Facing my fears: 89a

Yesterday was a perfect afternoon for a ride. After I got off work, I headed out for a ride with no real destination in mind.

First, I drove out to the county fairground to toodle around in the parking lots. From there, I could either ride to Lake Mary, or down the 89A towards Sedona.

The 89 scares me. It's one lane each way, fairly narrow, 55mph ride to the switchbacks, which drop you about 1000 vertical feet in 2 miles. Mercifully, speed limit in the turns is 25mph.

I knew that I was going to have to ride this way eventually. It is some of the best landscape you can get your hands on in Northern Arizona and there is no way I will pass that up on a motorcycle. I figured I might as well face my fears and ride it. So I did. 

Surprisingly, I didn't have a hard time of it. I took it really easy and let the bike do the work. Used the pull-outs on the way down to let impatient 4-wheeled vehicles pass me. I've been that person; I understand that following someone going slow sucks. Overall it was a beautiful ride. I wish I had my helmet had a visor because I spent some time with the sun in my eyes but I guess I'm SOL on that one for now.

While I was out, I also got my first motorcycle wave! Actually, my first three. It was great. I've been watching bikers wave at each other for years. Now I finally get to participate! 

(I know, I'm a n00b.)

In total, the ride was about 40 miles.

Also learned that the bike has a 1.7 gallon tank with another .8 in reserve. Should be 2.5 gallons total. With the reserve I should be able to do at least 140 miles. Not too bad!

Planned repairs/modifications for the bike include:
adding a digital speedometer OR a phone charger (by phone has a great speedometer, but it kills my battery)
front and rear brakes
new clutch and front brake handles

CM400 Speedometer repair(?)

UPDATE 8/6/2013 : I've put about 1,500 miles on the bike since this repair. Everything is working well. It does tend to get a little moisture in it when it sits in the rain, but a couple days in the dry and everything is good to go. My tach has started doing the same needle wobble that this speedo was doing a while back. I'll probably do this same repair to the tach over the winter.

 Tools required: Wrench to get the speedo off the bike. Pull on the wires and the bulbs will come out. Needlenose pliers help you get some leverage.

Once disconnected, all you need is a pair of pliers, a screwdriver, and something to do some prying with. I used hardened steel picks. A dremel tool will also be helpful to cut the crimp band that holds everything together. NOTE: This band is not designed to come off. If you break it, you will need a new one when you reassemble. Alternatively, if you don't care about how it looks, you can use some adhesive and re-crimp to the best of your ability.

This is the crimped band. I used a hacksaw (no idea where my dremel went) for the large section that I could get to, then pried and pulled with the pick and pliers to break the hold. After that, the whole thing comes apart pretty easily.

Adhesive was used to hold the rubber seals on this sucker. Mine had a small compliment of rust in addition to that. I was able to pry it apart fairly carefully without destroying the rubber. When reassembling, put small dots of adhesive back in these areas.

Here are all the pieces of the major assembly once they came apart. Not bad at all.

Once you've got it separated, you can get to and lube a bunch of the pieces, but NOT the most important one.

This little area in red is what is responsible for the whirring/whining noise that comes from the speedometer. It was once well lubricated internally with some form of grease. Over the last 30+ years, that lubrication has dried up and disappeared.

If you can get to the inside of this thing, you can lubricate it.

TEST it once you think you've got it. You can put the speedo back on the bike with the housing/glass missing. It will work just fine. Only once you've tested it should you spend the time to put the whole assembly back together.

Not having the ability to reassemble the metal crimp that I murdered, I opted for a very tight wrap of electrical tape to hold the housing on. Seems solid for now. (1500 miles later, still going strong).

Replacement: Keys

You know how when you buy something that needs a key, you generally get at least two keys? 

Well, this motorcycle only came with one. I'm fairly sure it was the original that came with the bike off the line in 1981. It is absolutely beat up. It sill works, but if I were to lose it, I'd be Shit Out of Luck.

I've seen the people at Home Depot/Walmart make automotive keys before. They can even do the fancy ones with computer chips and such. I figured a simple key from 1981 would be a piece of cake.

Turns out that's not the case. I had to contact several locksmiths in town before I found someone who could give me same-day service on a key like this. 

A bit about locksmiths: They are all mobile now. Operating out of vans, their primary service is to unlock cars when people manage to lock their keys in their car. Because they live work out of a van, they also seem to have a bit of a rockstar attitude. At least, that's what I'm going to attribute the non-committal "Yeah, I should have a tech in that area early this afternoon... [four hours later]... I should have someone downtown at 6pm."

