Love you, girl

She's off to a better place now.

It was a little emotional, I will admit. And I'm usually not one to shy away from feeling emotions, so I allowed myself a little bit to feel something about it. [Was very cute, too. The woman buying her was so touched and hugged me as I shed some tears.]

Sold pretty fast, which is a testament to either not asking enough, or it being in demand. Not sure which, but ultimately I had only two goals in mind once I decided to sell her.

One was get enough to take care of some financial stuff. Check.

Second was try to sell her to a good home. Check, as well.

Mid-thirties couple from Flagstaff. He's an attorney and a mechanical tinkerer and they're both outdoorsy and riders. He already has 3 bikes and 2 of them are old like this one, so he'll probably have this one running in a week.

Verdict? I feel great and am smiling. God came through, as always. First blessed me with a peace about selling the bike, then blessed me again with great people and the bike going to a great place.

They promised to send update photos and videos, and offered a chance for me to come up to Flagstaff and ride her once finished.

I do believe I will take them up on that one.

Red to red, blue to green

Continuing with my usual theme of two steps forward and one step back, this could be another one of those. However, if it's as I think it is (usually isn't), we should have made a turn.

Although the bike is now in the backyard (I say backyard, but it's really more like a patio), I did some tooling around on her this past weekend. Not a ton, because it was 116 degrees in Phoenix, and even without the direct sunlight it was really just not fun. I can talk myself into hiking in the heat, or kayaking in the heat, or riding a bicycle even sometimes. But this just wasn't enjoyable.

Having said that, all I wanted to really get at was sorting out and setting up the M-Unit to correspond correctly with the OEM handlebar controls I'm using. Or trying to use, since I discovered the left side controls are falling apart in their old age and that concerns me. More on that later...

After some fiddling around and charging up the battery to full goes to 11 power, I think I've now got the M-Unit configured to work with this old controls. Thing is- since I wired everything up originally- exactly the way it was supposed to - and it didn't work, I tried this then I tried that... and so while I think I've not got the M-Unit setup, I can't really tell for sure until I go back and rewire everything- like it's supposed to be, once again.

Follow all that?

Translation: it's that two steps thattaway and one step thattaway. Again.

Progress though.

I hesitate to say I feel good about it or I think I've got it handled, or blah blah. Still, if the setup is indeed correct, I could be back on the road to recovery.

Or at least the fork leading to that road.

I could really use some less heat though...

Phase 2 of dunno how many

This time last year was all about the giddy up. I had a few months before the Distinguished Gentlemen's Charity Ride - and thank you again to those who donated to the cause. And despite my not making the ride on the bike, I did make an appearance in support of the effort, and the donations were certainly welcomed and appreciated. Yes, last year was all about my wanting to get the bike running in time for this ride. And after the electrical decisions, it became very much an impossible looking task to get done in time.

Or even running in time.

And it was.

[speaking of donations. I was able to raise enough that I was sent a really nice embossed poster for the event; great typography. So I will getting that one framed and hung)

Once I went with the decision to go the M-Unit route (still I think a good one, though it was a good 'long-term' decision, but the short term meant a lot more to figure out and manage. Two things I wasn't as equipped to deal with. Still in many ways am not.)

So, as you can see, the bike is now in my backyard patio area. The garage needs to go goodbye, since I've 'upgraded' to a larger apartment I really need to get rid of the monthly expense of the garage. There's enough room back there to work on it and I think it will be OK. A couple of areas that I've already recognized will be challenging- it's not very wide and I'm already bumping into things a bit. I also think when it's gonna come time to start crawling around on the ground I'm gonna need to do something different for the base/ground. I could just do the gravel, but that's not very comfy. As much as I'd love a bike bench, that's definitely not gonna happen.

I think my original idea from a year ago of just buying a 4x8 sheet of 1" plywood and throwing that down on the ground is still the best option. These stepping stones are nice enough but it's hard to get 30 of them all level and it's just a lot of work. I'm gonna need to be able to get dirty and get around this thing and for that I need it all to be stable and open.

The second thing? I will not have the garage LIGHT any longer. So gotta work during the day or solve that problem.

