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

Here Comes The Stress!!!

Okay, school just ended a few weeks ago. I got all my Fall grades and it was good! Now I have to stay on track with all the deadlines that are coming so fast!

I'm applying to five separate radiological technician programs around the San Francisco Bay Area- Kaiser-Allied in Richmond, Foothill College in Los Altos, Cañada College in Redwood City, Gurnick Academy in Concord, and Mills-Peninsula in Burlingame. They all have different application requirements. Some want letters of recommendation, some want personal essays, some want documented volunteer time, all want excellent grades from required prerequisites.

The first ones are due by the end of January, which means that I need to get on the ball and light a fire under the Merritt College administration to get my transcripts in my hands. I've also got order some transcripts from UC Santa Cruz, but I might as well just take nice drive down there and visit some friends- mixing business with pleasure has never been a problem for me :)

Ripping into that Black Magic

It's been almost two weeks since I've been done with finals. Finally, I'm able to get around to evaluating that SV650 that I bought back in September! Looking back on it, I would've been more careful. Everything seemed okay at the time of purchase- the seller was a nice guy and all, but still, I should've checked things out more thoroughly. C'est la vie. I'm movin' on now.

The bike had been sitting in the side yard, under a cover, for months now. Of course, when I was ready to drag it into the garage, it started raining. I charged the battery and took some pictures to archive its original condition. Handily, the bike already had spools, so it was easy to pop it onto the rear stand. Unfortunately, the new triples have a 13mm hole and my Woodcraft pin is much too large for that, so I'm going to have to spend another $20 to get a pin to fit that fork setup. I hooked up the battery and gave the electrical a quick check. Amazingly enough, everything worked okay, with the exception of the front brake not activating the "Back Off" brake light. All the keys fit and the motor freely cranked over. Yay! It would've sucked if something turned out to be messed up, because the transaction happened so long ago, I would have zero recourse.

I did find minor things wrong with the bike, like the front brakes were rubbing somewhere and a couple of fasteners were missing, but all in all, it was a fantastic deal! There are so many great new parts on the bike- a barely used 525 DID chain, new tires front and rear, the GSX-R forks with working steering stops, frame sliders and rear spools, the Suburban Machinery handlebars and the Givi windshield.

This afternoon, I got pretty far on the bike. I yanked out the carburetors, loosened the rear exhaust manifold clamp and removed the cam chain tensioner. Things were really tight, not having being worked on for quite some time. Plus the bike was extremely dirty!!! There was so much gunk and grime built up everywhere. For instance, I was trying to remove the rear shock mud guard. I knew that it was spec'ed to have a 10mm bolt in place, but it the socket wouldn't fit! I tried an 11, 12, 13, even a 9mm! Finally I took a small screwdriver and worked around the bolt. There was grease, mud and pebbles impeding the seat of the 10mm socket! That's why I couldn't get it in there!

Tomorrow, I just have to set the timing and pull off the head. I'm hoping that it's going to come off without having to remove the entire exhaust system! Wish me luck!