Lee 2002

Wow! That escalated quickly. I think I would have camped one night under the tree with bras,.... just to see what happened out there. It takes a brave person to take off and ride into that desolate of an landscape where there is no fall-back plan. Our equivalent would be western Nebraska or the inter-mountain west. Good on you for doing it. It is unfortunate it didn't turn out well. "Adventures suck when you're having them."~Peart

My team at work took a day offsite for team-building and planning. Our afternoon activity was a trip through the Evel Knievel museum. The museum does a really good job of explaining how all these artifacts ended up at the Harley Davidson dealership in Topeka, Kansas. I don't want to spoil this for anyone that may choose to visit... but all the makes and models that Evel jumped are represented. Some are original Evel-owned bikes that were painstakingly restored to original condition while others are like models that were returned to Evel-ridden condition via referencing period photos. Yes, his first jump was made on a Honda... over a box of snakes that he crashed into . This all started when Evel's original hauler was bought and completely restored to original condition by a collector with the intent of taking it and other artifacts on tour... sorta' a mobile museum. He quickly discovered this wasn't economically feasible. Through a series of local connections all the motorcycles and the hauler were restored locally and the museum began. They have a large selection of Evel branded toys.... including this one that I'll bet nearly all of us owned. I know I did. They have one of the two original sky cycles (the other is still owned by the family). This one is the one that flew in the test jump over the Snake River Canyon. After that jump, Evel was sure he would be killed in the televised jump. The highlight of the museum is an opportunity to participate in a 4D VR motorcycle jump completed by Doug Danger on one of Evel's original bikes filmed for the virtual reality experience in downtown Topeka. If your travels bring you through Topeka, it is well worth your time to stop and visit. There is a lot more to the museum than these photos show. Drop me a line on your way through and if my schedule permits, I'll join you as I did not have enough time to experience all the video clips and read all the information as I wanted.

My local tire shop absolutely refused via phone call to repair a nearly new PR4 with a center-of-tread puncture several years ago. I wanted him to do it because they had repaired several car tires for me over the years with zero issues using a combination patch/plug. I took the tire off the wheel and went over anyway. The owner said, "I told you we won't do motorcycle tires." I replied, "This tire has less than 1,000 miles on it. It is getting repaired whether you do it or I do it. I would rather a professional do it." I continued, "Let's make this a cash transaction with no receipt and I was never here." In a huff, he said OK and repaired the tire while walking me through the steps. After he was done he refused my cash and reinforced, "You were never here." I put another 9,000 miles on that tire with zero issues. I should really buy a box of Xtra Seal combis, a reamer, burnisher, solvent and cement but they would probably go stale before I needed another.

It is hard not to when you have a crowd like this watching your every move..... You would have thought I birthed a baby the way the crowd gathered when that thing was extracted. Great observations on Grum's part. There was a reason I clocked those stators the way I did. There is a lot of information about the 6th gen stator situation in that photo... and every 6th gen roasted stator photo I've ever seen.

I wish you well on your endeavor. I'm feeling lucky. Cageless and I must have got the last factory 2002 spec stators left in the world. I'm not sure I would go through all this to upgrade to a physically larger stator and flywheel if it were me. I would just rewind the OEM and ride on. I got 55,000 miles out of mine and it only gave up the ghost on a desperately hot ride across the wastelands of Nebraska. Cageless' stator (L), my stator (R)

Why? This is me replacing the stator on my 2002 with a couple of hand wrenches in the parking lot of a hotel in South Dakota last summer.

Pg 1-13 of the service manual

[stepping into shithole] Man.... I know I'm going to regret sticking my toe in this shit hole...... RC51 - have a very similar flapper in their air box. It is interesting to note that I never saw a race-prepped RC51 with an active flapper (including Honda supported teams). However street-going RC51's sold by Mother Honda that were subject to EPA regulations did come with an active flapper. I don't think anyone has ever found the "smoking memo" signed by Soichiro, but the common consensus is that the flapper exists solely to satisfy an EPA noise regulation that are done at a certain RPM that is determined by an equivalent speed determined by gearing, or something like that. Many posters here and on the RC51 sites have modded the flapper and I don't recall anyone posting any evidence that the mod resulted in any repeatable changes in performance. It has been years since I've read any of these discussions, so I'm going off memory. Google "Motorcycle Flapper Mod" and you'll have a week's worth of reading on the subject across about 5 product lines and thirty motorcycle forums. I personally buy into the noise control thought (and my calibrated Mk 20 eardrum confirmed intake howl). Consider this.... The marketing teams would have "variable intake" on every piece of literature if it even resulted in 1 hp or 1 lb/ft benefit.... never saw a pamphlet that mentioned it. I've also never saw a dyno curve that showed any difference between before/after either. I thought this discussion ended at least fifteen years ago. Go figure? [stepping out of shithole/]

Having read all Neil's books, I'm a little upset I was sitting next to you with a beer and didn't get to hear this story. Damn.

