[MDairheads] Techno Barn

[Didier Devynck]

I too want to thank Chris and Bridget for allowing us, once again, to invade their beautiful property and sharing wonderful food and friendship with us.

As many of you know, I had an eventful day. For those of you who were not there, arrived later than me, or left before I did, here is how my day went.

It started around 10AM when I went get my bike out of my barn. The bike lives on the lift in there, because it’s easier and it saves space. Taking it down the lift and out of the barn is somewhat tricky but I have gotten used to dong it and bene have a problem. That is, until I decided that there might be a better way to do it. That “better” way resulted in the bike falling off the lift, which in turn caused the fairing and windshield to get badly cracked, not to mention the instrument panel that basically shattered. Putting the bike back on its wheels proved to be especially challenging since the wheels were not on the ground but still on the lift. I was able to drag the bike far enough for the wheels to get of the lift and then it was just a matter of lifting it the way I’m sure we all know: back to the bike and hands on the handlebar and frame, and then using your legs to lift. I can tell you from my experience that its still takes a toll on your back so be careful when you have to do that by yourself.

Not to be deterred, I nevertheless got on my way to Crownsville, with one more project to do. I had planned to replace the points on my bike, I now had to straighten out the fairing as best I could. The latter part went well and the fairing ended up looking straight (but of course still cracked). I then proceeded to work on the points. The replacement itself is fairly easy. The interesting part started when we try to adjust the timing. With all the expertise hat was on hand, especially Will and Chris, we still could not get the timing exactly the way it should be. We took apart and reinstalled the ignition system many times during the process but we finally were able to get it the way it is supposed to be (albeit on the extreme end of the adjustment range) and I finished putting the bike back together. I had to leave because I had to go back home to my dogs so I gathered everything and on my very way I went…. For about 5 miles that is, at which point  the bike just plain died on me. The engine simply stopped running and would not start again. The symptoms looked early similar to what I had experienced after SuperTech 2 years ago, when my valves were so tight that my engine could not run when it got hot. Even after some cooling down, the engine was adamant it would not start. I called Will and he and Tom Longobardi came to my rescue. Thank God, Will had his trailer with him yesterday and, with Tom’s help, we put the bike on the trailer? Back at Chris’s, the first order of business was to check the valves: they proved to be just right so that ruled that one out. I then opened up the front cover again to see if a wire had gotten pinched in there. All the wires were fine but the Will spotted the culprit. In disassembling and reassembling the ignition system so many times, the central nut that holds the advance mechanism in place had not been tightened on the final reassembly. It (and the washer that goes with) was resting in the ignition cavity of the front cover, but it was not where it was supposed to be: holding the advance mechanism. We put it back (and tightened it, but not too hard because it’s really easy to break the whole thing if you go crazy) and the bike started like nothing had ever happened.

Will assured me that the bike would run beautifully and it did. I got home with no further issue and the engine was purring very nicely.

A world of thanks to Will and Chris, and all the others whose names I don’t know, for the help in completing this project. It’s funny how every project I undertake on my bike always ends up being far more interesting than it should really be. The good thing is that I learn a lot in the process. Additional thanks of course to Tom who came with Will to help out the bike on the trailer when it was ailing.

Gotta love tech days!!!

Didier