Anyway. I did eventually meet a real live locksmith, who it turns out is a righteous badass. The CM400 is not listed in the motorcycle key guide, so he spent 20 minutes searching for the right key template and pattern. Once he found that, he jumped in his van and spun me up a key in about 60 seconds.

I ended up getting 3 keys made. I figure it can't hurt and they only ran me about $1 each. These guys are charging $49 to unlock cars, but spare keys are nothing, despite the effort it took to locate the information necessary to make the key. I love that.

Maintenance: Front Brake & Chain

Spent a little bit of time working on basic maintenance and familiarizing myself with the honda this morning after my ride.

My buddy Case helped me do a brake fluid flush. The rear brake is a drum brake, operated mechanically with a cable. The front brake is disc and operates on hydraulics. The brake fluid in the system was really nasty. Old, yellow, really gunked up. We flushed it out with about 3 reservoirs worth of new brake fluid, which is clear.

Gunked up fluid coming out of the brake system on the front wheel, (mostly) into a bucket.

Also did a ten minute chain clean/lube. Having the bike on the center stand was very good for this.
Learned how to remove the seat, found the helmet lock, checked the air filter (brand new).

Front brakes are improved, but nowhere near as good as I think they ought to be. Probably going to do a brake pad/caliper check this week. May also look into tightening the chain, which has about one inch of vertical play right now.

Case has been riding for nearly ten years and tells me the bike is in great shape; he is impressed. Love that!

First Ride Downtown: Coffee

Whew! I was up bright and early this morning. After a quick 7 mile bike ride, I got all dressed up and left the house around 7am. It's Sunday, so the streets were empty. Precisely my goal.

Yesterday evening when I was done with the bike, I turned the fuel supply off. I've been told it's good to turn it off when you aren't riding it. Fine.
This morning, I pulled the choke and started the bike to let it warm up while I had some breakfast. Naturally, I forgot to turn the fuel back on, so it went for a couple minutes and died. Took me a second to realize why. Stupid rookie mistake. I'll probably just leave the fuel on in the future.

Eventually, I did get the bike warmed up...

Unfortunately, it was freakin' 16 degrees! I had to swap into my snowboarding gloves because my hands got cold fast in the regular riding gloves. Did a quick up and down the neighborhood to get into my groove before I set off.

Got on Route 66 and opened up the throttle. Damn it felt good! Other than the fogging issue in my helmet, I was happy as a clam. Roads all to myself, bike behaving well, beautiful sunrise.

Rode downtown with no problems. Wandered around a bit, getting used to stoplights and stop signs and the pressure of having a car behind me once in a while. (I only stalled it once!) Pulled over at Rendezvous for a coffee and to warm up for a while.

I basically sat there and stared at the bike the whole time. I might be a little obsessed.
I also figured out that the vents on my helmet were closed - aiding in the fogging issue rather than de-fogging. Got those opened up and my ride home was much better in terms of fog. Of course, it was also about 6 degrees warmer, so I'm sure that helped as well.

The front brake is still stiff, so I snagged a bottle of brake fluid at O'Reilly and I will attempt a brake fluid flush this morning to see if that helps. I will eventually also need a new front brake lever. Apparently this bike has been set down at least once, and the far right end of the lever was sheared off. It still rides just fine, but it doesn't look great.

Will probably end up washing/waxing the tank soon as well.

Right now I've still got an intermittent weird whirring noise at speed as well as a louder whine whenever I have the steering at full lock, which only happens when I'm parking. Odd. Will look into these noises.

Shot a few pictures on my Nikon P7000.

That's all for now!

Concern: brakes and whirrr

Spent about an hour and a half total today on the new bike. Getting used to it, seeing what works and what might need some TLC.

Right now I'm concentrated on the front brakes (stiff) and a weird whirring noise at speed, unrelated to braking. Pretty much anything above 1st gear. The Internet tells me it might just be a cable that wants some lube. Specifically, the speedo cable. I'm thinking I'll probably lube up all the cables I can get my hands on just to be safe.

Hopefully I can spend some time looking into it this weekend. Those front brakes definitely need something...

Also: Motorcycle insurance achieved for $15/month! Liability/injury only. On a bike worth only $1k, I'm not too worried about comprehensive coverage.

More to come!

