Winterizing Your Bike; Step Three

Don't.

Winter is a great time to get your must have customizing or time consuming repairs done.

Some of the things that wrenches like to see coming into the shop at this time are top in rebuilds, persistent leaks, horny naked women, and engine machine work. Bringing your bike in for general maintenance will keep you on the road come spring, and a wonderful preventative for staying out. The list is a scientific poll from various mechanics in various shops.

Winter is also the best time to have that talk with your wrench. You know the talk, the one where you have all these grandiose plans for your bike. Winter is a slow time for mechanics, they are better able to answer all your questions and give you your best options, rather than in the spring where the hustle and bustle of making sure that bikes are out of the shop and under the owner in a short time.

A big mistake that many owners do, is forgetting about needed work until riding season comes around. If you have a problem, or there is something that is concerning you, talk to your wrench now, rather than later. The turn around rate for major repairs at this time is much quicker than in the spring and summer. And if you don't talk now, please hold your tongue come spring, it's your fault that your ride is up on the lift. Think ahead and have your wrenches complete attention.

Winterizing your Bike; Step 2

You really need to show your motorcycles battery a bit of love. The worst thing for a battery is to be discharged and then get cold.

For under $30 you can get a Battery Tender.



Or for $85-$110 you can replace your battery. You decide.

It's rather simple, just put this little baby on your bike, and it will keep your battery warm. It plugs into your wall outlet, and at times, the tender will check on your battery to see if any charging is needed, if so, it will switch on and stroke it for you, if not, it goes into stand by mode.

This product, not necessarily a certain company, is a must have for those long winter nights to keep you baby warm, and to be able to get her started up several weeks or months later, as if you just put her to bed the night before.

You can purchase a battery tender at just about any of your local shops.

Winterizing your Bike; Step one

It is getting too cold out for many riders. Some of us however don't care what the weather throws at us, except hail, that hurts just a bit. But it is time to start thinking about winterizing your bike, for those of you that put her (or him) to sleep this time of year.

The most important thing to do after you park your bike, is to turn off the gas and run your carberators dry. Many people neglect to do this, and will call their wrenches in the spring in a panic because all their small gas componantss have varnished and now their bikes will not idle without the choke wide open. And their bikes sounding like shit.

Doing this simple trick will save you money in the long run.

Are Volenteers Getting too hands on?

Disclaimer before I start. This is only one side of the story, I was unable to talk with anyone that knew or was willing to give the other half of the story.

There might be some trouble brewing for the Salvation Army and their involvement with the Annual Wichita Toys for Tots run. For the past several years, the directors of Toys for Tots have had issues with the Salvation Army and them disclosing how many families they actually serve each year. This does cause many problems for the directors as without this information, there could be trouble if they were to be audited for the fundraiser.

The Marines have served this area, participating with the Toys for Tots program without complaint. They have one man that stays in contact with the directors all year long. Checking in with them at least 4 times before planning for the event actually begins. They are a big reason why Toys for Tots is successful.

The Toys Runs for Kansas have always been quite successful. Thousands of families have received new unwrapped toys for their children every year. Unfortunately many bikers and other witnesses have claimed to seen some unsavory conduct by the S.A. Volunteers. It seems that they have been seen pulling aside some of the more expensive items, and saving them to give to their own family and friends.

How the toys are split up between the two groups, is an even distribution, however it is the S.A. Volunteers that decide what their organization receives, and what the Marines get. An Example is any new bikes go to the S.A. while refurbished bicycles go to the Marines. This is not a prearranged agreement. Fortunately the families that receive this gifts do not complain, they are grateful that someone cares enough to actually donate something to their children without expecting anything in return.

It is to be seen if the volunteers from S.A. will once again pillage from the donations, or if the Organization will step up and allow the directors to know how many families they serve. If they are unwilling o unable to co-operate, I fear that they will no longer be allowed to continue with the run.

For information about Toys for Tots, either to help or seek assistance, go to the Marines Toys for Tots Website. And don't allow what a few miscreants might be doing to dissuade you from giving this season. And don't forget about the teens when you donate, they tend to receive less donations then the infants and toddlers.

9 months no bike

Back in January, we dropped our shovel engine off with a machinist. This guy is very good. However his priorities have suddenly become skewed. The first thing out of my mouth back in July was, Is he tweaking?

I feel I was justified in asking that question. He is a 1% from back in the day. Most of his cronies are either dead or in jail, and some of those jail birds have been trickling out. And unfortunately there are a lot of tweakers out there that pass themselves off as bike wrenches. We end up with a lot of bikes from enthusists that seem to be oblivious to this fact and allowed a tweaker to touch there bike. To be honest here, tweakers are good for our business, without them, a $500 repair would never turn into a $1500 repair.

Turns out that this guy isn't tweaking, some of his riding buddies have shown back up and he was spending his days riding instead on working on any of the engine that have shown up at his place. He showed up about a month ago, showing my ol man that one of our heads was done, and it would be only a week before he could get the second one done and back to us. Did I mention that was a month ago?

Now my ol' man is very laid back. Takes quite a bit to get him angry. So we wait patiently. However I am not only hard head, but hot headed, and I am more than happy to go get our stuff back. No one will let me. I have no idea how much longer it will be before we get the engine back. But come rain or shine, snow and freezing weather, as soon as that engine is back in our bike we will be bundling up and hitting the road. It has been a long time coming,

Computer has been down

I lost my pc, but things are starting to get back to normal

I have a few interesting items. What would you like to hear about?

The Demise of Big Dog Motorcycles?

Salvation Army volunteers stealing from Toys for Tots?

or the fact that it is now winter and our engine has been at the machinists for 9 months!

oh I know you want to hear about all of it. Right o. I will tell you everything on the next post.

The Entire Story

I was finally able to hear the whole story of what happened with Brian.

It was around 4am, on a weekend night, Brian was riding down Broadway (also known as highway 81) just south of Haysville. He moved over onto the shoulder, blinker on and slowing down to make a left hand turn, when he met the Jeep.

A woman racing home in her Jeep, around 4 am after a night of partying. Drunk and late, she had to hurry home before the children she left alone woke up. When she met up with a motorcycle on the left shoulder.

She swerved onto the shoulder and slammed into him, her car dragged him 60 yards, before is was dislodged. She never slowed, let alone stopped to see what she had hit. Instead she hurried on. Brian lay in the road until someone else was able to help him.

As you know, Brian is no paralyzed from the waist down. What you don't know, is that they found this woman the next day. And as in so many other stories I have heard, and seen (we lost a dear friend a few years ago) nothing happened to this woman. She is free to continue to take the lives of bikers, other motorists and possibly pedestrians.

How many times does this have to happen before someone stops them. Punish those that take the lives of others because of their incompetence or shear stupidity?