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What Happened in Pee Paw's Scooter Shop Today?

I just wanted to "finish" the previous owner's mods, he did a lot of great stuff, so hopefully it is all brakes and tires, oil changes and gas from here on out.
 
I got the Vitpilen 701 out yesterday and did 150 miles or so. On the last half of the ride I turned off the Traction Control (no wheelies allowed control) and played a bit. She is much better with the power commander, when I fill her up again I will see how the mileage is doing, I think it is about the same. Love the little bike. Then when I got home I found we were going to go get the "new" bike for my daughter today. So, I had the bright idea to put an additional Pit Bull Trailer Restraint into the trailer so I could haul the 990 Super Duke back and get my 1290 Super Duke Evo back, also I can make the 3 hour drive to get the "soon to be discussed by my daughter's new bike" without having to drop one off. I crawled under the trailer and couldn't get my head past the axle, so I got out the jack, lifted it up, put her on jack stands and got her done. Donna, my wife, did the honors of holding the bolts from the top while I put the ugga-dugga's on them from below. Then I put the trailer back on the truck, loaded the 990 Super Duke up and put my gear inside, as Diana wants to go for a ride when we get all the bikes back to her house. So I am having coffee, looking forward to seeing Brad and Diana and getting another bike in the family.

Here is the Crankshaft Speed Sensor connection (white plug) I should have used making the Vitpilen work properly.

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I also rerouted the main harness to give me more clearance for the fuel line which makes the install of the tank much easier. It used to be on the other side of the hose and limited travel when installing the hose.

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Ran into some hooligans during my ride, but the little vit was great.

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Then we added the trailer restraint to the trailer and loaded the 990.

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I will tell you, this is the best way I know to transport a motorcycle. No tie-downs needed, they stay solid and no worries even in the bad stuff. I have the chock for bikes that either don't use them or bikes I don't have pins for. All in a good day at PPSS. In a little while I will be on the road to somewhere to get something and take it to someone who might tell you all what it is. Of course, I already know....
 
Well, we got it, took it home and it ended up at PPSS to get "touched up" before going back home tomorrow. Diana got a 1290 Super Duke R!!!! Well farkled 2015 with 2500 miles on it! I bled the brakes, filled the coolant, will fiddle with a sidecover and the tank a bit. Tomorrow she gets it and goes back home, after she returns mine. Now we have 3 in the family, so to speak.

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Enough said, it is a sweet scooter...

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Spending one night at PPSS...

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So, to finish up, the brakes were bled, probably could use another round but they are very good now. Moved the bars forward (1/2 in using the factory triple optional holes.). Cleaned at a few things, got the tires checked and in general looked her over real well. The coolant is filled, oil is good, service light properly reset, good to go.

Then we rode them. Diana started on mine, I on hers. The 2015 is so much more brutal and you sit further down in it. Not gonna lie, I miss my 2014 and this reaffirmed it. The old one is just more of a beast, but the EVO is smoother, faster, better sorted. We had to adapt to no quick shifter, but that isn't such a big deal. Loved the bike, Diana took her home and I am with my EVO again. I also noticed Diana did about 600 miles in the couple of weeks she had the bike. I rode her yesterday and she is at 7051 miles. I now need to replace the tires, again (these made it almost 5k miles, excellent for Super Dukes) and they are ordered. Rode the Vitpilen and she died on me in the driveway as I arrived home, I will investigate further, but she restarted fine, just died a time or two. We shall see.

That brings me to today, the DR200S is going to her new home today. Down south, way down. Looking forward to having only 10 motorcycles, still have one for sale, but in this economy that might last a while.

She was a great scooter, but she is becoming unused at PPSS so I put her up for sale.

Here are a few shots of me checking her out before I let her go. On the battery tender (just because, I had intended to put a tender lead on and did so Monday. She is cleaned, oil level is correct, tires are properly inflated, brakes work and are adjusted, she is ready to move on. A great little scooter, she will make a great toy for a new family.

She is a pretty scooter.

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PPSS was a nice place to visit, if you're a scooter or motorcycle junkie...

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Looks like I will go shoot sporting clays, then make sure I got all my DR200S stuff packed up, then I piddle until she goes. Glad to move her on. I think next up is the KTM 250EXC motor assembly and cleaning. Then we hopefully play with it a while, then we ride it. Then I get up after falling a time or two and move her along before I injure myself. Life is good at PPSS.
 
