Islander Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 On 7/21/2021 at 5:08 PM, geezin' said: Funny thing is the material was for motorcycle parts. Transmission doors for Harley Sporsters. Been in that business for almost 40 years. Wow. The bikes I worked on, primarily Yamahas, didn’t even have transmission doors. Some of the factory race bikes (never worked on any of those) had cassette gearboxes, which allowed the mechanics to pull out the gearset while the engine/gearbox unit stayed in the frame. This also allowed for quick ratio changes, to better suit certain racetracks. Those gearboxes may have had transmission doors, but that’s a guess. Are Sportster gearboxes unusual in some way, compared with other bike gearboxes? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigStewMan Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 Pat on the Island ... are you a mechanic by trade? I wish I would have learnt how to work on cars when I was younger. But, I think if I was into anything auto related, I'd like to be a painter. Probably the creative side of me that is interested in that. I say creative loosely ... musically and creative writing; but not in all art forms. My brother is an exceptional artist ... mostly landscape paintings. I tried once and I sucked at it. I couldn't even paint a tree that ended up looking like a tree. The one thing my brother hates and avoids at all cost is portraits. He said once, "If I screw up a leaf, no big deal. If I screw up a nose, the entire painting is ruined." 2 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 It was the third time in a week when win11 crashed on me while I was logged in here a half hour ago. Do not think it likes me turning off some of it's own quasi "security" apps. Or maybe when it fusses at me because it cant access the microphone that my pc doesn't have... it actually can hear me hurling four letter words at msft! Only place I think there could be one is on my motherboard that is from 2017. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islander Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 On 7/22/2021 at 5:02 PM, BigStewMan said: last time I had the finger test, I told the doctor "this is probably as bad for you as it is for me" and she shrugged and said, "you get used to it." Maybe she does; but I sure don't. Now, I once went to the doctor and my doctor was on vacation so Andre the Giant's twin brother was filling in. I think that guy either did a wind up or got a running start before ripping me apart with his oversized finger. When I told my doc that I did not enjoy the finger exam, he told me that if either one of us enjoyed it, then we’d both have a problem. And we both laughed, because neither of us enjoyed it. Everything gets weirder as you get older. I’m not sure I even want to guess what the future holds. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigStewMan Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 1 hour ago, Islander said: When I told my doc that I did not enjoy the finger exam, he told me that if either one of us enjoyed it, then we’d both have a problem. And we both laughed, because neither of us enjoyed it. Everything gets weirder as you get older. I’m not sure I even want to guess what the future holds. and for the rest of the exam, neither the patient nor the doctor can look at each other in the eye. After my experience with the doctor aka Andre the Giants brother .... I now have only female doctors -- they're much more gentle. Not sure about the female German doctors that paid their way through medical school carrying all that beer steins during Oktoberfest. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islander Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 1 hour ago, BigStewMan said: Pat on the Island ... are you a mechanic by trade? I wish I would have learnt how to work on cars when I was younger. But, I think if I was into anything auto related, I'd like to be a painter. Probably the creative side of me that is interested in that. I worked as a motorbike mechanic for five seasons, but even though I enjoyed the work, it was seasonal at best, resulting in being laid off for months every winter. I moved on to maintaining and repairing locomotives for CN Rail, which gave me year-round employment, but the endless midnight shifts and “weekends off” that didn’t happen on Saturday or Sunday finally got to me, so I made the jump from 3000 hp Diesel engines at CN to 400,000 hp (300 megawatts) steam turbines at Ontario Hydro. That’s where I got my millwright licence. So yes, I was a mechanic. Due to injuries sustained in a highway crash, I retired at age forty-five, and I only do very light jobs now. Ten years after I retired, I bought a pair of La Scalas, and here I am today, just another Bonehead. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islander Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 22 hours ago, dtel said: Sadly your right, but I would never shoplift, I spent all my life trying to stay out of jail and nothing I could steal was worth being locked up. On the topic of theft, Coytee once stated that La Scalas made great university dorm speakers for two reasons. First, they’re too big to steal, and second, their stability and large top surfaces made them safe for drunk college girls to dance on. Considering Forum etiquette, I’d have linked to Coytee’s page where his name appears above, but I haven’t seen how it’s done. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigStewMan Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 3 minutes ago, Islander said: Considering Forum etiquette, I’d have linked to Coytee’s page where his name appears above, but I haven’t seen how it’s done. are you aware of some of the predicaments that @Coytee has gotten himself into? Tread carefully if you're following his footsteps. (Hi Richard, we really do love you). 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geezin' Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 2 hours ago, Islander said: Wow. The bikes I worked on, primarily Yamahas, didn’t even have transmission doors. Some of the factory race bikes (never worked on any of those) had cassette gearboxes, which allowed the mechanics to pull out the gearset while the engine/gearbox unit stayed in the frame. This also allowed for quick ratio changes, to better suit certain racetracks. Those gearboxes may have had transmission doors, but that’s a guess. Are Sportster gearboxes unusual in some way, compared with other bike gearboxes? Nah. They're cassette transmissions but far from quick change. Just the way they were designed in the early '50s. They are typical Harley transmissions in that the power enters and exits on the same shaft. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigStewMan Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 so cables are crucial? That's what I was told today. @Tarheel Chuck's thread -- he makes the call. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted July 23, 2021 Moderators Share Posted July 23, 2021 3 hours ago, Islander said: Here in Canada, I think you would have been called a shipwright This was over 40 years ago, I have no idea what it is called today ? All we did was cut plates into whatever the blueprints called for and fit them into place. The fitting into place was the hard part, it's not easy to pull and bend a thick plate to the shape neeed. The rake on the front is the hardest with the most severe curves, your not allowed to heat anything up to bend it, it just has to be pulled intp shape with many big 12 ton come-alongs as they are called. I mostly worked on 180' supply boats (picture) and for a while we worked to build the New York, Statin island ferry's. 