First Casualty of the Thump

Missing rear shroud round head bolt

I noticed yesterday that the rear round head bolt holding the muffler shroud had fallen out with the shake of the Bullet.  Figured that it was around a 6mm bolt, I tried removing one of the others to checked the length but at the time they were both still firmly attached so I judged from the cavity that it would not be very long.

Today, on my diagnostic trips around the neighborhood, I took a jaunt to the True Value Hardware Store in the shopping center on the West Chester Pike and 252 to get some bolts.  The shortest I was able to find was a 6mm x 12.  I settled for that and brought it back home.  Once home, I was able to remove the side bolt and it turns out that it's probably a 6mm x 6.  I put the original bolt in the rear hole of the shroud, where I have lost the original, and the replacement 6mm x 12 in the side hole.  That fits much better there, I could probably get away with a 6mm x 10 in that spot but in the rear spot it really stuck up.  I used blue Loctite on both bolts.  When I next go to big box hardware store, I will look for a 6x6 or a 6x10 to replace the 6x12 I have now.  I will also have to keep an eye on it just in case.

Original front shroud round head bolt

Replaced rear bolt with original side bolt

Hardware store 6mm x 12 temporary on the side bolt  hole

Read More »

Valley Forge Ride

National Memorial Arch, Valley Forge

Headed out towards Church Road with no particular flight plan in mind.  There was a work crew doing some repairs to the grounds by the old Ardrossan gate.  I have had that gate in mind as a place for a photo but with the crew in the way and the grass being all torn up it didn't seem like a good idea at the time.

General Mad Anthony Wayne

Not having that possibility in mind I continued down Church towards Waterloo and once there followed Waterloo to Valley Forge.  Once in the park I just followed the roads and wound about the hills, this is a good ride for a helmet camera video.  Some of the side roads were closed, I assumed for repairs or debris removal, but most of the park was accessible.  Made two stops for photos, first in the parking lot behind the National Memorial Arch and then at the Mad Anthony Monument.  The bit of cobble stone in front of the Arch was no fun to negotiate, have to take it slow through there or you might jar your teeth loose.  The road that winds up to the Mad Anthony Monument winds down to 252.  Traffic on Waterloo/252 on the way up was rather heavy from the Baptist Church in the Great Valley (another target for photos) area to the Chesterbrook turn off so I decided to follow turn right on 252 under 202 rather than to take Waterloo back.
After clearing the one way bridge on 252 traffic started getting heavy there too so I took the Sugartown turn off to Church for the way home.

I would like to do the Valley Forge ride again with a helmet camera and earlier in the day when there are less tourists in the area.  The park wasn't congested but it would have been nicer with fewer cars.  Great weather, clear and nice temps with just a little wind.  The heavy forecast for yesterday's rain did not really materialize.  It stated raining around 13:00 and probably stopped a little after 16:30 and it was never heavy rain.

After the morning commute the odo was probably clocking at around 758 miles.  By the end of the Valley Forge ride it is at 786.8 miles.

Read More »

Clocks 4 Bikes

Step 1 - In the package

As an early father's day present my wife gave me a Clocks 4 Bikes stem nut clock for the the Bullet this morning.  Fist of all, what a great company to do business with!  My wife called to ask about measurements and got a call back immediately from Linda Harjes, one of the co-owners.  They worked out the particulars and the clock was here from Flora, Mississippi in two days with free shipping.

Step 2 - Out on the package

As you can see from the pictures this is a beautiful product.  Ross and Linda Harjes run the whole thing the old fashioned way with customer satisfaction as their number one priority.  The thing that impressed me the most was that the clock arrived running and set to my local time.  Talk about minding the details!

Step 3 - Installation complete

The clock is beautifully made and it fits the Bullet as if it was an original part.  They also have a handle bar mounted model but for the stem nut you will need to ask for the 30mm.  It is just positioned on the stem nut and all you need to do is tighten the securing bolt with the included hex wrench.  If you notice the time on the clock you will see that time from taking out of the package to complete installation is less than 3 minutes.  That includes the time to take pictures, without that it probably would have taken less than a minute.

