Vintage Veloce

The legacy of the DKW RT-125, the origins of an industry?

2012-02-07T17:04:00.000-08:00

I've been amused by all the bikes that were derivatives of the DKW RT-125. Most recently Yamaha produced a concept bike, the Y125. This is an imitation of their first motorcycle, the YA-1. And that was a copy of the legendary DKW RT-125.
Just compare these pics:

The 2011 Yamaha Y125 Concept bike

The original 1955 Yamaha YA-1

The 1954 DKW RT-125

And the ORIGINAL 1939 DKW RT 125

For the record, the 1939 DKW RT 125 was a great design by Hermann Weber.

It appears that after WW2, the design of the DKW 125RT was open to anyone who wanted it. Some manufacturers aded it to their product portfolio, but other companies were started with that very bike as the first product.

From Wikipedia:

The RT 125' is a German two-stroke motorcycle made by DKW in Zschopau in the 1930s, IFA and MZ in the 1950s and early 1960s, and DKW in Ingolstadt in the 1950s and 1960s. "RT" stands for "Reichstyp" or "National Model".

In the 1930s DKW pioneered the Schnürle two-stroke loop scavenging process to dispense with the use of a deflector piston and improve efficiency of the combustion chamber. DKW also developed a highly efficient arrangement of transfer ports. These two features were included in the RT 125 to great commercial advantage. Competitor companies such as Adler and TWN copied the adoption of flat-topped pistons and strove to develop equally transfer port arrangements without infringing DKW's patent.
The RT 125 is probably the most copied motorcycle of all time. After World War II the Soviet Union took plans, tooling and even several dozen personnel as war reparations to MMZin Moscow (later transferred to MMVZ and SMZ) and to a factory in Kovrov, and produced copies of the RT125 as the M1A Moskva and K-125 respectively. WFM of Poland made a modified version of the RT125 (under SHL 125 and Sokół 125 brands), developed into 125/175 cc family motorcycles, produced until 1985. RT 125 plans were also taken to the United Kingdom where they became the basis of the BSA Bantam, and to the USA where they formed the basis of the Harley-Davidson "Hummer". Later Yamaha in Japan copied the RT 125 as the basis of the Yamaha YA-1.

Here is an array of shots some of these copies.

An American 1948 Harley Hummer

The English 1948 BSA Bantam

The Soviet 1946 Moskva M1A

An Italian 1950 MiVal 125T

A German 1941 NSU 125 ZDB

An Italian 1954 Maserati L/125/T2 (Italmoto). Its hard to see in this shot, but the Maserati engine is just like all the others. The frame is a bit more modern.

The first Italian Moto Morini, the 125 Turismo. Thile the top end is the same, the gearbox appears to have a different from the DKW.

The first Italian MV Agusta, the 98 Turismo. Looks like a DKW top end but again with a different gearbox.

An Italian 1948 Sterzi 125 Turismo

The first Japanese Kawasaki Motorcycle, 1955 Kawasaki (Meihatsu) 125

A Norwegian 1954 Tempo

The Czech 1949 Jawa 125

The Hungarian Csepel 125

There are lots more, google these up if you want to see more bikes closely related to the DKW RT 125.

Peugeot 55
Motoconfort 125
Triumph BDG125
James Comet 125
Sokół WSK M01, M06
SHL M02, M03, M04
Royal Enfield WD/RE Flying Flea

On Coolant and Antifreeze

2012-01-06T12:31:00.000-08:00

Sharing some info I’ve learned today...

I’m fixing my bent radiator on my dirt bike, a 2010 Husqvarna TE250, and decided I should get some new coolant. And I noticed the stuff in the radiator now is blue. Hmm, that’s different from he green I’m used too!

Apparently my manual recommends Castrol Motorcycle Coolant, and I read the earlier Husqvarnas used to call for AGIP Cool Antifreeze. I found little info about these and was unable to tell what color they are, and they aren’t easy to find where I live. I suspect these are Ethylene Glycol based but I couldn’t find a spec for the AGIP stuff.

And I saw some mention that the original blue fluid might be G11, apparently a European spec antifreeze, and that is apparently blue. It is also not easily available near me (even the local German car dealer has apparently moved to something pink in color, maybe G12).

Now importantly, some of the sources I read said not to mix the blue G11 coolant with an Ethylene Glycol based coolant. Maybe bogus, but it sounds to me like the safest thing to do is to just flush the old blue stuff and put in something that I know what it is.

I also found this interesting article by Dave Kimmey, the President of Engine Ice. Obviously a biased source, but much of the info still seemed good and informative. After reading it I decided to go with Engine Ice, especially as I ride in the desert. I don’t care so much about antifreeze, but I do want better cooling performance if it’s possible.

Here is Dave Kimmey's article, for what it’s worth:

Since it's starting to warm up and you folks will be getting your bikes out of moth balls, I thought I'd take a minute to give you some information and education about antifreeze/coolant products as well as some insight as to what coolants actually are and what their true purpose is.

Now, being from Engine Ice, I am a bit biased and I admit it. However, most all of the products on the market are excellent products, but each has various uses and applications for them. We produce Engine Ice for specific high intensity and high heat applications. It really is not designed as an “everyday” coolant; it is for racing or high temperature applications. However, it can be used as an everyday coolant with no problem

There are two basic types of coolant/antifreeze, Ethylene Glycol (EG) and Propylene Glycol (PG) and then there are surfactant products such as Water Wetter from Red Line for example. All of the products mentioned are good products, just offering different things.

Ethylene Glycol (EG) – This is basically your “Prestone” type of products. Maxima’s Coolinol, Pro Honda Coolant and Spectro Coolant are examples of this type of product. It is basically the same as the coolant/antifreeze product you can buy at the auto parts store, but “silicate-free.” This is important, don’t get the stuff from the auto parts store unless it’s silicate free. Most are pre-diluted for easy use; they are diluted with a more pure distilled water or deionized water (deionized water is explained below). This is better water than what you can buy at the grocery store.

You really shouldn’t call an EG-based product a “coolant,” an “anti-boil” product would be more accurate. EG is made very cheaply and its primary purpose is to eliminate boil-over and to keep your system from freezing up. That’s basically it. It is not designed to actually reduce temperatures. If you are driving a car or a cruiser-type bike that does not have a temperature issue, these are fine products.

Water Wetter - It is an additive product. Water Wetter is what is called a “surfactant.” What this means is that it reduces the surface tension of the water or in other words, it allows the water/fluid to “rub” closer to the metal allowing it to better draw off heat. Water Wetter works and it is good stuff. However, if you add it to an EG antifreeze product your results are minimal. It will reduce temperatures, but by only a small amount. Added to water, you will see a significant difference in temperature reduction. But it will not raise the boil point of the water nor does it offer any antifreeze protection. So your engine may run a bit cooler, but when it gets hot it will “spit out” the coolant before other products do. That is not good, because now you’ll have less coolant in the engine. Using more than the recommended amount (4 capfuls to a quart) is a waste and it will not make any difference, only use their recommended amount.

Water alone is not recommended. You do need to add some type of water additive to it. Water alone is corrosive and it does not keep your seals, gaskets, water pump and water pump impeller shaft lubricated enough. Make sure something is added to water, do not run it all by itself.

I would not recommend Dex-Cool (the orange stuff). All reports and tests that I have heard of have not been good. It can "gel." It also has a tendency to clog up a motorcycle system. The radiator core and the system itself of a motorcycle is smaller when compared to an auto. I would avoid Dex-Cool and choose any other product before I'd recommend anyone using it.

Propylene Glycol (PG) – This is what Engine Ice Hi-Performance Coolant and Evans Coolant is made of. Evans is 100% PG and has an extremely high boil point of well over 350oF. They recommend you make some mechanical changes to your system, such as a zero psi cap or a different radiator in order to use it. Their goal is to eliminate boil-over, not to reduce temperatures. At their recommended 100% PG use, you’d have a boil point in excess of 350oF. At 100% PG, it would not be as effective at dissipating heat from your engine as well as it has a higher viscosity. Water is the ultimate coolant. All coolant products are measured against water for its heat dissipation capabilities. The lack of water in the use of Evans greatly reduces its ability to cool your engine. If you’re running heavy equipment or an 18-wheel truck, Evans is probably a good product.

Engine Ice is a diluted ratio of PG and Deionized water. The process of de-ionizing water eliminates all of the impurities that can do harm to your cooling system. Regardless if you are using tap, bottled, distilled, spring or R/O (reverse osmosis) waters, it can still contain minute particles of iron, magnesium, rust, lime and calcium. Many of these waters also contain chemicals, such as chlorine, fluorides and acids. Want proof? Take two different brands of distilled waters and perform your own taste test. They each taste different don’t they? If water were water, why would they be different? It’s because of the varying amounts of chemicals and minerals in these waters. These minerals and chemicals are what is the cause of scarring, scaling and mineral build-ups in your cooling system. Many also attribute these minerals and chemicals to water pump seal and gasket failures.

Engine Ice was developed and tested in the heat and humidity of Southern Florida. Tests have proven to reduce operating race temperatures by as much as 50oF in some situations. PG is a lubricant and is a surfactant in itself, meaning it has more capability to draw away more heat than EG-based products and even Water Wetter. It is biodegradable and non-toxic. It will not kill your dog, nor will it kill the plant life at your favorite track or trail. It is also legal in AMA, CCS and FUSA road racing.

Engine Ice has won over 275 National Championship Titles over the last two and a half years including the 2001 AMA 125cc West Supercross Championship with Ernesto Fonseca on the Yamaha of Troy YZ250F and in 2002 Chad Reed in the 125cc West Supercross Championship. You can bet that Yamaha Motor Corporation did extensive testing on Engine Ice prior to putting in into their premier bike in its debut year. It is also used an endorsed by the American Suzuki Amateur Motocross Program. Engine Ice sponsored racer, Darren Luck, won nine (9) CCS class championships in 2002 as well as earned the CCS Florida Expert #1 plate by the largest margin ever. Racers using Engine Ice won seven CCS Race of Champions National Championships at Daytona in 2001 and won an additional eight (8) in 2002.

As for flushing the system, we recommend a very simple and cheap radiator flush.
Go to your local grocery store and buy "White Distilled Vinegar" and mix that 50/50 with some distilled water.
Fill the system with the 50/50 mix, run the bike until warm, let cool, drain and then run clear water through to wash out the vinegar. It's the same idea as cleaning your coffee maker. The vinegar is acidic enough to remove any scale or impurities, but not so harsh that it will harm your delicate seals and gaskets.

WE DO NOT RECOMMEND AUTOMOTIVE RADIATOR FLUSHES...they're too harsh.

Lightweight Shorai Battery

2011-11-09T15:26:00.000-08:00

Not a vintage project but a cool one. I wanted a new battery for my 2010 Husqvarna TE250, and had recently read about these cool lightweight LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate) batteries made by Shorai. I'm a novice in the dirt and I'm short so the idea of lightening the bike a couple pounds sounded like a good idea.

Shorai's "Standard Recommendation" for my bike is the LFX09L2-BS12. There website claims: "This LFX battery is 4.07 Lbs. lighter than the lead-acid YTZ7S." That sounded pretty awesome, and my local dealer had it in stock.
Here is my original battery and the new Shorai.

The new Shorai is significantly shorter and less deep. They provide foam that you can cut to wedge the battery in the battery tray and you can see that in front of the Shorai battery in the picture. They also have these nice bolts with foam underneath that helps raise the nut for fitting the bolt. If you have fit a motorcycle battery before you know this seems like a handy and nice idea.

But what about the weight? First I weighed the original battery.

This is the original battery that came with the bike and including the bolts it weights 4 pounds 8.5 ounces (4.53 pounds).

Now the new Shorai battery.

Wow! 1 pound 4.9 ounces (1.31 pounds), including the bolts and foam shim.

So that is a savings of: 3 pounds 3.6 ounces, or 3.2 pounds. Not really close to Shorai's claim of 4.07 pounds, but still a pretty good weight savings.

Here's a picture of the battery fitted to the bike.

I was careful to zip tie the battery in place, as it definitely cold come loose otherwise, due to it's smaller size. But it does fit really well. (You might notice, I have some extra wiring under my bike for the Power Commander.)

I checked the voltage of the battery when I bought it, and it was at 13.40V. Which Shorai claims means the battery as delivered was at more than 90% charge. I also checked the drain with the ignition off and got 0.17mA on my meter. Thats pretty small, but I think I'll leave the battery disconnected between riding trips.

