WKRP2010 Madison for Late Lunch

We took Hwy 421 on down into Madison, and stopped at the Downtowner
for lunch. We walked around a little because it was such a nice day
and the whole place was buzzing with people and bikes. We got a
little dessert at the soda fountain down the street. After that we
went across the bridge to Milton, KY and rode into Beford where I
showed Kathy where my mom used to live. I also stopped by the Dollar
General (which is the only store open most times) and got some
artificial flowers. We swung by the cemetery so I could put flowers
on Mom & Jack’s grave and I spent a little extra time wiping off the
bird poo with some napkins I had. On the way out of Bedford Kat said
"Thanks for taking me to meet your mom..." and thinking about that
still chokes me up. She is such a sweetheart... We changed over to
hwy 42 in Bedford and I stopped at the mill (Sligo Feed Mill) to show
Kat. It looks good like it is being kept up well, and I am glad to
see that.

WKRP2010 Headed Home

I decided to run the other side of the river from Ohio, over into
Indiana, then down to Madison. On the way there, we stopped at a
little mart in Delaware Indiana just north of Versailles for a fresh
soda. When I got off and went inside Kat stayed by the bike. She was
looking at a posting on the window when I came out. It said “Have you
see this Cougar!”, showed a shadowy picture, and said it had been
sighted three times in the vicinity!!! Also there was a cage parked
with a funny license plate on the front that said “One Nice, One
Old—Filly and Stud on Board” and showed a picture of two horses.

WKRP2010 Back at the Comet

Did I mention they were offering free beer from 8-9pm?
I was on a timetable. Last year I didn’t get there until almost nine
and got like a half glass. L This year, the retired folk in LSG were
going out to a nice sit-down meal. Vince was taking a major beating
from allergies, and so the only ones going were Kat, myself, Gary &
Bobbie, and then (blue hair) Steve and Joan. JD was MIA but I got a
text from him at some point. The band on Saturday night was MUCH
better than the DJ music the night before. I had free beers, listened
to the music, and played megaphone to the back room for when they
called out the numbers for the raffle. I didn’t see who won the
scooter, but Bobbie and Gary won…a….part….of a scooter! Does that
count? Joan wanted an extra shirt that they had on sale for $10 each
so ran down to get one and it came with a full bag ‘o swag. That was
pretty sweet. I stayed up too late, had too much beer and felt like I
had to stop to water the lawn ten times on the way back to the hotel.
At a mandatory gas stop, I let Kat pump the gas and I ran to the WC.
We followed BH Steve for a bit and his Tomtom got us turned around so
I finished the ride back. I was 100% exhausted.

WKRP2010 Asshats

The Northside was equipped with good food. Last year burgers, this
year was both standard and vegan pulled pork bbq sandwiches. I have
never heard of vegan pork but found it was made from seitan (which is
a wheat-gluten). Who would have guessed it! I tried a little and
found it almost as good as the real piggy.
After dinner we went back to the hotel briefly to pick up the others
who were going back to the Comet for the raffle and evening
festivities. THE BLOCK-YOU-IN scooter trailer trash people were still there!

These asshats blocked me in earlier this morning. Hah!

WKRP2010 This is the Stella that hit me

WKRP2010 Got hit by a pink Stella

Everyone started to saddle up and JD hollered out “Louisville!” so we
moved into position. We rode around the city a bit and ended up at
Quaker Steak & Lube. Since there was no protein at Metro and I was
feeling more sluggish than my scoot, I decided to go in and order
something. I opted for the Chicken Fenders as something that might be
easy to carry along. While waiting we struck up a conversation with
Sean and Kimberly from Cincinnati. I don’t think they are associated
with any club (though I could be wrong) but they seemed like a really
nice couple. They ride a RV250 and said they were really satisfied
with it. I have to point out at this spot that the RV250 has this
cool stacked instead of side-by-side headlight design. When the
brights are NOT on, there is a ring around the bright lens that is lit
with LED’s. This gives it a totally Iron-Man-Chest-Ring effect that
makes me want one in gold and red for Kat. We bumped into them
several other times and spoke. They seem like good people, and so
they got a card in case they ever venture to Louisville so we can get
together for a ride.

