Rusty Fuel Tank?

Sgt. Carter and I just dropped a couple of tanks off for product testing with the fine folks at Metal Rescue. Scott met with us and explained the effectiveness of their product. He assured us that Metal Rescue did indeed work as advertised and we would be very satisfied with the end results. I found Metal Rescue through this ad that Scott placed on craigslist.


We are running tests on our product Metal Rescue and need donor tanks to use for our testing. Our product is a non-toxic, bio-degradable rust remover that wont harm the paint on the outside of your tank or the actual metal surface, Metal Rescue removes only the rust!. Must be willing to drop your fuel tank off at our facility in Howell and give us one week use of your tank. Any rust will work from light surface rust to the worst rust imaginable. Be aware that fuel tanks that have excessive rust may leak after they are treated with Metal Rescue simply because the rust has eaten through the metal. We won't be responsible for leaky tanks. Thanks!

Workshop Hero ™ - a division of ARMOR Protective Packaging®
951 Jones Street - P.O. Box 828
Howell, MI 48844
800-365-1117

Well after trying everything from Kreem to Electrolysis with mixed results, I was eager to try this product as I have heard good things about it. I gathered up a extra tank that I picked up off ebay for the XS. Sgt. Carter has a bit of rust in his 650 tank too, so he and I beat feet to Howell to drop our tanks with Scott and allow him to work his magic. I'm going to use this tank as a replacement for the tank that came with the 500. The original tank was treated with Kreem by it's previous owner and it is looking like the beginnings of a breakdown in the tank liner. I didn't want to go through the headache of cleaning and retreating the original, so Scott's offer came as quite a relief. He said the process should take a couple of hours and he would be able to get to our tanks either Thursday or Friday. I feel confident after Scott marinates our tanks in Metal Rescue, they will be as rust free as he claims they will. With the holiday weekend, he said we would be able to pick up our tanks early next week. I can barely wait to go back and see the results myself. More to come.

Till Next Time

Why?

There was quite a debate on the radio today concerning a twenty year old pile driving a police cruiser at 140 M.P.H. As far as I know they were just going to pull him over for speeding when he bolted. The officer had him on radar going 104 just after 4:00am. Here are the details from the Detroit Free Press.


BY TAMMY STABLES BATTAGLIA

DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER


Authorities say a motorcyclist who died at the end of a chase early Tuesday hit 140 m.p.h. while fleeing from officers.

Lansing Community College student Carl Stamm, 20, died in the 4:20 a.m. accident on I-96 in Handy Township, just west of Fowlerville Road, according to the Livingston County Sheriff's Department.

"He was a happy-go-lucky kid," Jeffrey Stamm of Almont said of his nephew.

Carl Stamm had a valid motorcycle endorsement on his Michigan license, a clean driving record and was wearing a helmet, according to investigators.

Livingston County Sheriff Bob Bezotte said Stamm, who worked as a custodian at Michigan State University, sped up after deputies spotted him driving 104 m.p.h. and tried to pull him over.

Stamm was driving his blue 2001 Yamaha YZF600R at least 140 m.p.h. before he hit the back of a Fowlerville village police car that was trying to join the chase, Bezotte said.

"For anybody to blame the police, you can't allow anybody to do 140 on the expressway and not try to stop him," Bezotte said. "He's not only endangering his life, but other motorists. It's a tragedy he lost his life, and my heart goes out to the family. But he controlled everything."

The accident closed westbound I-96 for about five hours. It occurred hours before Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson arrived on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle to a gathering at Oakland Community College's Farmington Hills campus to promote motorcycle safety and education.

"That's just tragic and sad, 20 years old," said Johnson, who grew up riding motorcycles in her native Waterford. "You can do all kinds of safety classes. But anytime you try to elude the police -- whether it's on a motorcycle or in a car -- it's a recipe for disaster."

There were 127 motorcyclists killed in accidents in 2010, up 23% from 2009 when 103 cyclists were killed, according to Johnson. She attributed the rise to better weather in 2010.

And with gas prices possibly driving up the number of motorcyclists on the road, she fears the number could be higher this year.


All the debate was about who was at fault and people who buy "crotch rockets" buy them only for their speed and ride like this on a regular basis. A few informed and educated riders called in to put up an argument that the vast majority of sport bike pilots ride their bikes in a sane responsible fashion and get bad press whenever something like this happens.

I was really surprised by the number of callers who blamed the cop he hit for this tragedy. I have a hard time blaming the cops when someone is running from them and rear ends one of their cruisers. Only God and that kid know what was on his mind when he decided to lead a high speed chase. Unfortunately he is not around to explain his actions. The end result is a young life is snuffed out way too early in a completely avoidable situation. All that keeps running through my mind is, why.

I Know, My Mom Must Have Dropped Me on My Head

As I sat at the computer last night to do my usual perusal of Craigslist motorcycle section, the first ad I saw was this.

