I had a buddy of mine pop by a bit back and asked if I wanted to go riding. Having the honey do list under control, school work done and my work berry was quiet I jumped at the chance to lay some rubber down. Who am I kidding, I would have gone anyway.

I wheeled my scoot out of the garage, The Widow and I were out a few hours earlier, but I started to go over the bike. My buddy asked what I was doing, I smiled thinking that he was kidding and answered, “Pre flight check!”   What surprised me was his response, “Why?” 

This got me thinking, I had always done a Before You Ride or Preflight Check before getting on the bike. Some more extensive checks than others but always checked out the bike. Maybe I’m just overly cautious or OCD, perhaps a bit anal. Who knows?  What I do know is that I trust my life to my scoot and she is an extension of me.  I know every sound, feel and bolt on my ride. I listen when she speaks, like a good horse she needs to be taken care of.  I don’t want to be left stranded, or worse. So I put together a before you ride check list.

If I make sure that she is okay before we head out she will bring me home safe. 

There have been more than a few occasions that new riders have asked about tools. I have looked around and not many sites will list the basic tools that are needed to wrench a bike. Hell most sites think that everyone is mechanically inclined. Now this isn’t an offense to anyone but not all riders are wrench monkeys. However some of the basics can be learned by just about everyone.

The truth is if you own a motorcycle, no matter the motorcycle, you will need to do some maintenance; general or roadside. This got me thinking about what is in my garage toolbox and what tools do I keep in my roll bag for those roadside moments.   

I find that the Cleveland Cyclewerks tha Heist is a great machine for both the novice and veteran rider, more so for the novice wrench monkey.  This machine is a great learning bike in so many ways foremost riding but also for the casual dabbler. For me there is a sense of pride when I wrench my bike, no matter what needs to be done. This can be just tightening the bike, bolting on new custom parts or general maintenance.

Look for the toolbox under info, if you see I missed something let me know.

~Gardo

So I took the Bike out for a spin yesterday, 28* out but it needed to be done. There is something to say about cold weather riding. You are pretty much the only 2 wheeler out there. Cagers look at you like you are insane but I got the thumbs up from the Police cars i passed and 2 different crews on firetrucks. Made me smile under the neoprene mask.

the new pipe sounded good on the run and managed to TON up on the highway, even with the cold weather gloves, my fingers went numb. So after tooling around for better than an hour I decided to pull the pipe off the bike and wrap it.  Two reasons for this, the first is that a wrapped pipe looks better and the second is that while warming my hands down by the engine I noticed I melted my gloves. Now I have black smudges all over the bend of the pipe. 

Any how i loaded a sound byte of the pipe without the wrap and now one with the wrapping. Pipe was painted today and still hanging in my inner sanctum, the basement, drying. Tomorrow is rumored to be in the mid thirties, maybe I'll take her out in the afternoon and video the ride.

Here's the sound byte of the pipe wrapped


 

Six days into the new year and the weather for the weekend looks good, perfect enough to test out some new mods being done up to the tha Widow. The biggest change will be a new custom Weaver Drop Pipe, the kick starter is free and unrestricted now, and the other is a set of 4" barrel seat springs that will be added with the air ride suspension. Pics to be added later for the seat.


I do have a pic and a  sound byte of the new pipe. Enjoy 

~Gardo