Along the ride we kept getting passed by these guys on souped-up Rucki
(little 50cc Honda Ruckus scooters). At one stop we pulled up and the
fellow beside me was a fairly tough-looking bloke with a
bank-robber-type ski mask on with a big red pom-pom on top. I
couldn’t help myself—I motioned to him like I wanted to say something.
When he leaned over I responded by fluffing the ball on top of the
lil Ruck guy's head. Kat said he looked at his mate with a clear
expression of “WTF?” which was displayed even through the ski mask.
At another stop we met another Easy Peasy gal. This one had a cool
Blue Burgman S Type. It had chrome handlebars which I have always
liked over the ‘yet another piece of plastic tupperware’ found on most
maxi-scooters.

The end ride would have been fairly uneventful, but there were really
good roads and sights. There were also some mishaps—only one of which
was I personally involved in. This is what I call The Second Great
Disappointment of WKRP 2010. As we have been told many times, in a
rally (or group riding in general) it is very important to keep cagers
out of the middle of the group. The best way to do this is to close
up any gaps and keep them closed. If your group is equipped with
blockers who’s job it is to stop traffic at intersections then you
should also move through lights quickly. I was doing a good job of
following, keeping my eyes open, but for some reason up ahead, someone
went heavy on the brakes. This caused a chain reaction of which they
rider behind me on a girly pink Stella was the weakest link. This all
happened at low speed, so nobody got injured (although Kathy sustained
a bruise on her leg), but the Stella’s chrome front fender protector
contacted the plastic end cap/heat shield on Lois and broke it. It is
not a mechanically functional part, so I assumed we’d be alright. We
finished up the ride and pulled into the Northside Tavern for dinner.
Kat had pictures and although the rider’s face shield was
mirror/smoke, she could identify them by clothing. Despite the “girl
power/chicks rock” type stickers on the scoot, it turned out to be a
guy. I took down his name and number and he agreed to settle without
getting insurance involved. In case he changed his mind, Kat has
pictures of the bike, the damage, and his license plate. We also had
witnesses. While parking our scoots, something really cool happened.
Joan showed up on her Honda Reflex!! She thought she would not make
it, but she got to sit and eat with us at the Northside!

WKRP2010 Jeremy from Enviromoto

Also I met Jeremy from the Enviromoto and the Antisocial Scooter Club. I have spoken with Jeremy for a while via the net on this forum or that. He is a mechanical badass, and has built, modded, and rebuilt things that most people would not dream of. He is as straightforward as they come, and seems like a very no-bullshit guy. He is organizing a Scooter Drag Racing & Swap Meet called Twist and Gone on May first. I am going to try and go to that. I spoke to several other folks and looked at the bikes that Metro had for sale. I especially like the SYMs—the RV250 and the HD200. I think Kat would do well on either of these next year.

WKRP2010 Meeting Folks at Metro

We arrived at Metro Scooter early and JD was already there directing traffic. He put us nicely all together and we put our new banner up across several of our scooters. It is a great way to present out group.

It was then that I suffered The First Great Disappointment of WKRP 2010: no quiche. Last year Kymco sponsored the breakfast and I had built it up for all the LSG folks about how good it was. This year: doughnuts, coffee, fruit, juice. I did meet a gal who was helping with the breakfast. She was no XYL, but a friend who wanted to help out. She looked pretty biker more than scooterist and she asked me if I had one of the "united state patches" that displayed all the states where you could color in the one’s you’d been to. I told her I was waiting until I got a few more states!! I asked her what she rode and she said a honda rebel 250. She’s cool in my book. Safe roads, biker gal!

Next there was this bloke who was running around and little did he know it, but he was the object of all my green envy. He was one of the Vulcans—a scooter group from France—and he was patches all over from all the rallies he’d attended with no solid inch to spare! I introduced myself to him and shook his hand after taking his picture. His name was Lionel, and I gave him an LSG card. He is the first Frenchman I have met who I can say I thought was polite.

