Good-Bye, Gurnick!

Today I took a trip to Concord to drop off my books and uniforms to Gurnick. I swear it must've been 40 pounds of textbooks! As always, there was no one manning the receptionists desk- I probably waited almost five minutes, before someone finally arrived. I explained that I was retracting my acceptance to their rad tech program. I was armed with a letter of withdrawal. The receptionist went to the back offices to speak with Anna, who was apparently at lunch at 4PM and didn't want to speak to me. She told me just to leave the books and that's all I needed to do. I asked if she might be able to provide me with a sign-off sheet or something recording the event that I actually dropped off the books. She went to the back, again, to talk with Anna. She showed up a minute later informing me that the main Gurnick campus, in San Mateo, will be mailing me a letter within thirty days to finalize things. I mentioned that I was a little nervous about just leaving the books and that I was thinking of taking a picture as proof, but I didn't end up doing that.

Later that night, I realized that between all the back and forth communication and confusion that I had forgotten to drop off the issued uniforms. Shit! Do I really have to go back? But then again, when I was originally issued the books and scrubs during the "orientation" meeting, I never actually checked anything out! I guess they're pretty loose about things around there. Maybe they won't notice that I didn't drop off the scrubs? I dunno.

Good News- I've Been Saved!!!

Well, not in the religious sense, but I have been waiting for a month for this to arrive.... Every day, I wait with baited breath for a fat envelope in the mailbox. I didn't matter to me if the envelope said Kaiser-Allied or Cañada College, it just had to be fat and substantial.

Today, when I heard the mailman leave my porch, I ran to the mailbox. There was a whole bunch of mail, which was a good sign! Quickly I sifted through the mail only to find that every single piece of mail was addressed to my next door neighbor, the house on my right! Argh!! I walked it over and dropped it in their mailbox, but started thinking that maybe the mailman just got all the mail one house off, so I dropped by the house on my left, hoping that perhaps they got my mail.

I rang the doorbell and spoke with Lisa, my neighbor, and explained my mail conundrum, and that I was expecting a very important piece of mail, but only if I were so lucky. She checked her mail, but regretfully nothing was addressed to me. Disappointed, I went back home to accept consolation from my dog, Cookie.

Later on this evening, I heard an email arrive on my cell phone. I went to check it and to my astonishment, it was an email from Cañada College. Not really knowing what to expect from an email, I opened and read it. The email stated that I had been accepted into the Cañada College rad tech program!! That was so bizarre- I kind of felt like this notification sneaked through the back door. But I'll take it any way it comes!

What this really means is that now I don't have to start classes next week at Gurnick Academy of Medical Arts. And if I don't start classes, I don't have to pay any tuition! My bank account is feeling better already! What a relief!

Yes! I'm Going to School!!

This afternoon, I got a phone from Gurnick Academy of Medical Arts. They decided to accept me into their rad tech program. Of course, I accepted over the phone. They're going to send paperwork in a couple of days.

Now here's the weird part- they're almost two weeks in notifying applicants. Their written agenda states that candidates are supposed to officially accept by April 15, so now I have only four days to accept. Not a lot of time to think about things, if I needed time.

Funny, but this school was my "catch all"  backup plan, being that the tuition is $38k for the 2-year program. I had applied to this school thinking that if I couldn't get into any other of the schools, I would just have to suck it up and pay Gurnick and go to their school. (I was certain that I would get accepted to this school.) And as it turns out, they're the first ones to accept me! I believe that it's their strategy to get students to commit to go to their school, before they even find out if they can get into any other school. Sneaky.

In any case, if I get no other offers, I've got a school to go to this year. It's going to be hard to stomach the cost, but I'd rather pay up and get started with my rad tech schooling than wait another entire year to reapply to all the schools and hope that things turn out better the next time around! Congratulations to me! 

Digging a Little Deeper

Well, now that I've had a chance to actually see that Black Magic running, I've been able to get a better evaluation of the bike. I took it for a ride once I felt it was road-worthy. Before I left the house, I did notice that the chain was a little tight, but it would have to do for the first ride out.

Surprisingly, the bike rode quite nicely. The bike idled smoothly, throttle response was crisp and the engine mustered up power with no flat spots- I will credit my efforts in re-jetting the carbs. The hand controls felt pretty tight and responsive, but the shifting was a little soft and spongy. I would guess that the shift spring is getting a bit tired. But the clutch felt springy and tight. Someone also did a pretty nice job keeping the clutch adjusted properly.  The brakes all seemed to stop quite strongly.

Okay, now the things that need attention. The blinkers don't work properly (something tells me that it's my fault). The turn signals are always in hazard mode, but there is no hazard mode on this year. The front brakes don't activate the brake light. The seat support bar on the subframe is missing, so the saddle moves around a bit. The kickstand angle has changed, so the bike is way leaned over when parked. I'm not too crazy about the way the Trail Tech Vapor is mounted- it's on a ball-joint mount attached to the top of the headlight housing, plus it's not even centered!

Most of those issues can be corrected easily. Already I've purchased another subframe and headlight mounts off of Craigslist. Each cost me $20 and $25 respectively. I think I can fabricate another Vapor mount from a thick sheet of aluminum. The kickstand- I just have to pull off and pound back into shape. The blinkers will be a little tougher to figure out. I've already downloaded the wiring diagram, so I just have to figure out where the left and right signals could've made contact (easier said than done). Then there's all the body work that needs work.

It's Alive!!!

After slowly picking at Black Magic for about a week, with some resistance, the bike decided to start.

Over the past few days, I've been doing some real tuning on the bike. The valves are adjusted and I changed the oil to Shell Rotella-T synthetic oil, plus changed out that shitty oil filter for an K&N. The old oil was looking awful black and it looked like it was way too full!! The bike has new NGK plugs and the air filter is clean. I was careful to adjust the throttle so it was perfect! I spent two days scrubbing the bluing off the exhaust system- it's not all gone, but it's much better than it used to be.

The battery was fully charged, but the bike didn't want to run. I basically drained the battery once. I started to worry about if the fuel wasn't getting to the carbs- I was starting to thing that maybe the wiring wasn't making good contact. Maybe there wasn't enough gas in the tank? Maybe the gas was too old? When it was recharged halfway again, I tried it again. This time, it limped to life. After a minute, it was running more smoothly. That Delkevic exhaust is LOUD!!! When I jerked on the throttle, the sound actually scared me! It burned off some oil and other contaminants for the first couple of minutes, then it was fine. I'm so happy that the bike isn't a brick!

I still have to sync the carbs and adjust the idle, but I'm confident that it's going to be an awesome bike! Lastly, just for peace of mine, I'll do a compression test. It was a good da

Dear Mom,

I love you. Hang in there!

Catmanpoop- You Are the Shit!!

Once again, I'm  re-jetting another SV650. I remember the first time I broke into LB for the first time, using John's instructions. For those of you who have never seen it or don't know what I am talking about, you can find it here. His original web servers were taken down, but his content made it to another one. In my opinion, for anyone who has a hankering to rip into his/her own machine and has the right kind of DIY attitude, this is the place to start- this really is SV650 101. His tutorials should be bronzed. Thanks, John