I hope you guys don't mind me giving a shout out to Wirespokes for his hard work on sorting my bike out. But without his help, I wouldn't be enjoying my bike so much!! There's a lot of great guys on this site with helpful information. If not for some of these guys, and this Airheads sub forum, I honestly think I might have sold my bike months ago out of frustration. It's been a learning experience over the last year, and I have to tell you that having the chance to work with someone who loves and understands these bikes is priceless. When I originally called my local BMW dealer to ask if they could work on my bike, the kid basically admitted they didn't have much experience on old bikes, but it sure would be "fun to have for a winter project". At $99 per hour labor charge, I had to pass. In my situation, I bought the bike from a bike tech with no experience on these older bikes. Maybe some, but certainly not enough . . . based on some of the things we've had to sort through over the last year. But as I said, Terry has been invaluable in helping me get this done, and him doing most of the work. My friends wonder why I drive south 3.5 - 4 hours for weekend "fix trips" . . . I just tell them, that first and foremost, I trust him. He cares about these bikes and genuinely loves to fix them. The second thing is more material. I can afford to have him do the job right the first time. So anyway, just a quick shout out to a great guy, and looking forward to my next trip to sort out and rebuild the front suspension!!
Thank you for the great accolade! I didn't realize frustrations were building to that extent - so I'm really glad you're enjoying the bike more. That does bring up the point that fewer and fewer shops work on these old bikes anymore. It's like taking your Model T to a Ford dealer and expecting them to repair it - maybe not quite that bad, but you get the idea. I do like the fact you want to learn how to do the work yourself and plan on keeping it a long long time. Looking forward to helping with that.
Yea, man.... I just wish we could all get together some time, it would be fun to put the "face" with the "avatar"... No question there are a lot of good folk here, an incredible resource that somehow just came together here in ADV... we can all count the blessing of that!
He did a good job on my gauges, and has answered several questions about other stuff for me without complaint. Too bad we live half a continent away--- I'd be picking his brain more than I do. Good people make for good forums......
Maybe I'll see you at the National in July? Haven't decided how you'll recognize me - but it'll most likely be a T shirt with wirespokes and speedo repair on the front and back. Something like that. And I'll probably be hanging around the airhead tent. Also, I live just an hour away, so could help out with parts and repairs.
I know it would be a big task, but it would be cool to get some sort of ADV Airhead meet-up somewhere in the middle of the USA. We're so spread out, and there are some great regional rides, but a big one-shot deal would be a whole lotta fun. Imagine having 150 Airheads of all shapes, sizes and flavors in one place! The clatter of all of the valves at idle would be enough to wake the dead.
There are Rallies all year long. Maybe not everybody at one but you can meet a few at each one. Threads here about what's coming up. Get an Autograph Booklet and collect signatures.
With over 150,000 members or something like that, you are sure to meet ADVer's at almost any gathering involving motorcycles. edit: holy crap I just looked... I mean Almost a Quarter Million members :whoa
I've been to dozens of ADV events over the years, and met some incredible people. I've made life-long friends here, too. My comment was concerning the huge Old School/Airhead population that dwells here, and on how neato it would be to have some sort of Middle-Of-America rally. Just thinking out loud on my part.
I'm helping with the airhead gathering this year at the Sipapu rally the weekend after Labor Day. We will have a separate airhead space and some airhead events. New Mexico isn't really central but it's a great place to meet in September near Taos. I will start a thread on this soon. Any immediate interest here? Oh BTW. Thanks Wirespokes for the excellent work on my /6 speedo and tach.
