Category: Amazon

Buell Fever Part 8: Slippery Business

By Joe Gresh

The stereotypical image of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle leaking oil has become a cultural icon. Dirty, unshaven and drunk riders astride seeping, smoking, rattling, home-built murdercycles were made popular in biker movies from the 1970’s and the image persists today.

How real is that image? I can’t say because my Buell was manufactured in 1995 but I hear new Harleys mostly don’t leak…much, if at all. My 30 year-old Buell leaked oil. Before we dive into the engine oil leak we have to get a few other leaks out of the way. .

You’ll remember all the trouble I had with the original Mikuni carburetor, the float needle leaked through various repair attempts and I thought I had the problem licked. The Buell ran good and got 50 miles to a gallon of gas. I took it out for a few rides and no carburetor leaks. Then I walked into the shed one day, straddled the Buell, hoisted it up straight and gas poured out the air cleaner. Like a lot of gas.

China, China, China.

That was the final straw for the original Mikuni carburetor. I replaced the entire unit with a Chinese clone carb from Amazon and the bike has never run better and it doesn’t leak out of the carburetor or the air cleaner. Thanks, Global Trade!

But here’s my question: why did the old carburetor overflow at all? I had the fuel petcock off, where did the gas running out of the carb come from, you may well ask?  Turns out the petcock was not completely shutting off as a steady drip of gasoline wormed its way past the 4-hole rubber seal in the petcock. Thus, the fuel shut-off was never really shut-off.

This isn’t the actual petcock gasket but you get the idea.

I took the petcock apart and flipped the 4-hole rubber seal around. That cured the fuel leaking to the carburetor in the off position but it created a bigger problem in that gas leaked out of the body of the petcock in all positions.

Finding a replacement rubber, 4-hole o-ring was uneventful as none were to be found. Instead, I bought a new petcock on Amazon and the new valve fixed the bypassing problem. But there was another gas leak.

The Buell has a roto-cast plastic gas tank under that pretty, race-bike inspired, but heavy, fiberglass bodywork. An aluminum gas cap flange screws onto the tank with a rubber gasket. This joint weeped gas when riding the bike. Not a lot, but annoying and enough to leave streaks of fuel mungus down the side of the gas tank.

Not so many parts to the Buell tank but the few that are there may leak.

Dismantling the flange, I discovered a check valve under the tank vent that needed to be removed before the flange would come off.

I got rid of this check valve. I expect the bike to burst into flames any minute.

The valve must have something to do with emissions control as it only let air into the tank. I’m sure this added to the float needle issue as the tank was under slight pressure just sitting in the warm New Mexico sun.

Fixing the flange leak was as easy as cleaning off the gasket. Blasting it with a little Permatex high-tack and reassembling the mess. I omitted the check valve to equalize the pressure between the tank and the Earth’s atmosphere. Of course now when the bike falls over it will leak gas like every other old motorcycle I own.

You can’t see it well in this photo but the rear cylinder is an oily mess.

With the gas leaks sorted I turned my attention to the oil leaks. The rear rocker cover was dribbling oil down the cylinder where turbulent air whisked it onto the battery and all points south. It wasn’t a huge leak but let’s just say the back of the Buell is not likely to rust anytime soon.

Luckily Erik built the S2 so that the rocker covers are removable without dropping the engine. I did have to cut an Allen wrench short to clear the frame tube, but it was an easy job all things considered.

It’s a snug fit but as long as you’re willing to chop your tools it’s do-able.

With the new rocker cover gaskets, I took the bike out for a spin and the rear cylinder puked oil as badly as ever. I figured the oil must be leaking from under the rocker box. I’m nothing if not persistent so I took the rocker covers back off and then the rocker boxes. (This year Sportster engine has 3-piece rocker assemblies)

The gaskets crumbled upon removal of the rocker boxes.

The paper gasket is under the rear rocker box was brittle and broken. I replaced both front and rear gaskets with a metal version of the paper gasket. I knew for sure I had the leak fixed.

On the test run the reassembled rear rocker leaked as bad as ever. Back to the shed and everything came apart again for the third time. I was pretty much out of ideas.

Studying the situation over the course of several days I observed the rear umbrella valve (a nickel-sized, round flapper-type deal in the rocker cover) was much harder than the front umbrella valve. Like hard plastic instead of soft rubber. I swapped both umbrella valves with new ones. Then assembled the mess thinking no way it could be those little valves.

