Trailer Shopping

Monday - I went trailer shopping this morning after the early test session. Home Depot and Lowe's both have 5'x10' trailers in stock. This is the Lowe's version. It is made from galvanized steel with a steel deck, torsion suspension, steel fenders, and 13" wheels. The inside width is exactly 60" so the Ural will barely fit between the fixed sides. 

The Home Depot version is steel tubes, a wooden deck, leaf spring suspension, plastic fenders, and 14" wheels. Both are similar in weight and price. The inside width is 58½" but the sides fold down for loading.

With either trailer, the ramps look barely adequate to support the weight of the Ural and will probably need to be reinforced. The Lowe's version has tie-down points built into the deck but the open sides of the HD version make tie-down simple enough.

Monday evening was the monthly get-together of the BMW Airheads. One of the vehicles was a newly restored 1958 BMW Isetta 300. It was only its second time out on the road and it looked fabulous. 

He also brought a Citroën 2CV, also nicely restored. There were about a dozen bikes not all of which were Airheads or even BMWs. After all, the Ural was there. 

Tuesday - I finally made a decision on a trailer. This is the one from Lowe's and is 1½" wider than the HD trailer. When I picked it up, it looked like the electrical connector was a little damaged. Fortunately, I had the magnetic lights with me, so getting home was no problem. Now to see if my measurements were even close.

Wednesday - The Ural does fit on the trailer but it’s a pretty tight fit. I have two 2”x10” planks for the tires to sit on. Plus, I needed another 3” of boards of height for the front tire near the gate for the left cylinder to clear the side. Today, I finished the licensing and title and got a permanent tag. 

I need to bolt the planks to the trailer deck so they don’t move while loading the bike. And I think I know how to make the other planks temporary as I only need them for the front tire.

Fall is Here

Saturday - Hard to complain about our afternoon high temperature. And since there was no rain today, I went ahead and cleared a bit more brush as the heating oil company complained that they couldn't get to our fuel tank. I must admit that I really like that electric chain saw. 

It looks like we might have a plan. If we don't hear anything about the Jeep, we will be flying down in about 3 weeks. I would hope that we hear something by then but we need to get moving. That gives us two weeks to get from Washington state to Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta. Bridget is planning out the route and stops.

Monday - The first Monday of the month, the Airheads get together somewhere. This evening, it was at one of the member's garage where he wanted some help greasing the splines on the transmission input shaft. A task he hadn’t done before. This is his BMW R60/5 that is starting to look like new. 

It was almost dark when I headed home at 8:45, which was sunset. Quite the change over the last month. We are closing in on the equinox so the loss of daylight is over 6 minutes per day. 

Tuesday - Morning coffee at Sunsprout Cafe again today. Only 43°F on the ride but at least the sun was up. After coffee, I stopped at Costco and Fred Meyer to pick up groceries. A lot of comments on the Ural as I was filling up the sidecar with groceries. It holds a lot of groceries. 

Soon, it'll be time to pack the Ural away in the back of the garage again. It has been fun riding it again. I have some maintenance to do over the next week or so. I want to switch the rear tire back to the K37 from the K28 street tire. And, I probably need to do a transmission input shaft spline lube again. It's been a couple of years.

More Yard Work

Sunday - Thank you, Tim, for letting me borrow your truck to haul the brush piles to the transfer station. I thought that the yard debris dumpsters would be full but they had at least two drivers hauling away the full ones. It took four trips to haul away the brush. I still have four trees already cut down but need to be limbed and cut into manageable pieces. But there is enough room for a pump truck to back in which is the immediate goal.

I took this picture at Tim's home when I picked up the truck. Does the other sidecar rig look familiar? The current problem is the Nivomat rear shocks are sagging to the point where the rear tire is rubbing on the fender.

Monday - No yard work today! Just a Costco run with the Ural for a handful of items. And like most days in Fairbanks, you run into people you know at most stores.

This evening, we went to the Airheads get-together out in Fox hosted by Ralph at the Howling Dog (still closed for business). We took the Ural and about 20 people showed up.

