Point-Seven-five wrote:Funny story(maybe).

Back in July of, I think, 1980 I was in Portland, Oregon installing some machinery in a factory there.  At the end of the day we went to a nearby watering hole for Happy Hour and proceeded to empty a number of bottles.  About 10 o'clock we were getting ready to leave and mentioned to the server how quiet the place was all evening.  She replied that it was really pretty busy, everyone but us, who were from out of town, was out drinking in the parking lot and watching St. Helen's erupt.  By the time we got outside, it was just some smoky red glow through the trees.

I still have the next day's newspaper with a big photo on the front page.

That was a lot of bottles you consumed. It happened end of May, 1980.


Mates of mine in the bike business say that for two or three years after the explosion and subsequent ash settling they were replacing air filters and combi switches on the handlebars of bike in droves. The grit from the eruption got into every crack and crook it could for miles and miles around and wore them out.

I just had to dig out that old issue of the Oregonian from July 24, 1980.  Front page has a huge photo of the mountain with a plume of smoke.  First line of the article "After 3 eruptions on Tuesday(July 22) things began to calm down on Wednesday". 

I guess I got it wrong on when I got the paper.  I have a hard time remembering details of what I had for breakfast.  (Did I ever tell you about the time I made breakfast twice in one morning?)

It continued erupting for months after the initial shocking blast. No surprise it was still smoking and firey in late July. 

A coupla years back I walked into the park as far as I could after riding to the east side of the dome to the parking lot there. There was a 900' bubble forming inside the caldera that smokes to this day. She is not done yet.

Yeah, the photo in the paper looked pretty spectacular.

You can hike up the back side of it, walk along the top rim and look down into the crater of MSH. BTDT.  The last hundred yards or so is a PITA though. It's fairly steep thick ash so it's one step forward, two steps back on that last part of the hike.

From the archives:

From Windy Ridge, note the 'bump' in the centre of the caldera which is visible in Duck's photo but from the south side. 


That K1200R was a fine machine and the road in to WR though bumpy is a sweet motorbike road.


On a busy weekend the National Park rangers give on the hour talks on the volcano. This view is from a short walk up the lava silt to a ridge which gives an expansive view of Spirit Lake, or what is left of it as it now lies 800' below the new lake.


Spirit Lake in panorama, looking west.


Mt Adams from half way to Windy Ridge, looking east.


The first blast completely denuded the hillsides to the north for ten or fifteen miles. The valleys below mainly survived the extreme heat, but creeks and rivers silted up as the lava flow moved out and away from ground zero.


Some of the logs, former tall timbers, are still visible in the lake after forty years, or left to dry rot on the barren ground, but new trees are slowly returning, some planted, some eking out a living in the few patches of still-arable soil.


It's a magical, eerie place. I try to ride there a coupla times a year as it's about a two and a half to three hour ride from my home.


A bit of history.

Windy Ridge is one of the better rides in western WA.  The only problem is how absolutely shitty the pavement is on FS-25 coming south out of Randle.  Last time I was there in 2017 it blew a fork seal on one of my K1100LTs and even with fork boots it spewed fork oil all over the right side of the bike. Arghhhh!

Agreed, the road surface is full of potholes and unseen dips that wreak havoc on forks. This is why I like BMW's Duolever so much. It eats the bumps while maintaining reasonable steering control. Your 16 has them. Try it again soon and see.

A quick Easter Sunday arvo burble in the neighbourhood revealed this sunny view of town, over Chambers Bay and across to the Olympic Range in the distance, from the local town of Steilacoom, pronounced roughly as still-a-cum, after a local tribe.

I park it right next to Big Block, so it sort of qualifies. Today was a brilliant, mid-60s day, sunshine all around, nary a cloud to be seen unless I squinted. Got a quick fifty miles in on the Mystic. I don't ride it much. It's plenty of bike, and I spent many, many years on Airheads, criss-crossing the States, Canada, Mexico and central America, up and down and all round the East coast and right up the guts of Australia on them. This one has great, four piston Brembo brakes, Paralever, a tall final drive, low-compression 980cc engine with 32mm Bings, but it's not exciting. It doesn't make my pulse race. It just plods along, smoothly, sedately, softly, quietly, and that's alright sometimes.

