What I've Been Doing
Posted: 2023-01-27 08:35am
Hi. Haven't posted here for a while, and I wanted to say hello and share some stuff that's been going on over the last few years. Anyway, I told Shark to look out for this thread, so I reckon I better make it.
Well, as that little story by that hack you yanks like to go on about says, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times". Yeah, it's been pretty stiff in places, but also some major accomplishments.
Some of you may remember that my son's severely autistic (Level 3) (The Three Levels of Autism) (although he talks closer to L2, really). Diagnosed around 3, now about 14, and puberty does not agree with severely autistic boys very well at all. Talk about fucking mood swings.
Anyway, about three years ago (or something), his sister, after some problems I won't go too deeply into here, got some free counselling and an autism test, and hey, guess what! She's Level 2!
And their mother also got some counselling, and an autism test, and hey, guess what! She's Level 2, too! All daddy's chillun have autism.
So, for the last few years, we've been dealing with that, and trying to fix everything back into some kind of stable, working, form.
But...I said there was good shit, too. It hasn't all been blood and broken glass (actually, there hasn't been any blood or broken glass, I just mean metaphorical blood and broken glass).
I've been working on a sidecar for years. How many years? Well, if you want to include the time when the project was just sitting around gathering dust for more than a decade, then for about 16 years. Well, now it is FUCKING DONE! Do you know what a bloody pain in the arse engineers are, trying to get them to approve something? Christ almighty... The bike I was originally going to put it on, the Dnepr? Wasn't strong enough, and I snapped the crankshaft trying, so I ended up getting a Suzuki VS1400. It's funny, because I don't really like the cruiser look--it's OK, but I prefer more the vintage BMW look (like the dnepr)--but the VS had the power I needed in a narrow package, and because the sidecar's wide, and there's a 2 metre legal width limit, it needed to be narrow.
(The sidecar must have been made interstate. We had to cut bits off to make it legal. There's NO WAY it was under 2m before).
But it's been approved, it runs good, and most importantly, I CAN NOW TAKE MY FAMILY PLACES! It's been approved to carry four people, two on the bike, two in the sidecar. WE ARE FUCKING MOBILE!
(Also, my son will get in the sidecar, and seems to like it. I couldn't take him anywhere before, because he wouldn't get on the back of the bike. He sat on there once, as it idled, and then got off and said he was never getting on again. And that was an FJ1300, I mean, quiet and smooth compared to the VS. But a bunch more powerful. I was going to use it to pull the sidecar, but the welder had one look and said "NO" Aluminium half-frame and the engine as a stressed member? The sidecar would rip the bike in half.)
It's a really big thing for us. I'll try to get some photos of the thing and post it here.
As for the dnepr, well, I had to replace the crankshaft, so I get a new crankshaft (expensive. Being an idiot and snapping a crankshaft is an expensive hobby. I recommend against it) from my guy in Estonia. When I get it, straight off the warehouse shelf, never been used, the journals are too small to fit the conrod big ends--measuring it up, and the never-been-used crankshaft had journals down at the smallest re-machining diametre allowed, which put it about 1.5mm smaller than it should have been new. I trust my Estonian guy (and anyway, the crankshaft was caked in that ancient preservative grease stuff, definetely looked like it had been on a shelf for most of fifty years), so what I figure happened was Ivan had been hitting the vodka pretty hard, screwed up, and then had to machine it down as far as it would go to fix it. Throw it out? Gotta make quota!
Anyway, I fix that with some thicker half-rings, and put it back together and after some trouble get it running again, but it lacked power and was blowing a lot of smoke. I at this stage was pretty emotionally done due to other things so I got in contact with a business called Classic Motorcycle Restorations.
He checked the pistons and cylinders, told me the rings were clapped out, measured the cylinders with a pair of calipers (twice), and told me to get some 73.2mm rings. Fortunately, all the cylinders would heed was a hone out, though, not a rebore. I also noticed the pistons were...wrong... They had had the bottom half of the skirt cut off for god knows what reason, so I decided I'd repace them, too.
But before I did so, I called the guy again to triple check that measurement. Yep. 73.2mm.