Cost? The Shorai at $106.62, tax included, was about the same price as a replacement Yuasa MF YTZ-7S battery ($110 online from various sites). But you can get an off-brand sealed AGM YTZ-7S for less than $50. So it's a great deal if you compare to a high end OEM replacement battery, kind of expensive if you compare it to the cheapest batteries out there.

So thats it, probably the easiest 3 pounds I've ever saved on a bike.

How I bent the foot peg mount back

2011-10-20T16:10:00.000-07:00

The right foot peg on my 1977 Kawasaki KH400 has been a little crooked. Ideally this would have been bent back while the bike was disassembled (during restoration) but the restorer didn't notice it at that time.
The threaded lug that receives the foot peg is mounted to a gusset on the frame and I could see that gusset was slightly tweaked. So it wasn't a matter of bending the frame, just tweaking the sheet gusset back straight.
I tried bending it by removing the foot peg and inserting a long bolt, but the bolt just bent. So I ended up buying an extra foot peg on ebay, and then cutting it so I could fit a long steel pipe over the end.

I wrapped the end of the pipe in tape to protect surrounding components if something slipped or broke during the procedure. I also heated the the gusset with a heat gun. Not too much as I didn't want to harm the paint. Just slightly warm to the touch. Then I had my wife support the bike so I didn't pull it over and carefully tugged on the pipe. It's delicate procedure, as I didn't want to break anything and there are big, potentially dangerous forces involved. Obviously we both wore gloves and safety goggles. If you try something like this, be very careful and really, get professional help.

Mondial Repairs

2011-10-17T17:52:00.000-07:00

I arrived home from the giro and quickly made a list of things that need to be repaired, fixed or upgraded on the Mondial. These old bikes always need something. Sometimes the problems just arrive and sometimes they are chronic things you just can't seem to get rid of. Eventually I might decide to move to a new old bike and a new set of problems!

The problem at hand:

- the ignition switch is intermittent and the ignition can cut out while riding or sometimes just to prevent the bike from starting.

A little investigation showed that the flat contact spring for the contact on the switch is made of two pieces, and one of the pieces has broken. (You can see the broken flat contact spring on the switch on the right in the picture below.) Unbelievably, I was able to find a replacement switch easily on sale for a mere $36. Its slightly different, but no big issues.

The new switch is on the left in the pic, with the bulb and fuse already fitted. I also put a jumper on it to connect two of the terminals.

So now the switch is fixed!

Giro d' Califoria 2011 Wrap-up

2011-10-06T22:08:00.000-07:00

I'm back home after another great Giro d'California.
It seemed like this was the best organized event yet, my complements to Harley and Deb and all those who helped them!
I've been asked for a bit more of a competitive update. Here is the story.

A Bit On Scoring and Strategy

The end section of a agility test right before the timing lights

The giro has 4 "agility tests" a day, where you strive to hit your time exactly over a short course, typically a slalom through some cones of less than 60 seconds. These are at the start, before and after lunch and at the finish. Additionally, there are typically 2 "emergency checks" along the course where you are marked to the middle of your minute (the 30 second point) in seconds. The agility tests are measured to the thousandth of a second with timing lights and emergency checks are measured to the second. Additionally there are 2 secret checks out on the course, where you are measure to the minute.
So here's how the strategy works out for me. Most importantly, I must leave on time at the start. It would be silly to blow that. Secondly, I want to arrive at the finish on time (you can be up to 15 minutes early for that with no penalty as it's a "known control". Then, I want to hit the secret checks and emergency controls on my designated minute. If a I can do all that, for 2 days, I will be "on my minute". Previous Giro's show that you will likely win the event if you can do that, or come close. The next priority after that is to try and hit the emergency check as close to the middle of my minute as possible, to avoid adding extra seconds to my score. And then the agility tests are important as they can also add seconds. Actually, the agility tests could add alot of seconds if you are very sloppy... between those and the emergency checks you could add enough seconds to more than a whole minute to your score.

The Competition

Barry Porter in the foreground at the start with his "race face" on.

There are a bunch of guys doing the Giro well now but one stands out. I've found Barry Porter to be a fantastic competitor. I haven't been able to beat him in the last events as he runs just like a metronome. I succumb to the urge to just ride ahead of my time when the roads are good and that is a real detriment competitively. I tend to do the rabbit thing, run fast and then stop to let the clock catch up. At any rate, this typically means something has to go wrong for Barry for me to be close to him time wise. I mean, a TSD (time-speed-distance) event like this is about riding perfectly, and I make more "mistakes" than Barry and that makes it hard to beat him!

Day 1
Day 1 in the morning went fine. I lost 2 minutes when I arrived to a checkpoint early on a long twisty downhill. I knew I was ahead of schedule but didn't want to go slower as it was a nice road. I was just thinking of looking for a place to stop and whoops, here is a checkpoint! So that was that... I was going to be behind Barry in the overall.

The afternoon of Day 1 started pretty hot. Two riders are released from the start every minute and then have to wait for the agility test. As it was a long agility test the riders started to line up to wait for it. Soon it was a 10 minute wait. This means the guys in front had a real advantage, as they just got to run the test and leave. In the back, I had a long wait in my hot leathers... I was roasting. Eventually, I pulled my helmet and gloves and got some cold water. But by the time my shot at the test came up I just drove through it carefully to get rolling and away. I also needed to hit a gas stop and was just annoyed at the heat and delay. But eventually I was off and after an hour had cooled off and was enjoying the ride. It was a great road and we started to bend our way up a mountain.
But heading up the mountain, there was an error in the mileage on our roll chart for one of the turns! I was running right up a narrow single lane road in the Sequoia National Forest when I met Barry coming back down the mountain... he flagged me down and said the turn wasn't where it was supposed to be. I looked at my mileage and he appeared correct, but I suggested we keep going just to be sure, it's a long way to turn back. So we went another 2 miles forward and there was no turn. The previous turn has some road name markings which led us to believe maybe we should have turned differently back there... so we agreed to go back down the hill. For a moment, after he decided to go down the hill I was tempted to proceed ahead alone, as that would give me a time advantage if it worked! But Barry was right; we were way past where the turn was supposed to be and the previous intersection had been confusing on the roll chart. So I followed him back down and we were zooming as we knew we were now late. And Barry was supposed to be several minutes ahead of me so he took off... and I was hoping that if I kept the gap low I would gain time on him in the overall. This error could be to my advantage! I was laughing in my helmet as the whole thing gets particularly funny when you are lost.
Barry and I went back down the hill passing people coming up with confused looks. And then we turned the other way at the last intersection. And we kept zooming. Barry was out of sight ahead but then he appeared coming at me again! He pulls up and is frantic. He says he just came up on a checkpoint, from the wrong direction! We must have been going the right way the first time! He zooms off to go back up the hill. Now I stop and think. I don't immediately follow Barry. In moments there are half a dozen other riders pulled up and we they are all gabbing and discussing what to do. And then... Harley rides by.... and this surely indicates the proper direction, as he is the organizer! So I take off after Barry again. But now my mileage is way off, who knows where I'm going. And I know the turn on the hill isn't where it was supposed to be. I ride as fast as I can, still occasionally laughing in my helmet. This will really toss the standings like a salad! I'm competitive, but route finding is the game and certainly some people will have done it right. Hey, I almost went ahead without Barry the first time up the hill! At any rate I keep going as fast as I can. It gets lonely and I suspect no one is following me now. I was near the back in the start order and with this confusion I must be last or nearly so. It's getting dark and I finally come to an intersection... and it's no clearly marked so it doesn't match my chart and of course who knows the mileage! The sign seems to indicate I should go left. But if this is the lost intersection from my roll chart I should go right. I gamble and go right. And since the mileage was wrong I clearly can't reset my odometer here so I'm really concerned I might be getting lost. Its forest here and getting dark. I ride as quickly as I can. I haven't seen anyone in a long time. No cell reception up here I'm sure, it could be a long night if I'm lost. Luckily the bike is running well! And then... an intersection appears, and it matches the next turn on the map! I reset my odometer, noting I'm 40 miles off. And lots of time! I zoom along and a checkpoint appears! Yay! Humans! I'm on course! But WAY behind schedule. And the way the rules work, I have to stay behind schedule that same amount for the rest of the checkpoints. In fact, if I arrive more than 15 minutes early at the end I will be disqualified. Eventually I catch Barry and we discuss that fact and take our time during a free zone to avoid the possibility of DQ. And so the ride continues for the rest of the evening. I arrive at the hotel to find the special test already closed.
That night is full of interesting discussions. Obviously, those who managed to stay on route want the day's times to stand as they are! Rightly so, I think. It's the riders job to find the route regardless of errors on the route chart. And there are those who were lost who think the afternoons times should be discarded, because the chart was wrong. My opinion is that the results should be kept, UNLESS too many people are DQed. I mean, you can't throw out the results over every error in the charts or maps, you would never have a complete event. But on the other hand, you just don't want most of the riders DQed on day one of a 2 day event. That's just no fun for the attendees. So it will be up to the organizers...
That night Harley announces the afternoons results will be thrown out. I'm 2 minutes behind Barry, and there's a bunch of guys right on my tail...
(day 1 stats: morning: 89.2 miles plus approx. 40 miles lost, afternoon 91.6 miles)

Day 2
It's a new day and it's like starting all over because yesterday's afternoon stage was discarded.
So starting day two I was solidly 2 minutes behind Barry, so my agility tests weren't going to be critical. Actually, there was someone close behind me (sorry I didn't check who it was, or I'd post it), but I assumed our times would likely spread enough that the agility tests wouldn't be critical. I still made an effort with them, but it was nice not to be concerned. After day 1's roast as I waited for the agility test after lunch, I was happy to just let these happen without stress for day two. I actually ran most of them without my stopwatch and just counted the seconds.
I was happy to zero my first secret check in the morning and then we headed up into the mountains. Another great single lane road winding the way up. It's overcast and that's nice as it keeps things cool. There was a chance of rain and I brought all of my rain gear. This ended up being a good thing. We kept going up and up and it got colder. And then we were in the mist from the clouds and it was almost like rain the roads were wet and there were occasional small puddles. And visibility fell to 10 feet in places! And it was cold. I was in a giant debate with myself over whether to stop and put my rain gear on. I knew I was losing time as I rode more slowly in the fog and sometimes got stuck behind other riders. And I'd lose more time stopping to put the gear on. I kept hoping we'd head back down out of the mist... but eventually my hands became numb and I knew I had to stop. I figured most would do the same, so there was a good chance if I handled things smartly I could still do well. And there was always a chance Barry stopped longer. I stopped and put my gloves on the bikes shifter by the engine to heat them and put my rain jacket on. I ended up stopped quite a while to thoroughly warm up. I heated my hands using the engine as a radiator and waited till they were truly warm again. I didn't time it, but I lost between 5 and 10 minutes there. And then off I went, finally comfortable and passing people as I could trying to carefully and safely keep my time losses to a minimum. and as we came down out of the mountains the conditions cleared and it warmed up and I started to zoom along again. But I had obviously lost a lot of time. Finally made it to lunch and given the conditions I did pretty well. But Barry was heroic and actually zeroed the stage! He had anticipated the cold and dressed well. And he had managed to ride swiftly in the tough conditions. A really admirable effort. Unless something broke on his bike he was going to win!
After lunch I did well and zeroed my checkpoints. But I suspected things were all going to be decided based on the mornings score.
(day 2 stats: morning: 84.5 miles, afternoon 53.8 miles)

That night was the big banquet. And excellent time of tales camaraderie and plenty of wine. Barry took home the Overall 1st place trophy having finished the whole event less than 30 seconds away from perfect. Amazing! I took second approximately 10 minutes behind him. And Dean Kessler took 3rd a couple minutes behind me.

PS: My thanks again to the organizers and the fantastic volunteer staff. They stand alongside the road in the hot sun and cold rain and score us and encourage us through the whole event. Just amazing people who clearly love motorcycles and participating in an event like this.

On the way home in the rain!

2011-10-05T10:22:00.001-07:00

It's the first big storm of the year for us in California. We were fortunate this didn't happen yesterday as it would have snowed on our route! And we seem to have picked up a forest mascot for the truck. We saw thousands of these seemingly suicidal squirrels on the road during the Giro. I saw a tarantula standing in the road once too, high and obvious on its legs. Very cool but I didn't have time to stop for a pic.

Dinner banquet!

2011-10-04T23:13:00.001-07:00

Managed to take second place in the 175 class and overall! Barry won again, he is an awesome competitor! And Dean took third with and excellent run. It was another great Giro d' California.

