Motorcycle Thoughts

Rode with a fellow last weekend out to Youngstown Ohio (more on that later). He was riding a Dyna of ‘05 vintage I believe, nice bike, no windshield. He did complain about the wind when we got to Y-town.

This got me thinking about windshields, My Goldwing has a windshield of course and is incredibly easy to ride.  My Shadow-Aero does not have a windshield,  I have not rode it in some time but I do remember when riding that at less than the double nickels no real problems. Anything better than 60 MPH and things start getting a bit more difficult. This fact was compounded by the handlebars on that machine, big wide beach bars, all you are is a sail, with your arms holding you against the wind.

When I bought the Softail I rode it home and the first few days without a windshield. Interestingly enough it was the first ride to Medina with the wife that prompted the windshield purchase. She could not believe how much wind you get with nothing in front of you (duh!).  I told her a windshield would make things much better. We got to Medina and purchased a windshield, with the help of Ron our salesman and the handy set of tools from his bike we installed it in the parking lot. It was easy to install the docking hardware, installing  the shield itself is a little more trouble, this has since been remedied by using a silicone spray on the rubber docking hardware and wearing in the pieces. The trip to Akron after installing the shield was much more pleasant for her.  I really do not feel I need a windshield… or so I thought.

When the bike is getting washed the windshield generally comes off.  One of the technicians at Century Harley-Davidson told us the best way to get the bugs off of the windshield is to put a towel over it and soak the towel. This moistens the bodies and other carnage, makes them easier to remove. I took the bike for a ride to see if I can diagnose a pulling problem, make sure it wasn’t caused by the windshield. I could not believe what a wimp that I have become.  I really like having the windshield, I believe that it has made the first 2750 miles much more pleasant. I believe if I was just running into town and the windshield was not on the bike for some reason, I would not bother putting it on. However anything above the double nickels for extended periods of time, I am going with the windshield.

Here we are in the middle of September in North East Ohio, the days are getting shorter, the weather is getting cooler. Today is supposed to only get to 59°, a might nippy but it is supposed to warm up. Football season has begun and the Browns are looking awful. I have been on the Goldwing a lot lately driving her back and forth to work. I pick up my 9 year old son from school, and he seems to have a problem with the Harley-Davidson. It does not have a sissy bar and he does not want to ride on it. Seems that when I pick him up from school, he has a full bag of books and the Goldwing has no problem with it. It does seem that he is much more proud when Dad picks him up on the motorcycle than when I pick him up with cloe (my car).

I do love that bike for exactly what it is. An excellent and very luxurious touring motorcycle, perfectly suited to eat the miles and get there in comfort and feeling good. I cannot even imagine riding the Shadow-Aero to North Carolina with no place to store anything, a motor that is really shakey (no balancing or other such smoothing technology, nor a windshield. The Softail has managed to strike a nice balance between the two, offering the windshield (yes I know I could put one on the Shadow, and did - it was aweful) relatively smooth ride, but mostly for me, the motorcycle element. I was looking at the Goldwing yesterday thinking how much like a two wheeled car the thing looked.
Morning Rides
Most mornings, because of my son, I have ridden the Goldwing to work, the experience outside the bike, is essentially the same. I ride East in the morning along US 30, some of the most amazing sun rises in this area, are seen as you ride up the hill toward the Apple Creek Rd. overpass. Just as the sun is starting to peak over the horizon. The weather is cool and crisp, this really helps to cut down on the amount of coffee needed in the morning. The colors, however, are rich and vibrant as the sun paints the sky and clouds in a way that man has yet to come close to duplicating.
As I continue to travel past the Apple Creek Rd. overpass, the highway turns south around a field on the right. Most mornings the field is covered with a layer of fog that is very unique from morning to morning. Sometimes smooth and creamy sometimes more rough edged like a cloud, sometimes completely obscuring the field, othertime in patches. Tried to get some photos yesterday of a particularly beautiful moment of the sunrise but could not do it safely.

