Saturday we went to Canadian Tire and I got all the stuff I thought I needed to rebuild my air filter. Then to Home Depot to pick up the stuff to finish off the downstairs bathroom chair rail and wainscoting.

When we got home I set to ripping apart my old filters and K started measuring and cutting the chair rail for the bathroom. I got the old filters off their frames really easily then set at the old epoxy with my Dremel with a pointed grinding bit. It went pretty quickly once I got a rhythm and I had both filters all cleaned up by dinner time. It was super dusty work.

Then we headed out to dinner at a new local restaurant called June Harlow Foods. We both had burgers and they were great! They have Burger Wednesday where you get a burger and a beer for $10. We will be going back.

Today we went to Home Hardware down the road to pick up some bbq paint so I could throw a layer on my filters so they look a little nicer than the brass color they are stock and so that the newly exposed areas of metal will have some protection and won’t rust. While we were out we stopped by some friends place to see their son and give some advice on a wall repair they need to do after having to rip up a section on their stairs trying to get a couch in to their townhouse.

When we got home I cleaned, masked, and taped my filters and took them outside to paint. While waiting for them to dry we installed the chair rails that K cut yesterday in the bathroom and I ripped apart one of the new filters I bought to replace the old batting from the old ones. I only cut myself twice.

That’s pretty crazy actually. I never cut myself. I guess I wasn’t being careful enough with the sharp filter screens. I usually wear Mechanix gloves to do anything.

I’m going to write up before and afters of all the projects from this weekend. Hopefully I have some before and after photos of the bathroom.

A coworker of mine blogs.

He blogs a lot.

Way more than I ever have (even when I was concentrating on trying to make a successful beer blog).

So I figure it’s probably time for me to at least TRY to start it up again. I can’t believe it’s almost a year since my last post.

I think i have some things to say. I have a lot going on. We’ve bought our house. We’re getting close to the wedding and we’ve both gotten new jobs.

My new job is awesome. Way better than my last one. It’s nice to be appreciated even if there are some corporate restrictions placed on the day to day. It feels much better being here.

Spring is coming which means I’ll be putting some work in to my bike pretty soon! I’m excited about that because (I think) I’ve finally discovered what my problems really were that were causing my rough idling and cutting out AND boggy-ness on the highway. Air filters. I’ll rebuild them soon and post a “how I did it”. Hopefully it’ll cure my issues and help people in the future searching for a cure for their problems too. Or I’ll switch to pod filters. I’m not sure yet.

I got halfway through a new design a few moths back… Maybe I’ll pick that back up too.

More importantly that’s booze and a motorized vehicle. Naughty naughty!

On Friday November 6th I rode my bike up to Caledon to get ready to store for the winter. It was a cold night and I was sad. The old girl rode well all the way to Caledon and about a block from my parents house when the timing started to get funky. I was frozen with the temperature hitting a low of 4 degrees Celsius and the night air whipping through me there was even a tiny bit of what I thought might have been snow. I forgot how dark Caledon’s roads can get and just how uneven they are when trying to take my normal route of Heart Lake road in the pitch black. It became pretty scary with my dim headlight only illuminating about 10 feet ahead of me. Luckily I had a Lexus behind me with some really bright headlights for a little while. I turned on Old Base Line and headed to Highway 10 to continue up the mountain hoping for more light on a more busy road. About halfway up the hill my left shoulder started to cramp from the cold and my hands really started to hurt. The whole ride was plagued by various cramps and twinges due to the biting cold. By the time I got to my destination I was a shivering wreck.

Saturday I washed her. Every nook and cranny I could get to got cleaned and I changed her oil. It was needed. She was filthy from construction near my apartment and her oil was disgusting enough to make me feel quite ashamed.

Saturday and Sunday I took her out for some quick rides once to warm her up for the oil change and once to fill up with gas and add fuel stabilizer. The timing was off both times and she ran like crap. I’m unhappy to have put the bike away with problems that aren’t fixed. Luckily there’s a shop down the road from my parents place and I have plans to get it in there as soon as possible in the spring to get the problems sorted out.

I’d never really ridden in to the night before and I have to say that I did enjoy it. I’m glad I got off the major highways before dark though. The country roads are great to ride at night. Although I’d like a little better headlight next time.

Despite the freezing cold and the aches that still plague my back from that ride up to Caledon three days ago I have to say that there’s still not many places I’d rather be than on my bike.

Guess I’ll have to wait for next spring to get that feeling back that I love so much.

I found her on craigslist and she was exactly what I wanted, a red 1973 CB360T. She was in decent shape considering she was 35 years-old at the time and she had just a few scratches and just two minor dents on her tank. She came with only the right side original red side-cover but included an extra tank and a matching extra (right side again) side-cover. She has minimal rusting of the headers and very little rust at all on her frame. Most of the chrome is pitted though and will need to be replaced eventually. I call her… Penelope. (Click the pics to enlarge)

She came with an inspection from a shop in Toronto in the area of the beaches (I’ll leave their name out of this post) and said that all that was required was a new battery and a front tire. Not living in the beaches and not wanting to ride the bike across town illegally or get it towed that far I decided to take the bike to a shop closer to my work and home for an inspection. I’m so glad I did this as within minutes Tom at Cyclewerx had pointed out a major safety concern in the fact that the throttle cables were incredibly sticky and needed replacing. Tom ordered in the new tire I needed and I acquired the push and pull cables online. Tom installed them and I was ready to go!

One thing that’s great about old bikes is you never really know what’s going to happen next with them.

A week later I was riding home from work and took a small detour in order to get some more riding time in when the poor girl just stopped firing. Luckily I happened to be right next to a friends house and was able to push it in to his driveway before nightfall. After a bunch of hair pulling and waiting for morning light it turned out to be a lose wire from the stator and I was able to ride her home the next day.

One thing I love about my bike is there’s always something that I can do. I’m slowly trying to give it the cafe racer treatment. I’m always looking for the next part. I’ve put quite some time in to it and I’ve learned a lot from working with it either trying to update, upgrade, or just plain FIX it.

This work includes but is not limited to:

• Clubman handlebars add a more aggressive riding stance
• New solid state signal blinker to enable the use of LED and low draw blinkers
• Stubby turn signals for the front (and soon the back I think)
• New aftermarket stator which improved power generation by over 33%. This was a necessity as the old one was grounded out and wasn’t producing enough power to keep my battery charged unless I was at high RPM’s (a very difficult thing to do in the city)
• New combination regulator/rectifier also helping in electrical power production
• New clutch cable because my old one snapped at Yonge and Bloor one night a few weeks ago

I have high hopes for this bike and I don’t expect to sell it. If I get another bike (which I would like to someday) it will simply become my project bike. One thing that is definitely standing in the way of my progress is the lack of a garage for me to work in. This winter I plan to find a couple of left hand side covers and acquire some new mufflers for it as right now I’m currently running a stock CB360t muffler on the left side and a muffler from a CB350 on the right side because the original had a hole the size of my fist in it and was causing all sorts of issues with the way the bike was running. I’d also like to get a seat with a cowl made up to finish off the streamlined look. But that might have to wait till I get another bike as my girlfriend really likes to ride on the back.