I've lived here in Lynchburg Tn. for 28 years now and I've never seen minus temp here before .   This morning I got up about daylight to put wood in the heater and peeked out at the outdoor thermostat , it was on -10 F .
If freezing temps in the winter makes the next year bug free then I might have to go as far as Texas to find a bug by time spring gets here ?  

Even Tampa isn't much better that your weather this week, MMRanch. The lows at night are cold down here too. Last night at 10:30 it was 61 degrees and comfortable in a t-shirt. By 3:00am the wind chill was 20 degrees.

This time last winter we had a few days that the high was barely above freezing. What happened to all of that global warming that was in the news all the time about 20 years ago?

One of my brothers lives in Calgary.  Last week one night they had -57 F wind chill.  Yeah, I only visit him in July and August!

We had some days like that a week or so back.
Our lowest temp was 2 here at the house, with a wind chill in the negative 10-17 range, thanks to 20-30 mph N winds.

There was a LOT more fresh air out there than usual.
Have you guys noticed that ?

Thanks to my outdoor wood burner - my shop is 65 degrees and I have been hiding in there for the last week.  When I built this place 15 years ago I knew my winters would be spent in the garage - so having a well lit and heated garage was a priority for me.

I took the head off the Retro Savage engine I built last year and redid the copper head gasket.....I wasn't happy with the Ultra Grey sealer I used and went with Copper Coat instead.  I made my DragBikeMike modified oil pump gears.....that took me several days.  I took the bent rims and rusty spokes from my 1984 Honda CT110 and installed new spokes and rims....it now rides really smoothly since the new rims are round!

I likely have a couple more months of crappy weather and outdoor work will be limited.  I am likely to take the 95mm Wiseco pop top piston out of the Cafe' bike and put in a 94 or 97mm Wiseco Flat top.  The F800 needs a new rear tire before it goes to Texas.  I will likely get back to working on the Retro Standard Savage project that will become a bike layout similar to a 60's era British Single.  I may even have to do some work on the house if I run out of motorcycle projects!

Here is a photo of my wood burner in action.  It was -4 without any wind when I took that photo - the smoke is mostly water vapor and it burns far cleaner than the photo would imply.  On normal days there is very little visible smoke when the fire is burning.   

MMRanch wrote on 01/22/24 at 09:12:31:


It is not likely a question I have a good answer for.  It does run well, it can get 60+ mpg if I ride in a calm manner, it has topped out at 101mph on the 2 times I tried (but it won't go any faster), it pulls well out of corners without the need to shift down a gear, and it is reliable and starts the instant I hit the starter button.......and it has done that for somewhere around 15,000 miles!

It is just something I feel the need to do......it is very likely that it could run just a lil' bit better!  With the piston swap I will also be working on a larger header pipe to help it flow exhaust gasses better, and installing my DragBikeMike oil pump gears for more oil flow.


I guess I am looking to have the fastest Savage on the US mainland.....we already know that DragBikeMike has the fastest Savage in the world!