MHough » Toys

2012 Road Glide!

admin — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 01:01:18 +0000

2002 Yamaha V-Star upgrades

admin — Mon, 02 May 2011 20:24:19 +0000

Click for pics

A few weekends ago I tackled some projects on the V-Star. It all started with wanting to get new hardbags. Since I wanted the hardbags low I needed new exhaust. Since I was going to put on a new exhaust I needed to re-jet the carb. You see how this goes. More details for you gearheads after the jump>

Apart from the normal maintenance items like changing all the oil and checking valve clearance, I installed an Oil Relocation Kit. One of the drawbacks to the design of this model and year V-Star is that you have to take the exhaust off every time you change the oil filter; a real PITA. There are many opinions about these oil relocation kits and the main criticism stems around the diameter of the oil hoses. In some cases people were saying that not enough oil moves through the filter. I haven’t had any problems with it and am satisfied so far. No leaks or performance problems of any kind.

After the oil relocation kit was put in place I tackled the exhaust. Here I decided to go with the Cobra Powerpro HP two-into-one pipes for a few reasons. 1: they sit very low on the bike; 2: these pipes put out some of the highest horsepower increases; 3: they sound bad ass! I did run into one problem though after I had the pipes installed. The rear brake fluid reservoir tank wouldn’t fit back in it’s original place due to pipe clearance. So, I reran new cable and relocated the reservoir the the rear of the bike right behind the battery. Problem solved!

The next challenge was properly jetting the carbs. The bike has a hypercharger on it which makes tuning very difficult. The amount of air the engine gets changes at different speeds so having a constant air/fuel mixture to measure against isn’t possible. After having to jet twice here are my final setting (I won’t go into the details on how I arrived at these):

Stock needle
127.5-front cylinder/125-rear cylinder main jets (Mikuni)
117.5 pilot jets
2 shims on needle
3.25 turns out on PMS screw

My next mods are to add a batwing fairing and modify the airbox to make it a POD kit (aka give the engine as much air as it needs!). I’ll have to rejet again after the POD mod but I’m becoming a pro at getting the carbs off so don’t think it will present more than a few hours on the lift.

She’s alive!!!

admin — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:56:32 +0000

Finally turned the engine over on the GoldWing again this weekend, difference being that this time the exhaust wasn’t belching out white smoke and the radiator didn’t start weeping bright green coolant all over my driveway. It shouldn’t be long now until the bike is completely done, dressed, tuned, and ready to ride. All that’s left to do now is wire in the air horn and voltmeter, sync the carbs, then put all the plastic back on. It may be my excited imagination and pride at this restoration project, but the engine definitely sounded much stronger and smoother. I think the combination of new plugs, adding the relay to the ignition coils, wiring in the new harness to give the plugs a full 12 volts, and putting on new timing belts has given new life to a classic engine. I’m hoping to have the bike completely finished in a week or so (with a new windshield I plan to cut to size) and ready to ride. I’ll also submit a total write up with all of the tips, tricks, and hard lessons learned.

The Honda Elite 290cc Scooter

admin — Fri, 09 May 2008 01:46:50 +0000

Click for pics

Finally posting pics of my new 1987 Honda Elite 290cc scooter. Word around town it’s one of the fastest scooters in the county. So far I haven’t met my match yet. Other than getting about 60mpg, some other features of the scooter are:

iPod interface
speakers
heated handle bar grips for those cold San Diego nights
small dash mounted clock
good luck object braided by an exiled Tibetan monk (yes this is true)
extra large under seat storage

So far riding the scooter has been great. Parking? No problem. Gas prices? Don’t make me laugh. I went from spending about $70 per week on gas to about $10. Not to mention nothing helps wash away the stress of the workday more than a scooter ride home on a nice sunny day. If you see me on the road I only ask one thing: please don’t ask me if I know what scooters and fat chicks have in common. Oh, and don’t run me over.

The Official Snowboard/Ski Trip Video

admin — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 04:02:23 +0000

Make sure to check out the post and photos below for the story…

My new toys: funbox, surfboards and utility trailer

admin — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:35:47 +0000

     Continuing to satisfy my hunger for all things skating and surfing, I recently picked up some new toys to add to the collection.
     Top of the list: I picked up two new surfboards (off Craig’sList off course). The first was a 6′2″ Lost Speed Demon (which may now be my favorite board) and the second board was a 6′0″ quad-fin fish (which will be my summer board).
     Also something I’ve been wanting to buy for some time, I managed to land a sweet deal on a 8′x4′ utility trailer. Where did I get it? Craig’sList of course! This trailer is awesome and I now can carry around lumber and all of my skate stuff.
     Which leads me to my final new item: the dual-height funbox. I based this design off of a funbox I built about 4 years ago and was one of my favorite fun boxes. I never built another one because I didn’t have a pickup truck to carry it anymore. Enter the utility trailer! We’ve had a few Sunday skate sessions on it and it is holding up well and liked by all.
     I added a few pics below but you can always go to the main gallery here for more pictures.

New camera equipment

admin — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 05:23:27 +0000

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I finally was able to save enough money to buy some more camera equipment on my long, expensive camera wish list. New to the arsenal is a Canon 50mm 1.4/f lens and a Canon 580EX Speedlite flash. The 50mm lens is going to be my prime lens and, due to it’s aperture range, allow me more flexibility in low-light situations, high-speed situations, and provide nice bokeh for centering compositional items, especially useful in portraits. The flash was an addition that was long overdue. As a photographer, light is essential and the built-in flash on the Canon 30D was not able to provide the flexibility I needed. It generally threw way too much light on the subject resulting in a harsh, whitewashed exposure that drained all of the color from the shot and created unacceptable shadowing. The Speedlite flash is an amazing peice of equipment and exactly what I was looking for. Along with a mind-boggling myriad of settings and features, it can adjust the power of the flash as well as fire in burst shots to match high speed shooting. I definitely have some experimenting and testing to do before I’ll feel I have a strong grasp of these new items (not like I’m complaining).

The Canon 30D has arrived!

admin — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 00:20:30 +0000

Today, after a long period of saving, I finally got my digital SLR, the Canon 30D! I figure it’ll take me a week or two to really figure the whole camera out and harness it’s extensize features and power. I’m really looking forward to getting back into photography, especially action photography like skateboarding and surfing.
And if that wasn’t enough good news already, I get to test out the new camera this Sunday at the Chargers-Steelers game here in San Diego. My co-worker’s wife works for a company that manages the event ticketing for the Chargers and was able to procure 2 field-level goal-line seats on the Steelers side!!! Those tickets are selling for about $400 on CraigsList. It’s like a dream come true!