Broke my Cherry

[Snakeoil]

439 fired on the first kick. Was too warm for the choke so she quit. Fired on the next kick and ran perfect. Let her warm up and she idled nicely. Sounded like a John Deere running in the driveway. Petcock leaks out of the stem packing. Tightened it up, but still leaked. So I filled the bowl and shut off the gas. Put her in 1st and down thru the backyard and into the neighbor's field. Decided to see if I could make it around the block. Car coming... screw it... dumped the clutch and down the road. Nice roar out of that straight pipe. Got into second, but stop sign. Put her in neutral... car coming again... but did not want to run out of gas. Lots of room so down the road towards home. About 50 yards from the driveway, she runs out of gas. Signal right turn, pull onto shoulder and coast the distance to my driveway. Gotta love 532 pounds of ineteria.

Not what I thought the maiden voyage would be, but a ride is a ride.

Headlight does not work and leaking petcocks are the only two nits I need to fix now.

Can you buy rebuild kits for the petcocks? Sent an inquiry to Todd at Greer's. Guess I'll go see what Mr. Myles has tomorrow. I've made cork seals before for BSA petcocks so if I have to make my own, not a problem. Having good corks is another good reason to drink good wine.

regards,

Rob

[sirhrmechanic]

Congrats! Pictures from the maiden voyage?

Cheers,

Sirhr

[c.o.]

Rob!! Good to hear! Those 4 bangers are cool bikes. I bet you had a grin big enough to split your face!!

[Tom Wilcock]

Congratulations. ! I put a couple of small o-rings on my petcock stems over 30 years ago to stop leaks. They have not leaked since. Tom

[Snakeoil]

Appreciate the well wishes and Tom, thanks for the tip on the o-rings. My local hardware store has a great o-ring section that I like to think I've helped influence them to keep since I keep telling them nobody else has a selection like they do. Will be digging into the petcocks today.

Sorry, no maiden voyage pics. Wife and even the dog were out and about. It was one of those special solo moments. If I sort out the petcocks and the headlight, I might have her shoot a quick vid of me doing a fly-by.

There are pics of the bike in an earlier post here. Since this group does not have a lot of traffic, should be near the top somewhere.
regards,
Rob

[Snakeoil]

After posting here I gave Conrad Lytle a call. He agreed that o-rings are the way to go. I could not get Viton locally so I put Buna-N in them. It took a pair of 010 o-rings in each petcock. I also put a dab of silicone grease on them and Loctite 567 sealant on the compression nut. I now have dry stems.

Headlight is also fixed. It was a bad ground. No ground actually. I'm not sure it ever worked since being rebuilt. Headlight was repainted with a thick primer and topcoat and I had to remove the paint from beneath the mounting nuts to establish a good ground. Works fine now.

I'd be riding instead of typing if it did not decide to rain today. Murphy lives on my street.... I swear.

regards,
Rob

[Snakeoil]

Finally have the carb and petcock issued fixed and could not let a chance to ride go by. Thunderstorms were headed my way on the radar, but took a chance and made out. Stayed close to home and got her up to 52 mph. My speedo cable fix works great. Speedo and odo are both working.

I did get my first lesson on why the front brake lever is on the opposite side from the throttle. I left mine on the right when I switched throttle and shifter and can see that was a mistake. Was on a hill, with a blind hill to my left and when I went to go, let off on the brake and backwards she rolled. Automatic reaction was to put my left foot down, which meant out came the clutch and she stalled. Lesson learned.

Also had my first unplanned stop when a flagman in a one-lane construction detour waved me thru and then suddenly changed his mind. That worked out fine. I actually had my brain fully engaged expecting the worse, which happened.

Bike handles nicely. Used Irv Truax's recommendation of 5 mph max in 1st, 15mph in 2nd and stay in 3rd as much as possible. I've spent a few hours in a farm tractor seat and the sound of that straight exhaust has me right back out in the fields. And I'm not a farmer. Just used to help a gentleman farmer who was a friend of mine.

So, learned that even with my new repop side stand, she still drools gas out the carb when on it. Gaskets are all dry, but drips out the filter and out of the vents. I'm going to weld a spacer on that stand to make it better.

It's tough to kick the bike from the rider's seat and kicking it off the stand is a little precarious when standing along side.

I have a rear stand, but am wondering if you have to be Arnold to get it up on the stand. Might try today with the wife on the other side to catch it in case I lose it in the process. Is there a trick to putting it on the rear stand?

regards,
Rob

[Nadthor]

I read in another thread that if you roll the rear wheel onto a piece of wood first. Quess the little bit oh height helps. Have not tried it my self

[Snakeoil]

Thanks. Simple solution.

Got a part number? ;-)

regards,
Rob

[frichie68]

Part #1"X6"X1'pine.
Rich

[Tom Lovejoy]

Sounds very cool, congrats!. On my deluxe, I like just stepping off to the side to kick it over. But it's a lighter machine, might not be the same on your four. Those first rides are so fun/ yet scarey, atleast they were for me.

[Snakeoil]

The ride is not as scary as the anticipation of the ride. I don't remember this much anxiety over getting on a motorcycle since the first time I rode out of the paddock and onto the tarmac at Loudon. I truly questioned my sanity that day.

The saving grace of the Indian is the low CG. It takes some of the risk out of an "awkward moment" during a start, stop or slow speed maneuver.

regards,
Rob