According To Tony D.
As far as I know, this event is the holds the worlds record for the largest number of
simultaneous non-professional V-4 valve adjustments under one roof! A fun time was had by
all!
Friday night:
The arrival of John Bock from Vermont, Joel & family (local) and John
Vincent & wife. Of course, John B. & I just had to ride each others bike! The V65
Sabre has quite the punch! We proceeded to make introductions, and decided to dine at a
fine chinese restaurant in (yes) Goffstown. No forks allowed, only chopsticks! After about
15 minutes however, most tired of dropping the food instead of eating it, so they resorted
to good old american utensils.
John V & wife left after dinner, and so did Joels family, Leaving Myself & Carmel,
John B. & Joel. Of course, Carmel retired after the first few minutes of bike talk,
but the three of us stayed up & drank home brew & further degraded Y-D's and other
such Magna talk.
Morning came too soon, and the leftover chinese food was consumed heartily
for breakfast. John B. showed his culinary expertise and made coffee, since Carmel & I
don't drink the stuff.
Rich B. & Ansel called, lost, and I went out to find them. They are
(Internet impaired) friends of mine from a previous employer, who were trailering Rich's
bike up.
Then came none other than the "fringe Kid" complete with John V. on
the back of the V45! I wonder if Malcolms fringe hit John in the face while riding. I
forgot to ask.
With four Bikes in the garage, the adjustment was underway! Since there was
only one cam tool, it went to whoever got to the cams first. This was John B. since the
Sabres internals are a lot easier to disassemble. However, fate was not with John B. since
when putting on the cam tool, the cam clearance change not .002, but .005 to .006! We were
all mystified, so we passed the tool to John V., and decided to return to John B.'s Sabre
later.
By now, the mosquitoes were well aware of our get-together, and decided to
make life difficult. Close the doors! Its too hot! Open the doors! Mosquitoes again! Close
the doors! You get the picture. Upon emerging from one of my numerous trips to the Magna
Dungeon, a new face had arrived. You must be Zachary V! No! I'm ??Michael! From Joisey?
Yes! Welcome! It took ??Michael a whole two minutes to get acclimated, and get a tool
& beer in his hand.
Phone rings-- Zachary V. Lost! Boy, I guess my directions really do suck.
After guiding Zachary back on the trail, he arrives in no time, with his power coated V-45
beauty! Since its running didn't match its looks, ??Michael took over and synched the
carbs. Massive improvement!
By this time, John V. had completed his valves, and passed the tool over to
Joel. John V's first valve job, well done in record time!
Zachary V Writes
Having been on the list for a little over a year, I unfortunately never had the time (got
off my butt) and went to one of these brouhaha's. Boy am I glad I did.
Lets see where to start. As of Friday afternoon my bike was running pretty
badly. I had replaced my vacuum carb slides the week before, because the diaphragms on my
old ones had been mysteriously replaced in the night with smaller ones by elves. I hate
elves.
So I had to buy new slides at 50$ a pop. That adds up real fast. While I had
the slides out I shimmed the needles. When I went for a test ride the bike performed
horribly. It did not like the shim at all. Holy smokes was it bad.
Tonys directions were fairly accurate, except the destination was really in
the middle of nowhere. Finally arrived at the house at about a quarter to one. Found
the secret "bat cave" driveway entrance and drove up to the house. There were no
bikes in sight except for one that looked like it had been mauled by a rhinocerous(sp).
For a brief second I thought I was in the wrong place. Then the garage doors rolled up and
I was in MagSab heaven.
I was instantly descended upon by a horde of filthy jabbering fiends with
tools. My only recourse was to act casual. Introductions were made all around and when I
and the bike had been thoroughly sniffed over, the pack dispersed and went back to their
greasy tasks.
What a collection of bikes, *wow* I have never seen so many sabmags in one
place at one time. In my three years of ownership I think I saw maybe four other sabmags.
Now here were nine. Cool...
Tony's is all gleaming chrome, and fairing. Very intimidating. He told me I could take it
for a spin but the fairing scared me. My bike doesn't even have a windshield. (although I
ordered one yesterday. I forgot how tired you get fighting wind at 70)
??michaels Reverend was looking sharp. Tastefully chromed and glossy black. I
want one... Oh yes it will be mine...
Malcolm took off early on Maggie Mae because of some kind of funeral type
thingy. The F1 mufflers sound very nice. I actually ordered some but they didn't fit
right. But that's what comes with owning the first magna ever.
Everybody was happily wrenching, except Joel whose bike decided it would much
rather be a high speed garden fountain. weird... Wish I could have gotten to
see John B's Sabre in one piece. The Sabres and the Magnas may have come from the same
genes but they are definitely two entirely different bikes.
Tony is totally out of his mind, he moves faster than anybody I have ever met. He
is a fountain of knowledge at 90MPH even off the bike. He was flitting from bike to bike
like some kind of MagSab crazed moth.
