Found it! And I really need to get organized!

[elizilla]

I hunted all through the stuff I took to Marietta last weekend, and didn't find my phone charger. Could I have left it in the hotel? No, because I never charged my phone while I was gone. But I had unplugged it from its usual spot; it wasn't there. Did I set it down somewhere while packing and simply fail to take it with me? Hunted around some more. This morning I finally found it under a pile of manuals and sweaters, on the floor next to my desk. My phone is charged and people can call me again.

Need to get more organized. Clean my desk. Also, clean garage - things are heaped out there again. Good thing I'm staying home this weekend. Need to pull all the Sabre parts out of their corners, and box them up to go away with the Sabre when redrunn sells it. And do oil changes on the Ural and the Super10. Ideally I will also do a valve check and carb synch on the Ural, and put the new rear tire and the aftermarket tire pressure monitoring system onto the Super10.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I have *got* to hurry up 'n' get the motor on Fiona broken in, so I can ride down for Oddball European Motorcycle Days in your driveway...

[elizilla]

Or I could meet you somewhere closer, for Oddball European Motorcycle Days in, say, Stockbridge.

[greyhat.livejournal.com]

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/sos/Supplemental_Info_three_wheel_vehicles_325990_7.pdf

Do you need a new permit for your sidecar motorcycle?

[elizilla]

If so, that is news to me! But that certain seems to be what your link says!

I went to the secretary of state and licensed it and they didn't say anything, and I've talked to several local sidecarists including one who teaches MSF and they didn't say anything either. I guess I should go back over there and specifically ask.

[elizilla]

I just searched all over the SoS website and that is the only mention I could find of a three wheel endorsement. I sent them a question via their contact form. I'll let you know what they say, assuming they reply. And if they don't reply I'll go over there next week and ask in person.

[elizilla]

The SoS replied to my question, and they say the cycle endorsement covers both two and three wheeled machines.

[(Anonymous)]

As you say, the standard Michigan CY endorsement covers both hacks and trikes. The first sentence in the link Greyhat sent is aimed at people who think that because a trike or hack have more wheels than a "regular" motorcycle, they are covered by the regular Operator's License, and don't need a Cycle Endorsement. They would, of course, be incorrect.

[pi3832.livejournal.com]

I will also do a valve check and carb synch on the Ural

See how you are? Saving all the fun stuff for yourself.

Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if that takes quite a bit of time and energy, since you haven't done it before. But once you learn what Ivan would do, it shouldn't be too bad.

[elizilla]

The valve check is done. The oil change actually turned out to be more difficult, though neither was that hard. The carb synch is still to come.

I changed the oil with the engine cold, because the exhaust pipe is so close to the filter I didn't want to burn myself. This appears to be how the guy does it in the youtube videos too, so I'm not going to worry about it.

I'm going to go ride the bike around, make sure nothing is leaking, then come back and do carb synch once it is warmed up.

[pi3832.livejournal.com]

I changed the oil with the engine cold

I do that a lot of the time, anymore. AFAICT, the only difference is that you need to let the thing sit and drain for a lot longer to get all of the old oil out. As I understand it, these days you don't remove the old oil so much to carry away contaminates as you do just to replace it because it's "worn out". So, you don't really need to run the engine and get all the particulates or whatever into suspension before you drain the oil. I suspect that the directions to warm the engine first are just left-overs from forty years ago.

Though, I suspect that what Ivan would do is just build a little fire, wait until he had some nice hot coals going, and then park the bike over it for a little while to heat the oil enough to drain it.

[elizilla]

Well, this is a bike from 40 years ago so it would probably be best to warm it up, for all the same reasons as back then. But it also gets its oil changed a lot more often, so I'm not going to sweat it.

There's a replacement exhaust header piece available aftermarket, that's not too expensive, and doesn't have the crossover. It's also black instead of chrome. Maybe I'll buy it, someday, and make my oil changes easier.

I haven't synched the carbs yet. It's now 90 degrees out there, and this is the time of day when sun shines into the garage and makes it even hotter. Maybe once the sun goes down I will do it.