Ike

It's hard to think about motorcycles when it's -5 degrees Fahrenheit, but I'll try.

Matt and I have been busy capturing/logging footage and taking a step back to look at what we have so far and how that fits into the "picture" of the film we started out with. Some things have come out exactly as we expected and others have exceeded our expectations in many ways.

There are two ways to approach a non-fiction film, you can set out to tell the story a certain way from the start and "force" this story in the way that you acquire footage and information or you can pick a "starting point" and let the film take shape as you gather media and information. I think that you have to have the whole story in mind when you start out, because you need to be able to envision the end of the film, but conversely I think you need to be able to let this go if, along the way, the story reveals itself in a way that is contradictory to your original vision. Ike said it best;

"In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."

Matt and I had a very solid vision of the film when we first started shooting in 2007, but since then so much has changed. When we started we could scarcely imagine the resources that we would be able to gather and today we stand here with such a rich collection of stories and images that to force them into the mold we originally set would be to sacrifice too much. So we have spent the last few months taking all this in and contemplating how to grow the idea of the film, in light of all that has changed, and we've come up with something that we are very excited about and we think you will be too.

…of course I can't spill the beans here, you weren't expecting that were you?

All grand plans aside there are some very basic and concrete tasks remaining before we can consider production "a wrap". Next on the agenda are interview sessions with yours truly and Matthew to gather updates on the project bikes, and speaking of project bikes there is the small matter of readying them for the spring run! At the moment the biggest obstacle for Matt is the self-draining fuel tank and for myself, aside from a few (what I consider minor) mechanical issues is the greater matter of getting the bike registered and street-legal.

So my next post will return to a discussion of these technical/mechanical items, but I wanted to take a moment to update you all on the status of the film itself. We are very excited to reveal more, and in the coming months we'll be leaking more details. Stay tuned.

BTW, for those of you who missed it on television you can see Matt and I on Wisconsin Public Television's "Directors Cut" online and catch a brief "sneak peek" of some of our Crud Run footage near the end of the episode: http://www.wpt.org/directorscut/111gullickson_cribben.cfm

Time To Kill (switch)

I was going to re-wire the entire electrical system. Seriously, I was considering that.

I'm still considering it, but not now, not if I'm going to get the bike running in time for the fall run.



You see, it won't idle, and it was occasionally blowing fuses (the one fuse), and I was fearing that there was some intermittent short somewhere buried in the wiring harness.

However since then I've disconnected the lead from the battery to the electric start system (yes there are two wires that clamp to the positive lead of the battery, one thick one for the electric start and a thin one for the rest of the electrical system) it hasn't blown the fuse, and I'm using a 7.5 in there instead of a 15 amp fuse, so current draw must be well within the realm of safety, right?

So for now I'm going to pretend like that little electric bugaboo doesn't exist and move on with troubleshooting the idle problems as if the electrical system is sound. So I'm moving on to things like points, air leaks, etc.

The carbs are often to blame for these problems but since I rebuilt them I'm leaning away from that. I'm going to start by checking for leaks at the intake manifold and move on to points/condenser next.



I do however need to tidy up the electricals a bit even if I don't plan on re-wiring the whole thing. At the moment the two cables that used to be threaded inside the handle bars are both sticking up from the gas tank with several wire nuts (of the wrong size, for sure) securing enough wires together to run the headlight on low and convince the motor that the kill switch is in the un-killing position. At a minimum I'd like to tie these two to a pair of switches so I can turn the motor off in the event of an emergency (I guess I could use the key…) and it would be nice to kill the headlight when I'm starting it, at least until it starts easier than it does now. As far as the rest of the wires are concerned, I think I'm just going to cap them off for now and tuck them away somewhere so they don't look so bad; I hate to cut them off in the event that I need to mess with them for troubleshooting (the tail light still doesn't work quite as it should). We'll see.

Of course I could just pull the tank and concentrate on getting that painted, and some other chassis/cleanup work that is in order and pretend like these engine problems are minor and leave them for later…that would be prudent eh?

Reserves

It seems like I go through this every month or so, but again the bike languishes in the garage while a million other projects suck up my time.

It doesn’t help that it takes about 20 minutes to dig the bike out from behind everything else in the garage before I can work on it, but enough excuses right?

So talking with Matt, we’re going to dedicate a day in July to get together and try and make some serious progress on this thing. Once again I find myself evaluating the priorities of the project and trying to decide what to work on first. I think my biggest problem is keeping focus on small, attainable steps. Instead I keep thinking “if I can just get a weekend to work on the thing, I’ll get it on the road in one fell swoop!”.

Instead I should set the goal of putting a carb back together, just one, and go from there.

…I just found out that I might have an hour or two tonight…

On the up side, the rest of the project (the film that is) is progressing nicely. We have another interview in the can, this one with the President For Life of the gang, and from my preliminary viewing of the footage it looks pretty good. It sounds like Matt has a few more interviews lining up soon so for the moment things on that side of the film project are on-schedule.

Now if I can just hold up my end of the bargain…

Step 1: Decide where to start

As I said before, one of the hardest parts of a project like this is deciding where to start. After spending the last two days going back and forth between two extremes (a complete frame-up restoration or a quick-and-dirty reassembly) I've decided to go with the latter.


The biggest reason for this is that my primary goal (to get the bike running in time for the fall Crud Run) is unlikely to happen if I completely overhaul the bike at this point. It's definitely something I'd like to do (and maybe I'll end up doing it anyway) but for now I'm just going to focus on getting the bike running and ridable and troubleshoot specific problems as they arise.

So, when I picked up the bike it came with a stock-pot full of parts in addition to the exhaust, fuel tank, seat and sissy bar separate from the rest of the motorcycle. This pot was filled with various fasteners, clamps and washers as well as the carburetors.


I think I'm going to begin the re-assembly with the exhaust if only because it's the area that's going to need the least attention. The fuel system needs to be re-attached as well but since the carbs are already detached I'm going to pull the bowls off just to make sure everything is clean before I bolt them back on. I'll also be replacing all the fuel plumbing as well as treating the tank (I haven't looked yet but I assume it's rusty on the inside), so hanging the pipes will probably be the easiest thing to do first.