Step 4 - Ready to go

Clocks for bikes offers several models for different kinds of bikes and they would be a great addition to any bike.  As you can tell, I am highly impressed with the product and the service.

Read More »

Saturday's Ride

The intention this morning was to head out Goshen/Strasburg to 352 heading towards Brookhaven but turning around at Granite Run Mall and following the reverse route back home.  Soon after crossing 252 on Goshen there was a flock of Canada geese gently strolling across the road.  They did not seem to mind the oncoming traffic and were not deterred or hurried by the Bullet's horn.  I slowed down to pass amidships of the flock and got a lot of honking and flapping of wings for my efforts.

After that the ride up Goshen was clear and fun.  The Bullet appears to be running smoother than I remember but that may all be in my head.

Shortly after crossing West Chester Pike on 352 there was a crew working on the road.  I got stopped at the top of the key and as soon as I pulled up, the lady in charge of the stop signed wandered over to ask about the Bullet.  We chatted for a couple of minutes about motorcycles while oncoming cleared and then I was on my way.  The opposite line of traffic was getting pretty backed-up by the time I cleared the crew and I decided not to reverse the route.  Crossing over Route 1, I took the on-ramp to Rt. 1 and from there to 252.

In my new Fox Tactical Fork Bag I was carrying by Nikon SB400 which I had dropped and broken and intended to take to the camera shop to see about getting fixed.  Keeping that in mind, I headed down 252 all the way to the Paoli Shopping Center at Rt. 30 where there used to be a Cardinal Camera.  Cardinal is now gone but there is a Ritz Camera there now.  They couldn't fix it so I headed home via Sugartown and Church.  (I took the SB 400 apart when I got home and fixed it myself.)

Great ride with no hold-ups other than the brief stop at 352 for road work.  That road has some nice twists and traffic is light enough that they can be run well.  Did push the Bullet up to 70 mph on Sugartown for just a brief period, probably no more than 100 yards.  It handled it well.  Can't wait to see if it can sustain it.

At the end of the ride the Bullet clocked 631 miles on the odo.

Read More »

Mystery Solved

This morning there was a message from the towing service (Flatt's Roadside Assistance, if that's not an unfortunate name for a roadside assistance service I don't know what is) that they would be here by 10:05 to pick up the Bullet.  That was an hour after I requested but a little flexibility goes a long way.  Having been left on the side of the road by AAA once for over three hours, I called the number they left in the message by 10:20.  The voice mailbox for that number had to been set up and Flatt's wasn't answering.  Not wanting a recurrence of my AAA experience I immediately called Progressive to figure out the deal.  They were able to raise Flatt's who said they could not be here for another two hours.  Accident this morning, blah, blah, blah, excuses.   I asked Progressive to get another service and by 11:00 I got a call from them saying that Infiniti of West Chester was on its way and that they would be here in 60 minutes.  This would put them at about the same time frame that Flatt's would have been but after my bad experience I feel better with someone who says 60 minutes rather than two hours.

In the meantime, I continued fooling around with the bike to see if I could get it to run.  At one point I noticed the amp meter light flicker and that gave me a little hope.  Right after I hung up with Progressive at 11:00 I gave the Bullet on more try.  This time, magically, the light came on and the bike kicked over.  Mirabile visu!  Not wishing to risk anything, I ran upstairs, put on my riding gear, and asked my wife to cancel the tow.

Despite a forecast of heavy rain the sky was clear and blue so I headed down the road with high hopes of getting to Pottstown dry.  I took Church to Waterloo and headed to 252 to cut across Valley Forge National Park to link up with 23 to Pottstown.  When I left the house I had 539 miles on the odo.  I knew that it would be a tight squeeze to get to Kiss Honda before I ran out of gas.  I figured a little over twenty miles to get there and I had calculated that the odo would read 561 when I ran into the reserves.  I didn't want to stop at the Liberty station on 30 and Waterloo for fear of not being able to start the bike again.