WKRP2010 Trailer Trash

When Kat and I arrived back at the hotel, Vince and Jim were still up, so we chatted with them for a while. They side-stepped the deadly Comet burritos and went to Frisch’s. Having a penchant for hanging out the window occasionally to check on the scoots, we witnessed a
suspicious mini-van pull up with two scooters on a trailer! I thought “cool, more WKRP’ers” and when it looked as if they would surely drop the bikes getting them down off the trailer, I asked if they needed any help. They said “no thanks” and sounded nervous. Or perhaps that was just what I thought after the fact when they tried to pin all our LSG scooters in by parking in an “L” shape around them and chaining their little Vespa and Kymco together with a huge log chain. In the morning, the scoots were still there blocking us in and it took a while to extricate ours from theirs, so I decided to leave an LSG card on which I wrote “Please don’t block our scooters in. Thanks!! :)” Trailer trash. Hmmph.

WKRP2010 The Comet Post Registration

After this, the rest of our crew went to dinner out somewhere. I stayed at the Comet, as is my duty as the ‘leader of LSG’. *shrugs* When I went up to the bar to order food and get my PBR rally beer, I ran into this gal getting a Strohs. I thought to myself chicks don’t drink Strohs. So I told her “chicks don’t drink Strohs. Who are you getting that for?” She explained that chicks DO drink Strohs, and to prove it she took a sip. When I called her out for just taking a sip she explained how she would have “shotgunned that @&^$%#” if the bartender hadn’t already opened it. I was suitably impressed so I asked her her name and where she was from. Sadly I have forgotten her name, but she said she was from Columbus, Ohio. I asked “so are you one of the Cutters?” and she lamented that she was not young and hip enough to be a Cutter, and so belonged to the Easy Peasy’s. Well, Ms. I don’t remember your name, but you’re pretty cool in my book and wish you and the other EP’s always good roads.

At this point through several text messages I learned that the LSG’ers had went straight from supper back to the hotel. I decided after finding no fire barrel outside, and that the DJ’s music was thrice removed from my standard tastes, it was time to leave. Please note, no slam on the XYL’s here about DJ Grover who I found out was a member…just purely a matter of taste. Like my friend in the EPSC, I figure I was just not young and hip enough to enjoy it and figured I
should leave before starting to scream out “Free Bird!!”

After suiting up, I was approached by a big older fellow named Mike. He told me his short story and introduced me to his burgundy Honda Silverwing, which could, he assured me, at any moment be equipped with a trailer. He poo-poo’d on the vintage crowd first, explaining how
when asked where he was from and how he got there would tell that he ‘twisted the throttle’ (also including a nifty gesture to demonstrate). He didn’t think it was right that they should be
prideful in their scooters if they had not ridden them in. I asked him about Gasoline Rally and he said he didn’t think much of it as it was not a camping rally—he only goes to camping rallies. This gave me pause…I told him “What about WKRP—it’s not a camping rally…” He said that was the exception. He liked to show up and scooter rallies just to give vintage people crap. I thought perhaps he was a distance rider like the Iron Butt people, but he didn’t seem to think much of
them either and said they were idiots. I was pretty much done with him at that point having no common interest, so I just made polite and got out when I could. He had never seen a Majesty up close and complimented the bike, so I guess he wasn’t all bad.

WKRP2010 LSG at The Comet

We arrived at the Quality Inn and Suites which is directly down the street from Metro Scooter. They really should consider this place for next year and try to strike up a deal with them. I got $53 per night for eight rooms. I am guessing they would go down some for a massive group discount. The manager, Mike, was pleasant to deal with though difficult for me to understand. The rooms were clean and spacious enough. My room and the one next door with Vince and Jim had adjoining door between that could be opened. That was the first time I have ever made use of that feature in a hotel. I called Anita and she told me my 3XL special order shirt would be waiting at the Comet.

We met up with our friends Gary & Bobbie (who do not have scooters so I decided to call them ‘scooter groupies’) and all went to the Comet. Almost to the Comet, there was this massive hill to climb and I worried about Lois but she did fine. Vince was also riding 2up with Jim behind him—Jim had elected to leave his scooter behind in order to save spaces. LSG folks walked around, checked in and got their cool bags of swags, which included the shirt and patch, plus some stickers and buttons.

WKRP2010 the SNAFU at Anderson Ferry

The hill leading down to the ferry was pretty steep, and I could see that they were full, so I put the parking brake on and sat on the scoot with the key off, waiting my turn. I decided to leave the scoot off and roll down the hill onto the ferry. Normally this would be the point where something very bad could happen, and it did!

