What a QT

Nixon has been behaving pretty well lately, besides the growing oil leak from the points housing, so I rode her into work again this past Friday. It was a really nice ride into work in the morning. Kind of cool and the traffic wasn't too bad. She died right as I was pulling into my parking spot. So at lunch I went out to check the spark plugs. I could only get the left one out with my mini plug wrench I keep in the toolbox on the bike. It was black and sooty. I know it blows some smoke when it is running, so I think it is burning oil. Sometime in the next few weeks I will do a compression check to see just how bad the piston rings are. I am guessing that low compression is the reason she is not running as well as she could.

The ride home started out pretty nice. I took the long way home through some of the nice neighborhoods of East Cobb. Track my route on Google Maps! I went over across Paper Mill and then up Johnson's Ferry. I rode by my friend Shawn's house to check out is yard (the roses are in bloom) even though I knew he wasn't home. On the way up JF, with all of the stop lights, I started getting pretty hot. I had my leather jacket on for protection. Sitting atop a running air cooled engine in 80° weather at a light with a heavy leather jacket on can sure heat you up. I headed over across Shallowford Rd and end up in downtown Roswell (where the pic below was taken). I decided to stop at a gas station there to get a drink and try and cool off. I had $1.05 and the cheapest drink they had was $1.06. I got back on the bike, thirstier than ever and continued home, rolling slowly through historic downtown Roswell. When I got to the next major intersection, I found what I was looking for, the QT! They have a huge selection of fountain drinks, slushies and coffee that are really cheap. I got myself a cold beverage and hung out in the parking lot like a hoodlum until I was done. I cruised the rest of the way home feeling much better.

Getting Buff

In preperation for the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club (VJMC) show this past weekend, I wanted to finally get my side covers on. Unfortunately, I was missing a few pieces. There are two long posts that screw into the battery box, and help hold the side covers out in the correct position. They also hold the stock air filters on, but I don't have those. I couldn't find any for sale on ebay so I put the word out on the "Do The Ton" motorcycle forum. A very generous guy from Seattle sent me some of his extras from his parts bike. He actually sent me two sets. I ended up sending the second set to a guy in California that needed them as well.

One of my side covers that I got with the bike is chrome, so I just left it like that for now. The other one was an ugly sparkley blue color. I used a wire wheel and stripped all of the paint off of the outside. I then sanded it a couple times with different sand papers, then a scotchbrite pad, and finally some very fine steel wool with some metal polish. I cleaned it with some denatured alcohol and then painted it with some clear high heat engine enamel paint. As I was painting it, I saw that I was getting some major runs. So I quickly cleaned all of the still wet paint off and tried again. This time I did a couple light coats. It turned out really nice as you can see in the bottom picture below. I plan on eventually taking all of the sheet metal down to this brushed steel look, including the tank (which I need to get a new one because the current one is rusted through and leaks a little). I also bought some side cover emblems on ebay for about $10 and got the hardware needed to mount the side covers at Home Depot. The stock bushing that you are supposed to use are available on ebay for about $20. Instead, I got some rubber washers and some vinyl tubing that will do the same thing for a couple bucks.

The actual bike show wasn't exactly what I expected. They were looking for pristine or restored original bikes. Not modded cafe racers. But I had fun, saw some awesome bikes and met some cool people. It was in Marietta so it was a good 40 minute ride over to there. Since Nixon was in the show, I had to stay there the whole time so I got kind of bored (and hot) at the end. I didn't win any awards, but I wasn't really expecting to.

See my pictures from the VJMC Show May 9, 2009