Going Ridin' - KTM 2-Stroke Transmission Fluid Changing

Hollister tomorrow.  It's a real place, not just a t-shirt company-name - and there's no beach there or surfers, you got to drive another hour for that.  Anyhow so I'm a bit stoked and apprehensive at the same time since it's been a while since the last ride.  So I did some bike-maintenance on Teh Mighty KTM.  I even made a video of the glorious sound of a two-stroke idling and blowing smoke all over - enough to freak out the GlobalWarmists and get them all warm and misty, besides I had to warm-up the bike to drain the tranny fluid.

So I got out the KTM manual and flipped to the English pages.
I have not changed the tranny-fluid in ages, maybe since Idaho and that was a damn long time ago, so I thought I'd better do that - and I took some pictures in the process.


I use cheap Type-F ATF for the tranny because it has shear properties in the mix.  It's made for older Ford automatics that shift like a bag of hammers falling down the stairs - and I often bang clutchless shifts on Teh Mighty KTM-300 since it's made of Austrian Indestructibleizium mined by gnomes in Tyrolean lederhosen during the half-moon when the Edelweiss is blooming - and it shifts like a bag of ice-axes falling down the Alps.

With the engine warm fluids drain better, and I leaned it over and opened up the filler-cap so it would flow freely, anchored to a bolt in the wall and a tie-down.

You gotta watch it though because when you crack the 13-mm nut that holds the drain-plug it can come shooting out pretty good and hot, so watch where you put the catch-pan.
Just about everythign on the KTM is either 13mm or 10mm or 8mm so it makes for easy tool purchasing from your local Snap-On tool-pusher guy.  Also it means your Enduro tool-pack only needs a few items instead of a whole Sears to do basic maintenance on the trail when you break-down.

The drain plug is magnetized to catch mystery-swarf and prevent it from recirculating through the engine, and as the plates wear you wind up with a bunch of fuzzy whiskers stuck to the magnet.  This one had a lot since the cleansing interval had been so great.  You have to consider that engine lubricants have several jobs, with cleaning being big among them - it's cheap insurance to dump the crud when it's wasted.

When the draining is finished level the bike back up and return the drain plug to it's hidey-hole behind the shifter being careful to thread it in there without cross-threading it.

 The magnesium alloy case threads can be brutalized by a ham-fisted wrench spinners and if you wreck them it's a major pain in the ass to re-do the threads and hard to find a plug that will properly match if you go up a size since this was all scientifically engineered by large fore-brained white-coated Yodelers in Mattighoffen and everything is exactly where it belongs to be on purpose - think BMW on attitudinal engineering-steroids.  Austria is where Bavarians go to Engineering School.

Then pour 800ML's of pink loveliness into the clutch-plates through the open oil-filler hole.  I had half a bottle with 500cc's in it and dumped that, then went to the Ratio-Rite magic fluid dispenser where I added 300 more...

When you're done put your tools away and clean up.  Take the bike out for a ring-ding spin and smoke up the hippies.

UPDATE: Ow Ow Ow Ow!  The second day is always the worst.  Walking is OK but going up and down stairs is the bitch.  I did crunches last night but my legs still burn.  The muscles on top of my thighs burn and my calves too.  Hmmm, what the heell are they called?  Vastus Medialus on the inside right above the knee, and the Vastus Lateralis wrapping around the side in particular.  And my calves.

It's like after a day of skiing moguls (from what I remember when I did it thirty years ago), but with skiing you only go downhill.  Dirtbikes go uphill too.



