Sunday, September 28, 2008

Indian Summer

Fantastic weekend here in MT. In the 70's all weekend. I received a new Jupiter windscreen from Florida this week so went ahead and installed it. Had to drill the plexiglass to fit the mounting holes on the sidecar. I am missing whatever windshield frame mounts that are original. I have never seen the original hardware so I don't know what I'm missing. I installed some trim around the bottom and then used a foam weatherstripping along the base to cushion the screen when it is tightened. I found some black allen head bolts and had some rigid black plastic washers to spread out the pressure on the plexiglass. I used lock nuts and just barely tightened the bolts to hold the screen securely with out stressing the plexi.
Darian wanted a lightly smoked screen so that is what I ordered. Gustauffson Plastics in Florida makes hundreds of different replacement screens. I was skeptical when ordering about fitment but the screen was near perfect. I let it sit in the sun for a couple hours to let it be a little more pliable before installing. It is three inches taller than the home made one but it leans back for aerodynamics so is about the same height when installed. I makes the cockpit seem a bit smaller since it leans back.
The weather was great today so I took one final ride before breaking down the rig to load into the trailer. I must pull the hack from the bike to fit it into my trailer. Only takes a few minutes. I need the rig removed anyway as I need to re torque the heads and then check the valve clearances again. Gave the bike one final cleaning to remove three months worth of bugs and road grime from our last three trips.
Here is the rig in its' travel place. I have large I-Bolts through the floor and simply ratchet strap the frame down to the floor, chock the wheel and secure the jack stands under the rig frame. I noticed one motorcycle frame mount was a bit loose after removing the hack so will need to re adjust and check all hardware before installing again. I removed all the upholstered sidecar components and Darian will take them to Billings and have them re upholstered in the next couple weeks. I have some nice white Ultra Leather material from the motorhome which should look pretty good. I was going to go with black leather but the consensus has been that white stands out and off sets the rig when I've asked other opinions. White it is. The weather will possibly change by the end of the week so sadly the side car riding is over for a while. I need to be ready to travel if the job locations change. Might be here another month but don't know for sure right now. Should have final directions sometimes this week. May be leaving the first week of October but nothing is for sure right now. I found a long, low pair of R75/5 mufflers on E-Bay. They are 70's vintage and appear to be in pretty good shape. I want to get the Dunstall pipes off the bike and install a lower muffler which is longer. These should work perfectly if I win them. The Dunstall mufflers now installed are quite loud and my passenger complains of the noise on long trips. Also they stop right under the saddle bags and always blacken the bottom of the bags.
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Gila Mtns.

Gila Mtns.