10 Gomer when running

1968 XLH

Motor under reconstruction 

1968 lower end: Sifton tappets, stronger than stock pushrods, extended kickstart lever. CycleElectric generator, cylindrical toolbox in place of starter, shifter knob is a grade 8 bolt covered in hose and secured by a lock nut, modified oil pump

1000 cc top end: 1974 cylinders, heads, and covers, Bendix carburetor with round filter and cover, Manley valves and springs

4" over stock Kayaba front forks

Flanders drag bar

Headlight bracket from Ford tractor mud flap bracket. I only had to drill 1 hole and bolt it into place.

Bates headlight

Paucho frame

Rear seat from foot rail off of a Freightliner tractor

1 " rebar highway bar

XLCH tank and battery tray 

2.9 gallon gas tank

Big Twin sissy bar

883 seat; fleece cover

Chain guard angle aluminum from a Freightliner tractor

Tail lamp from a water buffalo

Passenger pegs from Flathead Fern's shop

Stock front fender 

Rear fender generic metal to just below the top rail of the frame; tractor mud flap section down to bottom of frame

Lockhart oil cooler and thermostat 

Wheels 16 rear with mechanical drum brake 19 front with disk brake

Black Krylon paint

Backpack tank bag

9 Prolly a rider

I am prolly a rider.

When I have a motor, I ride 26-30 k miles/year. I have used my motors as work trucks and my only motorised transportation. I will load a weeks worth of groceries to take home. I have moved a few months worth of recyclables to redeem them.

I am often one of just a few riders when I go to abate meetings during bad weather.

I ride in snowstorms and heavy rain day or night. I hate riding in windy conditions and don't get the charm of being in the fucking wind. I hate when riders talk about being in the wind....I think they have not ridden in windy conditions....I have and don't get the fantasy of being in the wind....

When my motor needs repair and I have to choose between paying rent or other bills and riding a bicycle or taking a bus to get around, or repairing the motor, I pay the rent or other expense and work around the motor issues.

I do a lot of my own motor-related repair work. I have disassembled and re-assembled a motorcycle. See this at https://tinyurl.com/dpmd97c4

I tend to wear a lot of gear when I ride: suitable underclothing, long pants, long sleeved shirt, steel toed boots, shin and knee guards, yellow Joe Rocket ballistic coat, leather gloves, off-road style helmet, teeth guard (like US football players wear), and goggles. I wear rain pants and coat in wet weather. Sometimes I wear chaps during cold weather; during really cold weather, I will wear insulated clothing with hand warmers in pockets. The gear may not prevent injury; the gear does shorten recovery time.

I miss having a motor when I don't have one.

I prefer not to ride in groups of more than about six or so riders, and tend to ride sweep when I can. I don't do side-by-side formation riding. I do loosely staggered formation or free-style.

Regarding massive group riding, no respect from me just because they are riding to honor something or somebody, especially when the riders impede traffic.

I respect the individual base on actions, not on insignia, not on motive, not on life style.

For these reasons, I conclude that I am a motor rider, not a biker.

from a comment thread on BikerOrNot.com FaceBook page 2022.12.31 

8 Gomer the Ratster.7- Return and Burn

I left what happened in Vegas when I went home. I woke up with my front tyre mere inches from the rear tyre of the Panhead in front of me. The Toms and their girlfriends went on home and I slept for several hours in a motel with Gomer parked next to me. I got up just after sun-up, wheeled Gomer out, and wheeled on down the road toward my abode.

I fueled up in Barstow after about two hours on the road. I headed toward Mojave. Then Gomer started choking up when I applied the throttle. I wondered if I had taken in bad gas. I put up with the choking all the way to just south of Mojave, when Gomer starting running right again, after I fueled up in Mojave. Bad gas, right? Maybe not.

It turns out that the bendix carb has a choke that will self-apply under the wrong conditions. I guess the wrong conditions existed between Barstow and Mojave.

So I putted on home.

The next weekend, (I think), I thought I could putt from the SFV to Mojave to Bakersfield to SFV in a few hours. Midway between Mojave and Tehachapi, Gomer started to slow down rightnow, I could smell something burning, and I could see fire under the fuel tank. I pulled over to the side of the road, turned off the ignition, and put the fire out with my gloved hand.