Steilacoom, Washington, down by the tracks, the island ferry and Chambers Bay.

West Tacoma, south Puget Sound.

Commencement Bay, Old Town Tacoma, Washington. It's good to slow down once in a while.

The BB has been using, quite successfully, twin 305mm x 4.5mm discs from an F800GS with 4 piston Brembos (32/34mm) from a K1100RS with a 20mm K1100RS master cylinder. Time for an upgrade. 

I have a straight set of 320mm x 5mm discs from my long-gone R1150RT and some 4 piston (32/36mm) callipers from a new series K1200GT/1300GT which use a 16mm master cylinder.

The sturdy aluminium brackets which will splay the callipers away from the Marzocchi forks are being fabbed today. These brackets will attach where the original Brembo cals went, but with a 15mm increase in disc diametre they'll swing the callipers out and away just enough to cover the brake swept area and align the pads in centre over the discs.


These ol' red boys and their accompanying 305mm discs will be stored for another project. They were always a pain to slide off the discs and away from the rim when attempting a wheel removal. The new callipers are a slimmer, and much lighter, design even with the larger diametre 320mm discs.


I might even be able to join the stoppie boyz down the local bikie hangout. Nah.

Good use of your "stay home" time!

If I'm not tending my vegie gardens, making dinner for my back to uni for her master's at a 'mature' age partner, or doing the dishes afterwards, I'm in the garage. 

My old gramps used to call it 'pottering'. I s'pose I can call it that too. I'm now nearly his age when he said it.

Two Wheels Better wrote: back to uni for her master's at a 'mature' age partner

Been there done that. It really, really focuses your mind when you know this is your last chance. Wish her well from me, please.

Dai wrote:

Two Wheels Better wrote: back to uni for her master's at a 'mature' age partner

Been there done that. It really, really focuses your mind when you know this is your last chance. Wish her well from me, please.

Bonus that she also works for the uni, so it is income-added for tax purposes rather than an additional and hefty expense, and she has permission to study whilst on the job. She got all of her degrees later in life after the kids, etc. It amazes me how she can tuck into it for hours and hours on end quietly in the home office. I'd go mad after an hour, eyes wandering off for something more about what I like rather than what someone tells me I have to do. I am sometimes a player in the Short Attention Span Theatre. Next!

While waiting for my machinist mate to cobble the aluminium calliper brackets together for the larger discs and later cals, I need the BB to use as a runabout round town. I have a coupla sets of three spoke K11 wheels, these two with near-new Battlax BT016 rubber on them.
Damn, would I ever be seen on the road with no front mudguard? Oh, the shame.


That's better.

As I prepare the BB for the 320mm and later calliper front brake upgrade and am rolling the front wheel with tyre, discs and bearings round the shop it got me thinking. What a portly piece of kit it is. It's a K1200LT front wheel that I've been using since the build - got it cheap and had it straightened. Added up it is 16 lbs (7.25 kg) for the bare wheel with bearings, 2.9 lbs (1.3 kg) for each 320mm disc, a pound for the miscellaneous screws and spacers, and whatever a front tyre weighs - say just over 9 lbs for the Pirelli on there. All up that's in the neighbourhood of 32 lbs (14.5 kg).

I have a spare 3.5 x 17 wheel on the tyre & wheel rack from my long-gone 2004 R1150RT. It needs the longer spacer to replace the speedo drive gear on the left hand side, and a 60x30x7mm seal the fill the area around the spacer and axle - seals on order from McGuire's and correct spacer from a K1200RS in stock. This wheel weighs just 12.9 lbs, a set of good, used Braking-brand wave discs I had for my K1200R weigh 1.3 lbs each, plus misc attachment hardware. With the same 9.3 lb Pirelli tyre we are just at 25.5 lbs (11.5 kg) all up, a significant unsprung weight savings of 6.5 lbs or 2.95 kilograms. Bloody hell. That'll make the Marzocchis work more efficiently.

The wheel still has a thin layer of Alcan Highway mud randomly caked on it from my June 2016 trip to Yukon Territory, Fairbanks and Anchorage. It's like a preservative. I'll have to get to work chipping it off. Wonder how much that will save me in added weight?
 

