More, better faster!

Post-production is coming along nicely and this project's pace is really starting to pick up. To make it easier for everyone to keep on top of things, we've decided to consolidate our updates and make them available via the following methods:

• Become a Fan on Facebook
  
• Follow the film on Twitter
  

We've also updated the projects Official Website to reflect the current "shape" of the film and set a date for the first public screening as well.

Matt will be making a whirlwind appearance at the fall 'Run, if you see him be sure to say hi!

Hmm...

The spring crud has come and gone and I still have that overflowing carb issue. Poking around for a new carb (yes I'm ready to punt), I ran across this tasty little tidbit:

"What caused the overflowing was the float binding on the overflow tube. There is not much clearance between the float and the overflow tube. If any difficulty is experienced removing the float bowl, there is a good chance that the float may be bent towards the tube, and, as a result, binding on the overflow tube. Having set the float level to 19mm, and squaring up the floats, the problem has been resolved. I hope this extra bit of insight is useful."

taken from:http://scootrs.com/tech.cfm?tip=float

I've noticed that the float bowl goes on with more difficulty than expected, so it's worth a look.

2 Weeks

I was starting to get really bummed about the bike Saturday morning, it was starting, then surging and dying, and no matter to screw-tweaking seemed to make a difference. I decided that for some reason maybe that overflowing carb was involved and that instead of trying to "tune the whole guitar" maybe I should "replace the broken string" first, so to speak.

This was a good move in that it got me in the right mindset for the job. Visions of riding the bike were now far away and out of focus and all I was looking at was the carb, and why fuel kept coming out of the overflow. As far as I know, the only way fuel flows out of this port is when too much fuel is in the bowl. So I turned my attention to how fuel gets in the bowl, which works surprisingly like a toilet.

The bowl is at the bottom of the carburetor and inside this bowl is a float (really a pair of connected floats). When fuel fills the bowl, these floats move upward and at a set point, engage a valve which cuts off the fuel. As fuel is used by the engine, the floats drop as the fuel level drops and at a certain point, fuel once again flows into the bowl. If this mechanism fails to do its job, there is an overflow tube that lets the fuel run out the bottom of the carburetor. This is what was happening to my carburetor.

The first thing I did was pull the bowl off. I was really afraid that the gasket was going to jump out and I was going to have to wait another week for it to shrink back to normal size so I could put the carb back together again. To my surprise, it just stayed in place, so I let it be and I was careful not to disturb it the rest of the day.

First I wanted to test the shutoff valve, since a failure or leak here would explain everything. I manually lifted the floats to their maximum "closed" position and turned on the fuel: no leak. I slowly dropped the floats with the fuel on and as expected, the fuel began to flow as soon as the floats allowed the valve's needle to fall away from its seat.

The next test I did was of the floats themselves. One common cause of this is a hole in the float, so that it is no longer buoyant and doesn't lift when the bowl fills with fuel. I did a crude test of this by removing the floats and placing them in the removed bowl. I added fuel to the bowl and the floats lifted as expected. Examining the floats after this test, there was no evidence that they had taken on any fuel, or had any holes or openings that should not be there.

Another cause of this problem can be a mis-adjustment of the cut-off point for the fuel valve. Like a toilet, if the valve waits too long to close the fluid will continue to flow even if the float is at its maximum height. On the carburetor this is adjusted by bending a small metal "tang" on the float assembly which contacts the needle portion of the fuel valve.

There is a recommended procedure for adjusting this tang in the manual, but it requires you to tilt the carburetor and take some measurements. Obviously this is impossible with the carb attached to the engine. Removing the carb from the engine is surprisingly allot of work on this bike due to the position of the exhaust and how the throttle linkage works so I thought instead that I would take a "cut-and-try" approach to adjusting the tang.

Either I thoroughly underestimated the precision necessary for this adjustment, or there is some other cause for the overflow because I tried this adjustment no less than 27 times through the course of the day, with not satisfaction. I was able to adjust the tang to the point where no fuel flowed, and adjust it the other direction to cause the overflow, but I was unable to find the "sweet spot" where the float action correctly metered the fuel in the bowl.

