A little Big Red replacement

I never explained here why Big Red had to go, so here's a brief explanation - we moved. And I'm not talking about an across town or next town over sort of move. No, this was a two states over sort of move. And a move where we knew were were going to very limited in storage space too. When you combined the cost to trailer Big Red 680 miles and our current place's one car garage (and one additional parking place), you can see why I had to sell.

So, here we are, six months later, and we are finally settled enough to have purchased a "replacement" for Big Red. With the space limitations, there was really only one workable solution. But before we get to the "what," the "why" is a good story too...

I've always loved cars, trucks and motorcycles. I told the story of my Fathers old Mustang in the first ever post on this blog, and there are several other stories about cars and trucks from him. He's owned several over the years, and we've always enjoyed going to car shows. There are just a few motorcycle stories, but those are the ones to focus on here.

Growing up, there was a neighbor just a few houses down we called Big Jim. I remember him for two reasons - he had a big satellite TV dish that I remember going over to watch a couple times (this was in the early '80's before cable was big), and he had a motorcycle. It was a big Honda Goldwing and he parked it in his front yard all summer long. I even got a ride on it one day:

Riding with Big Jim - 1980

I remember walking to school past that bike in the spring and fall. A couple years after that ride, my father made his one and only jaunt into the world of motorcycles, taking the safety class.

Dad at MSF class - 1982

After that, like I said, not much happened on the motorcycle front. I remember wanting one, but never being motivated to learn or pursue the safety class. Until 2003 and the American Chopper phenomenon. Motorcycles went mainstream and I had a renewed interest. My wife and daughter at that time bought me a model of a motorcycle, but again, I didn't follow through with buying a bike or the class.

That all has now changed. About two months ago, while at work (yeah, moving across two states and finding a new job, which included a career change has kept us busy, but we're good - and gainfully employed!), I saw a BMW motorcycle. Now, I'm sure I've seen BMW bikes before, but this one really caught my eye, and I couldn't stop thinking about it. Now, I'm not positive, since I couldn't stop and look, but I'm fairly certain the bike I saw was this - a cream colored R1200:

Definitely not a Harley

Well, as you would imagine, BMW motorcycles (or, BMW Motorrad, as they call it) aren't cheap. And used ones don't depreciate much either. Look on Cycle Trader or Craigslist - they tend to hold their value pretty well. So, I resigned myself to look for other options. All while learning as much as I can (and keeping a sharp eye open for that rare deal on a BMW bike) about motorcycles and options.

Surely you can see where this is going, right? I have signed myself up for the local MSF class, but have to wait for spring since they have shut down for the fall. Last season, they started in April, so looks like 6 months before I can get on a bike... Or is it?

After looking nearly every day at the local ads, Craigslist, Cycle Trader and the like for two months, the "fall pricing" BMW motorcycle of my dreams appeared (and it being Red made it all seem perfect)!

Behold! A 1985 BMW k100rt - and in my price range!

When I drove to get the bike, I made sure it ran well and had been serviced. Most importantly, I had to make sure I fit (remember on Big Red? I'm 6'6" and worried about fitting in the cab. My research indicated - and proved correct, that not only this model, but many BMW motorcycles fit tall riders well), and I do!:

Tight knees, but it fits!

Really, there's nothing to do to this bike. I could take it out right now and go for a spin. If anything, I may consider removing the fairing (the windscreen and windshield) at some point, but that's a bigger project that just yanking it off - note that the headlight, turn signals and mirrors are all built in, so would have to be replaced somehow, someway. But if I do decide to go that direction down the line, there are some really great looking "naked" k100's out there!

I also like that BMW has always done things a bit differently, mechanically, when it comes to motorcycles. Their old two cylinder motors were horizontally opposed rather than the Harley V-twin most people think of, with the cylinder heads jutting out the side of the bike into the flow of air as it rushed by. Those were known as "airhead." In the early '80s, BMW unveiled a series of motorcycles that were a cross between touring bikes and sport bikes (the first was the garish k1, then they moved on to the k100 series - my bike!). They took the four cylinder concept introduced by Honda in the early '70's (note the cylinders all running vertically across the bike), flipped it and turned it on it's side. The resulting motor - dubbed the "flying brick" - is legendary as one of the most reliable ever made, with countless reports of bikes lasting 200,000 + miles.

Front wheel to the left front, rear wheel to the right rear. Different - effective

So - obviously, I bought the bike. I fit on it, it was a great price and it fits in our (limited) space, sharing the garage with my wife's car while my truck occupies our one parking spot. The other huge plus of this motorcycle is fuel economy. I'm somewhat surprised that more folks aren't embracing motorcycles in this age of $3-4 gas. Sure, you see the moped/scooter rider on the side of the road getting their 80 mpg and going 35 mph, but I guess I never realized that even larger bikes get 35-45 mpg. That's a hell of a lot better (and will save me a ton of cash each summer, even adding in insurance) than the 12 mpg my Dodge Ram gets.

It's going to be a long winter, waiting for that MSF class...

