Snowland

Well, the return to OJ was met by lots of house husbandry!

I had no idea I had left so much to do when I went to work – oh well, you get that on the big jobs!

I spent a bit of time tinkering to get the two vintage Italians ready for their yearly registration check. As part of this process I ended up pulling the blinkers off the Mighty Lamb & replacing the practical mirrors with the rather sexy chrome jobbies that arrived with him when the Silver Surfer & Him came in from Vietnam.

Yep, not as practical, & not required for registration; but it looks a lot sexier & to be honest, the Lambretta doesn’t see a lot of action these days, so it is not a huge issue as far as I am concerned. This little bit of tinkering successfully got my scooter  rocks off for a time, but with snow forecast, that was as much as I was prepared to do.

Friday night brought news that, due to a blast of antarctic air, that snow was expected down to 1000m... The center of Orange is at 850m & our house is a shade under 900m, so it was going to be a cold weekend!

Anyway, the highlight of the long & cold weekend was heading up to Mount Canobolas. When it snows, it seems the entire population of the OJ district jumps in their cars & proceeds to drive up the mountain to freeze in the fresh snow & throw snow balls at each other!

Of course, the road to the top of the mountain was shut, but we made it as far as we could. It was still very snowy & Benny & Danny were intent on calling the area Snowland…

Benny & Danny - otherwise Known As the Silly Boys. As cold as they were they did not want to get back in the car!

The silly boys loved it & especially loved throwing the snow at me… The Child Bride & Alissa the Sensible wisely sat in the nice warm car!

The Sensible Alissa & The Child Bride - snug inside the car

Some of my fellow Orangers; similarly dressed for the cold & loving every bit of it!You can just make out the locked gate to keep us hill-billies from hurting ourselves by trying the drive to the top of the Mountain in these condition!

Yep, my foot, squashing some snow...

Anyway, at least the five cups of hot chocolate on the way home were nice (and suitably alpine!) Sunday was just as cold; not much doing… oh well, sometimes it is nice to take a break, sit back & relax!

The snow made a big impression on the Silly Boys as they kept on asking: Dad, when are we going back to Snowland!

Relaxation is good!

So Mote it be

Leigh

Not much...& you...?

Hi Anyone

Well, it seems I have been rather busy of late (you know, doing the typical House Husband stuff) & not being very loving to the Cub…

Anyway, not much has been going on, but normal programming will return as soon as possible!

So Mote it be

Leigh

Tribalism in the Scooter-set

It always seems to be, that tribalism pops up wherever there is a choice between alternatives based purely on that most human of level (being a purely emotional choice)

Thus, in the motorbike world, you have Harley Davidson types & scooter riders & Mods & Rockers; the rest of us it’s whether you are from New South Wales or Western Australia to which footy team (or which code) you follow, all this guff will tend to dominate the way we think when we meet new people etc (I am sure you know the drill on this)

So as far as my motorcycling tribalism, well The Lamb & the Silver Surfer are 2 stroke, Italian (true) scooters, the Love Cub is 4 stroke, Japanese (mostly) & an underslung motorbike

The Vespa & Lambretta types really needle each other; 2 stroke types needle 4 stoke types, Italian & German & Japanese bike fans needle each other…

The question that I ask is: Should I hate myself for all these differences?

Typically I must; but hey, I am just too lazy to waste energy on hating things! So rather I will tend to appreciate the good in the differences, because well, it is a much nicer thing to do!

This happens across many levels for me – for example

That oily-sweet 2 stroke oil smell in clothes is both good & bad; that faint whiff of exhaust fumes when I am in the middle of a swing at work can really make a long rotation feel OK; on the downside, smelling of 2 stroke at a restaurant is very annoying, especially for the Child Bride (who is rather classy compared to me)

I suppose, when it all comes down to it, these differences are good & that is nice; if everything was the same, well we would be mighty bored. The “other” point is, that these things can be in a state of flux; your tribes change with circumstances; hence my quandary!

Thus I have been looking at some of the other features of this blogger page & it turns out that this site will give you a rundown of where people who are looking at this blog come from. So far, there have been Cub Lovers from USA, The Netherlands, UK, Germany, Vietnam, South Korea & Malaysia as well as Oz view this blog – that is pretty amazing in the scheme of things! All the differences between these countries & there are like minded nutters who are interested in the Love Cub (I will admit, there probably are a few people out there that do honestly think the Love Cub IS something different…)

I suppose the case in point would be seen in the the rather funky little web site called http://www.4-stroke.net/

This rather cool website is administered from Holland (different)

But, it is run by another Cub nutter (Same)

The website has a lot of English language articles & tech (same language)

But there a lot of Dutch language articles & technical stuff (different)

The funny thing is, even tho I do not speak Dutch; when I look at the technical diagrams (with Dutch annotations) I “get” it that is I understand the terms. If it was spoken I think I would be lost BUT the point I am trying to make is wow, there are actually a lot of commons rather than differences, from your first impressions.

