Changing oils - all you need is duct tape

I'm not that used in maintaining bikes but now I did change oils and the filter. Nothing spectacular in that but you guess whether or not I have special tool to unscrew the old filter. But who needs tools when all you really need is duct tape and some imagination.

The problem with that filter is two folded. It was goddamn tight and also it's hard to even try to get a grip of it. I first rolled tape over it in hopes that I can simply pull it open with that - this trick did enable me to at least try with my full force just to find out it was not enough.

I almost gave up as for a moment it seemed like the filter bested this round. But at the critical moment I had an idea I thought is worth testing. I apologize that the following video is in Finnish, but there is not that much to hear - I practically just tell that what I'm trying is to make filter opening tool out of too small tongue-and-groove pliers, screw driver and duct tape. See for your self how did it go.

https://youtu.be/NY75ITor48E

I was very careful not to spill oil and it is now waiting for me to take it to recycling place as CA laws and also common sense requires

One to north

The winter was rainy, like everything was flooded rainy. But the winter here is also short and it's now pretty much over. It was a warm weekend and we headed to north. When we started from San Francisco city it was sunny and warm - and I had my sunglasses as you can see from the pic. Driving over Golden Gate was awful. Thickest mist I remember seeing, and it was dark in it. In addition the mist was thick enough to completely wet my glasses so I didn't see much of anything for few miles. But it was just few miles and then it cleared out as we climbed to Mt. Tamalpais to get from Sausalito to the ocean side. We went via Mt. Tamalpais route since highway 1 was closed because of the mud slides. I said it was rainy winter, didn't I.

The map below shows a little where we were headed and also the blue pin points where we had breakfast. We really were not the only ones with the idea of riding bike and in need of a bite. Road was great, the weather was great and we stayed night at Valley Ford. Most hotels were completely booked and I guess it was because it's the whale season. The big whales migrate to north near the coast and it's possible to spot them on their voyage (more text at the bottom, this time there is plenty of pics)

 On our way back the weather was interesting. When we woke up early in the morning Valley Ford was enveloped by a mist. We waited few hours and is cleared out mostly, but the first 20 miles were pretty freezing. Temperature was something below 10C (below 50 F), which is not that low, but we were not prepared for that. But when we got to Stinson Beach it was already over +25C (77 F) and we were sweating. Oh, and did I mention that I had quite a flu, which sort of made me want to breath through my mouth every now and then. I use open helmet so the number of bugs I ate along the way was pretty significant. 

Licence to licence

I got the bike but there is a small formality to be considered. I have EU (Finnish) drivers license that allows me to drive regular cars and motorcycles - but I'll need a California licence as well.

I took the written test earlier for licence to drive car but I still have to take a handling test with bike. I'm not sure how smart of an idea it is to go to the test with about 650lb (325kg) bike. So being a little uncertain if I actually can handle the circle, we took a ride to local DMV when it's not open a gave it a try.

In the pic, you can see at least part of the test. To my understanding I'm deeded to do slalom around the markings on the center line and then do a turn and same back. Then I'm also expected to drive very slowly between the two narrow path between parallel lines and again do some circles. I was able to prove myself that my bike turns in theory in the required space, but the margin is unnerving. I maybe could borrow a very agile street bike from a colleague but I have to first try with own bike - just for the heck of it. I'll let you know how it goes when the time comes (it's DMV, waiting times are measured in months). 

From solo to duo

One problem the bike had was that it really can't support a passenger. Of course we knew this while pondering whether this is the bike to buy or not. But even with this it was a good purchase - it looks nice, it's well taken care and the price was right. But the issue needs to be tended. So here is the progression in four pics.

First - this is how it looked when we got it. Then, there is a new parts, struts and fender that can support a passenger. But as you can see it doesn't look that pretty, and as everyone knows these projects always cost more than double that you thought in the beginning. So new shocks were purchased and installed. It wasn't a bad investment since the old shocks were really worn out and it rides now much smoother than it did. But still got the new ones mainly for looks. Note that also the blinker lights were moved back so that passenger can have her legs somewhere nicely. In the final pic the height adjusted and it has the correct paint. Looks nice and is ready for a date night.

Oh and I didn't do the work myself. All of it was done by a shop close by called California Choppers.

Getting a new ride

It's been a while since the last post. There was a change of scenery and a lot of practical hoops and loops to jump through. 

But life is almost normal again and it's time to continue. But to continue - the first things is to get something to talk about. After extensive browsing of craigslist I managed to find a posting that looked somewhat genuine. There was plenty that looked like they were either suspicious or clear scams.

So, after few emails we took a trip to San Ramon via bank. Even in bank they warned that meeting a stranger with a pile of cash is kind of risky thing. I'm sure it is - felt pretty nervous taking BART to Walnut Creek and Uber from there to San Ramon. The person, let's call him Brian, who was selling the bike lived in a gated community which I took as a sign of a respectable member of a society who has better things to do than run bike selling scams on internet. 

Mister B. was very nice, very easy to deal with and had himself spent quite some time building the bike. I promised a good new home for very blue -96 Fatboy and we parted both parties happy.

Did you notice I said "we" headed to San Ramon earlier? Do you notice that bike is solo rider? Yeah, there is a problem there - we didn't drive the bike home. I called Big Mannie who arrived with a bike trailer and a big ass truck. What would be more convenient than let a pro to take care of things and just watch, relax and grab a beer.

Plot twist!

Small changes to what is going on with me and the project. The big challenge now is that there is a continent and and ocean between us as me and wife just moved to San Francisco from Helsinki. 

My buddies in Finland maybe will continue with the project and I will see what I con do with it. For sure I'm not selling it -- it just may be that I have to pay someone to complete it. I will keep you posted on what happens as we go since there are plenty of unknowns ahead. 

One thing is sure though. I'm going to buy at least one bike here in California. I'm hoping to get two -  a city bike to get me between home and office on daily basis and maybe a Panhead. 

Bending tubes

Couple of entries ago we ended with a picture of half a frame. Or to be more precise a frame that was missing the swingarm. There is not actually awfully lot of missing from the frame - four tubes and some interconnecting steel plates. 

We started to work the upper part tubes. We started by sawing two about two meter tubes that we spot welded loosely together. Since we don't really have a tube bender we chose a method that is three quarts of brute force and on quart engineering. We stuck the other end of the tubes into something we knew is going to hold it's place. We have a big lathe that weights probably a ton and is bolted to a concrete cast base. So it's not moving - I wish I had a pic of the lathe, it's pretty on it's own way. 

There they are, tubes heated up. When they were warm enough I did stand there with thick work mittens and pressed the tubes. While warm enough they did bend nicely. And since they were welded together we got too rather identical pieces with a curve of a same radius.

One end these wishbone tubes are going to go into the axle plate stub. That is a simple straight fitting of two tubes. The other end is going to get attached to the top tube of the frame. There will be an angle there in which the wishbone tube end meets the solid top tube. To ensure the fit we drilled the ending of the wishbone tubes into the right angle with a cup drill of the same diameter as the top tube.

From there we got the tubes that fit very nicely both the top tube and the cast iron holding thingy which was left more or less intact while removing the original wishbones. I realize I would like to have more pics about how everything worked here so maybe I'll revisit this entry at some point.