What did you do on or to your other bike part 2
- Thread starter the Ferret
- Start date
Gone in 60
Road warrior
Dang that is some nice paintwork!
peterbaron
Road warrior
Is this 1968-1980 Merc 280SEL?
This gas tank looks owesome..and the rest of the beemer too!
This gas tank looks owesome..and the rest of the beemer too!
Gone in 60
Road warrior
Ok, I jinxed myself. Took the bike out for a test ride this evening, running several errands, starting, stopping, running on the highway and on city streets.
Stopped to try on some new boots, which I might buy, Ikea to buy a new $1.99 trash can after I dropped my 20 year old $1.99 trash can and cracked it. She did fine until the last stop at Trader Joe's to buy my "keep me from killing everything around me" snacks and some rum. Came back out, and she went into limp mode. Key off/on while coasting, got home after five restarts. Now showing the twist grip again.
Ugh.
However, I did add one more skill to my resume list. The seats on some of our old BMWs have gotten sticky for some reason. One is really bad. "My guy" wanted $200 to recover it in plain black vinyl. That's crap.
I had never recovered a motorcycle seat before, but here's what five bucks' worth of vinyl and a stapler can do.
Stopped to try on some new boots, which I might buy, Ikea to buy a new $1.99 trash can after I dropped my 20 year old $1.99 trash can and cracked it. She did fine until the last stop at Trader Joe's to buy my "keep me from killing everything around me" snacks and some rum. Came back out, and she went into limp mode. Key off/on while coasting, got home after five restarts. Now showing the twist grip again.
Ugh.
However, I did add one more skill to my resume list. The seats on some of our old BMWs have gotten sticky for some reason. One is really bad. "My guy" wanted $200 to recover it in plain black vinyl. That's crap.
I had never recovered a motorcycle seat before, but here's what five bucks' worth of vinyl and a stapler can do.
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rdprdp01
Road warrior
May I also point out that you are the heart and soul of the operation. Placing you potentially in harm’s way seems ill advised, at all levels. May I suggest a BMW Dealership if the problem returns in lieu of you potentially riding on I-5, experiencing a sudden change in speed, and having to improvise on a motorcycle that seems fickle at best and cursed at worst! DavidGone in 60 said:
Gone in 60
Road warrior
rdprdp01 said:
Thank you very much for your concern here, but I'd rather have a recurring problem happen to me, rather than one of our other guys, who'd then be calling me for help. I've gotten pretty darn good at shutting off and turning back on without losing too much speed or focus.
Besides.... now it's personal.
I gave the AI chatbots the two codes it tripped last night, and it's given me several interesting things to scan. I'm like Quint going after the shark at this point.
Stripes or no stripes, it looks awesome. Nice Merc as well.
I had a good friend in college who got married and had kids way before he could afford it, and was driving a beater Dodge Omni.
His boss told him that such a crap car was unsafe to carry his family, and gave him... literally gave him his 1977 450SEL so that his children would be riding in a safer car.
A 1977 450SEL is a wonderful car in the hands of someone who can afford to take care of it. My friend could not. Not too long after taking posession, the car needed new catalytic converters, which totalled over $5k. The car remained parked from that point on.
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Gone in 60 said:
Thank you,
I do strongly differ from your friend. Was his car a W116?
This car is a tank, If someone asked me to choose a car to drive around the globe .... this one is on my top list. A diesel W123 would be the best.
Very easy to maintain, in fact easier than my 1972 W118 280SEL.
I just googled it and a CAT for this car is around $250-400 usd - as you can (and should) use a generic one. I understand back then it must have been expensive on the MB dealer.
tommymck
Been there
Venteuri said:
That looks great. The 75/5 is arguably the pinnacle of the airhead run.
Gone in 60
Road warrior
Venteuri said:
This would have been in the early 90s, and being California, you'd need a new one that's CARB (California Air Resources Board) certified. That puts a bit more of a sting on the price, and there were probably very few legal options other than a dealer.
The car was magnificent. I was pretty jealous (my Tercel was nice, but...) and sort of wanted to buy it myself once my friend parked it, but I wasn't in any better position to take care of it at the time than he was. $500 would have pinched either of us at the time, let alone more than that.
Speaking of magnificent Mercedes, the Petersen just opened a very nice Mercedes exhibit. Worth the trip for a true afficianado.
Ok, Captain Quint just put three barrels in the shark.