I rolled down the hill and just onto the ferry. I decided to start the bike in order to get it the rest of the way onto the boat. It would not start! I pushed it up into place and my first thought was
“dead battery”. Through my wicked deductive reasoning, I could see that I still had power to the GPS, so the easy diagnosis was shot.

Now I was getting worried. I tried the key again, making sure the kickstand was not down, no luck—the dash was not even lighting up. That is, however, when I noticed my speedometer and tachometer. For some reason they were resting far clockwise instead of to the left like normal. Now I was very concerned. I was having flashbacks of Gasoline Rally 2008.

My friend Ralph got on his cell and tried calling a couple Yamaha places, and got the same exact words from several “That’s interesting--I’ve never heard of that before.” These were not the
sales people or the parts people he was talking to. This was the mechanic folks! I was a little beyond concerned. I had crossed to the other side of the street known as “I have a Very Very Bad Feeling about this.” The best idea they could offer was that it was some sort of anti-theft feature and to disconnect the battery for a few minutes.

I just happened to have the one tool I needed on my Swiss Army knife: a Phillips screwdriver. Well, procedure accomplished, I tried the start button and it fired up. To make sure it was not a fluke I tried it one more time before I buttoned it back up. Now the little crack I have on one side of my battery compartment has a twin. :(

WKRP2010 Rabbit Hash

We swung by Rabbit Hash and the place was pretty dead, except for running into our Tennessee friend Steve (who we know from last year as Blue-Hair-Steve) and petting the Mayor. We ended up riding about 10 miles to a Subway in Burlington, KY. From there we pressed on to Hebron where the Anderson ferry can put you across the Ohio River, sans bridge.

The Mayor of Rabbit Hash

WKRP2010 Sparta Quik Stop

After that the next stop was in Sparta at a little gas-n-stop called simply “Quik Stop”. We had a few unexpected route deviations, but everything turned out ok. The LSG folks were getting pretty hungry and it was not exactly a warm day.

WKRP2010 On Hwy 22 & Beyond

The start of my route kept us on hwy-22 for a long while. After that I put us on 1.5 lane roads that miraculously never went to gravel. We made a stop in Eminence at the DQ to warm up.

WKRP2010 Meetup at Speedway

We were met at Speedway by Steve, Jan, Ken, JD, and Steph. It was especially nice to see Steph because I hadn’t seen her in a very long time. She brought her BMW! Ken was there to give us a send-off because he has so much work to do on his house and works even weekends.

WKRP2010 Meetup at Denny's

We met up at Denny’s on Eastern to ride up to Cinci for WKRP. Ralph, Vince, and Jim were there to meet Kathy and I. We ate breakfast and then road to the Speedway in the Summit to gas up before leaving town.

WKRP2010 meetup at Dennys

Here at Dennys with Ralph, Vince, Kat and Jim! Meeting some others down the road a bit!

My YP400X Manual

I got my copy of the Yamaha Majesty service manual today! Yay me!

Metal against metal...not good.

Ok, after taking it all back apart (something made MUCH easier the 2nd time by not having the friggin' bolts welded in by corrosion) it was easy to see the problem. This is a picture of the fins on the variator. They are not supposed to be sheared off like this!!!! I was like crapping myself. Well after ripping it all back apart, they theory is that there must have been a spacer that I lost when Jeremy and I took it apart. Furthermore we believe now that it may have adhered to the inside by grease and when I laid the cover aside in the grass it probably fell off. Since I didn't have the part, we took measurements and I ran to H & S Hardware. They had some bushings that worked to keep the fins off the variator housing.

Not only did Ralph help me (it was his garage and his trailer that got me there) but also my new friend Jim R. helped out. They both had invaluable advice. Also Vince rode up from my apartment to Ralph's place. After a short while Jim O. showed up on his red Vespa, then before you know it, my good friends Jan & Steve were there. Also Joan showed up! It was the entire scooter gang, and they were all full of helpful advice and best wishes for getting my scoot up and running. These people--who I had mostly all known ever since I have been riding--they all showed up to support me and see if there was anything they could do to help. Oh--and also showed up to tease me some! These people are true friends and you could not ask for better ones. Ken was not there--but he's the one Tuesday at the meeting who gave me the No-Seize goop to keep the bolt corrosion from happening again! Between these guys and Jeremy it is very nice to know that I am appreciated. They think of me as a leader for the Louisville Scooter Group, and I guess I am defacto leader, but now I am beyond any doubt that I am also their friend. Without wanting to sound too sappy, I love them all.