I looked Gomer over and saw that a wire from the regulator up to the wiring harness running under the top tube of the frame had ground against the front motor cylinder and wrecked everything electrical- wiring, regulator, generator, and battery. Probably wrecked the points and condenser, too. Somehow I had missed seeing that the grounded wire was not secure on the frame when I was preparing for the ride.

So, there I was, beside the road with a burned out bike. I waved a five-dollar bill at approaching drivers, and soon a guy driving a pick-up moved Gomer and me to Bakersfield.

There I spent a lot of minutes calling around before a bro from the South Bay who barely knew me agreed to come up to Bakersfield and haul the bike and me to SFV. Josh showed up several hours later, and soon we loaded Gomer into the back of Josh's truck and headed south to the two Toms in the SFV.

Early the next morning, I walked Gomer to a motorshop downhill from the two Toms. Bob told me that the bike would have been fine if the system had been fused or circuit broken. Then he fixed the problems.

I learned from that; when I wired Gomer in 1991, I made sure to protect every part in the system with circuit breakers. I have one protecting the battery, another protecting the generator-regulator combination, and one protecting the wiring. I have one in place to protect the headlight and one in place to protect the tail lamp. When I upgrade the wiring, I will include a circuit breaker to protect signal lights, another to protect road lamp(s), and two for improvised uses.

More later......
2011.08.05

Gomer the Ratster Makeover, 2010-2012

I have started a makeover for the Rat Partster; here is an incomplete list of the tasks for this job: 

R&R motor & transmission 
remove transmission and disassemble motor 
clean parts 
evaluate case integrity 
transmission door tab 
transmission output bearing conversion 
dynamic balance flywheels 
cylinders 
rocker cover leaks 
rear head/rocker cover leak 
circuit breaker 
generator setup-if ng convert to alternator, DelcoRemy integrated regulator alternator 
tool box lid 

Frame 
weld crack 
true 
side stand retainer 
bend side stand 

paint ammonia salt water

Rewire 

Front end
replate? 
fork seals 
brake caliper mounting bushings 
gators 
fork oil 
6” spacers 
shorten brake line 
horn 
signal indicators
handlebar 
bushings 
grips
levers 
front brake master cylinder 
gauges 
tachometre 
speedometre 
oil pressure 

Exhaust 

Shift linkage

Brake setup 
brake drum/sprocket 
evaluate brake shoes/pads 
linkage 
brake pedal 

Rear chain 
tensioner 
oiler

Battery 

Rear fender 
repair cracks 
reinforce 
luggage rack drawer(s) 
paint ammonia salt water
saddlepack bracket 

Front fender 
rivets 
paint ammonia salt water

Oil tank 
braze 
protector 
oil filter 

Wheels 
true 
bearings 
drum/sprocket 

Seats 

Tail light 

Relocate highway bar inward 

Replace kicker pedal 

Gas tank 
expand or replace 
luggage rack & drawer(s) 
paint ammonia salt water


 I will post pictures and updates from time to time.

more pics at https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipM7oxxi0oe-aQyIK6QQhmuvqOLot4VK5CQfuM9j

The next thing I have to do is remove the bottom end from the frame.

2011.01.09: I removed the lower end from the frame. I had to wheel the bike out of the storage unit first. I had to use a pallet supported on a short 2 by 4 as a ramp. I had a few hard moments whilst removing the motor. Eventually I got 'er done. Next I get to clean the motor before I disassemble it. 

2011.01.18: I sprayed degreasing dish washing detergent on the motor, let it set for a bit and hosed the motor down. There was still plenty of oil-hardened dirt on the motor, so I will be scrubbing with a brush and detergent. I removed the circuit breaker, the generator, the gearcase, and cams, and the oil pump. I had a bitch of a time removing the gearcase and oil pump. Didn't break anything. All of the cam shims were wrecked and I will have to replace them. Next stop: remove the primary drive and transmission. I like the way my hands smell after working on the motor. 

2011.02.01: I removed the primary cover, pulled the clutch plates, set up clutch basket and drive retainer tools, and could not loosen the clutch hub nut. I will have to take the lower end assembly to somebody with an impact wrench to loosen it. 

