there are different adhesives to the decals that either adhere to the painted parts or the black plastic (which they refer to as Arlon. So I learned a new word too.)

 

[Gone in 60]

Got a scare from Superbird last night. No deliveries today, and since Bike 4, for which I'm finishing up the livery decals, has no maintenance history, I planned to spend today changing oil, checking valve lash, flushing brake fluid, etc. I tracked down spark plugs at a nearby O'Reilly Auto, saving quite a bit over the same NGKs at the BMW dealer.

I dumped the oil on #4 right when I got home, so that I wouldn't get a dribble when I popped the valve covers today, so I jumped on Superbird to run to O'Reilly, and then make my way to dinner with a friend. Came back out with the plugs, put the key in the ignition, and got a slow crank, and the engine light came on. Hmm... The previous owner said "he put a new battery in". But, it's a cheap, Amazon-grade battery, and "just put in" could have been when he bought the bike, which was some time in 2024. I called my friend from my ever-so-handy built-in Sena helmet comms, and asked him to swing by my house to pick me up in case the bike wouldn't start next time after dinner.

Superbird's engine light stayed on the whole 15 minute ride home, but she ran fine. Got home, cycled the key and she started back up, so she's charging. Put her on the tender in her parking spot, and after dinner she fired up with no engine light. Battery connections are clean and tight. Kept her off the tender overnight and will try a few starts later today to see how she does, but might be new battery time.

If I need a parts chaser today with Blood Bike 4 torn down, I've got the Bonneville at the ready.

 

[pdedse]

Gone, your world has changed considerably work-wise --> motorcycling the last 6? weeks. I'm curious, are your deliveries to repeat hospitals / clinics? To the point that medical personnel are getting to know you? If so, have they given you a nickname yet? IDK...Bloodbike Dude, or something fun?

 

[Gone in 60]

Ha! Yes, I'm doing a pretty routine route now, with an average of 180-210 miles in a day. A few places are pretty friendly and we chat about stuff, but other places, particularly the receiving laboratories, are very procedural. Mostly business with a "stay safe and thanks." 

Things should be changing soon, with new routes coming on line, so we'll see how it progresses.

It was Spa Day for Bike #4, as I did her oil/filter, flushed the brake fluid, checked the valves and changed the final drive oil. The bikes were pretty abused in their previous lives, and those valve covers, sticking out to the sides, are badly gouged and scraped all to heck and back. This one has 50k on the odometer, and they were pretty nasty. As long as I had them off for valve inspection, I couldn't help myself, and had to show this thing some kindness. I told the boss we can't have our clients thinking that we drop our bikes, it might make them think we're careless with their cargo as well. 

And, with the completion of her upper layer of reflective decals, she's done, at least with the graphics. I'm dropping by the boss' place after the museum today to pick up her Carpuride nav screen, phone mount, and if they have arrived, her yellow and white front lights.

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[pdedse]

The covers look great! Boss has gotta feel good to see you gong the extra mile with the maintenance and beautifying!

 

[the Ferret]

Looks great! Got to say the guy got lucky getting you to come to work for him rather than me or Cormanus lol

 

[Gone in 60]

The covers look great!  Boss has gotta feel good to see you gong the extra mile with the maintenance and beautifying!

Thank you! I'm getting sort of a soft spot for these used police bikes, thinking of what kind of lives they had and wanting to treat them with some kindness. And I'm just doing what I'd do if they were my bikes.

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Looks great! Got to say the guy got lucky getting you to come to work for him rather than me or Cormanus lol

Ha ha, thank you! I know he appreciates it. Mrs. G and I stopped by his place after the museum yesterday. I needed to pick up the Carpuride screen and phone mount for the bike I'm currently working on so I could install them. He had just picked up another bike and has more decal kits on the way, along with yellow/white light kits, so looks like when we have down time for deliveries, I'll be working on tuning up the new bikes and doing the decal and light conversions to get them ready. 

I'm thinking of changing my nickname from Gone to Harlan, the mechanic on CHiPs.

 

[pdedse]

Oh my, for some reason the theme song started playing in my mind when I read "Harlan, the mechanic"

I'm thinking of changing my nickname from Gone to Harlan, the mechanic on CHiPs.

 

[Gone in 60]

Oh my, for some reason the theme song started playing in my mind when I read "Harlan, the mechanic"

I'm thinking of changing my nickname from Gone to Harlan, the mechanic on CHiPs.

HA! Yeah, that theme song runs through my head every morning when I get on the bike. Just can't help it.

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Right now, Superbird is in that place I call "The Valley of Hope".

The battery hiccupped once... I'm hoping it was a fluke, not a warning, and that the battery is still good and doesn't need to be replaced. 

I've had a volt meter on her for the past few days, nervously watching to see if it drops. So far, so good, but to be safe, if I need to park somewhere, I'm looking for hills in case I need to do a rolling bump-start. 

The "CABLE" tag is something I keep on the tank when one of my bikes is connected to a tender, to remind me to unplug it before I roll the bike out.

 

[Lord Popgun]

Harlan,

You need one of these

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=lab+coat...s_p13n-expert-pd-ops-ranker_ci_hl-bn-left_3_5

 

[Gone in 60]

I'm sorry, what was that? I was working on the bike. 

(Mrs. G happened to have a few lab coats on the laundry rack. Good thing she's not here, and that I didn't bust the buttons off of it)

 

[peterbaron]

dr. Gone

 

[Gone in 60]

The latest patient in Gone's Home for Wayward Motorcycles. This is the fourth one, and is a bit of a mongrel. The first bike needed to go in for a new clutch. So, the boss swapped out the bodywork on that bike that had the livery decals to this one, so that it would be ready to go. She's a '16 with 28k on the odometer, and I'll be going through all of the mechanicals, sprucing her up and adding a horn, additional lights and a 360 camera. 

It's interesting to now have worked on four different bikes coming out of police service. They really are a mixed bag. One still had the very authoritative police horn - an electronic "get out of the way" tone, one has a little beep-beep horn haphazardly attached with a momentary switch stuck to the handlebar replacing a button that performed some police function. One has the original police white spotlights up front, the others don't. This one has no horn at all, and one non-functional spotlight. So, I'll be adding a horn and lights. I'd love to use one of the existing switches on the handlebars to run it, but with the CAN-Bus system, there's no telling what wires go to any particular switch, and I've tired myself out testing and probing. So, I'll be adding a switch and wiring it externally.

The boss picked out a set of Aux-Beam lights on Amazon that I'm installing on all of the bikes. It's got multiple functions - solid yellow, solid white, both, and variations of yellow and white flashing and strobing, one of which definitely has an emergency vehicle vibe to it.

 

[peterbaron]

Gone, you should add a “ Drugs as well” sticker to your bike

 

[Gone in 60]

Gone, you should add a “ Drugs as well” sticker to your bike

My neighbor would have like that... he was too lazy to go buy his own weed and had Uber Eats deliver it to the house.
We haven't seen him in a while. Mrs. G figures that his wife finally got tired of the weed and laziness and booted him out.

 

[peterbaron]

Good wife

 

[Nachodaddy]

It seems odd that lazy people are sometimes the most creative.

 

[Cormanus]

Interesting observation, Nachodaddy. I think it might be because successfully lazy people are good at coming up with ways to ensure the success of their laziness. There's an irony, I think, that they probably have to be anything but lazy in bursts to bring their ideas to life.