"Concours ‘85’ ZG-1000 Kawasaki
Garaged last 3 years ‘won’t start’
Corbin seat
Virtually new Metzeler lasertec tires
Never down 33K miles

Extra Tank OEM seat, shield
Shoei Rf-800 helmet size Large
(full-face), tank bag – manuals etc.
Feel free to call for more info
First $800.00 takes all"

As you may have assumed, I ran for the phone. On the other end I found an affable gent named Charlie. He informed me that the bike was still available and I was more than welcome to take a gander despite the late hour. J.J. Curly and I were on our way in short order.
What we found when we got there was just as the ad described. The bike was way cleaner than I thought it would be. Charlie informed us that he was the second owner and had owned the bike since '96. He took excellent care of it as it was pretty much spotless, in almost as nice of condition as my FJ. He stopped riding it about three years ago when a small rust hole developed on the lower left rear of the tank. Not wanting to become a human roman candle he parked the bike and bought a new tank on ebay. He never got around to installing the new tank and the bike just sat from that point. The new tank was purple, nothing a quick paint job wouldn't cure. I figured all that the bike really needed was some fresh gas and a good carb cleaning and I would have a very nice vintage Concours. But when the time came to ante up, I couldn't get my hand off my wallet. I usually would not hesitate to buy a bike like this, but there were a couple things that made me take pause. First, my FJ, I love that bike and this bike is basically a redundancy of the FJ. I know it is water cooled and has hard bags, shaft drive, a better fairing and all that. They are different animals that perform the same function when it comes down to it. I would have not wanted to sell either and I really don't need two vintage sport touring bikes.
Gymi, you Jackass, you say. Buy that damn bike, get it running and make about a fifteen hundred dollar profit on it. Past experience tells me that when I by things specifically to turn a profit, I lose money most of the time. I would find about three thousand dollars worth of problems, blown head gasket, second gear is gone, a bearing is about to take a shit. I know with this bike, none of those problems were likely to rear its ugly head. Charlie seemed a completely honest man and gave no reason to believe other wise. This brings us full circle to me wanting to keep this bike.

Two,I'm shopping for a WR400 or 426. and space in the garage is becoming scarce in a hurry with the XS500 in pieces all over the place and two different tin sets clogging up my work bench waiting for my lazy ass to paint them. J.J. has the too many bikes syndrome as well and his better half would have probably had him shopping for a good divorce lawyer. Curly is a cruiser guy through and through and would not even consider a bike like this.

Mrs.Gymi was shocked when I came home empty handed. She said wow that thing must have been a real piece of crap. I told her about what I'm relaying here. She said, I knew someone dropped you on your head during your formative years. I said it is, what it is. I still haven't sprung the WR news on her yet, when I do, if that Concours was taking up space in the garage, I may have been shopping for a good divorce lawyer myself. Charlie has taken the ad down, and I guarantee you, there is someone thanking God that some dumb ass passed on such a great deal.


Till Next Time.........

A Few Randoms

From the ThunderDrome.

Going Down,
Down,Down,Down,Down,Down.











Some things were just not the same as last year, a shame really.

Five Grand Vs. Fifty Bucks

Like the pit bike races, they ran heat races for the mopeds. There was no shortage of competitors and close racing. None closer then the grudge match between a ped that looked like it had about five grand was dumped into it. And a rig that looked as if it was dragged out of a dumpster and had about fifty bucks thrown at it.
I know absolutely nothing about mopeds other than they get like 1,000,000 miles to the gallon and are usually pretty slow. Well this group will change your mind about that. While they still may get great gas mileage, there are a few missiles mixed into this group. While the chrome and red bike looked like it already won before the race even started, the scruffy red ride looked as if it would have a hard time getting up to five miles per hour. How looks can be deceiving, the chrome factory bike was indeed fast, the junk heap was even faster. They hounded each other for their ten lap heat race, with the scrape pile coming out on top. I think the fox head on the head light and that fringe jacket had something to do with the speed of that moped. One can't wear fringe without picking up a couple of m.p.h. I know some may come to the conclusion that a leather with fringe would be aerodynamically unsound. But this combatant more than disproves this notion.
He picked up the win in convincing fashion. Unfortunately, not all the moped racing went off without incident. This would include our fringed underdog hero. In the final, he got off to a bad start and while gaining on factory boy, he pushed up into a back marker.
He went down pretty hard and was scraped up good. But he managed to limp away OK and seemed like he would get away with just some scrapes and bruises.

They wound up red flagging the race, and did a pace lap for the final. These boys are pretty serious about their moped racing and I have to tell ya, it looks like more fun than bungee jumping from your front porch. It makes me want to paste one of these little beast together. I think I'm heading over to Craigslist now and see what is what.


Till Next Time.........

A Taste

Here is a vid by Grant Zoschnick. It gives a much better feel for the event than my crappy stills do, enjoy.

ThunderDrome II from Grant Zoschnick on Vimeo.