The Old Crap Riders

I recently found out that a group of people who ride vintage bikes meet at the Handlebar regularly.  Since Nixon is running fairly well now, I rode over there this week to check it out.  There were a bunch of really cool bikes there and some cool people too.  I will have to go back.

In other news, DoTheTon.com and Dime City Cycles are having a cafe racer show at the Barber Vintage Motorcycle Festival in October.  I entered Nixon so now that means I have to get in gear and finish her.  There isn't a whole lot left to do before the show except for seal the gas tank and apply the brushed finish.  And, I need to clean the carburetors out again and put the new seals I bought for them in.  Hopefully that will resolve my idle issues and the gas leak.

Pics from the Handlebar:

Pain in the Ass

The Dragon - Day 3

I tried to sleep in as much as possible on Sunday because I knew I was going to need my rest for the ride home but I still got up around 9:30. We all took our time eating breakfast, drinking coffee and packing our stuff. Fix and Ryan had left early because they had a long long ride back to Michigan. Sometime during the ride on Saturday the screw holding the back of my gas tank on had fallen off (gonna have to use some loctite on that next time). Plastic gave me some zip ties to use to hold it in position. Zip ties are the modern duct tape. We said goodbye to DJElliot, Shane and POCPhil as they headed back to Cleveland. The rest of us headed over to the other part of the camp to say goodbye to the rest of the guys.

We hung out and chatted over there for awhile and then CCRider and I decided it was finally time to head out. We roared back across the dragon, headed for home.

We stopped in Robbinsville to call and let our bosses know we were still alive and on our way home and then headed out again. This time we stayed on Hwy 28 and headed south. The section of Hwy 28 south of 74 was actually quite fun and at some points rivaled The Dragon with respect to the curves. On one sharp right hand turn I was leaned over so far that the toe of my boot dragged on the ground. That woke me up. We ended up stopping at an abandoned gas station to give our butts and arms a rest. While we were standing there, we notice some storm clouds rolling in and heard some distant thunder. We quickly headed down the road towards Franklin NC to try and get ahead of the storm. Nope! We ended up riding right into a heavy downpour. To make matters worse, as we pulled into town, we got stuck behind a giant dually that was spraying water everywhere. As the rain got harder, he slowed down until he was going about 10 miles an hour. After sitting at a light which seemed to be about 10 minutes long, we rolled into a gas station soaking wet.

We hung out there for about an hour waiting for the rain to pass and ate lunch. Yum! Gas station hot dogs! We geared up and headed out onto a very wet Hwy 64. Once we got back into the mountains, the scenery was beautiful. It was hard to resist the urge to look over the guard rails down at the amazing waterfalls. But if we did, we would probably end up down there. We stopped at this awesome place where you could drive behind a waterfall.

As we were leaving the waterfall, CCRider's bike started acting up. It seemed to be running on one cylinder. He goosed it a couple times and with a puff of black smoke the other cylinder started firing again. I think the altitude was starting to get to his bike. We continued on and eventually ended up in Highlands, NC. We didn't intend to stop but as we were sitting at a red light, CCRider's bike started misfiring again. We pulled over for a minute and he got it going again. As he pulled away, suddenly my bike wouldn't start again. A minute or two of jumping on the kickstart and she finally fired up. Off we went.

We stopped for gas one more time in Sapphire, NC. Again my bike would not start. This was getting annoying. I tried for several minutes and couldn't even kickstart it. CCRider ended up giving me a push start and she finally fired up. I took off before she had a chance to stall and we headed for our last stop. The road finally opened up and we were able to put some miles down.

As I was riding it dawned on me what the problem was. When I rebuilt my bike, I had put a new halogen headlight in with a 55W bulb. The stock bulb is something like 35W. So I theorized that the charging system could not keep up with the power consumption of this new bulb and the battery was getting drained. I figured if I rode with my headlight off for awhile, the battery would have a chance to charge. Unfortunately, it is NC law that motorcycles run with their headlights on. So now I had to keep an eye out for cops and turn my light back on every time I saw one.

We finally pulled into a gas station in Hendersonville to take another break and say our goodbyes. Thank you CCRider for making the journey with me and making the trip much much more enjoyable.

On Hwy 25 we went our separate ways and I cruised on back home to Greenville. When I got into Greenville I stopped at an auto parts store to get a new, smaller headlight bulb, but of course they didn't have any. The guys at the store came out to look at my bike and were shocked that I had just made such a long trip on such an uncomfortable looking motorcycle. At that point my butt, arms and hands agreed with them. I finally rolled back up to my parent's house extremely exhausted but very happy. 650 miles of beautiful mountain roads. When can I do this again?