When I got to Phoenixville, I decided to stop at the Citgo on 23 and White Horse because I was afraid that I wouldn't make it to High Street and if I had then how would I get back, the nearest gas station I knew at the time was just out of town.  I realize now that there is a gas station about a block away from Kiss Honda on High Street.  I pulled into the Citgo with 549.3 miles on the odo.  The tank took 2.772 gallons to fill up so I was running fairly close.  The average mileage the Bullet is running now is 67 miles per gallon.

I got to Kiss Honda a little after noon and the service technician was outside waiting for me.  We talked about the problem the Bullet had and he asked me if the kickstand was down.  I realized then that when my grandson was crawling over the bike he must have pushed on the kickstand enough to engage the safety but to make it appear as if it was still up.  I figured that as I messed with the bike this morning I must have re-seated the kickstand and that is what caused the miraculous recovery.

I also asked Randy Kiss to install a maintenance free battery to replace the one that came with the Bullet.  I don't like having to mess with wet cells and Randy sold me a battery for $85.95 which is quite a bit cheaper than I have seen on line or from nfieldgear.  He also threw in and installed a set of battery tender leads so I don't have to unhook the battery again and I can keep it hooked up to the tender when not in use.

They did the work in less than an hour an a half and I was on the road again by a little after 14:00 (that's 2:00 pm. to you civilian types).    The trip back was the outbound route in reverse, didn't have to go down 29 to 30 since the work on 23 appears to be over.  All the way from Pottstown to the outskirts of Phoenixville the Devil was beating his wife.*  He wasn't beating her hard but hard enough to be worrisome.  The sky was heavy and dark behind me and clear and blue in front so I hoped to be running away from the rain.  The beatings stopped in Phoenixville and it was clear sailing until I got to Devon.  As I crossed 30, I figured I would take Sugartown and stop by my wife's work to let her know I was back since she doesn't answer her cell at work.  No sooner had I made that decision that the Devil heard me and began to beat his wife again.  I passed on Sugartown to head home but by the time I got to Church the beatings had stopped again so I headed up Church to my wife's work in Eastown.  I got there and started back home.  No beatings but the sky kept getting darker.  As I pulled into the garage the heavens opened up and it came down in buckets.  The mileage on the odo read 595.5 when I stopped.  All's well that ends well.

*"The Devil is beating his wife" is a southernism for a sunshower, a meteorological phenomenon that occurs when rain falls while the sun is shinning.

Read More »

Dead in the Water

So I got home from work and started getting the Bullet ready to take to Kiss Honda in the morning.  You might remember from last Sunday's (08 June) post that last week I thought the battery had drained from my grandson leaving the kill switch open so I had the battery recharging on the bench since then.  I hooked up the battery, not an easy feat until you figure out that if you hold the nut in place with a screwdriver while rotating the screw it will eventually fall in place by itself, and got ready to crank it over.  The headlights came on, the neutral light came on, but the amp meter light did not and there was no whirling noise like there usually is.  I tried kick-starting, something I've never been successful at, but I got nothing.  No surprise there.  Well, I'm dead in the water.

Luckily, I have roadside assistance through Progressive Insurance.  So I called and set up an appointment to come have the bike picked up tomorrow morning to deliver to Kiss Honda.  I will bet that it's nothing major, but if you read this tonight (12 June 2014) and have an idea of how I might get this thing rolling again, I would appreciate a note in the comments.  I would like to be able to get there under my own power.

Thanks in advance!

Read More »

Riding in the Rain

I have been sick since the 15th of June and it seems that I will never get better.  The last ride I had before today was a week ago, on Wednesday, 21 June, when I took the bike for my work commute and to get my hair cut in the afternoon.  That day was overcast and it started to rain while I was getting my hair cut so I had to ride home in the rain.