Which brings me back to this blog. I wanted to update it on getting a replacement for Big Red, but I don't want to diminish what I started by starting up talking motorcycles. I also need (maybe? maybe not) to come up with a nickname for my new bike. Little Red makes sense, but I'm not sold just yet.

Bye bye Big Red

Big Red didn't last long on Craigslist. I got a call Monday, three days after posting online. The guy came to look yesterday, and we agreed on a price. He came today and hauled Big Red away. I wasn't able to take a very good picture, but it was neat to see it rolling down the road (remember, it was trailered here, so being towed was pretty cool).

Hopefully I can get another truck sooner than later. In closing, the first picture on this blog that I took (the first first pic was the Craigslist photo from when I bought Big Red) was of my empty garage - cleaned out for the start of this project. Seems fitting to end this blog the same way:

The unexpected end

Well, circumstances have forced me to sell Big Red. I'm not going to go into any details of the why at the moment, but if anyone is interested, here's my ad on Craigslist:

http://bemidji.craigslist.org/cto/3739142325.html

More shiny stuff - and - 2 months early?!?!

With Spring reluctant to arrive (my god - minus four wind chill yesterday? In April?), I've been slowly working on polishing the stainless grill pieces for Big Red, and am now nearly half done:

Shiny on the left, dull & tarnished on the right

Some of the "done" ones will need a second polish with my Nevr Dull, with some stubborn tarnish spots, but good progress has been made.

Also, when the mail came today, I got a big surprise... Big Red's title!

If you remember this post, and this one, you'll recall that I noted the Minnesota DMV quoted me 3 months for my title. Hmm... that entry is dated March 2nd... Today is April 3rd... Too late for an April Fools Day joke. Can it mean that they're running early? A nice surprise to say the least.

Plates!

So, I told the long story about the North Dakota title a few weeks ago... Now begins the long wait for my Minnesota title. On some money saving advice (I plan on eventually registering Rig Red with "collector" plates, but there is significant savings for switching a vehicle already in your name to that status), I registered it as a Farm Truck. No, I don't own a farm. The restrictions for use of a farm registered vehicle are basically what you would expect - it can be used for anything related to operating a farm - either on the farm or delivering goods to and from the farm. Sounds like a bad deal for me, since I don't own a farm, right? Well, don't forget that Big Red is not running, and will be undergoing restoration for at least a year, and once the renewal is due, I can switch to that "collector" plate.

Big Red the farm truck

Also, I texted this photo to my Dad with the caption, "Bam! Plates. Title in 3 months." (Better than North Dakota's 6, no?) His reply? "Now you're cooking." Me: "This means I can take it out for a spin, right?" Him: "No." Good stuff...

Man, those are heavy!

I paid for my huge tire deal Monday:

Deal of the century - IF you needed 9.00x20 tires!

And picked them up today:

Snow on the ground, buses in the background, huge heavy tires in my pickup

They are heavy. It took two of us to lift them into the back of my pickup, and I decided to weigh them once I got them home... 160 lbs. each on the bathroom scale. Now, I do have to return the hubs once I get them mounted on Big Red's cast rims, but there's no rush. I'm pretty sure they will either just sell the rims of scrap them.

More photos! Here's the new 9.00's next to the old 8.25 rear duals:

Hmm, tread - what a concept!

And the new propped up next to the front:

Tight squeeze, but I think it'll make it!

I do have a minor concern about the tires rubbing on the fender when turning, but it looks like it should be okay. No way to know for sure 'til they're on there...

And speaking of, I got a lead on a place locally that mounts truck size tube tires. I got a quote of $40 per tire to swap them out, so it's going to end up running $35 + $240 = $275 to get good tires all around. Considering what I said it could have cost? I'm thrilled!

I won the tire lottery!

No pics (yet) - at least none until I start bringing the tires home, but I finally got a price from the bus mechanic for the "new to me" tires for Big Red. These will be 9.00x20 tires, which are a bit bigger than the 8.25x20's it currently has. Now, before I tell you how much I'm going to pay for the tires, I want to let you know how expensive these tires can be. Check out this website. That's anywhere from $175 to $239 per tire, not to mention shipping on something that weighs a couple hundred pounds - each. So, on the low end, the tires would be just over $1000 and on the high end $1500.

Now that I've  spelled out the possible tire costs, here's what I'm going to pay for my tires... All seven of them (4 rear tires and 3 front - one spare even!)... A whopping $35! Yup - $5 each! Seems he was considering giving me the tires, but the school (remember - they're coming from a school bus) needs a paper trail for the tires, rather than just having them "disappear." The reason is that they no longer have any buses that take 9.00x20 tires... So, they came up with a token cost of $5 per tire. Like I said - almost like winning the tire lottery!

The looonnng wait

One story about Big Red that dates back to buying in August that I haven't mentioned yet is finally going to begin to be resolved - the title.

