Man Builds Wheelchair Accessible Trike

     Now here is a motivating story coming out of Florida, it’s about a man who built himself a handicap accessible trike using a Harley Softail.  This is a great story; Chris Tavantzis of Miami, Fl has been battling polio since he was a child, but that didn’t stop him from enjoying the thrill of a motorcycle. 

      Tavantzis has spent the last 10 years developing his wheelchair accessible trike.  “I am in (an) electric wheelchair from Polio; long before the advent of so many handicapped aids. I have designed many items for my own needs and it’s time to share my skills and experience in a design that works,” Tavantzis states on his website christrikes.com (lots of info and pics on the site).  Check out this youtube video of him leading a parade. 

     The kit will work on any Harley Softail from 1990 up to present models, and the cost starts at $15,000.  The kit features a ramp for either a regular or electric wheelchair as well a safety feature that locks him in his seat.  The brakes are routed through one master cylinder on the handlebars and other features, such as a limited-slip differential and adjustable suspension, are also available. 

     According to an article on today.msnbc, Tavantzis recently attended a conference where he drew the attention of 28 different vendors.  It is great to see someone who refuses to let something like a crippling disease keep him from ever riding a motorcycle, no doubt an inspiration to us all.  I’d love to go for a ride with him some day.   Until next time…..keep it between the ditches. 

Officials Rename Section of VA Route 16, “Back of the Dragon”

     This is pretty cool story I found recently.  Local officials in two Virginia counties are hoping to attract more motorcyclists to their area by renaming a popular section of VA Route 16, the “Back of the Dragon”.  The 32 mile section of Route 16 stretches between Tazewell and Marion Counties and has already been dubbed “Back of the Dragon” by riders, but this move will make it official. 

     There are three mountains between Frog Level in Tazewell County and Marion in Smyth County that give the road its name.  They are supposed to represent the humps of a dragon’s back.  You can read more about it at motorcycleroads.com.   

     A section of road in North Carolina is called “Tail of the Dragon”, and has helped increase tourism to the Deals Gap, NC area as well as stimulated a lot of economic growth .  Local officials in Tazewell and Marion Counties are hoping to bring the same growth and tourism to Virginia; they have already begun planning the “Back of the Dragon Days” in June. 

    The popular road has been featured in magazines such as BMW, and will bring a wide variety of tourists to the area, according to an article on swvatoday.com. 

     I think this is great, it’s not very often you see officials (local, state or government) making moves to welcome bikers.  Hopefully, with more and more people getting on two wheels, we might begin to see more stories like this in the news. 

Man Charged after Motorcycle Kills Pedestrian

     Now this is one of the craziest stories I have seen in some time.  This guy Joshua Cross, 21, of Holiday, FL was arrested last week and charged with vehicular homicide from an incident last year when his motorcycle struck and killed a pedestrian.  I tried to get as much info as I could about this, but I was only really able to find a few scattered news reports. 
     
      But apparently, Cross, who was 20 at the time, was riding his 1997 Suzuki (no model listed) down Louis Avenue passing slower traffic when he struck a Toyota Camry, driven by Luz Quiles, 73.   Quiles pulled in front of Cross while making a left hand turn onto Lucas Street.  The resulting impact caused the bike to flip “several times” before striking a pedestrian, Richard K. Dickens, 53, who just happened to be walking down the street.  Dickens was later pronounced dead at Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital. 
      
     Cross, who was traveling “well above the posted speed limit” according to Florida Highway Patrol (FHP), was then subsequently arrested on March 8, 2011 after FHP determined he was at fault for the death of Dickens.  He was released from the Land O’Lakes jail after he posted $10,000 bail. 
      
     Here are a couple news stories if you want to read them, but they don’t really give much more info. Here’s one. And another.  And the last one.  I know people are definitely going to have mixed feelings about this one.  I realize that Cross was at fault because he was speeding, but I’m curious what would have happened had he been within the limit.  It seems like both parties are at fault, but most of the blame seems to rest on Cross.  I’m curious how people feel about this, so feel free to leave your comments at the bottom.     

Getting the GSXR Ready for Spring - Part 2

     Ok.  Here's the second part to my 'how-did' article.  I call it a 'how-did' rather than 'how-to' article because I am by no means a professional mechanic.  I am basically a writer who is good with a wrench.  I have enough experience wrenching on bikes to feel comfortable doing the things I do, and I like to document it.  So please feel free to use this as a reference, but this info should not be used in place of a service manual.  Ok, now that my legal disclaimer is taken care of, back to the oil change.   

