The nice thing about not having adult trees is the lack of leaves in our gutters. That's all about to change in a few years.

 

We don't have any trees, but all the neighbors do. So we get lots of leaves in our yard and gutters, especially in the fall. A friend of mine has a teenager and he seems interested in making a few dollars cleaning the gutters when it's time.

 

Went to Pilsen to see the church and museum for Father Kapaun. It was Pretty cool. live 45 minutes from there,. and never went. Then we went to a reception for my nephew- He graduates K-State today. Ate at a huge expensive fancy restaurant- Raising Canes- ha ha ha

 

I've been making small improvements around the house, fixing this, modifying that, pulling weeds, spraying weeds, trying to do just a little bit every day, as time allows. Some of the things have needed done for a long time, some are more important, but just trying to keep the feet moving on some projects.

 

I started on the at least an hour a day for house chores a while ago-- it makes stuff more "harmonious" in the house

 

I've been doing a little maintenance on my banshee. Found and fixed a couple coolant leaks and did a compression check just because. It's still the same as it was after the engine rebuild, so that's good. Also ordered some parts for the new 4 wheeler. Still have a few more to purchase, but they're kind of expensive so I'm gonna wait a few more weeks.

 

I had a classmate that raced his 3 wheeler, he would have to have the engine rebuilt every "So Many" hours. I thought at the time that, it was so wasteful to have to pay to rebuild it so often. To this day, I still don't understand, because I look at cars with 100+ thousand miles on them and they haven't been rebuilt. Can you provide any insight to this for me?

 

That's fairly accurate, especially for 2 stroke engines that get raced regularly. The piston rings wear out and you eventually get piston slap and run the risk of breaking a piston and causing more damage. And that's if your tune up is good and you don't melt it down prematurely. So guys with experience and that race every weekend may get a full season out of it before they pull the cylinder and throw in a fresh piston and rings just to stay ahead of any potential carnage. Even the high revving 4 stroke race quads need similar maintenance and then of course you have valve lash and timing chain stretch. So the 4 strokes are a bit more involved and expensive. You either learn to be good at reading a manual or hope to be good enough to have sponsors that can pay for the maintenance and repairs.

It's really no different than a car in the end. If it's just a cruiser/recreational rider with proper oil and filter changes, you can get 20 years out of the machine, similar to a daily driver car. But if it's modified and raced/ridden hard to the point of abuse, you'll have it apart more frequently.

My banshee is a 2 stroke and is now a big bore, long stroke engine so it's going to need more frequent maintenance, but I've only had it out to ride it twice since the build. The 450 is a high revving 4 stroke race quad, but appears to have been just used as a recreational rider with low hours, so I hope to get several years out of it before having to rebuild. The parts I've ordered and have on my list are upgrades to prolong the engine life.

 

Seems pricey. I'm thinking I can't afford to get into that hobby.

 

Allot of camper packing- and what not.

 

Hey everyone, haven't posted much in here for a WHILE! I'm starting to work on some of my retirement projects...one of them being an old 1936 Craftsman 12" metal lathe. My neighbor's elderly father moved in with her several years ago. He was a machinist in the Chicago area and couldn't let his lathe go to auction when he moved in with her. He asked if I would keep it in my garage...so I inherited it after he passed last year. Mine is pictured below. Here is a link to a nicely restored example: https://www.lathes.co.uk/craftsman/page3.html

Can't decide if I want to restore it and sell it, sell as-is or part-out. It is bigger than I would ever need...and plan on spending more time on a frame-off restore of my '79 F-150, dabbling in homebrew and perfecting my BBQ recipes...

 

We saw the billboard for that the last time we drove to my parent's in western kansas. I noticed it because I've heard of Pilsen Czech Republic where Pilsner Urquell is brewed. We've been driving I-70 out there for over 40 years, but since we retired, we took 56 highway the last time and stopped in a few little town along the way.

 

Its a neat little place! :-) Congrats on the lathe I always wanted a lathe but don't have room -- besides it would make my ears hurt- (Wifey "why do you have that" bla bla bla :-)

 

Troubleshot AC this morning-- everything is running- fans compressor, ect-- doesn't get cool-- must be freon leak :-( I guess it is finally time to cough up 7-9 grand for new one :-( Come on this thing was made in the 50's it should still be good :-)

 

Welcome to the club. Our new AC and furnace we put in a couple of weeks ago.