Dang it Zippy

[SeaCat]

Well this morning I wandered out to the bike to do the compression test. No go on that, I forgot that the soark plugs on a bike are thinner than those in car. My compression tester doesn't neck down that small. (Of course I only discovered this after pulling all four plugs and burning my nuckles a couple of times.) Back in the plugs go and back inside I go while grumbling.

I tell the wife that I have to head to the store for this one part. She thinks for about halfd a second before saying maybe we should take the bike. I've been wanting to run it for a bit with the new plug to get the clean gas going through the system. So we change. Jeans, boots, T-Shirt, jacket, gloves and helmet for her. Jeans, Boots, T-Shirt, Vest, Gloves and helmet for me.

We fire up the bike and do the short run to Sears. Hmmmm, no joy there. Off to PepBoys and then to another parts store. Again no joys. Bummer, that means we have to head down town to the dealership.

20 miles through fairly heavy high speed traffic and we get to the dealership. We park the bike and it's still putting out that annoying bit of light gray smoke. (You have to look for it but it's there.) We hang the helmets and head inside. I wander over to the parts department while my wife starts looking at bikes. I talk with the guy behind the counter and he tells me they can't even order that part from their supplier, but he can sell me a specialty compression tester for the low price of $50.00. (I don't think so Jack.)

AS I turn away from the counter I see the wife standing beside a bike talking with a salesman whom I recognise. I head over and say hi while my wife points out the bike. Oh man I was loving this thing. 2008 Honda VTX1300T. Sitting on it was comfortable and the wife loved the floorboards and the grab rails. I liked the foreward controls and the long pull back on the bars. I looked at the price tag while warning the wife about drooling on the bike. Yep I could afford it, If I got me another job and rolled a couple of drug dealers. ($11099.00+)

Well, while talking to the salesman and looking at the bike I explained why we had come down there and he shook his head. He had just gone through the same thing and directed me to a couple of places online where I could get the part I need. We thank him for the info and climb back in the saddle for the ride home. Another 20 miles through 90° temps in fairly heavy traffic and a lot of stop lights.

Now I'm not a speed rider. I like to just kind of cruise along and watch the world. Might be why I have a cruiser. On the other hand my bike does manage to hold it's own in the traffic around here.

Now my wife and I made it maybe half way home when we were sitting at a light. Another bike comes up and immediatly starts irritating me. He comes up in my lane and stops next to me. (A faux pas if you will.) I didn't say anything, I just glanced over at him. Here's this little Weasel sitting there on his sprt bike smiling at me. Whenh he sees me looking in his direction he starts revving his engine. So here we are sitting there with him revving it and watching us as I watch the light. The light changes and I roll on the throttle as I kick the bike through the gears.

Yeah I ran it a bit harder than I usually do but I was running it out as well. I wasn't lugging the engine and I know the shift speeds on my bike. I was already across the intersection when he started thinking about releasing his clutch. (No it wasn't much of a risk for me. I had been watching the traffic so I knew no one was coming on the cross street and I didn't pass the speed limit.)

Talk about a P.O.'ed little Zippy when he came up alongside me at the next light. Again he was in my lane and again he was revving his engine. This time he was revving it high and I felt like I was sitting next to a giant chainsaw. Oh he was pissed. He didn't even bother looking at us, he just sat there watching the light and waiting for it to change. He was intent on blowing me off the line. Oh he was going to as well. He was on a sport bike and I was riding a Cruiser with my wife on the back. (If my bike was naked and I was solo it would have been a challenge.) Well this guy saw the light changed and he dropped the hammer as I slowly eased out my clutch. He shot across that intersection with his front tire off the ground. Behind me I could hear a car engine wind up as a car shot past me.

Oops, that car that shot past me suddenly lit up with plenty of blue and red lights. A short distance further on we rolled past the bike sitting on the side of the road with the unmarked cruiser parked behind it. Damn Zippy, you gotta keep your eyes open.

We made almost home when the wife leans forward and tells me she wants to hit a certain stretch of road. When she told me this I just grinned and headed that way. Okay so this would add another couple of miles to the ride but that was fine. We kept heading north in traffic until that road ended then shifted to another high traffic road for a bit further north. Turning right for a bit then right again we were on the road we wanted. A nice long run without lights and light traffic. (Well okay, not so long but long enough for play time.)

I waited at the last light and when it changed I rolled on the throttle once more. I worked the bike through the gears until we were rolling along at the posted limit of 55 MPH and loving life. Reaching forward with my feet I kicked down the highway pegs and put my feet on them stretching out and relaxing as the bike rumbled quietly beneath me on the double barrel. Now this is why I love riding.

The ocean was on our left, sunlight sparkling off the waves and alight breeze helping to keep us cool, or at least cooler. The bike was handling beautifuly without hesitation.