This little valve caused the rear cylinder rocker cover leak.

I test rode the Buell 200 miles and no oil leaked out the rear cylinder. The battery area and aft sections were dry. Look, I’m not complaining. I can’t pin this on Harley’s image. 30-year old motorcycles are going to leak oil. Seals harden, gaskets dry up and split, 0-rings lose their O-ness and umbrella valves aren’t going to bounce.  Besides, I enjoy working on the Buell. It’s a weird, wonderful machine that fits no known stereotype.

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The Wayback Machine: CHiPs!

By Joe Berk

In the 1960s and 70s, you couldn’t turn on a TV and flip through the channels without encountering a cop show.   Hawaii Five O, Kojak, and more.  TV series had shifted from westerns to police drama, and TV was what many of us did in the evening.  Basically, we watched what the entertainment industry brainwashed us into watching.   It’s no small wonder a lot of guys my age wanted to be cops when they grew up.  Rick Rosner (a TV producer and one of the certifiably-smartest guys on the planet…Google him and you’ll see) was also an LA County Reserve Sheriff’s deputy.  One night while on duty during a coffee break (a donut may have been involved), he saw two CHP motor officers roll by.  That’s how and where the idea for CHiPs was born:  Motorcycles.  Southern California.  Police.  All the right pieces fell into place.

I had just returned from a year overseas (where I enjoyed nonstop good times during a 13-month party, courtesy of Uncle Sam) when CHiPs first aired in 1977.  It was hokey…the music, the scenes, the premise of nearly every episode, but it was motorcycles, and I never missed an episode.  The series ran for five or six years, and it featured two main characters:  Ponch Poncharello (played by Eric Estrada) and Jon (played by Larry Wilcox).  Their sergeant, Joe Getraer (played by Robert Pine) was also a regular on the show.

Guys like Gresh and me know that running a Z-1 Kawasaki through soft sand, up and down stairs, and other motoshenanigans doesn’t make a lot of sense (EDIT:  Maybe I’m wrong about this…see the video at the end of this blog).  But we’re mere mortals.  Ponch and Jon made the big Kawis behave in every episode.  It was all part of the story, and it was all set in and around Los Angeles.  That’s one of the reasons, I think, many of my early experiences in So Cal were like deja vu all over again when I moved here.  I’d seen all these places in CHiPs before I left Texas and came to California: Angeles Crest Highway, Malibu, downtown LA, the Pacific Coast Highway…the locations and the motorcycle scenes were burned into my brain.

Susie was putzing around on Facebook the other day when she found a local community bulletin board that said the CHiPs stars would be here for autographs and photos.  Did I want to go?  Hell, yeah!

Larry Wilcox, aka Jon Baker, signing a photo for me. He seemed like a genuine nice guy. In real life, Wilcox was a Marine in Vietnam who served in an artillery unit.  Wilcox is a year or two older than me.

The CHiPs show had a motor sergeant (Sergeant Joe Getraer) who was played by Robert Pine.  Pine was there as well, and he was happy to pose for a photograph.  Mr. Pine is 80 years old now.

Sergeant Joe Getraer, played by Robert Pine, who had a full time job keeping Ponch and Jon in line. Pine, like Estrada and Wilcox, had a welcoming personality. It was a fun day.

Erik Estrada was a central character in the show, the one who was always in some kind of trouble with Sergeant Getraer.  Ponch (his nickname, as in Ponch Poncharello) and Jon no doubt influenced a lot of guys to apply for jobs in the real California Highway Patrol.  The real California Highway Patrol had a real motor officer and a real CHP BMW at this event, along with a couple of patrol cars.

Susie and Erik Estrada.  All three of the CHiPs stars allowed everyone to take as many photos as they wanted.  There’s nothing pretentious about these guys.

There were a lot of things I enjoyed about this event.  We had to wait in line to get up to the table for autographs, but the wait wasn’t too bad and the event wasn’t rushed at all.  The weather was nice and it was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning.  Pine, Wilcox, and Estrada chatted with everybody, and Mr. Estrada walked the length of the line several times apologizing for the wait and telling us they were going as fast as they could.  There were a few people in line who were disabled, and Ponch helped them maneuver up to the picture-posing area (he was very friendly).  All three of the TV CHiPs seemed to have the same personalities as the characters they played 50 years ago, with Estrada being the most mischievous (and, where the ladies were involved, the most flirtatious).

