Finally got my truck back from the body shop last week! I couldn't get them to repaint the hood to get rid of the stripes, but I did manage to get a black bumper to replace the chrome one that was on the truck originally. Now I just have to replace the rear bumper the same way (ok, maybe without the wreck) and I'll have de-chromed entirely. Not that I'm against chrome (look at my Valkyrie), but I didn't like it on the truck.

Now I start looking for a new hood with a cowl scoop and the right kind of wire mesh for the open grill shell I have.

I'll get some new pics of the truck up soon.

I loaned my truck to my girlfriend's son while she and I ran down to Forida for the weekend. Wouldn't you know it; he ends up rear-ending someone with it!

First estimate of damages is almost $2800. But they didn't even open the hood to come up with that. I've opned the hood; the radiator is bent (yes, bent and not leaking), the mounts are broken and who knows what else...

So just now I'm driving a 97 Cavalier I just got for her daughter to go to college in. I'm taking the truck in this weekend for a full estimate by the insurance company. I'm hoping they don't total it.

Ok, so we got the petcock kit in finally. It came all the way from canada so it took a while. But, it's installed and the leak is gone.

But the bike still runs like crap...hmmm....

Well, after some tinkering, we pulled the bowls of one of the carbs. Seems the floats are sticking a bit. Guess the bike sat a bit longer than I thought. But we unstuck the one carb, then started the bike back up. It ran a little better, so we tapped on all the carbs with a screw driver handle and must have loosened all the floats as the bike runs well again. Took it for a short run and wound it up to around 100. All seems well for the moment.

Unfortunately for me, I have to go to a company sponsored class for a couple weeks so I won't be able to ride till I get back. Oh well, at least it's running again.

Maybe when I get back we'll try the 4-1 header again. But then maybe not; I've always liked the way the bike sounds. Maybe I can find a decent stock system. We'll see.

Well, got the 4-1 exhaust on, and the bike wouldn't run well. I don't think it would need to be re-jetted for this, but just in case we put the OEM system back on. Well, it still runs bad. On further examination, there's gas in the air box. We cleaned that up, reinstalled everything and...the air box starts filling up again.

Hmm.

About this time we realize the petcock is leaking a little. Looking into it further, we find that it's been doing it for a while and the cranckcase oil is contaminated! Oh well, at least the insides of the engine got flushed and well cleaned. So, we changed the oil and are now waiting for a petcock rebuild kit to come in.

Dang it.

Well, we sent the S to an exhaust shop because we couldn't get the exhaust studs out of the head. When we got it back, we got to work putting the 4-1 header on. We packed the muffler can with steel wool and replaced all the hardware with stainless steel.

Unfortunately, the bike didn't want to start. We ended up removing the air filter and keeping the choke on. At this point we're not sure if it's because the bike sat for a while or if the new exhaust is causing a problem. So tomorrow we'll put the stock pipes on and see what happens.

My brother has my bug at the moment for the installation of the Kwik Wire harness. He's done this before, just not on a VW. Things aren't going as easily as they could due to the "univeral" nature of the harness, and the quality of the VW wiring diagram. But I'm hoping he'll have it done in the next month. Looking forward to getting it back on the road.

Well, I was going to sell the S because I wasn't using it. But since my Lady can't ride on the Valk anymore, I'm keeping the S and selling the big bike. I'll use the S for commuting and such.

What does this mean for the S? First off, it's in the shop to have all the exhaust studs pulled. Several were broken so I ordered a whole new set. Since the stock exhaust systems is pretty worn, I'm going to install the 4 into 1 header I have. I just need to fabricate a bracket to keep the center stand from bottoming out on the swing arm.

More pics as tthings get done. Maybe in the dead of winter I'll see about fixing the paint...