Vulcan sold

Glad I took pics of our Vulcan yesterday 'cause last night it sold. On another note, I have an appointment with the Colorado State Patrol for my VIN inspection next Thurday, July 6. Depending on how that goes, I'll be able to register the sucker.

My Son's Vulcan

Here're some pics of my son's 1993 Kawasaki 750cc Vulcan which we chopped and repainted 2-3 summers ago. It has Jardine forward controls, Rhizoma mirrors, billet grips, and a vertical license plate bracket I made myself. The engine is spotless and the bike runs great. However, Ian is in the process of trying to sell it since he's leaving this coming weekend for a year in Costa Rica.

Weekend in Durango

Last weekend, my wife and I drove down to Durango to meet up with her sister and my brother-in-law and their grandkids. I didn't think I was going to have any free time away from family, so I didn't mark down the info for Norton Colorado's Four Corners Rally. However, when I told my wife about it, she said we should drive over to Dolores (since knew that's where Matt Rambow's Colorado Norton Works is). When we got to Matt's, there was no one home. Obviously, rally happenings were somewhere else. However, I did get to check out Matt's Norton Commando powered chopper. Cool. Still, in terms of Colorado Norton choppers, I think mine is the bomb.

It's Alive!

Last night, I trailered the Norton chop to Gary Bolduc's in Thornton and he helped me get it started for the first time. We reset the valves, adjusted the carb, made sure the fuel line was open and flowing, and set the timing. This latter took the most time, since the bike is set up more like an Atlas than a Commando. However, we got it static timed, kicked the sucker over, and then timed it again with a strobe light. Then I took it out and around the neighborhood. Leaks oil like a son of a gun, and I need to attach the one muffler better. A couple of other adjustments and changes, but it's alive!

Norton Chopper Update

Last week, I got the stator/rotor spaced correctly so the primary is not bound. Then, by late last week I got the static timing done (I believe) correctly. Since I'm working with a 1969 Commando engine with the points mounted behind the cylinder similar to the Atlas, it took me a bit to figure this out for myself. I also tested my battery to make sure that, even loaded, it was at least 12V. It was 12.2V after two minutes with the headliight on. Not great, but I think adequate for the Boyer. So last Friday, I sprayed some ether into the carb and tried to kick it over. It popped the very first time with the kicker arm kicking back at me. I did this several times and it popped most every time. However, it did not catch. Unfortunately, all my kicking broke the welds on the kicker arm. That meant that over the weekend, I had to machine and weld a stronger kicker arm.

This afternoon, I'm going to try again. We'll see what happens.