Maintenance and parts and tires,

Oh crap. Remember I mentioned being tired and a bit under the weather? Well,
It came to my attention a couple of weeks ago that I really needed to put new tires on the bike. Both from the center tread being, well, gone, and from the date codes indicating the things were going on six years old. Yeek. So various questions were asked, research done, tires decided on and who had the best price, and I ordered them; turns out that, these being a popular size, it would be first week of February- probably- before they came in. No problem; these still had some life in them, and right now not riding much. And this way they’d be very recent production*.

This led to two other things: One, I had a set of Speedbleeder valves to put on the calipers, and it’d be easier to do that with the wheels off. Second, how to get the front end up for removing the wheel.

 If you’re not familiar with this aspect of motorcycles, if you ride your bike in and drop it off to have new rubber put on, they charge you ‘X’ for the front wheel and ‘X’ for the rear to take them off and put them on; just bring in the wheels, it’s just mounting and balancing**.  A few days after ordering came a call, the dealer had managed to find both tires and they were in, so had to pull the wheels.

The rear is no problem: put the bike on the centerstand, use a cargo strap on the wheel, pull the lug nuts and off it comes(another reason I love this single-side swingarm). The strap idea came from son: to keep the wheel from turning while you loosen/tighten the nuts, hook the strap to the frame on one side, through the wheel and to the frame on the other side, tighten appropriately; when you put torque on the nuts, the strap keeps the wheel from turning. But the front wheel is on the floor, so you have to raise it. There are stands for the purpose, you can use a wood block and a jack either on the headers or on the bottom of the engine, but another use for the strap came up:

suitable weight, loop it from weight over the back end, tighten to raise. Which worked. Once the wheel was off, put the axle back through the forks and set it on a jack.  So got the wheels off(all went well), and dropped off. I figured leave the valves and such until had the wheels back, as can’t bleed the lines until the wheels are back on. Plus it was chilly, and that under-the-weather thing indicated warmer temps would be nice. Next day picked up the wheels, and that afternoon decided “Well, if I wear a jacket, with the wind down, it’ll be fine.”
Bullshit.
So installed valves, installed wheels(if you get a bike, and plan on doing your own maintenance as possible, if you don’t have one get a good torque wrench), bled lines. Then considered taking a ride to try the new rubber, but decided against, as it was cooling back off from not-warm to start with and I was starting to drag. Which got worse as evening progressed; I really should have waited for a warmer day. So I can’t give an opinion on the tires yet, but I can tell you the Speedbleeder valves are great; they make bleeding the brake(and clutch) lines easy.


*There's a code on tires that tells you when the things were made.  Over the years I've known a couple of guys who bought tires, and then found out the things were a year old by the time they bought them; not a good thing.

**Yes, I've changed tires on motorcycles before; smaller tires on steel wheels.  Unless I have no choice I'd rather pay someone with the tools to do that on something this size, let alone on alloy wheels.

So the Dept. of Homeland Security says of the M16/AR15 family

“suitable for personal defense use in close quarters…”

Somebody tell that idiot Biden.*


 *Yes, WE knew this; nice to have a .gov agency officially recognize it

Something to pass around

But where in the Constitution is it written that the Government is in charge of determining “needs”? And note that the president did not say “I have more money than I need,” but “You and I have more than we need.” Who elected him to speak for another citizen?

It is not the constitutional prerogative of the Government to determine needs. One person may need (or want) more leisure, another more work; one more adventure, another more security, and so on. It is this diversity that makes a country, indeed a state, a city, a church, or a family, healthy. “One-size-fits-all,” and that size determined by the State has a name, and that name is “slavery.”
...
He has just passed a bill that extends to him and his family protection, around the clock and for life, by the Secret Service. He, evidently, feels that he is best qualified to determine his needs, and, of course, he is. As I am best qualified to determine mine.

For it is, again, only the Marxists who assert that the government, which is to say the busy, corrupted, and hypocritical fools most elected officials are (have you ever had lunch with one?) should regulate gun ownership based on its assessment of needs.

Lots more, well worth reading and passing along.

