Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Actually, this is what I want my bike to look like:







And, what do you know? That is what my bike looks like now. I just got a 1998 Suzuki Bandit 600 in a trade for the Nighthawk! More to come, but I'm going to go ride around the neighborhood for a bit!

Saturday, November 21, 2009

This is what I want my bike to look like:




Of course, I need to get all the little kins worked out first.

Friday, November 13, 2009

One of the guys at our first meeting 'tinkers' on bikes...

And bby 'tinker' I mean 'Holy Smokes, that is some awesome work!' Take a look at Design Cycles street legal dirtbike/cafe racer:

Check this out!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

'Here, hold my beer and watch this....'


November 8th Vintage Meet.

Despite me being a tool and rescheduling the meet, we had some nice bikes show up. The first is a Suzuki Madura, a 1200cc V4 cruiser. Next is a late 60's BMW that was very nice. And the last is a nice Honda CB 900.
Here's the CB 900 a little closer. Good thing my CB wasn't there or it would be bugging me to clean it up.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

I really shouldn't google anything.....



I always end up finding something that seems really cool...
Guess I'll have to go find an old minibike and some races...
I snagged this video off the forum at Old Mini Bikes

Friday, November 6, 2009

Change of date for vintage bike meet! SUNDAY, November 8th!

Sorry for the change but it was necessary.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Tallahassee 70-80's Bike Owners First Meeting...

will be Saturday, November 7, 2 PM at What-A-Burger on Thomasville Road. I'm looking forward to seeing some of the bikes the other guys ride. They all sound a lot cooler than mine.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

New name, new links, new look, same 1.4 posts per month!

A few weeks ago, I decided to see if I could find a few like minded people to ride with. I'm probably not the typical motorcycle rider. Rather, I'm not the typical motorcyclist that most of the magazines seem to think is the norm.

To sum it up, I like old, cheap, fun bikes.

I was sure there were other people like me that would be interested in meeting up and riding. So, I put this out on Craigslist:

"I have an old motorcycle. It won't do 160 mph or 0-60 in 2.8 seconds, but that's ok with me. It's not covered with $10,000 worth of chrome, but that's cool, too. It's not pretty, but it's mine and I love riding.

I wanted to see if there are any other like minded people that would like to meet up once in a while, stand around, look at bikes, talk old bikes and then maybe go for a ride somewhere.

No brand bias (if you have to wear the logo of your bike on your shirt or jacket, that's ok, we won't hold it against you....but it isn't a requirement)

No engine size bias ( smaller bikes are cooler, anyway)

No age bias ( just be ready to tell cool stories of the time you and your buddy __________ if you're older than me, ok?)

Heck, I guess we shouldn't really have an age bias on your bike either so even if you have a brand new bike, that's ok.

This is my second post about this and I've gotten some interest, some cool bikes, not too much chrome on them but still very cool bikes.
So if you're interested, send an email and we can all meet up some time soon. "

Several people have responded favorably to the post, so I decided that I needed to spruce up the blog, focus it a bit more on the Nighthawk and give me a place to post stuff pertaining to the idea.

Soirt of like what I did a couple of years ago with scooters, but with a bit more horsepower...

My logic is not logical...

Hindsight really is 20/20. On my last post, I had (and the other two guys hleping me who have a lot more motorcycle knowledge than me) decided that my slave cylinder needed to be replaced. So, I ordered one off Ebay. It was pretty cheap, so it was ok.

But, in the meantime, I met a guy who really knows bikes and loves working on them so he came over and come to find out, the clutch was ok, it just had approximately 200,309 air bubbles. The 200,309th air bubble was a particularly hard one to remove.

So, the bike runs, but it needs to be ridden a small bit so I can get some Sea Foam into the system to hopefully degunk the carbs.

Works going well, hopefully things will ease up soon (as in this month!) so I can have a minute or two to do some things so I can get to riding.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Off to Ebay I go....

Well, a month or so ago, the solenoid went out, so I bought one on Ebay and got it installed. However, in the month or so without cranking the bike, it seems the slave cylinder went out and the carbs got a bit funky. So, I am now going to probably buy a used slave cylinder off ebay.

The problem is, they all look really funky, none of them look better than mine, externally, at least.

So, so far I have spent

Bike $250
Moving fees $50 (not nearly enough to repay my buddy that picked it up for me)
Solenoid $31
Gas $2 (No, I am not going to keep this as a running tab)
Various items $8

So far, my Nighthawk has cost me $341.

Not too bad. And it isn't the bikes fault it hasn't been ridden much. But I AM going to get these little problems fixed and then proceed to ride the crap out of it!

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Oil change directions for men and women...

Stolen from the Nighthawk forums:

Oil Change instructions for Women:

1) Pull up to Jiffy Lube when the mileage reaches 3000 miles since the last oil change.
2) Drink a cup of coffee
3) 15 minutes later, write a check and leave with a properly maintained vehicle.