When I received the pistons and rings, things were still difficult elsewhere and I had no emotional capacity for more problems, so I paid a bloke to take the bike and all to CMR and let them deal with it.
Time passed. I heard nothing. Finally he tells me three different stories, one of which is that his mechanic quit so he can't do the job anymore (I can't rermember what the other two were), and he demanded I remove the bike from his premises or he'd start charging me rent (he actually scared my wife his his threats, fuck him). So about a week or so later (no rush. Again, fuck him) I get the bike back and start putting it back together myself, nicely honed cylinders, new pistons...and the pistons don't fit. They're too big. That stupid fucking arsehole had mis-measured the cylinders by measuring a place where it had been badly worn, which meant they actually needed to be rebored anyway. $300 for transport and honing that I may as well have just set fire too. For insult to injury, after the rebore, they of course needed to be rehoned.
Found someone else to do that. Some guy who'd been doing cylinders all his life, and had now retired and was only doing bikes and hobby jobs. He did a good job, too, as far as I can tell. Beautifully snug, but slides smoothly.
Sooo... put it all back together again (I am so sick of pulling that bloody thing apart), start it up, and, hmmm.... Not blowing any smoke anymore but very difficult to start, idles very fast (but if I turn the idle down, I can't start it), but riding it, it's absolutely gutless. Hmmm...
Still no capacity to deal, so I send it off to an old friend who I'd gotten back in contact with (we lost touch when his wife got breast cancer and he couldn't run or play games anymore. She's since died. By Samantha. I'll always remember your dwarf on a war-boar) who had opened up his own mechanic's shop. He's found that when it's running, if you take the oil cap off, it blows engine oil up into your face, so gas pressure is actually rushing past the pistons into the engine case. Which would explain why it's so gutless. But why is the questions. My friend knows and respects the old bloke who did the rebore, so maybe I put the rings in upside down or something stupid.
Whatever it is, we'll get to the bottom of it. That bike will run again.
But of course, neither of those are the really big news. We have acheived something that people like us (pensioners with disabled kids, no jobs) really shouldn't be able to, and we have worked so hard for it, and we hae actually made it a thing, and...
Oh, will you look at that time. It's well past midnight. I really should go to bed. Night, all.
Well, as that little story by that hack you yanks like to go on about says, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times". Yeah, it's been pretty stiff in places, but also some major accomplishments.
Some of you may remember that my son's severely autistic (Level 3) (The Three Levels of Autism) (although he talks closer to L2, really). Diagnosed around 3, now about 14, and puberty does not agree with severely autistic boys very well at all. Talk about fucking mood swings.
Anyway, about three years ago (or something), his sister, after some problems I won't go too deeply into here, got some free counselling and an autism test, and hey, guess what! She's Level 2!
And their mother also got some counselling, and an autism test, and hey, guess what! She's Level 2, too! All daddy's chillun have autism.
So, for the last few years, we've been dealing with that, and trying to fix everything back into some kind of stable, working, form.
But...I said there was good shit, too. It hasn't all been blood and broken glass (actually, there hasn't been any blood or broken glass, I just mean metaphorical blood and broken glass).
I've been working on a sidecar for years. How many years? Well, if you want to include the time when the project was just sitting around gathering dust for more than a decade, then for about 16 years. Well, now it is FUCKING DONE! Do you know what a bloody pain in the arse engineers are, trying to get them to approve something? Christ almighty... The bike I was originally going to put it on, the Dnepr? Wasn't strong enough, and I snapped the crankshaft trying, so I ended up getting a Suzuki VS1400. It's funny, because I don't really like the cruiser look--it's OK, but I prefer more the vintage BMW look (like the dnepr)--but the VS had the power I needed in a narrow package, and because the sidecar's wide, and there's a 2 metre legal width limit, it needed to be narrow.
(The sidecar must have been made interstate. We had to cut bits off to make it legal. There's NO WAY it was under 2m before).
But it's been approved, it runs good, and most importantly, I CAN NOW TAKE MY FAMILY PLACES! It's been approved to carry four people, two on the bike, two in the sidecar. WE ARE FUCKING MOBILE!