Giro day 2 lunch stop

2011-10-04T23:07:00.001-07:00

Really cold trip into the mountains today before lunch. Right up into the clouds cold, wet and sometimes only 10 ft visiblilty! But then we came back down into nice weather. And this pic is from our lunch stop.

Day 1 complete!

2011-10-03T21:33:00.001-07:00

Wild ride. Many lost. More later! Click on the spot link on the right panel to see some of the route.

Lunch stop

2011-10-03T21:31:00.001-07:00

Breakfast riders meeting

2011-10-03T21:30:00.001-07:00

Night before

2011-10-02T18:31:00.001-07:00

Everyone is arriving and checking in. The parking lot is a museum.

All packed.

2011-10-01T21:43:00.001-07:00

Ready to head out tomorrow. Just hoping for a good nights sleep.

Final test ride complete

2011-10-01T11:37:00.000-07:00

Just finished a 19.8 mile test ride. Bike seems to be running well and I seem to have remembered how to ride it. I think I have everything in good shape. My only fear is that in the past I have encountered times when it would stick in 4th gear... but it only happens rarely when the engine is very warm and I have run in top gear at full throttle for quite a ways. Needless to say, it hasn't happened since last years event! So I haven't had a chance to investigate it. Maybe I'll be lucky and the oil change and cush drive fix will make it go away? Wish me luck. Its time to pack.

Roll Chart tips

2011-09-30T17:56:00.000-07:00

The Giro d'California has provided roll charts this year! In the past the competitors had to make there own, and that could be a tough exercise. Here are a few tips for assembling the chart.

Mark the hour on the roll chart. The Roll chart only shows the minutes... and with everything going on, it can get confusing out there. Having the hour marked can be a minor help.
Use a long straight edge, like the edge of a table, to make the pieces straight as you tape them together. Just align the pieces with the edge as you tape them.

Tape the joints on both sides. Otherwise the chart gets tangled as you wind or unwind.
Run one long piece of tape all the way down the back of the chart. This makes it a little stronger.

All done!

Just don't let this happen!

Nuovo molla per parastrappi!

2011-09-29T20:51:00.000-07:00

I got my new springs for the cush drive yesterday! So I pulled the rear wheel off again and put the new springs in. It was pretty hard as they are under compression when fit and they are very stiff springs. But after a couple attempts I got them in and assembled. Lets hope they work as well as they look and hold up through the rigors of operation.
I also took the opportunity to inspect the rear brake again. It had seemed a little sticky, so I greased the cams very lightly and carefully and then removed any excess grease. Seems much better now,
Test ride tomorrow!

Molla per parastrappi

2011-09-27T08:57:00.000-07:00

In an earlier post I wrote about the broken "cush drive" springs. Apparently my parts book calls them: "Molla per parastrappi". I didn't find anyone local selling applicable replacement springs. But I did find these guys have a good online catalog:
www.leespring.com

And they were quite helpful with ordering the springs. The minimum order was a pain ($40), but that is survivable.

Essentially, there tech rep said engine type springs, like valve springs, have a high grade finish with less pits etc. A spring like that will require special ordering of a zillion units. That is out of my budget for this.

I ended up ordering a couple sets (ordered 16 to get to the $40 minimum order) of a standard "music wire" springs. Might be OK in my application in the rear hub. They are unfortunately powder coated, but that rubbing off shouldn't be too detrimental in the sprocket area.

The ones I ordered are specified as Length:63.5mm, Outside Dia: 15mm, Wire Diameter: 3mm, Number of coils: 12 (total 14). I actually ordered 2 types, the ones closest to that size. I'll see which fit best.

I have a lot of spares so if you need something like this contact me!

Mondial almost ready.

2011-09-25T17:14:00.000-07:00

The Mondial 175 Turismo Veloce is starting to look ready. Here's what I've done for this years event (so far):

Rear Wheel Inspected

New rear 2.50 x 19 tire and tube.
New rear wheel bearings
Rear brake pads OK
Checked rear spokes

Front wheel inspected

Tire OK
Wheel bearings OK
Brake pads OK
Added grease to speedo drive / spacer.

Lubed brake and clutch cables with Tri-Flo
Lubed throttle cable and greased throttle chain
Drained old fuel and replaced. Fuel line and filter OK
Lubed chain
New front headlamp bulb
New Powersonic PS-6120ToyTS Battery (Perfect SLA AGM for this bike, and cheap. Just don't charge it with too high a voltage: check your regulator)
Tested the charging system regulator output

Then I mounted and checked my rally instrumentation. This consists of two roll chart holders, one for the route and the other for the roll chart. The first lets you find your way and the second helps you to stay on schedule. Thus there is also a watch mounted properly nearby. The big gizmo with buttons is a ICO rally computer. It's a bit complicated but combines a speedometer and odometer with some other potentially useful functions.

Then I was off for a test ride!

Besides new leathers, there is lots to remember on the Mondial. The shift pattern (heel down toe up), the manual ignition advance, how to operate the ICO computer, etc. And of course the obvious stuff that modern riders forget, like the manual fuel taps, choke, funky headlamp switch, and the need to unplug the battery at stops, just in case the ignition switch is sticky. I need a couple more rides to get completely back in the roll with things...

Wheel assembled

2011-09-24T18:20:00.000-07:00

Finally got the wheel back together with new bearings and the rest. The bearing work was the usual ice box and torch exercise. It is a pain as the Mondial has a captive axle, and that axle press fits on the bearing. So what I did was:

put one bearing in the hub by freezing the bearing and torching the hub
freeze the axle and then put a bearing on the axle (on the opposite end of the axle from the one already in the hub! - this is an asymmetric axle) And no torch on the bearing! I used my long pipe bearing driver over the axle on the inner race of the bearing.
Now freeze the axle and bearing assembly. Heat the hub and drop the axle with bearing through the hub and feed the axle into the bearing on the far side. Use my large bearing driver pipe over the axle on the outer race of the bearing on the axle.
Quickly flip the wheel over and reseat the bearing on that side, as it was pushed partially out. Flip the wheel back over a couple times tapping the bearing on each side of the wheel to be sure both sides are fully seated.

Complicated, and there is no way I know of to put these bearings in without stressing them some, due to the captive axle, and the fact the axle press fits into the bearings.

This video: here is somewhat helpful, but doesn't deal with the captive axle issue. But it shows a sensible (IMO) light heating of the hub.

Searched everywhere nearby for "cush" drive springs, and found some things that I could make fit... but didn't trust them. These springs will get hammered with every shift, braking and acceleration and I just didn't feel that using regular hardware store springs as a replacement. Ended up putting the old ones back in, figuring it's no worse than when I started... And I'll search for proper replacement springs in the coming week!
Here's a pic of the hub with new bearings and the old springs inserted. And some dabs of grease to help the sprocket "cush" smoothly:

Cush drive problems

2011-09-24T13:25:00.000-07:00

Like many projects on an old motorcycle, things just keep getting more complicated. First I changed the tire. Then I found the wheel bearings were shot and needed replacement. When I removed the sprocket to remove the bearings.... I found 3 of the cush drive springs were broken!

My local hardware store won't have these. Hmm...

Tire change and problems

2011-09-23T20:40:00.000-07:00

So I changed the rear tire on the Mondial.
Why is it that when people change tires they leave the old tube in place? I can't tell you how many bikes I've changed the tire on that have ancient tubes installed still. This one might not have been the original 1955 tube, but it was an old one. When was the last time Michelin manufactured 2.50 x 19 tubes in Italy? Thats how it was marked, (in English!)," Michelin Made in Italy"! And the rubber was frayed so it had to go.
I want to plug this video, it is a great aid for me to to remember the proper procedure:

You can just click through to part 2.
And the Bead Buddy is a great tool! Really helpful.

So with any project, something has to go wrong... this time? The wheel bearings are shot! Luckily I have some spares. Those will go in tomorrow. And then maybe I should check the front bearings...

Gear...

2011-09-23T15:59:00.000-07:00

For years now I have been wearing a two piece suite for the Giros and for general riding. For a day out, being able to remove my jacket is really important, especially here in hot California. And it makes for much more pleasant lunch and rest stops. I have a Vanson fully perforated jacket that I really love and I had pants made by Zooni leathers to match as Vanson had nothing that fit off the rack. I love Vanson stuff and have an ancient full custom racing suit from them and a couple other jackets. But I had that custom work done when I lived in Boston and had easy access to Mike and the Vanson shop. Thus when I needed pants to match my off the rack Vanson jacket. I went to Zooni, which was nearby in San Jose when I lived in NorCal.
Now I'm in Socal, and I find myself frequenting the Dianese store which is very close. They seem to have gear that fits me, and it seems to be great quality. I already have an AGV helmet from them as well as Dianese gloves and boots.
Over the years the Zooni pants have started to bother me in the knees. Fine for and hour, but spend a couple 8 hour days in them and the knees seem to press my kneecaps too hard and it starts to hurt. After every event lately I have been saying, I have to get a new suit!
So my birthday's coming up... and Lorraine happily recommended I make a new suit her present! So off to Dianese I went and I found a nicely vented jacket, the Dianese rebel and a matching set of pants, the Dianese Pony. Jen at the Dianese store in Costa Mesa was a great help. The jacket fits perfectly and seems to flow the air well. The pants are good too, my only wish would be for some more venting on them, but they do seem to flow some air through the stretch panels.
Importantly the gear is all black and the logos are discrete. On a vintage bike, black looks best. Bright colors and logos just aren't how it was in the day. Of course I still want great protection and won't wear vintage gear, so "all black" is my goal for a somewhat vintage look. And some events actually require this. A couple years back the Motogiro d'Italia explicitly put it in the rules: all black gear and no logos!

Anyway, here's a fashion shot...

Giro d'California 2011 approaches!

2011-09-23T15:40:00.000-07:00

I have about a week left to prepare for the 2011 Giro d'California. It is based in Visalia this year, so I'm betting we get some good runs in the Sierra Nevada Mountains this year. But of course the route isn't divulged to us until the event starts.
Last year, although I still managed to claim 2nd place I had some real mechanical problems that I need to address this year. I finally fixed my charging issue from 2009, but on the second day my ignition switch failed. So that needs to be addressed. And the bike needs all the usual servicing, oil changes, lubes, new tires. The front headlamp failed and a shock might be leaking. And of course it occasionally locks in top gear.
That last issue is the one I may not be able to repair, as it never seems to happen outside of competition. It's actually been happening for years, even back in Italy during the 5 day Motogiro. The engine needs to be very warm (a couple hours of running) and then run it top gear for a long hard full throttle run. That seems to be the only time it sticks. Typically I end up pulled over and fuddle with the lever a bit and it downshifts and I am on the way. Of course this never happens when I test it at home, and I fear attempting a fix without really examining the problem. I think it's an issue with the ratchet mechanism that is accessible just inside the engine cover. But there is always a chance its an issue inside with the shift forks / barrel, and that would be a real problem. Lets hope it happens again soon (like this weekend) so I have time to attempt a fix, or not at all until after the giro!

Registering and Titling a Vintage (pre-1958) Vehicle in California

2011-05-26T12:45:00.000-07:00

Registering an old vehicle in California is no problem if you are just buying a vehicle that is currently registered in California and you are just transferring the registration. But suppose you have found or bought an old vehicle that hasn't been registered in California for many years? Registering and titling such a vehicle can be complicated. I've registered and titled five vintage vehicles in the past 10 years and here are some tips.

TIPS
- The vehicle must have been registered in California in the past. Note that the DMV won't have any records for a vehicle that has it's last California registration in the 50s. But they will ask where the vehicle is from, and it is important to let them know it was originally in California. Importing a vehicle from another state or country becomes a much bigger process, and may be impossible. It is much easier to register a vehicle that has been in California since new.

- A bill of sale. Make sure you have a bill of sale from the previous owner. This can be hand written but should include all the particulars, like the sellers name, your name and address, chassis and engine numbers price and date of sale. Note that the fees you will be charged are based on this price. Also note that the date is very important. The sales taxes and fees are due when the sale happens! So if you buy a vehicle, and then take years to restore it and then go to register it years after the sale, you will owe back fees and substantial penalties for not doing this right away after the sale.

- Bring a completed "Application for Title or Registration" form (get it on the web ahead of time). Note that the date the "vehicle was purchased on" will be the basis for your fees and penalties (if any). Note the form also requires the "date the vehicle entered or was first operated in California"; this was probably the year the vehicle was manufactured, if the vehicle was originally sold in California.

