Chief Gunner

Jon! It's been too long, the XR has a fresh motor and will have a fresh suspension sometime later this week (Just dropped off the Mono shock tonight) So yes I am going to be showing up on some rides soon . Anyway I got a new cell and I lost your # so gimmie a call if you still have mine (same old #) If the XR isn't ready by the weekend I'll try to swing by on the VMax to say hi (if it's ready too ) If U don't have my cell anymore PM me with your's and the address and remember that you are still and always welcome here at my place anytime so if you're in the area, swing by. Aaron

I'm still alive Since Retiring I've been working my tail off and adjusting to this Civilian lifestyle. It seems like I had allot more time off (when I was not deployed) than I do now Anyway I've been working on getting the old XR tuned and prepped so I can show up on a ride unanounced and re-connect with my friends here I wanted to take a minute and post an experience I had today so that my Active Duty and Retired Military Comrades & Brethren here are made aware of this. It bothered me so much I felt like I just had to share it with you; Being fed up with the run around and the pains I experieced at a local shop in El Cajon I decided to take my VMax to NCY for some work (after seeing them advertise Military discounts) and hearing some good things from some of you here. I drop the VMax off out back and I talked to Rich in service who seemed nice enough so feeling at ease over letting my ride get worked on at another dealership I figured I'd take a look around the store. I then started looking at an FJR on the showroom floor and met Greg who was also seemed like a good guy. He showed me a used FJR that they had and I immediately fell in lust with it, he did not pressure me and was sincere so I was seriously considering adding it to my herd (even planned on paying cash for it in a couple of days) so I thanked him and strolled over to the parts section of the store. When I saw some tires on the shelf I wanted for the XR I grabbed them and some new MSR heavy duty tubes to go with them. I headed over to the counter to pay for them and the store cashier there was a guy named Cole. So I asked him if they did Military discounts, he said yes and when I showed him my retired ID card he said .....the Military Discounts are for "Current Active duty Only".......What I ask? He said "It's not my policy, it's the stores" If I had known that my 20+ years of Active Duty and the Sacrifices I've made (including receiving VA service connected disability for the damage it did to my body) to serve this Ccountry were not good enough to receive a discount at this place I would have never dropped off the VMax there. So I went online and filled out a customer Survey form and wrote in it that I will be sending a letter to the editors of the local Base newspapers so that all Active Duty and Retired Personnel who read them will be made aware of NCY's policies. I really felt insulted by this and anyone on Active Duty or Retired should be as well.

It's been a long time since I've posted or ridden with you guys. Hello to all my friends here and hello to those I have not met or ridden with too. The XR has been restored and is cleaned up and is running like a champ. I plan on showing up on some rides as soon as the weekend OT slows down. Anyway I posted this link along time ago, I thought I'd share it again since there is some good points to be made in it. I've done allot more group riding on slab than in the dirt lately but the pricipals to safe and responsible group riding apply to both. I have had some truly epic group rides with allot of you here in the past. Everyone on those rides was courteous, polite and I like to think they had a blast too. Hope to catch up and ride soon

I got my daughter Rachel started young, now we have another little motorcycle fanatic to get started. This is my niece Olivia, my wife babysits her during the week. She comes running out to the garage when I get home on the VMax or the XR so she can hop up and sit with me while I rev the engine for her while she giggles :lazy: She's ony 2 1/2 right now but I'm thinking a Craigslist find CRF50 with training wheels might be in her future this Xmas so we can get her statred right