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigStewMan Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 15 minutes ago, dtel said: This was over 40 years ago, I have no idea what it is called today ? All we did was cut plates into whatever the blueprints called for and fit them into place. The fitting into place was the hard part, it's not easy to pull and bend a thick plate to the shape neeed. The rake on the front is the hardest with the most severe curves, your not allowed to heat anything up to bend it, it just has to be pulled intp shape with many big 12 ton come-alongs as they are called. I mostly worked on 180' supply boats (picture) and for a while we worked to build the New York, Statin island ferry's. very impressive Elden. When I was a senior in high school I took an Electricity class. I had already enlisted in the coast guard and was to report to boot camp after graduation. Here is a quote from the instructor that I received on my final exam. "Final exam: F, Class Projects: F, Final Grade: C. Going into Coast Guard ... all ships will sink." (My teacher told me that he was once in the coast guard ... so I guess that helped me pass the class. I only took the class because I had already earned enough credits to graduate and I had four classes and the last class finished at 10;30 ... my mom told me to either take more classes or get a job because I wasn't going to sit around all day). 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted July 23, 2021 Moderators Share Posted July 23, 2021 The last couple days I have been working with one of my grandsons, he asked if I bring my bike over can we fix it up ? He is 14 and a really good kid so of course I said yes. Well it's a BMX type bike and was not in real bad shape, mostly bad tires a torn seat and a few scratches. I told him to do it right we need to take it apart completely and clean and just a general rebuild and might as well paint it while it's apart, kind of like we did when I was a kid. So we took it all apart with him doing 90% of the work, I ordered some new tires and a seat and asked him to pick out a paint idea. Well he looked up some ideas and found what he liked so today we went and got what paint we needed, he picked out the colors himself. We painted the frame flat white and did what is called speckled I think, I like how it came out, he did all the painting. When it all dries we will spray a few coats of clear on it and after it dries start putting it back together, he is a happy how it came out, he did well. It's been fun spending time with him besides him just visiting, he learned how to work tools to clean everything up and listened well since some can be dangerous. I got him to use his phone and take a picture so I could post it here. You more or less put paint on a brush and fling at the bike, YES we hung it outside to do it. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted July 23, 2021 Moderators Share Posted July 23, 2021 7 minutes ago, BigStewMan said: very impressive Elden. When I was a senior in high school I took an Electricity class. Strange you said that, I had no intention of fitting boats. I went there as an electrician and was told there was an old man ready to retire very soon so there would be an opening. They said we will hire you as a welder or an apprentice fitter and you will be here and just move over to electrical when he leaves, I picked the fitter since I did not care much for welding. Well I started and the old guy never wanted to retire and I needed a job and never had much time to look, well I did like it and moved to first class fitter in no time, beleve it or not way back then a top fitter was paid $7.70 an hour and that was pretty good. Did that job for probably 5-6 years, can't remember really, it was when I was first married and I was a little more crazy than I am now so my memory is a little blury with times and dates. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigStewMan Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 13 minutes ago, dtel said: Strange you said that, I had no intention of fitting boats. I went there as an electrician and was told there was an old man ready to retire very soon so there would be an opening. They said we will hire you as a welder or an apprentice fitter and you will be here and just move over to electrical when he leaves, I picked the fitter since I did not care much for welding. Well I started and the old guy never wanted to retire and I needed a job and never had much time to look, well I did like it and moved to first class fitter in no time, beleve it or not way back then a top fitter was paid $7.70 an hour and that was pretty good. Did that job for probably 5-6 years, can't remember really, it was when I was first married and I was a little more crazy than I am now so my memory is a little blury with times and dates. been watching this dude's videos about car painting. I don't understand what some of the paints that he uses are; but I'm a colorful guy so I can still dig it. the science of colorization. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted July 23, 2021 Moderators Share Posted July 23, 2021 Very cool what that paint does, it absorbs all that light from a flashlight as he draws on the car. This was the next video, painting a car with a pendulum design with running paint from a cup. It would be great to be able to play with things like that, it's expensive whet he is doing, just the paint supplies would add up fast, car paint is not cheap. Also those are wraps which are not cheap but they can just be peeled off when you want something else. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DizRotus Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 9 hours ago, Islander said: When I told my doc that I did not enjoy the finger exam, he told me that if either one of us enjoyed it, then we’d both have a problem. And we both laughed, because neither of us enjoyed it. Everything gets weirder as you get older. I’m not sure I even want to guess what the future holds. Apparently, since having my prostate enucleated not quite 4 weeks ago, I’ll be able to skip the digital exam at my yearly physical next Monday, and going forward. Can’t say that I’ll miss it. My internist will no longer get behind in his work, at least not on my account. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edgar Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 We need a TMI emoji. 🤢 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coytee Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 10 hours ago, Islander said: Coytee once stated that La Scalas made great university dorm speakers for two reasons. First, they’re too big to steal, and second, their stability and large top surfaces made them safe for drunk college girls to dance on. I think I said scantily clad women.....but hey, in a pinch.... 10 hours ago, BigStewMan said: (Hi Richard, we really do love you). You don't fool me. You're just egging me on to tell you about "MY" first Dr visit with the probing finger... 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 As long as your doc doesn't have one hand on each of your shoulders while doing the exam you're ok. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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