August Aprilia fork rebuilding project

We welcomed the dog days of summer by staying inside air conditioned buildings, and haven’t been on a real ride for two months.  The right front fork seal developed a leak in early summer, but the project is a lot of work, so the bike languished while Stu worked on enthusiasm.   Today, the enthusiasm arrived.

To replace the fork seal, the forks get removed, internal bits and pieces are removed, everything is cleaned, new fork seal put in, and reassembled.   Overall, the whole process should take two days...just in time for more 111 degree weather 😎

Day trip to Flagstaff in early May

As the summer starts here, a nice long trip to the pines up north sounds very appealing.  As does the offer of a BBQ lunch...so that is our Thursday.   Retirement is exhausting ;)

April 10th and the Suzuki 185 dual sport bike lives again

After months in the corner of the garage, Stu brought the bike into the light of day and got it running again....a tuneup and some repairs of wiring and voila, it starts!    We went out today for lunch and it was a hoot...2 strokes make a noise that isn’t heard anymore (at least not in downtown Scottsdale).   Bike ran great and it was funny to think of us riding around on one of our newer bikes, this Suzuki just turned 40....

March 3rd and the Aprilia is all done!

Yeah!  Will take it for the inaugural ride to Florence (and lunch at a great Mexican restaurant).
Round trip should be about 140 miles.

March 2nd...tank is on!

And the reassembly continues.   This afternoon the gas tank went back on, all connections made. Other assorted pieces are lined up to follow.   Photo of Stu this afternoon praying to the motorcycle gods!    (Or also could be viewed as him bolting this to that ;))

And anyone who had back surgery...we assure you that this isn’t bending, lifting or twisting since those activities are prohibited after surgery. ;)

Feb 26th. And Plan B worked!

Plan-A was a total and complete waste of time, as expected, so out it came this morning and we waited for plan-b regulator to arrive.  By 4:30 the new regulator was installed and it works perfectly.  Photos below show the happy story of 14.48 volts!  

So reassembly starts again tomorrow!

Feb 25th regulator update

All work stopped on the re-wiring extravaganza while Stu waited for a new regulator.   He returned the “bad” regulator and today it’s warranty replacement (called the new plan-A regulator) arrived.   Also, with the expectation that this new regulator will perform just as poorly as its mate, he ordered a different regulator from a different company (called plan-B).  It arrives tomorrow.   So tomorrow am, he starts the bike with the plan-A regulator and sees what it is doing.   If the voltage is too high, it will go into the trash and we will await the plan-B regulator :).  Photo below is of the plan-A regulator, all wired up and ready to be installed.