atomsplitter
Living Legend
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2007
- Messages
- 2,774
- Location
- Keller, TX
- Ride
- 17 T-120 Black, 20 Bobber Black, 98 Trophy 1200
It turned out the adjusting screw that adjusts clutch free play and clutch rod engagement was sitting in one of the boxes we had for left over parts after assembly of the machine. A minor bit that was indeed a smidgen more important than one would immediately surmise from just its appearance. After correcting the oversight it was time for another test and Ralph was in no mood to be the Guinea Pig a second time. That left me to give it a go as Mark wanted nothing to do with the testing phase of this project. Like Ralph I fired the engine and paddle walked it to the edge of Mark's yard and aimed it at the ditch between fields. I pulled in the clutch lever and decided NOT to rev the engine, but instead pulled the front brake lever to the stop. If the bike jumped into gear again I wanted it to kill the engine, vice me. I pushed the gear shift down for first gear and the bike gave a small buck and sat still idling. Progress. I released the front brake and the bike started forward on its own. I killed the engine and had Ralph bring over some tools to adjust the clutch free play. This was a matter of backing off a lock nut and using a screwdriver to adjust the clutch rod play. When Ralph screwed the adjuster in a quarter turn the clutch lever moved outward a tad. Ralph locked it down and I re-fired the engine, held the clutch and brake and chunked it into gear. I got the same bucking upon hitting the gear but when I released the brake lever the bike just sat there idling peacefully. I slowly released the clutch lever and the engine began to slow as the bike began rolling forward. Cool beans.
I aimed the bike at the grassy ditch and gave it a little gas and let the clutch out. The bike went across the gravel road and down the ditch without any problems. I gave it more gas and it picked up speed quickly. Because we had gone minimalist during reconstruction there was no tachometer or speedometer on the handle bars, it was all a guess as to speed and engine RPM. I was bouncing through the ditch avoiding trees, boulders, birds and bushes best I could while trying not to feed to much power to the back tire. I made it about a third the way across when I began to feel more confident and considered maybe trying to change gears and add some gas. I pulled in the clutch, toed up the shift lever, released the clutch and gave it some gas. At that moment there was a warp drive effect that occurred on my vision in that the trees, birds and boulders were flying by in a rapidly increasing and somewhat alarming blur. It occurred to me at that moment that I probably should have purchased some goggles or maybe a helmet to keep the eyeball flattening wind, deep grass fountain of bugs and gravel flying off the front wheel from obscuring my vision at break neck speed. (I was fairly confident neck breakage was not far off.) As I was trying to decipher the blur of objects whizzing past my cranium, the next thing I was keenly aware of was the absence of a gravitational constant. It had not occurred to me up to then to simply let off the throttle, things were proceeding too rapidly to comprehend a simple task like turn the gas off. Something I have through experience learned, but again she's a fickle *itch. I had just reached the end of the ditch and had hit that steep incline up to the county road. I found I was sailing about four feet above the county road as my vision cleared and it dawned on me right then I had no idea of what kind of traffic might be lumbering down this particular bit of tarmac. Local farmers were known to use this road to ferry their farm implements between fields, such goodies as tractors, hay balers, wheat threshers, sickle mowers, vibra-shank harrows and other sundry implements of destruction. Since I was suspended between heaven and Earth and not in control of much, (including bodily functions at that moment) I had the opportunity to survey the surroundings and thankfully found it blissfully vacant of habitation. When the bike came back to terra-firma I had to clamp the front brake to avoid rolling into the far side ditch, the one strewn with Volkswagen sized boulders of limestone, broken beer bottles, and debris bounced from a thousand pickup truck beds. I did a U-turn on the county road and headed back down the ditch I had just come up. I made it back to Mark's in good shape by put-putting in first gear, and I was only a few shades paler than normal and most likely had a fresh racing stripe on my shorts.
From their vantage point on Mark's porch they could see I had made it to the county road.
"How was it?" Ralph inquired.
"Smooth as butter," I lied.
"Any problems?," he asked.
"No," I said, "just be sure to give it the beans in second or better yet third when you get to the county road, otherwise it could stall before you get to the top."
Ralph hasn't talked to me in years......
I aimed the bike at the grassy ditch and gave it a little gas and let the clutch out. The bike went across the gravel road and down the ditch without any problems. I gave it more gas and it picked up speed quickly. Because we had gone minimalist during reconstruction there was no tachometer or speedometer on the handle bars, it was all a guess as to speed and engine RPM. I was bouncing through the ditch avoiding trees, boulders, birds and bushes best I could while trying not to feed to much power to the back tire. I made it about a third the way across when I began to feel more confident and considered maybe trying to change gears and add some gas. I pulled in the clutch, toed up the shift lever, released the clutch and gave it some gas. At that moment there was a warp drive effect that occurred on my vision in that the trees, birds and boulders were flying by in a rapidly increasing and somewhat alarming blur. It occurred to me at that moment that I probably should have purchased some goggles or maybe a helmet to keep the eyeball flattening wind, deep grass fountain of bugs and gravel flying off the front wheel from obscuring my vision at break neck speed. (I was fairly confident neck breakage was not far off.) As I was trying to decipher the blur of objects whizzing past my cranium, the next thing I was keenly aware of was the absence of a gravitational constant. It had not occurred to me up to then to simply let off the throttle, things were proceeding too rapidly to comprehend a simple task like turn the gas off. Something I have through experience learned, but again she's a fickle *itch. I had just reached the end of the ditch and had hit that steep incline up to the county road. I found I was sailing about four feet above the county road as my vision cleared and it dawned on me right then I had no idea of what kind of traffic might be lumbering down this particular bit of tarmac. Local farmers were known to use this road to ferry their farm implements between fields, such goodies as tractors, hay balers, wheat threshers, sickle mowers, vibra-shank harrows and other sundry implements of destruction. Since I was suspended between heaven and Earth and not in control of much, (including bodily functions at that moment) I had the opportunity to survey the surroundings and thankfully found it blissfully vacant of habitation. When the bike came back to terra-firma I had to clamp the front brake to avoid rolling into the far side ditch, the one strewn with Volkswagen sized boulders of limestone, broken beer bottles, and debris bounced from a thousand pickup truck beds. I did a U-turn on the county road and headed back down the ditch I had just come up. I made it back to Mark's in good shape by put-putting in first gear, and I was only a few shades paler than normal and most likely had a fresh racing stripe on my shorts.
From their vantage point on Mark's porch they could see I had made it to the county road.
"How was it?" Ralph inquired.
"Smooth as butter," I lied.
"Any problems?," he asked.
"No," I said, "just be sure to give it the beans in second or better yet third when you get to the county road, otherwise it could stall before you get to the top."
Ralph hasn't talked to me in years......
