Hi Guys !

[vwnate1]

I didn't see any threads related to this so I thought I'd add one...

I get off list queries, that's nice but I prefer to use the entire brain trust here .

I've been busy in my back yard, eventually I got bored and bought this rare and completely worthless vintage Honda Motocyle, it's a 1984 CB125S (E), only sold in the U.S.A. for two years, '84 & '85, it's a world beater every where else .

It took me a few weeks to sort it out, I found an original shop manual so it's all tuned up, peaked & tweaked and runs out well .

Parts are easy once I chase down the original and superseded part numbers .

Looks funny with it's 1980's styling an has 5 speeds, weighs only 220 pounds, about the same as I do .

Yes, I can and do ride it on the freeway it likes 55 ~ 60, will go faster if I pin the throttle, I don't like to do that .

It doesn't much like hills though, especially on the open road , Saturday I wound up riding it up Ca. SR2 in fourth gear at 40 + MPH ~ I don't think that's safe so I next plan to remove the muffler and ram a small hole about 1/2" / 13MM through the middle of the baffles in the muffler, that should help it breathe easier, I don't really want to go into re jetting it and so on , we'll see .

I have more amusing pictures of rust flowing out of the fuel tank and so on if wanted .

Things here in Southern California, a lot of folks are hurting badly, so far we have been O.K. .

I hope all here are well and keeping busy, either working or reading (my big thing now that I'm retired) and catching up on those long delayed projects and 'Honey - Do's" .

Do chime in and speak your mind .

 

[52wasp]

OK, here goes! My employer set me up to Work From Home (WFH). After almost 40 years driving to 'the office', it took a few weeks to adjust. Now that it's been a few months, I don't think I'll be going back. We got the "return to work" authorization form the Governor, but my employer said "continue to WFH as long as you can". The Missus was out for 7 weeks (self-employed, "non-essential"), she just returned to work with a host of State-mandated requirements. All of the time home/together has us thinking pretty hard about just retiring. There are sure enough projects to keep ME busy for a few years!

 

[Chiro]

Hi Nate. Glad to hear you and your family are doing well.

Thank the good Lord I am already retired on disability so I have money coming in. I'm on Long Island in NY and it's pretty bad here. Lots of people I know have had the virus and a few have died, mostly older people from church or their older relatives. Nursing homes are bad here. It's like a death sentence if your family member has compromised health and gets it in one of those places. Lot of people talking shit about the governor Andrew Cuomo but I think he's doing a stellar job of managing this thing even if I don't like him and his politics generally. He's showing compassion, intelligence and true leadership. Something that other people in leadership roles in this country should take a lesson from. We are on the downside of the curve here but we still have to meet two key parameters set forth by the governor before we can open. Contrasting his compassion, leadership and intelligence there was a particularly nasty demonstration by a bunch of A-holes and a local reporter that went pretty viral last week. Bunch of people being close to each other and yelling (spreading the virus) without masks. Future winners of the Darwin Award for sure. Selfish, stupid, petty people in my opinion.

We put our house up for sale literally two weeks before everything shut down so there's been NO action on it. I have NOTHING on my honey-do list as I did it all prepping of the house for sale before the lockdown. Sooooo......I get to tinker on the old iron, spend time on bible study with the missus daily and just generally enjoy each others company. I haven't seen her go for any knives or guns so I guess I'm not getting on her nerves too much.

I'm a little itchy for things to open up here but I'm content to follow the science and statistics if it means saving lives and preventing a worse second wave because you KNOW one is coming. It's just a matter of when and how bad it's going to be.

Painted and put a new front fender on the truck and buying up parts to do my old school V8 install in it once we move to VA later this year. Should be fairly straightforward as I've gotten a lot of good advice on that from Evan (coilover). I have been driving the snot out of my Flathead V8 Model A hot rod. Did a conversion from two door sedan to coupe last year and the wife likes it a LOT better and actually looks forward to going for drives in it with me.

Life is good here. We pray everyday that we, our family, loved ones and friends all stay healthy and out of harms way and I wish that for all of you as well.

Peace,
Andy

 

[RidesWithYah]

Hi Everyone,
The company I work for has been hit hard (loss of sales).
Fortunately they blessed us with a 20% pay cut instead of layoffs.
They are hoping the cut is temporary, but also said that they may extend the pay cut and/or resort to layoffs if things don't bounce back quickly.
We've adjusted the budget and are making it work, but I had to put the body work "on hold".
Fortunately, he was very understanding and accommodating.
Gives me extra time for planning and figuring...
Working on numbers to get a better idea of how much more money and time it will take to be back to driveable.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the extra time with the family; and outdoor fun when I can.
Found a new fishing spot; and put a new motor (S&S V111) in my old motorcycle earlier this year before all the craziness hit.
My oldest son recently bought a bike too, so we've gotten to ride together a time or two... and my daughter likes to go along.