The next big leap in this topic of the wonderful nerd-box world in which I write is that, it is not uncommon for people out there to e-mail & just send thru advice; which is really cool & shows that we are naturally helpful as a group, no matter how different we first appear.

This then, by a bit of a stretch, leads to a story… a very old story indeed.

As with all cool stories, this one involves a heathen god – Thor (after whom Thursday is named). One day, walking home after a hard day at the office (which for Thor was slaying the frost Giants in Jottenheim) Thor realised that he needed to cross a rather wide river (or he could take a detour that would add an extra day or so to his travels). The crossing point had a sole Ferry crewed by an ancient man called Greybeard (or, Hárbarðsljóð if you speak ancient Norse*) this Old Mate was actually Thor’s dad, Odin (also called Woden, after whom Wednesday is named), who appeared to be out to teach his boastful offspring a lesson in humility, and refused to take Thor across the river as he didn’t ask nicely, or, offer to pay for the privilege

The long & the short is, that after trading insults, the Ferryman refused to take the Mighty Thor across the river; meaning that the Mighty Giant Slayer & Protector of Humanity would have to take the long way home… sux to be Thor! BUT, on the up side, he learnt his lesson, as we all should from this story!

 I’ve always taken this story to mean that you may be the strongest (best/smartest/whatever) on earth (or, one of the heavens for that matter) but, by yourself, you are not much really, thus, if you are alone, you’ll be doing it tuff; if you are part of a team, well, life is a whole lot easier.

Thus I’d like to declare my allegiances to the following:

·         Vespa-Nutters

·         Lambretta-philes

·         Cub Fondlers

·         World Wide Hat Wearing Weirdos alliance

·         The ancient order of Gluten-freemasons

·         Nerdy Nice 'n Naughty people incorporated

OK, so I think I am now a member of all sorts of good & great & Mostly Harmless groups, that I should be able to continue to take on the task of re-building the Love Cub & hope the good Karma continues …  

Maybe after my next swing…

So mote it be

Leigh

*I actually found this out after using one of those online resources - I don’t speak ancient Norse either!

The Key ring thing…

Have a look at the keys; if I was to ride around with those like that, I would be temping fate badly!

So when I bought the bikes I noticed that a key ring has the potential to chip the paintwork I around the ignition, or, fall off leaving you with no way of opening other locks (such as the glove box & the side box on the Silver Surfer). This situation concerned me, as I like things to work, or at least just not be hard

For those of you that are interested, I have got a cheap but effective way of managing this risk; & I am not talking about putting clear plastic coatings over the paintwork.

My advice is go to your favourite German shopping chain & by a trolley token on a key ring (I think it is about $1.50 – I stole my one from the Child Bride as it was cheaper that way!)

Chuck the trolley token in the bin (or give it to your kids as “money”) & attach your bikes ignition key to a single key ring; attach all other ancillary keys to the key ring with whatever key tags you require.

Clip the ignition key to the clippy thing & away ya go!

Add any other keys you may need to the ring that goes into your pocket; the empty clip (when the key is in the ignition) can be used to attach keys to a button hole in a pocket so they don’t get lost & the don’t damage the nice paintwork of The Silver Surfer or the Mighty Lamb. 

The ignition key is detachable from the other keys!

This set up also has the advantage of allowing you to secure keys to buttonholes in pockets etc, thus lowering the risk of losing them when riding about

It is just an idea that I find useful; but hey, you may get some value out of it!

So Mote it be

Leigh

How to suck up to the wife:

OK fellow males of the species, I will let you in on something; My darling Child Bride does occasionally get the $h!ts with some of my hat wearing, home brewing, vespa riding, cub-fondling silliness. In order that she continues to tolerate me, well, to be entirely frank, I suck up to her BIG TIME!

One of the ways I do this is by cooking her some of her favourite foods. So, after (probably) soft seizing her Mighty Lamb, for Friday night dinner I decided to cook one of her favorites – Hainanese Chicken Rice.

Look for this stuff in the "Asian" section of your supermarket & use it to suck up to the Missus!

Simply put this is Poached chicken served with rice cooked in the broth of the poached chook; the broth is then used to make a light soup (although, I julienne some carrots & radishes & serve with some Asian herbs to garnish)

This stuff is tops. It is easy to cook. It tastes great, it is healthy (well, I reckon it is – it has vegetables in it after all!) AND, you can get heaps of flavoured rice (ideal for leftovers etc).

This dish is such a win/win thing!

Anyway, the kids like this, women like this, Men like this (because the women like this & it is easy to cook). You will like this! I get it from an Asian supermarket in Sydney, as the Asian sections of the OJ supermarkets don't seem to carry it.

