Old Car and Bike rambling

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...

In part 1 of the CB750c brake upgrade post, I discussed my brake caliper upgrade from a single piston caliper to a dual piston caliper from a 1985 VF500. My next brake upgrade is the master cylinder. During my brake research, I calculated that my brake ratio was still less than perfect even with the caliper upgrade (I went from 9.43:1 to 10.45:1 from just the caliper change). While I still haven't taken the upgraded bike out for a test ride, I decided I would upgrade the master cylinder to improve the lever feel and brake modulation. I was determined to have a nice progressive brake lever without the harshness reported by the cx500 blogger who upgraded to a dual 30mm piston caliper from the cb900. (his resulting brake ratio of 9.18:1 was much worse than mine at 12.7:1 after the MC upgrade) I searched a few days for replacement master cylinders on the Internet but they are not easy to find because people don't usually go around replacing them the way they replace their...

The bike was a gift from a friend who didn't want to see me waste money on my first bike. He gave it to me when I told him about my intention to take the MSF beginner rider course. I didn't even remember that he had a motorcycle, so it was a pleasant surprise since I already had an approved loan to buy a new 2009 Kawasaki Versys in lime green. The cb750 had been sitting in his garage for roughly 28 years with less than 4,000 miles on the odometer. No doubt a very nice old bike. In the photo is the bike 5 minutes after I got it into my garage. The brakes were dragging as we rolled it off the enclosed uHaul truck so it was a considerable effort to push it into it's new home. 1 Month and $800 later, she was road worthy and I had my motorcycle endorsement. Little did my friend know that he would re-ignite an interest that I've had since childhood. Although memories of living in Brooklyn, NY and riding around the streets on my bicycle making 'vroom vroom' sounds migh...

My 1991 Audi 200 Quattro 20valve Turbo. One of the last of 1,200 cars imported to the U.S. I bought this car 120,000 miles and 10 years ago. Within months of purchasing it from an Internet CFO for $12,000 the dreams of big turbos and big brakes ruled my thoughts while I waited for the small turbo to die. Diligently, I replaced worn out parts with higher performance ones. Porche 996 monoblock front brakes, a Forge bypass valve, 2 sets of wheels, Samco intake hoses and probably a handful of other smaller things that escape my memory after all these years and miles. She's been fairly reliable over the years and I certainly can't complain about the all wheel drive capability in the snow even with performance tires. I planned on upgrading to a Garret GT3071 ball bearing turbo with somekind of matching engine management software to increase the horse power into the 350+ range. I was sure the turbo would die and I would be doing 4 wheel burnouts the following summer, but instea...

I recently came across a blogger post for upgrading the single piston front brake caliper for a Honda CX500 using the dual piston brake caliper from a 1982 cb900. I had been researching bolt-on upgrades to improve the braking ability as well as the brake feel for my old CB750c. I wanted improved braking. The cb750 brake lever has a wooden feel and requires a fair amount of pressure for a decent stop. My suspicion is that disk brake technology was so new that the engineers didn't really have time to figure out all the details they needed for effective brakes.  These poor disk brakes were already a big improvement over the original drum front brakes. My experience on a new Vulcan 500 convinced me it could be done because it has great brakes with good feel and the configuration is single disk with a single piston caliper just like my 750. My next hurdle was deciding what caliper I would use in my upgrade since I had 2 left calipers. With only 2 auctions, I inadvertently purc...