I asked Estrada if he still rode and what kind of motorcycle he had.  It was a topic he wanted to talk about.  “Ponch” told me he sold his Harley Softail 20 years ago, and that he now owned one of the six Kawasaki police motors used on the show.  “The Teamsters gave it to me,” he said.  I thought that was pretty cool.

The other stars in the show were southern California, the California Highway Patrol, and the Kawasaki Police 1000 motorcycle.  I imagine CHiPs did a lot for CHP recruitment, and the Kawasaki police motorcycles did a lot for Kawasaki (in both the police and civilian markets).  It was a brilliant bit of product placement before product placement became a thing, and it led to a nearly complete bifurcation of the police motorcycle market.  Departments east of the Mississippi River stuck with Harley-Davidson, and departments west of the Mississippi went with Kawasaki (although that has changed in recent years).  If you are wondering how I know that, I did a fair amount of research for The Complete Book of Police and Military Motorcycles when I wrote it 20 years ago.

The Complete Book of Police and Military Motorcycles is back in print and you can purchase a copy for a low, low $9.95.

Whoa…check this out…it just happened yesterday right here in LA.  Who’d a thought?  The CHP on full dress Harleys chasing down a guy on a Kawasaki KLR 650, and staying with him on the freeways, splitting lanes, on surface streets, and off road.  These are CHiPs legends being created as this blog was being written!

Whatever the two CHP officers’ names are, you can bet they’re being called Ponch and Jon now!

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Why Are All My Friends Buying Harleys?

By Joe Berk

Don’t get excited; I don’t have that many friends.  But lately two of them (Baja John and Uncle Joe Gresh) both bought Harleys.  I guess I started thinking about it when I went to the gym yesterday morning.  There was an early Harley V-Rod parked in front.  It looked brand new.  It’s too bad that bike didn’t make it with the beer bellies and tattoos bunch.  Harley is on the skids now, struggling through a huge sales downturn and significant layoffs.  I guess they don’t know what to do.  I do (small bikes and even smaller prices; it ain’t rocket science, Milwaukee).  Eh, what do I know?

The V-Rod had me thinking about Baja John.  He bought a V-Rod last year.  I haven’t seen it yet, so I called John and asked him to send a photo.  It’s the one you see at the top of this blog.  I need to get out there to Arizona and visit with John again.  Maybe on the next pig hunt.  Maybe sooner.

And then there’s Gresh and his Buell.  I knew more about that motorcycle, as Sue and I hosted Gresh out here in La La Land when he came out to pick it up.   It’s a beautiful motorcycle, and it’s been fun watching Joe resurrect it.  He’s having fun.  It’s too bad Buell didn’t work out for Harley, either.  I thought those bikes might have been the answer.  Joe’s adventures have had me thinking maybe I need to find an older Buell to play with.  It would be fun.  But there aren’t too many Harley dealers around here anymore; they’ve been dropping like left wing loonies (sorry for the redundancy) at a MAGA rally.  Seriously.  Harley dealers are falling fast.  It’s a shame, really.

The upshot of the above, of course, is that if you are in the market for a Harley, this is probably a good time to buy.  I’ve owned two Harleys; one was a turd and the other was awesome.  They sure were beautiful, though.  Even the ’79 Electra-Glide (the turd) that treated me worse than Kamala Harris at a Toastmasters meeting was drop dead gorgeous.

I think if I was going to buy another motorcycle, it would be a Moto Guzzi.  The work I’ve been doing for Motorcycle Classics magazine with Cycle Garden in Indio cemented what I already felt:  Guzzis are the world’s most beautiful motorcycles.  I like the Ambassadors and El Dorados from the 1970s, and I also like the Griso.  I’m keeping my eyes peeled.  And there’s another plus on the Guzzis:  They sure are easy to maintain.

How easy?  Hey, buy a recent issue of Motorcycle Classics, turn to the “How To” section, and you’ll see.  The upcoming issue has a feature on how to de-rust a gas tank, and it’s pretty interesting.  I think you’ll like it.

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Buell Fever Part 4: I’ve Struck Oil!

By Joe Gresh

Part of the reason I bought a Buell was because my life has become too predictable. Except for the Husqvarna, you stand a good chance of getting where you’re going on my old bikes. And the Buell is not disappointing. Lots of fun stuff is happening as I work on getting the bike back on the road.