So the terrorists just need to find the plane with these weenies on it;

they wouldn't put up a fight.
“The flight attendant said to me: ‘Are you able to remove it because some of the passengers are quite intimidated by it,’” Mullins recalled to Stuff. “I thought it was all a bit silly. The person next to me was laughing, because they knew the movie.”
And what was this terrifying quote, that so led to the soiling of undies?

All I can ask is "What the hell is WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?"

One of those posts I promised: a cleaning method

Had an idea for cleaning parts coated with old, dried/caked grease and oil; a way that might avoid some of the scrubbing.  And, in some cases, flushing out things you don't want to detail-strip

Here’s the materials list:

2’ piece of 3” diameter PVC pipe

One end cap for pipe

Solvent to install cap

One aquarium air pump

One package air hose

One pack of bubbler stones(come in pairs)

Permanently install the cap on one end of the pipe.

Bend a piece of wire so it’s a bit of a spring-fit into the pipe, and has a loop or ‘bump’ to hold the air hose; this is to hold the bubbler on the bottom.

Use the wire to put the bubbler and hose in.

Eventually I’ll make a better stand to hold this upright, right now it’s sitting in a bucket.  Which turned out to be a good thing, get to that later.

First effort was with mineral spirits.  Pour in enough to submerge the piece being cleaned.  Hang the piece on a wire and put in.  Plug in pump and let sit a while.

I tried the spirits on several things, first being the 15-22 bolt.  Which hadn’t been actually cleaned since I bought it(wiped off, but that’s all).  Left it sitting in for about half an hour*, pulled out and hit with brake cleaner to flush it off, then let it dry.  Result was, the actual powder fouling, some of it was off, the rest required some rubbing with solvent.  But every bit of oil on the bolt, extractor, spring & plunger was gone. 

Second, friend had some hold Hi Power magazines with old grease on them.  They got about an hour total(all three in at the same time, and we were busy with something else), and this removed every trace of grease(which revealed that they weren’t painted like he thought, but parkerized; yes, he greased them right after drying).

Third , he had a shotgun trigger group that was fairly nasty with old oil and powder fouling.  That got about an hour, and it removed all but some crud on the trigger spring.  This is a coil spring around the trigger/pin assembly, somewhat buried down inside.  A couple of good blasts of brake cleaner seemed to take care of that.

So far, so good.  Then had an idea.  I’ve mentioned this stuff before

as a really good degreaser, so, why not try it?  If it worked in this, it’d be a lot cheaper(a buck a bottle at the dollar store) than mineral spirits.  So I poured a quart in the pipe, added a little water for volume, and turned in on.  First result:

Man, this stuff foams up!  Which is where being in a bucket came in handy.

The parts this time came from a Marlin levergun that had been inherited by a friend; it hadn’t been used in a long time, and when it was taken down the bolt, locking block and sides of the floorplate were caked with old, dried oil or grease(said when first tried to work the action, the bolt didn’t want to move, the stuff had actually glued it and the block in place).  So hung them in and left them a while.

About a half-hour later pulled them out to check.  Results:

The crud on the locking block was mostly gone; the heaviest deposits still there, but noticeably thinner and just wiped off.

The bolt was a LOT cleaner, and liquid- cleaner and dissolved grease- was dripping out. 

Stuck both back in for a while longer just to really flush the bolt, then flushed them with brake cleaner and hung to dry.  After which hung in the floor plate assembly, which had caked old oil on the sides; about twenty minutes, and what was left just wiped off.  Flushed it, and when all was dry oiled all the parts.

And yes, we watched them for a couple of days before reassembly to see if any signs of rust/crud/galloping whatsits; nothing at all.

So that's the cleaner idea.  Seems to work pretty well.

*Had planned fifteen minutes, but got busy in the kitchen

My first thought is Feinstein wants to pay off the people she

wants to violate their oaths.
"Mrs. Feinstein's measure would exempt more than 2,200 types of hunting and sporting rifles; guns manually operated by bolt, pump, lever or slide action; and weapons used by government officials, law enforcement and retired law enforcement personnel," the Washington Times reports.
"See, I'll let you keep YOUR guns; all you have to do is forget that oath to the Constitution and do what you're told."


Lawdog has expanded on his '2nd Amendment as cake' post.  A part:
Come your "compromise" in 1934, and suddenly I can't buy a sub-machine gun, a silencer, or a Short-Barreled Firearm without .Gov permission and paying a hefty tax. What the hell did y'all lose in this "compromise"?