Today I finally felt well enough to ride again so I had planned in taking a trip up Goshen/Strasburg/West Chester Pike all the way up to downtown West Chester.  My plan was to return via the Paoli Pike and Sugartown Road.  Well, all the best laid plans mean nothing when the Parcae decide otherwise.  I headed out at a little after 10:00 under a heavily overcast sky but I imagined that it would not break into rain until after I decided to go out.  I realized that to avoid the construction on Goshen I would have to take Sawmill Road to 252 and that to Goshen, by passing the construction detour.  No sooner had I turned into Sawmill that it started spitting.  At that point, I made a tactical decision to scrub my filed flight plan and turn right on 252 and ride the Waterloo/Saint David's loop for as long as I could.  By the time I hit 252 the spitting had turned into sporadic fat drops so I made a second adjustment to just do the Waterloo to Church Rd loop.

There was construction on the Saint David's roundabout but I got passed that without any problems.  There were also signs for construction on Waterloo but the crews were no where to be seen.  When I turned into Church Rd. the sky got really dark but the spitting seemed to be letting up.  By the Sawmill intersection the rain had almost stopped to so I though I would push it a little further.  That was a big mistake, when I turned into Malin, the sky really opened up and I decided to head home.  The rest of the way was under a heavy downpour.

Felt good to be out and about again although I didn't need the cold shower. The port side mirror was loose so I tighten it up when I got home, will keep and eye on it and see what gives.  This ride put the odo over 300.  I hope that I can get back to racking the miles up to finally break the bike in.  Tomorrow is supposed to be clear.  I plan to ride it in to work and out to my gun club in the evening.

Read More »

Monday Morning Ride

Still not feeling a 100% but definitely feeling a lot better than yesterday.  At around 10:00 I went out for a mid-morning ride.  Basically just headed out West Chester Pike towards West Chester.  It was sunny and clear, traffic was light, and them temps were in the low 60s.  Stopped at the Wawa station on the Pike to fill-up.  Didn't need it as I had only gone 141 miles since the last fill-up but, since I was there, I took advantage of it.  The tank took a little over 2.1 gallons to fill up.  With an safe range of 200 miles I won't have to fill-up again until I hit 463 on the odo.

After the stop at the Sunoco, kept going west on the Pike to downtown West Chester, which was probably less than four miles away.  I turned around and headed back east on the Pike to Strasburg Rd.  Took that back to Goshen.  I made a left on 252 at the intersection with Goshen because of road work in Goshen so I took the Saw Mill Rd loop to home.

Had a stall on the intersection of Ellis Rd and Strasburg.  I figured that I did not shift all the way down to first and tried to start up in second which probably caused the stall.  Worked it out and moved on.  Also had one false neutral between third and fourth close to the Delchester turn.  Though about stopping at the covered bridge to take a picture but decided against it.  I'll make a run down to the bridge soon with my camera to get a good picture.

Pulled into the garage with 282 miles on the odo.

Read More »

Wave

Still not feeling well but I did take a little time this afternoon to do a very short ride and check on my new bar end mirrors.  My plan was to go to Ellis Preserve and do some loops on the grounds.  I had readjusted my right mirror yesterday and that was fine but the left mirror was still a little low.  After a couple of loops I decided to head out on the road on go back home.  Instead on returning by the shortest route I went on West Chester Pike to Providence Rd. and from there to Goshen Rd. and home.  When I was on West Chester Pike I noticed a tan colored Mini Cooper hovering on my left.  I looked over my shoulder and noticed the driver, a young guy, giving me the thumbs up a smiling from ear to ear. I waved back and he sped off. Randy Kiss, the guy that sold me the Bullet, told me this would happen and he was right.  It was a really nice feeling.

I also signed up for the BRC2 put on by the Pennsylvania Motorcycle Safety Program on 29 June.  I try to take the course once a year to keep my skills up to date.