It was tough, I called at least three different repair shops in the area. The problem is I needed to feel good about who would apply a wrench to my Pride and Joy. This is, after all, My Bike. I know, I know, there are thousands and thousands of Honda Shadows on the road, probably thousands of Aeros, and 100’s of thousand bikes in general. My Shadow-Aero is nothing special in most peoples eyes, most say it isn’t a Harley. No it is not a Harley, too bad, it is a Honda, and I like my Honda, Respect My Bike. I do not care about the thousands and thousands of other bikes, well I do care, but they are not as important to me as my bike.

The chosen repair facility would have to meet some criteria. First, Respect my bike, show that respect. Second, Show the knowledge, the problem that I am having with the bike is obvious, I already know what is wrong with the thing. Third, respect me, I am not stupid, I make mistakes and say some stupid stuff from time to time, but I am the customer. I paid good coin for my scoot, I am paying the repair facility good coin to fix it, call me, IM me, email, etc, I DO want to know. Fourth, you need to have a shop that I am comfortable with, if you run a pit you will not treat my bike right. This extends to your personel as well, they better not look or act like the two grease monkeys on the great movie Vacation. My bike needs to be respected at your facility as well. I do not want to leave my pride and joy anywhere strange, but I accept that I will have to, make sure you put it inside if it must stay over night, if it starts to rain put it inside! Fifth, get the bike in as fast as possible, take your time fixing the thing but be timely.

I will sometimes consider the dealer in certain repair decisions. I have had a lot of bad (really bad) experiences with Honda Dealerships. That includes Motorcycles and Cars. I have utilized the local dealer (All-Seasons Wooster, Ohio) on one occasion for the Goldwing but that was only after having a long talk with the service manager, and it wasn’t that major of a job. Overall All Seasons gives me a bad feeling. They are expensive and seem to not care for Honda’s in general. They carry BMW motorcycles, fine motorcycles, no doubt.

The first company that I called I wanted to work with, they came recommended by a very reliable source. I tried very hard to explain in a tactful way, a way that would not make me sound like some type of Psycho about my bike. Unfortunately, I did not end up with a very good feel about the company. The person on the other end of the line did not sound like he had any respect for my bike, or me. He also was running about a week behind, what does that say about him, his shop, etc. It also tells me that you need to hurry up to catch up. My scoot will have to stay overnight at your facility for 5-7 nights, that is 4-6 too many. 4-6 additional times that you could screw up my bike, 4-6 additional days that I am without my scoot. Unacceptable, sorry.

The second place that I called was a place right down the road from me, called two wheeled pony. When I go by the shop it looks ok, they seem like a good facility. I called them, asked them if they work on metrics (non Harley’s), nope the guy said on the other end of the phone with a sarcastic almost condescending tone to his voice (probably just me though), only Harley’s and Harley based customs. Whatever, your loss.

The third and final was a long shot. I looked into them at a recent Motorcycle swap meet at the Wooster Ohio fair grounds. The repair shop seemed like another Harley ONLY shop, so I did not have high hopes. Called the guy at Cleveland Road Cycle. “Do you work on metrics” I asked, “Oh yeah, Harley’, Honda’s, we work on em all”. Talked with the guy on the phone for a bit, still didn’t have that great of a feeling, but I decided to take it to him to see what he would say. After work I went home fired up my baby, and headed out. Hated the popping, all the way north of Wooster on route 3. This has got to end. Got there it took him a while to finish up with the customer ahead of me, but it was my turn. I explained to him what it was doing and what I suspected. He said that I would have to leave it for the night because his guy already went home for the day. Damn, oh well. He asked if the problem would show up right away, Oh yeah. To make a long story short, he diagnosed the problem, told me exactly what he planned to do, how long it would take, and how much it would cost. After he got done, shut the bike off, walked around the bike, said ” this is really a nice bike”. Respect the bike I thought to myself, finally, I felt ok.