Happy Birthday there Brother Man! Hope you enjoy it, CHEERS

XXL.... Let me know if you need a hand with set up or anything else Randy

So I've been riding the XRL to work while I wait on the parts for the VMax to come in, that's another story, but nowhere near as bad as this.....On the way to work this morning I noticed a really bad smell (burning oil) coming from the XR, I looked down at my oil temp gauge.....way above 300 degrees... as I rolled off the throttle to switch lanes to pull over something started screaming LOUDLY inside the engine . I got off the road and shut it down as I became surrounded by smoke to the point where I was invisible and choking and coughing.. She did not seize up but there is something seriously wrong with her. I called my warranty folks and they told me it's still good so I dropped it off at the stealership where I was told a re-build for the 650L runs around $1000.. If the bike is unrecoverable I will be selling off the cool aftermarket stuff and salvaged parts on it and then I'll host a pig roast It was a good entry level bike for me to get into the dualsport scene and it did everything I asked it to do for 13,0000 plus miles. Oh welll, we'll see what the damage assesment is and go from there. If it's fixable and doesn't cost me too much I'll hang onto it and it will be a "Buddy Bike" on standby duty. I've been looking around for a new /used Siverado or Sierra so it may be a little while before I can score another DS bike but I can guarantee you it will not be an XRL . The next DS I get will be something lighter, liquid cooled, perhaps even fuel injected and it will have a far superior suspension and more power. i've got an idea of what I want but will keep quiet about it until I show up on a ride with it

I gotta call Thomas and get the specs from him. I'm not sure of all of the details. The only thing I know for sure is that she was bored 25 thousandths over on the cylinder so it has a bigger piston now. There is a huge noticable difference in the torque and you can really hear a difference in the way she runs (especially the cam now). I only did a little test ride up the street to see what it was gonna feel like. I was impressed with the grunt she has now Gotta re-pack the exhaust tonight and start on the forks.

The pig is back She's now running smoothly again. I have a few things to do but I am not taking it back to MW again. I've gotta put some new sneakers on her, change the fork fluid and service the mono shock so she will be ready for the dash. I can really feel the added torque & power the overbore gave it. I'm gonna break it in gently so those new piston rings and everything else seat properly Thomas (Doc) at MW was the mechanic who brought it back to life.....he showed me some of the carnage that took place inside the engine that led to it's demise. Pretty ugly, but fixed now (I hope). Well I'm going to break out my manual today and get started with getting the parts I need to get her 100% ready. I hope to see you guys on a ride soon

Update; I cannot help but feel like I have to keep this going as a warning / lessons learned to all 900 plus members here...... I got a call from MW last week, expecting to have the XR back but it was not to be. I was told they had put the pig back together and they had fired it up and that the engine was still smoking & smellling really bad and that it was something to do with the cam bearings / top end seals. tom (tntmo) nailed it with his post earlier in this thread. Anyway It's now the 19th of January which makes this fiasco just a tad more than a Month 1/2 old now which is really no longer a surprise to anyone. It's been a very long wait for a warranty covered re-build on a very basic (by todays standards) single cylinder, air cooled 4 stroke engine that was built around 1980's technoloy. .....

Took my buddy Jim and his girlfriend Christen on a loop out to Carguy's casa on the 94 yesterday. We both scraped some hard parts on our bikes. (me on the Vmax and him on his new Fat boy "Low" in thos twisties I did not get any pics so I went to the Hwy94 photo site to see if there were any there.....found one of this guy tearing up the twisties on an HD....I recognize that dude anywhere I've been doing allot of street riding but cannot wait to hit the dirt soon as soon as the pig is fixed. I'm usually up for at least one day of twisties on the weekends so anytime you guys that like that too just hit me up with a PM and we'll hook up and go wear the edges of our tires smooth

Coming home from work today I passed a guy on 2nd approaching the intersection of Greefield and 2nd. As I passed the guy on the right ( he was doing like 20 in a 35 zone and drifting over the line) I looked over and saw that he was driving with one hand and texting on the other.....when I rolled on the throttle to get past his dumb ass a car pulled out right in front of me from the right So I swerve and and downshift and come to a semi abrupt stop at the red light light, idiot boy is now behind me.....then I feel the bike lurch forward a tad.... bumper kisses license plate frame. I throw the bike in nuetral, get off and go straight for the drivers side door. I smack his window and yell "WTF", he's staring straight ahead and I pause for a second and look at the inside of the car... there's a little kid in a car seat in the back so I back up and off while telling myself "This is not right" I just went back to the bike, hopped on and took off. All I can say is that something stopped me from getting into trouble. I hope it was a direct spiritual moment because I was ready to do some damage to that guy and his car for hitting me. You guys be careful out there! This one is only gonna cost me a new license plate frame (thank God). Lesson learned for me in this one is to not be too impatient in tight manuevering areas and to not let my emotions overpower sound thinking.