I'm surprised that the "window" of adjustment is as small as it appears to be and I have a feeling there is more to this than I'm understanding.

At this point it's clear that another approach is necessary if I'm going to correct this problem. It is unclear if correcting this will make the bike run right, but I've decided to fix the things that I know how to fix, and since this engine running problem is more complex and elusive, I'll focus on the carb for the moment.

Through the looking glass

Matt and I finally got around to shooting our next round of "project bike" interviews and it was interesting to be on the other side of the lens for a change. I have a renewed respect for everyone who put up with the hot lights and our countless questions.

Last weekend I got some feedback from one of our readers as well as about an hour to wrench on the bike and the results were promising. I bit the bullet and dropped one of the pipes, making it much easier to get the bowls back on the carbs.

As Chris pointed out, the enlarged gaskets will return to normal size on their own if you just give them a chance. I wish I would have known that before I re-sized the right-hand-carb's gasket.

So after about 20 minutes I had everything back together and turned on the fuel. As expected, the carb who's gasket I "adjusted" leaked, but after a bit of kicking I was able to get the bike to fire. It wouldn't idle however, so I experimented with figuring out if it was one side or the other that was acting up by removing one spark plug wire, then the other. Again no surprises, the right-side was acting up (the same side as the leaky carb) and it was doing what I can only explain as "surging slowly".

I thought about playing with the carb adjustments but I figured even if I was able to get it to behave it would just be screwed up again when I replace the gasket (I'm only guessing that the leak and the weird behavior are related because they came along at the same time, and the non-leaking side is working correctly). So for now I'm going to let it be, track down a new gasket and focus my efforts elsewhere.

Elsewhere being the rear brake.

I described the brake problem to Bill at Motorcycle Performance and he knew instantly what I was talking about. He told me all that I needed to do was loosen the rear axle nut, apply the brake and re-tighten. I'll be giving that a shot this week and hopefully I can check that item off the list.

With any luck I'll track down a gasket shortly and figure out if my midrange problem is resolved or if further investigation will be in order. For now I have something to work on (as well as making the bike street legal) so I'll focus on that.

On the film front we are closing in on our first rough cut (with placeholders for the footage that has yet to be shot, of course) which is very exciting. This will be the first time we've seen the footage assembled and having shot it over more than a year, there is footage that I haven't seen for a very long time in there. Hopefully we'll have something from that effort to share as well, but for now we're focused on making it to the spring run, which means back to the garage for me.

Motorcycle Season Begins?

It's hard to believe that three days ago Jamie and I dusted off the Magna for a short ride around town. The great thing about the weather around here is that if you don't like it, just wait 15 minutes…

Post-production continues on the film as we log hour and hours of footage. Matt tells me that most of the tape has been captured and he's pumped about turning out that first rough cut. I'm excited as well because unlike our other projects, there is quite a lot of footage that I haven't seen yet (I wasn't present for the shooting), so there will be a lot of stuff I haven't seen yet in the rough.

As the weather turns fair it reminds us that we don't have a lot of time before the spring run (two months?) and neither of our bikes are quite "road ready" yet. On Matt's end he continues to battle the leaking fuel tank issues while mine are less serious mechanically (I'll get into them in a minute) but I'm still uncertain about obtaining a proper title which really grounds the whole project. If I don't make any progress in this regard soon, I'm seriously considering a frame swap…

But on the mechanical end of things, the two highest-priority items I have on my list are:

• Work out the midrange power problems
  
• Figure out (and fix) the back brake "clunking" issue
  

When I had the bike out last year I noticed, when accelerating through the rev range the bike struggles as the tach climbs beyond 3000rpm. After thinking about it over the winter, I'm pretty confident this is a jetting issue, since I really opened up the intake and exhaust but I'm still running the stock main jets. So I ordered a "jet kit" off ebay that comes with several different sizes of main jets and we'll give this a shot.