Blogger "Comments"

I don't know about others but I have been regularly getting generic "comments" left on blog posts. Not obvious spam but the text of the comment is so generic that it doesn't relate to the contents of the post and the name is a link to a commercial site. Following the instructions on this site, I edited the Blogger template to disallow links in the comments. This disables the backlink that these commenters were looking for supposedly to improve their Google ranking. The following was added right before the end of the body block.

Our weather hasn't really changed much and wasn't really conducive to doing anything outside. Even the heated garage was hovering around 40°F so no bike work was done beyond digging out the battery tenders. I did need to reinstall the plow since we've gotten about 8" of snow since we've been back from PA.

There was a great turnout on Monday evening for our last Airhead meeting at the Silver Gulch. I believe that 20 people showed up. Several harassed me since I didn't ride out.

Geocaching at Creamer's Field

Sunday evening was spent looking for geocaches at Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge. There were a lot of sandhill cranes. Becoming very noisy when you walk near their "territory". Just a iPhone photo. I'm not really sure how many geocaches we found but at least a half dozen or so that were placed since the last time we were here.

Last week was very sunny and warm but it has been pouring rain yesterday and today. Yesterday evening was the monthly Airhead get together. This time, it was held at the Howling Dog right across the street from the Silver Gulch. The proprietor has several airheads with a R100GS with a huge tank being his latest acquisition. I talked quite a bit with a new member about his older Ural that has been retrofitted with a newer 750cc engine. The older models had a fixed front sidecar mount (no vertical adjustment) so the larger cylinder hits the mount. He is planning on having Mickey modify the mount sometime this winter.

Since my last post, I did rebalance the carbs and I'm happier with the result. I had forgotten to "zero" the TwinMax before starting and I thought that it was running a little rough. Last night on the way back from the airhead gathering aka "Barley Therapy", the engine ran a little rough. I really need to come up with some mod to keep rain and snow out of the air box. After drying out overnight, it ran fine.

Another Bike at College Coffeehouse

For the first time in a long time, I wasn't the only bike at the coffee shop this morning.  That's Brett, the owner, with George Rahn looking at the rig. It's an R69S with a leading link front end which two settings. One setting moves the front wheel forward about an inch to reduce the trail for use with a sidecar. The bike comes with sidecar mounts from the factory. The sidecar is a Jawa but he has the body off and a flatbed installed. Yesterday, he used it to haul an engine stand and now it's setup to haul sheets of plywood.

This is the same R69S that I had seen last October at the auto parts store. He has been riding on/off all winter but with barely enough alternator capacity to run the headlight, heated gear is out of the question. So even today in the mid-20s was a cold ride. Since this is the high horsepower "S" model, it was rated at 42 hp compared to the 35 hp of the non-"S" model.

Most of the dirt and caked on grease on the frame has been cleaned off. Still not spotless but a lot better than it was. I was thinking about removing the sidecar tomorrow thinking that it might make it easier to install the engine. The bike has the final drive removed so it isn't going anywhere but I did leave a little room next to the sidecar. I think that it should be pretty straight forward.

I ended up removing the heads again today as I found two locating pins in the bin with all of the old parts. I was wondering why the locating pin wasn't on the new cylinder or the old ones. It turned out that they just popped out. Anyway, removed the heads, installed the pins, retorqued the heads to 28 ft-lbs and adjusted the valve clearance to 0.003". It's so easy with the engine sitting on the workbench. Installed the transmission after greasing the input spline with a mixture of Union 76 arctic grease mixed with Honda Moly 60.

Tomorrow, Thursday, I'm judging science fair projects. But on Friday, Jed is coming by to help muscle the engine/transmission into the frame. The Ural may be on the road this week!

Ural Engine Assembly - 6

We are well on the way for this to be a ten part series. Van Le, the author of the YouTube videos aka Gobium on SovietSteeds, a Ural forum, suggested that I check axial runout at the edge of the flywheel. I mounted the clutch tool to the engine case then clamped my caliper to it. Using the depth gauge, I can measure the distance to the flywheel at various points around a complete revolution. This is one way to see if the crankshaft is true after installation in the engine case. Obviously if all of the readings are the same then the crankshaft is true. I was originally thinking that I would needed a dial indicator on the front of the crankshaft. This method isn't perfect as it assumes that the flywheel is perfect. I don't know what the range of acceptable runout is but I measured 0.3mm runout. In his video, he measured 0.004". In another video, the runout on a new install was 0.28 mm.