It’s such a joy to tinker on a single-carb motorcycle. There are no racks and synchronizing to deal with, you only have to do a thing once instead of four times, but watch out for those aftermarket parts. The kit I bought was okay, but the emulsion tube was not drilled properly. And then I managed to pinch the bowl o-ring.  It was cheaper to buy another kit than a single bowl gasket, so I did that. Unfortunately, that kit’s bowl o-ring was too small. No matter how I stretched it, it kept popping out of the bowl groove. I ended up reinstalling the pinched o-ring. It was a futile effort to keep my mechanical standards up.

It wouldn’t be a Harley without baling wire. The choke tube is plastic and was fragile after all these years. The choke knob was falling out of its slot. I broke the tube finger tightening the thing. Wire to the rescue!
The accelerator pump plumbing was clogged. I fished a small bit of wire through the passage to clear it.
The carb kit emulsion tube (right side) was not drilled correctly. I try to use all the old stuff if possible. So this was no great loss.
This brass nozzle sprays fuel from the accelerator pump. Supposedly the tube is removable for cleaning but it seems well stuck and I started to chew it up a bit so I stopped.

I’m a big fan of lithium batteries, so I bought a Vevor brand close in size to the original lead-acid battery. The Vevor was a bit small and the factory battery location is not far from the rear cylinder exhaust header. To help with the heat I wrapped the sides and front with foam, then wrapped gorilla tape around the mess to hold the foam insulation.

It looks a little rough but an insulated battery is a happy battery.

A neat feature on the Vevor is the dual posts (four total). There are positive and negative posts on both sides of the battery; if your cables are in the wrong place, just flip the battery around. I added a spacer on the hook side of the battery strap to keep it tight and a small tube spacer in the bolt side (less threading to do on the hold down bolt), which makes installation 12 seconds faster. When you ride a Buell every second counts. The battery seems secure; hopefully, it will stay put.  With the Vevor battery (supposedly 400 cranking amps) in place and the carb back on, I needed to hear the Buell run. The oil tank level was between the high and low marks. The oil looked clean, like it had just been changed.

I removed the spark plugs, put the coke machine key in the ignition, and spun the engine over to clear any excess oil from my previous cylinder lubing. With the sparkplugs back in the cylinder heads I pulled the choke, hit the right turn indicator button, and nothing happened.

Harley handlebar switches are so weird. Pushing the starter button on the inside of the blinker switch worked better, and the Buell fired up in a couple revolutions. The engine popped and farted a few times. Lots of smoke came out the tail pipe but all things considered, it was running good.  Then came a loud pop followed by a geyser of oil spewing from the oil tank. The oil broadcast in a 15-foot fan covering the general area with great dollops of thick oil. The spots were viscous, so they stood proud of my clean concrete floor. Except for the spot I was standing. I received a blast of spraying oil that covered my sweater and left a clean, Joe-shaped silhouette on the concrete floor.

My nice, clean floor got its first baptism-by-Harley.
My nice, clean floor got its first baptism-by-Harley.
My sweater took the brunt of the oil explosion.

What a mess. How long the Buell had been sitting was unknown, but the oil tank must have slowly drained into the crankcase.  Some helpful person topped off the tank with fresh oil and I squirted the stuff all over the place. I drained the tank.  There must have been a gallon in there if you include the oil on the ground.  Once the oil level was correct, I fired the Buell and it settled down to the hit and miss syncopation Harley likes to call idle.

Back to other issues. I didn’t like the way the muffler was held into the bike. The setup relied on the front clamp combined with two rear brackets that bolted up in a parallelogram-like deal. The only thing that held the muffler in place was fastener tension.  To achieve a more secure mounting I made a thicker bracket out of mild steel and welded it to the Muffler. Now in order for the muffler to slide back my crappy weld would have to break. Which it just might.

Since I don’t have the equipment to weld stainless steel I made a mild steel bracket for the muffler.
The bracket welded to the muffler. Now the muffler can’t work loose and rub the tire.

The rear brake on the Buell was stuck. There were several issues contributing to this problem. The first was the brake pedal. It was bent where the master cylinder pushrod attached in a way that made the rod move dramatically sideways when the brake was applied. I used Harley tool 0-U812 (a big crescent wrench) to adjust the brake pedal. Now the push rod moved in a straight line concentric with the master cylinder.

This replacement rear brake assembly was close but off in meaningful ways. The seller refunded my money and didn’t want me to ship it back.
This part of the brake left was bent causing the master cylinder pushrod to go off course.
It’s still a little bent but the pushrod articulates correctly now.

