Thursday was crew change day on the ship where I work. It would have marked the beginning of a five-week break from work, but unfortunately, it also coincided with a huge snowstorm in the Northeast, and that happens to be where I live. Consequently, air travel ground to a standstill, leaving me holed up in Detroit until Sunday night. Luckily, I was able to get a room in the Marriott where I am now fiddling around with the website and surfing eBay. What a life.

And this time of year, when nothing much is happening, we can usually count on Xitek and eBay to help fill the gaps. Of course, you can only post so many taillight pictures. On that note, please accept this invitation to send pictures of your bikes. The e-mail address is edsel400@yahoo.com. Operators are standing by.

January 28, 2010

As you might already know, I like using an amber "beehive" lens in place of the standard flat lens found on the sidecar running light. Not only are they streamlined, but they also add a touch of color. They have a really nice vintage look, too. One of my bikes also has a red beehive lens for the sidecar taillight. (It's a NAPA after-market light.) What I didn't know until recently is that glass versions of these very same lenses can still be found. I just bought some, and if you'd like to have one, let me know. I'll post pictures of all this when I get home.

Speaking of lights, I finally found the correct size metal STOP insert to go inside the Model A taillight on my red bike. It should look pretty nice with the two-color red and amber lens. Finding it took some time, but we eventually prevailed. There will be photos of that, too.

Now I'm looking at vintage glass reflectors. There's a multitude of sizes and colors. The key here is to not get carried away. I love those little license plate reflectors, and every CJ seems to beg for fender reflectors. (I like the original CJ reflectors too, but they have plastic lenses and the bezels are seriously prone to rust.) Anyway, stay tuned. This might be pretty interesting.

January 19, 2010

Once installed on my tan bike, it sure didn't take long to realize how much of an improvement those giant handlebars are. (It took a while, but I finally got around to doing the same with the other bike.) In pictures of old motorcycles, you'll see that big handlebars were once the norm. The older the bike, the bigger the handlebars. Initially, they appealed to me simply because they look nice. But, after having spent a lot of time riding with big bars, I've found that they are infinitely more comfortable. The bikes are so much easier to maneuver, especially at low speeds. My arms and shoulders are no longer sore after an afternoon on twisty back roads. Big bars give you more leverage which is exactly what you want with a heavy outfit. I would heartily recommend them to anyone. Mine came from Luke's in Beijing, although I think other vendors have them as well. He also provided the longer throttle, clutch and brake cables. (Sorry, M1 riders, you'll have to make your own spark advance cable. I made some from old throttle cables. It's not difficult.)

And there you have it. I'm heading offshore tomorrow for five weeks. Let's hope spring arrives early this year. I'm dying to get out on the red bike.

January 16, 2010

Just got home from a nice ride. It's almost 4°C today, and the roads are fairly dry. Even so, the bike still managed to get pretty filthy. It doesn't seem to take very much. I am happy to say that a contraption I made to combat oil leaking around the generator has made a really big improvement, and adjusting it a bit more will probably solve the issue once and for all.

Anyway, I always think about stuff when I ride, and two things were foremost in my brain today. The first is rat bikes. As someone who's been crazy about old cars my whole life, it now seems like it took way too long for something to dawn on me, and that's the notion of having a beater, or in this case, a so-called rat bike. Let's say you have a beautiful, almost show quality machine. Right away, you're limited to using it only when the weather is perfect. And even so, you fret about dirt, scratches, or whatever. You probably spend an inordinate amount of time fussing over cleaning and polishing stuff rather than just enjoying it. That takes some of the enjoyment out of it. So then, why not have a second machine that's allowed to go out on a crappy day and get some dirt on it? This is what seems to be happening with my bikes. One has emerged as the "super nice" bike while the other is becoming a beater. This way, no matter what the weather's like, you can still head out on a CJ. I've done the same with my old cars by purchasing a slightly rusty, beat-up sedan so I can drive an Edsel every single day, year 'round. I should have thought of this 25 years ago.