I rode the bike over to El Nopal where we all had dinner (Kat went and got the kids who I felt bad for leaving alone for so long today). There was some sort of show going on at the restaurante...it had some Elvis impersonators and karaoke singers... We had food and talked, and there was a contest to see who could embarrass Kathy the best. :) Afterward Kat and Vince followed me home to make sure the scoot did well. It performed fine, but one final point was that Ralph said I definitely needed a rear brake pad set before the rally. So I will call Monday and see if I can find them in stock somewhere in town. That should be the last thing mandatory before rally time.

After rally will come tires and transmission oil change and perhaps a rear rotor (or I might try to get the rotor turned). I also (at Ralph's suggestion) ordered the specific manual for my year of Majesty. The one I had referred to the 2005-2007 models and apparently some details have changed in the 08 models.

Ralph had a micrometer so suggested I check the belt and weights. Funny...there was no real reason to replace them as they checked at not having much wear at all. What I thought were cracks in the belt were not, and the weights had not flat spots that were able to be picked up using the micrometer. I guess I have spares now...

At the end of the day I am almost ready for the rally. I got by with a little help from my friends...

Sad day indeed

I got about a mile from home, and heard this God-awful noise when I raised the face shield on my multitec to get some air. It sounded like metal against metal...not a happy sound at all. I knew Jeremy was on his way to Indy and I was under time constraints so I called up my good friend Ralph and he offered to help me take a look at it. He has a well stocked garage and a motorcycle lift and although he only does his own maintainence and doesn't want to get started being "the scooter repair guy" he said he would help me out because we are down to the wire and he wants me and Kat to be able to go to the WKRP rally next weekend. Today is the first time my scoot has ever been on a trailer. It makes me sad...

Weight for it...

There are eight roller weights for the YP400X. I honestly didn't see any flat spots or anything in the old ones, so I saved them and the belt...just in case.

Worn Belt

You can see cracks starting to form in the belt. Otherwise I thought it looked perfect...

Beltless

Here's a shot of the v-belt case without the belt, the variator and clutch. It was a royal b*tch getting the belt onto the clutch so it would be able to be installed. You also have to make sure the belt is on in the right direction!

Down to the case at hand

Finally, the CVT case is revealed. The bolts that came out of it were NOT corroded or screwed up. They actually looked brand new. Jeremy removed the large nuts for the variator and clutch with an air wrench.

Destruction of property

These little craptastic bolt/screws all HAD phillips heads. You can see a couple are still intact enough that you can tell they are phillips, but several look like little bowls where they have been drilled out and others have the heads snapped off. I was cursing Yamaha, cursing the Jefferson County department of transportation (for the salt), the weather, and any spare living being that happened to be withing 50 feet while trying to get these off. If it hadn't been for Jeremy, Vince and Kat I would have given up after the first day.

Left air filter--screwed

I am almost ashamed to admit this is the condition of my left air filter.

Score one left side air box

Finally got the bloody thing removed. The bolt heads either turned or came off (mostly snapped off or were drilled off) and then we turned the bolts out with vice grips. One bolt we actually shaved into a box shape to get a better grip with the vice grips!!

Inside the top

This is the view from inside the top under where the seat used to be. We had to remove so much crap to get the y-shaped intake which was the last thing holding the left side air box.

Frozen Bolts

This doth indeed suck. Jeremy and I had worked for days now on what started on being the job of changing the belt, filters, and weights on my Yamaha Majesty. From the riding I have been doing in the winter, the bolts and screws on the scoot have become frozen in place with salt and brine. The scoot was put together with all phillips head screws and bolts and they were stripping like mad. We used easy-outs that Vince got from Sears and still the bolts broke off and heads were destroyed. Finally it came down to getting the left air filter case off in order to get to the v-belt case cover off. In order to do THAT, Jeremy and I had to take off damn near half the side, rear and top of the friggin bike. Please note that this was ONLY because we couldn't get to the bolts as they were stripped and about welded in place by salt corrosion.