Thank you for the pic to: http://www.laboratorium.dist.unige.it/~piero/Teaching/Gait/Netter/thigh_muscles_superficial_anterior.png

New Magazine for February's Child

Somehow in the research leading up to purchase and afterward I managed to find-out that the serial number of my '43 1911A1 indicates a February-something date of manufacture.  I forget how that came about, my copy of Clawson's book (3rd edition) isn't explicit about it -- possibly the CSP board or maybe from Ty at Coolgunsite.   Anyhow I finally bought another magazine - a Kimber Kimpro Tac-Mag - woot!  "Fits Most 1911's" and 8-rounds.  Nice baseplate, sturdy construction with a solid feel, comes with a Frankenstein Boot or a Chuck Taylor to attach to the base - and a spare base besides. I'm not even going there with the bases on the old girl.  Yet I was assured that this is how the Modern Pistol operates best, and with an improved follower, etc. but the muscle guy behind the gun counter had too many tattoos.
Meanwhile the Magazine it impresses on first impressions, however with eight in the stack it does not easily and positively go *snick* and stay put. Downloaded to 7-rounds and the engagement is positive. I am reminded of a Louis Awerbuck column in the March '09 SWAT magazine titled "Lube Job" wherein he ponders sweating the small stuff and the causes of defensive pistol malfunctions, the small cascade of events that leads to disaster - where he says,

"If Moses designed a seven-round magazine make sure your high-dollar eight-round magazines all function reliably. Seven-plus-one is better than "maybe" eight-plus-one. In some of the eight-rounders you have to use brute force to insert the eighth round into the magazine. (side-note: loading 8 is easy enough, but...)
Which means you have no free-play in the magazine spring. Which means you have to forcefully slam the magazine into the magazine well to get it to seat with the slide forward. Which means the bullet ogive is dragging on the underside of the slide during slide cycle. Which means the slide is traveling slower than it was designed to do. Which means you can cause a malfunction on the first round fired.

So ok, downloaded to 7-rounds and it seats fine. Why is that so hard? Why can't I find a standard base-plate lip 7-rounder magazine anywhere?  Sheesh.

Are LaRouchers Wookie-Suiters?

Seen outside the Post Office, a black dude and a white dude with a table to which was a attached a poster of our Fearless leader wearing the Schickelgruber Mustachio with the slogan "I've Changed" alongside the society-cleansing "Golly, Lets Go to Mars!" poster -- almost exactly as noticed by Milblogger (and Project ValourIT supporter)  This Aint Hell But You can See it From Here.

Are these perennial Democrat twinkies the back-side of Paulians?  I dunno what gives with this kind of confusion.  Tinfoil knows no boundaries, and the Left is permanently confused about its own genesis if nothing else...

The Fifth Annual ValourIT Fundraiser

Reuters PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In just over four years, Project Valour-IT has given 4,100 voice-controlled laptops to severely wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines, and has supplied additional items that may be a surprising fit in a recovery regimen -- Wii game systems and handheld GPS devices. "This project changes lives," says Soldiers' Angels founder Patti Patton-Bader*. "Wounded heroes say that being able to use a laptop helps them feel whole again. Physical therapists are actually designing therapy sessions around Wii Sports! And something as normal as a handheld GPS reduces stress and helps a hero cope. It's just amazing what this project does!"

I've done what I can with the small amount I have to offer, but amazingly we 21-some bloggers raised a grand total of $8243.80 via the Gunblogger Rendezvous with the National Shooting Sports Foundation (AKA NSSF) donating a last minute additional $1,000 to Project Valour-IT!

Project Valour-IT

*Yes, the great niece THAT General George S. Patton.

Hot-damn!

Book: Death Traps by Belton Cooper

Subtitled, The Survival of an American Armored Division in World War II, this book is not so much about Strategery, Tacticles, and Tankery (though it does detail a few elements), but is really about the repair of battle-wrecked tanks and how the REMF's pulled together and made the Armored Division operable despite something on the order of a 500% casualty rate.
Coincidentally enough, fellow Gunblogger Fodder has also just recently completed reading this book and made the following response to my comment:

It occurred to me it was pretty obvious "who" designed the major features of the tank. The big shots.
The artillery big shots wanted mobile artillery, hence the low velocity, short tubes (so they'd last 5000 to 7000 rounds).
The infantry big shots wanted armor support of infantry, hence the too light armor.
The armor big shots wanted a scout tanks, hence
big, light engine but of the wrong type, cause it was cheap.
The lowly engineers who designed everything else got almost everything right.

