G
GS1150ERider
Guest
An interesting sidenote....
An interesting sidenote....
Howdy all,
As I mentioned this week, I went down to the machine shop this morning to talk to the tech about the work that was needed. I am from Missouri (which means too stupid to tell, you have to show me) and had him show me what work needed to be done and why.
The owner was very helpful and it was a good educational process. He took each step of the recommended work and showed me on the head/cylinder/etc why, which valves guides were bad and how to tell, and how to check the valves for pitting/etc. He told me that the head itself looked good, but had suffered some heat issues in its past, thus resulting in the work needed to get it up to pare. He did say that because the gaskets had already been removed when he got the parts, he couldn't tell me where the oil leak would have been coming from. And of course, thats what started this whole situation.
The shop itself was immaculate, lots of motors, parts, and tools. But I have been into a few machine shops, but none like this one. Almost an operating room. The owner told me that he had been doing this work for over twenty years, and used to race GS 1150's before he "got serious" about racing. His brother and him were the sole proprieters, and did all of the work themselves. He even mentioned that he could save me a few bucks on parts since he had some left over stuff from his 1150 days.
As we were walking out of the shop and into the lobby, I asked him about a life size spiderman figure in the corner, then I started looking around at all of the trophies and posters of "spiderman" riding a top fuel motorcycle. Turns out this guy is Larry McBride, world's faster top fuel motorcycle rider, and the first rider into the 5's in the quarter. He had just left a tour of OCC with their crew in New York, and was getting ready to do a exhibition run for TLC's "Pinks All Out" in the near future.
Needless to say I was a little awestruck. Larry McBride? Working on my bike? What do you guys think?
An interesting sidenote....
Howdy all,
As I mentioned this week, I went down to the machine shop this morning to talk to the tech about the work that was needed. I am from Missouri (which means too stupid to tell, you have to show me) and had him show me what work needed to be done and why.
The owner was very helpful and it was a good educational process. He took each step of the recommended work and showed me on the head/cylinder/etc why, which valves guides were bad and how to tell, and how to check the valves for pitting/etc. He told me that the head itself looked good, but had suffered some heat issues in its past, thus resulting in the work needed to get it up to pare. He did say that because the gaskets had already been removed when he got the parts, he couldn't tell me where the oil leak would have been coming from. And of course, thats what started this whole situation.
The shop itself was immaculate, lots of motors, parts, and tools. But I have been into a few machine shops, but none like this one. Almost an operating room. The owner told me that he had been doing this work for over twenty years, and used to race GS 1150's before he "got serious" about racing. His brother and him were the sole proprieters, and did all of the work themselves. He even mentioned that he could save me a few bucks on parts since he had some left over stuff from his 1150 days.
As we were walking out of the shop and into the lobby, I asked him about a life size spiderman figure in the corner, then I started looking around at all of the trophies and posters of "spiderman" riding a top fuel motorcycle. Turns out this guy is Larry McBride, world's faster top fuel motorcycle rider, and the first rider into the 5's in the quarter. He had just left a tour of OCC with their crew in New York, and was getting ready to do a exhibition run for TLC's "Pinks All Out" in the near future.
Needless to say I was a little awestruck. Larry McBride? Working on my bike? What do you guys think?