- You may also be requested to fill out a "Statement of the Facts" form. You might look at this form ahead of time, but I would not produce it unless the DMV requests it. Sometimes with an old vehicle that isn't in the DMV computers anymore, they will want you to state where you got the bike, what you paid for it and other things. Essentially they seem to use this form whenever they want to be reassured about a vehicle that they have doubts about. So they might ask you to use this form to declare the vehicle's history.

- If you have any outside documentation of the bike's year or year related to model number, like a book about your vehicle, bring it. Don't produce it unless they ask, but they might want proof your vehicle is really one manufactured in 1955 or is only 125cc or whatever. Usually this isn't necessary, but don't expect them to be able to tell a 1950s motorcycle from a 1970s one by just looking at it.

- Bring your proof of insurance, although it's not strictly necessary. It at least provides another document with your name attached to the vehicle.

- Never tell the DMV anything more than you have to and never give them any more paperwork than necessary. More information is just a source of possible confusion and problems. Really. You have old plates or an old out of state registration; hide them. This stuff is only possibly helpful if it is official California stuff, like an old California plate. But be aware they will take these from you and you will never see them again. These documents really don't help with the process.

- Lastly, make yourself a very friendly customer of the DMV. You want the DMV to help you and the only way to get that is to be very polite and respectful.

THE PROCESS
So now you are off to the DMV. Here are some tips for what happens at most California DMVs.

- First, plan on making 3 trips to the DMV, each taking two to four hours! With luck you can do this in one trip that only lasts an hour, but it really can take much longer if you are unlucky. You can book appointments on the web... but typically they are scheduled out weeks in the future. I suggest booking at least two appointments and you might even book them at different DMV offices.

- How the registration process goes at the DMV is very dependent on which DMV you go to and what individual you happen to end up working with. I've often had good results at small friendly DMV offices that are further away from the main population centers. But I have also had good luck at some giant DMVs where I am just one of the thousands and they just want to process the application and get you out of there. I will also note that I have had better luck with younger men at the DMV that with older men or women. Frankly, I think there is a better chance of a younger guy being a car fan who will try and help you. If you get a person who is just pushing paper and is a stickler for detail, or who maybe believes all old polluting noisy killer motorcycles should be off the road, things might go worse than you hope.

But here is an important note. Right at the beginning of the process, pay close attention to what is happening! Especially if you haven't been entered into the computer yet, you can always leave and come back another day or go to a different DMV. Just say you can't finish this right now, or have your cell phone ring with an emergency or you have to get back to work. Really, this is important, if things aren't going well and nothing is in the computer yet, find an excuse to leave and try again another day at another DMV.

Here is what typically happens at the DMV:

(a) You go to the DMV and get in the reception line. When you get to the front they ask you what you are there for and check your paperwork. You should only need your “Application for Title” at this point. In fact, don't let them see anything else. Typically they will give you a number and tell you to go wait. However, sometimes they will immediately suggest you get your vehicle verified (the verifier will use a "Verification of Vehicle" form). You might even ask, politely, if it's possible to do this first as it will save you some waiting. Skip to (c) if you get to go directly to verification.

(b) Take you number and wait. Eventually you will get called up and you present your "Application for Title or Registration" and your bill of sale. Say as little as possible, but be friendly. Really, answer the questions with as few words as possible. Typically they will give you everything back and send you to get the vehicle verified. Sometimes they will also give you a statement of the facts form and tell you to fill it out. This can happily fill your time while you wait for the verification. Note that at this point, usually no one has entered any info about your application in the computer. If things aren't going well you can leave and try again later or at another DMV, so don't make a ruckus about problems. Example problems: They want more proof the vehicle was originally registered in California. Or they are confused by the short VIN on your vehicle. (Two of my bikes have 3 digit chassis numbers! Once they said my bike was already registered as a trailer! A friendly competent DMV clerk won't have any trouble with these items.) Or maybe they aren't convinced your bike is really as old as it is. Whatever the problem consider that you could just politely leave and come back another day to another DMV office.

(c) Verification. Make sure you don't have any old plates or stickers from other states or racing numbers on the vehicle. You don't want any potential for confusion about the history and use of the bike. A person comes over with a clipboard and a the “Verification of Vehicle" form. You are not allowed to enter anything on this form, so don't try. Typically the friendly DMV person will chat with you about the bike, and ask you to point out the chassis number (VIN) and engine number. It can be very useful to mention all the time and effort you spent restoring the bike at this point. One thing this inspection is about is catching stolen vehicles, so you want to be clear about how you properly and legally own the vehicle. They will also ask you the year and model and displacement. They might ask to see proof of the displacement (is it marked on the engine?). I have had these guys ask for proof of the year of manufacture, so a book with that stuff or even a printout of a web page can be handy (but I've also had them just let this go). If you are lucky, that's all that happens and they finish the form, sign it, and send you back to the DMV line to get a number. Be sure you verify that everything on the form is correct before you leave! Chassis and engine numbers can be hard to read and vehicles can have unusually spelled manufacturers. You really don't want any errors on this form.

However, I've also had this verification process go badly, where the DMV person is flustered by the short chassis number and the lack of emissions stickers and other documentation. In this case they might write a bunch of stuff on your form and check a box on the form that says "DO NOT PROCESS- REFER TO CHP". Then they usually give you this form. If this happens you go back in the DMV wait in line and they will give you some paper work and send you to the California Highway patrol for the vehicle to be checked and verified. In my experience the CHP are friendly guys who will check the bike out, check the VIN so they are sure the bike isn't stolen and will sign you off. Of course, you should trailer the vehicle the the CHP. But another approach (if you are personally holding the verification form and nothing has been entered in the DMV computers yet) is to go home, discard that paperwork and to start all over at another DMV! It's up to you and what you think will be less hassle. Really, I have had completely incompetent inspectors fuss about the short chassis number and lack of documentation, and gone to another DMV and just zipped right through. I'm not advising any cheating on this process, I'm just pointing out that the process varies. And no one has told me I can't just start over at another DMV.
(Note on later bikes: for bikes manufactured 1970? or later, the California DMV does require the Federal Certification Label to be on the bike! If this label is missing you will need an additional CHP inspection to verify the VIN. Or you might just get a new Federal Certification label before your inspection.)

(d) With the verification complete you are now back in the DMV waiting for your number to be called. Make sure you are happy with your forms, because this time they will be putting everything in the computer: You don't want any errors in any of the information. When you get to the clerk, you present your "Application for Title or Registration", your Bill of Sale and your completed "Verification of Vehicle" form. You might also have to do that "Statement of the Facts" form mentioned earlier. If all your forms are clean, things should go smoothly now. They might have some trouble with your unusual VIN, sometimes these can come up as another vehicle in their computer. But if your VIN clearly isn't that other vehicle, they can handle this. Sometimes they spend a lot of time typing and string at the screen. I suggest you keep quiet. But if you must talk, mentioning your restoration effort on the vehicle shouldn't hurt. If they look really peculiar, you might ask what is going on. But generally realize they are playing with funny forms and your silly old VIN etc. Then they will ask you to pay. And they will give you your new registration! NOW IS THE TIME TO CHECK IT CAREFULLY! Catch any errors in the year, make, plate number name or address right now. You really don't want to have to do this all over. Also verify that they will be sending you the title in a couple weeks. And at some DMVs you have to go to another window to get your plate and stickers.

Finally!
With some luck you should be done! And if you are really luck you got it all done in a couple hours in one visit. I wish I could say it was usually that easy, but it usually takes me two or three visits.

Handlebar options

2011-01-30T14:16:00.000-08:00

Its been a long time since my last post! And lots of stories to tell. But for now just a little data drop on handlebars.

I wanted some new lower bars for my "new" 1977 KH400, but I was unable to find much detail on how the ones I were considering were different. So I ordered three that I was considering, and thought I'd post some pictures here in case someone else was interested. These are all BikeMaster bars, although I have seen them for sale under different names. I put a stickie next to each with the handle bar's name, and the info actually stamped into the metal. The W-xxx number appears to be the width of the bar, in mm. Other comments:

Superbike: have the least pull back and are the lowest. I should also note that the center portion of the superbike bars appears to be only marginally wide enough to mount in my clamps

European: slightly higher than the superbike and have pullback closer to stock.

GP Touring: Have a funny bend to the bars, that depending on how you mount them either cants the center forward or drops the ends of the bars down. I suspect most people use these mounted with the ends slightly down.

Detailed high res pics here.

New Vintage Italian String-back Driving Gloves

2010-09-09T18:57:00.001-07:00

Bought these gloves in Rome in 2007. String-back full finger driving
gloves are impossible to get in the USA. I bought my original pair at
this same store 5 years earlier and this is a spare pair I. Put aside
until now. My old ones are shot and with the Melee starting Saturday I
decided to break these out. They are one of those rare perfect things
and I'm sure they will bring us good luck.

California Melee Preparations

2010-09-09T10:31:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow we leave for the California Melee! Just checked, the start in San Francisco is 435 miles from here, so we will drive the GTV 870 miles just getting to the event and back. Should be a blast. Alfa is running great.. just have to pack.

Alignment bogus-ness and knowing what you are doing.

2010-09-02T15:40:00.000-07:00

About a week ago I put new tires, shock and brakes on the truck and had the wheels aligned as well. Driving the truck, I wasn't completely sure it was tracking properly. But we have a good amount of traffic in Southern California, so I wasn't completely sure, I might have been just feeling the crown of the road. At any rate, it was easy to bring the truck back in and have them check the alignment. The report:

first they said the alignment was fine... but the wheel bearing were loose, particularly on one side. Well, loose wheels bearings would mess up the alignment, so I asked to see before they sold me new bearings. When we entered the garage, the mechanic was tightening the bearings, so I didn't actually need anything new.
they aligned the wheels again
and they gave me the report showing the "change" in Toe:

before: Left 0.32 deg Right: -0.01 deg
after: Left 0.14 deg Right: 0.14 deg

Looks good now, right?

No. Look at the difference between the left and right: 0.31 degrees before. And 0.28 degrees after. That 0.03 change isn't significant. Uhm, maybe they just should have turned the steering wheel about 15 degrees? And sure enough, on the drive home I noticed the steering wheel center is off a bit. Sigh. Does anyone pay any attention to what they are actually doing? I mean, all they did is move the steering wheel with this adjustment.

There's no harm done, and I now have tight wheel bearings. And I was probably just feeling the crown in the road as the truck handled about the same on the way home. But I'll be annoyed at the steering being off center for a bit until I forget about it.

Bosch 36618-02 drill review and 3M Headlight Lens Restoration System test

2010-09-02T15:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I tested my new Bosch 36618-02. I also compared it with my old Makita 6233D. One of the Makita's batteries died, leaving me with just one. And I didn't want to buy a new battery for my old drill. So I bought a new drill, the Bosch.
Here of pic of the new Bosch next to the Makita.

In short, I like the new Bosch. Compared to the old Makita:

The Bosch runs faster (1600RPM vs 1300RPM)
The Bosch has more torque
The Bosch has a brake, it stops right away when you release the trigger
The Bosch has many more torque settings
The Bosch appears to have a more steel at the nose of the chuck. That seems more robust
The Bosch is lighter
My only complaint is that the Bosch's Lithium Ion batteries are only 1.3Ah. But you can get a bigger battery if you want.

To test the drill I used it to polish the old fogged headlamps on my Nissan truck (the motorcycle hauler). Unfortunately I didn't take a "before" pic. I used a 3M Headlight Lens Restoration System. Obviously, my old Makita is, well, OLD. So this really wasn't a fair comparison, but it did let me run the new drill long and hard. A lot of my work in the garage is sanding, grinding, wire wheeling or buffing, so this is pretty representative of what I do. It's not building a deck and pounding 1000 screws, so I'm not sure how that all compares. That said...
The new drill was much better. Frankly, the extra speed was a big factor. The 3M system even says in the directions that you need a 1200 - 1600 RPM drill. Now maybe my old Makita has slowed down, but the Bosch did work much better. So I quickly stopped using the old drill. The project had me run down 5 batteries from full to empty. I only have 2 batteries, so I did have to recharge them. It seemed to take approximately 30 - 40 minutes to recharge the batteries. Unfortunately, I ran down the drill batteries faster than that. Given I had to start and stop and change sanding pads, get a drink, etc., I'm not really sure how long the drill ran on a charge. I'd guess about 15 minutes, maybe 20, of continuous sanding. I would have liked it to run longer, but then I guess that would require the larger batteries that would take longer to charge... so I'm not sure what to think about that. As it was, I only had to take a 10 minute break and the spare battery was ready off the charger and I could swap the batteries and keep going.
Here's an after picture of the headlight.