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Well on Wednesday, the DR200S departed PPSS for the south of Texas. Very glad she is off to a happy place, only a couple of more to sell then we sit and consider...

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Thursday, I started to assemble the 250 EXC motor and discovered I had no crank seals, so again we pause and they are on order. It's always something, but we will get there. I could be rebuilding the brakes and cleaning the swingarm and steering head bearings, but I can find lots of more fun stuff to do.

So yesterday was Tire Day at PPSS. James, onewolf, came over with his new beemer wheels and we mounted up some Shinko 705's and off he went. Pretty straightforward job, and everything was clean, and he hauled off my old 990 Super Duke tires, that was a deal.

Of course, no day would be complete without work on my stuff. Before James came over, I decided to find the leak in the GasGas front tire. I pulled off the wheel and found a tiny leak in the tube. James helped me look for debris in the tire, but apparently, I had already picked it out. I had to figure out if the fork pinch bolt was a torx or an allen, so being a high tech guy, I used the iPhone...which gave me a nice selfie and a blurred image of Mr. Pinchbolt. So I figured out it was a 5 mm allen and finished her up.

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New tube is installed and she is parked happily off to the side. I did 20 minutes of balancing and figures 8's and she works great, although I was pretty tired after playing with her. I didn't realize I got all the two-strokes in one shot.

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Then my tire dealer (yes, I am a junkie, so I have a dealer) called and said my tires were in. I bought a set of Michelin Pilot Powers (yes the old ones, single compound) for the 1290 Super Duke R EVO. I had a set of 2CTs on her and they lasted a bit over 5k miles. I must be getting old. Diana had the bike a couple of weeks and did 600 miles on them and finished them off.

So, as usual, I had to use a 6 foot piece of pipe on a breaker bar to loosen the rear wheel nut. It is only torqued to 185 ft-lb, so I guess riding her tightens it up. But I tried my big DeWalt Impact and no dice.

I do love how they come apart though. Off with the muffler, then the wheel. Like I said the big impact made no impact...

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But I won and got her off, then we clean.

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Got the new tire mounted and balanced, then we installed her, only used the torque wrench and no cheater to install the wheel.

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The Ducatis I have had do not use 2 clips on the rear, only KTM, makes it a bit fiddly to install them, i.e. you have to tweak the nut a bit, but I stayed under 200 ft-lbs...

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Then the hardest part, I turned the scooter around backwards and lifted the front to install that tire.

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Got that done, cleaned all the nasty places and put it all together.

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Loves me some new tires and a clean Super Duke R.

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All in it was a good day, I started at about 0730 and knocked off around 1740 (5:40 PM). Pee Paw was a tired old fat guy. Riding the TXT between jobs added to it. I always enjoy it, but it is a butt whippin'. I also managed to walk like 8,000 steps inside the shop while doing all that. I did go run an errand or two as well, but that is a lot of trips to the tool box and back. So, PPSS approved workout is successful. Y'all be good.
 
So, sadly, I broke the case on the KTM 250EXC and decided to part with her before I throw more cash her way. I failed to properly support the case and she bottomed on the press plate and bam! My fault, but I decide to cut my losses and move on from this guy. Sad, because I really wanted to ride it, but sometimes you got to punt.

The failure was mine, there are cases available out there, I just don't want to play any more, I have other fish to fry.

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That said, I am trying to sort an issue on the Vitpilen (not sure why I keep having these issues, but I will try to slog through. I went for a blast down FM51 with a SDR buddy and his son on a Triumph 675. The Vit would just die, threw a Traction Control failure, then a couple of Kickstand down failures. She would just cut off smoothly and apparently there is little engine brake without the throttle, so she would just lose power and coast. Remarkably, the chassis wasn't upset at all I just lost speed. So, I am messing with that, from what I can see, the kickstand switch is fine, but you never know. I think I am going to my spart wiring harness and will build a bypass for the switch using a connector and a 2.2Kohm resistor. Then a few rips and then we will see. Diana asked me why I was having so much trouble with it and I said, "Because I am riding it?" Who knows, I think it is just bad luck, but I will whip it. The little bike is so much fun I will have to fix it. And even, God forbid, if I have to pay the dealer to fix it. I can bypass the switch for under 2 bucks, the replacement switch is $108 plus shipping. So we know where that is going...

On Thursday, I popped over to Corsicana to see my youngest grandchild, Trey play T-Ball. Trey is 4 and loves playing baseball. Diana said he goes out and hits bucket after bucket of balls all the time. He is a good little fielder and he hit a double, and a couple of singles. Plus, he has a slide technique like no other. Kind of runs up stops and falls on the plate calling it a slide... It was awesome to watch him compete and see how much he loves playing. He also is fast so that is cool too.