The only reason I brought the pig to MW was because they are close and I had a pretty good idea it was gonna be covered by the warranty, I had heard they were under new management so I rolled the dice.......and now it looks like I lost Still waiting to hear back from the service department .....we'll see how this turns out. Thanks for the references Randy, I am going to start taking ALL of my two wheeled related buisness elswhere!

I told Randy I would help out, even if the pig is not ready I will be there to lend a hand and I will be at this meeting. Mike; Rachel is 16 now and has baby sitting experience, you can swing by my place and leave the kids with her and the wife while we go to the meeting if you would like.

If you could assist me with this Brent I would appreciate it. I have a stack of receipts for parts, gear, supplies, service and other stuff going back for almost 8 years from MW. I have given them literally thousands of dollars of buisness over the years and to have things like this happen to me and others here really is'nt cool. You would think they would make the effort to maintain a loyal customer base, especially in an area like this where there are thousands of people in East County who ride Bikes and quads of all types. If their process improves and they make their customers happy they would eventually reap the rewards of a having a huge customer base and see a big increase in buisness which is a rare thing these days in this economy...... Just my 2 cents.

RANT AND RAVE ON!!!!! So I stopped by Motoworld in El Cajon to ask what is going on with the pig....I dropped it off on the 2nd and have not received any calls. When I rolled up on the VMax today on my way home from work I saw it in the "Shed" off to the side looking like this.... So I ask James the service rep what the hell is taking so long......he tells me he's been sick and apologized for nobody contacting me. I like the guy but am pissed at the way they always drag ass there on stuff. Every time I have dropped a bike off there for service, repair or whatever it's always the same old song and dance and ended up costing too much. When I had my VMax serviced there the mechanic actually wrote up on the service sheet that the clutch "Felt notchy" the dumb ass cost me a new clutch because he did not bother to check the master cylinder, it was causing the "Notchy feeling" and ended up frying the clutch! I rebuit the master cylinder and put a new clutch in myself and it's better than new now. The clutch on my Vmax was fine when I dropped it off, I ride the thing allot and I rode it there. I suspect that my bike was either dropped or someone banged it on the clutch master cylinder / lever which caused the piston in the master cylinder to pop out of the notch on the clutch lever insert sleeve....which then prevented the clutch from engaging / disengaging correctly and resulted in a fried clutch. For the rebuild kit on the Master Cylinder, a new lever and the clutch kit it ran me $200+ because a "trained" mechanic did not look at the clutch being notchy as a "whole system" from the master cylinder down to the slave cylinder to the actual clutch...... Oh and here's what got me really pissed today, the Service rep told me that even though the warranty was suposed to cover the rebuild they want an aditional $400 from me for a pistonbore and a new clutch .....WTF!!!!! I'm so pissed off about this crap, I have edited my earlier post since I've calmed down. I'm just tired of dealing with Motoworld! I am capable of re-building the thing and hindsight being a "B" I should have done it myself. I'm still going to hunt down the Service and the Store manager and let them know that this is not the way to treat good paying customers with lotts of friends who ride

If anyone might want to ride some twistie pavement later today to start the New Year off , I'm planning on heading out the 94 out to Buckman Springs and then go from there to Sunrise up to Julian, then down Banner Grade out to Borrego, up Montezuma and then loop back through Santa Isabel down to Ramona and return to lakeside on the 67. I'll check in through out the day to see if anyone wants to ride, my contact info is in the members only thread. Planning on Leaving my house around 1 or 2ish. bring what you got, it will be a quick but not irresponsible pace

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GUYS! I'm up early and ready to go, I behaved myself last night for once I'm going to give my friend Dan a hand installing airbags in his truck this morning and then We are gonna go for a ride (he'll be on his harley and I'll be on the on the VMax). So if anyone might want to ride some twistie pavement later today to start the New Year off right I'm planning on heading out the 94 out to Buckman Springs and then go from there to Sunrise up to Julian, then down Banner Grade out to Borrego, up Montezuma and then loop back through Santa Isabel down to Ramona and return to lakeside on the 67. I'll check in through out the day to see if anyone wants to ride, my contact info is in the members only thread. Planning on Leaving my house around 1 or 2ish. Lets ride!