The headlights really did come out great. So I really recommend the 3M kit. It is a scary process as the first thing you do is sand the whole lens until it is opaque like frosted glass. But it all works out in the end. The only issue I had was the small round lights protrude from the rest of the headlamp and there are some tight corners and recessed spots that are hard to get to with a sanding disk. I ended up gouging the plastic in a couple spots. But it's not visible from 3 feet away. And having the clarity restored is an important factor for having good functional headlamps, and that was my goal. I should note that if you have normal flat headlamps, or headlamps with just a simple curve and no recesses this would be a simple project and be much quicker. I'd estimate that you could do the first headlight in 45 to 60 minutes and then the second in maybe 20 to 30 minutes. The first one taking longer as you figured everything out. Complicated curves like on these took me a while, being especially careful.
So in summary, I like the new drill. And the headlamps came out great.

cordless drills

2010-08-30T15:33:00.000-07:00

My old Makita cordless drill just died. Well actually, its still running. But the chuck is failing and one of the two batteries is completely dead. The other battery is getting weak. This thing is indispensable in my garage for everything from polishing components to the usual hole drilling.

After a bunch of research I just ordered a Bosch 36618-02.

I also considered the Panasonic EY6432GQKW (approximately $200). This is maybe best rated of the "prosumer grade" (my terminology) drills. But the NiMH battery, while probably stronger than the Lithium Ion batteries of the competitors just looked too bulky to me. But its supposed to be a great drill and my old Makita with NiMH batteries was great... at any rate I skipped it.

Makita BDF452HW is the other competitor (approx $185), but it had some bad reviews of the chuck and batteries. And in person looked cheap to me. It didn't look like a worthy successor to my old Makita.

So I'm trying the Bosch above. At $155, I could get a third battery for another $50, and still be in the price range I'm willing to spend. So my main concern, battery life, seemed to be best addressed with this unit as I'm pretty sure three batteries would do better than the two of the competitive units above.

Thats my summary, FWIW.
After I get it I intend to polish my truck headlights to remove the fogging. That should be a good test, and I'll report back on how it works out.

Motogiro d'Italia 2011

2010-08-25T15:48:00.000-07:00

Well, Club Terni has announced the 2011 Motogiro!
Motoclub Terni Motogiro
Of course there are two of these now; DreamEngine2 runs an event too.
A short history...
Club Terni started running the revival event back around 1989. In 2001 Ducati spun off an organisation called DreamEngine to run the event with Club Terni. Ducati was interested in the marketing benefits. In those days DreamEngine ran the hotels and tourist stuff, and Club Terni ran the competition and road stuff. DreamEngine did bring a Ducati bias to the event, and that certainly brought many Ducati fans. That lasted through 2007 and then Club Terni and Dream Engine split ways. Around this time Ducati stopped making a big sponsorship of the event as well. And then DreamEngine disolved and DreamEngine2 was formed. Now there are two Motogiro events held in Italy. At this point it appears that the Club Terni event is the FMI (the Italina Motorcycle Federation, like our AMA) certified event. I've never been to the Club Terni event, but have heard good reports. And it sounds like people had a great time at the DreamEngine event too. Although I haven't personally been able to compare the two, I suspect the DreamEngine2 event is still a bit more Ducat and tourist focused and the Motoclub Terni event might be a bit more Italian (less English spoken and more Italian riders). But that is just my guess.
DreamEngine makes a big deal about the name Motogiro and you can see some noise about related Italian lawsuits on their website. But it appears that that trademark is for the "trapezoidal logo with motogiro printed inside it" and that Terni is being allowed to continue to use the actual word Motogiro as well. Which seems sensible, as this is a generic term in Italian, roughly translated "motorcycle tour" in english. Regardless of the lawsuits, its great there are two events now. But I hope the market can really support both.
I'd really like to go and try the Motoclub Terni event, as I remember those organizers fondly...

Every step is a battle... more

2010-08-25T15:20:00.000-07:00

Interesting that I just posted about that line "Every step is a battle". So I'm working on the motorcycle hauler, my 2003 Nissan Frontier. I ordered new Yokohama Geolander tires, Bilstein shocks, and Hawk brake pads from Tire Rack about $700. Brought them all the big O tires. The Brake pads were the wrong ones, and I needed new rotors. So I bought new rotors and pads from Big O, and returned the Hawk pads to the Tire Rack. All good. Big O charged me another $700. Oof. Today I spent some time bedding the pads in. Interesting process documented here. It all seemed to be going ok and I took a break (pun intended) while I had a unrelated appointment. Then I was driving home when... a horrible squeal came from the front of the car. I was immediately very concerned, assuming maybe a caliper had fallen off or a pad slipped loose or who knows what? I pulled over and then carefully tried to move the truck and the sound came back. I got out and inspected things, and they all looked ok. So I tried again, same problem... and then I tried turning off the air conditioner... and the sound stopped. Maybe a pulley or the compressor seized? Well I was still a bit spooked as this all happened right after changing the tires, shocks and brakes! So I drove carefully to my mechanic, and on the last mile tried the AC again... so squeal... but no cold air either. Hmm. Well an hour later and my mechanic called, the compressor has failed and it necessary to replace the drier at the same time. Another $700. I'm beginning to remember why I thought renting a truck when I really needed it was cheaper than owning...

GTV rattle update

2010-08-19T16:23:00.000-07:00

Well, after poking around with the rattle (described a couple posts back) that I attributed to my throttle linkage. I brought the car to my experts at APC. The car needed some other servicing, and its alot easier for them to get under the car, as I don't have a lift. Ends up it was a good choice. The exhaust was cracked, and that was causing some extra vibration. My throttle linkage was probably shaking with the extra vibration caused by the cracked exhaust. But the rattle is gone now, thank goodness. This throttle linkage has been a lot of work... you can see my earlier story from when I replaced the bell crank and heim joints on the throttle linkage here.
Also, they found some of the front suspension linkages had been loosening and they tightened that up. And of course I let then do the oil change and we put in a fresh battery. The car seems to be running great now. Definitely quieter, a little smoother and just a dream. So I should be all set for the late summer and fall events.
And I saved myself some real frustration chasing the rattle myself. I hadn't even considered a cracked exhaust as a possible factor. Sometimes its best to enlist professional help!

Every step is a battle

2010-08-18T14:50:00.000-07:00

Is it just me? So many seemingly simple projects seem to become a battle to achieve success. Like I ordered new tires, shocks and brake pads for the truck. And then found they shipped me the wrong break pads. And I got a new GPS... and found the SW is way out of date and it seems Garmin has made the update process as tortuous as possible. Even when the project is completely under my control, it seems it can mushroom out of control and the simple project can become hard. In fact is seems like the easy projects are the ones that become a problem... the hard ones just stay hard. I mean, I expect replacing the seal on the master brake cylinder of the Alfa to be a messy and hard job. But I don't expect to have trouble fitting bullet connectors to the regulator on the mondial to be a problem. Or to get the wrong brake pads when I order a set for a modern truck. Or the map update on a new GPS to be a maze of forms, registrations downloads and installations. Oh well. As I often say: Every step is a battle. (Lets just hope it resolves as a pleasant process and a success.)

Rattle and Oils

2010-08-17T16:23:00.000-07:00

Had the GTV out today, and its running great. But it does have one issue, there is a vibration/rattle. Something makes this irritating vibrating rattle sound when I take my foot off the throttle at about 4000RPM. I've been chasing this for a while. I isolated the hand throttle's cable with a rubber grommet and I tweaked the whole throttle linkage carefully to make sure there is no play. Now I'm thinking maybe its coming from something else... might have to in list some help finding this. Its a pain because it only happens when I'm rolling, but maybe I can find someone to look under the dash as I'm driving? Anyway, I picked up some oil for the car, Castrol Syntec 20W-50 "for Classic Cars". Has more zinc, which is supposedly important. Frightening how expensive oil is these days. I remember the old cans of oil being under $1 / quart...

Vintage Hauler Servicing - sigh

2010-08-16T17:54:00.000-07:00

Sadly, the pickup truck needs some servicing. Well, it's only sad because it uses up funds that would be more happily spent on the vintage machinery! But it needs new tires, shocks and brakes, just ordered it all from the Tire Rack. Installation to be scheduled.
I use the truck for runs to the desert with my dirt bike, and to haul the various vintage bikes to events. And for the errands a truck always seems so useful for. And it's a handy loaner vehicle when we have house guests. Its just a little 2003 Nissan Frontier King Cab XE with 2 wheel drive and the small 4 cylinder engine. Actually, its surprisingly fun to drive... somehow slow badly handling vehicles can be strangely fun. But it does spend much of its time parked while I ride/drive the more interesting vehicles!

Ordered:
Yokohama Geolander ATS tires, Bilstein HD shocks, Hawk LTS brake pads.

Mondial Electrics ...progress

2010-08-15T17:03:00.000-07:00

So I refitted the new regulator properly. Nice soldered connections and a new fuse in the headlamp housing. The new fuse is from the output of the regulator. So now the bike has 3, one at the output of the battery, one at the output of the regulator and one as original for the switches and lamps. I guess back in the day they didn't bother protecting the two power sources (the battery and regulator) from shorts in the ignition system or horn. Well now they are properly protected.
I'll also note that the bullet connectors were a real pain. The regulator came with beautiful brass male bullet connectors. But of course there were no matching female connectors. Here in the USA I only can get fairly cheesy aluminum connectors, and they crimp only weekly. So I crimped them for the test. And then I soldered them. Unfortunately, once I soldered them, some solder wicked into the connector area... making it so the male and female would no longer fit together. A bit of work with a small file and some pliers fixed that. But as usual something that I expected to be simple took a lot longer than I anticipated.
So then I suited up and took a 5 mile ride to test things out. Its was a hilarious start as I made it about 100 yards before stalling because both petcocks were off. Then I made it about another 25 yards before a remembered to turn off the choke. Luckily I did remember the shift pattern (right foot; heel for downshifts and toe for upshifts) and the manual ignition advance.
The ride went well. No problems. So I pulled into the driveway stopped the engine and went to check the lights and horn. Nothing. What!? Just when you think you have everything under control the rug gets pulled out from under you. I bumbled around for quite a bit with the new fuses and my voltmeter before I realized I had two problems. The key's on off contacts were dirty, and my old battery was shot. The battery had been rather abused while fighting with the old mechanical regulator and I've already ordered a new one. And a bit of emery paper and the key contacts were repaired. So it appears all ready to go...
I put the bike up on the lift again, and ran upstairs for a beer and this blog. Gotta stop before something else breaks!
But actually, that seems to be the process with these old bikes. You restore them, and then you have to debug them. All those people who don't ride or drive their vintage machines miss the debug part. And then they are upset when the vehicle has problems on the annual outing. I believe that if you restore the vehicle, and then use it and debug it, after a couple hundered miles you end up with a car or bike that will be more reliable than it was back in the day fresh from the factory. More reliable, due to whatever modern enhancements you have fit, like maybe an electronic regulator. ;-)

California Melee XIV! I'm in!

2010-08-13T15:08:00.000-07:00

Just received the good news, I have great honor of being accepted (with the Alfa and Lorraine) into the California Melee XIV! This is a great event that I've wanted to attend for years, and finally managed to get it on the schedule, and to apply in a timely fashion. This event is selective and sells out fast. So whoo-hoo! We're in!

Mondial Electrics

2010-08-11T18:38:00.000-07:00

I probably know more about the Mondial 175 TV electrical system than anyone else in North America. I have had trouble with it for a couple years in Italy, and brought it back to diagnose and repair here in California. Somehow in the course of this I burned out the dynamo armature. Of course, lacking proper test equipment, I ended up using an oscilloscope to be sure this was the actual problem (actually the oscilloscope is remarkably useful with these vintage electrical systems). Here's a shot of the bad output from my broken dynamo.