The brake issue is something else. I un-intentionally disassembled the rear (drum) brake when I removed the wheel to have new tires mounted. I thought I put it back together correctly, but apparently I did something wrong. When applying the brake, it begins to grab as expected but then it will suddenly grip, make a "clunk" noise and then all but lock-up the rear wheel. If you plan for it, it's not a problem but if it catches you off-guard it's very unsettling. I'm not sure if I goofed something up inside the brake itself or maybe something in the mounting (the torque arm?) but either way I'm going to have to spend some time figuring it out. If I had even one disc up front, I wouldn’t sweat it too much but with (old) drums on both ends, I need every bit of stopping power I can find.

The weather is supposed to turn warmer again this week and I expect my jets will arrive as well. If both these things happen I may charge up the bike, get some fresh fuel and see if I can at least get it to start. If I get that far, I'll try installing some new jets and see what the difference is. It will probably be awhile before I can do another road test, but at least I'll be ready for the next break in the weather.

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

What's that smell?

Last weekend when I opened the garage door I was hit with the beautiful smell of gasoline. After the initial pleasure of the aroma subsided, a more serious thought entered my head:

"Why does the garage smell like gas?"

Of course my first suspect is the CL. I take a look under the tarp and sure enough, there is a spot under the center stand that smells of fuel. Only a stain remains, but there was definitely some sort of leaking going on.

I'm surprised by this because I tested the tank repeatedly after lining it and found no leaks. I even replaced the petcock with a NOS one, and it has been turned off ever since I parked the bike for the winter.

I took a close look at the lines, the carbs and anywhere else that fuel flows and found nothing. Of course the liquid fuel evaporated before I became aware of the leak, but I was hoping to find some tell-tale residue or something along those lines. Nothing.

So I moved the bike to a more level spot and kept an eye on it. Everything seemed fine for a few days, then one morning, another spot.

Now when this happens, it's not a lot of fuel, the spot is only about a foot around and there is plenty of fuel left in the tank. My only guess is that it has something to do with the +-30 degree temperature swings we're experiencing around here lately but I still can't find the source and I'd like to address this before the snow flies and I go a week or more without opening the door.

More Interviews

Last night we completed another key interview for the film and now we're down to only one left on the list. That isn't to say we won't be doing more, or doing additional interviews of subjects we've already spoken with but what it does mean is that we're one interview away from putting together what we're calling the "outline cut".

This is where we take everything we've shot so far, put it together in the timeline and watch it end-to-end. The goal here is to see what we have, identify the stories we want to focus on and determine what else we need to tell these stories in a compelling way.

So it's not so much the end of production in the traditional sense, but it is the beginning of post-production and a milestone that we've really been looking forward to. Unlike a drama, where the story is written before the camera rolls, this is where the story our film will tell really starts to emerge.

The other transition happening here is a shift in focus from working on the motorcycle to one of working on the film. I have a few bike-related tasks in store for the winter but the updates here will have more to do with "shots-and-cuts" and less to do with "pipes-and-jets" (although bigger jets are on the top of my parts list). The primary challenge facing the bike at the moment is getting the title and license squared away and from my experience that doesn't make for very exciting writing. So unless something particularly exciting happens, I'll spare you the gory details.

We will also be annoucing new posts using our Slimey Mailing List. If you'd like to receive these updates, follow me to sign up.

Look forward to more consistent (if not more frequent) updates and let us know if you like what you're hearing or if there is something you think we're leaving out.

208 Days

The 2008 fall SCMG Café Racer Run has come and gone and my CL350 project bike (nicknamed by Matt as " CooLeo") gently weeps with only a handful of miles on it since it first arrived here, more than a year ago.

Grounded by lack of clearance from the man (and a few potential mechanical issues), the bike will have to wait through the projected 150" of snow and the dawn of spring to get its first taste of the 'Crud; with the flavor of salt and sand that accompanies the spring roads.



As much as I think the bike had a good shot at making it to the run, when I'm honest with myself about it I admit there is a strong possibility it would not have made it to the end. The potential of mechanical (or more likely, electrical) failure was high given the weather conditions (cold, rain, some hail) and even barring that, I may have simply chickened out once the weather turned.