The ride was good, the sky was overcast and threatening rain but we had none forecast and none fell.  I hate that I haven't been able to ride much lately but as soon as I feel better I'm planning on a longer ride.  The Bullet had 235 on the odo when I left the house and 257 when I parked it.    

Read More »

Napoleon Bar End Mirrors

The next modification to the Bullet was the installation of a set of Napoleon bar end mirrors from Dime City Cycles.  You can get these in black but I went with chrome to keep with the look of the bike.  These cost me $34.95 a piece.

When I got these on Thursday, I need that installation was not going to be an easy thing.  I looked in youtube to find instructions and that best that I could find was here.  These instructions were for removing the handle bar plugs for a Ninja 250 but I figured that most of it would be translatable.  However, they involved using a torch, which I do not have, and rather than go out and buy trouble I decided to have someone else do it for me.

So, this morning, despite being under the weather, I rode out to Joe's Cycles on West Chester Pike in Broomall. I dropped the bike off and I got a call from Joe about an hour later.  The removal of the plugs would not be an easy unscrew because, according to Joe, they were welded in a had to be drilled out.  Glad that I had enough sense to have them do it rather than try it myself.  The installation cost me a couple of cents under $58.00, which I was glad to pay for not having the aggravation.

The mirrors really change the profile of the bike and make it look much better.  They don't adjust easily, however.  The mirrors and stems are one integral part and the only way to adjust your field of view is to loosen the grip screw and move the mirror around.  I wish I had known that before I bought these because I would have gotten something else instead.

To complete this mod, I added mirror mount plugs from NField Gear to cover the holes left by the removal of the stock mirrors.  These two screw cost me $9.95.

(See the full album on Flickr)

Read More »

Headlight Visor and Helmet Lock

Another no ride day, this time not because of weather but because I'm under the weather.  Got some parts in from NField Gear last Thursday and I began my mods to the Bullet.

Headlight Visor

The first mod was the addition of the headlight visor.  This part cost me $19.95 and it was super easy to install.  There is a small phillips had screw at six o'clock on the headlight cowl that retains the cowl in place.  Once you remove that screw all you have to do is fit the visor on to the inside of the cowl, replace the cowl, and replace the screw.  It takes a little bit of trial an error but it's pretty easy to get right.  I like the look of the bike with the visor, it has a more retro feel in my opinion.

Helmet Lock

  
The second thing that I got from NField Gear was a helmet lock.  This helmet lock is also pretty easy to install.  On the Bullet, all you have to do is decide which side you want the lock on, I went with the port side, then loosen the bolts holding the seat handle on the opposite side and remove the bolts on the installation side of the seat handle bracket.  Position the plate and lock together and then thread the removed blots through and secure the seat handle firmly.  The lock is an OEM part with two keys that look just like the ignition key and it also cost $19.95.  Frankly, I was pretty disappointed with the quality and workmanship on the lock, it looks like really poor quality pot metal that has already begun to oxidize and the paint is flaking everywhere.  The need to secure my helmet, however, outstripped those aesthetic considerations and I installed the lock regardless.

(See the full album on Flickr)

Read More »

St David's Road

Took lunch time today to do a run on St. David's Road.  Loved the twists and turns.  Unfortunately, as it will always happens, there were road crews all over repairing the damage from this winter.  Glad to see that is being done but, of course, you can see how they could have waited to do that after I had taken my run.  Oh well, that just means that I will have to try again.  It was nice to be able to do a mini run in the middle of the day.  The problem, however, was that going back to work was really hard.  Overcast and cool but no rain anywhere.  By the time I got home after work today the odo was up to 225.  Racking up those miles!

Read More »

New Royal Enfield Logo

I just found this on "My Royal Enfields" blog.  Royal Enfield is changing its logo.