After a bit of a search, a friend sold me a possible replacement armature... but it was going to require some machining to get it to fit. So I ended up having the original rewound by the helpful people at Eurton Electric.
So the repaired dynamo worked adequately for the 2009 Giro d'California... but the regulator was still not good. Another friend managed to get me a replacement in Italy. But both of these regulators are pretty crude mechanical devices. Essentially they have a set of contacts inside, and these contacts open and close if the voltage is too high or low. On the oscilloscope you can watch this, and the rather rough waveform that gets output. And the regulator, even with it's built in temperature compensation is very variable. Mine seem to vary by a couple volts... leading to under or overcharging (and boiling or destroying) the battery.
Unfortunately, you cannot use a typical regulator on a dynamo system. A dynamo is a DC generator, and puts out a substantial amount of "over power" to the regulator. It requires a switching type regulator to dissipate the power sensibly.
I finally found a replacement (and modern) regulator that may work well in this system. Apparently many old British bikes also used dynamo systems and they suffer the same problem. So I ordered one of those, a DVR2.
After waiting a couple weeks for delivery (some Internet problems at the factory), I finally received this last week. And I test fit it tonight. It does appear to work! Now I need to fit it a bit more properly and give it a more formal test run. Here is a pic of the mounted DVR2. Note it fits in a hollow in the underside of the tank, where the original was.

Its been ages... working on the Mondial

2010-08-11T17:18:00.001-07:00

Its been ages since I posted what was up here. Time to get back in the habit. Have two events coming up. The Giro d'California with the Mondial and (hopefully) the California Melee with the Alfa. The Alfa needs a basic going over and some work with rattling accelerator linkage. The Mondial is a bigger project. More on that in later posts.

SPOT GPS

2010-04-13T09:12:00.000-07:00

Bought a SPOT GPS messenger yesterday, for safety in the desert. See how it works with my first test posting a track here.

ideal battery charger for motogiro?

2009-01-01T13:27:00.000-08:00

For those riding a vintage bike in Italy... One of the most common failures is the charging system or battery. A couple years ago I bought a battery charger in Italy, it was huge to lug around, but saved my day a couple times, allowing me to charge my battery overnight.
In the past it has been impossible to buy a charger in the USA that will work on a vintage 6V battery in Italy, as the Italians use 220 VAC. Surfing the web this fine New Year's morning, because my old battery charger failed last week, I just found a manufacturer that makes a charger that may work in the USA and Italy. Find the specifications here:
http://www.power-sonic.com/site/doc/prod/146.pdf
They appear to be available at various vendors online.

I should note these chargers are for SLA batteries, and you do need to pick the correct type of charger for your battery! These won't work well for all battery types. Google around to understand the differences and make your own choice. I have had problems with battery chargers "boiling" and overheating vintage 6V batteries, so be careful.

If one of these chargers will work for your battery, I recommend bringing on with you to Italy! Along with the proper plug adapters, of course.

Carl

Spoleto Today, Motogiro next week!

2008-05-17T06:13:00.000-07:00

Lorraine and I made it to Spoleto Wednesday. It was as easy as a long plane trip can be! It was hard to get off the flights after 14 hours arriving at 8AM and hop in a rental car to drive two hours to Spoleto. But Spoleto seems like a wonderful and sleepy town. There is a big festival here annually sometime in the summer, but it is quiet now.
Thursday I met with my friend Pirro and checked out my Mondial 175. I took it for a very short test ride and repacked all my spares and tools. I had brought many things to supplement my existing gear and to replace used up consumables. Everything looks good. Pirro will bring the bike to Roma for the giro. (Thank goodness I brought a new helmet. The one I had left here sat two years in its dark bag and smelled quite musty.)
Yesterday we visited Assisi, a really wonderful town. Its just beautiful. And the Cathedral of St Francis is stunning, especially the lower cathedral and the tomb. Giotto has great works all ofver the ceiling. You could spend a week there just studying the ceilings.
And last night we sat in a little cafe, only inches from the route of this years Mille Miglia. The 300 or so fantastic vintage cars streamed past as Lorraine and I sipped our drinks and cheered them on!
Tomorrow some friends are meeting us in Spoleto and we will spend the day socializing and checking out some sites. Then Monday we leave first thing in the morning for the Motogiro. At 2PM registration starts and the tech inspections for the bikes follow with rider briefings in the evening. We leave for Pescara on the first leg Tuesday.
As usual, with the hectic schedule of the race it may be impossible for me to post updates. If I cannot, I will be sure to provide full coverage after the event.
In bocca al lupo...
Carl

Earplugs

2008-05-09T09:20:00.000-07:00

I've been wearing earplugs while riding and racing since the late 80s. (I also wear them when flying and sometimes when sleeping in hotels.) But the giro really puts some extra stress on the earplugs. I end up wearing them much of the day and then sometimes all night in the hotel! The problem is, the foam earplugs really seam to push out on your ear canal, and it can actually really hurt when you pull them out after a couple days of use. One solution I have found is to use smaller diameter ear plugs. You can get a sample kit of cheap disposable foam plugs of all different sizes from a place called the earplug store. I found the Mack's "Safe Sound Jr." to work best for me. They are soft and smaller diameter than most.
But this year, I've decided to try some custom made earplugs. Technically, they do not offer the same sound reduction as the disposable foam plugs, because the are made of a more solid silicone material. But they are cast to the shape of your ear and thus I hope will not be trying to expand my ear canal for hours like the foam ones do!
I made an appointment with Linda at EarPlugs USA. She made a set for myself and for Lorraine very quickly and professionally. She seems to be a pro at this, and that made us both more comfortable with the experience. In short, she puts a tiny cotton ball in your ear as a safeguard to prevent and of the silicone from going to far into your ear, and then fills your ear with silicone goop. You wait a bit while it hardens. Then she removes the plug and and the cotton ball. She does some cleanup work to the plug and you can get the plugs later. I was really happy with the attention and work Linda did to get our earplugs right.
I'll report on how they worked after the giro!
Carl

Packing!

2008-05-06T16:21:00.000-07:00

It's time to get packing!
The one good feature of last year's pre-race incident is that I brought all my gear home untouched. I put all that Motogiro specific stuff in it's own cardboard box; so this year all I have to do is get out that box and it has all that stuff already organized.
After 5 trips to the giro and being an engineer, I'm pretty organized. I actually have a list of every item I need to bring. From a spark plug gapper to my riding shorts. So between my list, and the giro specific stuff being all ready, it shouldn't be too hard.
The problem remains, it is a mountain of gear. Helmet, boots, full leathers, tools plus all the regular stuff for two weeks holiday... it's just heavy and takes a lot of space! And managing multiple gear bags while running between hotels is a major drag. So what many of us do is get one giant bag. The "bag of choice" has been the gigantic Ogio 9800. Many of the riders use it. It swallows all the gear easily and is really tough. The problem is, it's technically too large to be allowed on the flights as checked baggage without paying a big baggage penalty. But so far I haven't had anyone measure it and complain. One year they almost stopped it at SFO, but the couldn't find a manager to check it, and they just let me through. If I encounter a problem, I intend to make it clear it's spoting equipment... most airlines let skis bicycles and golf bags on, even though they are too big. Also, the last couple years the weight limit has gone down, most airlines only allow each checked bag to be 50 pounds maximum (check your airline and bag, don't trust me!). And they stick to that rather vigorously. So I always weigh my bag before I head to the airport. And on the return trip, I always pack some heavy items in a separate bag inside the main one, so I can pull it out if it's too heavy.
At any rate, the problem for me has been weight, the Ogio 9800 is plenty big (9800 cu in) for 50 pounds of gear. This year I'm going to try a new bag because it's on sale at my sponsor, Cycle Gear. Its the Ogio 7900. This bag is significantly smaller, at 7900 cu in. Thats about 30 liters or 8 gal smaller, if that helps you visualize it. However, in the past my problem has been weight not volume. Another benefit is the 7900 is lighter by about 5 pounds. That's 5 pounds more gear you can bring, a big help. The 7900 is also narrower, which will help maneuvering.
The negatives of the 7900? While the 7900 is significantly less volume, its actually 2.5" BIGGER in L x W x H dimensions! It's actually a bit trapezoidal in shape, so it's volume is less while it's measurement is bigger. This could be a technical problem at the airport. But I'm betting since it looks smaller it will be easier to get through. And since a soft bag, you can always smush it some, I hope. ;-) Ther other negatives of the 7900 are that it has fewer pockets to organize stuff, but the ones on the 9800 were never that useful to me. And it's not built quite as robustly as the tank -like 9800.
But the positives of the 9800; lighter weight, narrower and looks smaller make it worth a try for me this year.
The Ogio 7900 has a nice compartment at one end for your helmet, and another for your boots at the other end. I put my helmet in a "Scorpion RaceCase Street", which is the only hard case I've found that offers some bump and bash protection and that whole case fits right in either Ogio bag. I plan to load all the Motogiro gear in the bottom of the bag, and then my regular stuff on top. That way the giro stiff just sits while I vacation the week before the giro starts.
(As an aside: I have never found a bag that fits the 62" maximum the airlines state that can hold my helmet and gear safely. The Ogio 7900 comes in at 67.5 inches, but as a soft trapezoidal bag, I'm betting it slides right by. )
That's more than enough about gear bags!
Carl

Heading to Roma!

2008-03-26T17:24:00.000-07:00

This year motogiro took a bit more work to decide on. Long time readers will remember that last year in Sicily we had a car accident days before the giro and we had to withdraw from the event. So this year it is very important for us to go and have a great trip to clear the slate!
For 2008 though, there appear to be two motogiro type events in Italy. One is the "Motogiro d'Italia", organized by Dream Engine (which has had a close relationship with Ducati). Another event is the "Motogiro Race" run by MotoClub Terni (which had been running the competition part of the Motogiro dItalia since the early 1990s). Apparently this year Motoclub Terni is running their own event. While I would love to run in both, I must pick just one.
I really like the Club Terni guys and would love to see them again and their event is significantly less expensive. And the route looks fantastic. But Club Terni has not announced a specific "Motogiro" type class, it appears (from the Italian regulations posted on their website) their oldest and smallest class is 50cc to 400cc for bikes made in 1974 or earlier. I'm not sure that I want to be competing against bikes 20 years newer and twice the size of mine! They would have a big comfort and speed advantage.
The Motogiro d'Italia still has their premier "Historical Commemorative Class" for bikes 175cc or smaller and made before 1957. This is a class that truly represents the original Motogiro to me, and my bike best fits it. So that decided things for me and I signed up for this years Motogiro d'Italia today!
This year's event starts in Rome and runs east to the coastal city of Pescara. From Pescara we ride to Vieste and spend an extra day riding in that area. Then we head back to Pescara for another night and then back to Rome. It will be the usual 5 days and approximately 1000 miles racing through the back roads of Italy. Frankly, I'm not a big fan of starting and ending in Rome, I expect the traffic to be horrible. But they have found us a nice hotel there rest of the route looks very nice!
So now my preparations begin for the Motogiro d'Italia 2008.

Carl

Giro d' California Report

2007-10-25T17:15:00.000-07:00

I wanted to publicly thank the organizers of the Giro d' California, Harley and Deb for another great event. I really
thought the whole thing was very professional and can only admire the
effort they both put in to make a great event! Thank you Harley! And
thank you Deb!

Here is the story... I was running well in the morning Monday (although not as well as Hans!). We were running north
on 25 looking for the turn on Bitterwater Rd to head toward King City.
Unfortunately, I didn't realize how far off my odometer was, and when
I reached Bitterwater Road, I was not sure it was the turn as I
thought I had more than 2 miles to go. So I kept going on 25 North.
When my odometer ran down to what I thought was the turning point, I
realized I had missed the turn. So I reversed direction and headed
back South. Of course when I finally got to Bitterwater Road, I
thought I was well behind schedule and was zooming as fast as I could
go. And I was totally confused as to what to make of my mileage. At
any rate, I zoomed down Bitterwater. Harley had arranged a gas stop,
with it's accompanying 10 minute break, just before the final check in
front of the lunch stop. When I got to the gas station, I didn't
recognize it, as I still thought the gas stop was a mile or so ahead!
So I rode right by, and turning the corner in town I saw Deb and the
checkpoint right ahead. Knowing I couldn't (by the rules) stop ahead
of the checkpoint, I drove right up to Deb, with her looking at me
with dismay! I was 17 minutes early! I must have been ahead of time to
begin with, and then flown down Bitterwater road, and then gained
another 10 minutes by skipping the gas stop. Sigh. I was "cooked". I realized right away that I was way out of the running.
I was significantly disappointed, but it's hard to stay sorry when on
such a great event and surrounded by such nice people. So I perked up
during lunch.
Actually, the ride after lunch was great, it was nice to enjoy some
time on the Rumi without worrying about my timing!
But then in the evening while cleaning my bike, I found one of the
rear struts that holds my seat above the rear tire had broken. I made
a search for a local welder, but didn't find one open. Frankly, the
Rumi is a real prize for me, and I was very hesitant to just let some
muffler shop have a go at it. I have almost 4000 miles on it since the
restoration, and I'm not hurting to put in miles on it. So after
considering the situation overnight, Lorraine and I decided to work
checkpoints the next day. We worked one right before lunch and one
right at the end of the day. Both were emergency checkpoints, so I
guess our extra help was useful. Regardless, it was much more fun than
I expected. Lorraine and I got to know Dean and Patrick better, and it
was really neat seeing all of the gang come through!
My congratulations to all the winners and especially to Hans. Hans
rode VERY competitively and his commitment to his pace was to be
admired. I can only hope to give him a run next year!
I'll be back in 2008 for sure.
Carl

A few Secret Tips for the Giro D'California

2007-09-24T16:56:00.000-07:00

Next week I take my 1955 Moto Rumi Bicarburatore to the premier California vintage Italian bike event, the Giro D' California. This is the third running of the event and competition is going to be fierce. I've managed to win the past two years and have really enjoyed some good luck.
But now I'm going to tell a few anecdotes and give away a few secrets. Frankly, there are more than a couple guys who really know what they are doing and are gunning for the win this year. But there are also riders who are new to this kind of event, and a few tips might help them understand the fun of the competition!