As it turned out, we took the V45's instead and found that the turnout was fair, but nothing compared to the spring run (weather is a factor, apparently). So even without the project bikes on the road we were able to focus on enjoying the ride, weather and all, and by the time I made it back home I'd logged 300 miles.

…not a bad way to round out the riding season…

I asked Jamie and Libby to help out with the shooting that day, with Lib on "Making Of" duty. Here's a little clip for those of you who didn't make it out on Sunday:



…and while I'd like to gripe about not getting the CL out for this run, there is a reason that these things happen twice a year, right?

Cheating

After a few years searching for the right predecessor of my last (running) bike, the search is finally over.

Jamie and I have been looking for a more “comfortable” bike, something with passenger accommodations that are more “accommodating” than the Monster’s. This lead us into the realm of touring and cruiser bikes, and since we both have an aversion to fairings, most of the contenders were from the cruiser category.

We had pretty much settled on a Honda Shadow Aero, and had checked out a few over the years. We both dig the retro styling, and it seemed to be perfectly comfortable 2-up, and the price was in the right range. I never formally evaluated the performance because with this kind of bike, what’s the point? If you have enough power to haul two people and some gear around at highway speed, then that’s enough, right?

For some reason I always hesitated to pull the trigger on the purchase though. I just have a hard time buying a bike that is deliberately de-tuned for stylistic purposes, essentially to be more like a Harley.

But regardless we found a nice used Shadow at our local Honda shop and it was even decked out with a nice seat and bags, so it looked like this was going to be the one. Just on a whim, I did a quick search of the inventory of the other shops in the area and happened across this:



A 1995 Honda Magna VF750C. I knew immediately that this was the bike. Cruiser proportions and a sportbike engine, and awesome 50’s-style paint to boot, how can you go wrong? Of course the windshield/fairing needs to go, but other than that it was perfect (not to mention the price was right as well).

We spun down to Johnson Creek to check it out and after a nice test drive we were sold. A few days of finagling with the insurance and what-not and we were on the way home with it.

I haven’t had a lot of riding time yet due to some dental work I’ve had done but at the end of this week we’ll be spending some quality time together.

…now what does this mean for the CL project? Probably not much. On one hand you could think that it might slow down my progress since having a working bike might reduce my motivation to get the CL running, but on the other hand, now that we have a bike built for 2-up riding I can take a much more aggressive approach to the modifications of the CL and turn it into a true café racer. Of course some of the time I might have spent wrenching may be consumed by riding but I think there are worse things that can happen, and this way I can get my skills back up-to-speed before I try to take the “experimental” CL on the road.

…and this way I have SOMETHING to ride to the fall Crud Run, no matter how the CL project turns out.

Onward

I've decided to take an inventory of the project and figure out exactly what needs to be done and in what order. At the moment, here's what I think needs attention:

• Re-assemble the carbs
  
• Re-install the carbs
  
• Replace the airbox with clamp-on filters
  
• Cut-up and re-install the exhaust
  

Once these are done I should be able to try and fire up the engine and see what happens, assuming that it starts, and nothing terrible goes wrong, I can move on to the next batch of items:

• Kreem the gas tank
  
• Replace the tyres
  
• Get a new title
  

This should be enough to get it on the road. Now, assuming I get this far before the fall run, I could spend some time making the bike more interesting. But for now, I'm going to try and get through this list.

Thawing Out

So there is a lot of exciting developments around the film these days; unfortunately none of them have to do with my motorcycle.

I've had the carb rebuild kits for at least a month and the pipes in the basement for weeks, but with the schedule lately I've had zero time to spend down there getting things together.

With any luck things will wind down here in the next week or so and I'll get a chance to do some work on the bike. The weather around here has been improving, making it a lot easier to get work done out in the garage. Once I get the carbs and pipes done I'll be digging the rest out and moving operations back outside for the warmer months.

In the meantime I'll be focusing on my "Producer" role of the project and less on the "Mechanic" one; but hopefully that will change soon.

