We FJ riders understand this, however, with today's complex bikes, many motorcyclists do not....
Here is a reprint from a 11/30/2020 article by Kevin Cameron:
The Importance of Working on Your Motorcycle.
I've written about this before but it's a message that bears repeating.
We live in a time of marvelous, highly capable motorcycles in every category, but the old tradition of at-home maintenance has grown thin, that of dads who on certain Saturdays confidently changed the oil in the family car's engine, or replaced noisy wiper blades, or replaced a fan belt. More than one woman has told me, with a certain ironic look, that "Today's guys know mainly two things: How to do whatever it is they do at work, and how to watch sports on TV."
When, during the 1970s and '80s, I modified cylinders or machined heads for more compression for club racers, I wasn't asked for carburetor jetting specs. When I'd offer, riders would say, "I'll handle it." During the '90s that changed, and so did the population of people going racing. The older "man in a van with a plan" was being replaced by box trucks filled with bikes that were increasingly professionally prepared. People picking up custom pipes or altered cylinders from me wanted carb jetting specs, and they wanted to be guaranteed their engines would never, ever seize. Eventually I stopped doing that work because a day was clearly coming when I would need something like doctors' malpractice insurance.
Yes, there's fear, because things are unfamiliar at first.
How do you become comfortable with machinery? More people used to grow up on farms, where if you couldn't fix broken equipment yourself, you did without. More people had manufacturing jobs at which they worked with machines; manufacturing is now down to 8 percent of the US GNP. The armed services were great places to become familiar with tools and equipment, but increasingly, service is now performed by manufacturer's reps. My middle son, asked by his officer to round up a working mine roller, was told hands off—the maker's reps were the only ones authorized to touch that equipment. When he bypassed the hydraulics and got one working, he was nearly in big trouble. Fortunately his officer showed up.
The spoken or unspoken message today: If you're not an expert with documents to prove it, don't dare touch equipment. You might wreck it! I don't like to hear that, because there has never been a better time to take an interest in mechanical work. I've listed the reasons before. Here they are again:
1) Huge numbers of used bikes, engines, parts, and sub-assemblies are easily available, cheap, on the internet. So cheap!
2) Tool sets in fitted plastic carrying cases are also cheap and can be at your door tomorrow.
3) Illustrated service manuals exist and are for sale, also arriving tomorrow.
4) If you get stuck, you have hundreds or thousands of potential online colleagues on brand-and-model forums who have hit the same problem you have, and they have uploaded their solutions, often with video.
Yes, you need a place to work with decent lighting and heat. A work surface. Containers for parts. A drain pan for oil. People do good work in all sorts of improvised work areas.
You can start with easy stuff like an oil change (the spec for oil and filter is in your owner's book). Or you can adjust hand and foot controls to suit yourself. Ever get a cramp in your ankle from trying to keep from pressing a brake pedal that's set too high? Annoyed by excessive slack in a throttle or clutch cable? Fixing these things is common sense.
Yes, there's fear, because things are unfamiliar at first. When I was seven, my mother had a worn-out car engine brought to the unused side of our two-car garage. It took me considerable staring time to get over how strange it was, up close. And it was filthy with leaked oil and caked-on road grit. Gradually I got used to it, as I would also to clocks and watches. Lots of just staring until the sense began to emerge. Finally I began to unbolt things and stare at them, too. I was in new territory. Teachers don't teach so much as they create situations in which people can't help but learn. Teaching yourself teaches best, because the knowledge gained is all yours.
Twenty years later I found myself still staring at parts when new race bikes arrived in the spring. I'd walk up and down with a cylinder or piston in my hands, staring, trying to see what was new, trying to make sense of it. I'd make bad instant coffee and walk and stare some more, sipping.
Two years ago Cycle World wanted some videos made of what's inside a late-model sportbike engine. The not-exactly-princely sum of $150 summoned a 26,000-mile CBR600 engine from the teeming parts marketplace. Lots of people think nothing of laying out similar money to put a framed art print on their wall or go out to a nice dinner for two. Buy a used engine and treat yourself to the instructive experience of taking the thing apart, tracing out its systems, and getting familiar with all the parts and how they look. Your hands will become familiar with the forces involved in loosening fasteners (this is the origin of "common sense" in such matters). More staring, plus reference to a service book, brings everything within the range of human understanding.
Pat,
(https://user.xmission.com/~red/like2pants.jpg)
:yes:
.
Great article ! i remember i read an article about tuning carburetors by him it was very good explained..
Not so many years ago i remember people was wrenching on their cars and motorcycles at deserted parking places or in DIY workshops including myself.