- Read the rules and the tips that Harley provides for the event. Harley provides this info directly:

The rules are posted on girodcalifornia dot com and explain where checkpoints can be located, scoring, etc.:

http://www.girodcalifornia.com/assets/pdf/giro_rules_v2.pdf

There is some additional info on the AMA District 36 web site on Enduro Timekeeping, which is what the T-S-D of the Giro is based upon:

ttp://www.ama-d36.org/Blurbs/enduro_basics.html

- Know what is happening regarding time, speed and distance (TSD) right from the very start. Last year I realized that it would be hard to make the first checkpoint on time, and so I flew out of the gate. I was late to that first checkpoint by a couple minutes but everyone else was much later. The lead I made on that first checkpoint brought me the win, even though I was beaten on other checkpoints that day as well as the second day. (Note that my Rumi is far from the fastest bike out there; that wasn't why I did so well. It was my being aware that I had to really get moving right from the start that was most important.)

- To track the TSD, I just took Harley's roll chart and penned in the time I was supposed to be at each turn, estimated from his time sheet. (He suggests you can write the mileage for every mile of the route, but I don't do that much.) If it looked like I was going to get somewhere too early, I'd slow down. And I sped up if it seemed I was going to be too late.

- You can also guess where the surprise checkpoints might be, and where they are unlikely to be, by looking at the rules and the map. One time last year I pulled over right before a major town, guessing the checkpoint might be there and knowing I was ahead of time. Lots of people passed me and arrived early... when I was back on schedule I started again, finding the surprise checkpoint only about 100 meters in front of me over the hill! It was a just a guess on my part, but an educated one.

- Have a strategy. You can try and ride the exact speed noted, but on these old bikes that might be hard. Typically you can't go fast enough uphill. And sometimes it's easy to be going way too fast. How are you going to keep on pace? Can you see a big mountain ahead? Maybe you should be going faster to get ahead of time before it, etc.

- Watch your competitors. Last year Lorin and I had a fantastic run for one of the checkpoints. Being next to each other in the starting order, we only had to hit the checkpoints 30 seconds apart. We found ourselves riding together, and we both knew if we stayed together, neither of us could pull a significant lead on the other! It was hilarious as we tailed each other, sometimes riding slow, sometimes fast while watching our time speed distance charts. We knew we were both watching each other's every move! Finally we stumbled on the next checkpoint. I made a point to quickly get it done and zoomed off without waiting. And I never saw Lorin again after that due to the curvy roads.

- Watch your competitors, version 2. If people are following you, essentially keeping time with you, find a way to break them off of your tail. I've been known to hide down a side road or behind a parked truck to let people pass.

- Watch your competitors, (version 3) but DON'T follow them. We left town at the start, and as I had to make a bike adjustment, I stopped for a minute right after the start. I was caught by the next pack of riders and followed them. This was the second day, so people knew roughly where the route went, or so they thought. The leading rider went down the ramp for the highway, and I knew immediately that was wrong. Harley doesn't run us on the major highways, and more importantly, we hadn't reached the mileage for the next turn. But, the rest of the pack followed down the ramp. I stopped for a moment and considered, and then I continued on my way. At lunch several of those riders were asking about why their mileages were all off and why they hit the checkpoints early. Ends up the detour they took cleanly merged back on the route, so they never knew they took a wrong turn. And I didn't answer Ivan's questions about what I thought of the supposedly messed up mileages! ;-).

Best luck to you!

Carl

14 Weeks Later

2007-08-30T14:37:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe it's only been 14 weeks, it seems like the Incidente was years ago to me. I feel completely healed physically from the accident. But emotionally I am still very disappointed to have missed the 2007 Motogiro. Lorraine has recovered well physically too. After much therapy, her neck is completely healed and her hearing is almost normal, she just suffers from rare tinnitus now and it continues to improve every month. It's still been a bit hard to admit to myself that I missed the event. I still haven't been able to convince myself to find time to unpack my box of gear in the garage. I'm tempted to leave it all packed for next year!
I've looked through all the photos of the race that others have posted on the web, and I have spoken to a few of the competitors. They all say Sicilia was wonderful and the organization of the event was very good. As usual the special tests have gotten harder, they seem to make the event a bit tougher every year! I looked through the results and it appears that only 14 riders (of 75 in the vintage class) finished the 5 day event on the same minute as the leaders! It must have been very tough. If you are curious, you can find the complete results here.
The organizers announced that the 2008 event will be in Sardegna (Sardenia)! I'm really looking forward to that. It's just my hope that all the great Italian racers come again. I think it's much harder for the Italians to make it to the island events as it is a longer and more expensive trip for them. I heard Giuliano Maoggi and Remo Venturi made it to Sicilia, I really hope they can make it to Sardegna with their comrades in 2008.
I want to thank one more time all my friends for their support for my Sicilia effort. While we were unsuccessful with the Motogiro, we did make a great donation to the Lance Armstrong Foundation! And that is something to be happy about!

L' Incidente

2007-05-17T12:32:00.000-07:00

Things have gone way off course...
I write this from Rome, having left Sicily and abandoned this years Motogiro competition. Lo and I are OK, but the last couple days have been rather hard!
Here is the story.
We spent a couple days in Siracusa, enjoying the city and getting used to the time zone. And then we left in our car to go exploring. We drove to Noto, a simple but beautiful town. It is the town with the same name as that of close friends and so it was especially interesting for us. Then we headed to Ragusa and went to the old town for a late lunch, a great meal in a small piazza. We left Ragusa and we were unsure whether to go to Caltagirone or directly to our at a small farm in the countryside...
There was an intersection of two highways, and we went the wrong direction at first so we turned around to correct our turn. Lorraine was driving. The intersection of these two small highways required us to turn left, across the oncoming lane onto an on ramp for the other highway. Lo turned... and we were hit hard from behind! Apparently the driver behind us attempted to pass us on the left in the intersection. She hit us very hard (she was probably traveling at 60 mph or so) and we then bounced into the guardrail of the on ramp. The shock of the impact was giant, setting off the curtain airbags on both sides of the car. It was amazing how loud these airbags were. I was momentarily deafened. Our car was essentially destroyed and as we could not exit either side, we ended up climbing out the passenger side window. Los neck hurt and she could not hear from her left ear. My left temple hurt; I assume I hit the center mirror with my head. The driver of the other car was hurt. Witnesses came to our aid and the ambulances arrived to take us all away.
I wont detail all of the rest of the story, but in short we escaped the rather inadequate Sicilian medical system, spent a day recovering in Ragusa and then fled to Rome for modern and expert medical help. Between Los hearing loss, whiplash and my banged up head we decided "discretion is the better part of valor" and we should withdraw from this years Motogiro. We spent several days recovering, talking to doctors and drinking and eating here in Rome. Today, an ear specialist has told us Los hearing will return in her left ear after 10 to 20 days and she should be fine. A good regular doctor says her whiplash should recover but that she should continue to wear a neck brace. My temple injury should be OK, but I should not risk another impact for a while. We will return to California early, but we think we are healthy enough to spend a couple days more in Rome salvaging a bit of vacation from this trip.
I'm extremely disappointed that Ill be missing this years Motogiro. Its the 50th anniversary of the final 1957 race and sure to be special for the original racers who still come back for this revival. But taking enough care so Lo and I can healthily return next year is the priority.
I must thank all of you for your great support and the donations to the Lance Armstrong Foundation! Obviously I'd hoped to honor those donations with a great effort in this years race, but regardless, it is a great cause. Thank you all very much!
Carl

In Sicilia ... but where's our luggage?!

2007-05-11T07:07:00.000-07:00

We made it to Sicilia! But on the way our flight from Frankfurt to Milano was delayed... and we just made the connection for our flight from Milano to Catania. And we arrived after our 18 hour trip... but NONE of our luggage made it! We hoped the next flight would bring our luggage, but Alitalia could tell us nothing. So we picked up our rental car and drove to Catania, about 1.5 hours from the airport, when you don't know where you are going. I was planning on returning to the airport for the 11PM arrival of the next flight to hopefully claim our luggage. I was afraid someone would walk off if the bags if they arrived. But it was too late and we were far too tired. We had a nice dinner and went to bed instead!
This morning we called the airport and they claimed our luggage would be there at 11:15AM. So we left for the airport. After a brief tour of the back of the airport to get past security, we found they only had 2 of our 3 bags! They had our regular luggage, but all my motogiro gear was gone. They had no track of it at all. We decided to stay to see the next flight from Milan, at noon. We waited at the carousel and again watched everyone else claim their bags but the motogiro bag did not arrive. We went again to the desk, and the attendants there were not hopeful. Sigh... I decided to wait a day and then to try and buy new leathers and gear in here. As we walked toward the airport exit, Lorraine noticed a couple bags standing to the side of the carousel... and there was my bag! We rejoiced!
So we are here, complete with all our gear and we are quickly recovering from the jet lag.
Our touring begins now, we have about 1 week before the motogiro begins...
Carl

Legs

2007-05-08T10:31:00.000-07:00

First,
I must thank everyone for their pledges so far! I'm really happy to see the support for the LAF. It is a great organization!
I'm packing seriously now, as we leave for Sicilia at 11:45AM tomorrow! I think I have bought everything I need to replenish my supplies and tools. I also had one of my chronometers repaired and purchased a few new timing devices.
Importantly, I have heard back from my excellent mechanic in Spoleto! He has very thoroughly gone over the bike. He has replaced the rear rim that I bent last year (and hammered out to complete the event then!). And he has completely gone throughout the charging system and carburetor and done a myriad of other small repairs I requested. I'll only see the bike the night before the event starts, which is always makes me a bit nervous, but I'm hopeful all will be well with it. It will be like meeting an old friend!
I checked through the latest materials and I did find the actual mileages for each leg:

Kilometers/Miles
First Leg Sciacca - Sciacca 276/171
Second Leg Sciacca - Brocoli 334/208
Third Leg Brucoli - Brucoli 296/184
Fourth Leg Brucoli - Brucoli 220/137
Fifth Leg Brucoli - Sciacca 268/167
Total: 1,394/866

So soon Lo and I are off! I will definitely try to get some more posts in before the giro starts, and if there is good internet access during the giro I will post updates from there as well!

In Bocca al Luppo! (Into the wolf's mouth!)
Carl

Carl's Motogiro and the LAF

2007-05-02T20:14:00.000-07:00

Last year I started a little tradition of making my ride on the Motogiro d'Italia a little fund raiser for the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF).
I've always liked the LAF and their LIVESTRONG symbol. The LAF is about helping people bravely survive their battles with cancer and I appreciate this given that both of my parents died of cancer in the 1980's. The LAF is about LIVING YOUR LIFE TO THE FULLEST. That's a good thing for us all to remember.

Last year my efforts to raise money for the LAF were modest, but but this year I'm hoping to ask a few more friends to join me with a pledge.

I'd ask that you consider making a donation/pledge "per kilometer" for the distance of the Motogiro, estimated to be 1250km. Here' a simple chart to help with the math:

1 penny per km = $12.50
1 nickel per km = $62.50
1 dime per km = $125.00
1 quarter per km = $312.50
2 quarters per km = $625.00
1 dollar per km = $1250.00

You can donate easily and quickly using the link on the top of my blog!

