SailRedemption

Power sports Nation like you suggested. But yea that master is from a early 2000s CBR 954rr. Got it on ebay in 2013 for my cafe bike build. I needed brakes to go to ride that weekend! Haha! Just had to make sure I didn't break it off!

Well the previous post must have gotten deleted and just the pictures remained. But here's a update of the almost finished foreman. It's a little dirty from going to my sister's camp in Jan. I had to use my street bike's master cylinder because the original failed when I was bleeding the brakes before the camp trip. I ordered a new used unit from a place fishfiles recommended. So I'll install that soon. The rear hand brake cable failed too so I ordered a new one and just need to install it. I also need to adjust the front alignment because it is super sensitive at speed. I think the wheels are toed in too much. I will also adjust the handlebars because they feel like they are in my lap and is making slow speed hard over turns harder. That's the update for now.

Got home to my winter crop doing so so. Kale looks good. Have some late bloomer onions trying to come up so I'll let those keep rolling. The cabbages are basically just leaf clusters, none of them developed a head of cabbage. I'm going to let a couple keep going and see what happens. Garlic is looking nice, only another 5 months before that's harvested haha! My slow growing dill is bigger than I left it 6 weeks ago. Tomorrow I'm going to add some manure and gypsum and turn the top soil over and blend in the leaf mulch I had on top.. next weekend I'll plant our new summer crops. Thesebpictures were from today.

I have a little rotating composter for food and garden scraps but that's just because I see it as a waste not to use veggie scraps from the kitchen. my first compost batch should be ready this spring. I need it to warm up some because I still have sprouts growing in it from seeds that got mixed in. The heat should kill any seed growth. I have buried deep in the garden box fish I've caught that got lost in the freezer and went bad or got freezer burned. I have heard of putting rust and such in the soil but not sure how much it affects iron levels in the soil. It needs to be water soluble for the plants to be able to use it. We'll put down some cow manure this time in. I have seen a few garden and permaculture videos that say not to use horse manure because they eat a lot of hay that has pest and herbicide chemicals in it from where hay gets grown. It supposedly passes through the horses untouched and can affect garden health. They said it takes a couple years for the glyphosate to break down. If you know the horses were mostly field fed on untreated grass then its probably good. I'm sure this applies to cows too so who knows. I'm just going to buy a couple bags from our local nursery. 🤷

Haha yea that happens! Pumpkins too. From what I hear pumpkins are fantastic for soil. I take out old decoration pumpkins and pull the seeds out and put the rest in the compost. My yard isn't Big enough to have random pumpkin plants taking off!

Some thing is better than nothing. You can always slowly reclaim your garden plot every time you plant so you don't have to do it all at once. Heck just toss some seeds in there and let nature sort it out. You may get a good crop!

I still have cabbage and kale still rolling on(and a pea plant that was a late sprouted). I'll harvest that and compost the remains when I get home and get another soil sample because it's still not right. Plant growth is subpar and they keep looking stunted. I'll give the soil a light turn over to get the leaf mulch I put on top incorporated in plus whatever amendments I need. I'll probably plant the usual salsa mix: tomatoes, jalapenos, bell peppers, and cilantro. I'll also try to plant some summer beans or peas too. Other vine plants if I can grab some seeds or seedlings would be cantaloupe and eggplant. May also plant another round of garlic to get a good rotation in. Last year's garlic I planted is still going good and should be ready in June/July I think. Here is the current state of things.

You're welcome.

Got some garden pictures sent to me before last week's freeze and everything was covered up. I am told post freeze that the garlic, kale, cabbage was good but too early to tell on the peas and beans. Hoping the leaf mulch helped keep the roots warm. It got in the low twenties at our house.

Here's a before and after picture of the difference the compound and buffer did to the plastic. I could have definitely did more with fine sandpaper first then the compound but ain't nobody got time for that. You can still see scratches but the dullness is definitely gone and the shine is pretty good.

Once I had the front end together and turning as it should I started putting the plastics back on. Had to remember the order of everything since I removed it all a couple months ago. I'm glad I took the time to paint all the bolt heads and brackets, they look much better and should stop the rust for a while. Put the front fender on and hit it with some compound and the buffer to shine it up. Then snapped on the mud flaps and moved on to the rack and bumper. Top rack was a little tough because I think at some point in this foreman's life it hit or pulled something hard and racked it a bit. Finally got all the bolts in and tightened down. Skid plate got mounted too. After all of fenders and hardware was on u mounted the front wheels and tightened all of the lug nuts and lowered the bike stand. Started her up and drove out of the garage. I forgot to take pictures of it all done so these are what I got for now. Few things I need to do is turn the idle down because I can't down shift into neutral without turning off the bike and shifting to first makes the bike jump forward. I turned the idle knob down but something else has the idle staying high. I'm thinking the throttle cable. Another thing is I need to add fluid to the front brakes and bleed them. Last is torque the front hub castle nuts and put a cotter pin in. Oh, and I need to put some lights in the front since the old ones are toast. I found some LED projector lights that I believe will fit just right in there. As of right now she's in the backyard with a new atv cover on to keep the sun and elements off.