Concern: Safety

I would be lying if I said that the danger of motorcycles isn't part of why I am attracted to them. I'm a thrill-seeker and I have no aversion to high risk activities. This little 400 doesn't have the power of the big sportbikes, so I'm a little less likely to kill myself by going too fast.

That being said, I'm still open to the air and to the elements and to the rest of the vehicles on the road, which are far more likely to cause an accident than my own stupidity alone.

In my first post, I showed the open-face, half-helmet that I bought on the Internet. It's going to be cool (style and temperature) and I'm all about that. BUT, I've done my research on the statistics for motorcycle crashes and I figured I would grab a "real" helmet as well.

Enter the HJC CL-MAX II.

It's a modular full face helmet. It has a visor (that I can change) and it will deal much better with inclement weather and the cold, both of which I am likely to encounter in Flagstaff and the surrounding areas.

I've seen nothing but positive reviews about it. While the older style modular helmets sometimes didn't have very good safety as compared to a solid helmet, much of my research recently indicates that these kinds of helmets are now somewhere between half-helmets and full-face in terms of safety, some have definitely been Snell certified. The model I have now has not been certified, but HJC does have a fair number of helmets that are Snell certified, so I know that the company at least understands what goes into making a good helmet.

Starting today, I'm out in my neighborhood learning to ride! Woohoo!

Obtaining the bike

Well, today was the fateful day.

I purchased my first motorcycle. A blue 1981 Honda CM400T.

With the help of my buddy Preston and his FJ, we rented a small motorcycle trailer in Flagstaff, towed it down to Cottonwood and picked up the bike. Towed it back to Flagstaff, put it in the garage, and now I am waiting for my helmet to come in the mail so I can actually go learn how to ride it. I also purchased a set of $30 riding gloves that come very well recommended by the guys who were hanging around the shop.

It was checked out and given a full green-light by the mechanics at D&K Service Cycle. New front tire, topped off the oil, and it's good to go. I talked to the individual guys who worked on it (instead of trusting the boss's word) and they all seemed glad it was going to a new home and ensured me that all it needs is to be ridden and enjoyed.

I had the opportunity to just tool around the parking lot a bit before we loaded the bike onto the trailer in Cottonwood. I stalled it 3 consecutive times before managing to actually move.

Also: I learned that it wants the kickstand up before starting. At least, I think I learned that. Will have to confirm tomorrow morning when my helmet arrives.

All the lights, gauges and definitely the engine seem to work great. All in all, everything seems fantastic.

I still need to:

• Get registration/etc all done with the title, which I have. Gotta wait until Monday to do that at the MVD.
• Get insurance set up. It's an old, small bike so I can't imagine insurance will be expensive.
• Make sure the helmet and stuff all fits
• RIDE!

The adventure begins!

I've been looking for a good beginner motorcycle for the last year or so. I have a great love for the styling of the old 1980s bikes, so i've been searching for an early/mid '80s bike in favor of a brand new sportbike or something that I am sure to kill myself on.

A month or so ago, I found this 1981 Honda CM400 on craigslist. The list price was $1200 and I thought "maybe... but not yet."

Just last week, the price dropped to $999. Apparently nobody wants this beautiful old bike, so I'm gonna take it.

Contacted the seller and learned that it runs great, seller is a mechanic, and other than the need for a new front tire, it's ready to ride. I'm sold on it.

I have arranged to pick it up this weekend down in Cottonwood, about an hour drive from Flagstaff. They will have the new front tire ($143) on it and it will be mine for $950 cash.

Yesterday morning I spent an hour in the MVD (because Arizona can't figure out how to spell DMV) and took the test for my motorcycle permit. Cost me $7. It was a written test, 25 questions. I missed one, which comes out to a pass at 95%. I have three months to get some experience on my own motorcycle before I can take the practical exam that will earn me my real motorcycle endorsement.

In preparation, I've ordered a helmet, old school goggles, that kind of thing so I can get started on the bike. I'm sure I will get a full face helmet before too long - but I'd like to have the ability to rock the old school 80s style that belongs with the bike.

In that spirit:

We will see how that comes together. I should have everything on Saturday, though latest it could be Monday. 

This blog will serve as my adventure log as I learn how to ride a motorcycle, get into the repairs this thing will undoubtedly need, and (of course) provide plenty of photographs and perhaps some video of the everyday rides, day-trips and long road trips (I hope!). Hopefully I can preserve and log some of what it is like to get into 2 wheeled transportation and provide a glimpse to others looking into the old 80s bikes... since I haven't been able to locate anything of the sort online so far.