My route home:

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Fire in the Sky

The Dragon - Day 2 - Part 2

So after everyone got geared up again and got their bikes started, and Plastic got gas AGAIN, we took off for the Cherohala Skyway.  Part way up the mountain, the clouds started settling in around us and it started to sprinkle.  The ground started getting wet so we slowed down a bit.  We pulled over at an overlook to take another break.  Apparently the mexican food had already started working its magic on some of the guys.

DJElliot, Shane and POCPhil waiting for us to catch up.

Most of us arrived eventually.

After waiting awhile, we noticed that CCRider, Kanticoy, Cyclefreak and Patrick hadn't shown up yet.  Since there really is no cell phone reception around there, we couldn't call to see what happened.  We figured whatever it was, they could handle it.  When we went to leave, Plastic's bike wouldn't start.  All is electronics under his seat were exposed and we figured the rain screwed something up.  POCPhil gave him a push start using some fancy racing technique and we were off.

We made it almost to the end of the skyway before Plastic's bike finally ran out of gas.  Apparently putting knee dents in an already small gas tank doesn't leave you with much range.  I found a water bottle in my backpack and Fix pulled a fuel line off of a carburetor on his bike and filled up the bottle.  Plastic ended up putting two bottles worth of gas in, hoping that would be enough to make it to the gas station.

Plastic got another push start and everybody started to leave and then my bike wouldn't start.  I thought the wet conditions might be affecting my electronics too as I have never ridden Nixon in the rain.  I used the kickstarter, and after a few attempts, she fired up and Jewbacca (who had stayed behind with me) and I were off to catch up to the others.  We met up with them a few miles down the road at a gas station where Plastic had actually managed to make it.


At this point, after giving Plastic another push start, we turned north on Hwy 360 which was less curvy than what we had been on, so we open up the bikes and hauled ass through some beautiful farmland.  Well, we all hauled ass except for Jewbacca (AKA Captain Slow) and Fix who was following behind him.  360 makes a 90 turn and after a few miles we all stopped to let Jewbacca and Fix catch up.  They didn't.  After waiting for awhile, we figured that again, whatever happened they could handle it, and we continued on (after giving Plastic another push start).  So at the end of that trip, of the 12 guys that started together, 6 of us made it all the way together.  About half an hour later, Fix showed up alone.  Another half hour later Jewbacca finally showed up.  Apparently they had missed the turn in Hwy 360 and took a longer route back.


We were all hungry so we headed over to the other part of the campsite to get dinner and see what happened to the other guys.  Apparently CCRider's clutch cable had snapped back when we were leaving the restaurant.  They ended up buying a pair of vice grips and clamping it onto the the cable at the clutch lever.

He rode The Dragon like that!  Back at the campsite they made a torch out of a propane bottle from a gas stove and a spark plug socket and made a new solder bulb at the end of the cable.  Amazing McGyver stuff.  When we got there they were in the middle of rebuilding the carburetors off of Troybilts Goldwing.

We all ate dinner and relaxed after our long ride.  Most of the guys headed back to the other part of the camp while CCRider and I stay to help with the bike.  Well, I provided moral support anyway.  They eventually got the carburetors back in the bike and got it running again.

When we got back to our part of the campsite, the drinking was already in full swing.  And that's when the inevitable happened, the fireworks came out.  We all sat back and watched while POCPhil launched a bunch of bottlerockets and mortars.  When he got tired of that, he started blowing stuff up (including the gas bottle used by Plastic earlier).  Eventually the owner of the camp showed up.  We thought we were in trouble, but he had just come to get the money some guys owed him for their camping spot. Ha!  Not too long after that, we all fell out and went to bed.

Dry as a Bone

The Dragon - Day 2 - Part 1


We all rolled out of bed around 9 and headed next door to the BBQ place and got some breakfast.

We finally headed over to the other part of the campsite and met up with Kanticoy, Cyclefreak, Patrick, Troybilt and Beatnic.  We hung out there for awhile, drinking some more coffee until Shane had had enough and decided it was time to go on our ride.  We all hopped on our bikes and headed out and across the Dragon to Deal's Gap.

We gassed up, got some drinks and peed before heading out 28 west.

 We passed a Miata that had taken a spill and lost one of its wheels.  As I was riding I noticed the bike was pulsing as I accelerated.  I figured the chain might have too much slack in it.  We stopped at a gas station so some people could gas up and I got my tools out and tightened up my chain.  Apparently Jewbacca had the same problem.  Everyone got geared up again and we headed out.

At the next crossroads, POCPhil had to pull over because his bike died.  He quickly realized some of his wiring was grounding out and blew a fuse.  Problem was nobody had a fuse that would fit his bike.  Luckily there were some smokers among us with some foil paper.  Problem solved until we could get to Robinsville where we were headed for lunch.

We had been discussing earlier what we were going to have for lunch and it sounded like everyone wanted margaritas.  Well luck would have it that the first restaurant we saw when we pulled into town was a mexican place.  We all piled in the restaurant ready for a break.

