Bike Mags gone by…

Good buddy Buzz Kanter, publisher of American Iron magazine, posted an interesting list on Facebook yesterday.  It’s the motorcycle magazines that have folded their tents since 1998.   I asked Buzz if I could post it here and Buzz said it was okay:

American Rider
American Thunder
Big Twin
Biker
Biker Parties
Cycle News
Cycle World Buyers Guide
Dirt Bike Buyers Guide
Easyriders
Easyriders’ Buyers Guide
Hot Bike
Hot Bike Specials
Hot Rod Bikes
Indian Motorcycle Illustrated
In The Wind
Iron Horse
IronWorks
Motorcycle Cruiser
Motorcycle Performance
Motorcycle Price Guide
Motorcycle Shopper
Motorcycle Tour & Cruiser
Motorcyclist
Motorcyclist Buyers Guide
MX Racer
Old Bike Journal
On The Road
Outlaw Biker
Outlaw Biker Presents
Quick Throttle
Sport Rider
Twistgrip
V-Twin
VQ
Walnecks Classic Cycle Trader

Buzz’s magazine, American Iron, is still going strong and it is still published every 4 weeks (I can’t imagine publishing to that kind of schedule, but Buzz, Steve Lita, and the AIM crew somehow make it happen).  The focus at AIM is on U.S. motorcycles, great writing, and great photography, and it all works.  I don’t own a Harley or an Indian and I still enjoy reading American Iron.  If you want to subscribe to AIM (and I think you should), you can do so here.

Buzz is an interesting guy.  Like a lot of riders, he’s a shooter, too, and I enjoy seeing his shooting-related posts on Facebook.  A lot of folks who are into motorcycles often have similar other interests, including shooting, cameras and photography, watches, bicycles, travel, and more.  It’s what drives the kind of things we talk about here on ExhaustNotes.

So what’s coming up?   Good stuff, my friends.  Arjiu is headed to Bonneville in the near future.  I’m doing the 2019 Three Flags Classic on a CSC RX4.   Good buddy J and I just got back from a deer hunt scouting expedition (whoa, the mosquitoes sure got us good).  And more.  There’s always more, so stay tuned!


Do you have an interesting story you’d like to share here on ExNotes?  Send it to us (info@ExhaustNotes.us), and if it is right for the blog, we’ll post it here.  Don’t worry about typos or spelling errors…our editorial crew is standing by and if there are any mistakes, we’ll fix ’em!


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Check out the Sierra Mountain Passes website from our good buddies J and Val!

Table Salt – Prepping a Husky for Bonneville

Selecting A Bonneville Ride

It amazes me when guys post photos of their garages full of motorcycles and every one of them runs. You can hop on any motorcycle they own and it’ll start right up and function perfectly, like the day it left the factory. I’m amazed but unaffected. Those people might as well be from Pluto. Here on earth, my motorcycle collection continues to fall apart faster than I can put it back together.

Your hard-working ExhaustNotes.us correspondent is headed to the Bonneville Salt Flats in a few weeks and since I don’t want to try and mooch a loaner motorcycle on such short notice that means I’ll have to ride one of my clunkers.

The obvious choice would be one of the big Kawasaki street bikes except neither the Z1900 or the ZRX1100 are close to running. I could take Godzilla, it always runs, but this ride will have some high speed sections and while Godzilla can run 70 mph on the highway she gets 30 miles per gallon doing it.

The Husqvarna 510 SMR

So that leaves the most uncomfortable bike I own, a Husqvarna 510 SMR for long distance touring. The Husky is not without its problems, though. The fork seals are puking oil all over the front tire and if they didn’t hold ¾ of a quart in each leg I’d just let the forks bleed out and ride the thing as is.

Husqvarna Fork Repair

Amazon had the seal kits I needed and after watching a few how-to videos on YouTube I took apart the upside-downies. The forks came apart easily. I’d say no harder than the right-side-up forks I’m used to. Man, they do hold some oil!

Pressing in the new seal required a custom PVC seal tool that I copied from a YouTuber and you’ll need to remember to pre-install all the parts in the correct order or you’ll have to start all over. After reassembly I dumped some 5wt fork oil inside and primed the damper rod to get all the air bubbles out. I was dreading this job but it was easy as pie.  Don’t fear the new style forks, my brothers.

Husqvarna Chain Replacement

The Husqvarna’s chain had 11,000 miles on it and it was still in fair shape. I think I could have easily gotten another 3000 or so miles on it but I’m not riding solo on this trip and I don’t want to be That Guy. The RK chain I ordered came with one of those rivet-type master links. The kind of master link that I hate.

I’ve got it half-assed riveted but will need CT to hold a backing hammer against the pins while I do a more through job of peening over the hollow head of the link. I know I should use the correct chain riveting tool but at some point you’ve got to stop buying every tool for every job. Don’t make your loved ones last memories of you be bitter resentment for having to dispose of your junk. I’m bringing along the old, clip-type link just in case.

Husqvarna Lever Repair

A while back I broke the clutch lever when I dropped the Husky on a muddy trail at Big Bend Park in Texas. The little stub lever was working ok mostly because the clutch itself had quit working due to a bad O-ring on the slave cylinder. You know me: I keep my stuff in top shape. I priced a new lever and they were more than a Mini Motor top end overhaul kit, my new gold standard of affordability.

I had a donor lever in stock and hacked it to the proper length. Next, I used some of that Harbor Freight aluminum-welding rod that works with a regular torch. It’s odd stuff. You have to scratch and push the rod to get it to stick to your base metal and the work tends to fall away without warning. The rods work great on flat welds but things did not go too well with the lever. After melting two sticks of the welding rod I had a nice, tumorous blob to cut away and grind smooth. It looks like hell, there’s no two ways about it.

The fault line on the repaired lever matches the pre-cut, breakaway slots that came from the factory. We will see if the chewing gum will hold. I may be forced into buying a new lever but not today.

Since the Bonneville area does not have many motel rooms and the few they do have are expensive we will be camping at the KOA. I hate camping on a motorcycle because all the junk you need to carry makes the ride so much less enjoyable. My next project will be fabricating a pipe cage to fit around the Husky’s existing luggage rack. This will give me a secure place to strap all the camping gear: right before it catches fire and falls into the wheel.


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