When the food arrived thanks to Carmel (who Tony should marry immediately) I
realized all I had had to eat all day was a bowl of cereal at 7AM. Here it was 5PM and I
was starving. ??michael God of Fire cooked lots of meat and we chowed down. As I ate I got
very sleeepy. Tony was still moving around like some kind of ninja with an internal
flywheel cranked up to 78,000 RPM's. And I was falling asleep. He played doctor on my bike
for a while to find the sources of a few problems that have been plaguing me, ticky clacky
noise, and oil light after warm up at idle, he ascertained the noise might be valves. I
hope I hope. The oil light however is a mystery. I blame the elves. I hate elves. A
good time was had by all, and there was much rejoicing.
Malcolm, The Fringe Kid Writes
Saturday, I rode up to Tony's house to meet him, John Bock, Joel Harding and John Vincent.
On the way up I picked up John Vincent as he left his Animal at Carmel's house the night
before. I had only gone two-up twice before with Maggie Mae. The week I got it I took my
precious daughter, 12 yrs old, for a short spin so she wouldn't feel deprived. A couple of
weeks ago, I took my wife, Tricia, for a 20 mile ride, her first (at least that's what she
told me, but I've heard that before). So, when I snicked it into 1st and rolled on the
throttle with a man on the back seat, it was weird city. I mean, I was between legs, but
no titties in my back!! I... don't....think... I ... want... to .... make ....this...
a...habit..!! I mean I like John but not that much.
We got to Tony's just as Carmel was leaving and she is a jewel. Very nice home..
Tony is verrrry lucky to have a "friend" like her.
We met John Bock, nice dude from Vermont with a very nice Sabre. He had his
problems adjusting the damned valves... but made me feel glad I decided not to adjust mine
this trip. Joel was diligently working his bike and making good progress. He also is a
decent chap with a nice appreciation of a good joke, especially when it is told well. Tony
had invited two friends, Rich and Ansel, both of whom seemed knowledgeable and were
machinists. They contributed their two cents worth (total of four cents). They were amazed
at the parts yard in Carmel's cellar. Rich worked his ride, adjusting the valves.
Suddenly, we heard a pair of mufflers growling up the driveway and who the hell was
outside the garage but ?? I was totally surprised to see him and actually recognized him
but didn't realize it was him because I expected not to see him. He came from NJ for the
day!!! Kewl! Nice man. Knowledgeable about the bikes, friendly and with a mile wide
smile... and a t shirt autographed by Russ Meyers (Vixen etc.)! He had more fringey
lookin' stuff up the side of his chaps than Maggie Mae. I'm gonna have to do something
else or risk losing my nickname. Maybe at SME. Anyway, it was a terrific surprise to see
him.
All of a sudden, I thought I heard another pair of F1 mufflers but when Crashman rode up I
saw they weren't. I forget what he said they were but they sounded realllllly nice and
looked as if they were designed for the bike in the first place. I was glad to finally see
his powder coated ride. Looked fine. A strange color combination but it grew on me the
more I looked at it. BMW green tank and sidecovers (paint), blue powder coated valve
covers and other engine touches and grey powder coated wheels. I know... it sounds weird
but looks nice.
Well, that was wicked pissah, as we say up nawth! I thought of how lucky we
were... all strangers and all getting along like we knew each other... like we were old
friends. Sabmaggotts one and all. It was the first time in a very long time that I felt
like a kid again with all my friends who had come over to play.
??Michael Writes
At the very last minute on Saturday morning (7 am as a matter of fact) I found out that I
could go to Tony D's Maintenance clinic in NH. The weather reports had been threatening
rain, but the new outlooks said Sat would be partly sunny and Sun. would be showery. Also
I had been on-call for working the weekend **again** but that cleared up like the weather
report.
Soooooo, by 7:30 I was heading to NH. The 300 miles up was a breeze, though
slabs. I arrived after 4.5 hours stopping twice to re-fuel.
I roll up to the Carmel's house to find the garage doors down and a severely
sore Animal in the driveway (this is the infamouse suspension horror- high speed crash
Magna of "hospitalized but ridable" fame.) It is a wonder that the damage is as
minimal as it is, considering the magnatude (ha!) of the crash.
When I got to Tony's I was greeted by a questioning bunch of looks. "who
is he" was on everyones' face. I hadn't confirmed that I was coming so no-one knew to
expect me, like SME 1, that's the way I like it! >:-)
Introductions all 'round. I'm Michael, I said. Blank looks.... Joel hesitated
a reply... "michael with question marks?" Yep! And there was much rejoicing!
