Phoenix Flies

[Gas Man]

Ok.. I'll go...

As previously described on the old board I completely rebuilt my chop this last winter.

Then it took its first run

Then I got my newly chromed headlight mount from the UPS man... but damn... a little over packing by Browns!!!

To show the pure size of it all.. used one of the wife's coffee cups



I mean...COME ON... and I paid for that shipping... over kill if you ask me!

Pulled the tank again...


Did the now standard issue di-electric grease and shrink wrap.

Mounted the light, and put the tank back on.

MONEY!!







Bled the brakes once more... took it outside, adjusted the headlight and tightened it up!!

Back inside... ready for some real miles... BAM!!




Yesterday the weather broke... took it out for its first shake down run... Opened the garage door... whoom the whole bike fogs over... I hate this shit.



But with my make shift speedo plug


The speedo didn't fog over like it use to.


Took it out for a short 35mile spin. Could feel the top motor mount getting loose... it started to vibrate more... but the bike is running better than ever before. I'm not sure if its one thing or the combination of the pipes, ignition, doherty, desperato cover, or what... but it pulled AWESOME!!

So came home... parked it.. so it could cool down... went out later and checked it over...

Sure enough, the top motor mount bolts were loose, the lisense plate bolt that goes thru the swingarm to the plate assembly, and one exhaust heat shield bolt. But what I found strange loose was 2 oil lines. Must have been falsely tight with the pipe dope. Tightened everything up...

Now I did also find that my ignition key is cutting out a bit... never had a problem with it while riding but when I was screwing it when I got to tighten it up on the coil mount... it cut out. Then it will cut out one min and not the next. Going to have to pull the tank and check the wires... maybe they're getting pulled? Worse case... replace the key.

But then after going over the bike I cleaned it up and polished the stainless steel tips...

Left tip..done right one not



Both of them done.... moocho better



Guess that will do it for now... got to check the key Wed and then get back on to put on some miles...

[Gas Man]

So I pulled the tank and found another set of the special connectors had gone wrong... not sure what's up with that... installer error? The neighbor, Mr Sgt, said he thinks they must be prototype crap.. or somin like that.

Either way... got some different spade connectors on there and it works again...

[Gas Man]

picked up off ebay and got in. A nice luggage piece. Will help for packing and comfort.

Kuryakyn tombstone bag Retail $160 I got for about $100... says used, but looks new.

Here's a pic... not mine.



Side bag for each side that is detachable. Rain cover, and the front pad.. there is 3 of them. 1/2", 2", and 3" so you can tailor the bag for ultimate comfort.

Should help me for any upcoming trips.

[Gas Man]

Well before any distance trips I still need to get these bugs worked out... had some what I currently believe is some more electrical connection problems. Got er home and will have to dive into it more later this week. The trials and tribulations of wrenching...

[Gas Man]

Well pulled the wiring apart the other day. Those "prototype" connectors were JUNK. Cut the shrink wrap off and the damn wire came right out. low temp soldier JUNK! Replaced all of those with some new ones with normal old fashion soldier. And they are on there good!!!

Took it for another shake down ride today... got to adjust the shifter linkage, and try to bleed some more air out of the rear brake. Still feels spongy.

Will try to get to it Monday and Tuesday. Got too much work and now that its warm the grass is needing to be cut... which cuts into wrenching and riding time.

[Gas Man]

To further the last post... with better explanation on the wire failure


So I am still shaking out a few things in amungst working 70hrs a week. Had to rid the fancy connectors.



Some way, some how, user error? IDK. But they failed me... and left me stranded last week.

Riding down the road and the ignition would go out. No EHC error lights... just like you yanked the coils off the bike. Got to the point that it would only fire till the bike started rolling then poof!

That's ok... I have a plan out of this!

Cut the shrink wrap off at the end and the wire slid right out. The only thing making it appear to be in was the shrink wrap holding it tight. Oh well...

Got to work, got the tools out, and Sgt my neighbor came over. I suck at soldier and he is insane good at it!


Took some crimp on connectors, cut the plastic sheeth off, put tinned wire in and crimped. Then soldiered in.

[Gas Man]

Well I had not updated this in a bit. I planned another day of wrenching...need to re-tighten a exhaust heat shield, adjust the rear brake lever, and check over everything. Not much time needed...right? WRONG. Why?

Grade 8.8 chrome bolt holding the heat shield on... SNAP


Had to drill out... but before that happens... a few buddies showed up for lets see.... Honda jetting, AIH jetting and carb adjustment, new brake pads front and rear, and new brake fluid.

So I went from bike to bike, wrenched and gave directions...


Thanks Sgt. for recoganition for the help.


Chopper Nick... take your stupid air cleaner cover off so I can jet the damn carb!


Then another HD showed up... thankfully much like the wife's bike under the cover. The HD's were the only bikes out of the 5 that didn't need a wrench! There goes that old saying!!!

At the end of the day or allowed time the only thing that got done on my bike was making it worse as shown above. Oh well... another day tomorrow.

Got around to drilling it out and tapping it


Well this is not the first time this has happened. But the last time it happened to the guy that made the pipe. Both times it was this bolt and both times it was one of these grade 8.8 bolts. I think the bolt which is already hardened and loctited into place. The extreme heat from the exhaust re and extremely hardend the hardend bolt making it brittle. The said loctite has the threads locked into place. Meaning when you have to put the brute to it the shaft to break the loctite but the shaft is too brittle to break the threads loose and the it just snaps off clean. That being said, I replaced with a stainless steel bolt this time. They are to be grade 5 by pure nature. They still blend in well with the chrome and I don't think anybody will notice. So far so good.

