Area A Retread News March, 2001

February Meeting Notes: Oops � guess what happened on the way to the February Retreads meeting? I got lost. I walked out of the office at 7:30 Monday night to go home and as I unlocked the door to the truck it dawned on me that we had a Retreads meeting that started 30 minutes before. I thought, "Well if I left now it would be at least 8:15 before I could get to Hickory Hollow and by that time most would have left." Oh well, we�ll chock this one up to a great opportunity for those waiting for me to say "HEY BEVERLY � WHERE WERE YOU THE OTHER NIGHT." So far several have taken advantage of that dig.

Thanks to Jack Thomas for his offer last month to bring a framed Retread patch to hang at Hickory Hollow among the other Biker Stuff in our meeting room. Well when Jack offers, it�s just as good as done and I understand, if I had been at the meeting, I would have been proud of our XL patch among the Triumph and BMW memorabilia.

This is the last month we plan to run the 2001 renewal form in the newsletter and we plan to only send them to those of you who have not yet renewed. If you find a form in your newsletter, please take a minute to fill it out and send it in. NOW DON�T FORGET or you�ll miss out on all the fun!!

I have had a major problem with my PC this month. I had to replace my CD drive and hard drive and then reload the software. The computer was getting way to cranky and I am happy to say that it is back to normal. I had to reenter my E-mail distribution list so if you have not received an E-mail from me since February 23, and you used to or you have E-mail and want to, then please let me know and I will add you to the Retreads distribution list.

We have received the 2001 Retread membership cards for those of you who have renewed already and those should be distributed in your March newsletter and/or at breakfast Saturday morning.

At breakfast recently Joyce Jackson told us she finally got her Yamaha Virago here in Houston from Pennsylvania. She make that up & back jaunt in two days, so must have been quite a trip. Will be nice to have Joyce riding with us.

James Mangum added another bike to his garage so his PC wouldn�t be lonely. He is the proud owner of a 2001 Kawasaki Vulcan 750. He is not sure if he will be selling the �98 PC, but if you are looking for a like new PC, you might talk to him.

The plan was for Jack Thomas to lead a ride to Lovelady for the Lovefest and the morning was sorta, I mean almost freezing cold - so the few of us who had braved breakfast on our bikes decided to wimp-out on Jack. Well, Jack went without us and I felt like a traitor all weekend. According to Jack, he led a great ride and everyone was extremely happy with everything he did. No complaints. Dave.

March 5 - 11: Daytona

April 6 - 8: Concan

June 1 - 3: Republic of Texas Rally, Austin, TX

June 4 - 9: Americade, Lake George, NY

June 9 - 17: Laconia Motorcycle Rally, Laconia, NH

July 18: National Ride to Work Day

August 6 - 12: Sturgis, South Dakota

Sept 10 - 13: Retreads 28^th National Rally in Coffeyville

October 11 - 14: South Padre Island for Bikerfest

October : Golden Aspen in Ruidoso, NM

We were talking about the National Retread Rally in Coffeyville, Kansas in Sept and Jimmy Buchanan remembered that there were some bank robbers killed there. I was watching the History Channel a few day later and it brought up the demise of the Dalton brothers in Coffeyville, KS. I think there is a stone at the cemetery in their honor, or something like that. Speaking about the National Rally in Kansas, they picked a perfect time past the peak hot summer to hold it. Linda and I grew up in Broken Arrow, Okla. which is just a few miles away. We do hope to attend.

3/2 Martha Thomas

3/10 Bonnie Sue Mosley

3/14 Jim Stanley

3/16 John Reid

3/30 Carolyn Del Giorno

3/30 Mac McElhinny

1993 Honda GoldWing with color matched Escapade trailer. $10,000 Bike has all the extras including drive-off center stand, Corbin Seat, special lighting, progressive suspension and 2 sets of horns. Call Pete Soullas at (713) 665-7566.

1970 750 Norton Commando model S. New Corbin seat, tires and lots of new parts. Runs strong and very fast for a 30 year old bike. Asking $ 2895. Home phone is (281)499-4047 � Ben Del Giorno.

Spel chekr 4 sail � chep, nevr used. Call Warren Trost

at (713) 333-3333

We need your help � If you would like to contribute something to the newsletter, have some juicy gossip, or something For Sale, give us a call or send an E-mail so we can get it into the newsletter. [email protected]

We received two very nice thank you cards from the families we helped by raising money at our holiday Party. The Funes Family wrote: Thank you very much for helping us. It was a blessing that we received from you all. We will always thank you.

Susan Ross, one of the teachers who works with Joan wrote to the Retreads: I wish to thank all of you for the very generous gifts that you gave to the Cherry family this Christmas. Mrs. Cherry was so overwhelmed by your kindness for someone you have never met. You cannot imagine the amount of hardship this family has endured over the last year. Your kind gift made life a little easier and brighter for them.

Thanks to Joan Connor for pulling this together!!

In December of 1997 I was talking to fellow Retread, Howard Kramer, about his CBX (In-line 6 Honda) and before I knew it, he had quoted me a price for the bike that I felt was good enough that I couldn�t pass it up. Well a little over 3 years later I finally got to hear it run. I now finally feel like a CBX owner. My frame-up restoration is finally done and I have over 300 miles on the rebuilt engine and it�s running fine. My first impressions are � lots of roll-on torque, very smooth, and very high pitch exhaust note (SuperTrapps with 6 disks). I keep looking for more gears (has 5) because I am not used to the high RPM wine. This project has been ongoing since Nov 97 with about 18 months downtime in the middle for building a house. So far the bike is everything I expected it to be.

I estimate my labor at least 100-150 hours but I was a little slow because of the long "hold" period in between the start and finish. The Honda manual doesn�t have all of the pictures I needed to put things back together "perfect" and I spent hours sometimes trying to figure out how something went together.

This project held to form like all of the others I have done with the costs running over what I could have bought a 79 CBX, just as nice, from someone else for less money. Not counting my hours, but including the cost of the original bike ($800), I have spent $5678 on the CBX. I was so fortunate to have a nice original tank, fenders, tail, panels and the engine is in good condition. The 6 carbs were probably my biggest challenge � I invested the better part of 3 days and the cost of new gaskets and a Dynojet Stage 1 kit in just cleaning and cleaning and cleaning and adjusting. It is a good thing I bench gas-tested them before installing them on the bike because I had 3 carbs with problems that would have forced me to pull them back off the bike after I started it.

The discussion recently on the Web about leaking gas shutoff valves was good timing since mine immediately leaked past the handle in any position but off. I drilled out the rivets as was discussed and noticed the round rubber gasket had surface damage that allowed leaking between holes. I just sanded the damaged side a little, covered it with a very thin layer of silicon and installed the damaged side first into the valve. Using two SS 4 X � inch self-taping screws held it together nicely. After letting the silicon dry over night it works like new. After going back and pulling up some of my old E-mails I now realize I can buy a new rubber gasket from Honda for a couple of dollars. (I have since done that and replaced my repaired one. The silicon let go in the gas and partially stopped up my gas flow making the bike run out of gas after a 70 MPH run.

It is so rewarding when you finally hit the starter and the engine makes beautiful music and nothing is leaking. Almost just as rewarding is that first ride. I stopped several times to get off the bike and look all over it to make sure some fluid wasn�t pouring out � everything went great.

Well, thanks for letting me share my victory and the large personal reward one gets after bringing something back to life, especially as interesting as the CBX.

Return To Retreads Newsletter Page      Return to Retreads Home Page