Got tired of the nebulous and inconsistent open circuit / short circuit fault codes coming up on my BMW scanner, and the inconsistent erratic throttle behavior. Since I'm using this bike for deliveries as well as diagnosing it, I haven't been too invasive about my approach. But, being a holiday week, we've pretty much figured out that we're not getting any action today. So, enough was enough, and I dissected enough to pull the harness that includes the throttle wiring.
I'm finding that former police bikes tell very interesting forensic stories about the level of care they received during their service. I was able to find that at some point in this bike's history, the cable for the right side of the handlebar was severed and repaired. About 20 wires, six of which control the throttle. The rest would be for heated grips, the start/kill switch and various police functions. Each wire was stripped, the ends twisted together and wrapped with electric tape. Errant strands were sticking out of the tape on a few of them. Not exactly an aircraft quality repair...
I did a little better job reconnecting and sealing each wire, taped up the loom and made sure it wasn't under any strain. Not putting any of my eggs in this basket yet, let alone all of them. But, after I get it put back together and clean myself up, I'm taking her out for a very thorough test ride. I told the boss that if this fixes it once and for all, I'm requesting an extra bottle of Macallan at the Christmas party.
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peterbaron
Road warrior
My 2024 Z650RS has almost 10,000 kms since last August.
Today, I performed 3-rd oil & filter replacement. All OEM and synthetic.
:biker:
Today, I performed 3-rd oil & filter replacement. All OEM and synthetic.
:biker:
Gone in 60
Road warrior
How are you liking that Z650RS? I'm guessing quite a bit, based on the mileage. Taking the trash out last night, I glimpsed into a neighbor's garage a few nights ago as they hit their opener to park their car. I don't know them, but I spotted a Z650RS parked up against the front wall, which would be obscured by their parked car. I've never seen a motorycle come in or out of that garage, but thought it was interesting to see. Of course, my gears started turning about a possible conversation that starts with "Hi, I'm the guy across the street... noticed you have a motorycle in your garage that you don't seem to be riding..." 
Going back to magnificent German things, this caught my eye yesterday parked at the outer edge of the Van Nuys airport. The back road on the outside of the fence to the airport is around the corner from our blood laboratory drop off point, and is a good spot to take a break and eat whatever lunch I've packed while I watch planes take off and land. I park my blood bike near the fence lined with parked planes. A few pads over from this cannibalized AT6 painted in German WW2 markings is a fleet of AT6s that make flights over the Southern California area for holidays, baseball games and things like that.
I was wondering where I would have ever seen an AT6 in German markings before. Couldn't think of a movie that would use such a glaringly recognizable American plane as a stand-in for something German (yeah, they look more like Japanese planes and have doubled for Zeroes).
Then it hit me. The SS Lane Victory - a WW2 Victory cargo ship, is a floating museum in L.A. Harbor. Years ago, before the boiler conked out, they used to take visitors on cruises out to Catalina and back on it. During the trip, they'd stage a mock "attack" on the ship by a German bomber, that would then be chased by an American plane, they'd do a few maneuvers, then the German plane would limp away trailing smoke. Both planes were AT6s. This must be that German plane!
Going back to magnificent German things, this caught my eye yesterday parked at the outer edge of the Van Nuys airport. The back road on the outside of the fence to the airport is around the corner from our blood laboratory drop off point, and is a good spot to take a break and eat whatever lunch I've packed while I watch planes take off and land. I park my blood bike near the fence lined with parked planes. A few pads over from this cannibalized AT6 painted in German WW2 markings is a fleet of AT6s that make flights over the Southern California area for holidays, baseball games and things like that.
I was wondering where I would have ever seen an AT6 in German markings before. Couldn't think of a movie that would use such a glaringly recognizable American plane as a stand-in for something German (yeah, they look more like Japanese planes and have doubled for Zeroes).
Then it hit me. The SS Lane Victory - a WW2 Victory cargo ship, is a floating museum in L.A. Harbor. Years ago, before the boiler conked out, they used to take visitors on cruises out to Catalina and back on it. During the trip, they'd stage a mock "attack" on the ship by a German bomber, that would then be chased by an American plane, they'd do a few maneuvers, then the German plane would limp away trailing smoke. Both planes were AT6s. This must be that German plane!
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peterbaron
Road warrior
Gone, I love this little 650cc motorcycle.