Also, got the other items done. I think its ready to roll AGAIN!

Took it out Sunday to work and to Chopper Nick's for more work on his bike. Phoenix ran well. Ready for bike night Monday.

Bike night Monday included about 100 miles and highway speed. Phoenix ran perfectly. And it all put a big smilie on my face to boot.

its all good to be on Two Wheel and get in that Fix!!!

[Gas Man]

Well things were good...right?

Rode it Monday with Chopper Nick to meet up with Big House... all good!

Tuesday, went to take it out and it was running, pull out of my street onto the main road... POOF!! DIES!!!

Pull over... crank crank crank crank... gettin gas... just came off the tender.

I'm only like 2 blocks from the house... push it home... "How fuckin cool does my bike look when I'm pushing it?!?!?" FUCK ME!

Get home, out of breathe, sore fuckin legs... start checkin. Has good spray in the carb. Has power to the coils. EHC and run switch are fine. But no fuckin spark!!! By now I'm pissed, tired, pissed, hungry (one of things I was going to do while out), and now the battery has to be getting low. So to not fuck up my EHC... let it sit on the tender I'll fuck with it Wed.

Wed rolls around... no dice... fuckin worked 15hrs!! I was not about to go fuck with it after a shitty day at work.

So I pull the pts cover off... its tight, the stand offs are tight. Crane is tight. LED is on (on the crane), hit the start on the bike, LED stays on while the bike cranks...hmm thought that use to blink? Talk to Al and we both got nuttin off the top of our head but his blinks when he tries to start... hmm

Pull the ignition out by removing the stand offs... WTF... looks like somebody gernaded the plastic crap pick ups on the back (which I thought was cheap but figured that is the way it is, can't fight city hall). The pick up cup was also tight and still aligned in the cam keyhole.



Neither of us have heard of this... but that is definately the problem. Call Crane... "that's wierd, but its under the 1yr warrenty, send it to us" Coolio!! "When will I get a new one?" I ask. "Well its on back order." they reply when I respond "WTF, till when, how can the manufacture be on backorder?" .... well they tell me that its on back order till next week when they are getting 400 of them in, but they have 750 on back order! FUCK ME! So what another week I ask. No the next order after that isn't till July! GO FUCK YOURSELF I'm thinking and tell the guy that isn't going to work so he transfers me to a customer service guy (that was a tech guy)! He says, yeah well send it in and if you get it in before the mid next week orders go out, warrenties get first dibs. I hear "IF". And I ask if I can get one local will they take of the charges for me. He says no. So now what? He just says send it in and we'll warrenty it. OK... let him go before I blow!

Natron shows up with my niece/godchild (don't mind her booboo she scratched herself) But she's just too cute to not include. Besides I need more pics to break up this long post.



And I start to remove the crane... had to remove all the wiring from the coils, thru the backbone, thru the battery box and along the bottom of the frame to the cam cover... Its about 2 million zip ties and I'm not happy about it..



Call around today... NOBODY! I mean NOBODY from here to Kansas has fuckin crane hi4 ignitions let alone.. I really just want one local to get back on the road. Fuck this!! So I picked up a Dyna 2Ki after I spoke to Dynatek about their product.

Dynatek does everything in house, made in USA!!! Plus the unit is all metal, no plastic, no plastic pick ups, and carries the same 1yr warrenty. Difference... instead of trim pots for adjustments you have 8 different preset advance curves that you do with dip switchs. And if you so desire you can go into it with a PC and change those (usually race appl. with nos or super chargers). About $25 more than the Crane but with it being all metal and better customer service I'm all about it!!!!

The crane is now out and the dyna 2ki which I picked up locally is in the truck and will be installed when I get home tonight!!


I'm so sick n tired of wrenchin on this bike... I just want to ride!!! Wrench or PM somebody elses... no problem... just done with mine... fuckin A.

[Gas Man]

Got the unit installed friday after work got some supplies to lengthen the wires (even shorter than the crane). Sat evening I got all the wires ran, routed, zip tied in place, lengthened, soldiered, new ends on, wired the coils back up...just in time to run out the door to my bro's b-day party at the bar. Later after work I need to set the static timing and fire it back up.

Then hopefully go out riding this evening with Uma (her on sporty).

And I was thinking...

they should come with like 10' of wire and I would also like to see a plug on in the nose cone so you don't have to pull all the wire. But I guess it would be a weak point.

Advantage of lengthing the wire is that I'm able to do the coil wiring on the extension wire for the last time. I spliced it under the seat so next time I only have to pull to the seat, not have to pull the tank and the wires to the coils.

Have more pics will get them up as soon as I'm done with the project AGAIN!!!

[Gas Man]

So when I tell you I had alot of zip ties to cut out and replace... this is what I mean


The new Dynatek Dyna 2000i



As you can see the damn wire isn't that long or not nearly long enough.


The back of the old Crane (stupid plastic)


The back of the new Dynatek 2ki that is all metal... LOVE IT


Drop in the new Dyna


Put the handy sticker on the back of the pts cover


Start wiring


See the wires are no where close to making it to the coils.


Start prepping the wires and adding an extension to get to the coils. Under the seat is a perfect place to do it. This way also, if I ever have to replace again, I just have to cut in here.


Button up around the coils when its done.


Finish doing all the zip ties, setting the timing and she fired right up.

Took it for it a spin with Uma (on her sporty)... for about 80miles. Uma's first ride of the year!!!