With this latest concern addressed, I went ahead and installed the cylinders, heads, pushrods and rocker arms. Torqued the heads initially to 28 ft-lbs until I do a little research and find a better number, did an initial valve adjustment to 0.003 on all valves and threw on the valve covers just to keep things clean. I had initially torqued the flywheel bolt to 140 ft-lbs as this was the limit of my torque wrench. To get just a little bit more, I tied the engine down to the work bench and with the help of my son, I managed to get another 5° of movement with a 18" long breaker bar. I figure that it's close enough to 170 ft-lbs. There is a washer on the bolt that is bent up against one of the flats to keep it from loosening up.

The next step was the clutch and thanks to Bruce from Ketchikan, it was a straightforward job to install the clutch plates and friction disks. New screws were supplied in the clutch kit. Blue threadlock was applied and the screws were torqued to 15 ft-lbs (no specs are mentioned in the repair manual) as a reasonable guess. The picture shows the clutch alignment tool. It is also a crank that can also be used to rotate the engine.

The next step is to change the clutch rod and the throwout bearing. Since the clutch was replaced, those parts should be replaced at the same time.

This afternoon, there was an Airhead tech session at Bob's garage where work continues on the '78 R80. The cylinders, pistons and heads have come back from Porter's Beemershop, the same place that I had my heads reworked. The parts look like new. The owner is still waiting to get his transmission back. While the pistons were being installed in the cylinders, a quick check of the lifters revealed one bad lifter with some pits in the lifter surface. This would start to wear the cam if left so yet another part needs to be ordered. This bike has been on the lift for quite a while with parts just dribbling in from a variety of sources.

Anyway, this is how Saturday went. Not a bad day...

BBBC #9

This post is part of the blogger challenge titled BBBC. Today's topic is:

9. Favorite shoes.

Huh? There is such thing as "favorite shoes"? Who would've thunk? Not me. All I can think of are the motorcycle boots that I picked up in Salem, OR, last July while the Ural was in the shop. I can't think of anything else that would fit the BBBC topic.

I don't have a favorite brake shoe. Some refer to motorcycle tires as "shoes".  My favorite tire brand seems to be Heidenau. The K60 and K28 for the Beemer.  And K37 and K28 for the Ural. The K28 and K37 being made for sidecar use. The K60 is a great dual sport tire. I just put the studded K60 as the pusher on the Beemer and will be adding studs to the K60 front tire. Then I should be able to start riding the Beemer and the PBC rides may continue for a couple of days.

Speaking of Ural, this morning (Monday) Jed brought his truck and trailer by and we hauled the Ural to Delta to see Mickey (formerly of Mickey's Muffler in Anchorage). He listened to the bike and the new noise it was making and decided that it is internal, deep inside the engine and not knocking. Possibly the rear cam bearing. The only solution is to tear down the engine. He said that I should have no problem tearing it down and removing the crank and the cam.

The only specialized tools are the one to take apart the clutch, remove the flywheel and pull the timing gear off of the front of the crankshaft. BruceW from Ketchikan will be arriving in Fairbanks on Tuesday afternoon and will be bringing the tools to remove the clutch and flywheel. He needed them last year to replace the rear main seal and clutch on his Ural last year. The tool to pull the timing gear is readily available. So I will be removing the engine and tearing it down later this week.

This posted accidently for a couple of hours on the 8th until I fixed the scheduled post date.

And since I got the Beemer set up again for winter riding, here is another PBC video. Only a few more days to go...

PBC #54

Running Around Town

On Saturday morning, I headed into town with the customary stop at College Coffeehouse. BruceW from Ketchikan had sent me one of the few Alaska Airhead belt buckles still around. I needed a new belt so I planned to go to about the only leather shop that I know of in town.

I still have the chains on the pusher due to the heavy, wet snow on top of ice. But as you can see in the video, it is really bumpy going with all of the ice under the snow. Very bumpy especially when going over bridges.

I had gone into town to take advantage of the "Local Saturday" sales at the leather shop off of 2nd St. One of the few times when I actually went into town. Most of the video was taken while leaving the downtown area and circling back towards the university then home.

The next couple of pictures are for a post on SovietSteeds, the Ural forum, about my replacement straps for the chains.