2011.07.16: I took the motor to a neighbor who loosened the clutch hub nut with his air-powered impact wrench. 

2012.04.22 I removed the clutch hub nut, the clutch hub, clutch basket, motor sprocket, primary chain adjuster, and the primary drive chain. This took me long enough to get to this...

Gomer the Ratster.6

Boy, I thought I had a reasonably cool bike. There was no other bike that looked like Gomer, with the w-i-d-e handlebar, the panniers, and the two-tone blue paint.

Breaking in the motor was easy enough. I just rode Gomer to Las Vegas from the San Fernando Valley, changed the oil by the side of a road in a park near a lake, and that was it for breaking in the motor.

I didn't get any sleep from the morning of July 2 until the late evening of July 3. I only went to bed when I realised that I was trying to fuel the same truck twice. I went home, slept, got up, and went back to work until about 1700. Then I rode over to Pinball's (so called because he would spend a lot of time playing pinball games and drinking a lot of beer at the work site break room) place for a July 4th party with his family and friends. Somewhere along the line, Pinball said, 'Let's go to Vegas for the weekend!' His buddies, Tom and Tom-Tom thought that was a good idea, their girlfriends thought that was a good idea, and I had nothing better to do.

We eventually started our trip without Pinball. He and his wife were trying to reconcile, they could not find a babysitter for their kids, and Robin was not gonna take the kids to Vegas with them. Just as well, as it turned out.

We headed out at 2100. Tom or Tom-Tom, and the gals were in a Nova. The other guy would ride the 1965 panhead that Tom-Tom owned. I was riding Gomer.

We rode for a bit. We stopped at a bar and spent some time there while the other guys and the gals had a beer. I don't know for sure, but I think I live behind that closed bar now. Funny how things work out in life.

We got back on the road again and rode some more. We stopped in Baker for food and fuel. The guys were calling me 'Einstein' for some reason. Probably because I'm a fucktard. I was riding on a bike with a newly rebuilt motor, while wearing contact lenses that I had been wearing since that morning, on maybe four hours of sleep in the previous forty-eight, with folks I did not know. Like I said, a fucktard. The lack of sleep affected my riding ability. Tom warned me that I was gonna get pulled over if I didn't straighten up and ride right.

We made our way to Stateline, put on our helmets, and rode right into the sunrise into Vegas.

More later...
2010.12.02

Gomer the Ratster.5

So I gave the guys at the shop my carburettor and bought a Bendix with a fixed jet from them, because it was a Harley carburettor. I didn't ask about S&S, (because I didn't know about S&S), and they didn't tell me about S&S (because they had a Bendix in stock to sell). A few days later, I saw a project Panhead in the shop that had what looked like a Mikuni carburettor just like the one I had turned in.

I found out later that Mikuni carburettors are very easy to fix and maintain, that parts were cheap, and that even a doofus like me could tune them by reading and following a Mikuni manual. Today, I wonder if the only thing wrong with that Mikuni was that it was dirty.

I should have learned, never turn in old components. Clean 'em, lube 'em, wrap 'em up, and put them away where they won't rust or corrode.

Anyway, the guys at the shop sold me this Bendix with stock filter and cover. This cover is so big that it obscures the choke lever. The choke lever on Gomer would apply the choke by itself from time to time. Whenever the choke applied after Gomer was warmed up, she would run very erratically, and good luck with starting her.

I only found out about the self-applied choke phenomenon when talking to another rider whose motorbike had the same kind of Bendix installed as on Gomer. He mentioned that that the choke sometimes self-applied after he removed the choke wire and knob. I stopped having this problem after I changed to a round filter/cover setup several years after I changed carburettors.

I took Gomer in for a make-over in March 1980, using the $700 settlement money as a down payment.

1. I asked for a stock handlebar in place of the ape bar.
2. I asked for a 4-5 gallon gas tank in place of the 2.1 gallon gas tank
3. I asked that the motor be rebuilt to 61 cubic inches from 55 cubic inches. I didn't ask the guys to upgrade the oil pump; they didn't tell me that the later oil pump would provide more oil for more displacement.
4. I asked them to install a Phase 3 primary belt drive (I retained the stock primary chain drive in my parts stash).
5. I asked them to paint Gomer almost-white blue and almost-black blue, with a gold dollar sign on the gas tank, and with 'xalepa ta kala'(means nothing without work), using gold Greek lettering, along the left side of the frame.
6. I asked them to install cop-bike styled panniers that they had in stock. 
7. I asked them to install a big tail lamp.