Now a days there are none DIY workshops left here in Oslo and most people don't even know how to put on their winterwheels on cars. when i change the oil on my car or change wheels people look
at me with a suspicious mine thinking if they should call the police some times the police have shoved up asking what I'm doing :biggrin:
Nice one Pat, thanks for posting it.
:good2:
Learn by doing. Even though my Dad went to vo-tech for auto mechanics and was his planes mechanic when in the Army air corp, he never seemed to care about machines. He was into electronics and could fix old TVs and such much better than me. Funny thing is the electronics gene must skip a generation as my son is a wizard but doesn't understand basic mechanics. I'm pretty much self taught. Always figured if some high school dropout could figure it out, so could I! Figured the price of learning was compensated by ending up with cool tools. My son is not interested in the weird ass tools so I guess they're going to my Son in Law who is an outstanding mechanic. I will admit that I forgot how to set points, had to google it. :biggrin:
As usual, KC imparts wisdom and makes it entertaining. Love his column.
My friend and I smoked my go-cart engine when I was a kid. His grandfather had another briggs rusting in his back yard. But it was a different HP and the pulley was stuck on the crank. Hacksawed the crank, ground down the piston skirt, and made one engine out of the two. We had no clue what we were doing. And it worked a good while before we smoked that one, too. Over riding the governor doesn't make for a long lasting engine. Moved on to a car at 15. Eventually bikes.
I have a Honda tiller that fried the gearbox. I think I'll get the kids out to the garage during xmas break and have them tear down the motor.
Current status of the street driven 911...
(https://i.imgur.com/fc3n0hp.jpg)
You've gotta love German engineering, look at those beefy tostada journals...what's the plan Rick?
Quote from: Pat Conlon on December 04, 2020, 04:04:46 PM
You've gotta love German engineering, look at those beefy tostada journals...what's the plan Rick?
Well, it's going back on the road as a weekender and foul weather commuter so I don't have to ride the FJ in the rain. I have some fancy bits from the race car that I'll install to give it a little oomph, but nothing crazy. Rod bolts are the weak link on these Carreras, so I have a set of ARP racing rod bolts. I have a set of 10.3/1 Euro pistons made by CE Engineering down your way, that I'll shim up a little to reduce that to 9.8/1 so I can use pump gas.
LOTS of cleaning, and then some detailed cleaning. It's easy to turn into a "while you're in there", but I really want to just drive it, so I'm gonna get it cleaned up and put together. I'll spend some money on new leather and carpets, and probably some quality time with a tangled mess of wiring.
Did I mention I GAVE this car to one of my kids to drive for a couple years, and then BOUGHT it back from him so he could get something else when this one failed smog?
Don't ever have any kids... :Facepalm:
Quote from: ZOA NOM on December 04, 2020, 04:31:42 PM
Don't ever have any kids...
My experience was a little different. I got my oldest warmed up by having him build our VW based aircraft engine.
(http://fjowners.com/gallery/12/6694_04_12_20_5_10_48_0.jpeg)
(http://fjowners.com/gallery/12/6694_04_12_20_5_10_48_1.jpeg)
After that we rebuilt my '99 Saturn and he drives it. He has put about 25,000 miles on it since the rebuild. This also prepped him to tackle the motorcycle projects and a bunch of other stuff.
I had my younger son do a bunch of the work on the $200 Buick we bought for him, but he doesn't enjoy it as much. My older son jumped in and did a lot of work on that car, including all the brake plumbing. The younger son marches to a different drummer. He is currently building a monowheel bicycle and I'm just glad he found the motivation to take on a crazy project and make progress on it. Now he really has to learn to weld.
Kevin's article is very good. Getting kids involved is a wholly different topic. I can't tell you how many times I've died inside because they were doing something wrong, but it's not always about doing it right this time. When you work with kids it's more important to do it.
First Saturn start:
https://youtu.be/yX5yG0dGw64 (https://youtu.be/yX5yG0dGw64)
First Magna V30 start:
https://youtu.be/OOeXhZbCMlw (https://youtu.be/OOeXhZbCMlw)
Great stuff... That propeller is gonna need an edge and a twist...
Quote from: ZOA NOM on December 04, 2020, 05:32:19 PM
Great stuff... That propeller is gonna need an edge and a twist...
Here you go!
(http://fjowners.com/gallery/12/6694_04_12_20_7_06_14_0.jpeg)
NOW we're talkin!!! Sweet plane!