Maybe in the end these obstacles will just end up helping keep me on task. With a smaller window with which to work on the bike (the garage afforded me 24 hours), that might make me more motivated to take advantage of the fewer hours I will have available.

I know once I get back to it and start seeing results, the bug will return once more. A lot of other personal things happening right now, too. Plus the AZ weather for some reason is kicking my butt right now. Over 100 degrees when I'm walking my dog at 9:pm is never a good thing.

So the best thing right now- get all these organizational things sorted so that when the weather breaks, I can be ready to get some work done.

Flashing before my eyes

I've decided that if reincarnation does indeed exist (it doesn't) then I will really need to come back as an electrical engineer.

Or perhaps that could be some small amount of torture. I dunno. But right now it's a whole lot of torture not knowing which red goes with which brown/yellow/striped yellow/green/striped brown/beige or grey one.

I've mentioned this part before I think, but if I have to suffer through it then so do you- thanks for your support, Dr. Reader, by the way.

It's gigantically ironic that this new piece of modern is having trouble talking with the hand controls from Christmas past. A lot of Christmas's pasts, too. It's a little like a parent trying to understand their teenager; the teenager thinks you're so uncool, and you think they're annoying and stupid and expensive. (or something like that.)

Since I have basically four wires coming from the M-Unit (headlight, right signal, left signal and horn) that go to the left hand control that, er, controls those things, but 12 wires coming out of the hand controls to do so... something has to get figured out. I thought I would instead drop back and punt, and try and get at least one thing actually and positively solved. Figured out. Correctly corrected. So I did, finally.

The horn.

The horn sounds. Press the button, it beeps.

Man I am sooo bad ass. Stand back, people.

Still, while this both gave me a sense of accomplishment and glee (see- so bad ass to use that word), it also eliminated one of the wires that could have been for something else. Now, having fewer choices to choice wrongly from, I figure I not only have a working horn but also have fewer hours and shock therapies to get the headlight and turn signals working right.

Many combinations later, it's still unfortunately not right.

I think it's something about a momentary switch when it's looking for a non-momentary switch. Or maybe the other way around. I finally got it to where the rear signals would flash- yes! - but the cancel part of the controls wouldn't function. Only pressing them on again would turn them off. And so on.

Not ideal, but it worked. Still, it's not 'right' and there's little point in getting rear-ended because I thought the signal was on and it wasn't on. (and I haven't wired the signal indicator on the gauges yet either; another challenge once this part gets it's due.)

I think I'm gonna reach out to Revival Cycles and send them an email white flag a bit. I was hoping to get it figured out on my own without their help, both because there's a challenge in that, and it's a little like calling AT&T and asking why your cell phone bill is so high. They can explain things to you for hours, and you still don't understand.

But I guess in the end, if you wanna be a flasher, you gotta get the outfit sorted.

Back to the beginning, mostly

Another weekend approaches. Boom!

Wiring is still on the agenda, since, well, that's one of the few remaining tasks. I'm calling it a task since it's rapidly moving into that column about must-haves and must-dos instead of that other column that had all the fun stuff, like design choices and what looks cool and that sort of stuff.

I've moved from the good-looking category into the personality one. Which in the end is an important one, to be sure. Still, pretty pictures beats words every time in my book, er, of pictures and no words...

I digress. Please, I insist.

I looked up online and in my giant folder of 'stuff what might come in handy someday on this build' and found the original bike's wiring schematic.

See, once M-Unit showed up in all her glory, there was no other girl for me. I only had eyes for her. Still, it's becoming obvious that meshing this modern technology (oh, we only need 2 wires to do that part now) into the 35'ish year old technology (this will require 6 wires and a lot of praying for this to work properly) is becoming somewhat challenging.

So, I needed to retreat slightly back to that etiquette class and check out (looking at the diagram) just how to hold hands and open doors for her again.

Chicks.

This one is even more challenging, since it's a little like introducing your old girlfriend to your new one, and they are both sharing this look with each other like 'I know all about his shit and now he's your problem' type stuff. I can feel my M-Unit's eyes boring into me and saying 'you better do this right or else'.