It has a completely different character than the CB—it’s a bit of a little rascal and a rebel... and it loves high revs.
Easy to control and manouver.
Very, very comfy seat, no pinch even after 600+ kms.
A full gas tank usually last for about 280 kms, but if you keep the rpm under 4000, I managed to cover 330 kms on two occasions.
Other people like it too.
It has a completely different character than the CB—it’s a bit of a little rascal and a rebel... and it loves high revs.
Easy to control and manouver.
Very, very comfy seat, no pinch even after 600+ kms.
A full gas tank usually last for about 280 kms, but if you keep the rpm under 4000, I managed to cover 330 kms on two occasions.
Other people like it too.
Gone in 60
Road warrior
That's pretty cool, Peterbaron!
The shark has exploded... After getting the severed ecu harness reassembled on the hobbled blood bike, I went for a very long ride full of stops and starts, street and highway driving, and the problem seems to have gone away. It appears that the janky harness connections were what was triggering both open and short circuits, and all of the random loss of throttle control issues. The boss has agreed to the bonus of Macallan.
This ain't my CB1100, but as long as I was out making repeated short trips on the work bike, I figured that vising a few in-laws nearby was a good stop along the way, so I did the photo challenge, but on the wrong bike.
The shark has exploded... After getting the severed ecu harness reassembled on the hobbled blood bike, I went for a very long ride full of stops and starts, street and highway driving, and the problem seems to have gone away. It appears that the janky harness connections were what was triggering both open and short circuits, and all of the random loss of throttle control issues. The boss has agreed to the bonus of Macallan.
This ain't my CB1100, but as long as I was out making repeated short trips on the work bike, I figured that vising a few in-laws nearby was a good stop along the way, so I did the photo challenge, but on the wrong bike.
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alprider
Road warrior
Gone in 60
Road warrior
We're at the point that our first blood bike has rolled 6k miles, and I brought her back home for an oil change and inspection. Her rear brake pads were a bit thin, so I swapped those as well.
With the bikes that aren't in garages sitting in the sun most of the day, the old, worn seats are starting to get a gummy finish to them. We thought it was just one seat, which I recovered in black vinyl, but a few of the others are starting to do the same thing.
I put the worst of them on #1 when I brought her home for service, and tried my second attempt at seat covering. I think I did a better job on this one - no overlapping seam on the back, stretched all around. As long as nobody looks at the mess of staples on the underside, it's almost perfect.
With the bikes that aren't in garages sitting in the sun most of the day, the old, worn seats are starting to get a gummy finish to them. We thought it was just one seat, which I recovered in black vinyl, but a few of the others are starting to do the same thing.
I put the worst of them on #1 when I brought her home for service, and tried my second attempt at seat covering. I think I did a better job on this one - no overlapping seam on the back, stretched all around. As long as nobody looks at the mess of staples on the underside, it's almost perfect.
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peterbaron
Road warrior
I hope you’re not leaving bloody stains behind you for 6K miles 
Well done, Gone!
Well done, Gone!
Gone in 60
Road warrior
Thanks, Peterbaron.
I just hope this vinyl holds up better in the blazing sun than the original stuff. It's marine-grade, but it was cheap...
I just hope this vinyl holds up better in the blazing sun than the original stuff. It's marine-grade, but it was cheap...
Gone in 60
Road warrior
Gone in 60
Road warrior
On Friday, I trained a new rider for our delivery service. I certainly didn't have to train him on the riding part, as he's a Rawhyde instructor. But, we went through the procedural part of making a pickup, following the directions to the dropoff, and completing the process.
As we were on the 60 mile ride to the dropoff, a Harley chopper came up on us pretty fast. As the rider passed, he slowed to our speed (about 75), gave us a salute, and sped on by. As he pulled away, we could see that he was a vested Vago, a member of one of the prominent "1 percent" clubs in the SoCal area.
So now, I've been given respect from both a Vago and a Mongol. Certainly wouldn't get that on the CB or any of my other bikes. Sorta cool.
As we were on the 60 mile ride to the dropoff, a Harley chopper came up on us pretty fast. As the rider passed, he slowed to our speed (about 75), gave us a salute, and sped on by. As he pulled away, we could see that he was a vested Vago, a member of one of the prominent "1 percent" clubs in the SoCal area.
So now, I've been given respect from both a Vago and a Mongol. Certainly wouldn't get that on the CB or any of my other bikes. Sorta cool.