Hot, soapy water and an old kitchen scrubby out under today's sun shininess and the wheel looks the biz - all evidence of Alaska removed. The sparkling R1150RT wheel now has Braking wavy gravy discs on it, Renthal sintered pads (made by Dunlopad) are fitted, and they're ready to be attached to the Marzocchi forks. Tomorrow and the next day we measure, drill, countersink, cut and machine the aluminium mounts for the K1300GT callipers to fit. I could almost chuck the wheel around the workshop like a frisbee, such was the weight savings.

It's fast approaching 29C (84.2F) here today, which will be a record for this day in Lakewood, Washington! In honour of this I had some errands to run and so took Big Block out for a downtown spin and to try out the temporary Battlax BT016 tyres over K11 three spoke wheels.
Fine indeed, but I prefer the look & feel of the K12/R1150 five spokers.

Anyhow, I had to stop at the local Beemer dealer to pick up some spares I'd ordered and as I rolled off the exit and downshifted....the bike stumbled. A few good revs and it settled in for the coupla hundred metres to the shop. I'd been on a few longer rides lately, I've not got a low fuel warning light that works, and I just plain sort of forgot.

Business done at the dealer and I took off down the road toward the nearest station, about 1.5 miles away. Stumbles continued her clown show but I kept her going, doing 55mph in a 35mph zone. 100 yards from the Union 76 station she stopped, but as I was travelling along at a good clip, no constabulary apparently hiding in the suburban bushes, I rolled right up to the premium pump! The stated 22 litre (5.8 US gallon) tank took all of 6 gallons. It was the best case scenario.

Incidentally, I paid $2.39 per gallon for 92 AKI premium.

Home now, in shorts and sandals, sunshine all round, preparing to rip the scabs off a coupla cold little vicious ones and sip the frothy nectar in celebration of Mum's Day. 

Cheers Mum, all the way over in OZ at 83 years of age doing the pandemic alone.

Moving slowly, but making progress, as my needs are secondary to the machinist's ongoing projects. He urges me to watch, assist and allows me to ask stoopid questions. Yesterday we had time to spin a new axle spacer collar for the R1150R/RT front wheel for the Marzocchi forks. Early next week it's the brackets for the callipers.

Temporary Marzocchi fork & five spoke wheel setup strapped to a work table.


Making certain the wheel is spaced perfectly centred between the fork legs. Note how close the brake disc screws come to the inside of the fork leg?! The stock domed screws have to machined down or replaced with these later model (R12/K13, etc) flat T30 Torx screws
This gap between the wheel bearing's inner race and fork leg needs to be measured and appropriately filled for proper bearing preload.

A stock K1200RS axle spacer is too short for the R1150RT wheel, so a spacer 3.5mm longer (at 33.5mm) is made up. 

Turning the alu in a four jaw to make a section of it round.

Drilling the centre hole.

From a rectangular block of cast-off aluminium comes a 33.5 x 30.2 x 20mm spacer. This
is after the soon-to-be-finished spacer has been sawn off this chunk.

The new spacer collar fitted to wheel - new size 60x30x10mm seal temporarily removed for access.

Dang thats a fat looking rim. Nice work Dazza.

Damn but I so miss my old lathe!

88 wrote:Dang that's a fat looking rim. Nice work Dazza.

Cheers, 88. It's only a 3.5x17 from an R1150 Oilhead, same dimensions as a three spoker from a K1100RS, but I reckon the camera's lens distorts the image a smidgen. The wheel I replaced came from the big beasty K1200LT, and was the same size, just a beer belly bigger in heft.

Time. Some have heaps of it. Others less so. Still others require plying with alcohol in order to be able to use their machine shop tools. Kentucky Bourbon & Oranjeboom lager do wonders when placed strategically next to a favourite office chair.

Result, a rough template in blue.


Template with 8 & 10mm tapered head screws which will sit flush on the final aluminium plate, which is 10mm thick as opposed to the template's approximate 5mm thickness, so a much heavier gauge. The final plate will also sit closer to the line of the fork leg than this template.