The clone master/slave kit I bought on Amazon that was supposed to fit was just off enough to be completely useless, so I decided to rebuild the original stuff.

All the original brake parts cleaned up well. So far no leaks.

The piston inside the master cylinder was stuck but a few raps with a hammer had the piston moving and I dismantled the master/slave. I was having trouble finding seals for the Brembo components, so I cleaned everything and reassembled the brakes.

Bleeding the brakes wasn’t going well. I could get pressure at the banjo bolt on the master cylinder but nothing at the slave. Shooting brake cleaner into the brake line did nothing. The hose was clogged.  Out came the battery to access a hose clamp bolt, and I removed the brake line. Removing the brake light switch gave me a mid-point spot to shoot cleaner. The metal brake line was clear, the clog was in the rubber line.  I soaked the line in an ultrasonic parts cleaner then worked a 0.30 flux core welding wire through the rubber line. It took a bit of finagling but the wire made it through. Then it was just a matter of soaking with brake cleaner and shuttling the 0.30 wire back and forth until the line was clear. Blowing the lines with compressed air got rid of any stragglers inside the hose.  A quick reassembly and I had pressure to the slave. Bleeding the system was a straightforward proposition. The rear brake works.

Next on the list is fixing the kickstand and broken clutch lever.

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Coming Your Way…

By Joe Berk

Boy oh boy, do we have cool stuff coming up on the ExNotes blog!  Here are just a few of the things coming your way…

The Rough Rider Knife and Custom Holster

Wow, a super cool Rough Rider large folding knife, so big it actually makes a Buck 110 look small, along with something that makes it even better:  A custom-made holster, stitched together by good buddy Paulie B!  It’s the one you see at the top of this blog, and it sure is sweet!

More Buell

Joe Gresh is going great guns with his new Buell.  I am so jealous.  You can expect more on Joe’s bringing the Buell up to Tinfiny moto standards, and maybe even get a chance to listen to the awesome potato potato potato aural splendor that is the essence of all things Harley.

Good times and good stories coming up on this one, boys and girls, including more on the Iconic Motorbikes auction process.  Gresh greatness inbound, folks!

Good Morning, Vietnam!

We are digging Mike Huber’s Tales of the Open Road from Vietnam, and his stories have spiked a significant uptick in donations to the ExNotes site.  Being the inveterate veteran that he is, there’s more TOTOR (Tales of The Open Road) revelry from Mike in work.

After Vietnam, it’s going to be Japan TOTOR, and then Colombia.  I’ve been to both spots, and like you, I’m looking forward to Mike’s keyboard kraziness.  Bring it on!

An Update on the How To Series

I’m doing a lot of How To articles for my favorite moto mag (one that should be yours, too), and that, of course, is Motorcycle Classics.  I’m back in the saddle as you read this headed toward Indio and Cycle Garden, home to all that is classic Guzzi.

In addition to the Guzzi goodness, good buddy and ace tech Steve roasts his own coffee beans, and I am already jonesing for that first cup of Joe.  The How To articles are running in Motorcycle Classics magazine, and if you don’t have a subscription to Motorcycle Classics…well, you should.  Stay tuned!

Dirty Harry Rides On!

We haven’t forgotten our gun stuff.  Want to read about a great .44 Magnum load in a superior sixgun?  It’s on the way, my friends.

This is good stuff.  So much so that Baja John and yours truly are talking about using the .44 Mag sixguns on our next Arizona pig soiree!  Sooey!  Clint Eastwood, eat your heart out!

Pizza Pizza Pizza!

It’s no secret…I like to cook.  We’ve done a few recipes here on ExNotes before, and we’re going to be adding a lot more.  If you can cook, oh, how can I say this?  I learned from good buddy Texas John that the easiest way to meet beautiful women was to invite them over for a home-cooked meal.  I’m an old married guy now, but prior to that, I put John’s advice to good use!

That’s a story for another blog, and I’ll get to it, but in the meantime, I’ll share my favorite pizza recipe with you in a near term blog.  And yeah, that pizza above was as good as it looks!

Stay tuned, folks, keep clicking on those pop-up ads, and work that Donate button you see here and at the bottom of every blog.  It’s what keeps us going!

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Buell Fever Part 3: An Own Goal

By Joe Gresh

I’ve been ordering parts for the Buell as I dismantle the beast for service. I really like the way Erik Buell wrapped his tube frame around the 1200cc V-twin Harley lump. The bike is all engine and actually looks even better with the bodywork removed.