Life is good, just not quite what we expected right now.

 

[e015475]

Found myself getting a little cranky the other day about being couped up and my projects not moving forward as fast as I like. Was feeling a little sorry for myself having retired a couple of years ago and now I'm forced to stay home for the most part. I mentioned this to my wife and her reply was that we had a lot to be grateful for - we have the ability to stay home and be self-sufficient and many others do not. There's a lot of folks out there facing hard economic loss, and some that have lost loved ones to the pandemic too boot.

Before the stay-at-home order, the wife and I both enjoyed a lot of separate activities outside the house and I wasn't sure how well we'd get along being home together all the time, but it has been pretty pleasant. I'm grateful for that too (but a little effort to get along helps)

Ever since I can remember, I've had this personality quirk where I like the thought of a project out in front of me to be completed, but having something actually done, not so much. Everything that I need to do now seems to take much longer than it used to, mostly because in the back of my mind I think if I finish it I won't have anything to do. The toilet in the hall bath has been sitting in the middle of the floor for two weeks while I've been slowly pecking away at repairing the sewer flange. Put a compressor and fan clutch in my old Jag, and it took me over a week to get it on the road again. The '49 GMC has been sitting for a couple of weeks waiting for me to fix the clutch master. No sense of urgency about anything, and when I do, I research the livin sh*t out of it before I move, then blog about it more than I should when it's done. The highlight of my day is the UPS/FedEx/Amazon Prime truck coming up the street.

Here in Arizona we don't know if we're coming or going relative to the pandemic. The governor has drug his feet about releasing community information specific enough so you could make a decision whether to venture out. Data models have ranged from 300 deaths with a peak of a couple weeks ago to 2400 with a peak still in front of us. The newspaper reports that 2/3 of the deaths in our county have been care homes, but the government isn't releasing any specifics. Another thing to be grateful for - I'm not in one of them, nor are any of my loved ones.

The reality for us is that stay-at-home is probably a necessity until a vaccine comes out. We too have our share of selfish people in Arizona who refuse to follow the social distancing and hygiene protocols and put the rest of us at increased risk, but the way I look at it they'll mostly infect themselves and shorten the time we'll need to get to herd immunity status of 60-70%, so they can knock themselves out with their behavior. Some may even get the ultimate Darwin award. If I keep my side of the street clean, all will be fine (eventually)

All five of our kids are gainfully employed and healthy, for which we're grateful. The two that have medical careers are so busy they can't find their butts with both hands, but the others are in the hospitality and aerospace sectors and I'm a little concerned.

 

[sloromon]

Hey guys! Been a long time since i was on here... it’s nice to see a lot of the same folks helping folks out! I’m a bit embarrassed to say my truck has been sitting for a few years (something aa younger me said I would never do). I’ll spare you the excuses- let’s just say small children and work- most of you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Long story short I got back under the hood yesterday. Sludgy fuel, dark oil, water evaporated from the radiator. Battery was on a trickle charger though! Working on getting it started up. Might be a fuel pump issue. Got on here to read Nate’s writeup on the subject!
Personally, I got a promotion a month ago from Battallion Chief to Training Officer which means more 9 to 5, less callouts in the middle of the night which has been nice, and now I am actually able to do telework- not an option when I was a firefighter. So I’m here with the kids (7,4 and 2), helping my wife as mich as I can. It’s been crazy but I’m so happy to finally be spending so much time with them. I didn’t realize how much I didn’t see working all the time. Miss the “guys” a little but I love my family. Also in AZ and I agree with what was said about folks here. Feels like half take this seriously and the other half think it’s make believe. In the fire community we are taking it very seriously. We are planning for the possibility of our organization being torn down due to illness, and states are already not sending resources to help others (which is the model we use to fight large wildfires) so the locals are trying to do what they can without help and it’s stacking up to be a very big fire year with or without a virus. Anyway, nice to see you guys again! I’ll be in here from time to time.

 

[vwnate1]

Hi all ! .

Good to see some checking in here, I'm really interested in what's going on out there because I come from a medical family and have traveled a lot, including third world places so I know what can happen when you're not looking forward .

I'm lucky in that I'm allowed to go out so I do , I just keep the heck away from everyone else = .

I'm getting older and far less able to do the work, I find even my 223 pound Motocycle is a lot of work to lift, catch when it tips over and so on.... .

It looks like I was able to post an image, I hope it's not a duplicate .

