The April meeting will be Saturday, April 7th. The ride will start at 2 PM, so please arrive by 1:30 with a full tank of gas. The meeting will start at 4 PM, and the food will be potluck. Meet at Josh’s place in Echo Park near Dodger Stadium. Details in K17.
Archive for March, 2012
April Meeting and Ride
Monday, March 26th, 2012First Ride in Ireland
Saturday, March 24th, 2012Peter Redmond came by to lead me around the Wicklow mountains south of Dublin, and we went on a fabulous ride, just under 100 miles. It is very scenic around there, great views, lakes, farms, streams. As some of you may recall, the last time I had the Comet out back in LA, on the ride from Dave Marshall’s to Lake Elsinore, my Comet wouldn’t start after we stopped at the lookout. After Mike picked me up with his trailer and took me back to Dave’s, and once the Comet had cooled off, it started fine. It always starts easy when it is cold, but I thought I had developed the classic magneto-condenser-hard-starting-when-it-is-hot syndrome. Before leaving on the ride this day, I was adjusting the carb to get a good idle, and found that the air mixture screw was out quite a bit. I cranked it in, and got a much better idle. I think that might have been contributing to the hard starting when hot issue, since I had to start the Comet a couple of times during the ride. The Comet ran pretty strong, climbing the mountains pretty well. Here is a picture of Peter and our two Comets taken when we got back to my house.
Geoff Giammarco paint and metal repair
Tuesday, March 20th, 2012Just before leaving Los Angeles, I had Geoff Giammarco repair and paint the petrol tank on the Comet. It worked out nicely for the shipping since there was no trace of fuel in the tank. A prior owner of the tank wanted to put a rear head on a Comet, and so the tank was modified to add a cutout on the right hand side. Then a subsequent owner removed the cutout and patched it up to restore the original capacity and shape. When I got it, it leaked pretty bad on the left side, and had a small leak on the right side. Geoff worked some magic to fix the leaks and some other small damage and then painted and striped the tank, applied the latest club transfers with their revised artwork and colors and a clear coat, and polished it all up. It looks absolutely fabulous. Thanks Geoff for your excellent work. You can contact Geoff at mcpaint111 at aol.com and 310-463-5021.
March Meeting at the Melvin’s
Tuesday, March 13th, 2012Well another month has blown by and the So Cal section had a very nice gathering at the Melvin’s in San Clemente. The Bill and Marge had a great spread and everyone was very happy we made the choice to attend. There will be a more comprehensive write up in this months K 17 so be on the look out.
Here is a shot of the Bill’s, Bill Melvin and Easter on either side of Doris and Jim Shaffer’s back and Setsuko’s side and a gentleman who’s name escapes me, but he drove his GT40 to the meeting and it was a hit.
Of course Bill Melvin had some bikes on display. Here is a shot of his Reading Standard, Indian and Ducati.
I will come back and edit model and year info soon.
All in all it was a lovely day and a full day. I rode down on my KTM 950SM and it was an hour and a half each way and mucho traffic. Thank the lord for legal lane sharing in California.
Be on the lookout for the next K17 which will have a more complete rundown.