Yeh, they got what they wanted and it got a lot of guys killed.
Belton Cooper was a liaison officer in a maintenance battalion who's job was to count the wrecked, burnt-up and shot-through tanks, and determine what spare parts were needed to get through the next day of battle. In that respect his perspective comprised more than the narrow focus and immediate awareness of the soldier on the front lines, he was often at then front or ahead of it, and forced to drive back through it to return to headquarters with his reports of damage assessment and repair requirements. That experience gave him a unique perspective that the Generals in the rear also lacked.
This has anecdotes of tacticality and many other unique observations, from seeing V-2 rockets launch across from trees behind a field, to being buzzed by an Me 262 jetfightewr, but mainly it's not a riveting account of armored warfare in World War II and it's not about operational doctrine - it's more about the operational facts of life, the aftermath of battle and the preparations for the next one.
One thing the author does point out is that as designed, while it had some bright-spots (speed), the M4 Sherman Tank also had some real problems (as my friend observed above). One was the narrow track and the heavy footprint that caused gross field-maneuverability problems, and the other was the inadequate gun that was completely unequal to both the Germans' armor and their armament. It was a 30-40 Krag compared to a 7x57 Mauser.
Some Internet Tank Warriors have taken the book to task in comments at Amazon for the opinions delivered - but it seems to me they either read a different book or expected-to. Technically the perspective is astute and unique.
Anyhow it was a good read but what's really good about a period-book is the way it allows a period-gun to be lifted off the background for illustration purposes.

(Click to massively Super-Duper-Whopper-Size)

More Maobell!

Old news in the Bloggosphere already, but recently a derelict old gum-flapper shuffling around the empty Obama Administration trailers claiming to be a Communications Czar (or Director, or something) was revealed speachifying to High Schoolers. Nothing new there in the Indoctrination Department, but the content of her addled brain was revealed to contain an abiding and bosom-clasping affection for an old dead Chinese mass-murderer, a fathead dongswallower who killed more people than any other single mass killer in the history of civilization, AND equally some veneration for the Divine Moms Theresa. Go figure. Quite the ying and yang.

*Ah-hem*
And she mistakenly called them "political philosophers," when the actual case is that neither was. It's an unlikely pairing at best, psychotic and pathological at least.  Her praise and rationalizations to the High Schoolerz struck a chord with many people, especially since this was a droning autopilot rote-speech that she had done many times before. Her spoken grotesquerie wasn't just shameful and underbusworthy, but more like this:

You take a 10-gallon tub of delicious Ben-and-Jerry's Mother Theresa Raspberry Swirl, and mix in just a half-spoonful of Double-Turd Maoshit - and I guarantee you that the resulting mix for your guests is going to taste much more fecal than saintly.

Invoking Mother Theresa isn't a save when Ouijiing-up the slimy and worm-ridden corpse of Maodick is a Total Fail. Sheesh.

Just sayin' ZombieMao beats Mo'T in a cage-match...

From Carnaby Fudge

Stickwick Stapers decorates and returns a Republican Committee fundraising "questionnaire" much the same as we do here. It seems all the RINOs want is your money, they do jack-all for political value or capital without your capital. Go Sarah!

Happy Columbus Day!

Just my luck I guess - to commemorate the accomplishments of a heroic figure.

Arnold Signs AB962 - the Mail-Order Ammo Ban. Silly Arnold.

There is going to be an immediate legal challenge to this with a good basis.  The bill was already gutted down to just fingerprints for handgun ammo, and no handgun ammo sales unless face-to-face with a limit of 50rds.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 962, as amended, De Leon. Ammunition.
Existing law requires the Department of Justice to maintain
records pertaining to firearms transactions.
This bill would require the department to maintain additional
information relating to licensed handgun ammunition vendors, as
specified.
Existing law generally regulates the sale of ammunition.
This bill would establish a program administered by the Department
of Justice for licensing handgun ammunition vendors, as specified.