Once again, Tony arranged an amazing meet. Huskysooner and I left NE Kansas at 0500 to meet Panamawing in Nebraska. We then headed west to our first destination. There is a street in western Nebraska that I share a name with and I've always wanted to visit it, but never had the opportunity. Heading north we crossed the Sand Hills of Nebraska.... a beautiful but desolate place with little sign of human presence. It was here that I first noticed I was having problems. I thought I had lost my speedometer drive nut as my display showed erratic speeds and mileage stopped rolling up. Unfortunately this was not the case, apparently the pulse generator or electronics that read it have low tolerance of low voltage. My stator was failing. At Alliance, NE my bike died when we pulled in to fill the tanks and would not start. A quick check of the battery showed it sitting at 9 volts. Huskysooner jumped on his dry clutch Ducati and rattled off to buy me a new battery. I disabled all non-critical electric circuits. A check with the a meter showed that the bike could (just barely) maintain 12 volts at 5,500 rpm. So off we went to Custer. Me with no lamps. At Custer, Huntingguns had returned from saving Cageless in Seattle from his burned stator. He had already started the process of getting a pair of stators on order. I was the lucky recipient of his foresight. Even with the head start, much of my meet was spent waiting for the FedEx truck to arrive. While I waited, I took a couple of small hikes around the area, taking in the history and scenery. Custer viewed from high above. I was also in the right place at the right time to help in the recovery of Shade's bike when he suffered a broken chain. A big thanks to Dragonfly and Q Dawg for providing the truck needed in this effort. It was like a quick response team jumped into action when the call came in. As soon as FedEx arrived I got to work repairing my bike while Mini Carver went to work on Cageless' motorbike. For those who showed interest in my mini ratchet set google <Wadsworth Super Deluxe Mini-ratchet set> As can be expected with any parking lot repair at a meet, there was a good size "cheering" section with all hands at the ready. Other than stubborn gaskets, all went well on both bikes. Not to be outdone, I burned my stator (right) to a slighly toastier state than Cageless. My bike had 55,xxx miles on it at this point. (New - 24 vac @ idle, 62 vac @ 5500 rpm) The evening festivities were entertaining and fun with Didit keeping everyone in stitches with Corner Carver's help on occasion. (They are not quite the team that Timmy and Carver are, but there was no shortage of things to laugh at.) My multi-meet roomate, GSwanson has moved from his sixth gen VFR to a BMW S1000 XR. He choked me up when he made a presentation of his Sargent saddle to me. I can tell you that it is a huge improvement over the stock seat as witnessed by the comfort I had on my 750+ mile ride home. I was greatly honored when CVVFR arranged to gift me a flag signed by the Canadians. It is a huge honor and a life treasure that I will display proudly. I can't even begin to explain how much this gesture meant to me. Thank you Canadian crew!!!!! At the advice of Axel_7 and Tammy, I was up before the sun the next day to take in the local sights on a foggy morning before the crowds could settle in. It was great advice as I had everything to myself. Following the ride Huskysooner, Panamawing and I joined forces again for the ride to our homes. Led by Panamawing, we took in a few more sights on our way out of Custer. We were able to witness the overnight/day shift change at the bison roadblock when the bison going off duty was relieved by his mate. As one wandered off the road another quickly stepped forward to maintain the post. SumSum 4 !!!!!!!

Lee is home.

I hope I packed this good enough . If not, oh well, I get all I want.

You should all feel honored. In anticipation of this event, I washed my motorcycle. Cost me $5.40 at the car wash. Were any of you aware that the tire side of the swing arm is silver in color?

I'll see what I can do.

Panamawing & Lee 2002 will be linking up in SE Nebraska on Tuesday morning to arrive at Custer Tuesday evening.