RE: miss my bike

79 Harley-Davidson XLS 1000 Roadster discussion forum:


RE: miss my bike

RE: miss my bike 
Brian Swift said 2007-07-11 20:05 
 
I was talking to a friend the other day. We were talking about bikes, little surprise. He said something I have overlooked a bit. It isn´t that the 1979 XLS Roadster is that great of a bike, god knows I am working on it every week. But more that we the owners who do ride them put a lot into keeping them going, even the constant tightening of rocker boxes, resetting the lifters so they don´t hold the valves open after tightening the rocker boxes again, the tightening the chain and greasing, the adding the oil especially after riding on the interstate too fast, all the way down to the checking the bolts so they don´t fall out while your riding down the road.

It was my friend that pointed out it is more you the rider that is more mechanically experienced because you ride that bike that gives you the sense of pride riding the 1979 XLS Roadster. I did point out that the 1979 XLS Roadster for all its short comings is the bike I enjoy riding and working on.

news:
I did put a new chain and sprocket on a few weeks back. I am leaving it a inch loose while sitting on it. At the 1/2 inch loose as the book says I notice I felt a catch in the chain when I went over uneven concrete or big bumps. The original sprockets were 20 and 51 teeth which liked to go 55mph real well and had to run it hard to push it up. I put 22 front and 48 rear sprocket on with the new chain. Now I can cruise 70 to 80 on the interstate without pushing it. My first gear is no longer for turtle speeds and I have plenty of power still to take off without much worry of it dieing.
The down side is that I have to keep running fast to keep the generator charging the battery. The lower RPMs don´t charge the battery well, so I can keep it in 3rd gear while driving under 50mph or expect to use the battery charger every couple of days. I do about 40 to 50 miles of riding per day to work and back then a some around the country side. If I don´t get on the interstate I notice the charge light creeping on quite often.

I was starting to worry my generator wasn´t putting out the juice but a nice ride up I44 at 70+ mph kept the battery charged all weekend riding across Missouri and Illinois and back.

Little Sturgis Kentucky rally is coming up end of next week and I plan on riding 275 miles to get there. Do a few rides while i am there. Then ride the 275 miles back. I do plan on taking my tools, picking up a quart of oil in there somewhere, and doing some adjustments while sitting around the camp, part of owning a nice old bike. 
 
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