Collars sit behind the plate with size-appropriate 8 or 10mm holes. Correct spacing to centre the callipers was done by milling the head off two 8mm screw and "pointing" the ends sharp so they could be finger tightened or loosened into the threaded bosses of each calliper so they'd reach outwards to the alu plate, then pressing tightly against the plate, indicating where the 8mm holes needed to be drilled. Voila!


The 10mm screws with Nylocs and stainless steel washers hold the aluminium plate to the Marzocchi forks. The 8mm screws hold the calliper to the plate by threading into the calliper bosses. Twist under braking will be negligible due to the rigidity of the 10mm plate and its mount points. The final, thicker aluminium plate will be painted black with the stainless steel Allen head screws sitting flush with the outer surface for a clean look as well as being firmly located in their 82 degree taper for added strength.

One side completed. Alu plate is 9.5mm or 3/8" thick.



The metal shaving playground.

Job Done. There you have it, K1300/R1200RT/etc 32/36mm four piston callipers over Braking-brand 320mm wave discs and fabbed and fabulous aluminium brackets on an R1150RT wheel which weighs all up 6.5 lbs less than the previous K12LT set-up for less unsprung weight and - let's hope - excellent stopping ability. A K1100RS 20mm master cylinder is used as with the previous earlier four piston 32/34mm Brembos over 305mm discs.

The weather shifted quickly this arvo and rain came in so the test ride is left til later on. But the brake lever is firm, the wheel spins freely, pads are centred nicely, collars for both axle and the callipers fit perfectly. Dunno yet if I'll paint the alu brackets black or swap the Marzocchi forks out for some polished silver Marzokes I've got from a '96 K1100RS, and leave them the natural alu finish.

I'm so happy with the outcome I gave the V-Rod style headlight a new hat!

VERY cool !

The rain cleared, if only for a mo', so I hopped onto her and went for an approximately 15 mile rip round the neighbourhood and beyond. So, I was going for great brakes. That was the plan, but what I got was far lighter steering and smoother suspension action. The K12LT wheel (along with heavier callipers and discs) felt like it was bogging the front end down somehow, as though the suspension action was saggy and heavy, the 'bars requiring more of a smooth shove rather than a suggestive and subtle counter-steering pressure - heavy steering that seemed to be like a steering damper turned too stiffly and far too heavy a weight fork oil. I never felt absolutely secure in tight corners, but pretty good in wide sweepers. Now the bike goes exactly where it's pointed, the Marzokes eating the bumps and reacting more smoothly.

Then there's the brakes. Well, they're overkill for certain, and I love it! It is just what I sought, the lever progressive and firm, stopping arriving at about the same lever pressure, but with a more urgent RIGHT NOW feel. I'm glad for the sticky Pirelli Corsa radial rubber. 

I will need to practice in a large car park so I come to trust the new feel. It's important to know when lock-up arrives. There's a coupla grey days forecast this next week, but if it clears for any length of time I'm going riding. Something's stopping me now.

At the end of the day, what I've done amounts to simply 'modernising' the brakes to what is current and in many cases bog standard on recent brands and model motorbikes, brake diametre and piston/master cylinder capacity-wise. The difference is in how it compares to what BMW were doing at the time the K75/K100/K1100 were being built, and more specifically, to how much lighter BB is as compared to a stock bike. 

What shall I do to it next besides go for a ride?

A mostly pleasant day, a bit of cloud cover and some early misty rain, followed by large, afternoon sun breaks and a very slight breeze, top of about 21C. So what's a birfday boy to do? Someone's made me carrot cake cupcakes with real cream cheese icing.

A quick re-bleed of the right hand side calliper before I rolled, the lever now feeling quite a bit firmer to the pull, and the brakes performed como Dios manda - as intended.

Well I'm back in black...

Red is dead...

Anyone need a set of Brembo K11(f) & K75/100/1100/1200(r) callipers to be seen in? All function as intended. Nope, I wasn't the one who painted them. Speed bleeders not included.

Belated feliz cumplianos, TWB!

brickrider2 wrote:Belated feliz cumplianos, TWB!

  60 rotations round the sun. Muchas gracias para deseo de cumpleanos.