A new carb for $44! Tariffs? Never heard of her.

I’ve got the carb off and apart.  It looks pretty clean inside, and the bike probably would have run fine, except for the rubber tip on the float needle. It has a pronounced ridge that may or may not have caused a flooding issue.

The kickstand culprit. This worn area was the locking boss. It’s wiped out so no locking. I may weld it up and relocate the pivot to allow for over-centering (eliminating the lock system).

The Buell has a strange kickstand (another bike with a goofy kick stand; see the Husqvarna kickstand story here on ExhaustNotes). The stand has an elongated mounting hole that allows the stand arm to pivot up and down in addition to the normal fore-aft motion.  This extra motion was designed to allow the square pivot end of the stand to drop into a notch cast in the frame mounted, aluminum foot peg/kickstand boss. That’s a mouthful but when you see it it’s easy to grasp the concept. When new this setup made for a locking stand when deployed with the bike’s weight bearing on the stand.

The operative words here are “when new.” On my Buell the notch area inside the kickstand boss is worn out and the stand no longer locks. As built the stand doesn’t over-center and naturally stay in place like normal kickstands. You know where this is going. Fixing the kickstand was on my Buell to-do list. I should have made it job one.

Kickstands break levers. Ask me how I know.

As I was removing the carb (standing on the right side of the bike) the Buell started rolling forward. As it fell left I held onto the frame as best I could but the bike hit the ground hard breaking the clutch lever. The right mirror, which is also a faring mount, took a hard hit and things look a bit off from the cockpit. I have the bike on jackstands now and it’s stabilized.

Jack stands after the horse has left the barn. At least I stopped dropping the bike.

Luckily, I had most of the bodywork removed and the only bits left, the front fender and fairing, are unscathed. $20 will get me two new levers (Harley parts are cheap!) but I think I’ll just weld the broken tip back on. You know, to keep it original.

Back to the carb. The Buell motor is a stock 1995 Sportster mill and there is a huge parts aftermarket serving the Sportster. The carb kit was $13! I can get a complete, clone carburetor with new spark plugs, fuel filter and jet cleaning tool for $44! I know, I know, it’s Chinese but who’s to say the original isn’t Chinese? The Amazon clone carb reviews are positive: just bolt it up and the bike runs great. I bought the kit but that new carb was tempting.

This 1995 Sportster is quite a bit different than my old 1968 Sportster. The bottom end looks similar but everything else is different. What I thought was a pressure feed for oiling the top end seems to be a vent as the hose ends under the battery with the hose end left open to the breeze.

There’s also a rubber grommet with an open hole in the filtered side of the air cleaner. I suspect a crankcase vent hose went there but I’m not sure. As is, the hole allows unfiltered air into the carburetor so that’s not good. I’ll plug the hole or figure out what goes in it.

Plugs look a little sooty. I’ll clean them up and flog the bike to blow out the soot.

I don’t know how long the Buell sat so I pulled the iridium spark plugs (sooty) and squirted some motor oil in the cylinders so the rings don’t have to scrape on dry bores. When I get a battery, I’ll give the motor a spin with the plugs removed to blow out any excess lube.

Apparently, the White Power front forks on the 1995 S2 are different from the following years. I’m having trouble finding fork seals and have emailed White Power directly. No response yet. If I had a 1996 S3 fork seals are everywhere for the damn things.

For me, the rear tire was a little too close to the Buell’s underslung muffler. Like a 1/8″ gap. It looks like the muffler slid back a bit from the header pipe. I loosened the pipe clamp and mounting bolts then beat the muffler forward with a rubber mallet.

Does this tire gap make me look crashed? Not much clearance, Clarence.
Hammers and jacks gained quite a bit of clearance. I have no faith in this fix.
Buell tools. Anvil and forge not shown.
I think the permanent fix is to make these brackets a bit longer so the muffler fits the header better. Then weld the brackets on the muffler side to prevent the parallelogram effect when the bolt clamping inevitably loosens.

A jack under the header pipes pushed the header into a more agreeable position and I tightened the bolts. This beating gained about 3/4″ but I’m sure it won’t hold. The muffler looks like a new one or freshly painted. The angle of the header pipe isn’t quite right.  The tail of the muffler needs to drop about 1/4″ which means slightly longer muffler brackets. Once the bike is operational, I may do some exhaust re-engineering.