Thank you for your support!
Carl

Mount Etna erupts!

2007-04-30T21:31:00.000-07:00

Wow, check this out! Mount Etna, the volcano in Sicily is erupting! The giro will go right by this as our route goes up the side of the volcano! See incredible footage from the BBC here !

And more info and video here.

Guide to the Motogiro!

2007-04-23T18:29:00.000-07:00

The last couple weeks I have been writing a guide to the motogiro for new riders. After doing the giro for a couple years, I started to think that a couple hints would really help some of the new riders. You can find it here:
Vintage Veloce's Guide to the Motogiro
If you have ridden the giro before and have any comments or good additions for the guide please let me know!

Prepping

2007-04-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

Registration this year has been a little more complicated than I expected! To register in the Motogiro, you need to produce a bunch of documentation.
Some of that is documentation for the bike, like legal registration and insurance. Given that my Mondial lives in Italy and has never been to the USA, this can be a hurtle. The process is completely legal but complicated. I actually insure the bike in California where I live. This insurance is actually useless since the bike isn't here in California, but it is require to register the bike. Now, California won't register a bike it has never seen so I actually register the bike in another state! And then I get international "Green Card" insurance from a company in the Netherlands, though a broker here in the USA. The green card insurance is my real insurance for riding the bike in Italy. It's a real paper chase, and the company doing the registration lost the paperwork for a bit so things have been delayed and took repeated calls to clear up!
At any rate, I now have all the insurance and a fedexed copy of the registration, the real copy is "in the mail". Hopefully that will be in my hands early next week.
I also picked up an International driver's license from AAA. It's not strictly required, but I always get one and make sure they stamp the motorcycle authorization.
And the Motogiro requires a "Medical Certificate". I just go to my doctor who gives me a physical and then writes a letter saying I'm in good health and "medically qualified to do the participate Motogiro d'Italia".
I just scanned all of this stuff along with my passport and sent it to the organizers. The scans are also good backup copy in case of emergency and I carry these with me on a USB flash dongle. Dream engine has confirmed receipt of everything, so my paperwork should be all set!

Progress and the Itinerary!

2007-04-04T14:14:00.000-07:00

I've been making slow but steady progress on my to-do list. That includes
- renewing the registration and insurance on my Mondial
- getting special international "green card" insurance, etc.
- ordering a new stopwatch
- breaking in my new boots, I'm wearing them right now ;-)
- ordered a good Italian made map of Sicilia

Speaking of maps, the organizer has put up simple maps of the route...
Here is the itinerary:

20th May 2007 – Leg 1:
Sciacca – Cattolica Eraclea – Autodromo Valle dei Templi (Racalmuto) – Milena –Chiusa Sclafani – Sambuca di Sicilia – Sciacca

21st May 2007 – Leg 2:
Sciacca – Porto Empedocle – Valle dei Templi – Favara – Caltanissetta – Piazza Armerina – Lentini – Brucoli

22nd May 2007 – Leg 3:
Brucoli – Siracusa (Teatro Greco) – Autodromo di Siracusa – Noto – Modica – Ragusa Ibla – Giarratana – Brucoli

23rd May 2007 – Leg 4:
Brucoli – Catania – Mascalucia – Nicolosi – Zafferana Etnea – Milo – Giarre – Acireale – Acitrezza – Catania – Lentini – Brucoli

24th May 2007 – Leg 5:
Brucoli – Grammichele – Caltagirone – Palma di Montechiaro – Siculiana – Sciacca (premiazione)

Moto Rumi at Cars and Coffee

2007-03-31T10:03:00.000-07:00

There is an event every Saturday morning about about 12 miles from my home called Cars and Coffee. It's an amazing impromptu show held from only 7 to 8AM and all sorts of exotic vehicles show up. I was up early this morning and so I pulled my 1955 Moto Rumi Bicarburatore out of the garage and rode it over. This is the same Rumi that I rode twice at the Motogiro (1994 and 1995). When I first woke up at 6:30AM, I didn't really want to get out of bed but then I realized this would be good practice for this years giro. And I have some new boots I wanted to test out.
It's just amazing how the smell and feel of the Rumi just transports me back to Italy. There was a time where shifting with the wrong foot with a backwards pattern was confusing, but now I fall right back into it. And the crisp air and roar of the motor just brought a great grin to my face.
Of course the Moto Rumi was well received at the show, it an amazing bike.
I made it home fine, wiped the Rumi off and tucked it nicely back in the garage. And while my right boot fits perfectly, strangely the left one is quite narrow and really hurt my foot to walk. It was fine on the bike, but you do spend quite a bit of time during the giro walking around before and after the day's ride. So I'll have to try and stretch that boot some...

Signs

2007-03-23T16:28:00.000-07:00

I was surfing up the Italian road signs today. I 'm writing a little guide to try and help newbies at the Motogiro. And the Italian road signs are much different than most Americans are used to.

The Slow Travel Italy web site has a very complete listing of the various road signs here.
Here are couple signs I found particularly helpful to remember.

Generally a circular sign with RED is a restriction of some type. It means DON'T do something.
When I started riding in Italy I was confused by two of these "don't" signs. In particular, note the difference between the no entry (one way) and no stopping signs!

No entry, one way street

No stopping at any time

No passing (note the passing car is shown as red in the sign, and thus this means passing is forbidden)

Maximum speed limit (80km/h in this example)

This slash is typically shown over another sign, indicating the previous sign is cancelled. For instance, the no passing sign with a slash over it would indicate passing is now allowed.

A BLUE circular sign with an arrow is telling you to do something. I was confused by some of these blue signs, they often point downward where in the US they would point upward. For instance a blue circular sign with a white arrow pointing downward to the left means "keep left"; it doesn't mean look at the ground here!

Keep left.

More route information!

2007-03-20T09:09:00.000-07:00

The organizers have posted some more information about this years route! I really enjoy this as I get out my map of Sicily and mark the towns and cities. This gives me a feel for the route and also just helps me to get "psyched up".

Apparently we will be stopping at some famous Sicilian race tracks this year. In the past, we stopped at a track and were sent out for a couple laps, so I expect the same this year. It's always fun passing some hot new Ducati with my vintage 175cc Mondial!

The route also clearly goes right up Mount Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe. I've always wanted to see a volcano in person...

Here's what the organizers said about the route:

This year the event will dedicate itself not only to the traditional passionate competition, but also to the discovery of a territory of extraordinary beauty, that is South East Sicily.
Departure will be from the golden beaches of Sciacca and then on to exploring the best the island has to offer. It will be a “theme” journey the ocean, the art and the nature: the most renowned seaside locations, the splendor of the Sicilian Baroque, the powerful nature of the Etna, the racing tracks.

On the 20th May the riders will cover a route that runs through the inside of the island and will reach, amongst other locations,
Cattolica Eraclea,
Chiusa Sclafani,
Sambuca di Sicilia,
then returning to
Sciacca.
The first day of the Motogiro will also have a chapter at the Valle dei Templi Circuit.

The second Leg (21st May) previews a passage through
Agrigento,
Caltanissetta,
Piazza Armerina,
Lentini,
Brucoli.

On the 22nd May, departure will be from
Brucoli towards the
Siracusa Circuit then following on to reach
Noto,
Modica,
Ragusa Ibla, la
Necropoli di Pantalica and finally returning to
Brucoli.

The forth leg (23rd May) is characterised by a splendid tour of the Etna exploring Catania,
Mascalucia,
Zafferana Etnea,
Acireale,
Acitrezza,
Carlentini
arriving once again at Brucoli.

On the 24th May, the fifth and last Leg will travel through
Grammichele,
Caltagirone,
Gela,
Palma di Montechiaro,
Porto Empedocle,
with a ‘gran finale’ at Sciacca.

To Do List

2007-03-16T08:59:00.000-07:00

I've spent some time getting organized the past few days. I always make lists and after last years giro I noted what things I left with my bike in Italy, what I brought home and what I needed to buy. I had plenty of time to work on this during the long flight home so the list is surprisingly long and detailed.
I bring quite a kit with me to Italy. My first race I actually brought a 70 lb bag of loggage with my riding gear as well as a tool box and a box of spares! Last year I had this down to one 50 pound bag with my riding gear plus a carry-on size bag full of spares and tools. Now I leave the carry-on bag in Italy with many of the tools and spares (including things from spare ignition points to a battery charger to a spare tire tube). But I still need to go through the master list and organize the things to take this year and buy the items that need replacement.
Additionally, I need some new major gear. I already bought a new helmet but I still need new boots and gloves.
For the bike I need to update it's registration and get insurance.
And I need to see a doctor to get written medical approval for the race.
The list is growing every day now... but shortly I should start checking things off as I'm sure I have them.
The biggest near term item happens Tuesday. I recently moved, and my new garage is a complete mess! I have been busy working on other house repairs and have never unpacked anything for the garage. So there are just piles of boxes in there. My goal is to have a much nicer and organized new garage and to make that happen I have ordered a whole set of cabinets to be custom installed. The good news is the installers arrive Tuesday, and after that I'll unpack everything and set up the garage next week. With just a bit of luck I should be completely unpacked by next Friday. And then finding the items on my list should be much easier!

Getting Started

2007-03-13T17:13:00.000-07:00

My preparations are now starting "in earnest"...
I had registered for the event months ago, but things really don't start to get busy until about 2 months before the event, when I make flight reservations. I don't do that until I'm sure the bike will really be ready in Italy.
So yesterday I found out that my mechanic in Italy has picked up my bike from storage with another friend. This was great news as I had been anticipating this for at least a month now. The mechanic is going to service the bike for me and deliver it to Sicily for this year's event. So now it's time to really get rolling and to try and finish my preparations.
I spent a couple hours writing a list of things that needed repair or adjustment on the bike. And my fiancèe (fidanzata in Italian), Lo, translated much of it into Italian. And then I spent another hour or so tweaking it till it was just what I wanted to say (I think... given my limited knowledge of the language). This involved hours digging through my Italian language manuals and parts books looking for the proper terminology for things like wheel spokes; "raggio" and rubber bushings for the rear shock absorbers; "La boccola ammortizzatrice per snodo". The list includes critical items like fixing the wheel rim that I bent last year on a rough road and fixing the battery charging system. Last year charging the battery was a real fiasco, I'm hoping to have that fixed for this year. And of course there are many smaller items like deteriorated shock mounts, an oil change, valve adjustment and timing adjustment. The usual full race prep. Hopefully the list won't be too daunting for the mechanic. (He's a great guy.. more about him another time.)
I have a thousand things to do and get: flights, hotels, bike registration, insurance, new boots, a medical approval, spare parts to bring, etc. And that's not to mention that I want to upgrade my competitive timing equipment!

What is this "Motogiro"?

2007-03-13T16:50:00.001-07:00

From the www.motogiroditalia.com >

LA LEGGENDA RITORNA. ON THE 20th MAY 2007 THE HISTORIC REVIVAL OF THE MOTOGIRO D’ITALIA SETS OFF AGAIN

In 2007 the oldest Italian motorcycle road race is re-proposed from the 20th to the 24th May, with an itinerary centred on the most beautiful roads of Eastern Sicily.
From the 20th to the 24th May 2007 the Motogiro d’Italia, point of reference for those passionate about vintage motorcycles, will leave central Italy, host of the last two editions, and head boldly South for five days in Sicilian territory.
The Motogiro 2007 will maintain unvaried the formula that has decreed the event a success, starting and ending at Sciacca (Agrigento) acclaimed thermal location known since ancient times for its gentle climate and the healing properties of its waters rich with minerals. The route will articulate itself in 5 legs of approximately 250 km each, that will push East, until the slopes of the Etna. Currently the itinerary (which is still subject to variations) is the following:

19 May 2007: Preliminary operations at Sciacca.
20 May 2007, leg 1: Sciacca-Chiusa Sclafani–Selinunte-Sciacca
21 May 2007, leg 2: Sciacca-Piazza Armerina-Brucoli
22 May 2007, leg 3: Brucoli-Noto-Ragusa Ibla-Brucoli
23 May 2007, leg 4: Brucoli-Zafferana-Catania-Brucoli
24 May 2007, leg 5: Brucoli-Caltagirone-Agrigento-Sciacca.

My Class... the Vintage Racing Class!>

With an overall limit of 120 participants, this class features motorbikes of up to 175cc manufactured prior to 1957 inspired on the motorcycles that raced in the original Motogiro. Competitors in the Vintage Racing Class ware subject to timed, competitive ability tests en-route.