Managing "The Fleet"

Another interesting week here at the Casa de Evringham.

Last weekend my son Eric came over and helped me get the 1974 Honda CB350F project bike out of the basement. We first strongarmed the engine up the bulkhead steps and back onto the engine stand. By comparison, pushing/pulling the rolling frame up those same steps was the easy part! With that out of the way we spent the rest of the afternoon resting our bodies and watching Sophie and Taylor expend all their energy doing cousin stuff.

On Monday I had to swap my focus back to WT2. In the morning I traveled over to the local inspection place to get the required annual safety inspection taken care of. As you would expect ... she passed with flying colors and I was driving off in about a half hour. After filling her tank with some fuel I drove her over to a friends place for a few days of temporary storage.

On Thursday I took WT2 to North Conway, NH for her first warranty repair visit. North Conway is about 90 miles away over mostly 2 lane rural Maine roads. The trip is actually a pretty drive through western Maine - until you have to traverse the last 20 miles before the NH border where the road that wasn't tore up for construction was in very bad shape needing to be tore up and replaced! But we made it in a couple hours - just as planned.

The folks at Hill's RV got WT2 into their service facility right away to check out the short list of issues that needed to be addressed. They looked at the leaky right rear leveling jack and confirmed my determination that a new jack would have to be ordered and installed. Next they took a look at the front HVAC air blend door actuator that had an apparent vacuum leak. It didn't take them long to confirm that it also needed to be replaced and lo and behold -- they even had one in stock! That repair took all of about 15 minutes to accomplish. Next on the agenda was to readjust the passenger side slide where I found that rear adjustment bolt that had fallen out. Another 15 minute fix. Last on the list was to deal with the 11 LED overhead lights that were burned out. They had 3 in stock so they got got those installed and ordered more to take care of the rest when I return to get that jack replaced. They confirmed that they had been replacing a lot of those on various Winnebago units recently! So ... all-in-all not a bad experience. Pretty much as I expected. Fix a few things and order a few parts for next time. Too bad I had to drive 180 miles to get it accomplished ... with another 180 miles yet to drive to complete the necessary work.

With WT2 back in temporary storage and some space freed up here at the MIM RV, Motorcycle, and Hot Rod Shop ... it was time to move back to the motorcycle project.

The first step was to remove the engine from the engine stand and get it installed into the bike frame without scratching the paint on either the engine ... or the frame! With some careful pre-planning and some helping hands from my buddy Glenn we accomplished that feat without incident last Thursday and I went right to work installing all the engine related "stuff" ... like carburetors, oil pan, and various wires and cables. 

Next came those new shiny exhaust pipes. I really like they way they look (and sound) but they were more than challenging to get installed without scratching the paint, or the chrome, or drawing blood!

With all that complete I just needed to add some oil, put a little gas in the tank, and hit the start button. A few seconds later she fired right up and ran like a brand new 40 year old motorcycle should!

So ...  I have had the bike running now for a few days and have taken a few short rides and I gotta tell you ... this bike may be small in engine displacement ... but is big on the fun to ride meter!

I also managed to get the Chevelle started up and driven home from its storage spot today! So the MIM motor vehicle fleet is up and running! 

With all that accomplished and the lawn mowed for the second time since we returned home ... I hereby declare we have officially transitioned to being at home mode!

Time to kick back, play with the grandkids, participate in a happy hour or two, and enjoy spring and summer in Maine. That ain't such a bad thing now is it!