gone

My friend Dave was taken off life-support late Friday afternoon and died that evening around 5:30pm.

It’s a peculiar feeling to know that someone isn’t in existence anymore. It’s not like a breakup where they are still on the earth, but you just aren’t in touch. Instead, the person you once knew doesn’t exist. There is no possibility of running into them at a party or randomly at a cafe in a couple of years.

I have that feeling with my dad still. Less, but it’s there.
I often have a desire to call him, but there is nowhere to call, no search string on Google to look, no dark bar to scan.

Gone. Completely and utterly gone.

My pop used to call that unexplainable feeling the “existential heebie jeebies.”
It’s uncomfortable and ungraspable. There is nothing to hold on to.
That’s what I am experiencing.
And I do not like it.

Pipe fixin’

After reading about my pipe with the foreign object predicament, Chris on SouthWestRides contacted me offering help!

We met up yesterday, a lovely Thursday afternoon, and got to work.

Of course, no garage is complete without a shop dog. šŸ™‚

The caps were spot welded on, so after a few minutes with a dremel, the caps came off.

It took a little muscle to pull the baffles out, and then we discovered the old, oily packing.
Good thing I decided to re-pack the things!

Mmmm, fiberglass….

The tube wouldn’t pull out, and we realized that the rivets from the plates were causing the hang-up.

So, time to de-rivet.

The offending object was still stuck inside the baffle, but after a little prodding, it fell out.

What the hell? It looks like a solid chunk of tar.

De-riveted badges (and now in my purse for safe keeping. Heh)

The second pipe proved to be a little difficult as well. The baffle was being stubborn and we found a dent in the side that was keeping it from pulling out.

It was time to break out the drill and welder.

Chris put a hole in the pipe, and we were able to take the second pipe apart

More dirty, dirty packing material. Eww.

then he cut a small piece of metal to weld back to cover the hole.

and welded it on. Sweet!

We repacked the tubes (yes, I took the ā€œholding tapeā€ off first. [:)] )

Chris didn’t have any rivets to reinstall the badges, so I borrowed his rivet gun so I can finish that this weekend.

And of course, I have no pic of the final. Suffice to say, they look pretty much like they did in the first pic. Except now with no weird blockage and with shiny new packing material.

šŸ˜€

Flange

Thanks to a lead from John at Economy Cycle (he suggested I contact DG Performance. I didn’t think that the flange was still being manufactured! Ha!)

Got on the phone this afternoon with Brandon at DG Performance and ordered a (pricey) piece of metal. šŸ™‚
Yay!
(I know that my original flange will appear as soon as I’ve installed the new one…. )

Here’s some fun:

ā€œDon’t feel bad. You’re not the first 750 rider to get blown off by a Yamaha 350.ā€