This is apparently a national dish in Singapore (if there is such a thing), so you can appear very knowledgeable whilst hiding the sauce & flavour packet from the people you are trying to impress!

I use the packet in the picture; but there are others as well as recipes on the internet (I looked at SBS’s food Safari web site before deciding to stick to the packet mixes – I also cook the chook in a Slow Cooker (the crock-pot) for about 6 hours; so the chook is just about falling off the bone.

Anyway, after a nice dinner I then casually start a conversation with: D’you know what happened on your Lamberetta today…?

So Mote it be!

Leigh

The Lamb does OJ

It all started with Dan wanting a spin around the block on the Lambretta. Due to the Mighty Lambs lack of use, she usually needs a roll start (not a big problem with my driveway!) It is just easier than the 60 million kicks required to get the red & white wonder going when she has sat there for a few months! So we spun around the street for a bit of time on Tuesday… this was just enuff to get me wanting a bit of Lamb (which does sound a bit strange…)

So today, I am going to take the Mighty Lamb for a spin; if only a run to the train station & then to head up to Dear ol’dads workshop, at least it will clear my head & add some sweet two stoke fumes to my life

The old girl fired up second kick (note to fellow Lambrettistas, I had the Lamb on the outward lean so I maximised the kick). They may be sexy, but the just don’t seem to start as well as the Vespas.

The up side to the Lamb is that it has a new, expansion type exhaust pipe, so it has better pick up & top end than a standard motor (thus it is heaps faster than the Silver Surfer). Unfortunately, it may be faster & have more bottom end power, but the forks have no shock absorbers (thus the Lamb can get a bit “bouncy” on rough roads). This is another thing I may need to look at - at some time in the future when I have the money!

The Railway station did look much better with the Lamb in the car park:

Oh the Lambretta is just a sexy beasty!

The Lamb in a car park across the road from a pub... oh boy, lucky it is too early to have a drink!

After purchasing my ticket, I thought; gee it is still early; let’s go to Dear Ol’Dads workshop…

Thus I headed thru OJ

WRONG WRONG WRONG!

As you can probably guess, it all went pear-shaped after this… but as with most embarrassing stories, I’ll tell the world via the semi-anonymous internet blog :)

So over to the first roundabout on the north side of summer street & oops, I discovered that I had left the Lamb in the Neutral between 3 & 4… well that is slightly embarrassing, BUT I didn’t before realise how terrifying a four wheel drive is until I stalled the Lambretta in front of one.

Moving… quickly… towards me.

I discovered how quickly I could tip-toe the Lamb to a roll starting speed & get it moving under its own mighty engine – believe me it wasn’t very long! Thus feeling rather silly, but glad to be moving again I continued to Dear Ol’Dad-land

I hit the northern distributor/bypass & it started - that labouring “I am not a happy engine” sound… OK, I’ll slow down (to ~50 on the speedo) & then exactly 5 minutes later, on the long straight out to Dear Ol’Dads workshop, The Mighty Lamb stopped… suddenly …oh gawd! The back tyre squealed in horror – as did I.

I think it was the often talked about “soft seize”. I quickly pulled in the clutch lever & rolled to a stop.

Bugger, Bugger, Bugger - BUM!

I tried (gingerly) to kick the engine over it spun freely – good, it wasn’t seized.

I then tried to kick it to life… no good

I saw a small hill off towards Waratahs Soccer club & thought, gee, I’ll see if I can roll start the Mighty Lamb, it will save me the effort of pushing it to Dear Ol’Dads workshop!

So off I went, I was pretty stuffed as the little hill was a lot steeper than it looked; I tried to roll start down the gentle “other” side first, as I thought that it would be easier to push back up if it didn’t work!

No Good. 3 tries later is was still with a silent Lamb… naught to do but to start pushing back up the gentle slope & up the road to Dear Ol’Dads… At the top of the hill I thought, let’s just give it one more go…

Joy… it was alive again!

So now I had to work out; to Dear Ol’Dads, or do I try to make it home…

So Home it was!

The roll start had got me convinced that if the Lamb seized again, I’d just roll start him & keep going! How about that for confidence!

The Lamb went down Anson street & then the same thing happened again…… oh fudge

I had my routine set in place as it happened - Clutch in, keep up road speed & let the clutch back out … & blam, It’s Alive…AGAIN.

So this time I kept heading south to Casa Del la Leigh & was nearing Anson Street school & SQUEAK - it happened again… ARRRRRGGGGHHH! This time I have to apologise to the lady who was walking near the school when the Lamb stopped with a massive tyre squeal followed by me letting fly with a slightly naughty word for “Poo”

Again, clutch in, roll, & let the clutch out again & blam, the lamb started & ran. I got it home without another stoppage; & the bloody thing idled like a dream; WTF was going on?