In 1967 I, or any other American, could buy or sell firearms anywhere we felt like it, in any State we felt like, with no restrictions. We "compromised" in 1968, and suddenly I've got to have a Federal Firearms License to have a business involving firearms, and there's whole bunch of rules limiting what, where and how I buy or sell guns.

In 1968, "sporting purpose" -- a term found NOT ANY DAMNED WHERE IN THE CONSTITUTION, TO SAY NOTHING OF THE SECOND AMENDMENT -- suddenly became a legal reason to prevent the importation of guns that had been freely imported in 1967.

Tell me, do -- exactly what the hell did you lose in this 1968 "compromise"?


You want to know how badly the military is screwed?
Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that with women now eligible to fill combat roles in the military, commanders must justify why any woman might be excluded – and, if women can’t meet any unit’s standard, the Pentagon will ask: “Does it really have to be that high?”
Attention Dempsey: if you actually have to ask that question, then you're unworthy of the uniform you wear and the rank you hold.
Were you always a crapply little politician in uniform, or did you become this way?

A list of Feinstein supporters, organizations you should NOT

give money to.

Interesting that some church or preacher supports something the Stupid Party does, the Democrats scream; but they really like to get such to support THEIR stuff, don't they?

Well, of COURSE she didn't want to answer questions,

she wasn't there to do that; she was there to get her ass kissed by Democrats and make Republicans look bad/uncaring/whatever.

Whatever's in the air around here lately,

I'll be glad when it clears out; it's been rasping at my throat for a week.
No, it's not cold or flu, but it's a problem.

I've got a "I had an idea" post working, a "Look what this guy made" post, and something else that slips my mind right now.  Look for them after I've had more sleep than the last couple of nights and gotten some of this crap straightened out.

In the meantime, I want to know more about this:
S.82 - Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) A bill to provide that any executive action infringing on the Second Amendment has no force or effect, and to prohibit the use of funds for certain purposes. 

Has been read the first time but has not been referred to a committee yet.

One last thing: Geico can take their lizard and any other critter they use and shove it up their ass.
This policy holder received a letter from GEICO cancelling his auto insurance. The letter says his auto insurance is being cancelled because he owns a company that manufactures parts for firearms!

When they push crap like this, they don't really care about safety;

it's pure "I don't like it, so ban it."
 Garcia, whose son attends Fontana High School, said she is working with local state legislators to draft a bill that would keep school police departments from taking these types of weapons onto campuses.
She doesn't want the POLICE to be able to take such a firearm into a school...

A: Find any possible way to link a firearm to 'military' or 'assault';

B: That's reason to ban it.
All semiautomatic pistols that can accept a detachable magazine and have at least one military feature: threaded barrel; second pistol grip; barrel shroud; capacity to accept a detachable magazine at some location outside of the pistol grip; or semiautomatic version of an automatic firearm.
Slimy bastards, aren't they?  And still on the 'ban anything with a feature that makes me wet my pants' kick.

So Clinton brings out outrage and tears

to try to deflect the questions.  And to try to pretend she's answering.  And when that 'What does it mattar?' crap was thrown out in public with great scorn, various defenders whined and screamed about the horror of using Clinton's own words against her.
All we need now is some eunuch screaming and crying "Leave Hillary ALOOONE!" to finish this off.


Now THAT is an interesting way to make a point.



Ever read The General series?  "The Governor is suspicious of successful generals."  This administration seems to be taking that as a lesson.

Fittingly for Obama his nominee says 'too much freedom is bad'

Central to Brennan’s presentation was a relativist view of human rights, which he said include “security, welfare, liberty, and justice.”
“These four rights reflect not only my own moral concept of human rights [but] also my interpretation of the Western human rights perspective,” Brennan wrote in his introduction.
“I don’t feel that the possible forfeiture of rights under certain circumstances precludes their inalienability.”
And once forfeited, if you don't get them back it's all for the social good, I suppose.


Remington, get out.  New Effing York will squeeze all the taxes out of you they can, and when they figure they can get away with it they'll put you out of business; come to Oklahoma.  Or Texas, or somewhere(I prefer OK), but get the hell out of the People's Republic of NY.