Money spent:
Oil Change: $20.00
Coffee: $1.00
Total: $21.00


Oil Change instructions for Men :

1) Wait until Saturday, drive to auto parts store and buy a case of oil, filter, kitty litter, hand cleaner and a scented tree, write a check for $50.00.
2) Stop by 7/11 and buy a case of beer, write a check for $20, drive home.
3) Open a beer and drink it.
4) Jack car up. Spend 30 minutes looking for jack stands.
5) Find jack stands under kid's pedal car.
6) In frustration, open another beer and drink it.
7) Place drain pan under engine.
8) Look for 9/16 box end wrench.
9) Give up and use crescent wrench.
10) Unscrew drain plug.
11) Drop drain plug in pan of hot oil: splash hot oil on you in process. Cuss.
12) Crawl out from under car to wipe hot oil off of face and arms. Throw kitty litter on spilled oil.
13) Have another beer while watching oil drain.
14) Spend 30 minutes looking for oil filter wrench.
15) Give up; crawl under car and hammer a screwdriver through oil filter and twist off.
16) Crawl out from under car with dripping oil filter splashing oil everywhere from holes. Cleverly hide old oil filter among trash in trash can to avoid environmental penalties. Drink a beer.
17) Install new oil filter making sure to apply a thin coat of oil to gasket surface.
18) Dump first quart of fresh oil into engine.
19) Remember drain plug from step 11.
20) Hurry to find drain plug in drain pan.
21) Drink beer.
22) Discover that first quart of fresh oil is now on the floor. Throw kitty litter on oil spill.
23) Get drain plug back in with only a minor spill. Drink beer.
24) Crawl under car getting kitty litter into eyes. Wipe eyes with oily rag used to clean drain plug. Slip with stupid crescent wrench tightening drain plug and bang knuckles on frame removing any excess skin between knuckles and frame.
25) Begin cussing fit.
26) Throw stupid crescent wrench.
27) Cuss for additional 5 minutes because wrench hit bowling trophy.
28) Beer.
29) Clean up hands and bandage as required to stop bl ood flow.
30) Beer.
31) Dump in five fresh quarts of oil.
32) Beer.
33) Lower car from jack stands.
34) Move car back to apply more kitty litter to fresh oil spilled during any missed steps.
35) Beer.
36) Test drive car.
37) Get pulled over: arrested for driving under the influence.
38) Car gets impounded.
39) Call loving wife, make bail.
40) 12 hours later, get car from impound yard.

Money spent:
Parts: $50.00
DUI: $2500.00
Impound fee: $75.00
Bail: $1500.00
Beer: $20.00
Total: $4,145.00
But you know the job was done right!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

HOLY SMOKES!!!!

My old scooter riding buddy, Glynn rode over from Jacksonville to see some family but we met up Saturday morning for breakfast and to hang out and check out my new Nighthawk.

So we did. He took it for a spin and thought it was nice and was cool enough to let me take his UM 650 sport cruiser around the block. That's a nice bike, very nice.

Then we went to get my next door neighbor to come see the bikes and we all decided to clean my carbs a bit. There was some thought that would increase the performance of the Nighthawk so I took it for a spin to see. It did indeed make the bike ride quite a bit better.

I'm no expert but this seems to be a very nice bike and even though it is 26 years old, it is in pretty good shape.

Anyway, after a quick hospital stay for me (weird day and a half experience), I got home and decided to ride the bike. It's funny how such a small ride around my neighborhood can make me feel.

On the Nighthawk forums, one of the regular posters told me that the Nighthawk has a really nice surge of power at 7k rpms.

In my limited riding, I had barely reached 4k rpms but today, my son was at the end of the driveway on my second lap encouraging me to 'GO!!!'.

So, I did.

I was enjoying the speed, the sound of the bike, the slight roar of the wind, THE HOLY SMOKES I AM SCREAMING DOWN THE ROAD.

Wow, what was that? It seems that on my Nighthawk, 5k rpm is where the funzone starts. It was very very smooth but a very very large surge in power. Very very smoth. Very very large gain in power.

I like my $250 Nighthawk!

Sunday, May 24, 2009

So, I have this nice Nighthawk. Maybe I ought to, you know, actually ride it....

I got the 1983 Nighthawk 650 back in December and due to many things, 50 hour work weeks, days off spent at my Wife's Childcare Center, winter, kids, sick kids and then moving, I was not able to get the Nighthawk on the road.

It had a stuck left front piston and seemed to have a carb issue.

The cool thing was that when we moved (to an awesome neighborhood, best schools in town, large home, huge yard for the kids) our next door neighbor (who is also our landlord) noticed the Nighthawk in the huge carport. We hadn't even moved in but the next day I brought a van load over to drop off and my neighbor stopped by to ask about the Nighthawk.

I told the story of how I got it ($300!!!!) and that it had some issues. He loves Nighthawks; his friend in college had one and he'd be more than happy to help me get it fixed. By the way, he also had a motorcycle, a Suzuki DR 200.

