Happy Leap Day

Here’s hoping everyone had a nice leap day.

Want to apologize for the lack of content this week. I’ve been busy trying to get all caught up on work. Planning a trip to Moab next weekend, and I want to have as much done as possible.

Look for more next week, and soon new Pics from Moab.

Warrior Repair – Intake

Last summer, when we went out to Nebraska to ride, I had some trouble with my Warrior. While riding in Headworks Park, the bike just didn’t want to run. When the problems first started I pulled the choke out, and it would run a little better. A few minutes later it stopped running completely. After some inspection we discovered that the rubber intake manifold had cracked.

Attempts to wire the carb to the engine just didn’t work out and my riding was done for the week.

Once we got home, I got on good old eBay and ordered me up a brand new, heavy duty replacement. I don’t remember the cost off hand, but around $30. Had a couple challenges putting it on. Both ends of the manifold are the same bolt pattern, but it they are rotated in relation to each other. I bolted the engine side to the carb, and then couldn’t figure out why it was at such a weird angle. Got that fixed, and the holes on the carb side were a little small for the studs. Had to take my drill and expand them a bit, not sure what the story was on that.

While replacing this I discovered that I was missing three of the four motor mount bolts, a common problem with the Warrior. The probably cause of the failure of the manifold was excessive engine vibration. Had to go get some bolts and lock nuts to fix this.

Our next outing, the trip to Red Feather with Jed, ended up being the FIRST (and so far only) TIME since purchasing the Warrior that it came back from a trip without a breakdown. Hopefully I’m getting close to having all of the bike’s issues worked out.

Pictures Down

Eeesh, just realized my picture gallery is down again. Not sure what the story is there. This is at least the second time that it’s happened to me. Think I’m just going to convert to the
WP Photo Album – WPPA that I’m using on Bob’s Bad Binder. I’m pretty happy with the way it works, although a slick ajax screen fade effect for viewing the full size images would be better. Some of the bigger images get chopped off currently.

Warrior Upgrades – Handlebars and Banshee Shocks

In my continuing quest to improve my 1988 Yamaha Warrior I made two modifications.

The first major change was adding two Yamaha Banshee front shocks.

As you can see in this picture, the Banshee shocks are longer than the stock Warrior shocks.

I purchased both of these of ebay after a significant amount of research into the best/easiest modification to make. Paid around $100 for both, not a bad deal when a good set of aftermarket shocks are AT LEAST 3 times that. This picture is of the bike with one shock installed.

It was a bit tricky putting these on by myself. Had to compress them down an inch or so, and that’s quite a chore by hand.

The shocks turned out to be a GREAT upgrade. The weekend before I put them on we made a trip to Red Feather, and the Warrior suspension really wore me out. Jason has an LT250R, Jeff has a Wolverine, and Jed has a Banshee. I was always well behind these guys, not just because I’m slower (actually my Warrior keeps up really well with the Wolverine), but because the bike just didn’t handle well.

Shortly after putting these one we went up the Poudre to the Green Mountain trail. Rode in the snow and had a blast. The Warrior was like a different machine, much more manageable. Worked great, right until Jeff broke a tie rod, but that’s another story…

You might also notice the new handlebars. These are YZ High bend I ordered from Rocky Mountain ATV. Nothing special, just steel bars. Figured I’d use them until I bent them, since I wasn’t sure how they would work. I’m pretty happy with them, make the bike much more comfortable to ride. I

will probably get the same bend in some aluminum bars sometime down the road.

Economic DejaVu

“This is like deja vu all over again.” – Yogi Berra

The New York Times has an article comparing the late 70′s inflation to our current situation in 2008.

That got me to thinking, the 00s are a lot like the 70s, at least from a national perspective.

• Early 70s, the US was caught in a foreign war that was sucking the economy dry and causing civil unrest at home.
• 00s, the US is caught in a foreign war that is sucking the economy dry and causing civil unrest at home.

• 1979, unrest in the mideast caused oil prices to jump and created higher fuel prices/gas shortages.
• 00s, unrest in the mideast and global demand for oil causes oil prices to jump to over $100 a barrel.

• 1976, a country shocked by two tems of Republican incompetence elect a democrat to office.
• 2008, a country shocked by two terms of Republican incompetence will likely elect a democrat to office.

I could think of some more, but it’s interesting we haven’t really learned any lessons in the last 30 years. Looks like this country is repeating more of the same. The next president, republican or democrat, is going to have a long road. They will inherit a complete mess, and likely by demonized for issues beyond their control with the 2012 election rolls around.