Roy:
These past 2 weeks most of our effort was to get my Scooter ready for the Cannonball, which includes ordering parts, ordering missed parts, and ordering more missed parts. I was very lucky to have Dennis, aka ScooterMd / Fastuff build a new engine for me with the little help I could contribute. We basically started with 2 P200 engine cases. It all turned out pretty good in the end, but of course took more time and money than initially expected. So the engine is built, it is in the frame, and I have been running with it for over 600km now. I still have to finish some of the wiring and connecting of the 12V Power socket and I am still waiting for my CHT gauge (Cylinder head temperature gauge) to arrive.
Rocket started working on his Cannonball engine a couple days ago. His engine won’t need too much work. Just some minor maintenance. Why fix it if it ain’t borken, right? So the piston and the barrel did get a bit of a tune up and new piston rings did go on the piston last night.
On the sponsorship side, things have been going pretty good. Last minute stuff to sort out as usual. The one major issue for us is still finding a good solution for getting our scooters back from the East Coast after the Cannonball.
I will try to keep updating and posting here. I hope it won’t be too difficult to follow my thoughts. Unfortunately we just don’t have a lot of time to review and edit our posts which could it make it sometimes difficult for the readers.
When I say 2 weeks it is basically whatever hours we can find during the day and the evening to work on the scooters.
September 6, 2008 at 2:29 am
well as there was only 3 days to go i thought what an ideal time to spread my entire engine all over the bench and put it back together again,on the last cannonball it had ZERO problems i dindnt even take out the plug between portland and new york and rode on it for a further 2 months .
so i changed the cruxiform and the piston rings[well im hoping to if i can get someone to send me some that aint to big.
the ones that were in there were pulling about 110kmh on the flat no problem and about 120 on any kinda incline[well downwards..duh],
up hill it was a little slower than i liked. so new rings seemed like a good idea except that the ones that were sent to mewere to large and overlapped at the ends when pressed in th barrel with the piston!
so il have a scout about and see whats what, but if nowt shows up on the radar the old ones wil be going back in , other than that lets have at her… Rocket
September 9, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Hey Boys
Cant wait to hear the story of your 1st day’s journey to get you closer to San Fran.
Ron of Vespa Kelowna called to assure you that whatever way it happens, your scooters will be shipped from Toronto to either Kelowna or Vancouver and Ron is working on sorting that out with Canadian Scooter Corp – a big thanks to Vespa Kelowna for that!
I hope the only rain you had was the miserable drizzle in Vancouver this morning….
September 9, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Cheers!! best of luck!!
September 10, 2008 at 7:38 am
Roy & Rocket
I left a msg on Rocket’s phone.
Gene and I will help you get the scooters back. Just let us know what you need. You have a place to stay in NJ too if you need. -Andrea
September 10, 2008 at 10:09 am
Glad you guys got started ok! Looking forward to reading each day and seeing how you are doing! Enjoy the ride – best of luck to you both!
Sean Smith
Calgary