The second thing has to do with riding a 6V CJ, specifically the spark advance. You 12V guys are missing out on a really nice feature that's only found on the M1. There was a time when all vehicles had spark advance mechanisms. Visit an antique car show sometime and look at the steering hub of any vehicle that was built before 1935 or so (and some after). There you'll see the lever for advancing and retarding the ignition timing. Unlike 12V Changs, the 6V model has fixed timing, but you can—on the fly—twiddle it a few degrees in either direction. What this means is you can adjust the timing for any type of riding conditions with a simple squeeze of a finger. It's pretty neat how easily you can locate a "sweet spot" that gives your bike some extra balls for getting up a steep hill, or a little more juice when you're winding it out on the level. And, if you have straight pipes and want to annoy people as you ride through their town, there's even a spot that generates more racket out the exhaust pipes. Indeed, a very nice little feature.

On a similar note, I sometimes find myself tweaking the choke on the fly as well. In theory, the choke should be fully open once you're warmed up, but in practice, that doesn't always seem to be the case. Here too, you can sometimes find a sweet spot that yields a touch more horsepower, and it's not limited to just 6V bikes.

January 14, 2010

One of the benefits of three wheels is having the capability to ride in ice and snow. In other words, our bikes are as much year-rounders as we want them to be. All it comes down to is the owner's willingness to risk freezing his nuts off. Today was the first day we had dry roads and reasonably warm temperatures (-3°C), so I was out there on the tan bike for a couple hours, and it was great! With layers of clothing piled on thick, I managed to stay completely warm, even my fingers which are what usually ice up first. (Some new Thinsulate gloves took care of that.)

The bike hadn't been started in a couple months, and to be honest—it really took some effort to get it running. I had to take a breather midway during the kicking frenzy. But, she finally fired and once she warmed up, she behaved exactly as I had hoped she would. We climbed Mount Washington, then descended into Keuka Valley, then up and over the hills into Mitchellsville, out to Wheeler, Kanona, and then home, all on back roads. These bikes attract attention under normal circumstances, but you'd really enjoy seeing peoples' reactions when you're riding one in the dead of winter. It's a trip. One fellow went to the trouble of rolling down his window to flash a thumbs-up. There were also friendly waves from the Amish buggies we passed along Route 53.

There's still some oil leaking around the generator, and that's gonna be the first order of business the next time I fiddle with the bike. Apparently, the new O-ring solution isn't working out so well. Sooner or later, it'll get sorted.

January 6, 2010

You'll never reach the point where there's nothing left to learn, especially if you have a Chang in the garage. Indeed, they can bring out the engineer in all of us. Whether it's grinding, bending, drilling, or even making some little doodad from scratch, you can figure out what to do if you have the time to mull it over. There's something satisfying about finding a good solution to a problem, no matter how small, and doing it completely on your own.

January 4, 2010

Oil. The oil in both bikes got changed yesterday as part of the winter maintenance regimen. This time, we used Castrol GTX SAE10W-30. Why? Because it was on sale. When it comes to oil, people have strong opinions. If a dozen motorheads have a discussion about oil, you'll hear at least half a dozen different opinions about what's best and why. (It's the same with fuel additives.) Well, the deal with Changs is simply this—you can use just about anything as long as you keep the level up. I wouldn't recommend really light weight or synthetic oils, but you could get by with them in a pinch. Ditto on the gearbox and final drive. Although I prefer heavy gear oil, motor oil also works just fine. Don't throw your money away on "specially formulated for motorcycles" oil, or whatever.

Paint. If you're tearing a CJ down for a beauty makeover, perhaps you can benefit from the following. Having done four makeovers thus far, I've learned some useful stuff—like paint color selection, for example. IMHO, Rust-Oleum makes the best aerosol paint you can get, and their colors are available in brush-on form as well. For painting small stuff like fork components, trunk hinges, headlamps, etc., spray paint is a good way to go (unless you've got the equipment and expertise to do a professional paint job.) I always send the big stuff to a body shop and do the rest myself, often using spray paint (albeit, on very carefully prepared and primered surfaces.) Therefore, the colors are selected from the Rust-Oleum catalog which is fairly extensive. A body shop can match it perfectly. My Rust-Oleum Sunrise Red bike was once painted Rust-Oleum Smoke Gray, and the other bike is Rust-Oleum Sand. Another benefit is having a readily available supply of inexpensive, fresh, easy-to-use and perfectly matched touch-up paint that can be brushed or sprayed, depending on the application. Obviously, if you were doing a restoration on an Indian or something, this approach is laughable, but since these are Changs, it makes perfect sense.

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