Shortly after we settled in, POCPhil made a startling and devastating discovery.  This place had no bar.  It had no tequila.  It had no BEER!  In fact, we soon figured out we were in a dry county.  Ugh.  Well, it was probably for the best since we were going to be riding some more challenging roads.  While we were eating, DJElliot made a new fuse for POCPhil's bike out of a straw and some aluminum foil.  Is that really only rated at 15 amps?

As we were getting ready to leave, I noticed that the door to the tool box on my bike was open.  My first thought was that someone stole some stuff out of there.  But why would they do that?  And why would they only take some of the stuff?  Then I realized that I had probably left the door open the last time we stopped when I was tightening my chain.  As far as I can tell, I lost a crescent wrench, two allen wrenches and a flashlight somewhere on Hwy 143.

This was our route for the ride on Saturday......well it was the route for most of us.


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Specialty Tools

The Dragon - Day 1 - Part 2

CCRider and I unpacked what little we had brought and hung out for awhile waiting for some more guys to show up. We hung out outside in the hot sun and watched Jewbacca work on his carburetors and tail light wiring. [Side Note] For the uninitiated, when ever you are dealing with a group of vintage motorcycles, without fail, every time you stop, someone will have to work on their bike. It's an unwritten law. You will see this unfold as the story goes on. [/Side Note].

I got tired of waiting around and rode down the road for about 10 miles where I finally got cell phone reception and made some calls to let people know I was still alive. When I got back, ChimeraMW and his brother Jason had shown up. After BSing for awhile, we decided to take a ride back across The Dragon.  We made it up to the scenic overlook and stopped to take a break.

 We soon realized Jason and Ryan were not with us.  We waited around for awhile in case they had been pulled over by the cops or something.

 This is when I noticed a puddle forming under my bike.  Yeah, it was gas. I figured I was probably going to need that gas so I tried to figure out the problem.  The left carburetor bowl was leaking.  So, there at the overlook I took the bowl and gasket off and tried to clean them as best I could and assemble everything tightly.  It didn't work and it kept leaking.  ChimeraMW was getting concerned about his brother since they still hadn't shown up, so they all headed back down the mountain.  I cleaned the gas off my bike as best I could and took off back to the campground.  Turns out Jason had some electrical problems and kept blowing fuses.  Plastic rode back with me and he took his truck to get Jason's bike.  I decided I would just shut off the fuel valve from the tank every time I stopped so the gas wouldn't leak out of the carburetor.  I had to do this for the REST OF THE WEEKEND.

When we got back to the campsite, DJElliot, Shane and POCPhil had shown up.  I decided to ride with Plastic and Jason back to his house (which was about 15 minutes away) to drop off his bike.  We ended up sitting over there for a couple of hours trying to help him diagnose his electrical problems.  We didn't figure it out.  So Plastic and I headed back to camp.  We spent the rest of the night hanging out, drinking beer and telling stories (some more believable than others).

Adventure Time

The Dragon - Day 1 - Part 1

This blog is finally going to get out of the rebuilding phase and get back into the funny stories again.  In case you didn't know, I've been frantically trying to get Nixon roadworthy again so that I could take her up to Tennessee for the second annual "DoTheTon.com Summer Get Together" or DTTGTG2011 as it will henceforth be known.  As you have seen, I succeeded.

6 AM Friday morning I went over to my parents where Nixon is currently housed and did an extensive pre-ride check, checking all of the bolts and fluids and lights and everything I could think of.  I packed as many tools into my backpack as I thought I could stand and headed out!

Since my shakedown ride ended with a Fail, I was pretty nervous about the trip I was undertaking.  But as some wise people once said "somewhere in between boring and suicidal lies adventure".  I fired her up and left about 7am headed for Asheville, NC where I was to meet CCRider from the forum (I'm going to use their screen names to protect the innocent......er guilty).  Nixon chugged along great all the way up to Asheville.  I stopped for gas and then met CCRider at the first overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway near the Hwy 191 intersection.  Although I have been on the forum for over 3 years now, this is the first member I actually met in person.

His bike is the same model as mine, but yet so different.  I love custom bikes.  We headed west on the Parkway stopping a couple of times.  At one stop I noticed my rear sprocket looked funny.  There are two bracket things on there that keep the nuts from coming off.  One of them had somehow come apart and got chewed up by the chain.  I did my best to use what was left of it and we continued on.  After a few more hours of riding, we stopped at the base of the Tail of the Dragon and ate lunch at Deal's Gap.

From here, we had about 25 miles to go to get to our campground, but to get there, we had to ride The Dragon!

We finally made it to The Punkin Center MC Resort where we were staying and met up with Jewbacca, Plastic, Fix, and Ryan.

My Route

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