Old Car and Bike rambling

As an owner of an early 80s cb750, it quickly becomes obvious that the CV carburetors on these old motorcycles require the original airbox to run properly. It would seem like a minor price to pay for the reliability and dependability that we get with the design since no jetting changes are needed as we change altititude or swap exhausts. The constant vacuum (CV) design automatically compensates for the difference and keeps the bike running happily. Just don't change the airbox or use anything other than the original style airfilter. I got my bike running perfectly so I'm either a glutton for punishment or just a dumb geek who can't leave stuff alone. "If it aint broke, fix it until it is" might be my motto. People tell me I wouldn't be happy with a new bike because there would be nothing to fix. Maybe it's just a way for me to keep my mind busy so I don't have to think how much I hate my job. I started noticing some posts from people on cb1100f...

I'm sure this is not the perfect place to put this post but when I'm wrenching or riding or driving, my mind tends to contemplate other things that might have caught my fleeting attention at some point in the past. It's even more interesting when I'm able to connect 2 seemingly unrelated topics so here goes. Unsustainable growth If people never stopped growing physically, we would probably be 20ft tall by the time we die of all the consussions from hitting our heads on low hanging objects or from bending over just to fit into our homes. If the world population continued growing, the world would run out of space for everyone but not before our small blue planet ran out of food, clean water and natural resources. When corporations go public, they sell off part of the company in exchange for cash. When people buy stocks in the initial public offering, they are paying the company for a small piece of the pie. Stock holders demand continuous growth or the stock price is pumm...

I picked up a Cycle-X 4-2-1 exhaust system in the spring for a price I could not refuse. The previous owner wasn't happy with the visual styling or the sound output of the exhaust system on his cb750F. While he was happy with the performance and the ground clearance, he preferred the sound of his old kerker exhaust to the new Cycle-X exhaust which he found too buzzy. He listed the pipes for sale on the 1100f forum but there were no takers after his slightly negative review of the pipes. Then he listed them on ebay and I watched the auction close with no bidders. Still recovering from my family's financial mess from the winter of 2009, I was determined not to be drawn out from the shadows to buy the pipes until he lowered the price some more and relisted. After receiving only 1 bid for the whole week, I decided to put in a bid during the last hour and step away from the auction feeling confident that I would not win and feeling even better that I had atleast tried to buy them at...

Over the winter I changed the Master Cylinder, added dual piston calipers with EBC HH pads, cb900 cams and CBR Coils. I probably should have taken her out for a ride sooner or rode her around for atleast 2 seasons before making the upgrades because my memory is not so good and can't really provide a reliable seat-of-the-pants feel before and after. The bike revs effortlessly now and brake modulation feels very nice. The cb900 cams are in, but I can't remember how slow the bike was last year. She scares the heck out of me now in the 6-8k rpm range and I'm pretty sure I only hit that range once or twice in my local around town riding last year so not really much to compare and remember. It definitely feels different now though because it gets up to 5k rpm so much easier than last year. Unfortunately I'm noticing a new sound around 5.2k rpm, not sure if it's a baffle or something else is loose, but I can hear a rattle or vibration out of the exhaust when I rev it in th...

I hope if you are reading this, you understand the importance of wearing helmets. There are plenty of articles with statistics and studies that prove wearing a helmet is better than not wearing one, but if you are one of those people who don't think it looks cool or believe the misinformation perpetuated by well meaning buddies, please stop reading and find somewhere else to surf. There are alot of styles, colors and designs to choose from when shopping for a helmet but if you can't find a properly fitting helmet, your riding experience will be marred by terrible headaches and/or burning hotspots. If you can't wear your helmet longer than 30 minutes you'll likely choose not to wear the protection inorder to keep riding just to get home. I was cursed with an unusual shaped head all my life and so will my son. Looking at my grade school pictures (and my son's), I can easily make out the egg shape of my head. Wide at the top over my ears and tapering down below my ears...

Upgrading the performance of an early 80s cb750 using the camshafts from a cb900 is not only cost efficient, but doable for the shade tree DIYer thanks to the existence of forum experts and the wealth of searchable knowledge from others who have asked the same questions before. I found a set of cb900 cams on ebay for small change last year (under $30 shipped). There are lots of folks parting old motorcycles and DOHC cb750s and cb900s sold well enough to support bike dismantling to keep the existing bikes on the road for years to come. Since there are so few people actually riding these classic bikes, there's not alot of competition for many of the parts. With the exception of carburetors, most parts can be acquired for a reasonable amount on ebay. So what will 900 cams do for a 750? From the seat of the pants, there is expected to be a very noticeable gain in midrange performance with most owners exclaiming the upgrade to be well worth the effort even though some of them experi...

People are like prunes. As they age, their skin gets wrinkly and their essence intensifies. My wife likes to ridicule me and some of the company I keep. She calls us geeks. One might have an interest in cars, motorcycles, Star Trek, or Star Wars, but anything more than a passing interest makes me a Geek. There's a fine line that separates hobbyists and I'm not sure when one stops being one and crosses into full fledged geekdom. Could it be that 4th cat or the peculiar ability to remember what size tires virtually any car needs? How about the ability to discuss in detail the philosophy behind the societal structure of the Star Trek multiverse? Although my wife likes to rib me, she's got a geek in her too (besides me every other month). She's the PTA mom from hell. Every kid in each of my 3 kid's schools know her and many think she works at the respective school as a teacher. Looking forward to continued Geekdom. I am currently researching the possibility of adding G...