stewmills wrote on 09/26/14 at 09:43:39:


Or.....a little white vinegar and a piece of aluminum foil.  Dip the aluminum foil in the vinegar and rub - and you won't believe how fast the rust goes away!  Then wash off the vinegar and black residue before it dries.

At the risk of being boringly repetitious, you have three friends, your two mirrors and the big gap in front of, and where possible around you. Your IRC tyres are relatively unknown acquaintances, they aren't worthy of total trust.

Well, it's Saturday, I got the bike over a week ago and haven't ridden it yet! Work, getting tags and this lovely, lovely Illinois weather have been putting a crush on things. I'll try and get out sometime next week. Just got my Clymer manual and am pouring over it!
Jeff

Picked up a few quarts of Rotella T6, a new filter and have a new battery on order. Took it out for a few miles the other day. Bought a nice pair of boots today and am looking for a jacket. Not a lot of shops in my area to try a variety on. Started going over the bike in detail, marking down bolt sizes, tools needed, wire routing etc. Really a better bike than I expected.
Jeff

It idles high on it's own. Once warmed up it goes very nicely. It does need a good Italian tune-up. Once my new battery gets here I'll hook that up and get the oil changed. Then it will be buzzed around the neighborhood until it gets too cold. I haven't even opened it up very far yet. I'm a very controlled learner/ rider.
About the only thing I could ask for with it is a better riding position. I prefer the standard or cafe' position. The cruiser position on this one, especially how the grips angle down, makes my hands slide off a touch. Instead of pushing into a turn it feels more like pulling.
Jeff

For now I'm just going to leave them alone. I'll probably be doing a Ryca conversion next season anyway. The rear brake could probably use a turn on the back nut though.
Jeff

It goes something like this. Many early Ferrari owners would bring their cars back after a few seasons reporting sluggishness, erratic running, backfires etc... The mechanics knew (almost too well) what to do. The customer would leave the car with them for a few days. The mechanics would take the cars out and flog the hell out of them for 50 miles or so; going the gears, pushing the redline, hard downshifting etc... Essentially, they were blowing the built up carbon and junk out of the engine and carbs. The owners, not privy to a racetrack, had no place to wind them out and were pretty much putting around, clogging the engines. They would get the cars back a few days later and be in awe of the mechanic's skill at "tuning" their Ferraris.
Early Porches and 911s usually didn't like to run under 3,000 RPM, the amazing 4 cam engines were never supposed to be run under 5,000RPM (Those 4 cams were sexy as hell!)
So that's what an Italian tune up is. My bike only had 144 miles a year put on it and I think it could use a good rowing through the gears.
Jeff

Actually I have just over 1600 miles on the bike. I put all of 22 miles of that on it!
Just got my new battery so I'll get that installed Friday, then once the roads dry a touch I'll get the oil changed.
Jeff