What did you do with your bike today?

I really needed a 'toe kick" flooring saw for a project that I have going,and the Dayton Harbor Freight just was not getting them in. So I checked Muncie IN store and they had several.

All the rain we had got the salt off the roads,so I plotted a country route to Muncie. Just lovely going out with mild winds and 45 degrees. Went past towns like Winchester,Bartonia, Modoc, and Farmland.

It was getting pretty cold on the way back--about 35^ or so. But the twilight conditions were like magic.The sun was at my back and the sky had that golden glow. Indiana is still a lot of farms, but they have consolidated their schools. I passed a big school building out in the middle of nowhere. A few miles later, the caravan of cars followed by the school bus came toward me looking like a scene from "Friday Night Lights." But this is Indiana and it is all about basketball.

Bartonia IN sits between Winchester iN and Greenville Ohio. The cold was really soaking in after 45 minutes of riding. At the scene of an old general store that had to be at least 120 years old, the Bartonia Restaurant sits in the village of perhaps 10 houses. The parking lot was just packed. It was all the fish you can eat night... $8.50... I got a cup of coffee [$1.00] because no way was I gonna indulge in the fish fry without Mrs Slum being there.

I parked the Cb750 right out front, mainly because the parking lot was too soft for the kick stand. After I slammed down two cups, I was buttoning up the Carhartts to have at it again. A guy my age saw me and asked,"that your bike?" He had on a Harley shirt........ I said ," Yep,just rode it from Muncie." He said,"Wow,you must have some stones on ya." I laughed and said, " Well, our German family always could take the cold,but I think that maybe there might have been a Norwegian in the woodpile somewhere along the line."

I almost forgot. in Winchester,I stopped for gas and was looking for the credit card slot, but the gas pumps still had the manual numbers that clicked over and no place to insert a credit card. The owner actually still pumps the gas for all his customers.

After this hundred mile ride,I feel like I was on vacation

Taught J. about twins carbies

My wife's cousin is 20 years younger than us, and he never was around a dad who did anything in the garage. The kid has a serious motorcycle addiction that started with an old Triumph 250. he was having problems with a CB360 carb and since I have been inside those a time or two, we tore into a set of them he had extra [he has 30 vintage bikes with 4 runners].

He had been through the carb before, but there was plenty of gritty dirt left.Just showing him which fittings to leave alone and which ones needed to come out for cleaning has to be a big help. I showed him all the little things I had learned the hard way, and told him where to buy o-rings that did not cost a fortune. Aside from the dirt, the needle and seat were needing new ones badly.
Really a nice kid and finally got to retire from the Navy after too many deployments to Iraq. He kept apologizing for not doing it right the first time, but I told him it was really fun to show him what I had to learn the hard way. I will bet that within a month, four more of his bikes will run.

My dad was not a wrench either, so I struggle as well. I got lucky some years back with an old farmer that I did construction work for, and he taught me basic shop stuff. At least we have the internet now and with determination and trial and error, things get done. Anyway, we had a blast just being together and hangin' out

J and I went to a liquidation sale in Columbus and did not even scratch the surface in what they had. It is estimated that there are 25 million dollars in bike parts there. some is from WWII and Harley. http://www.liquidap.com/portfolio/3967-id-dixie-distributing-public-liquidation-sale-begins-oct-12/ With a smart phone and googling the part numbers, some of the stuff we picked through could be matched to the bikes it fit. Just overwhelming at all the stuff they had and not organized at all. Not crowded either.

I bought 4 batteries and three were Yausau. Ten bucks each. Scored some new wheels and mufflers for cheap. The place closed early so we went to the Rice Paddy [old Jap parts] just to find out where it was and the young guys running it showed us around a bit even though it is officially closed on Wednesdays. They said that they probably have a fork tube for my CL175. We are going back to both places.
One of the wrenches at Rice Paddy had built a steampunk from an old 1920's Harley frame and a rebuilt motor. Very cool, as the tank was mounted beneath the top frame bar.

All in all a good day--Except when we tried to get a bite to eat at the local places. it turns out that we were in the Short North and in hipster Heaven. Places where fair trade coffee and organic tofu reigned supreme. We did not even understand how to buy food in those places as we could not discern if they were delis with no price lists or restaurants. Google and a smartphone got us to Wendy's and something we could understand...