The bill would establish a database maintained by the department
to serve as a registry of handgun ammunition vendors.

This bill would require that commencing July 1, 2010, unless
specifically excluded, no person shall sell or transfer more than 50
rounds of handgun ammunition in any month unless he or she is
registered as a handgun ammunition vendor, as defined. The bill would
also require employees of those vendors who would handle, sell, or
deliver ammunition in the course and scope of their employment to
obtain a certificate of eligibility, as specified.The bill would
require the Department of Justice to maintain a registry of
registered handgun ammunition vendors, as specified. The bill would
provide that no vendor would be authorized to sell ammunition
pursuant to a handgun ammunition vendor license unless the vendor is
listed on the centralized registry.
The bill would also provide that no
retail seller of ammunition handgun
ammunition vendor, as defined, shall sell, offer for sale, or
display for sale, any handgun ammunition in a manner that allows that
ammunition to be accessible to a purchaser without the assistance of
the retailer vendor or employee
thereof.

As you can see there was quite a bit of cutting and slicing, here's the whole hacked-up thing.

There remains the inclusion of mail-ordering of bullet components...but that leads to something.

Besides the gutting it's quite simply a badly written piece of utterly brainless crap, done by a Committee of narcissistic idiots, shameless knaves, and self-absorbed fools - which fortunately or unfortunately describes our Democrat dominated gerrymander-protected Legislature.  They are free to be who they are: drooling morons. Since there is no requirement that any actual intelligence be shown in Politburo-protected districts, the people who run are often low-caliber Party-favor cretins and self-interest/identity-politic imbeciles. They are into themselves and their grasp of reality is tenuous - but there are many of them.

Meanwhile precedents already exist to overturn it at the Federal level, based on preemption that was enacted in FAAAA '94.   I REALLY hope the smackdown hurts.  Badly.  For a long time. Because if and when we have to overturn stupid shit like this it's nice to do it authoritatively and make the other side feel the pain of their obnoxious stupidity.

Vote for Barry!

Just type in "Barack Obama."

Forget about the Norwegians and their dy-no-mite prize...

Ayers Claims Credit for Writing Dreams

From BackyardConservative's own eyewitness and first-person encounter, comes a stunning admission by Bill Ayers.  As conservative blogger Anne Leary recounts from her chance meeting with Bill Ayers:

Then, unprompted he said--I wrote Dreams From My Father. I said, oh, so you admit it. He said--Michelle asked me to. I looked at him. He seemed eager. He's about my height, short. He went on to say--and if you can prove it, we can split the royalties. So I said, stop pulling my leg. Horrible thought. But he came again--I really wrote it, the wording was similar. I said I believe you probably heavily edited it. He said--I wrote it. I said--why would I believe you, you're a liar.

He had no answer to that. Just looked at me. Then he turned and walked off, and said again his bit about my proving it and splitting the proceeds.

As the DC Independent Examiner's work explains:

Perhaps one of the biggest political stories of the year is being completely overlooked by the Obama-struck mass media. A new biography by veteran author Christopher Andersen, "Barack and Michelle: Portrait of a Marriage," reveals that former Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers wrote most, if not all of President Obama’s book "Dreams From My Father."
...
Last Friday we posted an article on these pages asserting Bill Ayers' authorship of President Barack Obama's 'Dreams From My Father,' based on claims made by Obama biographer Christopher Andersen. It is possible that we have now gotten direct confirmation of this from Bill Ayers himself.

There has been considerable speculation about the actual nature of Obama's creative output - since there is very little evidence that he is creative at all - it simply doesn't fit his profile whatsoever.  Now that evidence along with writer Christopher Andersen's insights in his new book that,

"Michelle recommended that Barack seek advice from "his friend and Hyde Park neighbor Bill Ayers."