This is the 1" x 12" heavy duty nylon cable tie with Velcro. The last 2" or so is the hook portion of the Velcro and the rest has the loop Velcro sewn on. The straps are too short to reach both of the chain bails so I sewed some nylon extensions between one of the bails and a stainless buckle I attached to the cable tie. The other end of the cable tie has a rectangular steel ring sewn onto the end.

I have my 1" long extension on the driveshaft side of the wheel since it is thinner than the cable tie strap when doubled over, Thin is needed to clear the driveshaft.

This is the other side of the chain. The rectangular ring is threaded through the wire bail on the chain and the free end of the cable tie with the hook Velcro is threaded through the rectangular ring and doubled back fastening the Velcro.

Airhead Tech Day

This afternoon, the local Airhead group got together to play with someone's bike. This is what happens when the riding season is over and folks get antsy to do something moto related. In this case it was removing the pulse-air system on this 35 year old R65. I had done this as well as it helps the exhaust valves run cooler. Easy to do, only 20 minutes or so if you have the correct tools, plugs and caps.

Here is a shot of the inside of the airbox before all of the extra bits and pieces are removed. This bike only has 20k miles on it and still looks as clean as the day it rolled out of the dealer (IMHO). After this, the group moved to another garage to start pulling the forks off of an R80 to change the head bearings. Probably something I need to do one of these years.

The temperature was just above freezing as sleet, blowing snow and black ice were in the forecast for later in the day so I headed home mid-afternoon. This is at the dog-mushers field off of Farmers Loop Rd. A frequent stop back when I was doing the Polar Bear Challenge videos. Something that I probably won't bother with again. Too much whining...

1st Monday of the Month

Yesterday afternoon, I dropped the bowls on the carbs to see what jets I actually had installed versus what I though I remembered. Pilot jets - 40, main jet - 127.5. There was one shim installed under each of the needles. I I had looked through my posts from June I would've seen this information. On my test ride last week with the alternate air cleaner, there was a huge lag when the throttle was opened up past about half.

I went ahead and reinstalled the plastic fence post air cleaner aka as the Leftka 3 as it was developed by Leftka on the SovietSteeds Ural forum. I really needed to switch from the stock air cleaner due to the upcoming snowy season and the problems that I've had in the past with the filter clogging up with snow. I added an additional shim under the needles which will richen the mixture at mid-throttle. I also changed the main jet up to 130 from 127.5 which will richen the mixture at the upper half of throttle opening.

At my ride this morning to the University and College Coffeehouse, there was still a little lag at large throttle opening. I then turned off the switch on the PowerArc which enables the regular PowerArc timing curve from the high-load curve (retards the timing). This seemed to eliminate the lag.

Today was the monthly get together of the Airheads.org group at the Silver Gulch microbrewery in Fox, AK, located about ten miles north of Fairbanks. Not too large of a turnout today maybe a dozen or so but at least I wasn't the only rider out there. DaveW rode his nice bumblebee R100GS.

The Ural popped a couple of times on my way out of Fox so I may try changing the main jets to 132.5 tomorrow to see how it runs with a slightly richer jet.

Tuesday afternoon update - This morning I changed the main jets to 132.5 and it still felt "doggy" at full throttle. In other words acceleration actually improved at ¾ throttle compared to full throttle. Not right. I will try 135 tomorrow. It sure is nice to have the time to mess around with this...

First Last Ride of the Season

Today was the "First Last Ride of the Season" for our local BMW group. Not a real large turnout due to the snow falling yesterday and continuing this morning. Just Steve's R100GS/PD, BobC's R100RT and me. The announced destination was Chena Hot Springs but a couple of us decided that it may be bit too foolish given that the temperature was right around freezing.

You may notice that I am riding the Beemer and not the Ural. This morning, the Ural started right up, and while idling, it backfired a couple of times and shut off. It won't start up again. I suspect that it is something with the ignition system as there is no spark from the plugs. It could be a variety of things possibly the interrupter for the hall sensor.

When I started the Beemer, it ran great then started to run on only one cylinder. Hmm, curious. After a few moments, I noticed that the petcocks were still closed. The Ural has an automatic, vacuum operated petcock so I'm no longer in the habit of turning them on (and off!).

