Blue's Bash is one week from today.

www.billbluesbash.com

Very little two wheel action this year

I should be ashamed. I guess.

I do have my 4th Annual Blue's Bash coming up on 8/14. I'm looking forward to that.

600 miles in the last 10 days

besides the ride to LA, thats the best stretch ive had this summer.... sad

I'm totally digging the baffles in my pipes. I can hear the stereo and the bike still has a nice rumble and growls at w.o.t.

Sea Foam seems to have fixed my MPG problem. Wish I had done this before or on that LA trip! would have saved me a bunch of money.

Riding the Triple Nickle on 9/26. Should be a good time if the weather is decent.

on the road again...

Just got my new brackets finished up and got my fairing back together. Installed a volt meter, although I'm not sure how accurate it is. It seems to read about a volt lower than my digital multi meter. Dunno.

no news is bad news...

No bike news to report. I've been spending all my free time wrenching on my son's cage. Fiero. Need I say more? ;-)

I do have my baffles in and the bike still sounds good but just barely quieter. No real road test yet. I have my fairing torn apart and I am redesigning my brackets.

Blue's Bash 2009 - Picasa Album online

Blue's Bash 2009

Baffled

Got my baffles installed tonight. Bike sounds pretty darn good. Still pretty F'n loud but it definitely took the edge off. No real road test, just down the road and back. I MAY be able to hear my stereo now ;-)

Tore my fairing off to take a look at my bracket situation. WOW! I tore that shit UP! Major overhaul/re-design is in order. Also going to install a volt gauge to keep an eye on my charging system.

Peace....

long time no post

Got busy last week with Blue's Bash. BB2009 was a huge success. 15 bikes 41 people, great food, cold beer. It doesn't get any better!

We did a 100 mile ride through champaign, union, logan, and hardin counties. Then came back to my place for a cookout. Pics are up on FaceBook and I'll post a couple here as well. Don't have the Picasa album up yet, but will post a link when I do.

RoadStar is fixed...

I forgot to plug the voltage regulator back in after replacing the stator. DOH!

RoadStar finally back together...

still not charging. Must have been the voltage regulator. FOR THE LOVE OF PETE!

Bought a bunch of parts...

I saw a posting on Craig's List for some old CB350/360 parts. I asked the guy what he would take for all of it. His reply was that I should probably come take a look. They just happened to be in a storage unit in St. P ! So I ended up buying all this stuff for a few hundo. The Harley parts made the deal. A sportster tank, a fat bob tank that is flamed. A couple of HD seats. A complete 1969 CB350 Engine.

Not only did I get a bunch of cool, old junk, I also found a couple of new biker friends. Jim and Rick Switzer have both built some old school bobber type bikes out of old CB's. Cool dudes, no doubt.

gasket remover?

So I was working on the RoadStar last night and ran into a problem cleaning the gasket off the engine case. Hard to reach parts with any type of scraper other than a screwdriver. Don't want to F up the surface. I'm gonna pickup some spray on gasket remover today and try that out.

Vintage was a good time

We got there right at 10am on Sunday. Took in pretty much the whole swap meet, watched a little racing, watched some demo's, etc.

I bought some aluminum welding rods that allow you weld with just a normal home propane torch. The guy demo'd the stuff and had me weld two pop cans together. Amazing. SOLD!

I didn't find the rearsets I was looking for but got some pics of some on other bikes and may just fab my own.

Vintage was a bit smaller this year it seemed. Could be that it was Sunday and folks were pulling out. I'll go on Saturday next (like in years past) . I still had a great time and I'm looking forward to next year.

Vintage Motorcycle Days... this weekend!

http://www.vintagemotorcycledays.com/

this is my favorite motorcycle event of the year. This is the show that gave me the bug to build a cafe racer. I bought my CB360 about a month after my first time to Vintage in 2006.

I actually like the swap meet more than watching the racing. I can walk around that swap meet for hours!

the state of the stator

Got my bike torn apart today. I've got the stator cover off, but I'm having a hard time getting the stator unbolted from the cover. It's bolted on with 3 big phillips head bolts! why would they NOT use a hex head bolt! STOOPID!

I just need another set of hands to hold the cover so I can break the bolts loose.

little progress...

I finally got a stator. The STOCK Yamaha part was $253! I got an aftermarket 'high output' stator for $160. I've had it two days but have not found the motivation to put it on yet. Maybe this weekend. Soon cuz Blue's Bash is coming up!

States I've visited on two wheels

create your own personalized map of the USA
or write about it on the open travel guide

Photos posted in my Picasa albums

http://picasaweb.google.com/2000roadstar/Route66June2009?feat=directlink

I will continue to blog here

I will continue to update this blog with my motorcycle adventures. We have Blue's Bash coming up in August, I have various other events to comment on such as Vintage Motorcycle Days, I have my CB-360 project that I will be documenting here. So if any of that interests you, check it out from time to time.

Bill

mile marker 41

Whenever I went 'truckin' with my Grandpa we were always looking for milemarker 41 on the way home. That's the New Carlisle exit off I-70. Man, was that the case yesterday!

Well, the battery swap worked. We swapped batteries back in Indianapolis and I made it to my driveway. I got home around 4:30 yesterday. I went back out later to put the bike away, it wouldn't start!

So that's the end of this trip. I'm glad we did it. I'm glad I got to do it with my Dad. I don't think the magnitude of the trip has really set in yet. Now that I'm not "on" the trip and I'm starting to think back and recall portions.... WOW! that was a TRIP! That first saturday in the car wash waiting out the rain seems so long ago. We ended up doing 10 days and around 4800 miles. It's gonna be hard for us to top that. Mexico? Australia? ;-)