South Central Fest 2015

Thursday night and Pib and his rig arrives at my house.


Jason shows up to drop off his camping gear for the chase mini-van to deliver.


Friday morning, rain all around, let's hold off a bit.


Jason came over to get going. He got rained on pretty hard.


Rally point 2. Jason doesn't miss a gas station running that tank.


Pick up Trent and get back on the road.


Trent says, "If you love your gear enough, use a ratchet strap not a bungee cord.


First side of the road stop of the day, and it wasn't a shovelhead's fault. Some kid turned his rental car sideways and put it in the ditch. Luckily we were quite a bit back from that scariness. We stopped to help though.


The car almost got out of the ditch and stalled out. So we took a look at the manual to see if there was an inertia fuel cut off switch, but there didn't seem to be one. It finally fired up and the dude was gone. And we rolled on.


I was leading and everything was going fine until we lost Pib and Trent off the back. So we stopped to see what was up. Jason had lost his axle mounted tailight/tag set-up. Pib and Trent watched it happen and stopped to retrieve the tag. The bracket and taillight were goners though.


Good thing we stopped. Jason's Half@ss Shovel had more issues than just a taillight. The e-starter was falling off and something else was wrong with it and the starter gear was banging the ring gear.


The idle and accelerator pump were gone, too.


Pull the starter and go on.





Pick up Ed at Gainesville.


Eat lunch at the Ranch House in Gainesville.


I think they mean it.


Man, I just can't keep oil in the crank seal of this motor. I have to get this figured out. Oil on the belt is not a good thing.


Almost to the campsite and Jason's shovel is getting worse. Blue smoke, topend noise, pretty bad vibrations, and a leaking gas tank. I'm kind of getting tired of kickstarting it for him, too. The ignition is just a bit advanced.


Texas Mark was waiting at the campsite for us.


Hanging out.














HDLiz did show up. Yay! We thought she wasn't going to make it.





Working Jason's bike. One of the ignition plate adjusting screws had broken and the ignition plate had moved out of place.


Finding the leak.


JB Weld should fix that.


"Oh mighty shovelhead gods we present this tank and a smoke offering to please be smiling on his bike."


Big Orange needed a castellated nut for it's swingarm.


Max is doing his thing.


Chow time.


S'mores.





"I don't believe I have ever had a s'more before." Pib


Max says bitty boy will be the chef next year.


No caption needed.


Better call home, Max. Your wife is worried.


More cooking, Caddo Grassland Potato Salad is basically everything left over from lunch.


I think the outhouse really makes this picture. #nofilter








Sunday morning breakfast.





Ed talked bitty boy into each a tabasco pepper. There was a lot of drama on that one, but he survived.


"Ed's one of my best bros." Bitty Boy








Sherman, Texas: The Half@ss Shovel is done. Topend noise, bottom end vibration, and still leaking tank. A trailer ride and another full teardown.
 

It was a good time.

72-81 Front Brake Lever Spring Heavy Duty Alternative

My McMaster-Carr springs have arrived. The one on the left is the heavy duty alternative and stocker is on the right. The heavy duty version has a thicker wire diameter and more coils. It's quite a bit stiffer. I was concerned it may be too stiff. I installed it and it works great. Before I could bump the lever with one finger and flash the brake light, but now I have too squeeze it to light it. The heavier spring doesn't affect the master cylinder and brake operation either. I need to go on a group ride before I call it a success though. If anyone needs one let me know; I have nine left.

Click's Steakhouse Run

We did a quick run up to Pawnee to eat at Click's Steakhouse.

It was a varied group of bikes, two rigid shovels, one FLH shovel, a Yamaha Roadliner, a sportouring Beemer, and a Honda 1300 Sabre.





Yep, pushrods are leaking.


This was the rally point at Guthrie.


At Click's, the yellow building in the background.


Yeah, I didn't get many pictures, but Click's is good. Good steak on a $10 buffet doesn't sound good, but it is.

1972-81 Front Brake Lever Spring Replacement

The backstory: When I first put this bike together it was eating brake light bulbs. I figured that it was the vibrations and I slapped an LED array in the cat-eye and called it good. Then my buddy said, "hey, why were you flashing the brake light when you were leaving the other night?" I figured out the spring that holds the lever tight to the brake light switch was weak. At that time, I couldn't seem to find a good part number for it, but found a stiffer spring inside another set of hand controls that I had laying around. The brake light quit flashing all the time. I get enough reports of my brake light flashing when I hit a bump(it's a rigid) and when I take my hands to cruise on a nice piece of straight highway(a non MSF-endorsed technique) that I'm pretty sure I need a better spring.

Everyone hates the brake light switch in these style controls, but mine hasn't quit yet.


E-clip and washer on the pivot post.





Push out the pivot post.





Here's the spring that should hold the lever tight to the switch.





I thought I could find a substitute in the Harbor Freight assortment, but nothing was better.


I found a part number and supposedly OEM NOS on ebay.


Replace and reverse steps to install.


I went ahead and measured a new one in case it still wasn't stiff enough and maybe I could find a stiffer one if needed.











I took it for a group ride and it still flashes on bumps. So I ordered this from McMaster-Carr. Going from a Wire Diameter of 0.035 inch to 0.051 should do the trick. I will know in a week or so.