$30 seems cheap but then I’m approaching the end so I’m risking less.

The rear brake Brembo master cylinder is stuck and will need to come apart along with the rear caliper. Seals for the rear brake components are another hard to find item. I did find a Brembo clone master cylinder/caliper/brake line set up that may fit for $30 so I bought that. Watch for the ExNotes Brembo-clone brake system review.

Wiring straight out of 1960. I love it.

Except for the damage I’m causing by dropping the Buell, it looks to be in good shape. I probably could have poured gas in the thing, popped a battery in and gone for a ride. Who needs a rear brake anyway? I’ll be dismantling the front end soon to measure the fork seals and to give the steering head bearings a shot of grease.

That 6-mile Cyclone (the one I didn’t win) is looking more and more like a steal!

Buell Part 2:  The Reckoning
Buell Part 1:  More Cowbell

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Magnificent Motoliterature!

By Joe Berk

It had to happen:  Good buddy and frequent ExNotes blogger Mike Huber wrote a book!  Mike’s book is A Trip Into The Moment, published by Native Book Publishing.  You should buy it now from Amazon.  Here’s the back cover blurb:

We are a literary bunch, us ExNotes writers.  Joe Gresh and I published a collection of our favorite stories not too long ago, and I’ve penned (or keyboarded) a few myself.  Here’s a link to the Gresh and yours truly book, A Cup O’ Joes:

Want to lose weight, ride faster, and impress your friends?  Add our books to your library and drop a Huber, Gresh, or Berk quote from time to time.  Better yet, buy a copy of each of our books and post this blog’s link on your social media (it will help with sales)!

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ExNotes Book Review – Motorcyclist Extraordinaire: Buddy Stubbs

By Joe Berk

Not too long ago, I posted a blog about the Buddy Stubbs Motorcycle Museum in Phoenix, Arizona.  Sue and I visited it for an upcoming Motorcycle Classics magazine Destinations piece.  While I was there, I saw a book about Buddy Stubbs (Motorcyclist Extraordinaire: Buddy Stubbs), and I picked up a copy.  I finished reading it last night and I thought I’d share my thoughts with you.

Written by Tyler Tayrien (who also wrote Arena, a book about Sam Arena’s motorcycle racing career), I’d give it a solid 8 out of 10 points.  The subject matter is superb; the writing and editing are good but not great.  I already wrote about Buddy Stubb’s history, his dealership, and a bit of his background in my recent blog about the Buddy Stubbs Museum, so I won’t go into that in too much detail here.

What’s great about Motorcyclist Extraordinaire: Buddy Stubbs is that the subject of this book (Mr. Stubbs) has had such an interesting life.  It would be hard for a book covering this topic to be dull.  What’s also great about the book is that Buddy Stubbs’ racing contemporaries are the guys I followed when I was a teenager and a young man:  Riders like Dick Mann, Gary Nixon, Cal Rayborn, Roger Reiman, Bart Markel, Kenny Roberts, and others.   These guys were the kings of flat track, motocross, and road racing back in the day, and reading about them from another rider’s perspective made the book even more interesting.

Motorcyclist Extraordinaire: Buddy Stubbs has a lot of photos, and maybe that’s one of its weak points, but I can’t blame the author for that.  Most of the photos (maybe all of them) were from earlier printed photos shot with film, I’m guessing many were shot in black and white, and these were scanned for inclusion in the book.  It’s hard to get a decent image using that approach, but when working with these kinds of archival prints, there’s really no other way to do it. The downside is that many of the photos are grainy and lack clarity.  That’s not intended to be a criticism; it’s just an observation.

Motorcyclist Extraordinaire: Buddy Stubbs covers Buddy Stubbs’ life, his experiences in buying and building up the dealership, his marriages, his automobile and motorcycle racing, his cars, and the motorcycle museum.  Mr. Stubbs is in his mid-80s today.  I’m sorry I didn’t get to meet him while I was in the dealership, but I did get an autographed copy of his book. That’s cool.

My minor criticisms aside, I think that Motorcyclist Extraordinaire: Buddy Stubbs is an excellent read.  My advice to you is to pick up a copy. I think you will enjoy it.

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ExNotes Book Review: Going the Wrong Way

By Joe Berk

I thought I’d read everything that had ever been published about traveling the world on a motorcycle.  I’ve written about it on ExNotes, describing my favorites among all the books on this topic.