I've only once used ethanol premium fuel in Big Block. All tanks she's sipped on have been clear gasoline from a supplier in Tacoma called Ball's. Didn't I get low the other day - nearly got stuck dead out of petrol - but filled it up with a name brand at a local 76 station, 92 AKI premium, with 10% ethanol, the standard mix widely available in the States.

The bike had been complaining a bit lately. It sometimes exhibited a stumble under steady state rpm, or when rollng on to give her some stick. I thought to check the valve clearances and have a squiz at the sparkies while there. Well, the Euro Moto Electric lead set I fit to her when building, five years ago now, dropped one of the NGK-brand end caps off onto the garage floor. Three of them were loose enough to be screwed back onto the leads after snipping a bit of rubber off, about 1/4", one was firm and tight. These have not been touched since new. The valves were all smack in the middle of spec, but get a look at the sparkies! 

All whacked back together she runs a dream, but the ethanol fuel must have had some far out additives in it. I whizzed some Berryman's fuel system cleaner (1 oz per gallon) into the tank and went about 50 miles just now. It idles better and revs clean once again, mainly due to the spark plug lead issue being rectified. I'll pop a sparkie out later on and have a squiz at the tip, see if the discolouration has diminished or gone away.

Three annual regos are due for bikes and one for the mostly unused car, all in a row, one per month. This pandemic thingy has me working less than 1/3 of the usual hours, along with the lack of dosh, and with zero of the typical unemployment or under-employment assistance from the great state of Washington thus far - stretching out to four and a half months without a reliable pay cheque now. Many here in the US and other countries are in these same shoes, and all have a valid story. I'm just glad I still can make choices for myself and my loved ones. There are plenty who cannot and I feel for them.

Didn't I walk past Big Block in the garage this morning and have a long chat with her about coming apart with select cuts going to feed the other projects in the garage so I can get them moved on, and with some bits tossed up on eBay. She stared back at me doe-eyed, her maintenance charger slowly blinking green. The other bike's chargers sat at orange or red for their various levels of battery enthusiasm. I went back into the kitchen for a second cuppa. I know this argument will continue.

Drink a third "cuppa", you can,t be serious?

Saturday, a typical commute to work day. The day's started out frosty and turned to warmish for winter. It might top out at 9 or 10. I haven't spun a wheel on Big Block since before Chrissie. There's no time like the present. 

One thing I really like about lighter than stock bikes is the urge they have getting up to and surpassing the average traffic speed; 30mph to 95 comes up in seconds. Another thing I like is how smooth the K12 engine is in the earlier K frame - despite the absence of the original rubber mounts - at highway speeds. No tingles, and minimal high frequency buzz.

I get off at five and the sun now sets at six. Just enough time to take the long way home.

About a month here before daily rides.

We have had a very rainy, very mossy, hardly snowy winter (two days of snow, 9") in the lowlands and near the Sound. Meanwhile the Cascades, forty or fifty miles East, have had 100s of inches of fluffy. I didn't winterise any of my bikes other than full tanks of treated fuel, aired up tyres, and rotating the battery tender from one to the next, they were all ready to go on a whim. If only the sun had made an appearance.

A coupla other riders saw fit to get out. The GS in the foreground is owned by a colleague who rides in every day, bar ice & snow, from Poulsbo to Fife and back, darkness or light, a distance of about 89 kms/55 miles each way. He doesn't bother to wash it because it gets ridden in the rain anyway.

In a month the trees in the background will be rich with green leaves. The smaller trees and shrubs are already showing their early buds. My woodpile is nearly burnt through. I used four and half cords of hardwood/mix in the woodstove this winter since October - our primary heat source. Next season I'll have five-plus to be sure.

It's going to be at least a week or two before the grass appears around these parts, but without any recent snowfall the roads are passable once the overnight freeze melts. This was a week ago.



Fortunately, we have forced air gas heat so wood is just for the family room where I hang out most of the time I'm not in my shop or the garage. Almost 3 cord of hardwood(maple and ash) this year which isn't too bad. I have two cord of oak I took down last summer drying for next winter.

Also have a couple 50 foot spruce tree trunks that need to be cut up. Terrible wood, not much heat and almost impossible to split by hand if more than 10" long. Still, it's better than nothing, but not much.