There isn't much that is as fun as walking along talking about baseball with a four year old who is pumped up about playing. God is good to me.

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Always got to include my baby girl...love them all!

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So, it looks like today I will let Mr. KTM 250 EXC go and someone will be by to look at the CB500X since I lowered the price below what I paid for her. Funny how that works. So, hopefully I will get them moved along and be down to 8 motorcycles. Then we start fixing Mr. DT250C and have a go on her. I will update y'all when I sort out the Vitpilen, I am not convinced I haven't messed up a wire somewhere, so I will have to pull Mr. Fuel Tank for the "gozillionth-and-oneth" time and we will see what there is.

AAAAAaaaannnnnd! My Harbor Freight 20 ton press jack has pooped the bed and is slowly puking it contents out of the pump seal, so that makes stuff slippery when using the thing. I think I will just get the air over hydraulic jack and move on from here. This whole mechanic-ing thing is expensive sometimes. Plus, if your going to be stupid, you gotta be tough. Working on it. Also, an indication of my lack of skill with my press is present on the press plate, note the nice circle, it exactly matches the pushed in portion of the case. So, to rehash, Oldtlsdoug = 0, Harbor Freight 20 ton Press = 1, have a nice day...

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And, we sold the CB500X today and a fella is coming to get the KTM 250EXC, so it is all working out. I dropped three bikes this month. Whew! Maybe someone will buy my daughter's new lower priced Super Adventure and make it a family total of 4!
 
250 is gone, woo hoo! My daughter came by and we bled the brakes and clutch on her Super Duke R and I decided to borrow it for the week. I think I will put tires on it so it will be more fun. No pictures, just a lot of fun. So I will be riding old school sort of for a bit. The Vitpilen quit dying but has a check engine light...
 
Oooh, I didn't know you sold the CB500X, I was talking it up all night last night at the North Texas Adventure Riders campout trying to get you a buyer. Glad you got it sold.
 
I had one guy thinking about moving up from a CRF250L to a CB500X, but not till like spring. The dang bike came up in another conversation of a guy saying how he used to have one and how good of a bike it was especially with the Rally Raid Suspension, and I told him that I knew where he could find one. He said if he were going to get one he'd shell out for one of the newer ones with some of the upgrades. I tried, but seems like it was unnecessary. Now maybe you can move around your tiny shop again with all the space you've made. :D
 
Ok, catching up on the activities in PPSS. Yesterday I went over to Corsicana and picked up the Super Adventure, Diana needed room and I have more time to sell it than she does. So, it is currently residing at PPSS. Have some folks coming to look at it this morning, maybe we will get her moved on, bittersweet, but she needs to be used, we just don't do her justice.

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Before I left for Corsicana, I had been having trouble with the PC6 I installed on the Vitpilen. So I had removed it and she ran like a top. So I contacted my support guys and they shipped me a new map without the ignition curves in it. We believe it was killing the ignition for some unknown reason. Anyway, so before I went to Corsicana, I went out to the shop at 7:40 and began re-installing the PC6 on the Vitpilen. Took me exactly 20 min. I guess when you get to repeating things it gets easier and more efficient each time. I fired her up, she idles now and doesn't die, but I didn't have time to ride her as I went for a 4 hour drive and had to load/unload the Super Adventure, so my day was already full, but I was just starting. Also when I rode the Vitpilen without the PC6 installed I rolled her over 1600 miles so I officially got 1000 miles on her in about 4 weeks, not bad considering she sat a week or two.

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More PC6 pics to provide some drama for future posts.

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So moving on, over the past few days I have mounted 2-3 sets of tires, Zonie (Norton John) brought over a half mounted tire we finished, so that was a bonus. We also got to use the press to straighten parts as well. Yesterday, I mounted a set of Shinkos on onewolf's FJR wheels. So far yesterday was fun. I did 10,108 steps in the shop yesterday. Amazing, no wonder I feel plumb wore out! Anyway, my buddy brought over the new Pilot Powers for Diana's Superduke and I took advantage of his arrival to get assistance to remove her rear wheel. While I was in there, I got the mount on the exhaust tweaked and now I have her about a 1/2" clearance for the end can. Much improved. I cleaned in there, and I will mount the tires this morning.

