Nice day for a ride.

Finally got the bike back to together and out for a ride. Had a meet up with my riding group. Installed my new (old) 4-1 Kerker in place of the 4-2 Mac's. Didn't have time to jet it and didn't have time to retorque the head since I only started it up last night for the first time since reassembly. The old KZ didn't let me down. Ran like carp but got me there and back. Weather was 62 degrees when I left and must have been mid-seventies on the way back. Kerker sounded great (even though it was popping like a weasel). Will rejet tomorrow. Liked the Mac's somewhat, but the Kerker is sweet music. Had a last challenge before I was on my way. With the 4-1 as opposed to the 4-2 the center stand came higher and was hitting the chain. So I decided to use by best Hillbilly engineering I could come up with :sick: . It hits the foot of the bottom of the center stand foot. Just had to drill out an existing hole and worked like charm. Didn't even have to worry about painting it. Will look for a better (common) solution as time permits.




Before getting started:




Some of the bikes that showed up for the meetup. There was some kind of photo shoot for Ectera Magazine.

etceteramagazine.com/

The magazine is was featuring the cafe and vintage bikes in the club.

Your bike looks great Joe, a lot of other nice old bikes as well.

Glad you're getting to enjoy it in good weather, didn't get above 41 around here .

JD

Nice friends you have. Your ride looks good.

oh so cool...thanks

sweet bike Joe nice group of bikes there

Thanks guys, I put all my faith in the KZ Gods this weekend. This was the first time I started it yesterday morning after having had the top end disassembled. I had fudged the tensioner bolts due to bad information from the Clymer manual as I was putting it back to together. But the tensioner held. Didn't have the opportunity to re-torque the head bolt nuts after the first heat cycle. But checked the four outer nuts and they were good. And lastly, no re-jetting for the exhaust swap (still has stock jetting). It ran like crap (hardly any response twisting the throttle at speed and bad acceleration with popping at deceleration). But all in all it wasn't too bad. The bike came through and got me there and back. Next week, there is a vintage Japanese bike show here in Brooksville, Fl Only 40 min away from my house. Should have the bike in better condition by then.

Thanks OMR, you are absolutely right about recapturing our youth. The sound coming out of that Kerker brought back some pleasant memories flooding back.

A perfect day for a ride today in the eighties! Was stuck most of the morning at the kiddie's soccer games. I rode the bike to the last game. Then I said to my wife I gotta go for a little spin on day like this. Took some back roads with nice rolling hills. Then stopped at a local biker hangout which is a popular destination for riders from all the surrounding counties.

Uploading some pictures that I wasn't able to upload with my Windows 7 machine for some reason.



Whoever airbrushed this has some talent.

Envious!

boatdrinks wrote: Envious!

No need to be boatdrinks, I have been through Alabama before on my way out west. And it is one of the prettiest parts of the country. If memory serves me right, there are a lot of nice rolling hills in 'Bama. Haven't you got to ride any this winter? Or are you too far north .

Weather is supposed to turn cool tomorrow. This past week has been unseasonably warm. So I decided to take the opportunity to take her out for a spin during my lunch hour today (make that an hour and a half). Looked to be in the low 70's so it was perfect. Took some back roads that I've been meaning to explore.

I didn't have my camera and wouldn't have wanted to bother stopping anyhow. But here are some images I lifted from google maps of the route I took.


First road I took was nice 35 to 40 mph country lane type road with lots of nice ranches along the way.


This road really got my attention. Long unpopulated straights with rolling hills with about four or five bends along the way. It beckoned me to start cracking the whip on her.


It also contained a few nice high speed banked sweepers which I decided to test the Kenda's with,

Looking forward half way into the turn:


Same location in the turn looking backwards:


Bike ran real nice today. Never reved it past 7,000 to 7,500 rpm but, I'm still babying it. But it gave me enough of a thrill to get the grove going,

Boy was the weather ever nice this week. I just flew home from Jacksonville today. I did stop off at the beach before going to the airport. Bikini clad girls everywhere. On a Wednesday in January no less. It just ain't fair.

Joe the bike looks killer.

Went for my ride with the group yesterday. Started at a crisp 41 degrees. This is the first time I rode with this particular group and only my second group ride since getting back in the saddle. Last group ride never hit past 55 mph going lazily through beautiful country roads. This time it was cold start but did warm up nicely by noon. The other bikes were mostly Thruxtons with Speed Triple and a new Ducati thrown in. Man these guys were hauling. My clutch hand was toast by the end of the day. Went on the Ozello Trail which has water or mangrove shallows or sea grass most all the way with many twisties. Great seafood restaurant at the end of the peninsula. All in all, it was a great day. The Kaw definitely got some running gear today. I was able to keep up with the three leaders on the twisties (at least keeping them in site) for at least 75% of the time; making up lost ground on the straights. I ended dumping the bike one time. Yes, I will man up and admit that I made a big rookie mistake. Pulled in to one of the destined break stops for coffee. The parking spot had a slight incline. Instead of point my bike up the incline, I tried parking perpendicular to the incline. As soon as I started leaning the bike to my left (didn't put the side stand down yet) I had to reach a bit more than usual with may left foot for the ground. Bike was leaning more than usual. So exerted force with my left leg to correct. Pulled a ham string and my hip joint didn't fair much better. I blame the cold, LOL. Anyhow, the bike went down and I figured a couple hundred bucks in damage. To my amazement, only the stator cover was slightly scratched. The same replacement cover that I had spend 5 hours on filing/sanding/and polishing last month. Other than that, some fuel leaked out onto the tank. But have polished that out with wax already. Very lucky.

Met the group at their 3rd stop since the destination was more toward my neck of the woods. On the way to this stop it was 41 degrees. And although I was geared up for the cold, I could not find my gloves. When I got there my hands were so stiff I could hardly operate a zipper to go to the bathroom Almost forgot. While waiting for the group, a local who lives across the gas station I had briefly spoken with, came back with a pair of gloves that he outright gave me. Meeting somebody like that made it worth the whole day in its self.



At the destination lunch spot close to the end of the Ozello Trail.


Absolutely lovely area and day for a lunch.


Had to leave the group and head back home before the wife left for work. My Kaw held up well, you can see it on the left.