We ended up just riding to a fellow airhead members home (BobK) and sat around his immaculate garage talking and enjoying his coffee.

This picture is from a several days ago. Dave, on the right, rode his Goldwing trike up from Tennessee and had just returned from the Arctic Circle. He was looking for car wash suggestions. He's had a few issues with the trike conversion but the most serious was the driveshaft separated at the spline between Watson Lake and Whitehorse. It required a very expensive tow into Whitehorse. Talking with him is George Rahn and David Rohwer.

Sunday and Monday

On Sunday evening, we went to visit friends at their home on Chena Ridge. Near sunset, the sun was shining on the north side of the Alaska Range and was just visible through the trees. Both of these photos were taken by Bridget from the deck of their natural log home with her iPhone.

This is the Tanana River which runs on the south side of Fairbanks and flows west past Nenana and into Yukon River at the village of Tanana. The picture was taken about 2½ hours later than the first one.

Today, being the first Monday of the month, was the BMW airhead meetup at the Silver Gulch microbrewery. I think that there were around 17 people there including a couple of new people. The Honda trike belonged to a Dave from Tennessee who was passing through town and joined us. He has been on the road for a month and is getting ready to head south later this week after riding to the Arctic Circle on Wednesday (weather permitting). He introduced me to a new acronym. ROMEO. Retired Old Men Eating Out. It didn't apply to the airhead meeting as some aren't retired, and four of them were women.

I was originally planning on riding the Beemer out there but then I remembered that it still had 5W30 oil in it from last winter. So I took the Ural. I'm really liking the way it rides now compared to before. It just sounds so nice and pulls great. I'm not sure if it's just that I'm more used to it or it really is running better. 

Monthly Airhead Meetup

Today was the first Monday of the month which meant that it was time for the monthly meetup of our local Airhead group. Over twenty people showed up with the majority riding. Not everyone who shows up rides an airhead, i.e. BMW motorcycles with the model 247 air-cooled engine, but most have a preference for these machines. On Saturday, I actually got the Beemer out on the road after changing out the studded tires, changing the engine oil and airing up the tires. Even though it hadn't been ridden since January, it started right up and idled smoothly. On the road it was much harder to steer but easier to cruised down the road due to the additional 20 hp.

More air box testing today. I read an article online on how to tune the Keihin CV carburetor. The engine would idle very smoothly when the idle screw was turned all the way in. It was at ¾ turn out. This suggested a change in the pilot jet to one step leaner so I changed both pilot jets from a 42 to a 40 and turned the idle screws out 1½ turns as a starting point. This turned out to be a good guess as it idled very smoothly at this setting and rougher when turned in or out an additional turn. I then used the TwinMax to balance the carbs again at both idle (1050 rpm) and at 2500 rpm. Only very small adjustments were needed. The test ride indicated smoother starts and the engine pulled well in all gears when warmed up. I think I'm done messing with this mod.

Evening Ride to Fox

The combination of repairs and minor mods to the intake side of the Ural has made a world of difference. The idle speed is now consistently around 1000 to 1100 rpm, the exhaust doesn't smell overly rich after pulling into the garage and mid-throttle response is dramatically improved. Now, instead of just more intake noise, the rig actually accelerates better. There must've been a small air leak for quite a while and I didn't notice it until it got a lot worse. And I would have never expected such a change from 2 tiny little washers in the carb.

Yesterday evening was the monthly get together of the Airheads at the Silver Gulch microbrewery in Fox. This is a photo that was taken back on January 5th when it was -30°F but I hadn't asked for a copy until yesterday. We had quite a group show up yesterday and the Ural wasn't the only bike there. Quite a few in the group are planning to attend the BMWMOA rally in Billings, MT, this coming July. Unfortunately, I have a family reunion scheduled for the exact same dates. I am planning on meeting some of them in Helena, MT, before the MOA rally. Only a few are actually riding out from Alaska as many have bikes stashed at various places in the lower 48 just to avoid having to ride through Canada every time they want to go somewhere.

In the following time lapse video of the trip out, you can see that we still have some snow on some of the roads and along the side of most. But then again, it's only April.

BTW, this kinda looks like Spring!