I was on edge the rest of the night. Kept going into the basement where the bike generally sits, looking at the empty space. The next day at work was a bit tougher than usual, but I got through it. Must have missed the phone call, toward the end of the day looked at the cell phone; 1 missed call. Listened to the voice mail; “Bike is done, runs good, come get it” as a programmer I like it short, sweet and to the point, but a bit more detail wouldn’t be bad, oh well.

Couldn’t get out of work fast enough. Love my job, love my employer, had to go. Ran home and waited for my wife to pick me up to go over and get the scoot. Took forever. Finally got there, looked skeptically over the bike, few smudges, some finger prints, no problem. No scratches, fabulous. Clicked the key to the on position jabbed the easy go button. Oh babbbbbyyyy, she is right again, what a sound and nay a pop. Further inspection would reveal that the some plugs had not been replaced over the air screws (who cares). A very fair price of $175.00 for rebuild of two carburetors and NO Scratches such a deal, couldn’t be more ecstatic.

After some chit chatting, I got on the road and gingerly started playing with the throttle, winding her up and letting it coast at closed throttle, not even a cough, sweet. Took my joy into Wooster which is ripe with hills, rolled her all the way down buckeye street which is maybe three miles all downhill. This allowed the bike to coast at speed in gear at closed throttle. It coughed twice the entire way, not even a single spit or pop. Suh-weet.

I got it all, respect for my bike, for me, my bike fixed, fair price, timely, descent shop. I recommend Cleveland Road Cycle for any repairs that you do not want to do yourself. Good man there. Feel Free to tell him the Black Shadow Aero sent you.

My beloved Honda Shadow-aero is still having problem. Earlier I posted about the problems that the motorcycle was having. It is clearly experiencing a problem in the idle or low speed jet. When the throttle is closed the engine pops and spits from the exhaust pipe. When coasting the popping gets worse. Then when rolling down a hill (which are plentiful in the NorthEast Ohio area) the popping and spitting are much worse.

In an act of desperation I attempted to use a fairly strong treatment of Sea Foam. Unfortunately the results were not very good. It seems that matters got better, but the problem never went away.

I have no choice, I am going to have to have somebody take the carbs apart. Most would probably not be too concerned about this, but this is MY bike. My bike is My bike, I have had this bike since new, I have made the bike all my own. I have labored to take good care of the machine. It only has one seat, 98% of the miles on the bike are with my butt in the seat, so the bike is truly MY bike. This causes a problem for me regarding letting others touch MY bike, let alone place a wrench on it. Fear of scratches or general disrespect to the bike are always weighing on my mind. The search will be long and hard. The time frame is short, because I really need to have this bike available for use. The Gold wing is nice but the Aero is MY bike

The Bike has been stuck in stasis for a couple of years. When I lived in Michigan I put it away for the winter one year according to the instructions. This included fuel stabilizer and draining the carbs.

Since then the bike has not run right. I believe strongly that the idle jet is plugged up because it is popping at closed or slightly cracked throttle when coasting, or going down hill.

I bought a can of sea-foam mixed it into the fuel tank. I started out conservatively at 1.6oz per Gallon. I shook the bike vigorously and ran it idling the best I could get it to idle for about 10 to 15 minutes. I then shut it off for the night. The next day fired it up and it seemed to be running better, but it is difficult to tell. I rode it for a while around the neighborhood. Again, seems to be getting better. Now it is good and warmed up, sure is good to ride it again. Rode it on and off for the next few days, short mostly. In the mean time emailed the sea-foam people to get some descent advice about their product. Didn’t necessarily like the tone of the email rather condescending, either way, they assured me that the product could be mixed at 2oz to 1 gallon very safely. Finally, went camping took it down to the camper despite the threat of rain, still nice to ride. Emptied the tank the best I dared, poured the rest of the can in and topped her off with the premium petrol from the local station. Seemed to be popping less, perhaps it is getting better. Got it home after the weekend (just beat the rain). Right now I am in California, so the Shadow-Aero is sitting at home in the basement hopefully getting better.