This neighborhood is looking even cooler!

Then he told me he had an old '66 VW Bug, too. Wow, I used to be a huge air cooled VW guy. Loved them! Owner many of them.

So, anyway, we tinkered on the Nighthawk a bit and got it running but didn't tackle the brakes since we both have families, work, etc etc.

However, Saturday my neighbor comes over and asks to borrow a part off the spare set of carbs that came with the Nighthawk (that I paid $300 for) but they were still at the old house.

He then says 'Well, let's get your bike running then.'

And that's what we did. We didn't exactly fix the brake, we circumvented the left one :) And, no, I'm not going to ride the Nighthawk anywhere until all the brakes are fixed but I still have a perfectly functioning rear and front right brake and many Nighthawks didn't come with dual front brakes and by golly I wanted to finally ride my Nighthawk!

So I did.

Wow. It is nice.

I've missed riding.

I can't describe the feeling you get riding. In my case, I was putting along in second gear doing 25 mph. But it was enough. I am a rider again.

I haven't ridden thousands and thousands of miles; I've put maybe 2500 miles on two wheelss, before I sold my Kymco last year.

But that was enough to feel 'it'. You know what 'it' is. The feeling you get from riding.

I probably rode less than three miles but it was enough...well, not nearly enough, but enough. For now.

And for the record, the Nighthawk is awesome. Very smooth, very comfortable and more than likely has more than enough power for me. I was able to give it a bit of throttle and was very happy to feel the surge of power...and I didn't come close to redline.

So, be assured there will be more updates and some better pictures of the Nighthawk. So stay tuned!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Ok, here's the story...

Well, the FZR pictured below was going to be mine, but I really did not want or need 146 horsepower. But, it did ride well, at least, it felt good on the two mile ride I had on it. So, since the price was right, I decided that a good solution would be to take the FZR and trade it for something like a Ninja 250 or a dual sport.

So, off to Craigslist I went. I posted an ad saying it was in ok shape but probably needed some work so send me some trade offers. I got a million replies. Quickly.

Tons of offers for 600's, as if they need more power. Offers for some really cool bikes.

So, I asked a friend of mine who knows a lot more about bikes than I do to take a look at it and give me some idea of what it needs. A day or so before we were able to inspect the bike, my Nephew was riding it and it cut off on him in mid ride and he ended up having to push it home.

So, when my buddy checked it out, he did not give a good prognosis. Faced with the potential of $800 or so in repairs, with no way of knowing until someonme tore into the bike, I decided to not trade or sell it. Some minor work is one thing, but $1000 of wrk is something I was not comfortable trading to someone who might be hoping it was a minor fix.

However, I ran across a guy with an 89 Katana 1100 project bike. He had parked it a few years ago when he got his new bike. He said he'd let it go for $250 so I went to take a look. It had been sitting a while but looked pretty decent.

I mentioned it to one of the guys I had still been emailing and he sounded interested. Very interested. I emailed him and told him it looked nice but I had no idea what condition it was internally. He offered me his Nighthawk (see picture below)... I told him I'd do that trade but repeated several times in both email and over the phone that I knew next to nothing abotu the Katana or the owner. He said that was fine so after picking up the Katana, we rode over and traded a nonrunning Katana for the Nighthawk.

He says he is happy and I hope he gets the Katana running with no major problems but I am happy as can be with the Nighthawk in my garage.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Hmmm, maybe 1000cc is not the right answer for me...

but, what about 650cc? Yeah, that sounds pretty good....stay tuned, more details to follow, like maybe tomorrow.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

I Am A: Lawful Good Half-OrcFighter (6th Level)


Ability Scores:

Strength-15

Dexterity-15

Constitution-17

Intelligence-14

Wisdom-15

Charisma-12


Alignment:
Lawful Good A lawful good character acts as a good person is expected or required to act. He combines a commitment to oppose evil with the discipline to fight relentlessly. He tells the truth, keeps his word, helps those in need, and speaks out against injustice. A lawful good character hates to see the guilty go unpunished. Lawful good is the best alignment you can be because it combines honor and compassion. However, lawful good can be a dangerous alignment because it restricts freedom and criminalizes self-interest.


Race:
Half-Orcs are the short-tempered and sullen result of human and orc pairings. They would rather act than ponder and would rather fight than argue. They love simple pleasures, such as feasting, boasting, and wild dancing. They are an asset at the right sort of party, but not at the duchess's grand ball. Half-orcs are as tall as humans but their brutish features betray their lineage. They regard scars as tokens of pride and things of beauty. They rarely reach 75 years of age.


Class:
Fighters can be many things, from soldiers to criminal enforcers. Some see adventure as a way to get rich, while others use their skills to protect the innocent. Fighters have the best all-around fighting capabilities of the PC classes, and they are trained to use all standard weapons and armor. A fighter's rigorous martial training grants him many bonus feats as he progresses, and high-level fighters have access to special melee maneuvers and exotic weapons not available to any other character.


Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)