Thanks to all of you for the warm wishes! Just got home from work and cracked a cold one. I'm seriously thinking about ditching the Honey do's and heading out to the dez to meet up with Ride Orange and company for some riding. Thanks for the loaner offers too! Hopefully my bike mechanical gremlins are behind me now so I can ride allot more with you guys. Lets make 2010 an epic riding year for all of us! I wish you all the best of luck and pray that we all have a better year and get to ride more often Here's a link to a song I got in an email today, too funny, yet sad and true LMAO

thanks, no date on the pig yet I was told that the parts are on order so they have not even torn it all the way down yet. I will have to keep calling them. Until I get it back I'll be tearing up the pavement on the VMax. Already saving and scheming ways to finance my next DS ride

We gotta ride as soon as I get the pig back, I got a killer deal on this the other day.....now I can haul more than one bike at a time and if needed I can do recovery work using the 4WD

Just got off the phone. I had to authorize the repair.....the pig is getting a complete tear down and re-build ! Western Warranty is gonna cover it! Hope to see ya's on a ride soon, when I get her back I need to replace both tires and change fork fluid but other than that she should be good to go for some dual sporting, I hope I still have not found a truck but will keep looking.

I'm heading to qualcom to check out the used car tent sale with the wife.......my personal preference in order of most to least desireable are the full sized; GMC Sierra's & Chevy Silverado's and then the Fords and last would be the Dodges. I'm hoping to find something that meets my needs and does not look too shabby but here's the basic criteria; 1. It's gotta have a V8 since it won't be a daily driver. A 4x4 is prefered but a nice full size 2wd with a trailer hitch will do nicely. I also prefer white, it hides dirt , dings and scatches better than dark colors but I am open to see what is out there. 2. A large cab with a bench seat in the rear for the dogs to hang out on or to haul other passengers and a place to stow gear if needed 3. A full bed so I can stuff some bikes in there, oh and so I can haul other stuff 4. Hopefully the milage won't be too excessive in relation to the year model and it will have to be in sound mechanical shape. I'm pretty good with maintaining my vehicles (got 285K out of the camry before I sold it) and doing my own repairs, that's why I prefer domestic trucks, parts are usually easier to get and cheaper than the others. 5. It has to fit into my budget and if I do well enough there's a chance I might get another bike sooner that I thought I'm off to go truck hunting......

Thanks for the offer Ken that was way of you. Well the guy has not called me back on the truck so I'll keep looking for something within my budget that still has some life left in it. That one I made the offer on looked nice but it did have allot of miles on it. I'm finding that the same is true for finding a used truck as finding a used bike, too many people think that what they have for sale is worth more than it actually is..... I cannot believe how much some people are asking for something with 150 to 200K plus on the odo, you'd think they already legalized the wacky weed and these people are just smokin too much of it I gotta call the stealership later today to find out what's up with the piggie.

Just don't let anyone get hurt on that beast out in the dunes, I would feel really bad. I told you about it running a little rich last time I rode at CC, there was just not enough room out there for me to let that thing really stretch it's legs with the 40:1 mix. It's been a while since you had a two smoker so you might have to get used to playing with the mix a little until you find the right mix for the right application. The 40:1 mix should be just about right out in the dunes where you can open it up and keep it clear from loading up. I would lean the gas mix out a bit for the track, somewhere around 50:1 should be close to perfect. :curtsey: I don't think you will have any issues with that monster at all, in fact I know it's gonna scare the hell out of you, it sure scared the hell out of me a few times I have some more paperwork I gotta find for you; (the Dyno sheet and specs from the shop that did the piston) I'll call you when I find it Here's a link to the "Banned 500 riders" site; There's lots of good tech stuff and tuning tips from the experts to be found there. http://bannedcr500riders.com/board/index.php