(Also, my son will get in the sidecar, and seems to like it. I couldn't take him anywhere before, because he wouldn't get on the back of the bike. He sat on there once, as it idled, and then got off and said he was never getting on again. And that was an FJ1300, I mean, quiet and smooth compared to the VS. But a bunch more powerful. I was going to use it to pull the sidecar, but the welder had one look and said "NO" Aluminium half-frame and the engine as a stressed member? The sidecar would rip the bike in half.)
It's a really big thing for us. I'll try to get some photos of the thing and post it here.
As for the dnepr, well, I had to replace the crankshaft, so I get a new crankshaft (expensive. Being an idiot and snapping a crankshaft is an expensive hobby. I recommend against it) from my guy in Estonia. When I get it, straight off the warehouse shelf, never been used, the journals are too small to fit the conrod big ends--measuring it up, and the never-been-used crankshaft had journals down at the smallest re-machining diametre allowed, which put it about 1.5mm smaller than it should have been new. I trust my Estonian guy (and anyway, the crankshaft was caked in that ancient preservative grease stuff, definetely looked like it had been on a shelf for most of fifty years), so what I figure happened was Ivan had been hitting the vodka pretty hard, screwed up, and then had to machine it down as far as it would go to fix it. Throw it out? Gotta make quota!
Anyway, I fix that with some thicker half-rings, and put it back together and after some trouble get it running again, but it lacked power and was blowing a lot of smoke. I at this stage was pretty emotionally done due to other things so I got in contact with a business called Classic Motorcycle Restorations.
He checked the pistons and cylinders, told me the rings were clapped out, measured the cylinders with a pair of calipers (twice), and told me to get some 73.2mm rings. Fortunately, all the cylinders would heed was a hone out, though, not a rebore. I also noticed the pistons were...wrong... They had had the bottom half of the skirt cut off for god knows what reason, so I decided I'd repace them, too.
But before I did so, I called the guy again to triple check that measurement. Yep. 73.2mm.
When I received the pistons and rings, things were still difficult elsewhere and I had no emotional capacity for more problems, so I paid a bloke to take the bike and all to CMR and let them deal with it.
Time passed. I heard nothing. Finally he tells me three different stories, one of which is that his mechanic quit so he can't do the job anymore (I can't rermember what the other two were), and he demanded I remove the bike from his premises or he'd start charging me rent (he actually scared my wife his his threats, fuck him). So about a week or so later (no rush. Again, fuck him) I get the bike back and start putting it back together myself, nicely honed cylinders, new pistons...and the pistons don't fit. They're too big. That stupid fucking arsehole had mis-measured the cylinders by measuring a place where it had been badly worn, which meant they actually needed to be rebored anyway. $300 for transport and honing that I may as well have just set fire too. For insult to injury, after the rebore, they of course needed to be rehoned.
Found someone else to do that. Some guy who'd been doing cylinders all his life, and had now retired and was only doing bikes and hobby jobs. He did a good job, too, as far as I can tell. Beautifully snug, but slides smoothly.
Sooo... put it all back together again (I am so sick of pulling that bloody thing apart), start it up, and, hmmm.... Not blowing any smoke anymore but very difficult to start, idles very fast (but if I turn the idle down, I can't start it), but riding it, it's absolutely gutless. Hmmm...
Still no capacity to deal, so I send it off to an old friend who I'd gotten back in contact with (we lost touch when his wife got breast cancer and he couldn't run or play games anymore. She's since died. By Samantha. I'll always remember your dwarf on a war-boar) who had opened up his own mechanic's shop. He's found that when it's running, if you take the oil cap off, it blows engine oil up into your face, so gas pressure is actually rushing past the pistons into the engine case. Which would explain why it's so gutless. But why is the questions. My friend knows and respects the old bloke who did the rebore, so maybe I put the rings in upside down or something stupid.
Whatever it is, we'll get to the bottom of it. That bike will run again.
But of course, neither of those are the really big news. We have acheived something that people like us (pensioners with disabled kids, no jobs) really shouldn't be able to, and we have worked so hard for it, and we hae actually made it a thing, and...
Oh, will you look at that time. It's well past midnight. I really should go to bed. Night, all.