Intros in rapid succession. Malcom/Tricia, Joel, John B, John (Vincent?) a few non-list
members whom I forget their names (did I miss anyone... I'm sorry if I did as it was a
pretty big wave of intros.) Later on Zach V joined us. The garage was a v65-phile's wet
dream come true. I think that we had an SME animal attendance record. I'm remembering 7
Animals (in various states of ridability from fully faired to stock to wrecked to
dis-assembled in the basement. There was also John B's v65 Sabre, which is the spitting
image of Erik Kaupi's Dog Breath. As a matter of fact I kept referring to it as Dog
Breath, sorry Erik. We were also fortunate enough to see two ORIGINAL v45 Magnas, comlete
with round headlights. These are the quirkiest v4's I've yet to see. There was no
standardization yet. So much rapid v4 tech talk, so many bikes, so many bikes partially
apart, so many freaks having fun with bikes that are apart. Yep, this is an SME alright!
Tony showed up, he'd been inside the house, and thought that I was Zach. Nope.
Surprise! He was happy to see me, and very happy to meet the Reverend. Tony has been such
a help with my clutch and advice about chrome that it felt like an obligation for me to
get up there to meet him. The Rev had been washed the day before and was magnificent in
the sunlight. Deep shiny blacks with sparkling chrome. To quote Tony "Ahhhhhhh
CHROME!!!!!"
I was instantly consulted on Dog Breath II. John was adjusting his valves
with the tool, and was getting some very bizarre results. The upshot is that he may have a
considerable amount of slop in his bearing clearances. When adjusting for .006 with the
tool he found that he had .002 - .000 clearance when checking without the tool. This was
out of my and Tony's experience. He eventually set them for .005 without the tool ala the
book. It seemed to work fine as you will soon find out.
After Zach showed up I helped him with his bike. It was making a hell of a
racket. He asked me to help him with a carb synch and was happy to oblige. Zach's tuning
screws are NOT 7mm slotted bolts like every other v4 I've seen. He had round philips heads
in there. As a comparo Joel had hex nuts in his. Those whacky 82's! John B's homebrew
helped out here. Very good beer! Very chewy! I loved it so much I took 10 bottles home (9
of which made it, what a mess.)
I spent time talking to the Fringe Kid discussing handle bars, horns and
stuff. Great guy Malcom. I wish that he could have stayed for dinner. I was sorely
disappointed that Maggie was noticeably bare of fringe. Only a few wisps (whips!) on the
levers. I forgot to mention/suggest the fringed mudflaps Carl and I saw on the way home
from SME 1.9.
Tony's house is like an Animal shopping center! With the number of spare
parts around Tony may never need to go to a dealer again! He has a complete bike in pieces
in the basement! It was a "name the function of that" game down there. Amazing.
One by one the bikes were buttoned back up a people said their good byes. I
helped John B. with the Sabre (which has the COOLEST ability of being able to remove a
fully filled gas tank by turning a shut off valve, DRB!) Once we were set we fired the
Beast off. Beautiful sound! Fired right up.
Joel was experiencing minor difficulties, but finally got everything nailed down
except his clutch woes (it has me stumped.) Joel, take the thing apart and measure your
clearances. Also check with your dealer for part numbers.
The next morning was grey with about 80% humidity, a far cry from Phoenix. We
debated a ride, but were expecting rain, so we had breakfast and said our good-byes.
Carmel is a very gracious hostess, and I am very glad to have met her. Her house is
wonderful and her puppies are the sweetest scaredy cats I've ever met. Tony, it was a
pleasure to meet you. We will do it again soon. I hope to see you at Lake George.
The Trip Home: Sabre Vs
magna!!
This is the tale of the trip home from SMNEMC 3.0.
John and I had discussed doing a performance comparo. Basically it would be a 5th gear
roll on at about 50 mph. We did 4 tries. Here are the results:
#1 - Dead Heat This was aborted rather quickly due to road conditions. It was really a
dead heat. We were neck and neck for a good 4 seconds.
#2 - The Reverend goes a'spankin. This was fun. After about 4 seconds the Rev started pull
away from the Sabre. I had about half a bike's length before John backed off. He thought
that he saw a state trooper ahead. He was impressed. An other Animal he raced could never
keep up. He spanked it every time.
#3 - The Rev spanks some more. This was fun again. Same results as before. I was even
slightly behind John and a beat behind hitting the throttle. We had a longer run and the
Rev kept pulling away. Way to go Rev!
#4 - VERY INTERESTING This was our longest and most revealing run. I paid careful
attention to my speeds this time, and I'm glad I did. Again I spanked at the get go. I
kept pulling away up to around 110 mph when my acceleration rate started to level off. At
115m mph I realize that John is gaining, and at 120mph he has passed and was taking off.
Very good test. Real world results for you all. The Animal has the low end, the Beast has
the top end. We all knew this, but it was a fun test.
Now if the Beast was a ZX-11... at about 100
mph the thing would have accelerated like it was in 4th and left the Animal paralyzed in
the gutter. That is what I mean when I say the -11 is OBCENE. |
The Arrival Of The SabMaggers
The Clinic Starts!
The Men Work Frantically on the Bikes!
John V Finishes First!
John B Conquers
The "Overtolerance" Problem!
Joel Is Having a Bit Of A Problem
Tony D Listening For a Heartbeat
The Men & Their Machines
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