(Photo credit - TeamBHP.com)

I'll confess to being a traditionalist, there's nothing wrong with the new logo, I just like the old logo better.  A lot of buzz about it on the web but it's a fait accompli so we'll just have to live with it.

Read More »

Bad or Just Annoying

Not sure that I would put this in the Bad category but it can be annoying.  The lights on the instruments that show neutral and turn signal (what the manual calls trafficator lights) indicators are really dim.  During daytime operation they are virtually invisible.  It's not a big deal, but if you are a little clueless (like me) you end up riding around with your blinkers on all the time.  My solution is to hit the kill switch every time I think about it.  It's not a bad solution but sometimes I don't think about it for three or four miles.  Oh well, what are you gonna do?

Read More »

Pillion Ride

Today I took my wife for a ride on the Bullet.  We did a short run up Goshen/Strasburg to the West Chester Pike and on the way back we detoured down Sugartown Rd. to Darby Rd. turned around and came back Sugartown to Providence Rd. and from there to Goshen.  A nice country ride with some twists.  The bike behaved tremendously well.  Considering that I never brought it up past quarter throttle it ran smooth and steady.  I did have a couple of false neutrals but that probably was my fault.  Still getting used to it.

We clocked around twenty miles on that run.

Read More »

Photos on Flickr

I've added the first set of photos of the Bullet to my Motorcycle Porn album on Flickr.  I took these with my Nikon D7000 using a Nikon 28mm Series E lens on aperture priority.  The Series E are manual lenses that will not work with auto-focus and will not register the aperture in the camera body.  You have to manually move the ring just like in the good old days.  More retro stuff.  Please enjoy.

   

Read More »

First Ride - First Impressions

Yesterday (Thursday, 08 May 2014) I bought my first Enfield.  It's a black 2012 Bullet B5 and I have been looking at it in the showroom floor for a little under a year now.  It had been languishing in the showroom of Kiss Honda probably since 2012, with only 35 miles on the odometer, but I did not see until last year.  Kiss Honda is a family owned dealership that has been in the same location in Pottstown, PA, since 1913 (coincidentally, the year my father was born).  Randy Kiss, the grandson of the founder, runs the dealership now and is the third generation owner.  I had been out there last summer and Randy let me do a test ride on a C5 Military model and I caught the Enfield bug.

So back to yesterday, I had been out to arrange the buying of the bike on Tuesday and Randy had everything ready when I walked in at around noon.  The day had been overcast and threatening rain and on the ride out on my Yamaha V Star 250 (which I traded in for the Bullet) I caught a couple of rain drops on my visor.  The ride from Newtown Square to Pottstown can be done in several ways but I chose to cut across Valley Forge National Park and take Rt 23 into Phoenixville to Rt 724 to Pottstown.  That is about 25 miles from point to point mostly through country roads.  On the way out I found that 23 had been detoured for road work so I decided on a different route for my return.

When I left Kiss Honda I picked up 724 where it intercepts Hanover Road, south of the Schuylkill River and ran towards Phoenixville.  That part of the ride has some nice open spots to run but I was using it to become acclimated to the Bullet and for getting used to its idiosyncrasies.  When I got to Phoenixville I left 23 to take Rt 29 at Manavon Road.  Route 29 just south of Phoenixville is windy, twisty, hilly, and mostly country until it hits the Penna Turnpike (I-76) where it broadens and flattens.  This is a good place to feel the bike but I didn't push it because I felt I needed to become more familiar with it.  After the break-in I will definitely be back to try this road again.  From there I hit Rt 30 to Rt 252 and then home.

The Bullet behaved as expected, like a good old fashioned thumper.  The ride is fun and quirky but mostly fun.  By the time I got home the odometer was reading close to 60 and those first few miles had taught me a lot about this bike.  I'll use it as commuter during good weather and for longer rides on the weekend.  My intention is to post here and record the progress I make with it.  I hope you enjoy this log.

  

I think I'll name her Lola Too.

Read More »