     For this oil change I’m using Mobil 1 4T 10w-40, I used to use Suzuki Synthic but it seems like my local dealer never has it in stock, so now I just get Mobil 1 from my local auto supply shop.  They were actually having a sale, buy 4 quarts and get a free filter.  I typically use OEM Suzuki oil filters, but this saves me a trip.  After I use this filter, I’m going to chop it in half then compare the inside to an OEM filter.  I’ll write up a post on it.  Opinions are very mixed about Fram; but hey, a free filter is a free filter. 

          

      The oil change is pretty straight forward, out with the old, in with the new.  You can find the drain plug pretty easily, it's in between the headers on the lowest part of the engine.  Suzuki is pretty slick, they put a magnet on the top of the drain plug so you can see if there are any metal shavings from inside the engine.  I also like to use an old school drain pan so I can check the oil for metal flakes as I'm pouring it out. 

     The filter is easy to get off with a filter wrench like this, otherwise it can be tricky to get a good grip on it with the hot exhaust a few inches away.  I’ll use a wrench to take it off, but most people frown about using a wrench to put it on (it’s easy to over-torque).  I’ve never noticed a leak from filters that I’ve hand-tightened.  Now I make sure that the drain plug is tight and torqued to the specs in my manual.  

     I like to keep my bike on a track stand when I change the oil as it needs to be upright to read the level in the sight window correctly.  First time I ever changed the oil in this bike I filled the engine with the bike on the kickstand, then when it was upright I realized my mistake and had to drain some out.  I also decided to try adding Seafoam to the oil too, so I put in 1 ½ oz. per quart of oil.

           

     Now that the bike is up on the track stand, this is a perfect time to lube my chain and check the tension.  My tension is fine, about a ¾ inch of play, so I just grab a rag, put a good bit of gear oil on it (something like this), and wipe it on.  I like to do it this way, as it reduces the amount of excess oil on the chain.  I hate it when a chain flings oil all over the place, especially on my clean rims (not that they are very clean right now).  

     I topped off  my coolant in the overflow bottle too, it was a little low.  I put "Engine Ice" in my cooling system last year, it's good stuff.  Ok, all set.  Now all I need to do is put the fairings back on and I should be good to go.  Even though I just charged my battery a few weeks back, I want to charge the battery for an hour just to be safe. 

           

     Well that is all I really had planned for my little spring clean up.  I do want put in some new spark plugs as well as a new clutch in the future, but that can wait a bit.  Well, now it’s time to just get out there and start riding again, so until next time…keep it between the ditches.    

And now for some uh…“lighter” news

courtesy of wesh.com

     So the 70^th year of Bike Week just wrapped up in Daytona Beach and since I am stranded in central PA, and nowhere near Florida, I had to rely on mass media and the interwebs to find the good stuff I was missing.  I don’t know if this exactly qualifies as “good stuff”, but I’ll leave that to you to decide. 

           

     Check out this video of some good ol’ fashioned bikini coleslaw wrestling at Sopotnick’s Cabbage Patch Bar in Samsula, FL.  Now that is some pretty heavy stuff (sorry I had to say it).  Nothing says Bike Week quite like 2 large bikini-clad women tossing each other around in a vat of coleslaw.  Thanks to wesh.com for the pictures and video.  

             

courtesy of CNN

     Here is another interesting story off of CNN; Rev. Philip Egitto a local pastor from Daytona offered “bike blessings” on Ash Wednesday.  “As bikers, they deserve the same as everyone else”, Egitto told CNN.  Along with a blessing of a safe journey the pastor sprinkled them with a bit of holy water.  You can check out the rest of the story here.   

             

     Well that’s it for now.  I’ll try to dig up some more interesting stories, but feel free to email Nik@bloggingbiker.com if you have a good story to share. 

Getting the GSXR Ready for Spring - Part 1

    Finally, after months of waiting for the winter to end it seems like spring is right around the corner.  Of my 4 bikes, 2 of them are registered and insured, and 1 of those 2 is lying in a heap of parts until I get my order in from J&P Cycles.  I’ve usually get my parts from them pretty quickly, but it seemed like most of the parts I ordered were on backorder. I guess a lot of people are rebuilding old Sportsters this month.  Anyway, so that leaves me one bike that is ready to ride, well mostly anyway.  I’m usually a stickler for maintenance so there are a few things that I want to take care of before I even take it for the first ride of the season. 

