Coop's Corner: Scooter Update

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Scooter Update

The Red One. The Every Shade of Red One. Old Sol has worked its magic on this little beauty....

This fact only helped....the fact that it from our local, now defunct dealer. We're still 388 but we're no longer 612; those are the olden days.

I've bought parts from the local shop over the years but never a bike. My brother's 1970 Honda came from there and dad bought numerous bikes from the establishment.

The day I saw it/picked it up, I witnessed a cold start and the P.O. rode it outside and around to the back of the trailer. All lights and electrics worked.

"Front brake is frozen...." That's a problem for me since 95% of my braking is exclusively done up front. An extremely difficult to find front brake cable was found, modifications on both ends where the cable has its hookups were made.

New tires mounted by Marty at GoMoto Minnesota.

This new part was just about mandatory....

A valiant attempt was made at repairing the digital clock but the battery terminals/cover were just too far gone so I'll have to use the sun and stars to note the time.

New clutch dogs were purchased.....there were some on the shop shelf, new replacements for the Helix. At Coffee Show n Tell one morning I brought old and these New parts in and my fellow coffee drinkers noted, something that I had assumed and missed, "...hey, these aren't the same....". We've got some very sharp-eyed Saturday morning drinkers.

These are the correct ones.

New rollers...I like the pink ones.

New O-rings and seals.

This one almost as elusive as that front brake cable was.

OEM shocks on these models are noted as notoriously poor....these modified replacements for a 350 Scrambler.

Hanger Bushings....these were horribly worn and would have made navigating the banked turns at Daytona almost impossible. "New" ones were obtained from a salvage motor along with some other accessories kindly obtained from Marty.

Numerous body panels validated the many commuting miles that this machine has seen.

Thanks to the Video Tube, I learned how and actually repaired some body panels.

It isn't clean and hasn't been cleaned. I don't want there to be a single ounce of confusion about this possibly being a poorly executed Restoration. There's now oil where it belongs (the throttle cables/twist grip required Samson's strength) and grease where it belongs....plus a little more of each scattered throughout.

A new sparking plug....

As all of my associates know, nothing on two wheels can be in my garage (or on the road) without an SAE pigtail, some of them more elegantly installed than others.....but they've all got one.

And finally, the thing that makes it go. No more heartache, no more broken chains for this machine!!!

As mentioned the other day, I'm in central Iowa all week, working. I was seriously in need of some vegetables this evening. All of you sharing this blog with me are the second component here, the book I'm going to sit down with right now about motorcycling in remote Canada the first.

9 comments:

mohessianFebruary 27, 2020 at 6:54 AM
Worn hanger bushings that would have created problems on the Daytona banking....good thing you replaced THOSE babies! whoo! Don't need wobbles THERE!
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RichardMFebruary 27, 2020 at 8:54 AM
“I don't want there to be a single ounce of confusion about this possibly being a poorly executed Restoration”.

So the goal is to get the bikes to the point of being mechanically sound and reliable and no concern about appearance?
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mohessianFebruary 28, 2020 at 10:27 AM
The capital letters concept, as on Met Expectations. I get that. I do it too!
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Andrea CharlesMarch 12, 2020 at 6:06 AM
Hey Coop, this is indeed a 100% dedicated Restoration project that you had to look after just like raising a child. I could imagine the difficulty in finding those front brake cables as well as the clutches. How the new belt drive mechanism stays for the long. Other band that I don't see any reason why it should not run another 45k. Happy riding, ride safe!
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VasanthMusicCoimbatoreApril 25, 2020 at 1:39 AM
This bike looks classic. Frozen brakes seem to be a common problem. In my Music class in Coimbatore , I have seen a bike similar to the one posted above. Your post would help people to try repairing their own bikes.
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Others say....

"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

"Steamboats are like wedding cakes without the complications...." ----Mark Twain

"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

"I tell the guy's girlfriend that the only difference between the book's main character Phaedrus and myself is that I am neither brilliant, tortured or insane, she looks at my bike and there is an uncomfortable silence." --------ahendepe (a.k.a. Vermin)