June, already...
2014-Jun-27, Friday 13:04![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
texxgadgetPlease forgive me, its been 5 months since my last post...
I was unable to thrive at Responsys.
I realized in March that I needed to hang on til my 1st anniversary and then get out of there.
Oracle bought us in Jan.
Over 5 weeks in April & May, 3 of us left.
1 guy got what he thought was his dream job.
The guy I was closest to had just plain had it and was leaving with no idea where he was going next.
And I left on my 1 year anniversary, had 3 days to run errands and started my new gig.
I ended up going back to contracting from full time, but at least I like it here.
For the holiday party, I got an Argyle jacket to go with one the kilts.
This gives me the equivalent of "black tie" dress from 1800 to present.
I wore the solid black kilt, dress sporran, black hose, red flashes, black vest, and the jacket.
The formal shirt I ordered to go with it didnt arrive in time,
but I wore a regular white dress shirt with red bow tie and it all looked great.
I coupled this with a crewcut (my 1st hair cut in months) and a full facial shave.
Im not sure how long its been since i was full shaven.
The reactions from people were spectacular.
The theme was "International Festival Attire"
The other kilt there was in Gordon tartan, but a less formal.
BTW, my kilt count includes a great kilt, a solid black formal, a Utilikilt regular in orange camo,
a Utilikilt Workman in black, and a Utilikilt Mocker in black pinstripe with vest.
The mocker & vest look great with a short sleeve dress shirt.
In early May, I had a mishap with the car.
I was enroute to work at start finish for the Miwok 100km foot race.
Going out highway1 towards Stinson Beach, I was hugging the hill side of the road.
Front passenger wheel hit a rock and the car went up on the 2 driverside wheels and then slammed down.
Witnesses thought I was going to roll.
I had the car towed home while i worked the event.
A week later, they had replaced a control arm and 2 tie rods and it seems to be ok now.
Im prepping up for working the El Cerrito 4th of July festival.
I will be attached to main stage and to KECG-FM
I got back to work on "Blue Tango" my red motorcycle. (I cant explain, it is what it is)
Last time I tried to get it going, it would not run without the choke engaged.
Ive been through the carbs several times and cant find the fault.
A month or 2 back, I realized I was test firing the engine with out the air cleaners and that might be
causing the mixture to have too much air.
Im ready to try again.
I bought this bike partially disassembled as it was in the middle of an overhaul.
The previous owner had rebuilt the front fork but hadnt put in fluid.
It took a while to figure out what size wrench was required to unscrew the plug in the top of each fork.
Then it took a while to get a 17mm hex allen key by itself (I didnt need a $100 set)
Tuesday this week I got into it.
I was warned that there is a strong spring under the plug, so when it came loose, I didnt get an extra hole in my head.
I added around 280cc of fork fluid. I now think I used too light a viscosity, but we will see.
I went to put the spring back in and realized 1 end was coiled tighter than the other and I didnt remember which end was up.
I removed the other plug to check the other tube and the bike settled all the way down and there was more spring than ever to be compressed.
That other fork tube had been holding the bike up. Well... that was a pretty stupid move....
I wedged a jack between the front fender and the under side of the instrument cluster and pumped things up.
The clamps on the upper & lower triple tree were loose and I didnt notice that id pumped the upper triple tree right off the top of the for tubes and it was getting dark. REALLY REALLY DUMB!
I pulled the springs & wrapped them for storage and got the plugs in to keep junk out of the insides of the forks & packed up for the night.
Thursday, I took a pipe cap and put a 17mm bolt through it.
I put the cap on a ft of pipe and put a tee on the end and a couple stups into the tee.
This gave me a huge tee shaped 17mm allen wrench.
I tried the jack under the engine and lifted the bike till the front wheel left the ground.
Now I had the leverage to compress the plugs on top of the springs and work through the clamps of the triple tree.
Now that there springs in the fork tubes, the forks telescoped back to normal length.
Removing the jack, I tightened the plugs in the tubes till the tubes started to rotate.
That was enough to get the tubes back up through the triple tree and then I tightened the triple tree clamp.
I was picked up by dark.
Now its time to try again on the carbs. I MIGHT get this going by end of summer.
Future tasks for this bike:
Have fuel tank flushed
Replace the "Bikini" fairing with a Vetter "Pacifico"
Touch up paint chips
Additions to electrical system to support radio.