Quote from: Waiex191 on December 04, 2020, 05:18:48 PM
I got my oldest warmed up by having him build our VW based aircraft engine.....After that we rebuilt my '99 Saturn ....... prepped him to tackle the motorcycle projects and a bunch of other stuff.......I can't tell you how many times I've died inside because they were doing something wrong.
Taking into account the consequences of an engine failure, I think I'd be starting him out the other way round,
first on something that doesn't leave the ground,
then work his way up to aircraft engines :biggrin:
I think it's a great thing to give the young'uns a grounding in mechanical know-how. If you start early enough, mechanical knowledge can become mechanical aptitude . My Son's career isn't mechanical but I constantly see examples of where his exposure to it benefits his job and many aspects of life in general.
There is a subtle yet important distinction between knowing
what to do, and knowing
why you're doing it.
Noel
Quote from: ribbert on December 05, 2020, 07:54:42 AM
Taking into account the consequences of an engine failure, I think I'd be starting him out the other way round, first on something that doesn't leave the ground, then work his way up to aircraft engines :biggrin:
I think it's a great thing to give the young'uns a grounding in mechanical know-how. If you start early enough, mechanical knowledge can become mechanical aptitude . My Son's career isn't mechanical but I constantly see examples of where his exposure to it benefits his job and many aspects of life in general.
There is a subtle yet important distinction between knowing what to do, and knowing why you're doing it.
Noel
He was pretty tightly supervised. Except one time where he was bolting the cover over the unused distributor hole and stripped the magnesium threads. Somebody had stopped by to talk to me. Then he got to learn about helicoils, so it was all good.
I think the most important thing to teach is confidence and the mechanical skills come second. Actually a lot of mechanical skills come by doing and screwing things up. Anybody can do it right the first time but it takes real skill to fix a screwup. The side effect is you make a lot less screwups, thanks to experience.
Quote from: Waiex191 on December 04, 2020, 07:07:16 PM
Here you go!
(http://fjowners.com/gallery/12/6694_04_12_20_7_06_14_0.jpeg)
[/quote]
Cool plane but strange that it has no stabilisator
It has two... they are in a vee configuration. No vertical stabilizer needed. Same as the Piper Bonanza (Doctor Killer).
(https://s1.qwant.com/thumbr/0x380/0/0/05e81d0782c0f2ad1ae19ba172cffd4c512136ce49dcf998e315fd3a1a23f2/1801p_bf_budgetbuy_16x9.jpg?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aopa.org%2F-%2Fmedia%2Fimages%2Faopa-main%2Fnews-and-media%2Fpublications%2Fpilot-magazine%2F2018%2F1801%2F1801p_bf_budgetbuy%2F1801p_bf_budgetbuy_16x9.jpg&q=0&b=1&p=0&a=1)
Technically it's a Y tail. It has a little mini rudder on the bottom to turn the V into a Y. You can see it in Jim Hicke's cool Waiex acrobatics video.
https://youtu.be/atLnt0ZSAY8
Looks slippery, what's the stall speed?
Very cool plane. Looks "affordable" too... Maybe it's time to trade in the race car...
QuoteLooks slippery, what's the stall speed?
Stall speed is listed as 40mph. Here is the specifications for the newer B model. I don't think they changed the specs at all, except for a couple things like fuel capacity.
https://www.sonexaircraft.com/waiex/ (https://www.sonexaircraft.com/waiex/)
QuoteLooks "affordable" too...
I have about $30K into the airplane. I also drive a $500 1998 Saturn SC2 (in the picture background), and my FJ was paid off in February 1990. My other bike, the 1981 GN400, was bought and paid for in 1983. Though I admire what some of you guys are doing with mods and stuff, my money goes into the airplane. I'll probably keep the FJ stock forever, except for the blue spots of course.
(http://fjowners.com/gallery/12/6694_07_12_20_4_20_16_0.jpeg)
Very cool looks like no trouble keeping that plane in control. I have been a pilot for many many years i have thousand of hours behing the sticks started with diferent cessnas working up to captain on boeings 727 737 777 even 747 also been flying tri stars and concorde have some experience on the airbus 800 series but that is all in microsoft flighsimulator :biggrin:
What is the flat-four engine in there?
Quote from: ZOA NOM on December 07, 2020, 04:42:41 PM
What is the flat-four engine in there?
