Snippets

[harley506d]

Had'nt realized it wasn't a finished bike, so consider my comments deleted!
Look forward to seeing the finished thing.

[Crusty]

Failure Is Not An Option


I have a few packages coming today. One has my catless (Cat gutted?) mufflers and a belt guard. Another has a headlight guard/grill. And the third has a black horn cover (along with some boards that have been cut to fit in the bottom of my tool bag. A skid plate has been ordered and I’m waiting for the tires to become available. Supposedly, they’ll be available in early April.

I’ve been experiencing some health issues lately that have me seeing my Primary Care Physician this week. If he continues to be as helpful as he has over the past couple of years (during the pandemic, I couldn’t get an appointment to see him. He’s a doctor who’s afraid to see sick people.), he’ll be no help to me. If that’s the case, then it won’t affect my trip. The ride home from Daytona showed me that some leg pain didn’t affect my ability to ride distances (plus, my leg didn’t hurt while I was riding). However, I was walking with my cane the whole time I was in Daytona. I’ll have the cane with me on the coming trip, just in case.

Getting back to those packages; three of the items mentioned are coming because friends have been helping me. I’ve had a lot of people who have helped me in my quest to ride to Tuktoyaktuk on the Gentleman’s Express. They want me to succeed and I think I owe it to them to at least give it my best shot.

The Express is running well, except that it takes several seconds for the lifters to pump up when I first start it and it sounds a bit, uh, different when I’m running down the road. I have the lifters that were in it when it first started knocking. I thought it was bad lifters, so I swapped them out. I guess I’ll try pulling the lifters that are in it and seeing if that will make a difference.

I’m going to swap out the grenade plate in the clutch and while I’m in the primary, I’ll put in a new chain adjuster. I’ve been planning to do that all along, so that should relieve a bit of anxiety while I’m on the road.

I’ve had a number of people helping me, both in transforming the 2016 Roadster into the Gentleman’s Express and in my plans to head North. I’ve had people give me rides for hundreds of miles at a time, I’ve had people fabricate parts and do amazing paint work, I’ve had many parts given to me, I have one friend who won a gift card in a raffle, and he bought several items with it to help me with my trip, I even had a friend give me a BIG chunk of money to help defray the expense of the build.

When good people go to those lengths to help me, I have to give the trip my best effort. I owe a bunch of folks that. In my mind, that has to be one motivating factor.

In the movie, Heartbreak Ridge, Clint Eastwood tells his recruits, “Surrender is not in our creed!” I can adopt that attitude.

In this case; Failure is not an option. I am going to do my damnedest to get to the Arctic Ocean. When I do, I’ll have a big grin and a large amount of gratitude for all those who have helped me.

[harley506d]

You are blessed to have so many good friends mate!
Just a "heads up", there is a spring plate available with st steel rivets if you wanted a stock set up. About the same price as the stock one if i remember rightly.

[Crusty]

The Alto Heavy Duty Stainless Steel riveted spring plate is "Out of Stock". I'll get one eventually, but a regular duty plate should last the length of the trip.

[Tomcatt]

If you're goiing to spend money put the XR1200 judder spring parts in.

[John Harper]

Originally Posted by Crusty

More Starbucks
P.S. I'm in a T-shirt. It's all I've needed to wear from the time I got up this morning. This weather is lovely!

We finally had one day of sunshine, first time in weeks. But, this morning it's cloudy again and a big storm due Tuesday. What a crazy winter we've had.

John