I had two lanes to play with and I did so even as I kept my eyes open. A couple of cars passed us but that was no big deal. When we finally got home we were both sweaty yet happy and relaxed. So what if our forty mile ride had turned into an eighty mile ride.

There were two bad parts for me on the ride of course. (There always is it seems.) The first was I was always worrying about the bike breaking down. The second was we had started the ride with only half a tank of gas so I had to watch the mileage.

Oh I did put the new tank on the bike. It turns out the tank that was on my bike was for a smaller bike, now I have an original tank with the original paint. (It looks like the old tank but,,,,) Now instead of a 2.5 gallon tank I have a 4.5 gallon tank. That should give me a bit more range.

Cat

 

[TE999]

Poor ol' Zippy...got his boxers in a wad...his crotch rocket beat by a cruiser bike...and a tickee from the fuzz.

Just weren't his day I reckon.

 

[starrkers]

The Zippys of this world make for a little light entertainment now and then!

I often used to drive our people mover/van on weekends with the kids and hubby's band's PA in it (if they had a gig on Friday and Saturday night, it stayed in the van all Saturday). The kids loved it when mum in the loaded to the roof van beat Zip in his hotted up rice burner to the next set of lights, purely because I was watching instead of busily revving the engine!

 

[JagFarlane]

-Chuckles- reminds me of the days of the ol' Warlock.

Had a '78 Dodge Power Wagon Warlock edition, all original, save for the Chevy 454 sitting under the hood. The truck was a permanent 4-wheel drive design, and large enough that it was classified as a Class II vehicle [which made inspections a breeze ].
Anyways, the thing was, that it put out so much torque that in a quarter mile the truck would just roar along, then finally realize there was this thing about wind resistance.
So, one day, sitting at a light, and Zippy comes up in some lil rice burner with the coffee can sized muffler and all that good stuff. He's revving his engine, not so much in a challenge to me, but just being a typical Zippy. I rolled my eyes and watched the light as usual for me. When it hit green, I just hammered the truck. With a loud roar that probably scared the hell out of Zippy, the truck just jumped ahead and roared down the road to next light [all of a mile away heh]. As I'm sitting there, Zippy finally pulls up next to me, staring at the truck with wide eyes like "WTF is that!?" I just grinned and waved. Ahhh I miss that truck.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

This week before last I had my car in the shop, and had to borrow/rent a few other vehicles to get around. I beat almost everyone off the line at almost every stoplight that I went through in every different vehicle that I was driving. My mother's Saturn, my father's PT Cruiser, the Dodge Dakota truck I rented, and the mid 80s Buick that was a loner car (and falling apart).

Then I get my Firebird back, and the first light I pull up to I get beat off the line...

It hasn't happened since though

 

[Weird Harold]

-Chuckles- reminds me of the days of the ol' Warlock.

Had a '78 Dodge Power Wagon Warlock edition, all original, save for the Chevy 454 sitting under the hood. ...
Anyways, the thing was, that it put out so much torque that in a quarter mile the truck would just roar along, then finally realize there was this thing about wind resistance.

In the mid-sixties, my normal ride was a 1959 Chev Apache 2WD half-ton with a 196 CI straight six, Three-in-the-three transmission and a 4:11 rear-end. It had a top speed of about 50 unless you had about a ten mile run to build up speed, but it could go from zero to the next stop light faster than just about anything because of the low end torque. Throw in the trick of knowing th edelay between the cross street's yellow light and the green light going my way, and I frustrated no end of (other) "zippies" whenever I went down to the big city where they had stoplights.

 

[oggbashan]

Many years ago I owned a large old limousine that had been drastically modified to be a saloon car racer and then the unused interior had been replaced.

Where it should have had a single carb it had three; the one exhaust pipe had become a six-branch tuned banana bunch; the suspension had been uprated; the drum brakes had been replaced with four wheel discs, etc.

When I bought it as cheap transport I didn't know it had been modified because I have never driven the basic model and rarely seen one. I thought that the speedometer was overoptimistic and the fuel consumption was disappointingly high. With all the original soundproofing, polished wood and acres of high quality leather I couldn't hear the engine when idling nor the exhaust note until I was really moving. Passers-by could hear the boom. I couldn't.

I beat several traffic-light racers without realising that I was doing it.

It wasn't until one early morning on a deserted road when I was stopped by the police at a very illegal speed that I found out how modified my car was. The police sergeant had driven the police version. He examined my car thoroughly and pointed out the modifications. After an interesting half hour I was let on my way with a warning that I should believe the speedometer. I had been recorded at 113 mph in a car that even the police hadn't got to go faster than 85mph.

The downside? At speed my fuel consumption was less than 8 miles per Imperial gallon, which explained the duplicate fuel tanks and twin high capacity fuel pumps; and my insurance premium was doubled.

I stopped beating traffic-light racers. Every time I did I was paying in fuel.

When filling up with 30 Imperial gallons a time I collected many books of Green Shield Stamps.

Og