I got Gomer back in June, for an additional $1400 in one dollar bills.

1. Gomer got a wide dresser-style bar. I guess that could be stock. Should have asked for a drag bar.
2. The gas tank ' is nearly four gallons'. I guess 2.9 gallons is nearly four gallons if you squint your eyes a bit.
3. The guys rebuilt the motor and transmission, and installed 1974 20 over cylinders and the heads to go with them. No oil pump upgrade.
4. The belt drive front pulley had to be repaired about a year later, I think.
5. The paint was not bad. Light sky-blue and dark blue, like you might see on a Ford or Chevy. Pretty. OK. Whatever. The dollar sign and the lettering were good.
6. The panniers looked good. The left one fell off of the frame about a week after I got Gomer back and the bottom got nice and scraped. The guys had used the grade three-or-five fasteners that were with the pannier frame instead of new grade eight fasteners.
7. The big tail lamp worked by itself, and not when the head light was on. I found that out the first night I wanted to ride with some friends. Turned out that the lamp was not properly grounded; a ground wire fixed that. I wonder why the guys didn't install the ground wire when they were installing the tail lamp?

 

Gomer after makeover

Doc and Gomer June 1980

More later...

Gomer the Ratster.4

I was riding up to an intersection on the downhill side of a road one Thursday afternoon. The light went from green-to-yellow-to-red-to-green and I shifted from fourth-to-third-to-second-to-down on the road. The driver of a car rushed over the crest of the road, sped down the hill, and changed lanes right into me, scooping up Gomer's back wheel with the car's right rear wheel, ignorant that I was beating on the right rear window and yelling that I was being dragged along for an unpleasant ride on asphalt. She wasn't ignorant for long; her passengers alerted her to her mistake straight-away.

The driver pulled over and apologised, over and over, for running into me. She was driving a company car on company business without a driver license. I got her boss's name, number, and insurance information, and sent her on her way.

Boy, was I annoyed! I was gonna miss work, and I was gonna have to fix my bike, and all because some silly simp drove into me. I picked up Gomer and walked her back up the hill and up the road to the local shop a couple of miles away. My pants were wrecked, my jacket scuffed, and I hurt quite a bit. I limped for a few days thereafter. I went to work the day after the crash.

I called the driver's boss. I got the driver. She transfered me to the boss. He wanted me to take Gomer to his airplane mechanic and have his mechanic repair the damage to the bike. I told him nothing doing; would he want me to have my bike mechanic fix his airplane if I had crashed into it? This guy's attitude was that I was trying to rip him off. All I wanted was fix Gomer, buy me new pants, and pay me for the one day of missed work. I didn't care about his attitude. I just wanted my way. The boss told me that the policy number that his employee gave me was the wrong number and gave me a different policy number.

I called the guy's insurance company and gave the claims adjuster the policy number. The insurance guy told me that he could not help me until Monday morning due to the fact that it was Friday afternoon just before closing. Monday morning, the insurance agent told me that policy number that I gave him was no good. So I had to call the driver's boss. Well the boss was at a meeting, no, he could not get me the right policy information until he was done with the meeting.

I was not a happy camper. I wanted to beat the driver with a ball-peen hammer. I hired a lawyer instead. Fat lot of good the lawyer did me. The insurance guy called me after I hired the lawyer with the good news that they then had the correct policy information and were ready to help me. As soon as I said I had hired a lawyer, the insurance guy could not help me, after all. Ultimately, I got $700 out of a $1500 settlement. What a joke.

From time to time after the accident, I would have trouble starting Gomer. I would replace spark plugs, adjust valves, take 'er in for tune-up, and still would have trouble. Gil at work told me to get rid of the Mikuni carburetor, that it was junk. Gil told me that Jap parts were junk parts. I listened to him because I actually believed that he knew bikes. The shop manager at a local shop told me that Mikuni carburetors were junk. I believed him because I thought as a shop manager, he knew bikes. I had two different guys who told me the same thing, and I concluded that they were right.

More...