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[cheesy]

Not my finest moment. Stuck in my own front yard

[Merle Coggins]

Maybe you need to mount a plow on the front of that 'tractor'. ?

Or mount a front loader...

 

(not actually mounted, just tied down together on the same trailer)

[cheesy]

Another Polar Bear ride in the books. It was anything but Polar. Mid forties, damp, and foggy. So foggy that I took very few pics this year. I did it somewhat differently this year and met up with another couple for a late breakfast at a joint halfway between our respective homes.

I'm the folliclly challenged guy. Mary and Casey to my left and their 2017 Ural behind mine. 

 

Casey and I have been slowly working to have a get together with other Chi-town area Ural owners.

Edited January 3, 2023 by cheesy

[cheesy]

It's engine repair time for the Ural 38,000 miles. That's a Bazillion miles in Ural years.

 

Our town had its annual three day drunk festival parade a few weeks ago. I was in the parade with the local ABATE chapter. It was a beastly hot afternoon and the parade pace was SLOOOW. There were eight bikes in our group and four, including me, dropped out due to overheating. 

I rode a couple hundred miles after the overheating incident with no problems, until last Saturday. Mrs. Cheesy and I had run a couple errands on the bike when we suddenly lost power on the way home. At first I thought maybe a bad plug, coil, or Hall Sensor. No such luck. I did a compression test and got 60 psi on the left side and 86 on the right. Minimum should be in the neighborhood of 110 psi. 

Unlike a lot of stuff, the Ural is designed to be repaired by the owner. Removing the left jug is seven nuts(valve cover, exhaust pipe, cyl. head) and a yank. The right side is a bit more complicated. Need to remove the two upper bolts from the sidecar struts, then lean the bike to the left to pull the head. I think I spent more time looking for the tools I'd just set down than taking this apart.

Diagnoses are two burned valves and effed up valve guides. Piston clearance and cylinder taper are within spec, so that's a few bucks saved. New valves, guides, seals, and rings are on order. Hopefully I will be back up and running in time for some fall weather riding. At least I have my old 45 year old Honda to fall back on.

[cheesy]

This turned out to be a tad more expensive and time consuming than I expected. The only way to get replacement valve guides for a 2007 is to machine them myself. I could, but I don't have access to a lathe anymore. So, a grand later, I have a pair of late Gen 3 heads with bigger valves, umbrella seals, and redesigned valve springs.

 

However, we ain't up and running yet. While putting the final touches on the right cylinder, we had an incident. The rear ball stud at the sidecar snapped off of the bike frame.

One minute, I'm leaning over the tilted bike, installing the final exhaust stud. The next minute, I'm holding up 450lbs of bike with my hip, trying to fish my phone out of my pocket to call my wife to give me a hand.

 

There are no replacement ball studs from IMZ as it's a weldment on the frame. Choices are a replacement frame or fix it yourself. I did locate a 2010 frame* in Ohio for a not unreasonable fee, but I decided to dust off my welding skills and try to fix it. Not the prettiest job in the world, but it's back together.

 

While the bike and the sidecar are taking separate vacations, I'll hang the carbs and exhaust. The tank is also off, so I'll replace the throttle cables.

 

* I'm considering getting that other frame, just in case.

[Plymouthy Adams]

if having one is good, we all know that two would be better.  If you plan to keep this pup, frame cost is right, and you have room to store it protected...go for it now while available.  

[cheesy]

The ball stud is fixed. The pic is pre paint, so it looks kind of ugly.

 

The rig, less a drive shaft boot that was supposed to be here 3 days ago, is back together. As a bonus, there are no left over parts. It was late, and raining, when I wrapped things up last night, so that initial start up will be sometime after breakfast and Buster dogs' morning walk. If things work out, fingers crossed, I'll be spending the rest of the morning putting tools away.

[cheesy]

Bump.

With my recovery from my '68 going on 20' broken ankle actually going well, I was able to get out yesterday and put on some miles.

This is at the local BP station where the DuKane ABATE chapter held their Motorcycle Awareness Day shindig. It's pretty much a bunch of old bikers holding up signs telling drivers to put their phones down...and cops writing tickets for the same.

[cheesy]

If I keep riding like I am, I may be buying a second tire this year. Outside of the local American Legion Hall for the annual Memorial Day Boy Scout Pancake Breakfast.

One of these days, I'm going to track down the owner of that cool old CJ.

[cheesy]

Now for something completely different... a 1973 Herters Trail Mini.

This belonged to our SIL's Dad. Jake, the SIL dug it out of his grandfather's 'Big Shed' and asked if I could fix it up for his boys. I'm at that stage in life where every day is a Saturday, so I took it on. The original 5hp Tecumseh is long gone. The "I don't know what it is" snowblower engine Jake's Dad supplied won't work with the torque converter because of the wrong shaft size. I have a low hour 5.5hp Briggs Intek OHV engine that got volunteered.

It's completely apart, awaiting new jackshaft shafts and wheel bearings that will be here late in the week. The was going to be a 'just get it running' project but I showed my other half a pic of a restored Trail Mini and now it's kind of a restoration-lite project. Sigh.

 

So who remembers Herters besides me?

 

 

[Veemoney]

Herters, never seen one till now but like that it has front and rear suspension. Some of my early riding did not have that.

[cheesy]

Yeeaahh, I need to really check out that front fork. I was talking with Jake's Dad yesterday about what I was going to be doing to the bike. He told me that he was horsing around on it in the early seventies and popped a wheelie. The fork legs came out and he slammed his manhood onto the triple tree. (I was secretly snickering after he told me)

 

No camps for the grandsons and no classes for me to teach next week, so I'll look into it.

[cheesy]

The Russian Mini-Tractor is doing what it was designed to do. Hauling.

Friend Chris's fully restored 1976 Sportster in front.

 

Last night was a dry run to a local bike night to see if I could haul all our ABATE chapter stuff. Chris wasn't sure but I had no qualms about it.

The pile set up at Wildfire HD in Villa Park, IL.

[cheesy]

Not a great day at Chez Fromage yesterday.

I was rearranging seasonal stuff in the garage when I backed the mower into the Honda CX500, which started a cascade of bicycles, mo-peds, almost motorcycles, and other bits of garage type junk. I was mostly concerned about the almost a motorcycle falling against the DeSoto, Luckily, the throttle grip of the bike and the front bumper shook hands and that was all. Once the four letter words subsided, I enlisted my other half, a 3 ton floor jack, and a 6' piece of pipe to get the Honda back upright and the mess cleaned up.

 

This isn't the first time the Honda has been on its side in the garage this year. Our grandson knocked it down with his adventure on an ATV with a stuck throttle over the summer.

[Veemoney]

2 hours ago, cheesy said:

which started a cascade of bicycles, mo-peds, almost motorcycles, and other bits of garage type junk.

I hate when that happens.

 

I started my fall/winter rearrangement as well. Sold some items on FB Marketplace and was doing good then bought some other items. I used to put the 2-wheeled items side by side like you have in the picture. Then tried end to end along the walls. Finally purchased some pallet racketing that I modified for my space to allow stacking those items higher. I also put in a full floor at the ceiling of the shop for additional storage above with big access doors. Bottom line is every time I made some space I filled it. It's in my blood.