I parked it & went inside (I needed the break…&)

A coffee to think about things - nice medium roast & grind Goroka Blue coffee too!

In order to help think this turn of events thru, I rang Dear Ol’Dad & explained what had gone wrong on my way to his workshop

Was it Vapour-lock or something?

Was it possibly something electrical? Like a dodgy earth lead, that needed a massive roll start to fix?

I honestly hope it is not a soft seize (I hope, as the Lamb was happily idling at home… for a good 5 minutes whilst I opened the garage & put it away)

  

Then, over the phone, the reality dawned. Oh gawd, I am going to have to pull the head off the engine when I get back from my next swing!

Well it was actually Dear Ol’Dad telling me rather than it dawning as such, but it was true, the quickest way would be to pull the head off & look at the condition of the cylinders bore; if it was gouged & crappy well, I’ll be buying some piston rings & a cylinder hone for it, if not, I’ll be looking for the gremlin that is causing the stoppages

I was planning to buy some parts for the Silver Surfer whilst on my next rotation at work; this turn of events means that I will hold off on this, as I can put a larger single order through my on line scooter parts supplier to not fork out a ship-load of additional postage charges (if I need a cylinder & piston assembly, which is what I needed for the Surfer when a circlip on the piston did some massive damage to the Surfers Two stroke heart early last year)

Bugger Bugger Bugger BUM.

Well at much as I’d rather not think about this, I have come to the conclusion that I’ll be pulling the head off next month; Dam it, that means that for the next month or so the two scooters are not playing nicely.

I may be able to keep the Sliver Surfer gently ticking along for the next break, but, the repairs required horizon is approaching at a great pace of knots as well…

Bugger!

Oh well, not much to do but stick to the plan - pull the head off the Lamb to confirm the issue; order parts if needed (in any case, I will still need to buy the Vespa parts so it is just to avoid the double order handling costs), Then begin fault finding if no parts are needed, baby the Vespa so I have something to ride & hopefully, start Cub engine & body work…

Well a man has got to have a hobby!

So Mote it Be!

Leigh

Cooling my Heels

Well may be the fact that it took me an additional 24 hours to get home should’ve alerted me to what was in store for the next few days

I spent the Friday either signing bits of paper, doing school runs, food shopping, or dropping the family car (Rhonda the Honda) off at the mechanics… the cool bit was that Dan got to have a ride in a cab & we all walked home from Benny’s school which is something that I hadn’t done since Alissa was going there all those years ago!

Unfortunately, the only “real” activity available was house fixing & Gardening…  as a quick phone call to Gary the Auto Upholsterer lead to the rather bad news that his mother in law was just diagnosed with cancer thus he is not upholstering at the normal rate of delivery. I thought that this was a pretty reasonable excuse to have a low priority job put back; I said the bike is “few” months away, so there isn’t a huge pressure to have it on the road.

As for the frame, it is still at the sand blasters awaiting Bonk’s mastery to unleash his inner sole… looks like I will be away when he gets his clean & priming done (according to Dear Ol’Dad anyway!)

I really did just wanted to play with something cub-ish, & to be honest, I’d rather not play with the carburettor until I know what else I need to purchase for the engine re-build (that way, in the worst case, If it gets beyond me, I can take the whole kit & caboodle down to the OJ Honda dealer & get them to fix it!).

I was feeling un-cub-ed!

On the up side, the council park at the bottom of our street was planted with native plants (over the last 2 years), it was started as a green volunteer thing, & has successfully transformed a bland piece of grass into a burgeoning bit of sub-urban bush.

I was there at the start of this project, however, due to work commitments, I have missed every others working bee on it. Anyway, I missed the latest working bee about 2 months ago, which was a mulch spreading job.

Unfortunately, there were only about 6 people at the working bee & so the day was rather unsuccessful & as such, the piles of mulch had stayed pretty much where they were dumped. Trish from next door had given one pile a bloody good working over. It was too much for one woman alone; so with a complete lack of cubness in my life, I grabbed the boys & headed down to go forth & mulch.

Before, note the pile of bark chips that are behind the kangaroos in the park

The civic pride was overwhelming, & despite this, we kept on going & by Tuesday afternoon we had completed the rest of the planted areas

All Done - at least I enjoy gardening & getting something done

                                
I think Benny had me worked out - I was very proud when he said that he wanted to keep spreading mulch when we were on the way home from school; it was only later on that I realized that it was because he didn’t want to do his homework, He is only 7 years old after al! Besides, Alissa is the sensible one of my kids, so I should not be so surprised!

So this was the first couple of days of my break so, I could now get into something that was fun – The Mighty Lamb!

So Mote it be

Leigh