It is a Sonex Aerovee. Basically a converted type 1 bug motor, 2180cc, 80 HP.
http://www.aeroconversions.com/products/aerovee/index.html (http://www.aeroconversions.com/products/aerovee/index.html)
Quote from: Old Rider on December 07, 2020, 04:37:23 PM
Very cool looks like no trouble keeping that plane in control. I have been a pilot for many many years i have thousand of hours behing the sticks started with diferent cessnas working up to captain on boeings 727 737 777 even 747 also been flying tri stars and concorde have some experience on the airbus 800 series but that is all in microsoft flighsimulator :biggrin:
Ha! I have very little simulator time. I have a fair amount of time for a hobbyist. A big chunk of my time is either towing or flying gliders. A little of it is flying helicopters.
Quote from: Waiex191 on December 07, 2020, 05:23:51 PM
Quote from: ZOA NOM on December 07, 2020, 04:42:41 PM
What is the flat-four engine in there?
It is a Sonex Aerovee. Basically a converted type 1 bug motor, 2180cc, 80 HP.
http://www.aeroconversions.com/products/aerovee/index.html (http://www.aeroconversions.com/products/aerovee/index.html)
Simple proven design. Looks like an absolute blast.
Quote from: Waiex191 on December 07, 2020, 05:23:51 PM
Quote from: ZOA NOM on December 07, 2020, 04:42:41 PM
What is the flat-four engine in there?
It is a Sonex Aerovee. Basically a converted type 1 bug motor, 2180cc, 80 HP.
http://www.aeroconversions.com/products/aerovee/index.html (http://www.aeroconversions.com/products/aerovee/index.html)
Are you sure about it being a Type 1 motor?
Noel
Quote from: Old Rider on December 07, 2020, 04:37:23 PM
Very cool looks like no trouble keeping that plane in control. I have been a pilot for many many years i have thousand of hours behing the sticks started with diferent cessnas working up to captain on boeings 727 737 777 even 747 also been flying tri stars and concorde have some experience on the airbus 800 series but that is all in microsoft flighsimulator :biggrin:
Captain Rolf, do you have the latest version? It is beyond amazing.
Quote from: ribbert on December 08, 2020, 04:11:40 AM
Quote from: Old Rider on December 07, 2020, 04:37:23 PM
Very cool looks like no trouble keeping that plane in control. I have been a pilot for many many years i have thousand of hours behing the sticks started with diferent cessnas working up to captain on boeings 727 737 777 even 747 also been flying tri stars and concorde have some experience on the airbus 800 series but that is all in microsoft flighsimulator :biggrin:
Captain Rolf, do you have the latest version? It is beyond amazing.
Noel the last year i have not been flying because the harddrive and partly the computer i had everything installed has crashed .I now just have a old little simple computer running vista :mocking: that is way to weak to run the simulator with all the addon scenery's aircrafts weather programs airports ets ets.
I'm not sure what the latest version is as i haven't kept updated on anything for the last year. I have the fsx version with most available extra addon programs.
So you are also a computerpilot thats cool :drinks:
Quote from: Waiex191 on December 07, 2020, 05:23:51 PM
Quote from: ZOA NOM on December 07, 2020, 04:42:41 PM
What is the flat-four engine in there?
It is a Sonex Aerovee. Basically a converted type 1 bug motor, 2180cc, 80 HP.
http://www.aeroconversions.com/products/aerovee/index.html (http://www.aeroconversions.com/products/aerovee/index.html)
Sonex was the first thought that came to mind when I saw the pick. This have tandem seating?
Quote from: Waiex191 on December 07, 2020, 05:26:07 PM
Quote from:
/quote]
Ha! I have very little simulator time. I have a fair amount of time for a hobbyist. A big chunk of my time is either towing or flying gliders. A little of it is flying helicopters.
That's cool i wish i had a plane like yours :good2:
QuoteAre you sure about it being a Type 1 motor?
It's a type 1 block cast from magnesium down in Brazil. All of the other parts come from aftermarket supply - crank, pistons & cylinders, heads, cam, oil pump, and so on. All of the nifty red anodized parts are what Sonex kits up to convert it to an aero engine. The cam is mild as redline is set at 3600 RPM. With a direct drive propeller you are pretty much limited by the speed of sound (RIP Yeager) at the tips of the prop. 2180CC is typically the biggest displacement people get out of "normal" type 1 engines. If this motor didn't end up in my Waiex it would probably be in somebody's classic or hot-rod bug, or sandrail. What would you call this motor Noel?
QuoteThis have tandem seating?
Side by side.
(http://fjowners.com/gallery/12/6694_08_12_20_8_04_00_1.jpeg)
It has full dual controls. I taught myself to sew last year and made the interior.