And I'm trying, mama. I'm so trying.

OK, enough of the girl analogies for this morning.

So, it's with gigantic amounts of irony that the original wiring schematic is indeed going to help quite a bit. At least I hope so. I can of course replace all the original hand controls with modern ones that have the simple wiring connections and necessary components without the unnecessary ones, but I don't wanna. Partially because it's just more money thrown at this project and I'm done with that part as much as I can be. But also because theres a challenge in making this work out somehow. Others have done it before me, electrical engineer degree not-withstanding, so if they can do it, why not me?

(I keep telling myself that anyway)

In the end, if there's a way to connect and make all this work, I will find it. I shall prevail.

She's a special girl. I want her to be happy.

So Saturday is gonna lots of garage work and hoping for some things lighting up and flashing and doing what they are supposed to do, without all the 'oh I'm on fire' parts.

Sunday is a little bit reserved for some church time and Mom time and maybe who knows time.

Could be a fun weekend...

Setbacks R US

Another semi-fruitful day in the garage this past weekend.

I say semi, because it's always one of those one step forward, two steps back, then a couple to the side- like a demonic country two-step or something.

(and country music is definitely the devil's work, as is that crazy dance I cannot get a hold of)

So, on one end of the wire we have our newly fanged and highly decorated bit of modern technology, the M-Unit.  And on the other end, we have 35+ year old wired hand controls.

So, for instance, we have 2 wires to turn the lights on on one end. The other? We have 6.

Try figuring that out without 1: an electrical degree, 2: some degree of common sense, 3: a lot of patience, 4: no aversion to getting shocked every once in awhile.

(I'm not sure which of those I have any quantities of...)

I'm left with either continuing to seek out the truth and justice and American way that has become this motorcycle build and keep trying to fly. The alternative is purchase newer more modern version of these hand controls. Of which there are plenty.

But it's a money thing once again, and I'm already really pushing the limit of what I wanted to put into this bike as it is.

Probably blown that limit a while ago.

Decisions decisions...

Sparking the curiousity

I can always tell this about myself. When I get back in the saddle, back into being interested in a project, it gets infectious. It gets in my thoughts and can't get out. I get fired up about getting back to it, making progress and all that.

Slow going with some things, and per usual with this build I end up going backward to a step once trodden before, or a decision made before that needs to be un-made and re-made. It's OK, as I said there's little reason to not do it thoughtfully and correctly now. If the idea was to just get it on the road (which was the singular objective at once point) that's one thing. But to make it stay on the road, what's another.

The weekend consisted of getting the front end 'stuff wired' or progress to that end. That headlight with the integrated turn signals I was so hot and bothered about when I first ordered it, only to discover upon it's arrival that it's plastic construction, was the first thing to figure out. Should work fine, but again, that lasting part has me concerned. Better ones cost more though, and I already have this one, and on and on.

You can see my thought processes on this one already.

At one point I was saying screw it I won't need or use the front turn signals, and wired the headlight accordingly. Now with M-Unit in hand and the fact that all original wiring is going in the garbage means I'm starting everything from scratch. So why not take advantage of the turn signals and use them?

No reason I can think of. Plus, I'm back to enjoying working in the garage. Having all the right bits to actually do it right- makes a big difference in the desire department.

And I only shocked myself once all weekend, so that's a win.

Turn signals; welcome back in the fold. Glad you're with us.

And with that aforementioned 'back two steps to correctly dance' part, a lot of this weekend's progress meant not a lot of things working much different or activating and such. In fact in many ways, the bike build looks like it's more a just a few steps backward.

It actually made me laugh when a passer-by stopped for a minute to chat. She was commenting on how it's nice to see me back in the garage and working on the project once more. And then asked how come it looks worse than it did a few months ago. Funny. She meant well.

Gotta fix what's underneath so the outsides can go.

A side note that's struck me as strange lately. There's less of that mental-ness of the previous year. Yeah, I still have my personal struggles about this or that, but it no longer hurts to be in the garage working. Listening to those same playlists that before gave me chills in the brain, no longer do.

So perhaps the heart and mind are getting wired better now, too.