In this time of high gas prices maybe these guys have the right idea. http://youtube.com/watch?v=p1_Ny5iuMmo&feature=related
One time a pair of guys from New York showed up at Randy's to pick up a '73 Ski-Doo TNT hulk Randy had. It didn't have a motor so it was no big deal to load into the back of the Dodge Caravan they'd brought. Yeah, a Dodge Caravan with all the seats out. It was after we'd loaded the '73 that I managed to sell them a '72 TNT 295 (I think it was a 295. It was a single anyway.) that Randy had hanging around. That one was mostly complete but without a seat. Both sleds fit inside the Caravan with all the doors closed. The guys said they'd brought the van because it was such a long drive and gas prices were so high. That was 2 or 3 years ago, gas was half the price it is now!
-Curt
Friday, June 27, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Hiatus stinks don't it?
Figure I'll try to get over here once a month maybe. I just got back from California, I spent almost 2 weeks in Burbank. No snowmobiles there...
One of my students knew about snowmobiles though, had a Sno-Jet he said. Of course he's from Michigan. Very few people are actually from greater L.A.
-Curt
One of my students knew about snowmobiles though, had a Sno-Jet he said. Of course he's from Michigan. Very few people are actually from greater L.A.
-Curt
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Another blog
So since its summertime and I've got a pretty wide array of interests I've started another blog, creatively titled "Curt's Other Blog" http://curtsotherblog.blogspot.com/ it'll focus on stuff I don't think is on topic for this. Realistically it won't focus on anything and thats the whole point.
Have no fear I'll still be posting here as time and activities permit. The idea is that I won't clutter up this blog with stuff old snowmobile people don't care about...
Also with any amount of luck people will actually click on the ads on the other blog and I might actually start paying the bills on time...
Have no fear I'll still be posting here as time and activities permit. The idea is that I won't clutter up this blog with stuff old snowmobile people don't care about...
Also with any amount of luck people will actually click on the ads on the other blog and I might actually start paying the bills on time...
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Ugh
Well friends it happens, you write enough and eventually you offend somebody you like.
Glen Mallory dropped a note the other day, apparently he'd seen my VSCA post (which I'd actually forgotten about) and was hurt. I took a look back and apparently " Glen Mallory has the best article in the whole issue" didn't balance "too bad the pictures suck". Yeah, I was probably overly harsh on that one.
Glen wrote a nice note explaining that the pics that left his camera were better than those that were printed and his captions got deleted. I'll take him at face value, everything he's ever said to be before has been spot on. That still leads back to those who publish the VSCA mag as either having low standards or being a bit..... I can't come up with a word other than inept and thats a fairly harsh word but it'll have to do. If you're insulted by "inept" think up a better word and substitute it.
Anyway, Glen did mention that with proper jetting my Tigre should be safe even in warmer temps, I asked for clarification on that, we'll see what he comes back with.
At the risk of delugeing him I've got questions about the points on my wankel Panther, we'll see.
The snow is gone, the grass is green, the birds are chirping, the snowmobiles have been put to sleep for the summer. The motorcycles are awaiting parts, I ordered them a week ago yesterday, they shipped today. I'm not happy with the vendor, I've emailed them with my complaint. We'll see what they do. If nothing good happens I'll let you know and you can avoid them.
-Curt
Glen Mallory dropped a note the other day, apparently he'd seen my VSCA post (which I'd actually forgotten about) and was hurt. I took a look back and apparently " Glen Mallory has the best article in the whole issue" didn't balance "too bad the pictures suck". Yeah, I was probably overly harsh on that one.
Glen wrote a nice note explaining that the pics that left his camera were better than those that were printed and his captions got deleted. I'll take him at face value, everything he's ever said to be before has been spot on. That still leads back to those who publish the VSCA mag as either having low standards or being a bit..... I can't come up with a word other than inept and thats a fairly harsh word but it'll have to do. If you're insulted by "inept" think up a better word and substitute it.
Anyway, Glen did mention that with proper jetting my Tigre should be safe even in warmer temps, I asked for clarification on that, we'll see what he comes back with.
At the risk of delugeing him I've got questions about the points on my wankel Panther, we'll see.
The snow is gone, the grass is green, the birds are chirping, the snowmobiles have been put to sleep for the summer. The motorcycles are awaiting parts, I ordered them a week ago yesterday, they shipped today. I'm not happy with the vendor, I've emailed them with my complaint. We'll see what they do. If nothing good happens I'll let you know and you can avoid them.
-Curt
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
VSCA?
Is anybody else in the VSCA? What do you think of it?
It seems like in the last couple years the quality of the VSCA magazine has plummeted. I'm thinking back to the end of the Charles Pluddmann (oh lord forgive me for butchering his name) administration when the pictures were very high quality though black and white. Then the crooks bought it and things got colorfull and exciting and then missing entirely.
I'll give the new crowd credit the magazine comes out reliably. Here its the first of April and the March issue has just arrived but thats okay, it got here...
Still the quality of the images is generally pretty poor the stories are at best lightweight and the copy editing (for spelling and typos) is terrible. In the latest issue the title for one story reads "Eagle River Vintage Wold Championship". Not to mention that they've run the Widowmakers article AGAIN.
I like the Widowmakers article, the thing is I've read it. I read it once on Ev Regal's website, again in the VSCA magazine, again in the VSCA magazine and now a THIRD TIME in the VSCA magazine...
Glen Mallory has the best article in the whole issue, too bad the pictures suck. If I didn't know what I was looking at I'd be hard pressed to figure it out. Its not the angle or lighting its the low quality digital photograph. The publishers needed to send Glen a disposable FILM camera and not accept the digital pictures that were sent. I'm all for digital pictures on websites but they are generally NOT acceptable for print. To make a good print picture you need at LEAST 5 megapixels, nothing less cuts it.
