The Buffalo waterfront. Quite nice.
I met Arty for lunch at “The Hatch” which is on the waterfront here in Buffalo. It was a warm day, nice for a ride.
I’ve put a few miles on the “A”. One issue I had was with the noise of the new exhaust and the pipes turning the prettiest shade of blue. I had Arty weld a couple of restrictors inside the baffles. This did (2) things, quieted the exhaust to nearly stock and increased the back pressure which will richen the mixture a bit and hopefully stem the lean mixture condition. When I filled the tank I calculated that I was getting 50 mpg. Knowing that 35 mpg is the norm I knew it was too lean. The combination of the K&N filter and the less restrictive exhaust is the cause. It has been nice to be riding again.
I’ve managed to put a few miles on the Automatic over the past week. I developed 2 minor leaks. One is at the shift lever seal which is a seal I replaced. My feeling is that I probably left a tiny bit of grit on the seal causing the leak. It is a tiny leak and I’ll just watch it. Chances are in time it will resolve itself. The other leak was at the front brake master cylinder. There was 1 drop of brake fluid poised to drip on my tank and ruin the paint. Luckily I caught it before that happened. I tightened up the banjo bolt a bit and I think that will take care of the problem.
Most of my rides have been out to the airport – where else would I go? Tonight I topped the tank off with 100LL avgas. I don’t know that it will make it run any better but it sure smelled good.
Hopefully it will be nice this weekend and i’ll get a few pictures to post.
Keith did a nice job on my seat.
The last piece of my restoration is complete. The 30 year old Corbin-Gentry seat that was on the bike was dead. Riding the bike was similar to riding a dinosaur. My guess is the dinosaur would be more comfortable. Keith did a wonderful job on the seat and Arty fixed the bolt in the seat that I went “electrician” on. Of course it is raining and cold here now but it will get back to nice weather in the next few days. My plan is to ride it as much as possible and make sure there are no more mechanical issues. I still want to change the rear sprocket but that can wait. Right now I just want to ride!
Patty has been making “Grapel” her own. A new windshield made the ride much smoother but she’s missing those tasty bugs. A small tank bag was added along with saddle bags for her trips to and fro. The bike was lowered to fit her better and a shorter sidestand was added. I still don’t understand why a girl would ride a motorcycle though.
New saddlebags and stuff for those long rides.
The new windshield.
Looking good!