In case you didn't know, Ruger put together a tool to make it easier to yell at your congresscritter; it's here.


Dear Mr. Sullum:
Hell no, we don't.
Sincerely, etc.

You do know who invented these, don't you?

Today's John Moses Brownings'(PBUH) birthday, so a partial list:
U.S. M1895 Colt-Browning machine gun
FN Browning M1899/M1900
Colt Model 1900 Colt Model 1902
Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammer (.38 ACP)
Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless (.32 ACP)
Colt Model 1905
FN Model 1906 Vest Pocket (.25 ACP)
Remington Model 8 (1906)
Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket (.25 ACP)
Colt Model 1908 Pocket Hammerless (.380 ACP)
FN Model 1910
U.S. M1911 pistol (.45 ACP)
Colt Woodsman pistol
Winchester Model 1885
Winchester Model 1886
Winchester Model 1887
U.S. M2 .50-caliber heavy machine gun of 1921
A lot of the pistols, and some others, he also designed the cartridges they use.

Note that last in particular, as not only is our military still using it, there's something like fifteen other nations building them under license for theirs(son used it in Iraq, and considers it a marvel).
As Tam noted once, Someday the U.S. Army will have a hovertank with a frickin' laser beam for a main gun, and it will still have an M2HB on a pintle mount above the commander's hatch.

Was only a matter of time before Only Ones started feeling the heat

from the gun bigot actions:
A rural Vermont firing range has told the police department in Burlington that its officers are unwelcome to train at the facility because the City Council has advanced a measure to ban semi-automatic rifles and large-capacity magazines in the state's largest city.


That’s particularly rich given that Clinton began his speech instructing his audience neither to “patronize” those who oppose stricter gun-control measures nor to “look down your nose at them.” Hey, you’re pretty for a fat girl!
Translation: "Say whatever you have to say to whichever group you're talking to so you can get their votes."  We'd expect anything else from Mr. "I fell your pain!" ?


Some more wonderful news on CFL bulbs.  Check out the cleanup advice from the EPA.


"40% no background checks" my ass.


This is what comes of people who worry about "shoulder things that go up" writing firearms law.
Yes, it is.


What? Geithner is somewhat less than ethical and honest?  Whoda thunk such a thing...

Some fine examples of what passes for 'justice'

at some universities.  Can you believe this crap?

This is ONE of the examples:
One set of university documents (the transcripts) revealed no A was given. The university convicted the professor anyway even after it was clear that another set of documents (the official harassment accusations) had been doctored in order to sustain the charge.

Free for Kindle at this time:

User's Guide to the Second Amendment: History, Meaning, and Effects of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms [Kindle Edition]

Find it HERE 
Regularly $9.99

Thanks to Wirecutter for the link

What the People's Republic of Massachusetts wants to do

to gun owners.

A sight to make Sara Brady and Ladd Everitt need to change their Depends

Went to the range this morning to shoot, forgetting today is a holiday.  I got there 20 minutes after the doors opened.
Almost every lane I could see was in use.
There was a line to check in.
Men, women, and the kids, and people of more than one color.
Handguns, shotguns and rifles(mostly handguns at that time).
I really don't think any of these people are planning to surrender anything just because The Lightworker and Schumer and Feinstein want them to.

Apparently Lisa Jackson couldn't get Obama to pull a Holder for her

Complying with a court order minutes before Monday’s 5 p.m. deadline, the Environmental Protection Agency yesterday released 2,100 emails received or sent by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on one of her non-public accounts. But which one? The name on the email account was redacted.
Makes you wonder just what's in the other stuff, doesn't it?

Democratic Delegate Joseph Morrissey of VA: (link added)

waves an AK around, tells us the commoners can't be trusted with such; I think that's called 'projection':
According to legal brief filed by the victim’s attorneys, Morrissey shouted, “I’m going to kill you. I’m going to beat your head in,” before beating the victim and “smash[ing] his head into the corner of a brick wall.”

The 2003 revocation of Morrissey’s law license followed that courtroom reckoning, but by then his disciplinary record in the legal profession was already a lengthy one.
Oh yeah, there's more.


Link added.  Note to self: when in a hurry, make sure you don't forget the things.