Fifty degrees Fahrenheit and sunshine for days here, with the odd near-60 thrown in for good measure. The crocus' & cherry blossoms are up and out and won't I have to mow the bloody lawn soon?! I am riding each legal bike on alternate days. Today I was looking at new bikes on the showroom floor, getting all warm and fuzzy for something shiny and Covid stimulus money down payment new, then I threw me leg over the 13, and on the way home from work n toil, said to myself forget it. Who needs the debt (larger picture considered in that rhetorical question)?

If only the sun would break through and the buds begin to pop on the trees. It feels like everlasting purgatory tween winter and spring.

Two Wheels Better wrote:
If only the sun would break through and the buds begin to pop on the trees. It feels like everlasting purgatory tween winter and spring.

I like your ride it's beautiful

Ta. Glad you like it. I celebrated today by fitting a new Delkevic carbon fibre can 'coz the prior short, stainless Delkevic triangular can popped forward rivets regularly due to the way the strap placed it under tension. This one is 100mm longer and sounds deeper. Sun's going down. Will wake up early and find a few empty twisty roads on the ride to work. 


It's 1.4 kg lighter than the shorty, too.

Bike looks lovely mate.

Out riding Big Block back from Seattle's monthly Backfire moto night last week and just didn't like the feeling of the too-thin grooved & wavy discs up front from Braking. I knew they were close to min spec when I fitted them last year but was trying to keep it light. 

Voila! A spare set of 320mm x 5mm discs from an old R1150RT I once owned will do nicely. I've yet to ride it to try the 'new' discs, but they're the same diametre - & just a wee bit heavier - as the wavies I had on there, and with the R1200RT/K1300S/GT, etc., previously fitted callipers, we still have somewhat 'modern' brakes.

Looks like it's been nearly a year since I've posted on this thread. Today, 92F degrees just out in the driveway, a bit cooler @ 85F in the garage, but a breeze is gently wafting through the open doors, making it feel barely 84. 

The Big Block needed some attention. The tail lights, Kellerman slim LED combo stop/tail/indicators from Germany, were flickering. One front indicator was intermittently operating. Off comes the seat & petrol tank. The chassis loom is mostly original but with the ABS circuits & accessory bits precision sliced out. A quick connect wasn't connecting quickly or otherwise on the indicator, & a dodgy pin in the taillight loom was spread out a bit, lending itself to sometimes cooperating, sometimes not. A pinch & push here & there & we're laughing. Oh, & the original lithium (9Amp) battery, which went into service in 2015, had finally refused to take a charge & would not crank the engine over any longer. It always gave a strong response so I'm happy with the choice. That's over seven years! A secondhand lithium (also 9Amp) I brought home from the workshop is in there now and holding steady @ 13.3 volts static.

What better feeling than after a few pleasant hours in the garage (the XR needed a thorough cleaning from my Washington to Idaho & back ride of the past three days), to take a burble round the larger neighbourhood on a fine, simple machine that does exactly what I built her for?!

The dog days of summer have dried things out substantially after the 'wettest spring & early summer in 45 years'.
[size=31][/size]

At last, the Big Block can be classified in the state of Washington as a Collector Vehicle. The annual rego was due last Wednesday, and typically costs about $105 per year. On Tuesday I visited a department of motor vehicle office - where the ladies behind the counter actually smile - with title and rego papers in hand, and for a one-time fee of $71.50, was able to secure a lifetime rego! This can be done in WA state as long as the vehicle is currently registered, and at least thirty years old.

A handful of years ago I converted the bits of the bike to a 1993 K1100RS V-tube frame for a more sturdy backbone as compared to the '87 K100RS single tube frame I had originally used.

Of course, the state is far behind in allocating actual metal plates, so I've been given a plasticised paper, temporary number plate which expires in October of this year. Free reprints are handed out if it exceeds the date stamped.

No club membership or inspection was required. I'm limited to riding to events, to workshops for repair or maintenance, or "casual" use. Since it's so ill-defined, and I don't use the bike but half a dozen times a year, a few longer rides here and there oughta be fine. I reckon it's the best way to keep extra money in my pocket for petrol.

Chuffed.