Fire In The Hole

Yesterday was a red letter day. I fired the bike for the first time in way too long. The new fuel system seems to work fine. I had a few minor leaks (ya gotta tighten down ALL of the fittings). Once again, I have to give props to my Odyssey battery. It has sat, unused, since I tore the bike down. I put the charger on it for 20 minutes or so and it started immediately. The real bonus was the clutch. In a previous post I outlined how I redid the bell crank from the cable to the booster. I'm not sure why, but the pull on the handlebar lever decreased markedly. It now feels like a normal HD clutch. Very light and smooth. I'm stoked over it. I may play with the ratio a bit to see if I can get a little more stroke. It will increase effort at the lever, but a bit more won't be an issue. For the few clutch bikes that are still out there, I really recommend the piggy backed booster and mousetrap. It was simple to build and it works.

Monkeying Around

It's said that man's opposable thumbs and his tool making/using abilities separates him from the lower primates. I have found that I needed a few special tools to work on the bike. The first is a 9/16 inch hex key to remove the new swing arm bolts. Nobody stocks one and, online, they are too expensive for the Po' Boy. I went to the hardware store and picked up a 1/2 inch coupling nut, took it home, ran a bolt into it and welded it up. I now have a small hex drive that I can insert into the head of the bolt and put a socket or wrench on the other end. The second one is a spark plug socket that I can use to pull the plugs without dropping the headers. I just took a cheapo 5/8 deep socket, cut it down to about one inch and welded a nut on one end. It slips on the plug and, again, I can turn it with a wrench. The last one is a 1/2 inch length of 1/4 inch hex key, once again, welded to a nut. I use this to adjust my fuel pressure regulator. It is tucked up under the neck and the adjustment screw is impossible to get at with any conventional tool. I, simply, insert the key into the screw and turn it with my fingers, using the nut as a little thumb wheel.