Cargo shelf on back
Antenna mounts
Additional lighting
Have seat recovered
Cargo boxes
Ill try to post more after July4
I was unable to thrive at Responsys.
I realized in March that I needed to hang on til my 1st anniversary and then get out of there.
Oracle bought us in Jan.
Over 5 weeks in April & May, 3 of us left.
1 guy got what he thought was his dream job.
The guy I was closest to had just plain had it and was leaving with no idea where he was going next.
And I left on my 1 year anniversary, had 3 days to run errands and started my new gig.
I ended up going back to contracting from full time, but at least I like it here.
For the holiday party, I got an Argyle jacket to go with one the kilts.
This gives me the equivalent of "black tie" dress from 1800 to present.
I wore the solid black kilt, dress sporran, black hose, red flashes, black vest, and the jacket.
The formal shirt I ordered to go with it didnt arrive in time,
but I wore a regular white dress shirt with red bow tie and it all looked great.
I coupled this with a crewcut (my 1st hair cut in months) and a full facial shave.
Im not sure how long its been since i was full shaven.
The reactions from people were spectacular.
The theme was "International Festival Attire"
The other kilt there was in Gordon tartan, but a less formal.
BTW, my kilt count includes a great kilt, a solid black formal, a Utilikilt regular in orange camo,
a Utilikilt Workman in black, and a Utilikilt Mocker in black pinstripe with vest.
The mocker & vest look great with a short sleeve dress shirt.
In early May, I had a mishap with the car.
I was enroute to work at start finish for the Miwok 100km foot race.
Going out highway1 towards Stinson Beach, I was hugging the hill side of the road.
Front passenger wheel hit a rock and the car went up on the 2 driverside wheels and then slammed down.
Witnesses thought I was going to roll.
I had the car towed home while i worked the event.
A week later, they had replaced a control arm and 2 tie rods and it seems to be ok now.
Im prepping up for working the El Cerrito 4th of July festival.
I will be attached to main stage and to KECG-FM
I got back to work on "Blue Tango" my red motorcycle. (I cant explain, it is what it is)
Last time I tried to get it going, it would not run without the choke engaged.
Ive been through the carbs several times and cant find the fault.
A month or 2 back, I realized I was test firing the engine with out the air cleaners and that might be
causing the mixture to have too much air.
Im ready to try again.
I bought this bike partially disassembled as it was in the middle of an overhaul.
The previous owner had rebuilt the front fork but hadnt put in fluid.
It took a while to figure out what size wrench was required to unscrew the plug in the top of each fork.
Then it took a while to get a 17mm hex allen key by itself (I didnt need a $100 set)
Tuesday this week I got into it.
I was warned that there is a strong spring under the plug, so when it came loose, I didnt get an extra hole in my head.
I added around 280cc of fork fluid. I now think I used too light a viscosity, but we will see.
I went to put the spring back in and realized 1 end was coiled tighter than the other and I didnt remember which end was up.
I removed the other plug to check the other tube and the bike settled all the way down and there was more spring than ever to be compressed.
That other fork tube had been holding the bike up. Well... that was a pretty stupid move....
I wedged a jack between the front fender and the under side of the instrument cluster and pumped things up.
The clamps on the upper & lower triple tree were loose and I didnt notice that id pumped the upper triple tree right off the top of the for tubes and it was getting dark. REALLY REALLY DUMB!
I pulled the springs & wrapped them for storage and got the plugs in to keep junk out of the insides of the forks & packed up for the night.
Thursday, I took a pipe cap and put a 17mm bolt through it.
I put the cap on a ft of pipe and put a tee on the end and a couple stups into the tee.
This gave me a huge tee shaped 17mm allen wrench.
I tried the jack under the engine and lifted the bike till the front wheel left the ground.
Now I had the leverage to compress the plugs on top of the springs and work through the clamps of the triple tree.
Now that there springs in the fork tubes, the forks telescoped back to normal length.
Removing the jack, I tightened the plugs in the tubes till the tubes started to rotate.
That was enough to get the tubes back up through the triple tree and then I tightened the triple tree clamp.
I was picked up by dark.
Now its time to try again on the carbs. I MIGHT get this going by end of summer.
Future tasks for this bike:
Have fuel tank flushed
Replace the "Bikini" fairing with a Vetter "Pacifico"
Touch up paint chips
Additions to electrical system to support radio.
Cargo shelf on back
Antenna mounts
Additional lighting
Have seat recovered
Cargo boxes
Ill try to post more after July4