Anyway consider that I'm being generally postive here, Glen's article is good. Theres a Cheetah build article thats totally lightweight but interesting, the Widowmakers and of course everything else is show coverage... This is an improvement over previous issues where it was basically ALL show coverage...
I dunno, I've been thinking I'd let my membership lapse, but this issue shows promise. I hate to write a critical note to the VSCA people, after all what have I ever written to go in there? Still if they could improve just a bit...
It seems like in the last couple years the quality of the VSCA magazine has plummeted. I'm thinking back to the end of the Charles Pluddmann (oh lord forgive me for butchering his name) administration when the pictures were very high quality though black and white. Then the crooks bought it and things got colorfull and exciting and then missing entirely.
I'll give the new crowd credit the magazine comes out reliably. Here its the first of April and the March issue has just arrived but thats okay, it got here...
Still the quality of the images is generally pretty poor the stories are at best lightweight and the copy editing (for spelling and typos) is terrible. In the latest issue the title for one story reads "Eagle River Vintage Wold Championship". Not to mention that they've run the Widowmakers article AGAIN.
I like the Widowmakers article, the thing is I've read it. I read it once on Ev Regal's website, again in the VSCA magazine, again in the VSCA magazine and now a THIRD TIME in the VSCA magazine...
Glen Mallory has the best article in the whole issue, too bad the pictures suck. If I didn't know what I was looking at I'd be hard pressed to figure it out. Its not the angle or lighting its the low quality digital photograph. The publishers needed to send Glen a disposable FILM camera and not accept the digital pictures that were sent. I'm all for digital pictures on websites but they are generally NOT acceptable for print. To make a good print picture you need at LEAST 5 megapixels, nothing less cuts it.
Anyway consider that I'm being generally postive here, Glen's article is good. Theres a Cheetah build article thats totally lightweight but interesting, the Widowmakers and of course everything else is show coverage... This is an improvement over previous issues where it was basically ALL show coverage...
I dunno, I've been thinking I'd let my membership lapse, but this issue shows promise. I hate to write a critical note to the VSCA people, after all what have I ever written to go in there? Still if they could improve just a bit...
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Quiet
And the quiet of spring hits. The email traffic to the dswnewengland@gmail.com address dies off to almost nothing, the Yahoo groups I read has almost no traffic and as always I feel that quiet sadness for another winter passed. I think of the good rides I had and the frustrations and failures (stupid wankle Panther). Last weekend I put some fuel stabilizer in the Tigre and parked it. The Ski-Doo got parked dry. This weekend the wankle Panther will get pushed into the back of the garage and my Honda CB900f motorcycle will come out so I can replace the valve cover gasket.
The TX-L is an exception, I'm really pissed at how badly its performed lately, stranding me in the woods was a dirty trick. That one I think I'm going to pull the motor for a full rebuild. Its got reasonable compression now so I think it'll be just rings and seals but I won't really know until I get inside.
Aside from that I've got a 1965ish Snapper Comet rear engine riding (RER) mower that I brought south from my farm in Maine last fall. The 8hp Techumseh on it has like 10psi and parts are NLA (no longer available) so it's going to get a brand new drop in replacement. I want to get it going because the K161 Kohler in my Cub Cadet is starting to smoke alot. So once the Snapper is running right I'll put a piston in the Cub Cadet... It never ends.
The TX-L is an exception, I'm really pissed at how badly its performed lately, stranding me in the woods was a dirty trick. That one I think I'm going to pull the motor for a full rebuild. Its got reasonable compression now so I think it'll be just rings and seals but I won't really know until I get inside.
Aside from that I've got a 1965ish Snapper Comet rear engine riding (RER) mower that I brought south from my farm in Maine last fall. The 8hp Techumseh on it has like 10psi and parts are NLA (no longer available) so it's going to get a brand new drop in replacement. I want to get it going because the K161 Kohler in my Cub Cadet is starting to smoke alot. So once the Snapper is running right I'll put a piston in the Cub Cadet... It never ends.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Stupid kill switch
You may have read me ranting about Arctic Cat's stupid throttle switch thing. I think I've finally figured out how it worked and why it fails, I need to take one all the way apart this summer to really know for sure though. That'll be a destructive proceedure so I'll need one off a junker, I'll let you know more later when I do it.
Anyway on my Tigre I'd pulled too hard on the kill switch knob trying to take it off and broke it into two pieces. the top of the knob came clean off.
Its some wicked hard to use like this...
Glue didn't work. Duco cement stuck some but not enough, super glue wouldn't stick at all.... Finally I was reworking the hood straps (more on that later) and it occured to me.
An 1/8th inch hole and a pop rivet later and its pretty well fixed. I should have routed out the hole just slightly, the rivet expands and slightly stretched the body of the switch and made it a bit of a tight fit. Still it works and shows no sign of coming off. I severely dislike not having a kill switch, its your only friend in case of disaster like a runaway motor...
-Curt
Anyway on my Tigre I'd pulled too hard on the kill switch knob trying to take it off and broke it into two pieces. the top of the knob came clean off.
Its some wicked hard to use like this...
Glue didn't work. Duco cement stuck some but not enough, super glue wouldn't stick at all.... Finally I was reworking the hood straps (more on that later) and it occured to me.
An 1/8th inch hole and a pop rivet later and its pretty well fixed. I should have routed out the hole just slightly, the rivet expands and slightly stretched the body of the switch and made it a bit of a tight fit. Still it works and shows no sign of coming off. I severely dislike not having a kill switch, its your only friend in case of disaster like a runaway motor...
-Curt
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