 

[vwnate1]

Here's an older image of my son, grand daughter and daughter in law....

My new lap top died taking my pictures with it .

 

[Bill Hanlon]

Like this Nate.

 

[vwnate1]

Thanx Bill ;

I guess I kinda - sorta figured out how to post images, I wish mine were bigger like yours...

That's some years ago when Penny was still a baby .

She began riding Motocycles when she was two and 1/2 years old after my son foolishly told her she could have one once she was potty trained .

She managed that in two weeks then had her wait until her next birthday before buying her one ...

Everyone I know raves about his beautiful Irish Colleen .

 

[coilover]

We had a Honda 125 and a short wheel base mini bike so OF COURSE we had to do an engine swap which left the mini bike a suicide machine. Outside the shop was a dirt pile with a concave dip near the top which the guys turned into a mini hill climb. The "killer" machine was reducing my shop crew to the point that me and my cutting torch sent the Honda powered mini bike to the off road spot in the sky. As far as the virus is concerned I told my wife if it strikes an 83 year old with heart history, diabetes, and part of a lung missing, tell them not to get a sheet dirty, just carry me straight to the morgue.

 

[vwnate1]

I'm with you , I've lived a long and very full life .

The problem is : dying from this thing is very painful and I'm already in constant pain 24/7, I'd rather not have any increase .

 

[Nick]

I guess I kinda - sorta figured out how to post images, I wish mine were bigger like yours...

After uploading the image like you did in previous posts in this thread, just click wherever in your post you want the big image to appear, and then click the Full Image button (below the text box where you're writing your post) next to the picture you want to make big:

 

[vwnate1]

THANK YOU NICK ! .

I'm a computer dummy so I don't even remember how I got that one to post.....

I've been riding that little bike all over the place, it goes 55 ~ 60 on the freeway so I can travel on it .

I foolishly rode it through down town Los Angeles last night as the riots were going on.... whew .

 

[vwnate1]

update 3.7.2021

I was finally able to find an N.O.S. factory Honda exhaust for this bike, it turned out the inside baffle had broken loose of it's welds and was occasionally blocking the outlet causing too much back pressure to run right .



It now runs like it did when new, meaning I can ride it on the open highways and freeways ~ it'll go right along @ 55 ~ 60 MPH depending on the grade .

I just re read the previous replies thoughts and comments, it's good to see most here have their heads on straight ~ the second wave was pretty bad, we lost some friends and shirt tail relatives, co - workers etc., etc. and I only got my first inoculation shot recently, waiting for the second now .

 

[vwnate1]

I've always been an active person I have a tiny yard but it's my refuge ~ I can go out side and work on my projects and rake leaves & dog poop etc. - that gives me exercise and privacy thanx to my tall fencing .

Retirement can be hard on some, I paid attention to the many who retired before me and died after a year or two of sitting around .

I no longer enjoy driving / riding after sunset but I can go out of my urban environment pretty easily, that helps a lot .

Andy, my middle sister lives in Richmond and she loves it .

 

[booger]

The new pipe looks great Nate. Amazing what a new shiny piece does for your pride

 

[vwnate1]

THANK YOU kind Sir ! .

I try hard, as a Field/junkyard/farm/used car lot Mechanic I know how to make things run well, getting them to look nice is a whole 'nother thing, I can't paint or do body works...

Here's the bike after I finished the job ~ I polished my finger prints off the new muffler and then the kick starter pedal looked dirty, polished that then the rear wheel looked bad, can't do the rear unless I do the front, the shock's coil springs had some rust so on and on it goes.....

Might as well do the grab rail and brake pedal whilst I'm at it, so on and so forth.....

The best thing is how much better it runs with out the broken loose baffle blocking the outlet .

I had this tiny little bike going 70 + MPH down hill the other night, and didn't need to pin the throttle .

I did the same cleaning " Might As Well " thing to my '49 3100 series truck a few times, began polishing the dashboard's stainless steel and the next thing I know....

Spring is about to begin, time to flush those old murky brakes, do a valve adjust, replace the fuel filter with a new clear plastic one , get it warm and change the oil, you don't need any other oldies nearby to have your very own show & shine, these fine old trucks gather a crowd wherever they go, even when old and dented .

I just realize the back end of my older "Supervisor" (Bitch Dog) is in the lower right of the picture ~ she and Elvis always make sure I'm working hard or something .

 

[vwnate1]

Here's Elvis, my new Sire ~ Gizmo finally checked out after 20 - 1/2 long and faithful years, he'll be missed .

Elvis is a Chihuahua/Giraffe mix, his legs are 4" long yet he still has the tiny apple head and squeaky bark :

 

[booger]

Elvis looks like he’s the boss !