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So, today is a full shop day for me, I will be mounting up the tires on the 2015 Super Duke R, then probably pressure washing her, I may pull out her K&N filter and clean/oil it until the paper filter arrives. I think the K&N's don't do well in the dusty, sandy conditions around here and the motor is a little pricey to replace. Just my opinion, I used to swear by them, but I see trace sand particles downstream and the paper filters catch that, so while anecdotal, it is enough for me. (Note the big word use there.)

I will finish up my coffee and head out to the porch a little bit, then off to the shop for some fun. Last night I thought I heard a small rattlesnake around the front of the shop, but I haven't found it yet, but I am on the lookout for it. Hopefully, he went on out in the pasture and left me alone. We see copperheads from time to time, but we had never seen a rattlesnake until two years ago I saw one, so it is possible.

This afternoon, Dances with Curves, Chris, is bringing my first DRZ-400SM by and I am going to clean the carb, check the valve clearances, maybe change the oil. Then we are going to let Brad (SIL) play with it and see if he really wants to own a Supermoto. Someone else is coming by, but I forget why...I am old, but we are having the motorcycle fun at PPSS.

Oh yeah, my daughter may come by for a bit as well. Woo Hoo!
 
Today was a good day. I got the tires changed on Diana's Super Duke R, a couple of fellas stopped by to look at the Super Adventure. Then 2 old friends showed up. One I hadn't seen in over 10 yrs. the other asked me to help out the first.

Tires came out good, got the power parts seat and took a spin on the the bike, she is sweet.

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Then Dances with Curves (Chris) came by and brought my old DR-Z400SM for some love and care. We had a great time, Chris helped me change tires and stuff and I had him ride the TW and the Trials bike. Too bad he had to leave to catch a plane, old friends are the best, thanks for letting me play with the DR-Z!

How can you not smile riding a Gas Gas 300 TXT Racing?



Funny that the Hello Kitty bag is my old one that I gave him when Donna told me not to have that on my scooter! LOL>

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Thanks Chris, next time we take a ride!

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So yesterday, I had to take my wife to a medical appointment, so I popped out to the shop beforehand and pulled the carb off of the DR-Z400SM. 15 minutes later I was draining old gas and getting ready to ultrasonically clean it. When I got back I ran some parts back through and put new hoses on her as the old ones were stiff and hard to deal with.

My preferred method of DR-Z carb removal is to take the top bolt out of the subframe, tip it backwards to pull the boot off of the intake and pop out Mr. Carb. It just takes that little bit of movement and Bob's Your Uncle.

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She was plenty nasty, I decided to clean her with the fuel line on. I was very happy with how easily she cleaned up, every jet was clogged and the end of the needle was gummed up with varnish. And she smelled a little choice. Peanut butter jar is to contain small parts.

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After a little re-assembly, she came out pretty clean, I put her together and then installed new hoses.

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Then I pulled out the spark plug and checked valve clearance. I couldn't break loose the plug to spin the crank, but this one has a kick starter (I know the guy who installed it...) and I got the valve clearances checked. We put the stage II cams in it in 2011 according to Chris. Now she has 26K miles and the valve clearance is spot on. I even still had the old data card that told me the clearance (valve lash) for the installed calms. Spark plug will get a new one today. Total cost so far about six dollars, plug was nasty and stunk like old fuel. Intake is a little cruddy as well, I might try to mop it up with some powder solvent to see if I can dissolve that old nasty stuff.

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Also, in the middle of all that, I ran over to Hillsboro and swapped Diana back her Super Duke R. She was pretty pumped! I did enjoy the comfort, quickshifter and cruise control as I rode home via Hwy. 22 to Whitney, then FM56 to home. A great time was had by all.

Left on this one...

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Swapped in Hillsboro at the Brookshires (an excellent meeting point).

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Super Duke R EVO back home with her buddies...

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Bikes are tough to arrange in the shop so I can still get around. In the words of Mitchntx, "First World Problems". PPSS has been busy, I have the old guy soreness to prove it. I think it is funny that I do about 6-10K steps a day mostly in the shop running back and forth. Pretty good progress on the DR-Z, I hope to ride her today and then give her a good clean, maybe not in that order, depending on how my day goes. I also may need to go ride the Vitpilen today just to remind me how much I enjoy it. I also have a DR-Z 70 that had a rear wheel that seems awfully tight to me, a chain adjuster nut is missing and she, generally, needs a little love. Probably dump the gas out, put it in the truck and go on from there as well. Never seems to stop at PPSS.
 
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