Mon Jun 16, 2008 9:13 am by Frankenstein
Hi All, Just thought I'd check in after returning from a great weekend at Rhinebeck. Good meet, had a great trip, NO problems with the 44U down and back, did about 400 miles, looks like oil consumption is running around 1000mi/qt. on 20-50 Castrol. It's great to climb a hill and just hold the throttle open and let'er pull, no rolling off to "oil" my cylinders. I'm pleased with how things are working.
Met lots of great people, including board members Jim Casey and Moldthread, "Bruce Artsinger".
Must say was glad to meet Jim after corresponding via the web all these years. He's definitely my kind of people. He and Linda pulled in on their hard workin, no nonsense, Shovel from Mass. Thanks for showing me around and introducing me to folks, Jim.
Picked up some of Bruce's molded Peek manifold rings and hope to get them mounted on my Knuckle and the 44U this week. I'll be sure to let you know how that works. Bruce feels that the molded rings should mate up and seal on most any manifold that doesn't show significant distortion/damage as the Peek is conformable to minor variations in the surface. I've got a bastard manifold I want to try them on. Bruce was a great to talk to, very knowledgeable guy, who had the time to talk to a seat of the pants tinkerer like yours truly.
Also had a talk with Paul Friebus of American Cycle Fabrication, the folks who built up a flathead 80 to do 130 on the salt at Bonneville. He had one of his engines in a street bike, and it DID NOT sound like my 80 at all! Very awesome. He was very busy, but took time to discuss oiling/pumps, etc for a few minutes. He does use a piston oiler, it shoots upward at the bottom of the piston, only it breaks up into a mist a couple of inches above the jet and disperses pretty evenly to cool the whole piston and lube the walls. He also makes modifications to the combustion chamber, he's on his 6th version on top, didn't go into details. But did say that his bores look like "EVo" bores after much hard running and show no scuffs, wear or overheating. He's a very interesting, and busy, fellow. I'll try to get some pics posted one of these days.
Your Roving reporter,
DD
Pa