The tipping-point has been reached.  As I wrote earlier, Media-friendly fictions are created to enhance a candidate's resume and position. Why is it so hard to find actual Obama scholarship and publishing? Simple, he's not a very creative guy - he's very ordinary - the output just isn't there.

But in the great tradition of Democrat MachinePolitics, the Politburo's PR machine is revved-up and press-releases are pumped out at fever pitch - this has been the ongoing behavior of the whole post-Campaign Obama Administration and its manufactured fictions.

We all now know that JFK - with whom Obama likes to compare himself - didn’t write Profiles in Courage, he was a great talker but a lousy writer but - again much like Obama, but without the teleprompter.  JFK's ghost- and speech-writer was Ted "Ask-Not-What-Your-Country-Can-Do-For-You" Sorensen - and it won JFK a Pulitzer(!)  It took 52 years before Sorensen confirmed how much he was involved in the writing of Profiles in Courage - a book that established JFK's intellectual credentials and helped make him a credible presidential candidate.   It launched his political career on a Presidential trajectory much as Obama's two efforts were geared-towards.

But Ayers want's his credit now and can't wait 52-years.  He said want's his split of the royalties. Ok, then let he have them.

UPDATE:  People with second-thoughts and gamsemanship - is this The Weatherman Who Came In From the Cold, or The Ipcress Admissionor...?  Double-dealing is the theme.  Johnah Goldberg thinks it was a chain-yank, - but that's also so very Chomsky, and right out of the Alinsky playbook - it's Clowder-Piven Method on the nature of reality, like Markadelphia in conversation; everything is in collapse.
Which brain-washing from Minitrue is the one that will stick?  Ayers likes to tease the cat.

Red Dot Range Time II

I hied me hence to TehRange for Practice (first Saturday of the month) with the Noveske in tow and the Aimpoint 9000SC in a pair of A.R.M.S. throw-lever rings, to see how the little carbine would fare in "pseudo F-Class" shooting, this despite having no magnification.

The little CR 1/3N battery had been in there a long time - it was original to the purchase - and had lost most of its electrizicalcious oomph - which turned out to be a boon.
Normally the brightness of the 4-MOA dot, even at about the lowest setting would obscure the entire target and most of the frame at 200-yards.  But now, even cranked all the way up on HIGH, the shiny spot presented an oblate ovoid horizontally, that neatly bisected the black of the 200-yard target - I could barely see the damn thing.
A couple times I unscrewed the battery cap and in time-honored Boy Scout tradition licked the battery to help hasten the flow of electrons and brighten the speck.


Something I've been reading lately in Teh Maskgazines is that among Carbine-Course Operators there is a reevaluation of how low can you go, including putting the magazine on the deck as an impromptu bipod.

I imagine with a 30-rounder that might set you up high a bit, but here in Californoodilia there has been sorely emplaced a legal limit to such capacity and my mags are all short 10-rounders.  However that means I can get even lower and place the grip-butt on the deck. Yes indeed that's against Standard Rules of across-the-course Service Rifle shootin' - but not F-Class stuff where they employ bipods and bunny-bags - so I gave it a whirl.
After shooting the sighters to see where the impact was headed I made a few click-adjustments, right and down - but it seemed that my early 50-yard zero worked pretty well at 200.

Shooting standard 55-grain Lake City ammo, I'm guessing the bullets in the former Zero were ascending and in the latter descending onto the target.



My offhand naturally sucked despite Teh Dot, but I also think I was occasionally and generously placing shots on the #10 target since it was a bit harder to make-out the numbers, and the whole field of view was occluded by the scope - it was just something I'm not used-to.

 The rapids went pretty well and I got all the hits onto the black in Rapid Prone.

Slow Prone went pretty well also, and I shot fairly quickly with none of the breathing and preparation usually considered necessary during the 20-minute phase, and I finished in probably a good bit less than 10-minutes, with only a couple sevens.  Still I suck to get sevens.

Faintly visible above the #13 target is the dot, offset to the left due to camera/lens manipulations.