Bands came in and I finished the messy job of packing the grease in the new boots and bands. Actually wasn't as hard as I thought they would be. I did remember to make sure the bands were in the right direction so they won't get snagged. Put grease on the shafts and installed the cv axles. Discs and calipers finally sat up long enough for the paint to dry. Installed them but did get a little too trigger happy with the impact on one of the bolts that hold the disc to the hub and sheared the head off. Whoops. Luckily there's 3 more holding it on! Connected the lower swing arms to the frame and steering bars back to the hubs. Then put the shocks back on for a fully functional front end minus addiing brake fluid and bleeding the brake lines.

Problem with that though is the new drivers like that brand are trash and the tips wouldn't hold up. I didn't know about the socket and weren't but I use a wrench or crescent on the square shaft ones at times. My big craftsman and cobalt flatheads all have warped tips because they are crap metal..

Chief mate on a 300' offshore support vessel for the oil industry in the Gulf of Mexico.. Been out here at sea for 12 years doing 4 weeks on/4 off. *Currently posting from offshore via ship satellite.

While I waited for my boot bands to come in I also took off the front brake calipers and painted them with some caliper paint I have had for years. Cleaned up the discs with a wire wheel and dusted the inner parts with some black paint to prevent the rusting on those. Bled all the old brake fluid out and got two new stainless screws for the fluid reservoir since the old ones were in bad shape and I stripped one. Connected the new AGM battery from Impact Batteries secured all the electric components in the battery compartment as well. I connected the new ignition switch and cable and screwed the dash, headlight, and new screen together in the handle bars. Turn it on and checked the starter button and headlight for function, all working. I took some advice from here to start and run the engine now before adding more plastics in case I need to get to the engine. Added fuel, primed the carb and she started right up! Hooray! The bike started smoking from under the fuel tank and it smelled chemically so I shut it off thinking it was electrical burning. After further inspection it was just the endrust on the header pipe that was getting hot and smoking. So all was well again.

Good thinking, I'll try to do that whenever I change the cable. Somehow the two seals were missing on that too so it just has a washer and a nut. May just slide a couple orings on there.

Got a quick night picture of our garden the night before I came to work. I think my soil isn't right still. I figured the beans and peas would have been a little more crazy but the sun is less this time of year for that spot so who knows. I have enjoy some peas so noy complaining there. My garlic is doing good. The cabbage and kale are slow growers and they are my first time growing them so not sure what to expect. The little cocktail cherry tomato plant is still rocking fruit which is cool. Not in the picture is the 3 fig trees I planted and the 3 blueberry bushes I put in the ground too. I also cut back our pear tree and snipped the rootstock that was left unchecked for years by the PO. Put dead leaf mulch on the garden boxes and around each fruit tree.

I ordered new cv boots for the front axles but forgot to order the bands too. So while I was waiting on those I took the front axles out, cleaned the old grease out, and put them to the side. Rebuilt the carburetor and installed that plus the air filter with a new Uni filter. All I had was K&N filter oil so hopefully the Uni filter police don't hunt me down for that. Come to find out I found my filter box cover so I can send the new one back. Put the tank on and installed some new fuel line and inline filter. Started working on the rear. Pulled the rear brake drum cover off to make sure all was good and free. The pads were brand new and it was for the most part all free and working. I do need a new pedal brake cable because it's in rough shape, I oiled it up and put it on. Painted and cleaned the brake pedal lever and pin. I tried to clean out the drum brake vent nipple but I broke it off. Apparently it's not a itemized part so I'm going to tap it and put in a ⅛" brass nipple there. Reinstalled the the drum cover, pedal, and cables and mounted the rear fender. The fender plastic is showing some uv damage and age so I hit it with a buffer and some 1step compound. It went from dull and scratched to shiney and a little less scratched. Then put on the rear rack and the side and foot mud flaps.

Last week I start back on the foreman. Pulled the painted rims from the attic where they were baking/drying while I was at work. I ordered some new bolt in air valves since the olds were dry rotted pretty bad. Mounted the new ITP mud lite IIs to the rims with the new tire iron I got. Mounting them was surprisingly easy. I just lubed up the tire and the rim with some Dawn soap and they popped right on. Then I spray painted the lug nuts black to keep them from rusting more and to look nice on the fresh wheels.

I gotcha, you could also try to blend in some sand and manure in with those leaves when you till it. Or even wood chips if you can find some for free or cheap. Sometimes tree cutters give it away. Worth calling around if you can get a pickup truck load of it to till in. You could also plant plants that are deep rooting like comfrey to help break it up too.

That's interesting, didn't know about the seeds part. Yea I planted from cloves. I stored them in the fridge for a month to activate whatever process they go through during the cold. Then planted them. I planted some in August and some Oct. Can't wait to pull them out next summer.

You can rent a aerator or lawn plug cutter to help with that compact clay. Also, spread out some gypsum(calcium) it will help loosen up the soil over time. But I would definitely do the aeration before you put the leaves down if you can.

Skipped a few pages but I haven't seen any love for the Shindawas. My dad had a small shindawa before someone needed it more than him and took it out of his truck. That thing would start 2nd pull no matter how long it laid up. Loved that thing. I'll probably get him another one one year.

That's cool! I'm trying to build up to that. I just planted some organic hard stem garlic from whole foods. I figured it would have a better chance of growing being organic. We'll see. I saw the elephant garlic! I'm not ready for that yet haha! I love garlic too, and look forward to it in boils! Wilson, garlic also is a great anti-lots of things. Anti viral, inflammation, bacterial. It's in a lot of home remedies of old. Not to mention vampires of course.