More interviews scheduled

We've got two major production events coming up, the first is an interview session that we'll be shooting with the two "mechanics" featured in the film who will discuss their project bikes, their current progress and their expectations for the next few months leading up to the spring 'run.

Secondly we have secured an interview with Lyall Sharer (Sr.), one of the Slimey Crud's and owner of Sharer Cycle Center in Verona, WI. We are particularly excited about this interview and hope to learn more about the origin of the run and the Slimey Crud Motorcycle Gang.

In related events, our last documentary release, "Breakdown" has been selected by the Beloit International Film Festival and will be screening on January 18th, 2008. You can find out more about "Breakdown" at BIFF by visiting the production company's website at http://2soc.net

Parts, parts parts!

The carb kit arrived (I decided to go with the carb kit) and seeing all those bright, shiny bits gets me all revved up to be working on the bike. Now that I can finally re-assemble the carbs I'm thinking about doing some kind of crazy stop-action animation of the assembly or a dramatic montage of the process...

...or maybe I should just get it done...

As far as the rest of the movie goes, things are going well and we've got the first interview under our belts. I should be able to post a few stills from that day shortly, Mike was busy with the clicky-clicky camera that day so we might have some real photographs (as opposed to frames swiped from the film).

The next thing I need to concentrate on is setting up the remaining interviews. From some of the emails I've received and the statistics for this and our company website (http://2soc.net) it looks like interest is growing in the project and we've received many kind words from motorcyclists out there anxious to see the finished product. As of now we're still on schedule for 2008 and if everything goes as planned we should be screening the film in the late summer/early fall. It's wayyy to early to be talking about release dates but anyone reading this blog should already be accustomed to seeing things change from week to week.

If we have time we may begin posting some video from the film as it progresses. It's allot more work than just typing and posting random pictures, but if there is interest from the audience that might motivate us to exert the effort. Drop us a comment here if that's something you'd like to see.

For now, I should get back to those carburetors...

Unrelated Updates

This last weekend we shot our first formal interview with Bill from Motorcycle Performance. While we're in the process of logging the footage and checking out the audio, we also finally released our most recent short film "The Mark" as part of Fox's Storyteller competition on myspace.com.

Check out the film at the URL below and vote for us!

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=21701103

First "formal" interviews scheduled.

On November 3rd we'll be sitting down with Bill from Motorcycle Performance to discuss The Crud Run, The Slimy Crud Motorcycle Gang and some of Bill's current projects as well. This kicks off the "historical" stage of the project and we are looking forward to seeing what Bill has to say.

Bill has a great shop in Madison, WI where he sells new and used bikes and has probably the most skilled service shop in the area. These guys do some incredible work and run their own racing team as well. We've done business with Bill for years but this will be the first time we've had a chance to sit down with him and discuss motorcycling.

On the CL350 front not a lot of progress has been made of late, mainly due to the DVD release of "Breakdown" and it's screening at the Edgerton Book and Film Festival, where it took home the "Best of Edgerton" award. Now that the DVD is out and the festival is over I should have a little more time to spend on the bike, I just have to decide how deep to go in the disassembly.

Rolling

The Crud Run Diaries has finally been "greenlighted" by the second society. What this means is that it will now occupy an "official" spot on the production schedule and things should really start rolling from here.

What happens next is we will be scheduling interviews with anyone involved in the Run's history as well as time to record major mechanical work on the project bikes (which means I need to get a list of to-fix items for the CL). The first of these sessions will be recorded on September 9th so I'll have more to report on after that.

A few other decisions have been made and due to scheduling conflicts (and frankly, lack of progress on the project bikes) we're targeting the spring Run of 2008 to get the bikes running and on the road. This will give us most of the winter to get the work done, and since we live in Wisconsin, there's not a lot else to do, really…

In the meantime we are looking for stories from anyone who participates or even knows something about The Slimy Crud Run. If you or someone you know falls into this category drop a comment on this post and we'll get in touch.

Photographs

Finally got around to adding the pictures to the last post.

So far I'm loving the VQ1005, and so is Libby: