The Quest for The Dead River

While I was looking for interesting places at Altas Obscura and saw the pictures of the Dead river I decided I would put it on my list of places to check out.

The weather was supposed to be in the mid 50's all day today and I decided to see if I could find it and check out the sights along the way.

I left Crystal Lake and headed Lakemoor to pickup RT120 to Waukegan.

Once I got to the lakeshore I saw signs for the Waukegan Municipal Beach so I decided to check it out.

Doesn't look very beachlike does it? 

 I drove a bit further down the road and came upon the actual beach.  There were tons of kites being flown which was neat.

The Whistle Goes WOOOOOO!

With spring finally peeking It's head up the days are getting warm enough to ride with a destination in mind.

I decided to head down to Bob's motorcycle shop in Dundee as he's shutting down and will be closed by 4/31 at the latest.

I bought some chrome head bolt covers to hide the rusty hot mess that mine have become and of course ended up buying the wrong ones.  Oh well anyone need a set that are too small for an 03 sportster?

I then checked my map of places I wanted to check out to see what was close.  I saw 2 Toots Grill in Bartlett or Priscilla's Ultimate Express in Hanover Park, IL.  Due to the fact that I had limited time and had to get back for a 3 hour accounting class I decided to hit 2 Toots.

Valentines Candy and Card Run

I had a few spare hours before class this afternoon and I needed to grab some Valentines gifts.  I noticed the sun was out and after finding the thermometer was at a balmy 45F I decided to take the sportster.

A quick run to grab a card and then to the Thornton's in Cary to get some Nutrageous bars for the burgermodel was all I had time for but it was a great day to ride.

I did find my throttle return was loose but I got it all straightened out.

Some pictures of the bike outdoors with all the modifications in place.  Now that you can see the rear you can get a look at the red turn signals and the custom chrome taillight visor.

The KZ900

I've had several bikes over the years.  The first bike that was actually ride able on the street was a 1976 KZ900.  I got it from a friend who traded his stepbrother a sub box with blown subs for it, he then sold it to me for $100 and I bought him a $100 worth of shit on my best buy discount.  When I got it it would leak gas all over as soon as you turned the petcock on.  After a bit of investigating I found the petcock was hooked to the carb overflows and not the inlets.  After a new battery it worked great. I rebuilt the petcock and then the carbs when they got plugged up from crap in the tank. Then the coils went out, I put in new accel coils and they burned up the Dyna ignition somebody put in.  A new ignition and I was all set.  I probably put about 1000 miles total on the bike because all I had was a permit when the clutch cable snapped about 30 miles from home.  A friend thought he could shift it without the clutch to get it home.

Unfortunately, the bike had been raced at some point before as was evidenced by the ignition system, extra heavy clutch and the keihin CR special carbs.  I got the bike home but the shifter forks got bent in the process.  I bought a extra Z1 case with new forks at a swap but knew if I took it apart it would end up rotting in pieces.

Indian Spring

61F on January 29th in Chicago, count me in!  There was some drizzle and the roads were wet but other than the front of my pant legs getting wet from road spray, it was a decent ride for January.  I got in a quick 45 miles of riding.  The bike was completely covered in crap but a quick hose off in the drive and wiping the chrome with some marvel took care of everything but the water spots from the 11 on the Mohs scale Crystal Lake city water.