Bigger footprint...

The side stand on the 850's always been a conundrum, cause while it's there to use, it's not too useful. It's hard to extend while seated cause it's so far forward. Then when you get it out, the return spring tries to retract it before you can get the bike resting on it. Then when you finally get'er down, the bike wants to fall over cause it's too short and the bottom is so small it settles into anything softer than concrete. While you can't easily fix the first two, figured I'd maybe make it a little longer and wider. So here's something that looked like it'd work.

Needed to clear the exhaust pipe, so had to make the pattern crescent shaped, then cut a metal plate from 1/4" thick flat steel; this should make it a little longer too.

Here's the plate welded onto the bottom of the side stand. While it has a bigger footprint, it's still kind of short, so will make another plate with a spacer to get it a little longer. Then I'll start doing some more stretching to make my leg long enough to extend it!
Update:  added a second plate with a spacer and while it's better, it's still kind of short. The next try will be to weld a bead on the top of the stand, where it hits the frame stop, to keep it more vertical when extended. If that doesn't work, well I can still carry the plywood spacers I made to keep it upright!

Guzzi work...

Finally getting some work done on the V65 (All Gassed up 5/25/19). Removed the gas tank and replaced the gas taps, then pulled the valve covers off and adjusted the valves. One side was fine and the other needed quite a bit of adjustment, not sure if that means anything. Then, after replacing the valve covers, added some head protectors that I'd ordered earlier this summer.

So now the question is whether to rebuild the carbs now, since the float needles probably need to be replaced, or ride it some this summer and do the rebuild this winter. Decisions, decisions!

July Summary...

Spent the last half of the month getting the backhoe ready, then did some odd jobs for the neighbors and continued to clean out the ditches along our road (Road Rage 10/23/18). Nothing exciting,  not really worth a photo, so here's the monthly weather summary. Kind of boring to some, I suppose, but that's life up here sometimes.

July 2019 was the eleventh consecutive month of above normal temperatures for Fairbanks. The warmest temperature of the month occurred on the 9th when the temperature reached 87° F; this tied a record from all the way back in 1915. The coldest temperature was 50° on the 2nd and 31st. The average temperature for the month was 66°, which was 3.5° above normal. Rainfall totaled 0.89 inches, which was 1.27 inches below normal. (National Weather Service Alaska Region)