Separation

Well, it's done. I took the Cozy off of the Beemer for the first time in a year and a half. I also changed out the Heidenau sidecar tire on the rear for an old Shinko rear tire that I had installed in Corvallis, OR, during my 2012 road trip. It still has some mileage left on it as I had removed it when I installed the Cozy. I am going to try leaving the subframe installed though I'll need to be conscious of it when leaning to the right as it hangs a bit lower than anything else.

After swapping out the rear tire, I took the Beemer out for a test ride. This is the first time I've been on two wheels in almost a year. The last time was the demo rides at the Salem MOA rally last July. It really felt weird, for lack of a better description. It took a few miles before I felt comfortable with the leaning and countersteering. To add one more thing, the bike seemed to stumble a couple of times before I looked at the trip odometer and realized that I was running out of gas. Once I switched to reserve, no stumbling. As you might have guessed, the bike accelerates much faster without the sidecar and the steering seemed odd until I turned off the steering damper. After getting back home, I felt much more comfortable on the Ural.

 

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Slow Weekend

Very little riding this weekend though not due to poor weather. It took most of Saturday to recuperate from the flight home. Including a 35 minute connection in Seattle with gates at opposite ends of the airport and a 2:00am arrival in Fairbanks. I made the connection though my luggage didn't. It did arrive on Saturday by noon. Most of the snow and ice are gone except for where it was piled up by the plows or in heavily shaded areas.

The aftermarket starter went in easy enough though I did have to remove a lot of stuff to get to the starter, in fact, just as much as the alternator installation. (gas tank, battery, battery tray, air cleaner housing, top engine cover, one coil, lower front fairing, front engine cover, etc.) But it went quickly and the actual motor part of the starter is about ⅔ the volume of the original part. In fact, it went so quickly that it didn't even occur to me to take pictures. But, the new starter cranks the engine much faster than the old Bosch unit. And does it with the motorcycle battery. So the group 24 automotive battery came out of the sidecar though I am leaving the cables installed for next winter. So I now have a passenger seat again.

There were quite a few bikes out and about yesterday afternoon but none this morning on my morning commute and I still seem to have the motorcycle parking spaces to myself. Though, technically, they aren't motorcycle spaces until May 1st.

Yesterday evening, I finally got around to removing the screw-style tire studs and, as I had feared, I almost waited too long. The screw heads on about ¼ of the studs were so worn down that they needed to be removed with vice grip pliers on what remained of the head. I'll swap out the studded tires maybe in a week or so.

A Longer Walk Around Denver

This afternoon, Dom invited me up to the 40th floor to check out the view and maybe to demonstrate that you really could see the Rockies if you had the right viewpoint. And the view was spectacular. We walked all the way around looking at the views from each side of the building. It turned out that Dom's building was right across the street from the conference hotel.

Later in the afternoon after the afternoon sessions, I headed away from the hotel and the first stop was the Blue Bear at the Denver Convention Center. I had seen models of this at the Denver Art Museum last night but at that time, didn't even have any idea where the convention center was. As you may have figured, it wasn't that far from the conference hotel. After passing under the convention center along the walkway, I worked my way away from the downtown area to a more industrialized area.

Behind me is one of those "rivers" that you regularly see in large cities that all of the storm drains flow into. The very tall, whiteish building in the distance is where the first photo was taken

Since the blog is mostly about moto-topics, here is why I went for a walk. Euro Motelectrics (EME), the same company that made my new higher output alternator, also makes a starter. This is a modified Japanese starter that has a planetary gearset between the motor and the gear. I think that it is made by Nippon Denso. It draws less current than the stock Bosch starter and spins the engine faster. Kind of a win-win in my book and something that I could use especially in the winter. I was reluctant to order it this earlier due to the shipping cost. After all, starters aren't that light and now I could bring it back inside of my checked luggage. I discovered that EME was not that far from downtown Denver and after a few email exchanges, picking it up at their storefront was an option. And it seemed like a great reason for a walk.

It turned out to be a little bit further than I had thought due to some construction detours but it was a beautiful day to be outside. Several temperature signs that I passed claimed that it was 75°F in the late afternoon/early evening. I made it back in time to make dinner with a good friend from Columbia University and a group interested in two-factor authentication. Dinner was at a wonderful Italian restaurant.

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