Notice that I’m writing in the past tense, and the reason for that is I most recently learned about another motorcycle saga that belongs on my best-in-class list: Going the Wrong Way, by Chris Donaldson.

My newfound discovery came about almost by accident a few days ago when I visited with Moto Guzzi Classics, an independent Guzzi revival and maintenance facility in Signal Hill, California for a potential story I’m doing for the ExNotes blog and maybe one of the motorcycle magazines.  The guys who run Moto Guzzi Classics are, in as few words as possible, both a bit eccentric and absolute subject matter experts.  One of them, my new good buddy Wyatt, showed a few of the bikes in their shop to me, and one of those motorcycles belongs to Chris Donaldson.  Chris is a Belfast boy (as in Belfast, Ireland) who is going around the around on a Moto Guzzi 850 Le Mans.

Man, there’s a lot to unpack in that last sentence.  Belfast.  Coming of age during The Troubles.  Getting out of Ireland as a young man.  Moto Guzzi, which has to be one of the coolest motorcycles on the planet (they’re like Harleys, but for people who like motorcycles).  The Le Mans 850, which has to be one of the worst motorcycles in the world for world travel.  Traveling the world (as in present tense).    That’s right, the journey is not over, even though Mr. Donaldson started it many decades ago.  Donaldson plans to continue his global conquest on the same motorcycle, which is one of the reasons why the bike you see here is currently in the queue at Moto Guzzi Classics in Signal Hill.

I’ve had a hard time putting the Going the Wrong Way down on my nightstand each night for the last several nights.  I’d read until I couldn’t stay awake, and fall asleep reading it.  Don’t get me wrong; the book is anything but boring.  Just the opposite is true.  It’s fabulous, and even though I couldn’t keep my eyes open because I was reading into the wee hours, I couldn’t stop reading.   Going the Wrong Way has all the bike reliability stuff to keep an engineer interested, all the philosophical stuff to keep a philosopher awake, all the people stuff to keep a people person awake, all the border crossing drama stuff to keep a world traveler tuned in, and, well, I could go on, but I don’t want to spoil it for you.  The writing is almost poetic.  It’s that good.

Folks, Going the Wrong Way is a great read.  Don’t just take my word for it; there are something like 1,394 Amazon reviews posted on this book (soon to be 1,395, when I write mine), which is really kind of stunning for a motorcycle travel book written by a rider with no sponsors.  Trust me on this: Get yourself a copy of Going the Wrong Way.  You can thank me later.

Our other book reviews (along with reviews on a lot of other things) are here.

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ExNotes Review: Norco ’80

By Joe Berk

I moved to southern California in 1979 and settled in what we call the lnland Empire, which is the area that includes the Pomona Valley and extends east to San Bernardino.  Basically, it’s everything south of the San Gabriel Mountains and east of the 57 freeway.  How I ever missed the 1980 Norco bank robbery is beyond me.  It was, as the cover of Norco ‘80 states, the most spectacular bank robbery in American history, and it went on to include a police pursuit up into the San Gabriels and the northern side of Mt. Baldy, which is just to the north of my home today.  More than a dozen police officers were injured by the five bank robbers, a police helicopter was shot down, nearly 40 police vehicles were disabled or destroyed, and two of the robbers were killed during the pursuit.   The remaining three were charged with 46 crimes including murder, murder with special circumstances, kidnapping, bank robbery, resisting arrest, and more.  Found guilty, they received life without parole prison sentences.

I first heard about these events only a few days ago when good buddy Paul sent a YouTube link to me summarizing the crime.  I was astounded I had not heard of it and I Googled for more info.  Norco ‘80 came up in that search.

Peter Houlahan wrote Norco ‘80, and I couldn’t put it down.  It’s true crime drama at its best.  I read all 387 pages in three sittings.  It’s that good.  What made it even more compelling for me is that I am very familiar with all the locations described in the book and in the chase scenes that followed.  The chase went right past the West End Gun Club, into the little village of Lytle Creek (where Gresh and I enjoyed a few cold ones last year), and on and up the dirt roads running through the San Gabriels (roads I explored on my RX3 and KLR 650 motorcycles).

At the time, police were armed with .38 revolvers.  The bad guys had semi-auto handguns and assault rifles, and the effects of this imbalance resulted in the police not being able to stop these guys.  This episode, posits the author, is what directly led to police departments nationwide equipping their patrol officers with military-style weaponry.

If you enjoy a good crime story (and a true one), check out Norco ‘80.  You can thank me later.

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