Once again Dave was kind enough to spend the better part of his day working on my bike. It's hard for me to ask for help, and even harder at Dave's rates. lol I don't care what he says, at the very least one day I'm stealing his check and buying him lunch. It's rare to find someone as generous as him.

Today's plan was to replace my brake pads, mount a auxiliary adapter so I could plug my phone in, and add a little passenger floorboard jewelry. And finally to find out what the heck was rattling on my exhaust.

Dave started with the pads. He started with the rear so he could get the using of 'choice words' out of his system, or so he said. But all it seemed to go well with the rear. When he took the fronts off, that's when he about had to change his shorts. Break fluid started to cover his lift. Yeah, not good. It's not suppose to do that!! Bad o-ring? Maybe. Possible rebuilding of the calipers? Kinda looked that way. Major crap! Now what? Well thankfully it wasn't either of those. Thankfully it was only because Dave took it a little further apart than was needed. To his credit, he never worked on an old historic Harley like mine and my manual hasn't shown up so he didn't have anything to go on. After a moment of panic and then some Wizardry, the pads were installed. We bled the brakes and once again all was good in the world.

We then made a quick run to the auto parts store to get the adapter for my phone and Dave got an oil filter wrench. His brute strength broke two a few weeks back. Due to not enough room the adapter idea didn't go as planned. Too bad because it's a cool idea.

Next Roxy got her jewelry. I'm not going to bling out this bike, but the chrome passenger floorboards is IMO a really nice add-on.

Next up, tackle the rattle. All bolts we nice and tight so that wasn't it. I suspected it was the baffles, but how often have you ever heard of that happening? Luckily Dave happened to have Carol's stock mufflers from her bike. Hey, might as well try those to see if the rattle goes away. So we got one on, started it up, no more rattle! Oh, and she sounded a little louder. That was really unexpected! So, off with the old, on with the newer and she sounds awesome!!

Next, Dave goes into a drawer and pulls out an AIM 70T. I knew what one was because we had talked about it during my last trip. Now I haven't pulled many clutches in my life, I can't imagine they get much harder than mine. I knew the 70T was going to be an improvement. I don't know why he went and teased me with that! He put it away, but all I could do was think about it. He said it would take about 15 min to install. Really now? Well we worked out a bit of a deal and tossed it in. Dave noticed the tranny fluid was a bit low he added a few ounces. I don't think anything gets past this guy. Also it had the wrong derby cover gasket and thankfully Dave had one of those too. Of course I was expecting a bit of improvement, but when I first pulled in the clutch, I thought it was broke. I looked at Dave and the first thing I said was "REALLY?!!". He just smile and said yeah. I think this will be the best add-on EVER!! Un-freakin'-believable. I was so tired of my hand hurting. I'll never deal with a clutch like that again.

I'm speechless when it comes to Dave's generosity. It's funny, I do the same for other people when it comes to computers or home theaters, but have a hard time accepting that kind of help in return. Like I said, I'll be swiping a lunch check or two when he's not looking.

The most priceless part of the day was getting to know Dave better. I loved listening to his stories about golf, and hanging out with the Braves. I lost count of his hole-in-one stories after 6. I think his mom witnessing one is his most priceless one.

Thanks for sharing your time and stories Dave.

A special thanks goes to Carol too. Thanks for letting me take up Dave's time. I'm sure you two could have had some quality time together. Hope your cooties go away soon!

 

Just cool.... way cool!

Prehistoric, huh?

Mine's even older than yours...

Now go enjoy your "new" ride!!

Beav

 

Yeah, a whole year! LOL Mine will be a teenager next year.

 

Sounds like one helluva guy, just like all the people in this group have been so far that I have met. Maybe one day I will get to meet him when its time to get this ole beater tuned and cammed!

 

Michael - glad you got done what you needed at Dave's Garage. Now ride it like you stole it!

I am happy that you took the time to write all of this up, so that everyone knows how much Dave has helped so many of us. You put your bike in the hands of the master. Dave is an absolute PRINCE of a man! He is one of the most selfless, humble, and caring people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. His care and precision in all things mechanical are second to none... you just don't find guys like Dave much anymore. And he's a very nice person to boot! Except when you ask too many questions... like I do...

After he spent an entire Saturday installing Buster's Fullsac X-Pipe, baffles, and cams, he has since spent three entire weekend days with me tuning Buster - including tuning rides we did to tune his bike and mine all day on Saturday. He wasn't happy with Buster's tune previously (even though I'll tell you it was pretty darn fast with those!) - but now after the massive amount of DataMaster data collection we did yesterday, including 3 ECM reflashings enroute in the parking lot of the Ball Ground Chevron and some additional after-ride tweaking by him, the TTS VE tables finally showed enough white for him to pronounce Buster "fit for duty"! And it shows... Buster is faster than ever now!

I certainly don't know of anyone else who could and would do what Dave has done for my bike. You could pay $1000 for a tune and still not get the care and precision that you get from Dave. He's simply amazing, and also has some very interesting life stories. He's done WAY more than I ever will...

And I too want to THANK Carol for giving up her husband so often to help me! I'm officially getting out of Dave and Carol's hair for awhile, and leaving them in some long-overdue peace...

 

I'm glad ya got to meet Dave, there are very few folks in this world like him & Carol any more. We are honored to be able to call them friends. I hope they will remember to call on me when I can do anything to help them!

 

Good deal Michael! Dave & Carol I consider family and they couldn't be nicer folks.

 

Yeah Dave is the man! but good luck buying him lunch, I been trying to get him to ride up just so I could do the same. Hell of a guy, and sharp as a tack. Spent many hours working with me on a few TTS tunes.

 

Thanks for any kind words guys and I do know if I ever did need help my home would be flooded with friends in a wink. I really haven't done anything special at all. I'll help when I can and if I can't I'll charge ya. LOL

Jim, sorry I haven't been up to your woods just yet... hopefully soon I'll get up there to yell at ya.

 

Sooo, did ya get her back together Dave? How does she run? Everything turn out okay??