Messages, Searching & Trips

A lot of miles in a car. Not my idea of an ideal trip but my daughter enjoyed it, and honestly, so did I.

A week ago, my daughter, her boyfriend and I embarked on a road trip from Las Vegas to New Boston, IL to see my family. Oil problems in Utah, going down the wrong way on a one way in Colorado, flat tire in Colorado, motel fire alarm and emergency vehicles in Iowa City...

By most definitions this was indeed an adventure and a good trip. Pics and commentary soon.

Ever have a 'sign' come up and smack you on the face, saying, "Hey, ya, I'm talking to YOU?"

Little Geeky Sunday

On call...
Lack of sleep...
Nice thunderstorm last night...
Saving my clutch on Athena until I can afford a clutch job...
Cannot concentrate on my book of the moment ("Alas Shrugged," by Ayn Rand)...
Taking several peoples' advice and not working on my project bike, Vixen for about a month...

So, I turn back to an old hobby... Ham Radio. I spent yesterday afternoon mounting my antenna to a ladder in my little 'patio' area, tuning everything up, and... No signals. Bands are pretty much dead.

What that generally means is that there is no ionospheric propagation for the frequencies I can use. Ionospheric propagation is the bouncing of radio signals off the ionosphere, allowing a radio signal to travel thousands of miles. Well, there was none. The ionosphere is excited by unsettled space weather - sunspots. Very few sunspots, very little ionospheric propagation.

So, I built a little ham radio geek website while cleaning house. KC7RAD's Ham Radio Mashup Page. Eh... Why not...

Switching Gears

It is time for a hiatus from my restoration project. The last attempt at cleaning the carburetors yielded nice shiny aluminum and brass that seemed to fit well and meet all service manual specifications.

What I actually got was a rear carb that spat out fuel as if it were being dumped on the ground. Likely suspect in this is the float or needle valve.

The operation of removing the carburetor is not minor. Several electrical connections must be disconnected, several cables removed, fuel lines disconnected and the airbox partially disassembled and carefully slid out of place. As much desire there is to take care of these issues, the Las Vegas heat expressed in the garage is just too much.

Combine that with Atena's clutch and other maintenance items needing attention, and the result is obvious. My VX800 needs to be shelved for a short while. It is better to have a well maintained, rideable bike than several partially rideable ones.