      The bike I am working on today is my 2003 Suzuki GSX-R 600 Alstare edition.  This is their 40th anniversary celebratory model.  I picked this particular bike up about 6 years ago while “window shopping” on Ebay, and I got it for a steal.  I’ll get more into that later, that story is enough for its own post.  Ok, enough background for now, back to the project at hand.  I was diligent last year and put on new tires as well as flushed the cooling system.  I also tore apart and cleaned the front and rear calipers, followed by fresh fluid.  So I know all those components are fine, I didn’t put enough mileage on my bike last year to go over them again (although I did do a quick check to make sure brakes were operating correctly and that the fluid level was ok).  I also charged my battery a few weeks ago so that should be good.   

      So with all of that taken care; there are only a few things that need to be dealt with before it goes out on the road.   First thing I want to do is siphon out the old gas (it’s been in there since last fall) and put in some fresh gas I just picked up.  I’ve used Seafoam in the past but I haven’t used it in my GSXR before, but I know a lot of people do so what the hell.  I added 1 oz. per gallon of fuel.  Hopefully it cleans my injectors as advertised, although one of my friends did tell me that the fuel pressure on a bike like this is so high that the injectors don’t really get very dirty.  I haven’t looked into that bit of info, but it sounds good (If anyone can confirm or deny that, please email Nik@bloggingbiker.com).  Ok, after that is done I start her up and get the engine nice and warm.  I wait until the engine is around 200 degrees then shut it off and pull it back in the garage (the oil will remove more of the sludge in your engine at normal operating temp).  Now I’m ready to change the oil. 



        I already have my fairings off at this point, but they need to be pulled before the oil is changed.  The task of removing the fairings can take about as long as it does to change the oil, and can be a real  PITA (especially the first time you do it).  You might want to put a piece of cardboard under the bike as you do it, so the fairings don’t get scratched when they are lying on the dirt.  There are two difficult parts in removing the fairings; the first part is removing the fasteners on the underside of the bike.  Easiest way is to take a screwdriver and pop out the center, and then simply pull the entire fastener out.  The next part can really try your patience.
   

There is another type of fastener at the front of the fairing, back behind the blinker, that connects the air dam of the fairing to an air damn under the front cowl.  I find it easiest to save this for last (this is where that piece of cardboard will come in handy).  With the fairing off and resting on the floor, take a wide flat screwdriver and push the center of the fitting out from the inside.  All that’s left now is to unhook the wiring for the blinker.


 Note:  I was originally going to make this one post, but it turned out way too long.  Part 2 will follow.

Shovelhead Draft Beer Tower…..and My 1st Blog

     So after wasting enough time sitting around and thinking about it, I decided it was time that I started a blog about motorcycles and everything related to motorcycles.  It seemed like good timing too, my band RtL just played at a bar in Cresson, PA called Magoo’s.  This place is just covered floor to ceiling with Harley gear.  First off I’ll show you the tap tower, this thing is awesome.  All I know is it is from a Shovelhead.  I’m definitely going to have to learn more about it, it is one of the coolest towers I have seen (I would know too, I work for a brewery and I have seen many a tap tower). I'm not sure how much work went into this tower, but I'm sure it was a lot.  It is definitely a one-of-a-kind tower.  If anyone has any pictures of similar tap towers, let me know, I'll post them up.

     If you are riding through central PA, and you haven't stopped by Magoo's, you should check it out.  They also have a kitchen and a fairly large food menu (I've never had any, but their burgers look good).  Anyway, back to the shovelhead, these pictures are too small to show this thing it all it's glory, I can email better pictures if anyone wants them.  The bar staff at Magoo's was awesome too, they turned a light on to let me get a better picture.  They even let me get behind the bar to snap a picture of the drain pan.  The whole place is covered in pictures of people and their bikes, miscellaneous parts, and Harley paraphernalia that would take a lifetime to collect.

      The mural they had on the back wall of the stage was just awesome, someone really spent a lot of time on that.   You really need to see this thing in person to appreciate it, my pictures really don't do it justice.  You can check out Magoo's Facebook page to see a picture of the mural recently painted, as well as some other pics of the decor.  But these pictures will give you a pretty good idea of what it's like.  The mural on the right side looks just like the front of the place, minus the keg being dragged through the door.

      Definitely cool.  I live in a college town, and you don't have bars like that around here; although we have some pretty sweet bars.  We do have an awesome HD dealership here though, they have always been super helpful when looking for parts or fluids.  We'll have to see if they will let me in there sometime with a camera, and I will most definitely post them up here.  All right, well I guess that concludes this first inaugural post from the blogging biker, but it is far from the last.  So until next time...keep it between the ditches.