Posted by Jerry on March 19th, 2007 — Posted in DIY, Journal, Motorcycling
Well I got a bit distracted by St Paddy’s day preparations and fitting the topcase to my own bike, but Eve’s bike fired up today and settled quickly into a steady purr.
What else needed to be done? When I assembled it I aligned the top-dead-centre mark on the crankshaft with the cams leaving the valve tappets just loose enough to move, tightened down all the bolts to the right torque and tried the engine movement without a spark plug and noticed a tight spot and a metallic ticking sound. hmm. Could the valve timing be out? Yup – it could. You see, when I assembled it it was getting dark and what I thought was the dot on the cam sprocket turned out to be a speck of oil.
Today I came at it with a fresh eye and it is the work of only about half an hour to undo the two bolts retaining the cam sprocket and identifying the real dot (actually an engraved small circle) and with the sprocket loose, I was able to flip the cam chain over a few links until the dot was in exactly the right place – aligned with the V mark on the head. It was a quick matter then to replace the relevant covers, give the engine a kick over to hear nothing but smoothly interacting machinery, then change the oil, replace the spark plug, and with two kicks the engine purred into life with a nice quiet smooth new-engine sound. Success!
A few revs and it was apparent that the cam chain was making a little bit of noise, so I adjusted the tension bolt and the engine became even quieter.
First test ride was down to the local service station for fresh fuel and tyre pressure check, and despite the welcome rain the bike performed very well.
And the beauty of it is that it no longer blows smoke, and it has real pulling power. Not bad for my first ever piston change – and it cost only the new piston, rings, gaskets and cylinder machining – you certainly can save a lot by doing it yourself!
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on March 19th, 2007 — Posted in Journal, Music
Well, I promised some audio from St Patrick’s Day – and some audio of the newly repaired violin, so it seems a good idea to combine the two 🙂
The first tune is Ashokan Farewell, written in 1986 by Jay Ungger, about the town of Ashoka – and farewell to the town as it disappeared beneath the artificial lake created by a dam – in much the same way that part of old Canberra was submerged to make way for the artificial lake. So I guess that makes Canberra and Ashoka sister cities. It’s a lovely tune. [NB: It was recorded at a high level – so you may wish to turn down the volume on your computer first] 😉
The second tune is a kind of ‘wall-of-death’ version of a reel called Tongadale (not to be confused with a small Pacific Islands nation). As St Patrick’s Day gathered momentum, so did our music, culminating in a somewhat blistering pace that just seemed to get faster as the night went on 🙂
I hope you all had a great St Patrick’s day!
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on March 18th, 2007 — Posted in Journal, Music
And what a glorious St Pat’s it was too! Both shows were packed out and the energy was high 🙂
At PJ O’Reilly’s in Civic (Canberra, Australia) we started at 1.pm sharp with a set of reels – Paddy Fahey’s Number 1 and Gravel Walk (well… sprint actually!) and that set the tone for the session.
At one point a troupe of Irish dancers invaded and called for a couple or reels – the dance schools usually use CDs so they welcome the opportunity to dance to live musicians – and we were quick to oblige.
We did a bunch of old favourites, like Black Velvet Band and New York Girls, threw in a few slip jigs and double jigs and generally had a great time. Then it was time for a quick pack up (ie hurl everything into Jerry’s van) and drive to Kingston to set up at Filthy McFadden’s where we played from 5.00pm-8.30pm.
Full Circle live at PJ O’Reilly’s
…not bad bowing technique!
Hmm – those mic stand drink holders are handy!
Full Circle live at Filthy McFadden’s
There was little time for a sound check, but the sound was quickly sorted – and it got better by the end of the first bracket. The audience were great calling out requests, getting up and dancing and having a great time. At the end of the evening we were called back for several encores and throughout the show there were queues outside waiting to get in – the place was at capacity crowd. Our energy was high and the pace quite blistering 🙂
Some said Jerry played fiddle like the Devil himself! This photo was taken mid-leap!
The Ashokan Farewell went over in classic style – an Army bloke came up after and said he had tears in his eyes…
At the end we were exhausted but bouyed up by the energy – and relaxed with our first pint of Guinness at the end of the night – with two shows we have to be disciplined and stick to low-alcohol beer otherwise our fingers fall off and that gets messy 😉
Happy St Patrick’s Day to you all – may the road rise up to meet you and the wind be ever at your back!
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on March 16th, 2007 — Posted in Journal, Music
It’s St Patrick’s Eve and the first of three shows was at the Hyatt hotel in Canberra. The audience was excellent and clearly had a great time – I know we did 🙂
We were using new speakers for the first time, and my newly repaired fiddle was awesome. We hope to get some video footage at tomorrow’s shows at PJ Oreilly’s (Civic) from 1.00pm-4.00pm and then Filthy McFadden’s in Kingston from 5.30-8.30. Watch this space for some YouTube footage in a couple of weeks!
Here’s some pix from tonight’s show
See you tomorrow!
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on March 16th, 2007 — Posted in Journal, Music
Here’s a great short vid on making an electric violin 🙂
Neat eh?
Happy St Pat’s Eve – I’ll be playing down at the Hyatt Hotel in Canberra tonight 🙂
Cheers
Jerry
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