When I bought Big Red, it didn't have a title. I've read several stories that say buying a vehicle without a title is a massive headache and not worth the effort of dealing with the DMV, going through all the paperwork and expense. The good news, in this case, is that the seller of my truck was willing to title it in North Dakota, where he owned it. It is apparently much easier there than in Minnesota to title a vehicle with just a bill of sale. All he needed was a bill of sale from the previous owner, who he had kept in touch with.

The first snag in this road was the the previous owner and the gentleman who I bought Big Red from had a hard time getting together, and that took nearly three weeks. They finally got all the paperwork together and submitted it to the DMV. Then the next snag. You might have heard about this big oil boom going on in western North Dakota. It's really quite amazing. Well, the North Dakota DMV has been overwhelmed by all the companies out there registering vehicles and told the seller he would have to wait "at least three months" for the title for Big Red. So, we've kept in touch, and four months (early December) later, nothing. January rolls around and, nothing.

Finally - yesterday I got this in a text from him:

Title, sweet title!

Yup, it finally came. I was starting to have doubts. I mean, six months to get a title? Crazy...

IHC's all over!

Last week I noted that I sent off a request for a quote on having my hood ornament re-chromed. Well, I knew that it would come back high, and it did. Honestly, I thought it would be higher. Looking over the Finishing Touch website, they note that several of their items have been featured on cars shown at the famous Pebble Beach car show. Knowing that, I knew I wouldn't be able to afford the cost of the quote, and that is certainly the case - it came back at $600. Now to decide on if I need to find a different chromer, or save and wait and have it done by this top end place...

Now the title of today's blog entry. It's the "red car syndrome," or as I learned, scientifically, it's the "Baader-Meinhoff Phenomenon." The old, you buy a red car, and all you see is red cars. In other words, I'm suddenly seeing International trucks everywhere. Okay, everywhere might be an overstatement, but for a truck that for all practical purposes hasn't been built for almost 33 years (I'm excluding the current Navistar heavy haulers, of course, and their "pick-up," which was a mid 2000's novelty - "we're bigger than a Hummer!"), there are quite a few folks I've run into (or heard about) who have them.

It started back in August when school started back up, and I had an in-service. One of the other bus drivers said he collects and fixes IHC's and to give him a call if I had any questions, or needed any parts. They, my wife found out that the audiologist where she works has a KB-8. Now to last week, and I ran into a guy in my town who has a 1960's International truck. Finally, last night, I was on a call with my father, and he was showing off photos of Big Red at his wood workers meeting, and ran into a guy who had a KB-6 and might have spare parts!

Fun to find others who enjoy the same things. Oh, and that International "pick-up" from the mid 2000's? Yeah, it was a beast:

Navistar's "International CXT"

Shiny stuff is purdy...

I finally decided it was time to start working on some of the chrome and stainless parts that I took off Big Red in the fall, and went to work with my trusty Nevr Dull. Man that stuff works great! The parking light covers were first, and they went from a tarnished red/brown to mirror shine very quickly. Then I worked on the side trim pieces for the hood cowling (I'm still missing two of those - and need to buy the missing ones at some point soon). I then decided to work on the hood ornament, which is quite pitted. I had read up on removing pitting from chrome, and found that I should start by knocking them down with steel wool. That worked great, and also polished the chrome at the same time. The issue is that the pit marks remain, and I'm guessing that there's no real way to remove them without having the piece re-chromed. Just thinking about that cost makes my bank account shudder... Anyway, remember this video?:

I had it up here on the blog back in August. Since I can't find a local chrome place, I think I'm going to at least contact these guys to get an estimate on having the piece re-done. At least then I'll know how much it would cost. Plus, that's the only real big chrome piece on Big Red. Everything else are very small pieces that I can just clean up.

I should note I also started looking closer at the hubcaps too. They were never chromed, which is great news. They are, however, rusted pretty good. Maybe time to break out that hand grinder I acquired and try to (gently) remove the rust?

The "before" pic.

Pieces I worked on today

Look at that shine!

Visitation Rights

Happy New Year Big Red fans! The family and I just returned from a mini-family reunion down at my folks place. We got to see my parents plus my sister and her family. It was shorter than we would have hoped, but a good visit. Now, if only we get that last piece of luggage that the airline lost...

Anyway, as I have noted, my Father has bought me several tools for Big Red lately, and I got to "visit" them while we were down. Unfortunately, most of the stuff was way too big for carry on luggage (a 70 lb. vice, air compressor, 3-ton floor jack with stands and creeper plus some air tools and an oscillating sander), but I did bring back one or two items. My Dad also reminded me that I promised to polish the chrome and stainless pieces over the winter, and that I hadn't done any of that yet. Sigh, yeah, I need to get on that.

Thinking optimistically, it may one day warm up here (it's -2 with a wind chill of -16 as I type this), but I'm not holding my breath. It surely will get colder before it warms. After looking it up, average lows around these parts remain below zero through mid-February, and we will finally see average highs above freezing by April. In other words, the chrome and stainless has time...

Waiting for a ride north

Is it warm up there yet?

Hey - it's cold outside, come play with us!