(http://fjowners.com/gallery/12/6694_08_12_20_8_04_00_0.jpeg)
QuoteThat's cool i wish i had a plane like yours
They do sell them overseas! Lots (relatively) in Australia, also in Europe. There are 6 completed in Norway and another 4 under construction. You can find out exactly where here:
https://www.sonexaircraft.com/sonex-builder-database/ (https://www.sonexaircraft.com/sonex-builder-database/)
We gotta stuff an FJ motor in there somehow...
Quote from: ZOA NOM on December 08, 2020, 08:50:02 AM
We gotta stuff an FJ motor in there somehow...
That would be cool. You would need a gear reduction, and the firewall forward weight limit is 200 lbs. I have no idea how much an FJ motor weighs.
The beauty of experimental aviation is you can do pretty much whatever you want!
Quote from: Waiex191 on December 08, 2020, 08:09:23 AM
QuoteAre you sure about it being a Type 1 motor?
What would you call this motor Noel?
0K, OK, I don't wish to be this weeks nomination for "Pedant of the Month", you are correct.
All beetles up to the retro model in the early 2000's were referred to as type 1's by the factory. However, for the obvious reason of identifying the various generations of engines from each other, on the workshop floor they were referred to as Type 1,2,3, & 4 engines, all fitted of course to Type 1's (the cars). So, to a mechanic, a wrecker or a spare parts guy, a Type 1 engine would be 1100cc / 25hp dating back to pre WW2.
VW's (Beetles and Kombi's) were still hugely popular when I started work and to this day there is something I love about driving them, gutless as they are. Along with Model T's and Mini's, the Beetle in my opinion is one of the the most significant cars of the 20th century.
Noel
My brother in law spent time based in Germany in the early seventies . While there he bought an old beetle to drive. The engine seized one day so he and a buddy picked up an engine from a wrecker and installed it. It ran ok but he couldn't get it to go more than 45 mph. He finally took it to a local mechanic who pulled a head and found they had installed an 800 cc industrial version of the motor.
My second car while still in high school was a 64 beetle with the twelve hundred.most of my friends had V -8 American cars so one day I decided to mix a batch of fuel to make it more competitive. I went to Butler aviation and filled up with 110 octane aviation fuel then added moroso octane booster and five mothballs. I had headers and a glass pack muffler and the people behind me said I was blowing flames out of my pipe. I definitely got a hp increase I was able to spin my tires and my mileage went from 20 mpg to 30 mpg for that tankful. I would grab the front bumper and shake the car each time before I started it to make sure the mothballs stayed mixed up and didn't settle to the bottom of the tank and blow a piston out of the crankcase. My buddies with their V-8's still blew my doors off in the 1/4 mile.
I grew up in SoCal in the '60's during the golden age of drag racing. There was this aftermarket company called EMPI...or something like that.. the VW guys had these street legal bugs that would turn low 13 second quarters at over 105....some even dip into the high 12's. These little guys would hook up and go..
They would surprise the crap out of the heavy Chevy and Fords....amazing little cars.
Quote from: T Legg on December 09, 2020, 07:02:12 AM
......My second car while still in high school was a 64 beetle ......
Haha, I love that story.
Of my many cars over the years one of the regretful sales (now) was a mint, and I mean showroom, one lady owner, barely used, black Karmann Ghia. At the same time, the automotive engineering shop that did all my work ( and the one that designed and built the Brabham F1 engines) had a just built, hot, flat six Corvair motor (which was never sold in Australia) that quadrupled the hp and was already converted to bolt straight into a VW for a mere $2200. This was in the early 80's and even then that was a bargain. The only thing that stopped me was I would have had to chop the back end of the Karman and it was such a beautiful example I couldn't bring myself to do it.
In hindsight, I should have bought the motor anyway and then found a Beetle to fit it to, they were plentiful and cheap back then and the later models had disc brakes, radials and were relatively stable.
If I could go back and pick the eyes out of everything two and four wheeled I've ever owned, I'd have a very nice collection but of course none of them were classics at the time. There was always something better that required quitting what I currently had to finance the next one. I could retire on what the Aussie muscle cars alone would bring today.
Noel
EMPI's.......I remember those. The EMPI equipped VW's were called "Inch Pinchers"....
FjLee
Here is a fast Norwegian beetle worlds fastest built on original chassi and body https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU2_AV8u8Vk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU2_AV8u8Vk)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnvzCUIgXTQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnvzCUIgXTQ)
He must have put ten mothballs in his tank.
I will tell you how bad some young men are today
My daughter used the shop at her workplace to change out her starter in her truck and the 3 young men she works with left to go to the bar.
She also comes home and uses my shop to change the oil in her truck.