Saturday, September 13, 2008

300 mile shakedown run

Today I, and two other guys, took a ride of about 300 miles from the north San Fernando Valley to Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino mountains. The bike and the trans performed almost flawlessly. One thing that I did discover is that the suicide clutch/jockey shift, while a noble experiment and fun to ride, sucks big time in off camber, low speed U turns. With this in mind, I will be gathering the necessary parts to convert to a hand clutch/foot shift this winter. The other problem is it still drags the pipes and kickstand badly. I will try to increase the preload on the rear shocks, but I think I still need to lengthen the shock mounts a bit more. It's not a big deal. I just need to make up two new ones, about 20 minutes work, whack the old ones off and weld the new ones on. That will be tomorrow's little project.

I am waiting until I'm satisfied that I have a finished product and, then, I want to shoot a short video of the bike and of me taking you, my faithful followers, on a short little ride so you can see how it all works. I have to wait for my production team (wife and granddaughter) to come home first.

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